Many of you have studied the pastoral letters in the New Testament.

These are 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus.

I want to look at all three of these letters, and talk about the main reason that Paul wrote them.

We can learn many things from these letters.

For example, Paul talks about things like the importance of personal purity.

He says in 1 Timothy 6: 11:

But you, O man of God, flee these things and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, gentleness.

Another point of the pastoral letters is to explain the qualifications for leaders.

We looked at some of these sections in out last session.

He also talks about the role of women in the church, and many other practical issues like this.

But as you study these 3 letters, you will notice that there was one point that seemed to be the most important to Paul that all the others.

And that is the importance of good doctrine, and the importance of defending good doctrine.

And because it is Paul’s main point to the pastors that he wrote to, it should be a main point to us as well.

Today we are going to look at these passages and discover one of the most important jobs of a pastor.

But before we look at these passages, Lets first turn to Acts chapter 6 starting in verse 2:

Act 6:2 Then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said, “It is not desirable that we should leave the word of God and serve tables.

Act 6:3 Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business;

Act 6:4 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

What I want you to notice in this passage is verse 4.

That they were to “give themselves continually to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This is one of the main jobs of the elder or pastor.

We will see examples of this in the verses we are about to study too.

For many of us this is not always possible. We have jobs, many of you run orphanages.

And that is ok, but we should remember that we have a responsibility to make time to study the word.

If it is possible to train others to do some of the work you are doing, you should try to do this.

I know for me sometimes it is hard to do that.

Because sometimes I think that I am the one who knows how to do it correctly.

But remember the words of Jethro who told Moses. In Exodus 18:17-18:

“…The thing that you do is not good. Both you and these people who are with you will surely wear yourselves out. For this thing is too much for you; you are not able to perform it by yourself.”

Also in training others to do ministry you give them an opportunity to be blessed.

Many people want to do some work for the Lord very much and you can give them a job to do.

This will be a blessing to them, so do not deny them an opportunity to serve.

Of course you can do this in an incorrect way too.

Don’t go home and say, “I cannot help with this work or that work anymore because I have to read the bible.”

Remember that you are a servant, and the things that you know you should do yourself, you should still do.

Let the spirit guide you about this, and if there are jobs that you need to give to others. Pray about this.

In other words, do not use this teaching as an excuse to be lazy.

But remember that your main job is to study the word of God.

Ok lets begin our study of the pastoral letters, lets turn to 1 Timothy verse 1.

1Ti 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope,

1Ti 1:2 To Timothy, a true son in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord.

1Ti 1:3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia—remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine,

1Ti 1:4 nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith.

You can see that Paul starts off this letter with his main point.

In verse 3 he reminds Timothy why he sent him to Ephesus, which is to correct the bad doctrine that had come into the church.

In verse 4 we see that he says not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies.

“Give heed” means to agree with or put up with.

An when he says “Fables and Endless Genealogies,” it is probably referring to the specific types of false teachings that were being taught in Ephesus.

And Paul says don’t give heed to these types of false teachings, because it does not produce good fruit.

Lets turn to chapter 4, starting in verse 11:

1Ti 4:13 Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

1Ti 4:14 Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

1Ti 4:15 Meditate on these things; give yourself entirely to them, that your progress may be evident to all.

1Ti 4:16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.

This is a very important passage for pastors. The idea is very similar to the passage in Acts we read earlier.

Verse 14 says to give yourself entirely to the study of the Word.

And it’s interesting to see some of the reasons that we are to be diligent in our study of doctrine.

Verse 15 and verse 16 tell us that our study of doctrine is not for us, but for the people we Shepard.

Shepard’s protect sheep from wolves. Jesus said in Mat 7:15 to “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

As shepherds one of our main jobs is to protect the sheep from false teachers and false doctrine.

This is what he means here by how the study of doctrine will “save them”, it will save them from the false teachers and teachings of Ephesus.

But we cant do that unless we are experts in doctrine ourselves.

That is what Paul tells Timothy here. He must give attention to reading, exhortation and doctrine.

It is how he will be able to do his job of protecting the church from false teachers.

The interesting thing about false doctrine is that you defeat it not by studying false doctrine, but by studying good doctrine.

You protect your sheep not by explaining why a false teaching is wrong.

But by teaching them why good doctrine is right.

For example, If you want to become an expert in fake or counterfeit money.

You would not need to study fake money.

You would want to become an expert in real money.

Then when someone gives you a fake bill you will immediately recognize it as a fake.

Because you know so much about how real money looks.

That is why it is important to take our study of doctrine seriously.

If we study the bible and good doctrine, we will immediately be able to see false doctrine.

And we will be able to explain to others why it is wrong.

Let’s look at verse 17 and 18 of Chapter 5:

1Ti 5:17 Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine.

1Ti 5:18 For the Scripture says, “YOU SHALL NOT MUZZLE AN OX WHILE IT TREADS OUT THE GRAIN,” and, “THE LABORER IS WORTHY OF HIS WAGES.”

Here Paul gives us the principal that is right to support your pastor so that he can labor in word and doctrine.

Here again we see that the pastors main job is to be a student of the word and doctrine.

Notice in verse 17 that not all the elders were laboring in word and doctrine, but that was ok with Paul.

Elders that “rule well” can have different gifts in the ministry, and they are still considered worthy of honor.

Paul quotes a verse from the Old Testament in verse 18 to support the idea that pastors deserve to be paid if it is possible.

But also remember that sometimes Paul did not get paid for his ministry.

For the Corinthians he worked as a tentmaker to support himself.

So you should understand that each situation of ministry will be different, and you should not be worried if you have to work to support yourself and your family.

That is normal in America too, many pastors have to work a job until the church is able to support them.

I want to emphasize again that not all members of the body are teachers, but all elders of the church need to be able to explain doctrine to others.

Maybe you are preacher, maybe you are more gifted in prayer, or with the business of the church.

But all elders still need to know doctrine very well, if they are to be good leaders.

Let’s turn to chapter 6 starting in verse 3:

1Ti 6:3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which accords with godliness,

1Ti 6:4 he is proud, knowing nothing, but is obsessed with disputes and arguments over words, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,

1Ti 6:5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw yourself.

Here we have instruction about people who will not hear good doctrine.

Paul says that they are obsessed with disputes and arguments over words.

Im sure many of you have noticed that people who believe false doctrine become are obsessed with that error.

It seems that it is all they ever want to talk about.

If it is a church, then every week the message they preach is about the same false doctrine

That is a pattern of false doctrine, it becomes an obsession.

We are told what this type of person produces.

Envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions.

That is a pretty accurate list of the fruit of false teachers, and those of you that have seen this know it is true.

Those of you who have not yet experienced Satan’s attack in the form of false teaching in your church yet need to hear the words of the Holy Spirit here who said:

“From such withdraw yourself”

We will see later on that Paul instructs us how to do this. He will tell us that we first need to try to correct them in love.

He says in Titus 3:10 that we should try to do this at least twice.

Do not argue with them, but try to your very best to help them see their error.

But often it is obvious that most people like this do not want to hear what you have to say.

They are only interested in changing your mind, they have no intention of changing their mind.

And this is why your only option at that point is to withdraw yourself, or ask them to leave.

And just as Paul started his 1st Letter to Timothy, he will also end the same way:

In chapter 6 starting in verse 20

1Ti 6:20 O Timothy! Guard what was committed to your trust, avoiding the profane and idle babblings and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge—

1Ti 6:21 by professing it some have strayed concerning the faith. Grace be with you. Amen.

We again these two main messages from the Holy Spirit.

1.) Guard and protect and your good doctrine.
2.) And avoid false doctrine and arguments about unimportant things.

Also notice in verse 21 that many have fallen away because of this false teaching already.

False teaching is a very serious problem. Satan is working very hard to deceive people, and he will have some victory in his efforts.

If we quickly turn back to chapter 4 verse 1 we also find that Satan will continue to have victory with deceiving people like this in the future.

1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

1Ti 4:2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

In the next few verses he explains what kinds of false teachings these would be, and then in verse 6 he gives us instruction about what we can do about it.

1Ti 4:6 If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good doctrine which you have carefully followed.

1Ti 4:7 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.

He says instructing the brethren, in this way is our job, we study the Word so that we can teach others, that is how we will be good ministers of Jesus Christ.

Again in verse 7 we are told to reject false teaching and commit ourselves toward holy living.

Now let’s move on to the 2nd letter to Timothy.

This letter was written at the end of Paul’s life.

Paul was in prison and knew that he was about to be executed for the sake of the gospel.

Let’s start in Chapter 1 verses 13 and 14

2Ti 1:13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.

2Ti 1:14 That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.

Paul tells Timothy to hold fast to the doctrine that he taught him.

Hold fast suggests someone or something will try to take the truth from us; and that unless we hold on to it, it will be taken from us.

How good a pastor is should not be measured by how funny he is, or if he is an exciting preacher, or even he is a good evangelist.

The true measure of a pastor should be does he “hold fast to the pattern of sound words.”

I like that verse 14 tells us that the Holy Spirit will help us to hold fast.

I like this because It says that it is not about how smart we are, we don’t have to be scholars in order to know and hold on to good doctrine.

It is because study and because of the discernment given by the Holy Spirit.

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would teach us in John 14: 26

Even new Christians might not always know why a certain teaching is false, but often the spirit gives them a sense that it is not of God.

But we also must remember that we have also seen many commands to labor in the study of the word to get good doctrine.

It is a mixture of both. We labor in the word, and we are also taught by the Holy Spirit.

In says in Hebrews that God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

Next let go to chapter 2 verse 2.

2Ti 2:2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also.

This is a very important part of a spiritual leader’s ministry.

To train other spiritual leaders.

Notice what specifically Paul asks Timothy to pass on.

The teachings of the Apostle.

We will see later that this also includes all the scripture written by the apostles in the New Testament.

It is important to train spiritual leaders in many things.

But the most important thing you can teach them is the doctrine found in Holy Scripture.

Training leaders is a part of your job according to the bible.

Not only when you need another leader to help you.

And not only for service in your congregation.

You should train leaders for the kingdom of God in general.

Whether their ministry will be pastoral or used for some other purpose by the Lord.

You should always be training people in what you have learned.

If you don’t have anyone that you feel you should be training.

You should pray and ask the Lord to send you someone, or reveal to you someone you already know to begin training.

It says that the men you should train need to be “faithful men who are able to teach.”

There are other qualifications in these letters that we have already looked at in the last session.

Let’s move on to 2 Timothy 2 starting in verse 14:

2Ti 2:14 Remind them of these things, charging them before the Lord not to strive about words to no profit, to the ruin of the hearers.

2Ti 2:15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

2Ti 2:16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

2Ti 2:17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort,

2Ti 2:18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some.

Here we hear many of the same things we have already heard from the Spirit through the Apostle Paul.

I want to point out verse 15 which says that we should be diligent in our work of rightly dividing the word of truth.

This phrase “rightly dividing the word of truth” literally means to “cut straight.”

That a minister of the gospel should present the truth correctly and honestly.

He should not be dishonest in any way when presenting the scripture.

We also see in 16 and 17 that false teachings are like cancer.

If you ignore it, it will grow and grow, and in verse 18 we see that it can cause the faith of other people to be overthrown.

This is why it is important to deal with false teaching in your church in the way the bible says, because it can destroy the faith of other people as well.

Let’s move on to verses 24-26

2Ti 2:24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient,

2Ti 2:25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth,

2Ti 2:26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.

This is my favorite part of this entire teaching.

It says that our goal should not be to fight, but that God will show them the truth of their error and they would repent.

A wise pastor said to me one time that no one ever wins in an argument.

Yes, you may prove someone wrong, and make them be silent.

But there is no winner in an argument, only losers.

If you truly desire the salvation and repentance of those who are in opposition you must be patient and humble.

You must see if they will let you teach them the truth.

It’s easy to have sympathy for false teachers if you understand verse 26.

They are in the snare of the devil, taken captive to do his will.

Just as the Lord Jesus uses us to do His will, Satan also uses people to do his will.

The difference is that we choose to serve the Lord, Satan though has to capture people and trick them into doing his will.

You can pray for them, and try to help them, but there is a limit to how much you can allow.

Let move to the next chapter starting in verse 13:

2Ti 3:13 But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2Ti 3:14 But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them,

2Ti 3:15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

2Ti 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,

2Ti 3:17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

This passage tells us what the weapon we should use in our warfare is.

It is the Bible, this book, from Genesis to Revelation.

This is all we need to do the job that we are being asked to do.

It says the scripture is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction.

What is so interesting to me is that it seems that every kind of false teaching, no matter how strange it is, was already answered by the Holy Spirit somewhere in the bible.

What I mean is that there is always a verse, usually many verses that are perfect for refuting every kind of false teaching.

So a smart false teacher will spend most of their time trying to explain why the verses that prove them wrong in the bible do not really mean what it says.

Part of our job is to be able to correct false doctrine using the scripture.

The more we know of scripture the easier this job will be.

Let’s move on to chapter 4 verse 2

2Ti 4:2 Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.

2Ti 4:3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers;

2Ti 4:4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

2Ti 4:5 But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

There are many things to learn here.

Verse 2 again describes that we should be ready to explain the word to people.

It says to preach the word.

We have many examples of the Apostle Paul doing this.

He wrote many letters that were correcting false teaching in the church.

For example the letter to the Colossians, or the letter to the Galatians.

What is interesting to notice about those letters is that Paul fights bad doctrine with good doctrine.

He doesn’t spend any time explaining the details of their false beliefs.

But instead he teaches in detail the good doctrine that they needed to hear.

For example he does a study of the Old Testament in Galatians and explains the correct doctrines of justification of faith clearly.

So this is an example, we fight bad doctrine with clear explanations of good doctrine.

Verse 3 is the second time Paul tells Timothy that in the future this problem of bad doctrine will grow worse.

