{"id":19001,"date":"2019-09-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/revelation-052-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-1\/"},"modified":"2019-09-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-15T05:00:00","slug":"revelation-052-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-1","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/revelation-052-babylon-the-bookends-of-history-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelation 052 – Babylon: The Bookends of History (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[111],"series_event":[490],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19001","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-revelation","series_event-revelation","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Revelation 052 - Babylon: The Bookends of History (Part 1)","sermon_date":"20190915","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2019","sermon_notes":7060,"sermon_slides":7059,"sermon_mp3":7062,"sermon_id":"915191234121936","series_or_event":490,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":111,"chapter_and_verse":"17\u201218","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nBabylon, The Bookends of History, Part 1\n\nRevelation 17-18\u00a0 \u00a0Lesson 52\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to the Book of Genesis.\u00a0 No, I didn\u2019t misspeak.\u00a0 You can hold your place there in Revelation if you\u2019re interested but I\u2019d like you to open your Bibles this morning to the Book of Genesis.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Babylon, The Bookends of History, Part 1<\/em>.\u00a0 One of the things I was probably going to do is I was just going to continue on in Revelation verse by verse, and we will complete the book, don\u2019t worry, verse by verse, but one of the things to understand is where we are in the Book of Revelation.\n\nAs we saw last week\u00a0 Babylon the Great has fallen and the angel that brought that judgment is going to begin to give John information about Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 And I honestly believe that we are entering probably the most mistaught, miscommunicated, misunderstood chapters, not only in the Book of Revelation but maybe the whole Bible.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to make a very radical proposition as we go through these chapters, and here\u2019s the radical proposition\u2026are you ready for this?\u00a0 When you see Babylon in the Bible it means Babylon!\n\nAnd we sort of laugh at that, tongue in cheek, but the reality of the situation is some of the top Bible prophecy ministries in terms of worldwide television outreaches would discard that position.\u00a0 And so to interpret the Book of Revelation correctly you have to have ringing in your ear Old Testament Scripture.\u00a0 And people, I believe, are coming to wrong conclusions concerning who Babylon is because they haven\u2019t looked at the totality of God\u2019s Word.\n\nBabylon is, I would put it this way, it\u2019s sort of like a freight train making its way from Genesis to Revelation.\u00a0 And if you understand that background then you\u2019ll get to Revelation 17 and 18 and you\u2019ll\u00a0 just sort of slap your forehead and say of course, that\u2019s what it means.\u00a0 But because most people don\u2019t give you the background that I\u2019m going to give you the whole subject of Babylon in Revelation 17 remains what it says in there, a mystery.\u00a0 They don\u2019t quite know what to make of it.\n\nSo what we\u2019re going to do is we\u2019re going to take seven stops, if you will, on a bus ride and I don\u2019t think I can finish all these today (as you\u2019ll see).\u00a0 But we want to look at this subject, Babylon, The Bookends of History<\/em> because the Book of Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 9 says something there very interesting.\u00a0 Solomon says, and I don\u2019t want to butcher the verse so I\u2019m just going to read it to you very quickly.\u00a0 Ecclesiastes chapter 1 and verse 9, Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived other than Christ, made this statement.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThat which has been is that which will be, And that which has been done is that which will be done. \u00a0So there is nothing new under the sun.\u00a0 [Ecclesiastes 9:10]\n\nEverything in human history is going to recycle back to where it started.\u00a0 The very place of the world where everything started is the very place on planet earth where everything will end.\u00a0 So let\u2019s start our study, if we could, at the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Genesis 11, and I don\u2019t even know if I need to read all of these verses to you, you\u2019re so familiar with them.\u00a0 But just a few verses that says this:\u00a0 \u201cNow the whole earth used the same language and the same words. \u00a0[2] It came about as they journeyed east,\u201d and you should circle that word \u201ceast\u201d in your Bible, \u201cthat they found a plain in the land of Shinar\u201d you should circle that one also, \u201cand settled there. [3] They said to one another, \u201cCome, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.\u201d\u00a0 [4] And they used brick for stone and they used tar for mortar and they said, Come let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach<\/em> into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.\u201d\u00a0 And you know how that project ended, God disrupting the only language that existed at the time so that the builders could not cooperate with each other.\u00a0 And man\u2019s first attempt at world government was brought to a crashing halt by the Creator.\n\nEverything that has been will be again.\u00a0 This is man\u2019s first attempt at globalism.\u00a0 I like to call this the first United Nations Conference, except there weren\u2019t any United Nations yet, there were no nations because very clearly in verse 1 the world spoke the same language.\u00a0 And why are they building this tower to reach into heaven? \u00a0Well, it\u2019s interesting when you study the writings of the first century historian Josephus, and he comments on this passage.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThey were trying to build a tower so high into heaven that they would never be affected again by the global flood that God had sent in the prior chapter.\u201d\u00a0 God, You will not judge us again and we\u2019re actually going to build a one-world system of economics, politics and religion, the new world order in other words, that excludes God.\n\nAnd really, to understand this properly in its role in the Book of Revelation there\u2019s two things you need to pick up on.\u00a0 Number one, the location.\u00a0 If you look at verse 2 it\u2019s very clear that this is being built in the east, in the plain of Shinar.\u00a0 Now where is the plain of Shinar?\u00a0 Shinar is the Hebrew word; the Greek word there is Mesopotamia, Meso means middle, Potamia means rivers, you\u2019ll recognize the word Potamia, we have a Potomac River in the United States.\u00a0 Potamia means rivers\n\nMesopotamia means between the rivers.\u00a0 It\u2019s where civilization started.\n\nThis is where man\u2019s first attempt at one-world government began, between those rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris.\u00a0 It\u2019s the part of the world that Abram was called out of as an idolater, and sanctified as God told him to walk by faith, I\u2019ll take you to a land that you don\u2019t know, the Promised Land, and that begins the work that God had in and through the nation of Israel.\u00a0 But before there was a nation of Israel there was the Tower of Babel; there was globalism, there was one-worldism, and the location of this is very clear, it\u2019s in the east, in a place called Shinar.