It is interesting because it says that the people will “heap for themselves the false teachers.”

It says that they have itching ears, which means that they will want to believe false doctrine.

Many people believe false teaching because they want to.

Not necessarily because they have been deceived.

This is why for some people it won’t matter if you can prove to them their error from the word of God.

They will still believe it, they wont endure sound doctrine.

Let’s move on to the book of Titus.

This letter is a little different than 1st and 2nd Timothy.

Titus was in Crete where there was a lot of false teaching.

We understand that Titus was a person who was very brave and liked a challenge.

Paul sent Titus into a very difficult situation in Crete.

This is what Paul tells Titus about the situation at Crete:

Tit 1:10 For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,

Tit 1:11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain.

Tit 1:12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”

Tit 1:13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,

You can also see in verse 5 that in addition to appointing elders, Titus was sent to Crete with the purpose of correcting their bad doctrine.

And according to Paul, and even Cretan’s themselves, they were not easy people to convince of anything.

In verse 9 we see that Paul says that if any man wants to be a Bishop he must:

“Hold fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”

This is a job requirement for elders, we must be able to instruct difficult doctrine to difficult people.

Let’s read verse 16, which is speaking about some of the false teachers at Crete:

Tit 1:16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

This is similar to what Jesus said about false prophets.

Mat 7:15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

Mat 7:16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?

Mat 7:17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

Mat 7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.

False teachers and prophets bear bad fruit in their lives.

In verse 16 back in Titus 1 it says “They profess to know God”

Almost all false teachers claim to be very good Christians.

Often they claim to be the only kind of Christians that have the real truth.

They say very holy things, and talk like they are more religious that everyone else.

But they do not bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

If they were as holy as they claimed to be, their life’s would show it.

But as Jesus said a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

Let’s turn to chapter 2 starting in verse 7:

Tit 2:7 in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works; in doctrine showing integrity, reverence, incorruptibility,

Tit 2:8 sound speech that cannot be condemned, that one who is an opponent may be ashamed, having nothing evil to say of you.

Paul is telling Titus and us. To not let your critics have any doctrinal reason to accuse you.

The truth is that none of us understand the word perfectly.

Because it is the Word of God, we should expect there to be parts of it that we do not yet understand, because we are only human.

We are all wrong about something, and we don’t know what it is we are wrong about yet.

But you should be the kind of person who is willing to admit you are wrong if you are shown the truth in the word.

Doing this will make you a better leader and a better pastor.

One of the hardest things for a leader to do is to admit he was wrong.

Especially if he has taught the wrong thing for a long time.

We try to hold on to it, we try to make excuses for ourselves.

We need to be the kind of people who can say “I was wrong, and I am sorry”

And you need to be humble enough to explain why you were wrong to those you have taught.

They will respect you more for your humility.

There is nothing worse than a preacher who won’t admit he is wrong.

This is very destructive to the body of Christ.

Now let’s look at chapter 3 starting in verse 9:

Tit 3:9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.

Tit 3:10 A man that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject;

Tit 3:11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted, and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

Here we find instruction of how many times you should try to correct someone in this type of error.

It says after two times you should reject him.

We must be careful not to use this for every situation where we have disagreements with people.

Because not every disagreement is a matter of heresy.

We know from other passages we have read today that when trying to correct false teaching we must be gentle.

We must be patient; we must try to very hard to correct them by using scripture.

And we must pray for them that God may grant them repentance.

And even after you correct them, and they continue to believe the false doctrine, it says here that you should try one more time.

But after the second time, if they show no signs of repentance, then you must reject them.

This is for the health of your church and its protection.

But I have found that this passage is also there for you, the minister.

Because if it was not here, some of us would feel that we had to try to correct error over and over again.

But the Word of God says, after a certain point you have done your job, and it is no longer your responsibility.

I would encourage you all to read through these three letters we have just looked at.

Because doctrine is not the only subject talked about in them.

Almost as much time is spent on the need of personal purity of the minister as well.

I will now give you a few ideas on how to learn and maintain good doctrine.

Obviously the main thing is prayer and reading the bible.

These two things are your best weapons in the war for good doctrine.

Read the bible because you love it, not because you want to prove a point.

If you do not want to read the bible, pray that God will give you a thirst for the reading it.

And pray that prayer all the time, not just once or twice.

The more you read the more you will understand.

The Holy Spirit will be able to bring to your mind verses that will help you discern the truth.

It is not important to have many theological books in order to have very good doctrine.

But it is good to have access to a concordance or other reference books like this.

I have the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge that I made for your mobile phones.

If you haven’t already received one you can turn the Bluetooth on in your phone and one will automatically be sent to you by my computer.

You do not want to have errors in your theology because of a lack of understanding the meaning of a word.

If you have a question, ask other pastors, ask an elder or someone who you know to be strong in the scriptures.

The bible says that iron sharpens iron, so fellowship and conversations about your questions are important.

Always be learning.

You are all here at this conference, so I know that you understand this point.

But I would encourage you to find more opportunities to learn.

Pastor Chris has a bible school, and I know there are other schools in your area too.

Ask your congregation to help you afford some theological books.

Even if you have to save money for a long time, and pray that the Lord sends you this help.

But most importantly, the best way to learn is to teach.

In the discipleship session I talked about teaching verse by verse through the bible.

If that is how you decide to start teaching, I can promise you that you will go much faster in the process of becoming an expert in the bible.

The more you teach through the bible verse by verse, the faster you will grow.

Please consider doing this. I think it will not only make your sheep healthy sheep.

But it will also create a healthy shepherd.

So let’s get a running start as the end of the previous chapter connects to the beginning of this one:

For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. – Heb 5:12-14

And now our verse: “Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God”

So the writer is wanting to get into some serious theological discussions with them about their problems, and he is frustrated that they really are not even ready to hear it. But nevertheless he is going to tell them what they need to hear anyway.

He says that two foundations of the Christian faith here are repentance of dead works and faith toward god. This is basically the gospel message: (Acts_2:38, Acts_3:19, Heb_9:14, Heb_11:6)

The same writer of Hebrews preaches the gospel of salvation using the same words three chapters later:

How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.  - Heb 9:14-14

There are really only two religions in the world. There are those that are trying to account for their moral imperfections by their various works and are therefore putting their faith in themselves and how good they can be. And then there are those that have faith in God, who trust not in their works and appeal to God, not on the basis on the things they have done but rather on the merit on the sinless life of another, that is Jesus Christ.

Many people need to repent of their dead works, their appealing to god on the things that they do, or do not do, and seek to understand the gospel, which is that Christ took the wrath of God for your sins so that you could be justified before a holy god.

Perfection

The writer to the Hebrews says that his people must be going on to what he calls teleiotes. The King James Version translates this word perfection. But teleios, the adjective, and its kindred words have a technical meaning. Pythagoras divided his students into hoi manthanontes, the learners, and hoi teleioi , the mature. Philo divided his students into three different classes—hoi archomenoi, those just beginning, hoi prokoptontes, those making progress, and hoi teleiomenoi, those beginning to reach maturity. Teleiotes  does not imply complete knowledge but a certain maturity in the Christian faith. – William Barclay

let us go on unto perfection:

No matter how much parents and grandparents love to hold and cuddle a baby, it is their great desire that the baby grow up and enjoy a full life as a mature adult. God has the same desire for His children. That is why He calls to us, “Go on to perfection!”

Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

Two of my favorite commentators spend this section trying to convince people that these things are Jewish, not Christian in nature. This is a very difficult position, and it is my opinion that they do this because of the difficult verse that is coming up later.

After really trying to give them the benefit of the doubt, also because I would much prefer that this is talking about Jews because it would make this section so much easier I don’t see any reason to suggest that to you, But rather that the writer is simply naming some things that are the basics of Christianity, just as I think the plain understanding of the text implies.

The doctrine of baptisms and the laying on of hands:

There are two baptisms spoken of in scripture. One is the standard water baptism that is symbolic of your repentance and death to the old life and resurrection to a new life in Christ. Then there is the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service where one is empowered to do various things in the service of Christ.

Those who try to make the point that this is not talking about Christian baptism say that the word baptismos here is in a slightly odd construction  is not used to talk of Christian baptisms, but according to Vincent word studies there is no problem whatsoever with this:

“The meaning here is lustral rites in general, and may include the baptism of John and Christian baptism. The teaching would cover all such rites, their relations and comparative significance.” -VWS

The reason for the odd construction of the phrase is because of the odd way the writer is applying it he, in talking of the doctrine of baptisms is speaking of the teaching of baptisms, this teaching like all other Christian teaching are from Christ:

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. – Joh 3:5

The fundamental Christian teaching of a two part baptism is based off the old testament prophecies of the New covenant described Eze_36:25-27

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. – Eze 36:25-26

So this “doctrine of baptisms” is about as fundamental Christian teaching as you can get from a theological standpoint.

The laying on of hands that is mentioned in the verse is usually tied to the baptism of the Holy Spirit for service, and is also considered a fundamental part of Christian doctrine and is often done at salvation for the receiving of gifts. Like with timothy:

1Ti 4:14  Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery.

Next the resurrection of the dead is mentioned, and in response to those who try to make this an elementary Jewish teaching as opposed to an elementary Christian teaching I would say that although the resurrection of the dead may be an important aspect of Judaism, it is not a fundamental doctrine, which is evidenced by the fact that the Pharisees and Sadducees differed on the existence of the resurrection of the dead but were considered in fellowship and were on the Sanhedrin council together, so it must not have been that fundamental, no compare that with the fundamental nature of the resurrection in Christianity. For example the Apostle Paul writes:

But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:  And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. – 1Co 15:13-15

And in keeping perfectly in line with this is the next one that is mentioned: “eternal judgment” which is also a fundamental doctrine of the gospel.

And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. – Act 17:30-31

So the writer here is clearly expanding here on the same “doctrines of Christ” that he mentioned in the previous verse:

Heb 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Heb 6:2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment.

It may seem obvious to make this point, but some good teachers turn into bad ones during this section of scripture, we will see why they do in just a moment.

Heb 6:3 And this will we do, if God permits.

So he is going to continue on to the harder questions in Christianity despite them not really being ready to handle it

If God permits:

if: Act_18:21; Rom_15:32; 1Co_4:19, 1Co_16:7; Jam_4:15

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost

I think it would be helpful for you  to know some of the theological conflicts that are going to be at play here before we get started.

The main issue is about the doctrine of eternal security, or once saved always saved. A doctrine that I believe in firmly and think that the book that we are reading the book of Hebrews will do a fantastic job of explaining in detail later on, but there does seem to be a kind of caveat to that doctrine, one that doesn’t not necessarily undermine the doctrine of eternal security as we will see but that nevertheless is there and I as hope to show you is all over scripture and taught expressly by the Lord many times.

The problem with this though is that certain theological positions notably Calvinism has a dogmatic stance that no exceptions to this rule exist, and therefore must make these following verse be speaking of something other than Christians. Some commentators will say that these folks in view in this passage only tasted of the heavenly gifts, the idea being that these people were never actually Christians and therefore these is no conflict with the doctrine of eternal security, but the problem is that the passage coming up as well as the other difficult passages in Hebrews chapter 10 seem to go out of the way to make sure we know without doubt that these were actually saved people.

We will look at all of this in detail but first here are some good quotes from Spurgeon on the issue. These quotes are all the more interesting when you realize that Spurgeon was a Calvinist and realized the problems that the passages in Hebrews here posed.

“We come to this passage ourselves with the intention to read it with the simplicity of a child, and whatever we find therein to state it; and if it may not seem to agree with something we have hitherto held, we are prepared to cast away every doctrine of our own, rather than one passage of Scripture.” (Spurgeon)

ii. “We had better far be inconsistent with ourselves than with the inspired Word. I have been called an Arminian Calvinist or a Calvinistic Arminian, and I am quite content so long as I can keep close to my Bible.” (Spurgeon)

For it is impossible

It will take two more verses for the writer to get to what is impossible to do but this is the phrase that causes all the difficulty.

The “impossible” here means just that in the Greek…”impossible” so there is no way around it, belive me I have tried.

3 things are mentioned about the group that he is talking about:

Those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,

I wont spend too much time as some do in proving that these things are talking about Christians because I think that is the plain meaning of this text. If you have once been enlightened and were a partaker of the Holy Ghost, my understanding presupposes that they must have been genuine Christians at one point, the argument that they simply tasted the heavenly gift is often refuted by affirming that the same word for taste is used of Christ in his having tasted death for all (Hebrews 2:9.) And we know that he did die.

partakers of the Holy Ghost

Is a much more difficult thing to explain away, it seems almost unthinkable that the writer would use such language if his intention was not to make clear that these people were in fact saved.

Heb 6:5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come,

Here again the word taste is important, It is probably true that one could taste of the word of God and not be saved, but more difficult to explain the tasting of the powers of the world to come. I think that either way you look at this these people were more than just casual non-believers.

Again I dont want you to get twitchy that I am going to be speaking against eternal security, I am not, but I do feel that, simply explaining away this verse as not intended for us can be equally detrimental.

There is application here for us and I will explain what I mean by that in full detail in the next verse:

Heb 6:6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

Ok here it is the big verse in question. Let’s back up and read from verse 4 so we can get the flavor if it:

For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

On one end of the spectrum there are the false teachers saying that this verse and the other like in in Hebrews 10 means that if you slip up and simply sin then you can’t be “renewed to repentance.”

On the other end of the spectrum groups, in an attempt to preserve the doctrine of once saved always saved, will find some way to teach that these verses are not applicable to Christians.

I think the answer is somewhere in between, and that it is firmly testified to in scripture.

Again, I want to say that Im all about the doctrine of once saved always saved, and I think the writer of this letter is too, he sure spends a lot of time explaining it later on, but at the same time, there is a notable exception to this rule it would seem and we would be unwise to ignore the clear teaching of scripture on this point.

So it’s impossible If they shall “fall away”, to “renew them again unto repentance;” We need to know what “fall away” means here and we definitely need to know what “renew again to repentance” means.

Fall away here is talking about a specific type of apostasy. Although the specific word “apostacia” is not used here it is clear that the writer has been referring to it, in various ways all throughout the letter, In Hebrews 3:12 it says:

  “Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.”

This line where the writer basically declares the intention of his letter, this is the main reason he writes to them, telling them not to depart from Christ during the persecution they were undergoing, a temptation that some of them were succumbing to.

The same word there departing in the Greek is used by the apostle Paul in this way:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; – 1 Timothy 4:1

Paul was referring to what he in another place clearly calls apostacia

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away [apostacia] first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; – 2Th 2:3

And of course I believe he in 2 Thessalonians is only referencing the Lords teaching in Matthew 24 when he says of the last days:

Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. – Mat 24:9-1

So the “falling away” used in our verse back in Hebrews is referring to apostasy.

This apostasy is almost always tied to persecution in scripture, In fact I believe that the writer uses the words fall away here harkening back to the parable of the sower, when the lord said

And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. – Mar 4:16-17

Again it is crucial to what I am about to say to understand the context here, these people he is writing were not simply duped by a false teacher, they were that too, but they were also being physically threatened with death if they did not reject Christ and return to Judaism The first few chapters are about the reasons why this cannot be done theologically.

This is a very common theme in the NT in general, (encouragement about ongoing persecutions) in fact it doesn’t seem like there is a letter that Paul writes that does not include something like this line from 2 Thessalonians 2:

So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;  And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, 2 Thess 1: 4-7

There are so many sections in scripture of Paul or Peter saying “hey good job guys, you are suffering persecutions well.”

In the book of Hebrews however, it is basically a letter to those not suffering and dying well.

There are some other important details about this type of apostasy that seems to always be mentioned in the form of persecution.
But before we look at that we need to move on to the idea of if you fall away in this way it is impossible to be renewed again to repentance.

What in the world does that phrase “renewed again to repentance” mean? it’s kind of an odd phrase.

I have read a lot of commentaries on this and there are so many different opinions that I had literally given up, and instead I simply prayed and re-read the entire book and was like “OK Lord, I will just forget everything I think I know about this, just show me what’s going on here.”

I know bible teachers are supposed to do that all the time, but I guess I don’t do it enough. and I am certainly hesitant to say the “lord showed me this or showed me that” because if I’m wrong It’s my fault, but I gotta say I think the answer as to what this means is explained to us later on in this same letter and it really opens the door to a flood of other relevant scriptures on this issue.

Now before I read this you have to know that in between our verse and the one I’m about to quote 6 chapters later, I think the heart of the writer becomes even clearer. He is trying to show them the steadfastness of the new covenant, and why it should not be abandoned in the face of persecution. He says thing like:

For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin…

So he is saying Christ suffered such hostility from sinners and you guys are discouraged and you haven’t even had any blood shed from them yet…he continues and talks about this persecution as if it is from God for their purification.

..and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “MY SON, DO NOT DESPISE THE CHASTENING OF THE LORD, NOR BE DISCOURAGED WHEN YOU ARE REBUKED BY HIM; FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE CHASTENS, AND SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” – Heb 12:3-6

The whole theme of the book of Hebrews is about this, these people are openly rejecting Christ to avoid being persecuted and killed

A few verses later he uses Esau in the old testament for an illustration of this and this is where I think the answer to the question “what does the writer of the book of Hebrews mean by “renewed again to repentance” is found:

Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. – Heb 12:16-17

There it is! Esau found no place for repentance although he sought it with tears. This is a perfect picture of the situation we are looking into.

If you don’t know the story of Esau. Basically he had twin brother Jacob, one day Esau sold his birthright to his brother for a bowl of stew. Later when he wanted his inheritance he begged his dad who had already given it to the other brother, and nothing was left for him.

A notable thing that my wife brought to my attention is the reason that Esau sold his birthright in the first place:

And Esau said to Jacob, “Please feed me with that same red stew, for I am weary.” Therefore his name was called Edom. But Jacob said, “Sell me your birthright as of this day.” And Esau said, “Look, I am about to die; so what is this birthright to me?” Then Jacob said, “Swear to me as of this day.” So he swore to him, and sold his birthright to Jacob. – Gen 25:30-33

Esau sells his birthright because he is afraid for his life!

Now the repentance he seeks from his father is shown here to be a typological picture. The birthright being symbolic of salvation, and if you look at what the birthright was, it was to be a part of bringing forth the messiah, a birthright that it says Esau despised, but after he sold it when he thought he would starve to death He weeps or repents to his father a type of the heavenly father in this type, but he does not give him back the birthright which he sold.

Now here is where it gets interesting. There are lots of verses that seem to come up in scripture that seem to be talking about this exact scenario, and they are all very challenging to those trying to fit them in a theological “once saved always saved” box, but notice that they all are centered on the same thing! It’s not sin that will make you lose it, but rather rejecting Christ in order to save your life that will.

Matthew chapter 10  is basically instruction for people that are being put to death and tortured for His sake, this is also where you find almost all the difficult verses about eternal security from Jesus, and they are all firmly in the same context. If I were to name this section of scripture I would call it: “Jesus teaches us how to die well, and warns us of the consequences of not doing so.” It starts in Matthew 10:16

 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.  But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved…And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. – Mat 10:16-22, 28-39

Luke seems to understand the Lords teaching here in the book of Matthew the same way I have been explaining it .

Luke basically takes relevant saying of the lord here in Matthew and makes sort of topical section about it in His gospel, as the Gospel of Luke often does, Basically Luke categorizes a lot of the Lords teaching whereas Matthew tends to write the entire teaching in context,

Anyway Luke included the so called “unforgivable sin” about the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, which is another subject altogether sandwiched right in the middle of the lords instruction about apostasy under persecution that we just read, in other words Luke thought these ideas went together categorically in the same place, it says:

“Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God. “And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven. “Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” – Luk 12:8-12

Now again I am all about once saved always saved but there appears to be an exception to this, but thankfully we will see even this exception is not a hard and fast rule..

The following is an example of being renewed to repentance after a denial of the Lord because of fear of death.

This is such an amazing confirmation of all of this I feel because its like this perfect picture of everything we have been talking about, but something unexpected happens that I think should give those of us a little scared about this idea some comfort. Its found in Luke 22 31

And the Lord said, “Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren. – Luk 22:31-32

Now look how peter understood this:

But he said to Him, “Lord, I am ready to go with You, both to prison and to death.” Then He said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster shall not crow this day before you will deny three times that you know Me.” Luk 22:33-34

So Jesus tells Peter that he will deny him to save his skin, Peter say that he would never do such a thing.

Jesus says he prays for him though, His prayer is so important here, what is his prayer for Peter?:

“But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have converted (KJV) (or returned to Me), strengthen your brethren.”

The word returned or converted as the KJV has it
means to revert (literally, figuratively or morally): – come (go) again, convert, (re-) turn (about, again).

So the lord thought it necessary to pray for Peter so that his faith should not fail, and it is this prayer that apparently made it possible for the repentance of Peter to occur. I think this is an important point. That it is ones “faith not failing” in the context of an apostasy that somehow affects ones ability to turn again or repent. Jesus makes the point that although Peter will commit the very same sin that He warned against in Matthew 10, He has prayed for him ahead of time so that he will be able to return, and in fact adds “when you does return to strengthen his brethren” This must have been a great encouragement to Peter, later on in life remembering that the lord foresaw this and forgave him ahead of time, because we know that Peter wept bitterly after the he heard the roster crow and realized he had in fact denied Christ for fear of his own life.

So my conclusion about this issue is that yes there is a willful sin of denying Christ in the midst of persecution and it seems to be what we call an “unforgivable sin”, but it is very rare and I dont believe even those that do deny him in those circumstance will necessarily be lost because His interceding (praying) for us as He did for Peter in heaven, even today ( Hebrews 9:24 )That being said this is one of the most consistent themes in scripture, a coming last days apostasy in the midst of persecution which will happen on a mass scale.

I believe that many of the mainstream churches will be offered and an alternative to so called fundamentalist version of Christianity will be offered.

This will be in the context of a time of great hatred, even to the point of killing.

I think that we need to be aware of this there needs to be more sermons on this, when is the last time you heard a sermon about preparing a congregation for standing strong under persecution. Like Christ preached in the last half of Matthew 10.

For in one hour so great riches is come to nought.

The suddenness of the cities destruction is expressed, here it is described as having occurred in one hour, although it is expressed as “one day” in other places in this chapter.

And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea,

A third group of onlookers, is here introduced, they are people who were on the sea for various reasons. We have already seen the kings and merchants doing basically this same thing, that is lamenting the cities destruction.

stood afar off,

This is mentioned several times, back In Rev 18:10 is seems to suggest that the reason they were standing far off is that they somehow feared they would be affected by the aftermath of the cities destruction.

And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning,

This is the part that leads some to suggest that Mystery Babylon must be a port city. But this is not necessary; all that is said is that the smoke of its burning can be seen by the ships at sea.

I would say that it is however necessary that the smoke from the burning of Mystery Babylon must be able to be seen from the sea in order to be consistent with this face value hermeneutic.

Jerusalem is only 34 miles from the Mediterranean coast, and its smoke could easily be seen from the sea. An example from modern times  is that people reported being able to see the smoke and debris from the 911 attacks on the World Trade Center from 70 or more miles away.

This is a problem for those that insist that actual city of Babylon is Mystery Babylon because it is 300 miles from the nearest sea (the Persian Gulf), and a whopping 500 miles from the nearest coast of the Mediterranean. It would be impossible for this to be applied to the literal city of Babylon.

Rome, by the way is also not a port city, being about 15 miles from the coast. This does not conflict with the fact that sea merchants bring goods to it, we see sea merchants bringing goods to Jerusalem in several places, notably the 1 kings 10 passages referring to King Solomon which we have already covered in depth.

saying, What city is like unto this great city!

The sailors say this phrase that hearkens us back to the prophecies regarding the city of Tyrus or Tyre we will be talking about in depth in the next verse.

(Rev 18:19)  And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

This verse has some striking parallels to a passage in the Old Testament which is referring to the destruction of the merchant city of Tyrus.  It says in Ezekiel 27:30-31:

And shall cause their voice to be heard against thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust upon their heads, they shall wallow themselves in the ashes: And they shall make themselves utterly bald for thee, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for thee with bitterness of heart and bitter wailing. – Eze 27:30-31

This is especially interesting in light of the other parallels between the language of the fall of Tyrus or Tyre and Mystery Babylon, Some of which we covered in previous verses.

I have found it interesting that the bible seems to go out of its way at times to refer to the destruction of Tyrus, and to the destruction of Babylon in the passages about Mystery Babylon.

For instance in the passages about the destruction of literal Babylon in Jeremiah 51 there are phrases like

O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.  - Jer 51:13

This is a clear connection to Mystery Babylon, which is said to “sit on many waters” in Revelation 17, the angel later gives us an interpretation as to what the water represent:

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.  - Rev 17:15

As I was reflecting on the significance of these cities as they relate to one another, I remembered a very interesting fact. Satan is referred to as the “King of Tyre” and the “King of Babylon” in different places in scripture. When we look at those Old Testament prophecies we will see that they would start out talking about the kings of these places, but before it’s over its clear the scope of the prophecy is far too big to simply be referring to these earthly kings. Let’s look first at a prophecy concerning The King of Tyrus:

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee. – Eze 28:12-17

So while this prophecy may have applied in some way to the king of Tyrus, this is clearly bigger than any earthly king, and is of course widely considered to be referring to Satan.

If you look a few verses before this Ezekiel is told to prophecy against the Prince (not the King) of Tyre. Scholars really don’t know what to do with what I am about to show you. But notice how in the passage we just looked at the King was obviously not human, it says it is a cherub, it was in the Garden of Eden, it was cast out of mountain of God,  but notice how the prince ( the son of this king presumably) is described clearly as being a man. I think we will see that the prince of Tyre is a description in some ways of the Antichrist.

The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:  By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; Behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations: and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of thy wisdom, and they shall defile thy brightness. They shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas. Wilt thou yet say before him that slayeth thee, I am God? but thou shalt be a man, and no God, in the hand of him that slayeth thee. Thou shalt die the deaths of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.  - Eze 28:1-10

The prince the son of the King of Tyrus is a human, (unlike his cherub father)  that sits in the seat of God and declares himself to be God who ultimately goes into the pit…does this ring any bells? It should it is the very essence of the antichrists career.  I think it’s pretty interesting that it says he will “die the deaths of the uncircumcised “  “by the hand of strangers “ The plural “deaths” could mean that he dies twice, but I would not sell this too strongly as other versions to not carry this plural “deaths” over,  either way it suggest that he will be a Jew because it threatens him with the death of the uncircumcised. (Author Pink agree with me on this point) Notice also that if this is true this would take this outside of the context of the city of Tyrus because we are told in Daniel this exact same information about the antichrist, and there is says quite explicitly (in Daniel 11:45) that his capital will be Jerusalem, a point that is reiterated in Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2. For further study I would recommend comparing Daniel 11:36-45 with this passage in Ezekiel 28: 1-10 you will find many interesting similarities.

The same basic pattern we see here is seen in other places in scripture, but instead of the king of Tyre, it uses the king of Babylon.

Isaiah starts off by saying:

That thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! – Isa 14:4

But pretty soon the scope gets much  wider than the king of Babylon;

How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. – Isa 14:12-15

There is also an antichrist connection here, not just a Satan connection, often people talk about references to the “Assyrian”  as a type of antichrist, they rightly point out that the Assyrian is associated with Babylon.