\n\nShinar is interesting because it\u2019s the exact same place geographically that much later in biblical history the children of Israel would be taken to for the seventy year captivity.\u00a0 You read that in Daniel 1:2. \u00a0\u00a0\u201c\u2026and he brought them\u201d Nebuchadnezzar, \u201cto the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 1:2, \u201cThe Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god.\u201d]\n\nSo Shinar is a big deal, it\u2019s where man\u2019s first revolt started.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the place of the much later Babylonian captivity.\u00a0 That\u2019s the first thing to understand here.\u00a0 The second thing to understand is the worldwide effect of the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 You know, Babel is an interesting name; it comes from two Hebrew words, \u201cBab\u201d meaning gave, and \u201cel\u201d meaning God, the gate of the gods, a stairway to heaven in other words.\u00a0 A system of politics and also a system of religion where the people were saying God, we don\u2019t want your presence in it at all!\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be religious without You.\n\nAnd it\u2019s interesting that what happened here had a worldwide impact.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like a stone, if you will, or a rock being thrown into a placid pond and the wake reverberates outward in every direction.\u00a0 That\u2019s that happened at the Tower of Babel, it affected every single nation and every single culture that has ever followed.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because there were no cultures and nations and languages at this point in history.\u00a0 They came out of the Tower of Babel because of the confounding work of God.\u00a0 And so therefore the sin that was taking place at the Tower of Babel was exported everywhere.\n\nNow if you accept the account of Alexander Hislop and his study of Babylonian tradition he tells you exactly what was happening at the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 There was a religion, it was a worship of the mother and the worship of the child because Nimrod, the builder of this system, who is mentioned in the Bible, Genesis 10:8-10, you\u2019ll find Nimrod\u2019s name mentioned.\u00a0 His name actually in Hebrew means revolt, rebellion.\u00a0 He is in the Bible probably the best type if you think of it in terms of types of the forthcoming antichrist.\u00a0 [Genesis 10:8-10, \u201cNow Cush became the father of Nimrod; he became a mighty one on the earth. [9] He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, \u201cLike Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.\u201d [10] \u00a0<\/sup>The beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Accad and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.\u201d]\n\nWhat the antichrist will complete is what Nimrod started.\u00a0 And Nimrod, according to tradition, was married to a woman named Semiramis.\u00a0 And the two of them had a child named Tamous, and Tamous was killed by a wild animal, and miraculously brought back to life through satanic power, sort of like the beast rising from the dead that we study in Revelation 13, yet future.\u00a0 The same sort satanic operation was taking place here at the Tower of Babel.\u00a0 And what people began to do at the Tower of\u00a0 Babel, according to Hislop is they began to worship the mother and the child.\u00a0 And so when they were building this system and God disrupted it and everybody went their own way, into their own language, and into their own culture, they took with them that system.\n\nHislop\u2019s point is you can find that system all over the world today.\u00a0 It\u2019s just the names are changed from place to place.\u00a0 In Assyria the mother is called Ishtar, the child is called Tamous.\u00a0 By the way, Ishtar is where we get the word Easter from.\u00a0 In the Greek text I still can\u2019t find the word Easter.\u00a0 I find resurrection Sunday, those sorts of words but not Easter.\u00a0 All of this stuff about bunnies and rabbits and eggs, that has no biblical basis whatsoever.\u00a0 It comes from Babylonian tradition.\u00a0 In Phoenicia the mother is called Astarte, the child is called Baal.\u00a0 In Egypt the mother is called Isis, the child is called Osiris.\u00a0 In Greece the child is Aphrodite, the child is called Eros.\u00a0 In Rome the mother is called Venus, the child is called Cupid.\u00a0 Now look at that, I wrecked Easter already, we just wrecked Valentine\u2019s day.\u00a0 [Laughter]\n\nYou see the different names in Asia, India.\u00a0 And Alexander the Hislop became really a very staunch enemy of Roman Catholicism; they hated what he said because his point of the book of the Mother-Child System went right into Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 And it took on the name Mary and Jesus, but the Mary and Jesus of Roman Catholicism is not the Mary and Jesus of the Bible.\u00a0 This is Luther\u2019s point and why we had to have the Protestant Reformation, a back to the Bible movement.\u00a0 The Mary in Roman Catholicism is somebody that you pray to.\u00a0 She\u2019s the Co-Redemptress.\u00a0 The Mary in Roman Catholicism is somebody that remained a virgin her whole life, perpetual virginity of Mary.\u00a0 Such teachings are foreign to the Word of God.\u00a0 Jesus had many half-brothers.\u00a0 We\u2019re never told to pray to Mary.\u00a0 We can venerate and respect her but she is in no sense a Co-Redemptress.\n\nAnd the Jesus of Roman Catholicism is very different than the Jesus of the Bible.\u00a0 Roman Catholicism essentially says to make yourself right with God, God did most of the work, God paid for the meal but you need to leave the tip!\u00a0 And there\u2019s one to two to five percent of things you\u2019ve got to do to make yourself right with God.\u00a0 And you go to your priest and you ask what do I have to do and he says three things---pay, pray and obey.\u00a0 That has to be added alongside the work of Jesus Christ to be made right with God.\u00a0 Such a teaching is totally foreign to the Bible.\u00a0 Jesus, on the cross said, \u201cIt is\u201d what? \u201cIt is finished!\u201d\u00a0 and at the bottom of the screen you\u2019ll see much later in biblical history why God was incensed with the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Jeremiah 7, Jeremiah 44, Ezekiel 8, because that mother-child system went into the borders of Israel and they began to worship on the eve of the Babylonian captivity the queen of heaven.\u00a0 Read all about it in those chapters.\u00a0 And that explains why God send His people into discipline.\n\nWhy am I revealing all of this?\u00a0 Why am I teaching all of this?\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to show you that we\u2019re going to run into an expression in the Book of Revelation called \u201cThe Mother of Harlots.\u201d\u00a0 The Mother is the source of all harlotry.\u00a0 And if you understand the global impact that took place at The Tower of Babel there\u2019s no question in\u00a0 your mind who the Mother of all Harlots is.\u00a0 It\u2019s Babylon!\u00a0 Because there was only one language and what happened here affected all cultures to follow.\n\nYou say well, don\u2019t you think Roman Catholicism is The Mother of all Harlots?\u00a0 No, she\u2019s the daughter Harlot; she never was the progenitor of the Mother-child system; she absorbed it.\u00a0 Well, isn\u2019t Jerusalem the Mother of all Harlots?\u00a0 No, she is not the progenitor of the Mother-child system; she absorbed the system.\u00a0 In essence she\u2019s the daughter.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There\u2019s only one mother here and that\u2019s Babylon and the location is very clear, on the plains of Shinar in between the rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates.\n\nClarence Larkin in his book on Revelation says this:\u00a0 \u201cThis\u201d concerning Babel, \u201cwas the origin of the nations, but the nations were not scattered abroad over the earth until Satan had implanted in them the \u201cVirus\u201d of a doctrine that has been the source of every false religion the world has ever known.