The bible has messages about the end times sprinkled in all kinds of places, and using all kinds of types to give us more information whether its Solomon, or the King of Tyre, or Antiochus. But it is dangerous to build doctrine on types. Especially when we have very unambiguous prophecies about the antichrist from Jesus, Paul, John in Revelation, and Daniel that are meant to be the standards to which the types are balanced.

I think that the chapter we have been looking is full of words and phrases that when compared with other scripture reveal more about the end times scenario.

(Rev 18:20)  Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

thou heaven

We see a picture of those in heave asking to be avenged back in Revelation 6.

And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth? – Rev 6:9-10

And in Revelation 19 we see a picture of their rejoicing.

And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. – Rev 19:1-2

and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.

We will study this idea in depth when we look at the last verse in this chapter about the “prophets and apostles and all those slain on the earth”, and we will see that Jesus puts the blame for all of them on the city of Jerusalem in many places but among them in Matthew 23:35 where He says:

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:35

Notice he said all the righteous blood is on them, Abel was not a Jew nor a prophet, nor was he killed in Jerusalem, but his blood was on Jerusalem’s head. We will look more at the context of this verse later on. We will also see that the OT prophets were indeed killed in Jerusalem according to scripture.

(Rev 18:21)  And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.

This is the verse that is the best argument against Mystery Babylon being the eschatological city of Jerusalem. I discussed it in detail in Part 4 which was all about objections to this theory.

In question is, if Jerusalem is found no more, how then do we explain the fact that Jerusalem is very much a part of the millennial kingdom and the eternal kingdom?

The short answer to this question is that in the detailed layouts of the millennial kingdom given to us by Ezekiel in the last 9 chapter of his book, we are told, among other details, the physical location of the city of Jerusalem during that time. Those that attempt to map all Ezekiel’s specifications out come to various conclusions, but almost all of them agree the Jerusalem in the future, is not in the exact location of the present city. In addition the millennial Jerusalem is 9 times bigger than the current city. Also The temple is located outside the city and it alone is bigger than the current city of Jerusalem.  The millennial Jerusalem  sits on a high plateau, and has two rivers flowing out of its east and west sides. Basically is a different place altogether.

Some proposals for the location have been Bethlehem and Shiloh. Cameron in his paper “Zechariah in relation to Ezekiel 40-48” makes a very compelling case that the new temple complex will be located at Shechem, a theory that I think is worth serious investigation. The point is that many put the Jerusalem of the future in a different physical location, not for any theological reasons but because of careful study of Ezekiel’s millennial blueprints.

For a more detailed discussion see the section on objections.

We will take these next two verses as a set.

(Rev 18:22-23)  And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee;  And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

This is an exact match with several  verses in the book of Jeremiah. All of them together are a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem. One example is found in Jer 25:10

Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle. – Jer 25:10

Even more interesting to me is the reason that this particular judgment would come.

About five chapters later the same prediction is made again, and it says:

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it……Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate.  - Jer 7:30, 34

Jeremiah makes it clear what he means by this phrase “house called by my name” many times. One notable example, which was later quoted by Jesus is when it says

Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. – Jer 7:11

Now consider this, we have here the meaning of the abomination which causes desolation spoken of by Daniel. We see that the land will be made desolate because they set an abomination in the temple.

This is pretty amazing

Especially when you consider our verse in Revelation 18:22-23 is referring to the aftermath of a city that does the same thing, worships the antichrist in the temple as if he was God (an abomination.)

You have the exact same punishment described here, and for the exact same crime!

(Rev 18:24)  And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

the blood of prophets

The killing of Old Testament prophets are many times blamed on the city of Jerusalem. There are many sayings from Jesus on this point.

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!  - Mat 23:37

But just before this statement Jesus explains this more in depth.

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:29-35

Jeremiah tried to warn them not to kill him for this reason.

But know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhabitants thereof: for of a truth the LORD hath sent me unto you to speak all these words in your ears. – Jer 26:15

In the book of Acts an 1 Thessalonians  we see this same idea being taught:

Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers:  - Act 7:52

Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: – 1Th 2:15

Jesus also tells a parable about this:

And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance.  - Mat 21:35-38

We also are told that the last prophets sent to Jerusalem (the two witnesses) will be killed in it’s streets

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.- Rev 11:8

and of saints

There have been many persecutions in history of Christians, but the worst one of all time, one that is yet to come will have its epicenter in the city of Jerusalem according to Jesus.

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!  But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. – Mat 24:15-22

Apparently when the antichrist declares himself to be God it will coincide with the order to kill saints, and considering that order will first be given in Jerusalem, it will require those who wish to escape the initial wave to flee very quickly from the area.

The saints being killed by antichrist during this persecution is referenced again and again in scripture. Here are just a few instances:

I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; – Dan 7:21

And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. – Rev 13:7

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. – Rev 12:17

all that were slain upon the earth.

This is an interesting phrase, this temps some to make everything in these two chapters allegorical, because obviously not everyone that was ever slain was slain in a particular city.

And that is true, but nevertheless Jesus says that Jerusalem is responsible for all the blood of the righteous.

That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:35

Again notice the names he gives Able the son of Adam, the first person ever slain in history!  This is clearly used to emphasize that indeed he means ALL the righteous blood would be put on Jerusalem’s hands.

An interesting section of the law in Deuteronomy describes how Israel should absolve itself from innocent blood if they see it happen. After a lengthy discussion about it It concludes this way:

And they shall answer and say, Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. Be merciful, O LORD, unto thy people Israel, whom thou hast redeemed, and lay not innocent blood unto thy people of Israel’s charge. And the blood shall be forgiven them. So shalt thou put away the guilt of innocent blood from among you, when thou shalt do that which is right in the sight of the LORD. – Deu 21:7-9

This practice that would absolve them of innocent blood was obviously not kept.

Another interesting section is when it is described why God destroyed Jerusalem in 2kings

And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets. Surely at the commandment of the LORD came this upon Judah, to remove them out of his sight, for the sins of Manasseh, according to all that he did; And also for the innocent blood that he shed: for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; which the LORD would not pardon. – 2Ki 24:2-4

This concludes our verse by verse study on Mystery Babylon. I want to take this time to say that I know that not everything I said here is correct. I am sure there are mistakes and false assumptions I have made along the way. This is a complicated study and I’m sure my views will change slightly as people critique this. Again if you would like to see the entire study in various formats, all for free go to verse by verse bible teaching .com

(Rev 18:8) Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day:

This therefore is here to connect this verse to the previous verse which showed the woman saying “and [I] shall see no sorrow. “

So it’s contrasting her belief that she will not see any sorrow, or her perceived security with her husband the beast, with the actual fact that she will be judged in just one day. This is also why it is said later for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her, it is saying that even though she thinks that no harm can come to her or the beast, God will do it very easily.

one day

The idea that her destruction comes suddenly is a consistent one. We see this explicitly mentioned in various ways, phrases like “One day” or “one hour” are used to describe the suddenness of its judgment. We know from the last bowl judgment that an earthquake will be involved in splitting the city into three parts, so this would seem support the idea of a very quick judgment.

death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire:

These things will all play some role in her destruction as well. I think that the destruction has at least two phases. First, whatever the “10 kings” do, It says in Rev 17:16  that  they will “eat her flesh and burn her with fire”  and second, whatever is done to her via the last bowl judgment with the earthquake and great hail.

Words like Fire and burning as well as ideas like people seeing the smoke of her burning are mentioned several times in relation to Mystery Babylon’s destruction so I feel that fire is the primary agent of destruction, or at least it is the result of the judgment.

(Rev 18:9)  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her

I have already mentioned how this shows that although the kings of the earth commit the same religious fornication with her, it is the “AND lived deliciously” part that is the reason for they are mourning here. We will see the same lamenting coming from the merchants later who also are said to have lived “deliciously” with her.

when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

This phrase is more evidence that the 10 kings or 10 horns which the antichrist uses to burn Mystery Babylon are not necessarily the “kings of the earth” mentioned here. If they are the ones that burned her down, they probably would not be lamenting when they see her burning.

Standing afar off for the fear of her torment

This suggests that the cities destruction is not something people want to get too close to for some reason, It could be as simple as the fact that it is on fire but it could be something more significant we are not told.

saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

The Kings note again the quickness of her destruction, in happens “One hour” they say. Again this is contrasting their previous view of its perceived might and sustainability with its lightning fast destruction. What they thought was strong was in actuality, quite weak. They differ here from the previous similar statement from the voice from heaven in that they do not add to it that “God is strong”, they only are astonished that this event has happened to Mystery Babylon.

(Rev 18:11)  And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:

Ok so here we see the merchants are also upset about this. We are told why they are upset as well, That is that “no man buyeth their merchandise any more”

Now in the next two verses we are going to spend a lot of time on the specific items that these merchants used to sell to the capital city of antichrist.

You should take note that these are not just any merchants.

Revelation 18:15 which we will see later tells us that the merchants are the merchants of “THESE things” that is the particular items that we are about to study in depth. They are not, as so many teach, all the merchants of the world, or symbolically representative of the world economy. I believe the primary reason we are told of the specific items that are sold to Mystery Babylon is so we can be absolutely sure of who she is and what she is doing during the time of her unfaithfulness.

So lets begin our study of these items.

(Rev 18:12)  The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

So this is the first of two verses that contain items sold to Mystery Babylon

Let me first give you the overall picture of what I think we are going to see in these verses.

They are mostly items that are specific to the re-instituting of the sacrificial system and the rebuilding of the temple, as well as various items that are required for the maintenance of the temple system. There are other fascinating items too, for instance take a look at this first phrase.

gold, and silver, and precious stones, 

Now we will see there are many uses for these items in the temple, and we could make all kinds of connections if we wanted to but I think we should be careful to make sure we are looking for an exact match, not just a general one. And I think this phrase does have a very interesting exact match.

These words only appear In the same verse three other times in the bible.

The first instance is in the kind of master list that David gives us of the things needed to build the temple. This is an important verse and we will see a lot of interesting things in it later on, But notice the items are not in the order we have in our verse, that is, “gold, and silver, and precious stones”  They are simply included in the items.

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and the brass for things of brass, the iron for things of iron, and wood for things of wood; onyx stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. – 1Ch 29:2

An that’s pretty significant but lets look at the other two instances of these items in the bible to see if there is a more significant connection.

The next instance of these items is talking about King Hezekiah of Israel’s great wealth. It here mentions he made treasuries of silver, gold, and precious stones.

And Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honour: and he made himself treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all manner of pleasant jewels; – 2Ch 32:27

The phrase here is pretty close, like in the other one but it reverses silver and gold and it’s also talking about treasuries, It could be a match, but I don’t really think so, lets check the third and last instance of these words.

Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. But in his estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things. – Dan 11:37-38

Here we have an exact match with our phrase, and it is in my opinion not a coincidence that it is found not only in a verse that is all about the antichrist, but a verse also about the items that will be used in the antichrists fake religious service, I say fake because in verse 37 it say he will not regard any god, but then it say BUT his estate will honour a god with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, So it seems to me that he says one thing and does another, just like other politicians I suppose.

But the main point is that the first phrase listed for items that will be sold to the city of antichrist, just happen to be the exact same phrase as the items that the antichrist’s estate will offer to a god of forces during his reign. The only two times in the bible the exact phrase is used.

pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet

These items too seem to be a part of a set. If you remember from one of the earlier studies we looked in depth at the “fine linen, purple and scarlet” as one of the most used phrases in the book of Exodus, where it is told how to make the curtains and dividers of the tabernacle, as well as the veil, the priests clothing, and almost anything else made of cloth that was in service of the tabernacle They always used this phrase fine linen purple and scarlet. We also mentioned the notable lack of the word “blue” in this phrase which the bible makes clear is a symbol of their right relationship with him. ( Num 15:38-41 )

We have talked in this study about how in the old testament God speaks of Jerusalem as having dressed her with precious materials in her youth but then it describes how she goes astray after other gods and defiles the way God originally dressed her. I mention this because I think the word silk here in our verse is an interesting clue.

Silk is not mentioned in any of the earlier passages about the types of clothing Mystery Babylon wears; in fact this is the only time the word silk appears in the entire New Testament. And in the Old Testament it’s pretty rare too, appearing only 3 times. Each mention is important, and I think if we look at them it will confirm that we are on the right track with our interpretation.

The first one is from Proverbs 31, this is the famous proverb about a virtuous woman, It’s the great model for women of all ages, it says here that she wears silk.

The last two times it is mentions silk in the bible are in the same chapter, chapter 16 of Ezekiel, a chapter we have looked at many times in the course of our study. It is the picture of the city of Jerusalem from Gods eyes, where he talks about how in her youth he clothed her as a virtuous woman with silk, in this way a picture of the woman of Proverbs 31 .

I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badgers’ skin, and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk.. Eze 16:10

Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. – Eze 16:13

Now, a few verses later we see that she commits adultery, although notice that she retains her original clothing and simply uses it to help her attract men which symbolically represent false gods we are told later.

And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. – Eze 16:14-15

Later we see her using these garments that were given to her to further her worship of false gods on high places.

This mention of silk here, I believe completes the garments of Mystery Babylon which are both symbolic garments that show that she is the one that was decked by God Himself in her youth in other words Jerusalem, but also using the very same language to point back to 23 mentions in the book of Exodus of these specific items that have to do with the the service of the temple.

As a side note, I noticed while doing a word search that the only times these phrases like “fine linen, purple and scarlet” appear in the same verse is the 23 times in Exodus referring to the items in the temple and the priests clothing. The other two times are interestingly in the book of Revelation talking about Mystery Babylon. I don’t think that is a coincidence.

thyine wood

This one is extremely interesting. This word Thyine is not found anywhere else in the bible, The wood itself is known to be a very expensive and rare wood used in the ancient word for building things like ornate furniture, doors of temples, musical instruments and idols.

As I said this exact word only appears here in the bible, but some like The Encyclopædia of Biblical literature, Volume 1

connect this wood to Algum wood, or sometimes called Almug wood which is found in the Old Testament a few times, although still very rarely.

All five instances of this word algum or almug trees in the Old testament are referring to the exact same instance. That is when Solomon was building the 1^st temple in Jerusalem, and how he had the merchants bring all kinds of materials and wealth to Jerusalem. We will look in depth at this time toward the end of our study. But for now let’s notice the use of this particular wood.

And the servants also of Huram, and the servants of Solomon, which brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones. And the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the LORD, and to the king’s palace, and harps and psalteries for singers: and there were none such seen before in the land of Judah. – 2Ch 9:10-11

In 1Kings we see basically the exact same thing, but there it calls this wood “Almug” although it is clear its talking about the exact same thing as Kings and Chronicles often do.

So this wood is used for pillars of the temple, and for musical instruments we are told. And then we are told that it was so rare and precious that it was not seen in Israel since, So we know that it was imported.

If you only noticed one thing about this I would hope that it would be that the only time we see this wood used in the bible is in the context of it being imported to Jerusalem by merchants for use in the building of the temple, yes the king used the remainder for himself but its clear that the temple was its primary use.

vessels of ivory

Ivory is also a rare term in the Old Testament, but just like Thyine wood it shows up at this time of great wealth and building during Solomon’s reign.

Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with the best gold…. For the king had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram: once in three years came the navy of Tharshish, bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks. So king Solomon exceeded all the kings of the earth for riches and for wisdom. – 1Ki 10:18-23

So again we see one of the few references to ivory in the old testament is talking about it being imported to Jerusalem by merchants, here merchants of Tharshish to service the king in his overabundant wealth, here it talks about a great throne being constructed out of Ivory.

There is another reference to King Ahab of Israel building an entire palace of Ivory during his reign, this is probably where we get the idea kings living in Ivory towers. But I think the connection to the merchants and Ivory and the buildup of Jerusalem and the throne of Ivory are all important clues, again we will look a little closer at this time of Solomon’s kingdom later on.

all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

I am going to take this phrase as a unit .

The only other time in scripture that these words appear in the same verse is 1Ch 29:2 , This is where King David who was prevented by God from building a temple himself, but nevertheless was allowed to gather materials for his son Solomon to build it after he died, lists the items he has acquired for Solomon to build the temple. As I read it notice that it is almost an exact match of the entire verse of Revelation 18:12, but we are reading it here to show that precious wood, brass, iron, and marble are all specifically mentioned.

Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for [things to be made] of gold, and the silver for [things] of silver, and the brass for [things] of brass, the iron for [things] of iron, and wood for [things] of wood; onyx stones, and [stones] to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance. – 1Ch 29:2

It should be noted again that this is an extremely rare collection of words, and it should be significant when we find only one other verse in scripture that contains all of them, and it’s all about the temple service. I could see if this happened once or twice, but as we will see it continually occurs.

(Rev 18:13)  And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. 

Here is the next list of items that the merchants sell to Mystery Babylon, the capital city of Antichrist in the end times.

And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense

These first four items should be taken as a set. I believe each word was carefully chosen to make sure we were pointed back to the same chapter in the Old Testament, Exodus chapter 30.

Exodus chapter 30 is where we find instructions regarding temple service, and this is also where we find two specific recipes, one for the incense to be offered on the alter of incense and another recipe for holy anointing oil which was to consecrate priests and kings.

One interesting thing is that after each of these recipes are given we have this warning about making anything like it.

Annointing oil

Whoever compounds any like it or whoever puts any of it on an outsider shall be cut off from his people.- Exo 30:33

Incense/perfume

Whoever makes any like it to use as perfume shall be cut off from his people.- Exo 30:38

So this should show us that these items are exclusively to be used in the service of the temple and its various duties.

Let’s look a little closer at the words in our passage and then at the recipes in Exodus 30.

And cinnamon

Cinnamon is another rare word. This is the only time it is used in the New Testament in fact. And it is used only 3 times in the Old Testament.

Once in Exodus 30 as part of the recipe for the sacred anointing oil. There Is also a mention of cinnamon in Proverbs 7 as the adulterous woman who spices her bed while trying to seduce a man.

And in Song of Solomon where Solomon compares a woman to expensive spices including cinnamon

If this was the only connection that this list in Revelation 18 had to Exodus 30 (that is that cinnamon is a rare word in the bible and is a key ingredient in the holy anointing oil) I might consider this to be a coincidence, but as I mentioned I think the words in Revelation 18 were carefully chosen so that we would make this connection to Exodus 30 as I think you will shortly see.

and odours

This word odors appears 6 times in the new testament. 4 of those times in the book of Revelation. Each time it is referring specifically to incense on the alter of incense, the specific incense used in worshiping God in the temple.

In Exodus 30, the chapter I believe we are being pointed to this word appears more times than any other chapter, it appear there 7 times.

Ointments

This word is used in the New Testament in a more general way to refer to the compounds of great value used as perfumes and anointing, sometimes they could be as costly as a year’s wages or more. This comes up in the New Testament several times.

However in the Old Testament this takes on a much more specific usage, in fact the corresponding Hebrew word according to the Septuagint is only used 3 times in the Old Testament. If you guessed that Exodus 30 was one of those times you would be right.

In the following passage it is translated as the word compound.

And thou shalt make it an oil of holy ointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil. And thou shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony, And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick and his vessels, and the altar of incense, And the altar of burnt offering with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot. And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. And thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office. – Exo 30:25-30

Remember this was a compound that was specifically forbidden to use in any other way than the service of the temple.

Frankincense

The next word frankincense is only used twice in the NT, in this verse, and in Matthew when its referring to the gifts brought to Jesus by the Magi.

In the Old Testament, the first time this word appears is…. you guessed it Exodus 30 as a part of the recipe for the holy incense for temple service.

It is also used as a part of the sacrificial offerings, and I believe it serves as a kind of bridge to the next set of items.

wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep

These items I am sure are meant to go together as a set as they are the exact things needed for the daily offerings at the temple.

Everything we need to know here is found not in Exodus 30, but in the chapter before it, Exodus 29, I would say that this is probably even part of the Exodus 30 passages considering that the chapter breaks are a recent addition.

In Exodus 29 we find the following instructions for the daily offering, Compare Revelation 18:13 to this verse.

And with the one lamb a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of an hin of beaten oil; and the fourth part of an hin of wine for a drink offering. – Exo 29:40

So we see that lambs flour, oil, and wine, are all mentioned here! Again the same pattern the only time in scripture that these words appear in the same verse is in Revelation 18:13 and Exodus 29:40

This is quite simply a list the components of the daily offerings.

It should not be missed that this daily offering is an exceedingly important aspect of the end time scenario, as it is when the daily offering ceases (by the antichrists sitting in the temple and declaring himself to be God) that the 3.5 year countdown begins. Daniel says this about it:

And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. – Dan 12:11

So we know that the daily sacrifice will be instituted again in the time of the antichrist.

But there is something missing.

Wheat and beasts are mentioned as well. In Revelation 18:13 it contrasts wheat with flour so there is probably a distinction between them and it contrasts sheep with the general term for beasts as well.

Back in Exodus 29 we find why this distinction is used.

And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest’s office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish, And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them. Exo 29:1-2

The first verses of this chapter, which is about the daily offerings, start with the necessary preparation in order to make these daily offerings. They had to first consecrate the priests and the alter,  one bullock and two rams  or beasts were needed as well as wheat flour, this is the only time wheat is mentioned in conjunction with sacrifice in this chapter.

So wheat and beasts are added to the list in Revelation 18:13  as an indispensable part of the preparation for daily offerings. So this set of items (wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep) represents a shopping list for everything you will need if you plan on making daily offerings in the temple.

horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

This last phrase I think begins a new class of items sold to Mystery Babylon by the merchants.

Horses

This is an interesting one too, I think before we can fully understand its significance we need to take a little detour and look at the life of King Solomon during the time of his building the temple.

In 1Kings 10 it tells of Solomon’s rule, widely considered to be the most prosperous time in Israel’s history, you will hear that silver was considered nothing in those days, because there was so much gold . But there is an interesting parallel between everything we have seen so far and this time in Solomon’s life.

We will see that it is a time where all the world is in service to Solomon, but it doesn’t seem end well for him personally in fact the next chapter after this says the following of him:

For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. – 1Ki 11:4-5

It then talks about how he starts to build houses for these gods and it utterly devoted to them, we are not told whether Solomon repented of this or not. I think he probably did, but I have no biblical support for that.

But the interesting section that I want to show you is just before these verses about him following other gods. We will start with a verse that I think represents a marker, to show when things started to go wrong for Solomon, It says:

The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,- 1Ki 10:14

Now, 666 is a pretty interesting number, this is the only other time in the bible it occurs besides the passage in the book of Revelation. Im not claiming that this has any real significance as to the mark of the beast, or is a clue or anything, I only think it’s interesting that if you read between this verse and the verses about him going after other gods you have as section of scripture  that I think is one of the most overlooked types (or prophetic foreshadows) of the antichrist, and the time when he will reign in Jerusalem and when these merchants will grow rich of the opulence of the capital city of antichrist.

The weight of gold that came to Solomon yearly was six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold, besides that from the traveling merchants, from the income of traders, from all the kings of Arabia, and from the governors of the country. And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; six hundred shekels of gold went into each shield. He also made three hundred shields of hammered gold; three minas of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.  Moreover the king made a great throne of ivory, and overlaid it with pure gold. … nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom. All King Solomon’s drinking vessels were gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. Not one was silver, for this was accounted as nothing in the days of Solomon.  For the king had merchant ships at sea with the fleet of Hiram. Once every three years the merchant ships came bringing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys. So King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. Now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart. Each man brought his present: articles of silver and gold, garments, armor, spices, horses, and mules, at a set rate year by year. And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen; he had one thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar trees as abundant as the sycamores which are in the lowland. Also Solomon had horses imported from Egypt and Keveh; the king’s merchants bought them in Keveh at the current price. Now a chariot that was imported from Egypt cost six hundred shekels of silver, and a horse one hundred and fifty; and thus, through their agents, they exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria. – 1Ki 10:14-29

If you look carefully at those verses you can see a lot of parallels, but of note to us right now is horses. In that list it was obvious that Solomon was multiplying horses, but did you know that this act was in direct violation of the Law that God had set for kings, which we find in Deut 17:16

But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the LORD hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.  – Deu 17:16

We also notice the chariots mentioned here, he had so many that he had chariot cities. One interesting note about the chariots back in our verse Revelation 18:13

Is that the word for chariots there is extremely rare, In fact there is no other time in the Old Testament or New Testament that this is used. No references in the LXX or anywhere else. There are plenty of mentions of chariots in the bible of course,  but none of them are like this word. I will read you the definition from a standard lexicon.

G4480

ῥέδα

rheda

hred’-ah

Of Latin origin; a rheda, that is, four wheeled carriage (wagon for riding): – chariot.

That’s right, this kind of chariot has four wheels, I don’t have much to say about that except that I find the bible fascinating.

slaves, and souls of men.

This last section I think may be unnecessarily confusing especially this last part “souls of men”

This same phrase is used in the Old Testament to refer to slaves, not surprisingly we find it in a passage about merchants. It says:

Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they were thy merchants: they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. – Eze 27:13

The word “persons” there is the Hebrew word nephesh which is translated souls 475 times in the Old Testament, but it is used in a variety of ways which you can see from this lexicon entry. I think that here in the Old Testament is the correct way to understand the idea of souls of men, that is in terms of slaves, Im sure the translators of Revelation simply rendered the word nephesh  in its literal sense, that is “souls of men” even though it clearly has a much broader use in scripture.

But wait, if that is true that causes a bit of a conflict in Revelation 18:13.

Because we already have a word translated as “slaves”, So am I saying that this verse should read they were selling “slaves and slaves?”

Let’s look at the first word they have rendered as slaves.

This word is soma in the Greek it is used 146 times in the New Testament, and it never means slaves other than this one time, the other 145 times it is rendered as bodies, either dead bodies or alive bodies, its basically used the exact same way we use the word “body” in English.

So I think that this verse could have better been translated as “bodies and slaves.”

I am not exactly sure how this will manifest during the antichrists reign, Im sure I could have dug up more interesting connections here, but at the very least if we just take it at its face value and when you consider that The antichrist will preside over the biggest genocide in history, you can start to make some guesses as to how this slavery could play out, To give an example of how much people will agree with this genocide remember Jesus’ words in the Olivet discourse:

Now the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the father the son; and children shall rise up against their parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. – Mar 13:12

So with such disregard for human life among the world at this time I don’t know why we should expect them to care if these people that they clearly hate and think they are doing the world a favor by killing were used even as slaves.

(Rev 18:14)  And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

All the delicious living that was described as being a part of the city of Mystery Babylon will cease when Judgment comes to it.

(Rev 18:15)  The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

The merchants of these things,

We have already mentioned that this seems to refute the idea that these merchants are a general term for the world economy or “Economic Babylon” as is often said by those that would seek to spiritualize the above passages.

Revelation commentary notes:

1. The merchants…mourning = echoes the situation of the kings above. Their reaction is the same as the kings.

2. Woe, woe, the great city = indicates that the lament of the merchants is the same as the kings.

(Rev 18:16)  And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

And saying, Alas, alas:

This is what the merchants will say when they watch her burn from afar off.

clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

This is the same description given of the harlot in Revelation 17:4

They note again her clothing. It is fitting that the merchants refer to her by the items that they sold to her.

 (Rev 18:1)  And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And after these things:

“After these things” basically refers to the events of the previous chapter, chapter 17, where we see John’s vision and its interpretation by the angel. And this phrase “After these things” signals a new vision unit.

Chapter 17 declared the “judgment of the mystery Babylon.” And the objects of God’s judgment were also described (the woman and the beast she rides).

Chapter 18 will have somewhat similar themes, but it will spend a lot of extra time on the wealth of the city at the time of the antichrist’s rule.