\u201d [Larkin, The Book of Revelation<\/em>, 151]\u00a0 I mean, that virus was there, it just had to be disseminated everywhere once God confounded the language.\n\nSo that really becomes the basement, that really becomes the foundation for understanding any prophecy in the Bible related to Babylon.\u00a0 That\u2019s stop one on the bus ride.\u00a0 Stop two is the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah.\u00a0 Take your Bible if\u00a0 you could and go to Isaiah 13 and take a look there around verse 10.\u00a0 Isaiah 13 around verse 10.\u00a0 Why are we going into Isaiah and Jeremiah?\u00a0 Because Isaiah and Jeremiah both make predictions about Babylon and her destruction that have never been fulfilled in biblical history\u2026 ever!\n\nNotice what Isaiah say, I wish we had time to read the whole chapter.\u00a0 He describes Babylon\u2019s destruction.\u00a0 In fact, if you look at verse 1 it says, \u201cThe oracle concerning Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 13:1, \u201cThe oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw.\u201d]\n\nVerses 6-9 describe Babylon\u2019s destruction as \u201cthe day of the Lord\u201d a term of judgment.\u00a0\u00a0 [Isaiah 13:6, \u201cWail, for the day of the LORD is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.\u00a0 [7] Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man's heart will melt.\u00a0 [8] They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame.\u00a0 [9] Behold, the day of the LORD is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s analogized, verses 10-13, to disturbances in the cosmos.\u00a0 [Isaiah 10-13, \u201cFor the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light. [11] Thus I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity;\u00a0 I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud and abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.\u00a0 [12] I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold and mankind than the gold of Ophir.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [13] Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the fury of the LORD of hosts in the day of His burning anger.\u201d]\n\nIt\u2019s clearly a global judgment as I\u2019ll show you.\u00a0 In fact, it\u2019s just going to be like the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 19.\u00a0 We know about Sodom and Gomorrah, we know how they were destroyed\u2014instantaneously, cataclysmically by God.\u00a0 And Isaiah says once Babylon falls she will be in total and complete desolation to such an extent that she will never again be rebuilt.\u00a0 And as she falls the kingdom of God will come and the world will enjoy universal peace and rest, chapter 15:5-8.\n\n[Revelation 15:5-8, \u201cAfter this I looked, and the temple\u2014the tabernacle of the Testimony\u2014was opened in heaven. [6] And out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues, dressed in clean and bright linen and girded with golden sashes around their chests.\u00a0 [7] Then one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever and ever. [8] And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power; and no one could enter the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed.\u201d]\n\nIf you look very carefully at Isaiah 13:10 it says something very interesting there, it says, \u201cFor the stars of heaven and their constellations will not flash forth their light; the sun will be dark when it rises and the moon will not shed its light.\u201d\u00a0 And you can cross reference that with end time activity; you can cross reference it with Matthew 24:29, Jesus puts a prophecy like that into the distant future; it\u2019s never happened\u00a0 yet.\u00a0 [Matthew 24:29, \u201cBut immediately after the tribulation of those days THE SUN WILL BE DARKENED, AND THE MOON WILL NOT GIVE ITS LIGHT, AND THE STARS WILL FALL from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.\u201d]\n\nIn fact, if you look at Isaiah 13:12 he makes a very interesting prediction there.\u00a0 God, through the prophet Isaiah says that when Babylon falls \u201cI will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold\u00a0 and mankind than the gold of Ophir.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, humanity, when Babylon falls, will be on the brink of total destruction and elimination.\u00a0 This is what Isaiah predicted.\n\nIsaiah says something extremely interesting in verse 20.\u00a0 Look at Isaiah 13:20.\u00a0 It says, \u201cIt\u201d Babylon, \u201cwill never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation;\u201d watch this now, \u201cNor will the Arab pitch his tent there,\u201d I mean the fall is going to be so cataclysmic and final that the Arabs will not pitch their tent there.\u00a0 We have a problem because there\u2019s a picture of Arabs pitching their tent in Babylon today, taken from a picture around 1899-1908. What am I getting at?\u00a0 I\u2019m getting at a very simple point that the prophecies of\u00a0 Isaiah have never been fulfilled in human history. \u00a0And so if you don\u2019t have a destruction of literal Babylon in the future you have no place in history for Isaiah\u2019s prophecies to be fulfilled.\n\nWe know that God says what He means and He means what He says.\u00a0 God cannot lie!\u00a0 And if God\u2019s Word means anything Babylon has to be rebuilt for the\u00a0 simple purpose of it being destroyed the way Isaiah predicts in bowl judgment number seven.\u00a0 Now here\u2019s something very interesting.\u00a0 Isaiah chapters 13-23 describe the oracles against the nations.\u00a0 Isaiah just didn\u2019t have prophecies about Babylon, he had prophecies about all the nation, all the surrounding nations.\u00a0 As you read through these it\u2019s his oracles against the nations, Isaiah 13-23.\u00a0 As you read through these you\u2019ll discover something very interesting that the name Babylon gets two oracle.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t give two oracles against Egypt or Assyria or Jerusalem or Ethiopia but why is it that his two places in his oracles he\u2019s got two oracles against Babylon, one in chapters 13 and 14, and another one in chapter 21.\n\nHere\u2019s the answer, because the Bible predicts two falls of Babylon, one was in the time of Daniel, the handwriting on the wall chapter, when the Persians got the upper hand over the Babylonians, 539 B.C.\u00a0 If\u00a0 you\u2019re following the chronology of the late Harold Hoehner, I\u2019m not sure how he gets all of this, he\u2019s a brilliant guy.\u00a0 Saturday night, October 12\u2026 how\u2019s that for precision.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Isaiah 21 is talking about so why another oracle?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s an additional fall of Babylon yet future, in bowl judgment number seven, meaning Babylon has to be rebuilt, it has to be restored so it can be destroyed.\u00a0 Like God says, it\u2019ll be destroyed.\n\nNow it\u2019s not just Isaiah that talked this way, it\u2019s the prophet Jeremiah..\u00a0 Notice, if you will, you can turn in your Bible to Jeremiah 50 and 51.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Jeremiah\u2019s oracle against Babylon.\u00a0 He analogizes it, verse 8, chapter 51, to sudden destruction, instantaneous.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 51:8, \u201cSuddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.\u201d\n\nIn the verses that I have on the screen he analogizes it to a complete and total desolation.\u00a0 In fact, the desolation will be so complete that according to chapter 51 verse 26 of the prophet Isaiah, building materials from Babylon will never be used again.\u00a0 According to chapter 50, verse 8, chapter 51 verse 6, chapter 51 verse 45, believers are going to flee.\u00a0 Believers living in Babylon are going to \u201cget out of dodge\u201d before it collapses.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a lot of people that will tell you, well, this already happened when Babylon fell the first time in Daniel 5.\u00a0 I\u2019m here to tell you this is not what it says because Daniel never fled.\u00a0 Remember the story of the Book of Daniel.\u00a0 He hung around in the administration of Persia and actually served under two Persian kings.\u00a0 And when Babylon falls the fall will be so severe that it will precipitate the regeneration of the nation of Israel.\n\nI have to inform you of how far out this is in the thinking of most scholars.\u00a0 And even in thinking of most promising ministries today\u2026 I mean, this is completely foreign.\u00a0 This is not something they teach, this is not something they have been taught.\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, most of them really do not know what to do with these chapters other than to do what people do when it doesn\u2019t fit their preconceived system, rewrite the chapter.\u00a0 So the argument that is used over and over again is well, Isaiah prophesied in the eighth century, and Jeremiah prophesied in the seventh century and we all know that Babylon fell to the Persians, Daniel 5, in the sixth century so these prophecies have already been fulfilled, don\u2019t worry about it!\u00a0 There\u2019s nothing to see here folks, just move right along.\n\nI mean, commentary after commentary after commentary that I could direct you to says that.\n\nWe have a problem though, folks, it\u2019s the known facts of history.\u00a0 The known facts of history do not harmonize with these prophecies.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because when Babylon fell to the Persians in Daniel 5 there wasn\u2019t even a battle; there wasn\u2019t even a cataclysm.\u00a0 I mean, there was actually nothing like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or anything of that nature.\n\nNow, listen to this, we have the writings of Herodotus,\u00a0 look at the date of that, 450 B.C.\u00a0 He\u2019s writing within about a century of when Babylon fell to the Persians in Daniel 5.\u00a0 And he describes what happened.\u00a0 And his account doesn\u2019t read anything like Jeremiah describes, or Isaiah. \u201c He (that\u2019s Cyrus) conducted the river by a channel into the lake and so he made the former course of the river passable by the sinking of the stream.\u00a0 When this had been done, the Persians who had been posted for this very purpose, entered by the bed of the River Euphrates into Babylon, the stream having sunk so far that it reached about the middle of\u00a0 man\u2019s thigh,\u201d watch this, \u201cgoes Babylonian who dwelt in the middle could not know they had been captured.\u201d\u00a0 There wasn\u2019t even a battle in Daniel 5.\n\nNow you might recall in our series on the Book of Daniel we talked a little bit about that, how there was the last reigning king of the Babylonian Empire was a man named Belshazzar, and he went into the temple and he retrieved from the Jewish temple something that Nebuchadnezzar had retrieved; he actually brought out what Nebuchadnezzar had retrieved before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple, and these were the vessels of God in the temple.\u00a0 And he took something that was holy unto God, holy unto the service of God, and he used them for a profane purpose; he filled them with alcoholic beverages and him and his group in a room partied as if there was no end in sight.\n\nAnd that\u2019s when Daniel 5 describes all of a sudden the handwriting appeared on the wall.\u00a0 And it so startled him, the Bible says, his knees began to knock together it was so frightening.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t understand what the handwriting on the wall meant, it said, 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.']\n\n[Daniel 5:15, \u201cNow this is the inscription that was written out: 'MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.']\u00a0 What does that mean?\n\nAnd so they find Daniel whose now an old man, they bring him out of basically retirement and they say help us with this.\u00a0 And he interprets\u00a0 it, \u201cNumbered, numbered, and divided\u201d meaning God has weighed\u00a0 you in the scales of His justice, He has found you to be wanting and this very night your empire will be taken from you.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be killed and it will be divided.\n\nAnd Belteshazzar, who thought he was so invincible because of Babylon\u2019s walls, forgot a simple fact that all the enemy had to do, the Persians, is divert the river Euphrates and tunnel under the wall.\u00a0 And so they went under the wall in the midst of all of this pride and [can't understand word] on the account of Belteshazzar.\u00a0 He\u2019s having his big party, he\u2019s drinking his alcoholic beverages, he doesn\u2019t even understand \u00a0that he has already been conquered without using modern vernacular, without even firing a shot.\u00a0 No battle, no conflict.\u00a0 And you see, that becomes a very important lesson to us concerning who\u2019s in control of history, because there\u2019s an awful lot of people out there that feel that they\u2019re invincible.\u00a0 I mean, they\u2019ve stockpiled a bunch of stuff and they have all of these resources and money and they think they can live as if God doesn\u2019t exist.\u00a0 They can even take the things of God and use them for profane reasons.\u00a0 And they forget what Jesus said to that rich fool in Luke, \u201cYou fool, this very night your life is going to be taken.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 12:20, \u201cBut God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your soul is required of you; and now who will own what you have prepared?'\u201d]\n\nWhat happened to Belteshazzar?\u00a0 No battle, no cataclysm, no Sodom and Gomorrah, no fulfillment of Isaiah nor Jeremiah.\u00a0 We have in history something called the Cyrus Cylinder and you can find this in a book called Ancient Near Eastern Text<\/em> abbreviated as ANET, and all it does, and I have a copy of it in my office, all it does it translates ancient text from the original language into the language of today so you can read them.\u00a0 And we have an actual inscription of the words of Cyrus, the conquering Persian king in his conquest of Babylon in Daniel 5.\u00a0 We have the words of what he was thinking, we have the words of what he was saying, and as you study it once again you see that the language of the Cyrus Cylinder does not fit Isaiah\u2019s description nor Jeremiah\u2019s description of the fall of Babylon.\n\nLook at what Cyrus said.\u00a0 \u201cWithout any battle,\u201d see that, \u201csparing Babel on any calamity, I am Cyrus, King of Babylon, when I entered Babylon under jubilation and rejoicing troops walked around Babylon in peace.\u00a0 I did not allow anybody to terrorize any place of the country, I strove for peace in Babylon and in all his other sacred cities; I returned to those sacred cities on the other side of the Tigris, the sanctuaries of which have been in ruins for a long time, the images which used to live therein and established for them permanent sanctuaries.\u00a0 I also gathered all their former inhabitants and returned to them all their habitations.\u00a0 Furthermore, I resettled unharmed in their former chapels the places which make them happy.\u00a0 May all the gods whom I have resettled in their cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me.\u00a0 All of\u00a0 them I resettled in a peaceful place, ducks and doves, I endeavored to fortify and repair their dwelling places.\u201d\n\nWhat is Cyrus saying?\u00a0 When I went into Babylon to conquer it I made sure I didn\u2019t mess up anything.\u00a0 In fact, I was very nice to the temples and the sanctuaries of those Babylonian deities.