I saw another angel come down from heaven:

So the angel that will be speaking at this point is not the same one that gave the interpretation of John’s vision in the previous chapter. The previous angel was one of the seven that poured out the last seven bowl judgments (17:1).

This angel is different in many ways. One notable way is that unlike the previous angel it does not speak to John directly but John basically overhears the declaration that the angel says and records it. The angel seems unconcerned or unaware that John is even present. This could either be a type of drama put on for John’s benefit, or perhaps John is overseeing actual events that will take place in the spiritual realm at the time of the harlot cities Judgment.

having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory.

This angel is described with some provocative language. It says it has great power. We are not told how John knows this, perhaps it is evident from its appearance or some other quality.

It is tempting to say this is a picture of Christ because of the idea of its glory lighting the earth but it is not necessary, as the idea of an angel having illuminating glory or dosa is mentioned in (Ezek 9:3 and Heb 9:5). In both cases a cherub is described. Cherubs spend their time in the throne room of God and so one theory could be that they are shining with the glory just like Moses face shone when he spent time on mount Sinai in the very near presence of God  (Exo 34:29). So this could simply be a particularly high ranking angel or a cherub.

A point that strengthens this view is that in verse 4 we hear a separate voice from heaven saying “come out of her my people” which seems to be the voice of Christ (see verse 4 notes), which would mean that this angel is probably not Christ but a high ranking angel.

(Rev 18:2)  And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

An interesting note is that the last verse of the previous chapter (17: 18) was where the first angel concluded its interpretation of John’s vision by declaring that the woman was an actual city. And in Chapter 18 it now begins to refer to Mystery Babylon in this sense with a geographical location. Here it talks of it being a habitation of devils, later it will speak of merchants bringing goods to it.

While it continues to use the symbolic imagery of the harlot woman to describe Mystery Babylon (18:7) It much more frequently talks of Mystery Babylon as if the reader by now understands that it is a physical city on earth, just as the angel said it was.

And he cried mightily with a strong voice

The second angel is said to have a strong voice or “megas  phone” in the Greek.  Earlier in Revelation chapter 5 another angel is described by John with this same phrase  “magas phone” when he is having a vision of the throne room of God:

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? – Rev 5:1-2

Because this angel is apparently in such close proximity to the throne, and it is described with the same strong voice it lends a measure of credibility of the earlier interpretation that the angel of Revelation 18 is a cherub or at least of the same quality and rank as the angel in our current verse.

saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen:

The angel seems to be hearkening back to the familiar phrase used in the various prophecies of the old city of Babylon’s destruction:

And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground. – Isa 21:9

John F. Walvoord, a well-known theologian and author notes:

“The repetition of the verb “is fallen,” found in the aorist tense, indicates a sudden event viewed as completed, though the context would indicate a future event. “

It seems what’s happening with this phrase is that the destruction of Mystery Babylon is indicated here as being imminent, that is it hasn’t happened at this point, but it is now on its way or imminent. The context of the rest of this chapter supports this conclusion as Walvoord also noted.

and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

This is an interesting verse.  Here John makes it clear by the use of the terms “devils”, and “foul spirits” that this city is home to multiple demonic entities, the idea of” hateful bird” is also an indication of demonic beings.  Actual birds are not hateful even if they are birds of prey or scavengers, in addition birds are used in other places to refer to demonic beings, or at least the work of Satan: (Mark 4:3-4,13-15)

But a very interesting parallel to the devils and birds lodging in a city can be seen in the passages referring to Babylon’s destruction in the Old Testament.

And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the fortresses thereof: and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a court for owls. – Isa 34:13

When we read on we find more interesting points:

The wild beasts of the desert shall also meet with the wild beasts of the island, and the satyr shall cry to his fellow; the screech owl also shall rest there, and find for herself a place of rest. There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.  - Isa 34:14-15

I think that there are two possibilities here; This could be referring to the utter desolation that the city will be reduced to after its destruction. That is, it will only be inhabitable by beasts and birds. But I think that because of the explicit language that John uses here about demonic beings, that this may refer to the gathering of demons that would take place if Satan, through the antichrist, makes a particular city his capital city of the end times. It would be a kind of gathering place or abode of these beings.

Revelationcommentary.org says on this idea:

“The Harlot City is the home or lair of the demons….These are issues, which contribute to the wickedness of this harlot/city. Everything that the city stood for has been perverted. Evil in its worst form makes its home in God’s holy city. She is a harlot destined to destruction.”

(Rev 18:3)  For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

For all nations:

This is referring to the fact that the whole world is enticed into worshipping the antichrist.

We see references to the “all nations” phrase in relation to the antichrist in several places:

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.  - Rev 13:3

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.  - Rev 13:8

And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:  - Rev 13:16

have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication:

We described this verse in an earlier study and the interesting phrase “the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

Other translations perhaps render the sense of it better for instance the ESV says:

“For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her [fornication]…”

The idea is that she is herself so deceived by the antichrist that she passionately promotes him and worships him as her messiah, her long awaited king and husband. So intense is her own fornication that the entire world is somehow drawn in to be deceived by his seductive power as well.

As a side note while doing a word search on the phrase “kings of the earth” for this verse I found an excellent proof text for Jerusalem being Mystery Babylon. It does not necessarily apply to this verse, but I wanted to include it in this study so I’ll show it to you here.

The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof. The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem. For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her. – Lam 4:11-13

Also, I want to say that there is so much more that I am not covering in this study, I find new passages and proof texts every time I endeavor to look. So please don’t consider this study as exhaustive, the real work in finding all the clues will be up to you, I am only trying to get you started in your search with this study there is much more to this than I will be able to detail here.

Ok, back to our verse, The phrase “kings of the earth,” Here it seems to almost be saying the same thing as the first part of this verse, that is that all the nations drink of her fornication, and it seems to be restating this, as scripture will do from time to time, when it says the kings of the earth commit fornication. In other words, not just the people of the earth, but the rulers of those people as well will be engaged in this fornication.

Some other passages in scripture seem to suggest that these kings have more of a financial interest in the fornication than a purely religious interest as seems to be the case with the people, The kings seem to have similar motives as the merchants in relation to the Mystery Babylon city. For instance later on it says of these kings:

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning – Rev 18:9

The phrase “lived deliciously with her” seems to suggest that the kings have similar motives as the merchants who are mentioned next, in relation to the city of antichrist, that is a financial interest, as there will apparently be a lot of revenue to be made out of all the people of the world being forced to pay tribute to the antichrist.

I think it would be wrong to conclude that the kings of the earth mentioned here are exact matches to the 10 kings that are used to destroy the city, and to war against the decent of Christ at Armageddon. Although there may be some of the same kings involved, I think the intention here in verse 3 is more broad, and suggestive of the rulers of all the world, not just 10 specific ones used for a specific purpose, as is the case with the 10 kings mentioned in chapter 17.

and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.

These merchants are going to be discussed at great length toward the end of this chapter, and I am going to spend quite a lot of time discussing them. So I will not spend all that much time here but to simply say that the merchants of the earth will prosper during the celebration over the antichrist as if he is the messiah.

We will see later when examining some of the items that they sell to the great city, that there will be great building projects like elaborate temples, sacrifices, and all manner of tribute given to antichrist. Every man woman and child must in some way honor the antichrist and this is going to cause an economic boom to say the very least.

The section about the merchants, and especially the items they bring is probably my favorite sections so I encourage you to stay tuned to subsequent studies when these verses will be covered in detail. I think you will see there will be a lot of surprises, and interesting references in the old testament that will raise a few eyebrows.

(Rev 18:4)  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

Another voice from heaven:

This is probably the voice of Jesus Christ because this voice has people that belong to it. All believers have been given to Christ by God as His inheritance. Joh_6:37, Joh_6:39-40, Joh_10:27-28; Heb_2:13

In addition, in the next verse this voice from heaven refers to “God” when it says “God hath remembered her iniquities. “, which gives me confidence that this voice must be that of Jesus Christ. Another clue is that this is “another voice” I.E. not the powerful angel who shines, which we saw earlier. We can therefore also be confident of the interpretation that that previous angel (the one that shines with a loud voice) is not Jesus Christ but rather some high ranking angel.

saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.:

The plagues that Mystery Babylon is about to be given are that of its destruction, a destruction that this chapter says will happen very quickly (18:10,17,19).

The idea that His people need to come out of the city in order not to receive its judgments, I believe is a direct reference to the Mount of Olives being split, just before the judgment of Jerusalem which allows the faithful to flee the city before the final bowl of wrath is poured out (which destroys the city of Mystery Babylon.)

We see a picture of this coming out of her in Zechariah 14:

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. – Zec 14:4 -5

We can compare this verse with its fulfillment in Revelation 16:

And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great. Rev 16:17 -21

So the people that He is calling out here probably never were participating in the sin of Mystery Babylon, as is sometimes implied when people use this phrase “come out of her my people” His people are simply being called to get out of the city because it is about to be judged for its sins, sins they probably had no part in.

(Rev 18:5)  For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities

I have a somewhat interesting view of this idea of the fullness of sins, or the idea that sins reach to heaven. I think that a very biblical idea is that some nations have a kind of allotment or threshold of evil, particularly that of spilled blood, before they are judged by God.

For instance in Genesis God tells Abraham that he wont give him his inheritance of the land of Israel yet because the current inhabitants the Amorite’s sin was “not yet full:”

But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. – Gen 15:16

We see a similar idea in Daniel when it says that the real reason that the four kingdoms which developed after Greece died out is because they had reached their sin allotments:

Dan 8:23  And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

Scholars are almost universally in agreement that this allotment or fullness of sins for nations is what Jesus was talking about when he said the following to the men of Jerusalem:

Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. – Mat 23:31-35

It should also be remembered that the persecution that the antichrist ordered at the midpoint of the 7 year period will be the worst persecution of all time (Mat 24:15-22.) But in addition to this, we see that the actual killing of old testament prophets for Jerusalem is not over yet either, we see at least one more future instance of this occurring with the two witnesses.

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. – Rev 11:8

It s quite possible that this event brings Jerusalem very near to its fullness of sins allotted by God, as it occurs on the very last day of the seventieth week of Daniel just 30 days before the destruction of Jerusalem.

God hath remembered her iniquities

This should also be seen as God’s long-suffering with people and nations, He does not desire for any to perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). for We see that even with Nineveh God accepted its repentance, even though he said the same thing of it “their wickedness is come up before me.“  But just like Jerusalem God sent prophets to warn them, He gave them chance after change and was long-suffering, God is blameless when judgment must come to people or nations.

(Rev 18:6)  Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Reward her even as she rewarded you:

Jesus (the voice from heaven) here is talking to his people here, saying that Mystery Babylon will be judged according to what it has done to his people.

and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

The idea of a double portion of judgment is a very consistent idea in the Old Testament (Isa_40:2, Isa_61:7; Jer_16:18, Jer_17:18; Zec_9:12), often in reference to Jerusalem.

Of note is Jeremiah 16:18 because in context this is speaking of a future double judgment, one that happens after they will be gathered back into the land after the diaspora:

And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things. – Jer 16:18

(Rev 18:7)  How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.

How much she hath glorified herself and lived deliciously, :

She is exalting herself here. Revelationcommentary.org points out that Luke 14:11a  says: “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased..”

The Greek word rendered here deliciously is only used twice in the NT, here and a few verses later to describe the kings of the earth lifestyle as a result of their fornication with the beast and his capital city.

At this time Jerusalem will be exalted as the city above all others, it will be the epicenter of the worship of the antichrist and all that is associated with it. There will be nothing to compare this time with in history, however this will no doubt pale in comparison to the real thing, that is Christ’s actual rule from the temple in Zion which the antichrist is here is obviously trying to immitate.

for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen,

This verse has come up many times in our study because it’s a great picture of the fact that Mystery Babylon herself is just as deceived by the antichrist as those she entices to worship him. She says her place on top of the beast is as a queen, That is she believes she has found her king, her long awaited messiah, in fact in Jewish eschatology the title of the man they await is “the anointed king.“

and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow. 

These two ideas that she is no widow and shall see no sorrow is possibly a reference to her confidence in the beast and his ability to defend her.

It should be noted that after the antichrist raises from the dead people say of him:

and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? – Rev 13:4b

The attitude that Jerusalem takes during this time is exactly the same as Babylon before its destruction. As we see in

Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: – Isa 47:8

This is just one of the many reasons that Jerusalem is called Mystery Babylon.

See the bottom of this post for notes and appendixes.

Rev 17:12  And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

Let’s first back and read up to this point so we can refresh our memories, and get the context for our current passage.

The angel in the section we studied last time had been giving the interpretation john’s vision of the beast that the the woman is riding, We know from Revelation 13 as well as other verses in this chapter that the beast she is riding is the antichrist.

This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.  - Rev 17:9-11

We talked about the description of the antichrist here which has seven heads; John says that the seven heads are seven kings. In the last study we talked about why it’s more likely that John means what he says here, that is that these heads are different kings and not kingdoms as some suppose.

So we talked about how 5 times this spirit of antichrist had manifested itself in the form of a king in John’s past, one king currently was living at the time, and one future manifestation of the antichrist was yet to come, this is the one that we believe will have the mortal wound and yet live.

Speaking of that idea of a resurrection of the antichrist, many people asked me about that last time, Does Satan have the power to raise people from the dead?, I do not believe that he does, but I do think the antichrist is really raised from the deas. For more on this question I will put together an appendix audio on this question very question and you can find it in the notes, there is also a scholarly article on this point called:

Can Satan Raise The Dead? Toward A Biblical View Of The Beast’s Wound by Gregory H. Harris, a Professor of Bible Exposition that I recommend if you are interested, I agree with its overall premise but would probably disagree on some of the finer points.

So in our verse we see the beast has seven heads, but also 10 horns, we are not told exactly how theses horns are distributed on the seven heads or if they are even on the seven heads at all. We don’t know if 6 of the heads have 1 horn and the seventh has 4 horns or if they have some other arrangement.