\u00a0 I made sure they were unscratched, unscathed.\u00a0 Why would Cyrus do that?\u00a0 Because Cyrus was what we call a polytheist.\u00a0 He worshipped multiple gods.\u00a0 And if you are a polytheist you\u2019re trying to make all the gods happy, including these Babylonian deities.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to get on the wrong side of those guys, he says.\u00a0 In fact, I want them to pray for me.\n\nAnd so what is the point I\u2019m making?\u00a0 The simple point is this.\u00a0 What you have in Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 doesn\u2019t fit the known facts of history.\u00a0 No cataclysms, no upheaval, no war, no seventh bowl judgment.\u00a0 So what do you do with those passages?\u00a0 Most people just write them off, dismiss them.\u00a0 You take those too seriously in scholarship today you\u2019re called a hyper literalist.\n\nLet me tell you something about God folks; God doesn\u2019t lie!\u00a0 God means what He says and says what He means.\u00a0 And therefore before we\u2019ve even gotten to the Book of Revelation, if I\u2019m a diligent student of the Old Testament I have an anticipation that some way, somehow Babylon has to come back to life so it can be destroyed exactly like Isaiah and Jeremiah indicate.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting that in Isaiah 13:20-22 and in some of these passages in Jeremiah it talks about a total and complete destruction of such a magnitude that the city will never be rebuilt.\u00a0 [Isaiah 13:20-22, \u201cIt will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; nor will the Arab pitch his<\/em> tent there, nor will shepherds make their flocks<\/em> lie down there.\u00a0 [21] \u00a0<\/sup>But desert creatures will lie down there, and their houses will be full of owls; ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there.\u00a0 [22] Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers and jackals in their luxurious palaces.\u00a0 Her fateful<\/em> time also will soon come and her days will not be prolonged.\u201d]\n\nFolks, that never happened in 539 B. C. because there\u2019s people living in Babylon right now.\u00a0 Herodotus went to that city for 450, Alexander the Great visited that city, 323, so did Seleucus, Strabo, long after 539, called Babylon\u2019s Gardens, the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.\u00a0 Did you know that there were Babylonians that listened to Peter preach on the Day of Pentecost in the New Testament?\u00a0 Acts 2:9, it\u2019s where the Jews were taken into captivity, some of them kept living there.\u00a0 [Acts 2:9, \u201cParthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, King James Bible Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia\u201d]\n\nThey actually formed a Jewish writing there called the Talmud.\u00a0 The villages were renamed much later on in history, up to 1100.\u00a0 Are\u00a0 you telling me that Isaiah has already been fulfilled on this when Isaiah said it would be destroyed and never be rebuilt again?\u00a0 That hasn\u2019t happened; it never happened!\u00a0 Well gee, pastor, you\u2019re talking like a crazy person, and you contradict everything I\u2019ve ever been taught in prophecy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I like to quote other people.\u00a0 \u201cAs far as the historic\u201d Walvoord says, \u201cfulfillment is concerned, it is obvious from both Scripture and history that these verses\u201d the ones we\u2019ve been looking at, \u201chave not been literally fulfilled.\u00a0 The city of Babylon continued to flourish after the Medes conquered it and though its glory dwindled, especially after the control of the Medes and the Persians ended in 323 B.C., the city continued in some form or substance until A.D. 1000 and did not\u2026\u201d \u201cand did not,\u201d\u00a0 \u201cAND DID NOT experience a sudden termination such as anticipated in this prophecy.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 [Dr. John Walvoord, The Nations in Prophecy<\/em>, 63-64]\u00a0 Where are\u00a0 you going to put Jeremiah 50 and 51?\n\nCharlie Dyer,\u00a0 my professor at Dallas Seminary knows exactly where it goes and that\u2019s why he put together this chart showing the parallels between Jeremiah 50 and 51 and Revelation 17 and 18.\n\n[Parallels between Jeremiah 50-51 and\u00a0 Revelation 17-18.]\u00a0 The golden cup found in both sections. Babylon dwelling on many waters found in both sections.\u00a0 Babylon intoxicating the nations, given the name Babylon found in both sections.\u00a0 Babylon analogized to a stone sinking into the Euphrates River analogized in both sections,\u00a0 used in both sections.\u00a0 The same with destroyed by fire, rendered uninhabitable, having a deserved punishment, God\u2019s people fleeing when this happened, not like Daniel who stayed behind.\u00a0 And heaven exploding into praise.\u00a0 [Dyer, \u201cThe Identity of Babylon in Revelation 17\u201318 (Part 2),\u201d 441-43.]\n\nYou\u2019re going to read that, or we\u2019ll be reading that in the Book of Revelation, 17 and 18, and if you\u2019re a diligent student of the Bible you\u2019ll say well, I read that somewhere before.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s in Jeremiah 15:51, what\u2019s the BLT?\u00a0 Which is not Bacon Lettuce Tomato.\u00a0 Bottom Line Time.\n\nClarence Larkin writes, \u201cas ancient Babylon was not thus destroyed, the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah cannot be fulfilled unless there is to be a future Babylon that shall be thus destroyed.\u00a0 [Larkin, The Book of Revelation<\/em>, 158.]\u00a0 \u00a0And then you get to Revelation 17 and 18 and there\u2019s your aha moment.\u00a0 Ahhhh, that\u2019s what Jeremiah was talking about.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Isaiah was talking about.\n\nLet me take you to a third stop on the bus; take your Bibles and go to Zechariah 5:5-11, a very interesting prophecy here that hardly gets any air time in the body of Christ today.\u00a0 Zechariah chapter 5, verses 5-11, one of the prophecies of the great prophet Zechariah.\u00a0 Look at what he says here.\n\n\u201cThen the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, \u201cLift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.\u201d [6] I said, \u201cWhat is it?\u201d And he said, \u201cThis is the [<\/sup>a<\/sup><\/a>]<\/sup>ephah going forth.\u201d Again he said, \u201cThis is their appearance in all the land [7] \u00a0<\/sup>(and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.\u201d [8] Then he said, \u201cThis is Wickedness!\u201d And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. [9] Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. \u00a0[10] \u00a0said to the angel who was speaking with me, \u201cWhere are they taking the ephah?\u201d [11]\u00a0<\/sup>Then he said to me, \u201cTo build a temple for her\u201d oh my goodness look at that, \u201cin the land of Shinar;\u201d isn\u2019t that where Babel was?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t where the children of Israel went into captivity?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that Mesopotamia?\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that modern day Iraq?\u00a0 \u201c\u2026 and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.\u201d\n\nWhat is this all about?\u00a0 There\u2019s a woman in this vision, her name is Wickedness.\u00a0 She\u2019s put into an ephah which is a basket, the basket most likely represents commerce because that was a key tool of commerce in Zechariah\u2019s day.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a lead cup covering put over the basket so the woman named Wickedness can\u2019t get out\u00a0 until\u00a0 God allows it.\u00a0 But one of these days that lead covering is removed and the woman gets out of this basket.\u00a0 And Zechariah says where is she going?\u00a0 She\u2019s going to Shinar.\u00a0 What\u2019s she going to do there in Shinar?\u00a0 She\u2019s going to build a house.\u00a0 Now the Hebrew word for house is the exact same word for temple, used to describe even the temple that God predicted would come through David\u2019s line.\u00a0 Somehow, someway in human history in the providence of God wickedness, and commerce, and religion for that matter, is going to be relocated in a place called Shinar.\u00a0 Shinar is where the tower of Babel stood, it\u2019s where the children of Israel went into captivity.\n\nWhen you read about the woman, called the \u201cmother of harlots,\u201d in Revelation 17 that\u2019s the same woman that comes out of the basket in Zechariah 5.\u00a0 Most people have never connected the dots between the two women but it\u2019s the same woman.\u00a0 It\u2019s the woman whose name is wickedness, it\u2019s just in Revelation 17 she\u2019s called the \u201cmother of all harlots.\u201d\n\nLook at these parallels between the two women indicating that they must be the same woman.\u00a0 Both women are sitting, Zechariah 5 she\u2019s sitting in a basket, Revelation 17 she\u2019s sitting on many waters.\u00a0 The first woman, Zechariah 5, is known for commerce, the Ephah.\u00a0 The woman in Revelation 17, and I believe it bleeds over (as I\u2019ll show you) into chapter 18.\u00a0 Commerce\u00a0 is very prominent in Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 The woman\u2019s name is Wickedness; Zechariah 5 she\u2019s just called the mother of all harlotry, Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 There\u2019s a focus of false worship in both sections of these prophecies, the temple that this woman is going to build and the one-world false religious system that will exist from Shinar in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In Zechariah 5 the woman is taken to Shinar, another name for Babylon.\u00a0 In Revelation 17 she is simply called Babylon.\n\nWhat do you have there in Zechariah 5.\u00a0 Arthur Pink puts it this way: \u201cThe vision of prophecy\u201d Zechariah 5, \u201ccontains the germ\u201d or seed, \u201cwhich is afterward expanded and developed in such detail in Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 Zechariah 5, the beginning of the story, Revelation 17\u00a0 and 18 the end of the story.\u201d But if you\u2019ve never been exposed to Zechariah 5 you would never connect the dots between the two.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve tried to indicate over and over again you can\u2019t understand the Book of Revelation without some kind of working knowledge of the Old Testament.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting, the Book of Revelation says if you want to be blessed read this book, read it and heed it.\u00a0 And I\u2019ve always tried to figure out what\u2019s the blessing?\u00a0 My answer is I don\u2019t know, but here\u2019s my working guess.\u00a0 You ready for this?\u00a0 If you become a student of the Book of Revelation you will see that the whole Book of Revelation hinges on Old Testament information.\u00a0 The Book of Revelation therefore when you study it will take you into every single Old Testament book, simply so you can make sense of what is happening in the Book of Revelation.\n\nNow God, I have to say, pulled a fast one on me because as a young Christian the very first area of theology, the very first part of the Bible that I had any interest in was the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 In fact, for years I called it the wrong title, The Book of Revelations.\u00a0 My pastor asked me to do a devotional.\u00a0 I said what do you want me to talk about?\u00a0 He said something very dangerous, he said you pick the subject.\u00a0 So I did my devotional on something out of the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 And I can just say this; I praise God that that was before the internet era [laughter]\u00a0 where there is absolutely no record of what I said!\u00a0 [more laughter]\u00a0 Because I had no idea what I was talking about, because I really hadn\u2019t studied the Old Testament.\u00a0 But as I began to grow in my understanding and appetite for the Book of Revelation I said well, gosh, if this is what\u2019s happening in the Book of Revelation I need to learn something over here in the Old Testament, and over here in the Old Testament, and over here in the Old Testament, and God made me a student of the whole Bible to understand the Book of Revelation.\u00a0\u00a0 I think that might be the blessing; you love Revelation you start to love the whole Bible.\u00a0 It\u2019ll take you into the whole Bible, including this prophecy here in Zechariah 5.\n\nNow here\u2019s sort of the game that\u2019s played\u2026 well, gosh, how literal do we take this, Zechariah 5, how literal do we connect the dots.\u00a0 I mean, after all, if we can just get Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51 to be fulfilled in Zechariah and Daniel 5, then let\u2019s just get Zechariah 5 to somehow get fulfilled in Daniel 5 and then we can get rid of Zechariah 5 and we can get rid of Isaiah 13 and 14 and we can get rid of Jeremiah 50 and 51, and we can just go ahead and teach this the way we\u2019ve always been taught, always taught it, not allowing the Bible to interrupt our thinking.\n\nProblem\u2014Zechariah 5 took place in the second\u00a0 year of Darius.\u00a0 What year would that be?\u00a0 It would be 519 indicating that Zechariah chapter 5 took place 20 years after Babylon fell to the Persians in Daniel 5.\u00a0 See, you can play your game linguistically if you want with Isaiah 13 and 14 and Jeremiah 50 and 51; you can\u2019t do that with Zechariah 5, for a very simple reason, unlike Isaiah 13 and 14, unlike Jeremiah 50 and 51, Zechariah 5 was written 20 years after the fact.\n\nNewton, in his commentary says this: \u201cThis event predicted in this remarkable passage, Zechariah 5, remains still unaccomplished.\u00a0 It is sufficiently evident from the fact of Zechariah\u2019s having prophesied after Babylon fell, and had received that blow under which it was gradually waned.\u00a0 Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the hands of the Persians.\u00a0 This has nothing to do with Daniel 5 because it\u2019s written twenty years after Daniel 5.\n\nIt\u2019s interesting to me how the Holy Spirit has sort of anticipated these human arguments that would come up throughout time.\u00a0 He said okay, you can try to do away with Isaiah 13 and 14 but you can\u2019t do anything with Zechariah 5; you cannot get rid of Zechariah 5.\u00a0 So in order for Zechariah 5 to be fulfilled commerce and religion and wickedness has to be relocated to that part of the earth one day.\u00a0 And then you read Revelation 17 and 18 and you have your aha moment and you think oh, that\u2019s where it\u2019s all going to be fulfilled.\u00a0 See, we haven\u2019t even gotten to the Book of Revelation here in this study, we\u2019re totally in the Old Testament.\u00a0 And yet the expectation should be building of a future Babylon.\n\nThe fourth stop on this bus ride, and I\u2019ve already made reference to this as we\u2019ve been moving through the Book of Revelation, is the kings of the east\u2026 you remember trumpet judgement six?\u00a0 \u201cOne saying to the six angels who had the trumpet, \u201cRelease the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 9:14] \u00a0Where is the Euphrates?\u00a0 It\u2019s in the east.\u00a0 There\u2019s an army there in the east, and according to this particular judgment the angels that are bound there have to be released to make way for this army.\u00a0\u00a0 And that army moves from that part of the world into northern Israel and as we studied in the Book of Revelation they exterminate in their path a third of the world\u2019s population.\n\nAnd then we saw not just trumpet judgment six, we saw recently bowl judgment number six which I think expedites the path further.