I think when we consider the following passages we will find that these 10 horns have a job working with the final head, so if I were to make a guess these horns are either all on one head, the seventh one, or not on the heads at all but some other part of the body.

I also say that because the fourth beast of Daniel 7 7-8 also has ten horns, that beast is widely considered to be associated with the antichrist.

So let’s consider this symbolism so we can get our bearings in this difficult passage.  The seven heads of the beast are seven kings. And now we are told that the horns of this beast are also kings. So what is this talking about.  Lets read ahead so we can get the context and find the relationship of these kings to the antichrist according to the angel, this will help us make an informed decision about this.

And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.  - Rev 17:12-17

So it seems what we have here is one super king, a supreme dictator, which is the final yet future head of the antichrist beast, that has 10 other kings under his total authority. So part of the point of this symbol of the horns on the beast is speaking of a consolidation of power of some kind. The purpose for this consolidation is very interesting and we will talk about that when we get to those verses. But the symbolism here of the 10 horns on the beast is one main ruler ruling over other rulers Which willingly give their authority to the dictator, who then uses them to do his bidding.

But before we move on I would like to briefly talk about the book of Daniel. I take a slightly different view on the beasts of Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. I think that all four of the beasts in Daniel 7 may be contemporary with the antichrist. I think that if this is true there is much more detail that we can know about the end times scenario than has previously been considered.

I am still trying to figure this out for myself, and so I will leave it for your study. But I will direct you to a 4 part paper called Daniel 2 and Daniel 7: Equal or Not Equal by Charles Cooper former professor of Hermeneutics at Moody.

which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.

First please notice that this is making a distinction between kings and kingdoms here quite boldly, it says: “ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet” This is a strong rebuke to those that continually try to make the references to kings in these chapters mean kingdoms because of their various presuppositions. John here demonstrates that if he or the angel who he is recording wants to say kingdoms instead of kings they are quite willing and capable of doing so.

These kings are directly tied to the beast, it says that they only rule for “one hour with the beast” We will talk in more detail about their kingdoms and how they give away their power to the beast as we look at the next verses where we get more detail about this.

We will take the next two verses together:

These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. – Rev 17:13-14

So we see one of the reasons these kings are given power, that is to war against the the Lamb, who is of course Jesus Christ, this battle is referring to Armageddon. This may help explain the idea of them ruling for only one hour. By the battle of Armageddon things are looking pretty grim for the antichrist, this would be the final attempt at preventing the return of Christ to take His throne.

To understand as much as we can about these kings we need to hop over to Revelation 16 when it is talking about the 6^th bowl of wrath being poured out, the sixth bowl is talking about the battle of Armageddon. This is where we will see more about these ten kings and their warring with the Lamb.

And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.  Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon. – Rev 16:12-16

So these kings are gathered together by miracle working demonic spirits, sent forth in this bizarre ritual of the unholy trinity of the dragon the beast and false prophet, and these demonic spirits are presumably what causes them to agree to the suicide mission of trying to war against the Living Christ. Which in case your wondering does not turn out to good for them.

and shall give their power and strength

I’m not entirely sure that these kings ever do get kingdoms or not, but they have some kind of assets that are utilized by the beast. And it says here that they give their power and strength to the beast for this mission of warring against the lamb.

Revelationcommentary.org notes

The title “Lord of lords and King of kings” is applied to the Lamb here and the rider on the white horse in Revelation 19:16.

Revelation 19 is another picture of this battle or Armageddon.

And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. – Rev 19:15-16

So we see here a clear reference to Armageddon again, and as we compare the different scriptures about these kings and the final battle they are drawn to fight, My hope is that we are getting  a better understanding of who theses kings  are.

Let’s go down a rabbit trail for a minute because You may be asking the question  “How is Armageddon referenced all these times, in all these different places, like Revelation 16, 17, and 19 if the book of Revelation is chronological?” Well let me assure you not everyone sees the book Revelation as chronological, but I think its because they don’t see the simple structure of this great book.

It helped me tremendously to see the structure of the last few chapters of revelation, so Ill take a moment to explain it with this graph I made.

The seven bowls are detailed in chapter 16. These include the worst parts of Gods judgment in the book of Revelation and I believe they occur relatively quickly, and close together.

The 6th bowl details the battle of Armageddon, this is where we saw the spirits like frogs which gather the kings to the battle of Armageddon.

And the 7^th bowl details the judgment of the whore of Babylon.

The next few chapters are what I like to call “zoom chapters”, where the step by step chronology is halted in order to give more specific details about someone or something. In the case of the next two chapters 17-18 it gives the finer details of the 7^th bowl which is where Mystery Babylon is destroyed.

The next chapter, chapter 19, mostly details the 6^th bowl in finer detail, this is where we just read where it says “on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS”

When Revelation 19 is done “zooming in” on the finer details of the 6^th bowl or Armageddon, it picks right back up in Revelation 20 where the in timeline left off in Revelation 16.

Then in Revelation 20 we see the antichrist and false prophet judged, right where you would expect it to be if it was a continuation from Revelation 16, then the completion of the first resurrection happens,  the 1000 years of peace or millennium begins, Then it continues and describes the time after the 1000 year period when Satan is released to gather the nations for one final battle, the Gog Magog war, and finally we see the very last event in the chronology of all prophetic revelation, the New Jerusalem and the eternal kingdom descends.

I hope this gives you a better understanding of the chapters we are studying, I think you will find it is easier to understand this book when you plug in the concept of zoom chapters to the book of Revelation.

Ok back in our study the next verse is Revelation 17:15, It says:

And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.  - Rev 17:15 

The waters which thou sawest,

The angel here is giving the interpretation of the waters that he saw the whore on.

[the waters] are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

This idea of sitting on peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues is a way to say that the city of Mystery Babylon rules over many, and has great power and authority. This is consistent with the later descriptions of her actions in the next chapter and her relationship to the other kings of the earth and other nations.

The same language is used when Jeremiah talks about the destruction of actual Babylon in Jeremiah 51:13

O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness.  - Jer 51:13

You will see many similar things like this in Jeremiah 51.

I think this is why Mystery Babylon is called Mystery Babylon because she shares not only the city of Babylon’s former power over nations, but also shares her worship of false gods as well as ultimately Babylon’s pattern of Judgment detailed in Jeremiah 51.

We have of course been detailing in our study the possibility of the eschatological city of Jerusalem being Mystery Babylon, the city that rules many nations in the time of the antichrist.

It should be noted that Jews and Christians both believe that Jerusalem will be the capital city of the world in the messianic age,

The book of Zechariah is just one of many places in the Bible where this promise is made:

“Then shall the Lord go forth … and His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east … and it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.” (Zech. 12:3, 4, 16, 17)

You will find glimpses of Jerusalem’s future as world capital are sprinkled all though the psalms and the major and minor prophets. Jewish people have been waiting for thousands of years for someone to make Jerusalem the world capital just as their scriptures promise that it will be.

I think that our verse Revelation 17:15 and others like it show that the antichrist will succeed in doing this to an extent as he masquerades as their messiah. He will make Jerusalem the uncontested world capital. If you understand this, the entire next chapter about the people making pilgrimages and bringing tribute to Mystery Babylon as if it was the city of the messianic age and as if the antichrist was the messiah then it will make a lot more sense to you.

People will try to use this verse about her sitting on waters which are nations, to say that the 7 headed beast that she sits on represents kingdoms not kings.

They would say that this verse defines the beast itself as opposed to the waters that both the woman and the beast sit on. To say it another way they are saying that the waters here are the beast as opposed to what the beast along with the woman atop him are sitting on. They would say well it says she sits on waters and sit says she sits on a beast so the beast and the waters must be the same.

But I think this is wrong for two reasons, One its more logical to assume that she is sitting on a seven headed beast and both of them are sitting on the waters (that is ruling over the peoples nations etc. )In other words the city of Jerusalem (the woman) and the beast she rides (The antichrist) are both sitting (ruling) many peoples and nations.

Not only is this consistent with what we just looked at about the 10 horn kings, who give their authority to the beast, but it also connects to the Revelation 13: where we see that the seven headed ten horned antichrist beast comes out of the sea, ( a consistent idiom for peoples and nations) He is not the sea itself in Revelation 13, in fact that chapter makes it very clear in my opinion that he is in fact a human king.

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

This a very interesting development, The ten kings who we saw earlier are subordinate to the antichrist and are used to go to war against God, are also used here to destroy the city of Mystery  Babylon. So the antichrist here turns on the woman. We will see later that although the kings who do this are under the complete control of the antichrist, It is God ultimately that causes this to happen for the purpose of His Judgment.

Interestingly this verse is the fulfillment of a detailed prophecy in the old testament book of Ezekiel about the Jerusalem. Let’s take a look:

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,  - Eze 16:1-2

You can see from verse 1 and 2 that this prophecy is about Jerusalem, the context in this chapter also make that clear as well, It says:

And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare.  ”They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers – Eze 16:38-41

This is exactly fulfilled in our verse back in Revelation 17:15.

Here God says he will give Jerusalem into their hand. So even though the agent of destruction  has evil intent , God will use them to carry out His righteous judgment on Jerusalem. You can see the same language being used here as in our verse, they strip her naked and burn her with fire. All because of her “playing the whore” with false gods.

It should be noted that these earthly kings only constitute a small portion of her destructions, she is also judged by earthquakes and fire from heaven as well as whatever these kings do. I would also submit that the ultimate Judgment of Mystery Babylon and the Battle of Armageddon take place at the same time, or very close to one another. I also think they will happen at the same place, I.E. Jerusalem.

For more on this possibility see a paper called: “ A Big Problem: Where is Har Magedon?  An Examination of Revelation 16:16 “ But for now, all you need to know is that although the antichrist turns on the city of Mystery Babylon and uses his lackey kings to plunder her, it is by no means the only judgment she receives according to the 7^th bowl judgment and parallel passages.

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.  - Rev 17:17 

For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will

This shows the sovereignty of God in all this. That God is the ultimate force behind this judgment, whether these kings know it or not, is made even more clear in the next chapter which says:

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. = Rev 18:8

And to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

Again this hearkens back to the fact that these 10 kings give their power and authority to the beast. Here it says that they collectively have a kingdom, not plural kingdoms. This is interesting and may indicate that the ten kings are representatives of one collective kingdom, this may also explain why they didn’t have a kingdom “yet” in verse 12, and why they were only said to give power and authority in verse 13.

And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. – Rev 17:18  

Here we have a very important verse to study in the process of trying to figure out who Mystery Babylon is.

Here we are told point blank by the angel that this woman is a city. The views that try to make her something else, such as an allegorical source of spiritual and economic evil are disregarding the faithfulness of the angels interpretation of John’s vision.

All through scripture when interpretations of a vision are given they are pretty straightforward. It is unlikely therefore that the angel would tell john that they were going to interpret his vision and then give him an interpretation that he was not supposed to accept. It would also be inconsistent with the angels other interpretations in this chapter also.

The angel gets specific, it says it is “that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. “

Now we know from the passages we read today that Mystery Babylon will sit over many nations and peoples and tongues and will be the city that the antichrist rules from. But I think the problem that many commentators have here is they try to look around their current days and find that which rules over the earth in their day.

This tendency to look to our surroundings for fulfillment of this passage as opposed to the future has causes a lot of bad interpretations here.

Considering the antichrist is supposed to set up a world government that most of us would agree is in the future, why would we feel the need to have the passages about his world government capital city fulfilled in the past. The temptation has been too great to resist for most commentators in my library.

Great city

I am under the impression that the bible would not like us to speculate on this point, and one of the many ways it gives us the answer to this question is by the use of this term “great city”

The phrase “great city” is used 10 times in the book of Revelation, and every time it refers to the city of Jerusalem. Many people would violently disagree with me on that because they don’t see Mystery Babylon (which is called the great city) as Jerusalem.

Lets set aside for the time the instances of the phrase “ great city” used to refer to Mystery Babylon and only talk about references to the great city where it is absolutely undisputed that it is talking about Jerusalem, for example:

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. – Rev 11:8

Obviously the city where our Lord was crucified is Jerusalem, no one would deny that.

Some commentators concede this point begrudgingly knowing the problem it creates.

I would also call your attention to the definite article “ho” in the Greek here as in THE great city, this ensures we know that Jerusalem is considered by John to have a title of the great city.

The fact that John uses this phrase “great city” which he uses earlier to define the Jerusalem during the time of the two witnesses after they were killed by antichrist is very strong evidence in favor of the interpretation that Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem.

But these “great city” references show that Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem in another way as well.

Revelation 16:19 distinguishes the “great city” from the cities of the nations.

Revelation commentary.org states:

[This] is the second proof that “the great city” refers to Jerusalem. “The cities of the nations” (Gentiles) is in contrast to “the great city (Jews).“

So understand this part, the word gentiles and nations are almost interchangeable there are two types cites in the world if you want to look at it from a Jewish perspective. Jerusalem and the gentile cities, in this verse Mystery Babylon is contrasts with the cites of the nations, which suggests that it is not a gentile nation.

Some scholars that recognize the significance of Revelation 16:19 and will try to make the reference to Babylon here be a third entity in the discussion. The word “and” here in then KJV seems to lend credibility to this third party interpretation.

In other words they say that the great city which they would concede is Jerusalem is split into three parts, and the cities of the nations also fell, AND Babylon was mentioned third party.

Most would say that only two parties are in view here The great city divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations, the following mention of Great Babylon is in reference to the Great City mentioned just before.

Other translations agree, especially the newer ones they connect the great city in the first part to great Babylon.

(NET)  The⁶⁰ great city was split into three parts and the cities of the nations⁶¹ collapsed.⁶² So⁶³ Babylon the great was remembered before God, and was given the cup⁶⁴ filled with the wine made of God’s furious wrath.⁶⁵

63 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).