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThe sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 16:12] \u00a0\u00a0Have you ever studied the word \u201ceast\u201d in the Bible?\u00a0 \u201cEast\u201d in the Bible is always Babylon\u2026 always!\u00a0 The Garden of Eden, Genesis 2:8, was located in the East.\u00a0 [Genesis 2:8, \u201cThe Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed.\u201d]\n\nNow I really don\u2019t know how much the flood waters rearranged the topography of the modern earth but Genesis 2:8 talks about the Euphrates and the Tigris and if that\u2019s the same Euphrates and Tigris that I know about then the Garden of Eden itself was located in what we would call modern day Iraq.\u00a0 Is that something I would start a new church over.\u00a0 Not necessarily.\u00a0 We\u2019ve already seen, have we not, Genesis 11:2, how the tower of Babel, the very first Scripture we looked at was located in the east.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t it say that?\u00a0 [Genesis 11:2, \u201cIt came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.\u201d]\u00a0 Didn\u2019t it say that?\n\nWell, where is \u201cthe east\u201d?\u00a0 It tells us, Genesis 11:2, \u201cin the land of Shinar.\u201d\u00a0 By the way, on all of your Christmas cards you\u2019ve got the wise men, the magi, coming to give gifts to the Christ child.\u00a0 Have you ever stopped and asked yourself where those folks came from?\u00a0 Matthew 2:2 tells us that they came from the east.\u00a0 [Matthew 2:2, \u201cWhere is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Why would they do that?\u00a0\u00a0 They did that because they had access to Daniel 9:25 which gives the exact day, Daniel 9:25, when the Messiah would present His Messianic credentials to the nation of Israel.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know and discern that<\/em> from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be<\/em> seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u201d]\n\nWell how did they know about that prophecy all the way in Iraq?\u00a0 Ah, I know why?\u00a0 Because that\u2019s where the Jews were taken into captivity for seventy years.\u00a0 And do you remember that when Daniel successfully interpreted Nebuchadnezzar\u2019s dream, both the revelation of it and the interpretation of it. Daniel 2:48 says Nebuchadnezzar promoted Daniel into the ranks of the soothsayers and the magicians. \u00a0[Daniel 2:48, \u201cThen the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon and chief prefect over all the wise men of Babylon.\u201d]\n\nSo six hundred years earlier Daniel was one of the Magi.\u00a0 They had a record of what Daniel predicted.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of interesting that they were following from the east.\u00a0 What were they following there?\u00a0 A star!\u00a0 Why would they do that?\u00a0 That\u2019s weird!\u00a0 Numbers 24:17 analogizes the coming of Christ to a star through a man named Baalim.\u00a0 [Numbers 24:17, \u201cI see him, but not now; \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I behold him, but not near\u2014a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel; it shall crush the borderlands of Moab, and the territory of all the Shethites.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You want to know Baalim\u2019s home town?\u00a0\u00a0 Any guesses?\u00a0 Mesopotamia!\u00a0 Deuteronomy 23:4.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 23:4, \u201cbecause they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.\u201d]\n\nWhy would these Magi coming at a particular time following a star, they had Daniel\u2019s prophecy and they had Numbers 24:17 prophecy.\u00a0 And God is using this as a rebuke to the nation of Israel because He\u2019s saying even the pagans have it figured out.\u00a0 Even the pagans know who Jesus is.\u00a0 Even those that are descendants of the lineage of Nimrod in Iraq know who Jesus is.\u00a0 And My people who have more knowledge and more prophecy can\u2019t put the pieces together.\u00a0 It\u2019s a rebuke to Israel.\n\nSo east is Iraq, and so is it not interesting that when this giant army comes from the east why would they be summoned from the east?\u00a0 It\u2019s a hint that the antichrist is residing there, controlling the nations of the earth, and he summons this giant army from the east, most likely further east, but he\u2019s summoning them from the east and as they\u2019re coming into Armageddon the Euphrates River is dried up because that is the final barrier between the Far East and the Middle East.\u00a0 And so they\u2019re moving into northern Israel, they\u2019re destroying a third of the world\u2019s population on the way because the East itself is where the antichrist summons them from.\u00a0 And so even before we\u2019ve gotten to Revelation 17 and 18 you see an awful lot of hints, do you not, of a revived Babylon.\n\nStep five\u00a0 on the bus is the end time harlot.\u00a0 Now we can go to Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 We have now entered into our last non-chronological parenthetical insertion, this has happened four times total, where John stops the chronology to give more in depth explanation to something happening in the chronology.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Revelation 17, really all the way through chapter 19:6 is about.\u00a0 You\u2019ll see that in chapter 17 verse 1, \u201cThen one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls\u201d in other words this is the angel that just destroyed Babylon in bowl seven.\u00a0 \u201cThen one of the angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, \u201cCome here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.\u201d\u00a0 Because as you\u2019re going through the Book of Revelation and you\u2019re seeing Babylon\u2019s destruction in the seventh bowl judgment you\u2019re probably saying to\u00a0 yourself gosh, I wish I knew more about Babylon.\u00a0 So the Holy Spirit says I\u2019m glad you asked, let me tell you a little bit more about Babylon.\u00a0 This Babylon in Revelation 18:10 is called the great city, Babylon.\u00a0 [Revelation 18:10, \u201cstanding at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'\u201d]\n\nNow the word \u201cBabylon\u201d is used in the Bible 300 times.\u00a0 Guess what it means every single time?\u00a0 Babylon, EVERY SINGLE TIME!\u00a0 So if Babylon means Babylon for 300 times why in the world would someone get to the Book of Revelation and say well, I think it means Rome?\u00a0 As we\u2019ve carefully documented moving through the Book of Rev what we have seen is that the places of geography are always literal.\u00a0 Every single place of geography that we\u2019ve ever encountered moving through the Book of Revelation is always literal, Asia, Patmos, Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Philadelphia, Laodicea, the seven churches, Euphrates is literal, Jerusalem is literal, Armageddon literally means Mount Megiddo, a literal place.\u00a0 Millennial Jerusalem, New Jerusalem, literal, literal, literal, literal, literal, literal.\u00a0 Geography is always literal in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 And people say well it\u2019s not literal here in Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 Why do they say that?\u00a0 Well they say that because there\u2019s something on the harlot\u2019s forehead that says mystery, Mystery Babylon.\u00a0 And before I even get into that, which I won\u2019t be getting into today because I\u2019m running out of time, I want to show you this last chart and I want to show you how, when you read Revelation 17 and 18 you\u2019ve got to see Babylon in the background.\u00a0 \u201cThe harlot sits on many waters\u201d doesn\u2019t that sound a little bit like Psalm 137:1, the last and oldest psalm in the Psalter where the nation of Israel in captivity wept \u201cBy the rivers of Babylon\u201d?\u00a0 [Psalm 137:1, \u201cBy the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.\u201d]\n\nYou\u2019ll see this expression \u201cBabylon the great,\u201d that\u2019s exactly the way Nebuchadnezzar described Babylon in his day.\u00a0 Daniel 4:30.\u00a0 [Daniel 4:30, \u201cThe king reflected and said, \u2018Is this not Babylon the great, which I myself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?\u201d]\n\nYou\u2019ll see this expression, \u201cmother of harlots.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 17:5, \u201cand on her forehead a name was<\/em> written, a mystery, \u201cBABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.\u201d]\u00a0 The source of all harlotry \u00a0in the world, what city could that possibly be talking about?\u00a0 We saw earlier it has to be the tower of Babel.\u00a0 Everyone else is a daughter harlot, not the mother of harlots.\n\nYou\u2019ll see in Revelation 18:2 the expression \u201cfallen, fallen is Babylon.\u201d\u00a0 [Revelation 18:2, \u201cAnd he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s right out of Isaiah 21:9 describing the destruction of Babylon.\u00a0 [\u201cNow behold, here comes a troop of riders, horsemen in pairs.\u00a0 And one said, \u201cFallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the images of her gods are shattered on the ground.\u201d]\n\nYou\u2019ll see in Revelation 18:7 the fact that this woman is going to die under God\u2019s judgment and she will not see widowhood.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly almost word for word.\u00a0 [Revelation 18:7, \u201cTo the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, \u2018 I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.\u2019\u201d]\n\nIsaiah 47:7-9, you\u2019ll see this woman clothed with purple and gold and you wouldn\u2019t believe the imagination you get on that; you get all this information from all of these commentators about the Roman Catholic system and look at the colors of their robes.\u00a0 I\u2019m not here to let Roman Catholicism off the hook but Roman Catholicism is not the mother of all harlots.\u00a0 She\u2019s a daughter, not the mother.\u00a0 If you want to see purple and gold you\u2019ll see it in Daniel 5:7, verse 16 and verse 29 related to Daniel\u2019s interpretation of the handwriting on the wall.\n\nAnd Belteshazzar was so thrilled with the least understanding what the handwriting on the wall represents that he put a robe on Daniel, and guess what the colors of that robe were?\u00a0 Purple and gold!\u00a0 It\u2019s the exact same colors that are brought up in Revelation 17 and 18.\u00a0 Belshazzar did that as the acting head of Babylon, not Rome.\u00a0 Rome wouldn\u2019t even exist yet for centuries.\u00a0 Not Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholicism wouldn\u2019t even exist yet for centuries.\u00a0 Revelation 18:23 talks about this city corrupted with sorcery.\u00a0 That reads right out of Isaiah 47:9-13 of the sorcery of Babylon.\n\n[Isaiah 47:9-13, \u201cBut these two things will come on you suddenly in one day:\u00a0 Loss of children and widowhood.\u00a0 They will come on you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries, in spite of the great power of your spells.\u00a0 [10] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cYou felt secure in your wickedness and said, \u2018No one sees me,\u2019 Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, \u2018I am, and there is no one besides me.\u2019\u00a0 [11] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cBut evil will come on you which you will not know how to charm away;\u00a0 and disaster will fall on you for which you cannot atone; and destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly.\u00a0 [12] \u00a0<\/sup>\u201cStand fast<\/em> now in your spells and in your many sorceries with which you have labored from your youth; perhaps you will be able to profit, perhaps you may cause trembling.\u00a0 [13] \u201cYou are wearied with your many counsels; let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you.\u201d]\n\nThe more I look at this the more it\u2019s so clear, it\u2019s almost dumbfounding to me how we could have gotten it so wrong.\u00a0 And yet some of the most prominent prophecies voices in prophecy circles today, some of the more prominent scholars in prophecy circles today, continue to trump it over and over again their wrong conclusions to such an extent that the evangelical church has been so enmeshed in wrong understandings that they never had the right understanding.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why in this series I\u2019ve decided to sort of take my time (as if I don\u2019t normally do that anyway) [laughter] and to give\u00a0 you this history which we\u2019ll pick this up next time I\u2019m with you.\n\nBut here\u2019s the deal folks, Babylon is going down!\u00a0 And if you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ your identity is in a city and a system that\u2019s destined for destruction.\u00a0 And what a glorious thing it is when a person hears the gospel and they receive the gospel by believing the gospel and their citizenship switches to the coming kingdom which cannot be shaken.\u00a0 If you\u2019re not part of that citizenship of that coming kingdom because you never trusted Christ as your personal Savior then you\u2019re stuck with this world Babylonian system that\u2019s crumbling as I speak, and is on its way out.\u00a0 Oh yeah, she\u2019s going to get her run, she\u2019s going to get her heyday, but in one hour the whole thing dissolves under the judgment of God in bowl judgment number seven.\n\nSo the question becomes today, as I\u2019m closing, is where is your citizenship?\u00a0 Is your citizenship in heaven, Philippians 3:20, because that\u2019s the only safe investment I know of.\u00a0 [Philippians 3:20, \u201cFor our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 How do you get your citizenship in heaven?\u00a0 You respond to the gospel, you believe in the gospel, you trust in what Jesus did for you.\u00a0 You come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit where you say to yourself you know what, all this stuff about the gospel of Jesus Christ is right, I don\u2019t understand it all but it\u2019s right!\u00a0 And you trust in that and that alone for the safe keeping of your soul and your eternity.\u00a0 And the instant you do that your citizenship just got transferred.\n\nAnd so our exhortation to you at Sugarland Bible Church is to do what I just said, to trust in what Jesus did for you personally on the cross two thousand\u00a0 years ago so your citizen\u00adship could be transferred so you\u2019re involved no longer in the world\u2019s program but God\u2019s program and your eternity is secure.\u00a0 And you go through this world with its cataclysms and its upheavals and you never lose hope because your hope comes from a kingdom that\u2019s coming.\n\nIf it\u2019s something you need more explanation I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 But trusting Christ as your personal Savior is something you can do right now in your own mind, thoughts, privacy, quietness, even as you\u2019re listening, maybe you\u2019re listening on the internet, maybe you\u2019re listening on social media.\u00a0\u00a0 Our exhortation to you is to trust Christi.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a matter of walking an aisle, joining a church, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of privacy between you and the Lord, where you trust in the completed work and what He\u2019s done for you.\u00a0 And we exhort you to do that.\n\nShall we pray. \u00a0Father, we\u2019re grateful for\u00a0 Your truth, grateful for Your Word, grateful for these bookends of history that You\u2019ve given us.\u00a0 Help us to be good stewards of this material as we walk through it together in the church.\u00a0 We\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory.\u00a0 We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026. Amen!","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t