Another new bible set to be completed later this year says

(ISV-v2.0)  The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered to give Babylon the Great the cup of wine filled with the fury of his wrath.

The net bible renders this So Babylon, the ISV renders it, God remembered to give Babylon, that is to say that it did not introduce a new character here but gave more information about the first character mentioned.

I know that was the long way around, but the simple version is that the last verse of Revelation 17 calls Mystery Babylon the great city, a term that is used to very directly identify the Jerusalem of the Antichrist by the same author in the same book using a definite article to indicate a title or at least a very definite identification with the phrase.

Notes and appendixes:

Appendix audio about the resurrection of antichrist:
http://versebyversebibleteaching.com/wp-content/uploads/resurrection_of_antichrist.mp3

A Big Problem: Where is Har Magedon? An Examination of Revelation 16:16
http://www.prewrathrapture.com/A%20Big%20Problem%20-%20Where%20is%20Har%20Magedon.pdf

Can Satan Raise the Dead?Toward a Biblical View of the Beast’s Wound
http://www.tms.edu/tmsj/tmsj18b.pdf

Mystery Babylon Study – Part 4 – Answers to Critical Questions from Chris White on Vimeo.

In part four of this study I wanted to take a break from the verse by verse format and discuss some of the common objections to the interpretation of Mystery Babylon being the eschatological city of Jerusalem, in other words, the Jerusalem that embraces the Antichrist in the end times.

I was planning on waiting until I got to the relevant verses to discuss the usual objections that come up, but some of these points don’t come up until very late in chapter 18, and I wanted to address these issues before that, and in a comprehensive manner.

Part of my goal here is to prevent anyone from not continuing in this verse by verse study because they think that I haven’t considered the best arguments against this theory .

The arguments I will be covering are as follows:

1. How can Mystery Babylon be the eschatological city of Jerusalem if it is said to be “found no more” in Rev 18:21 , and we know that Jerusalem is a big part of the millennial reign and the eternal kingdom.
2. When speaking of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem Ezekiel 5:9 states: “And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again” Does this mean that Jerusalem will not be judged again?
3. Is there a future judgment of Jerusalem in scripture?
4. Is this anti-Semitic somehow?, How does this effect out views toward Israel if any.

One of the best arguments against the theory is rooted in the following verse:

And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. – Rev 18:21

The argument is that Jerusalem can’t be Mystery Babylon because it says that it shall be found “no more at all” and we know that Jerusalem is in the millennial reign. We also see the so called “New Jerusalem” in the eternal kingdom. This is a very good argument, and it requires a very good answer.  How can I say on one hand Jerusalem will be destroyed and be found no more and on the other hand say that it will be around forever.

The answer I believe lies in the last 8 chapters of the book of Ezekiel. There you will find one of the most intricate detailed building plans for the Israel of the millennium. It contains chapters and chapters of technical details regarding how Israel will be divided, about the new temple complex, and about Jerusalem and its surrounding areas.

To say it is different than what we currently know is a bit of an understatement.

There are those that have taken all the technical specifications of things like the division of the land in the millennial reign and plotted it all on a map. The twelve tribes of Israel are given parallel rectangular allotments of land, one on top of the other, from the north border of Israel to the south, and each tribe’s allotment extends the entire east / west border of  Israel. It really helps to see this all on a map to visualize what I’m saying.

In the middle of these allotments of land is a rectangular portion that Ezekiel calls the “Holy Portion.” The priests and Levites that service the temple, equally divide this land, there is some debate as to where exactly the temple is in this section, some say it is in the middle of this land others say that it is just north of the city, but it doesn’t appear to actually be in the city itself which is very different in and of itself.

The city Jerusalem is also very different in the millennium, including most likely its physical location, which we will talk about in more detail later. For starters it is perfectly square; it is about 9 times larger than the old city of Jerusalem is today. It has twelve gates, 3 on each side, it sits on a high plateau , it has a two rivers that flow from it, the one on its east side flows to the dead sea, the one to its west flows all the way to the Mediterranean sea.  It is a different place, in fact, the last words in the book of Ezekiel are used to give this Jerusalem a different name It says:

It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.  - Eze 48:35

This is sometimes transliterated YHWH Shammah which means the Lord is there.

The Temple regardless of where it resides is absolutely huge, and is a study in and of itself that you may find very fascinating, Including things like “No wall of partition to exclude Gentiles., and no veil in the holy of holies”  I found it interesting that the Temple Institute, that is the Jewish people in Israel that are seeking to rebuild the temple said the following of this structure on their website templeinstitute.org:

“Many aspects of the Temple described by Ezekiel are difficult to comprehend, since that vision contains elements of prophetic insight which, in our generation, we do not have the spiritual or intellectual capacity to understand. For example, according to the prophecy of Ezekiel, the structure of the Third Temple will necessitate vast topographical changes in the environs of the Jerusalem. This Temple will differ drastically in size from its predecessors. According to Ezekiel’s measurements, the new Temple will be so large that it will occupy the entire area of the city of Jerusalem. Ezekiel’s prophecy explains that both the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives will be enlarged and expanded in the future”

The city of Jerusalem’s actual location in the millennium is a matter of some debate. You should know that the people that I am about to site have no theological reason for saying that the location of the Jerusalem in the Millennial period is in a different location that the present city of Jerusalem, They do not as far as I know consider Mystery Babylon to be the eschatological city of Jerusalem,  they are simply trying to map out some of the details that Ezekiel gives in these 8 chapters.

The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia gives two options based on the text, both of them south of Jerusalem, One of them at Bethlehem, the other is a little further north, but still south of Jerusalem, at modern day Ramat Rahel. Another researcher puts forward a good case for the millennial Jerusalem or Yawheh Shammah being located Shiloh.

Even if Yahweh Shammah, the new city sat right on top of the old Jerusalem, We must at least conclude that it is 9 times larger than the current city, so it obviously does not contain the same physical landmarks and boundaries as the previous Jerusalem. And we know from various places in the bible that it will sit on a large raised platform, a long plateau which makes it visible from a very long way off. I have also already mentioned that two rivers flow from it on either side,  so we know that its geographically not the same either. So we start to get the idea that God will willingly call this city Jerusalem regardless of it having the same borders, or geography, or physical location.

Take for example the New Jerusalem of the eternal kingdom, It is called Jerusalem as well despite it being a whopping 1500 miles long.

Some, such as Amillinialists try to make The New Jerusalem of the eternal kingdom ( that is the time period after the millennial reign) equal with Ezekiel’s Jerusalem, based on the fact that they both have twelve gates named for the twelve tribes, and a few other issues.

The differences however are far greater than the similarities, for example, consider the size: The New Jerusalem is about 1500 miles wide, which would encompass most of the countries in the Mid East. This is compared to a Ezekiel’s 9 mile square city, and the current 1 mile old city.

Some other notable differences are that the New Jerusalem Comes down from heaven (21:2) While Ezekiel’s Jerusalem  is Located in Israel on Earth  (40:2) There is no temple in the New Jerusalem, it says God and the Lamb are its Temple (21:22) While the temple in the book of Ezekiel is huge, and is located north of the city (40:2) There is no sin; nothing impure will ever enter the New Jerusalem (21:27) While daily sin offerings are made in the Temple in Ezekiel’s  version (45:13-15,17) There is no more death in the New Jerusalem (21:4)While there is still death in the book of  Ezekiel (44:25 also Isa 65:20) There are no natural beings in the New Jerusalem, only the perfected (21:27) and there are natural beings in Ezekiel. (46:16)

I mention all this to be able to say the following. God has no problem calling the New Jerusalem “Jerusalem” even though it clearly isn’t tied to the exact place that the current Jerusalem is, and the same is true with the city called Yahweh Shammah It can be the Millennial Jerusalem even though the old location has been apparently destroyed.

In fact I think that the judgment of the old city of Jerusalem described in the following passages actually creates the topographical changes such as the plateau, and the river that will through the land.

And there were voices, and thunders, and lightning’s; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. – Rev 16:18-19

As an interesting side note: This verse actually contrasts the so called “Great City” (Mystery Babylon) with the “cities of the nations”, this is a way to designate “The Great City” as non-gentile city.

An example of this distinction in scripture is found here:

Thus saith the Lord GOD; This is Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. – Eze 5:5

I also find this quote from Jeremiah about the destruction of Jerusalem from the Babylonians provocative considering this title of “great city”,

And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this great city? Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them. – Jer 22:8-9

We will also see in our next study how this tern “The Great City” referring to Mystery Babylon is used by John to unambiguously describe sinful Jerusalem in another place in the book of Revelation.

I would also make the case that the reason the Lord splits the Mount of Olives, despite much confusion on this issue, is to make an escape route out of the old city of Jerusalem for the faithful remnant of Jews that are alive after the time of Jacobs Trouble. Consider in context, this passage in the Book of Zechariah.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.  - Zec 14:4-5

Why is the Lord getting the faithful to flee from Jerusalem with such  extravagant measures in this moment of triumph? It is because of the earthquake that is about to split the city in three parts described in Revelation 16.

Essentially the old city of Jerusalem will be judged for its taking for itself the king known as antichrist among other things, it will be found no more, but a much more glorious city of Jerusalem with a different size, location, and topography will continue, at least until the point of the eternal kingdom when once again a different kind of Jerusalem will overshadow the former.

The next biblical objection to this theory is found in Ezekiel 5 verse 9, where it says:

And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. – Eze 5:9

In context this prophecy was about Babylonian conquest of Jerusalem. People will say: “How can Jerusalem be judged again if God said that he would never do the like again to Jerusalem?”

First of all, God does not say that He will never judge Israel or Jerusalem ever again, He says he will never do it again like he has done with the Babylonians.

A similar promise can be seen in the book of Genesis

And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. – Gen 9:11

God in these passages does not say he won’t judge them at all anymore, only that He won’t judge them in that way again. In fact there are explicit promises to judge both Jerusalem and the world again, as we will see later on, albeit not by means of a flood.

The second point that I would like to make is that this passage in Eze 5:9 is difficult for all commentators regardless of their theological  positions, because the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, and the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians were actually very similar events in the way that they were destroyed.

• They both were besieged by their enemies which created terrible conditions of famine and disease inside the city before the enemies ever got in.
• In both cases those that didn’t die from disease or famine died from the sword, just as prophesized in Ezekiel 5:12
• And in both cases a remnant that was not killed was scattered, creating a diaspora just as prophesized in Ezekiel 5:9

It is such a close fit that this issue has become synonymous with the idea of a double fulfillment of prophecy. In fact if you look up dual fulfillment on Wikipedia you will see that this is one of the three examples that are given for dual prophecies in the bible, I would submit there are many more, but I wanted to point out that these destructions are very similar.

This similarity gives bible scholars a difficult time in light of the passage in question Eze 5:9, but ironically it poses no problem to the theory that Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem, In fact, I would submit that the destruction of Jerusalem  that I am talking about, the one described in the Mystery Babylon passages, is the only destruction that can be said to be 180 degrees different from the previous destructions of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 597 BC and Titus in 70 AD.

For instance four times in Revelation 18 it mentions the destruction of Mystery Babylon occurs in “one day” or “one hour” Rev 18:8, 18:10, 18:17, Rev 18:19, This is in sharp contrast to the previous long and drawn out sieges of Jerusalem.

This destruction of Mystery Babylon is accomplished by a combination of

1.  The biggest earthquake of all time
2.  Great hail from heaven Rev 16:21
3. The kings of the earth, who burn her with fire, in fact fire in various forms is mentioned another 3 times.

And while fire is also mentioned as part of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, and in a lesser way during 70 AD destruction the fires in those cases were set after the conquest was over, and no mention of death by fire was recorded, this in contrast to the text mentioning four times fires as the primary agent of destruction of Mystery Babylon.  In addition Ezekiel makes it clear that the method God used for the previous destructions were sword, famine and, pestilence, and there can be no doubt that that is where the destruction came from in the previous cases.

This “one day” or “one hour” destruction of Mystery Babylon, and its close proximity to the millennium in Revelation 18 also has no room for the scattering to the winds of the remnant Jews as was the case in 597 BC and 70 AD, which is also an expressly stated as part of the judgment of the previous destructions Eze 5:10, So the future judgment of Jerusalem will be nothing like the previous destructions of Jerusalem and I see no conflict with Ezekiel 5:9 and the future judgment of Jerusalem whatsoever.

Before I start on the next objection I would like to appeal to those of you who have read the Old Testament extensively and remind you that all throughout Israel’s biblical history they have desired a king that would look the part, and basically give them what they wanted, that is the conquering Messiah that would deliver them from their current enemies. A good looking “Son of David” King who would fulfill the prophecies of putting Jerusalem in the top spot of the cites of the earth. Now of course this will actually happen in the millennial reign, Jerusalem will be the city that rules the nations of the earth, we know this for the same reason that the Jews are expecting this, because the scriptures like Ezekiel say it will happen.

But we must understand that one of the main reasons that many Jewish leaders rejected Jesus at the time was because He didn’t seem to be fulfilling that conquering part of the Messianic prophecies at His first coming but prophecies of the suffering Messiah of Isa 53  which we are so thankful for.

In fact even his disciples didn’t quite get this at the time. They seemed to think that at some point he would start conquering the enemies of Israel and establish Jerusalem as the world capital. Even after he raised from the dead , and just before he ascended into heaven it says in Acts 1: 6-7:

When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. – Act 1:6-7

What I am saying is that Satan knows all this too, He knows that they are waiting on a messiah king that makes Jerusalem the capital city of the world in fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. The reason why we see the antichrist being so tied to Jerusalem in the last days is because He plans on making use of this thirst for a conquering messiah king who will make them the center of all the worlds religion and economy. And he will in fact seem to deliver on this promise, for a time.

The next argument against this theory is a more general one, It is a kind of belief that Jerusalem is not going to be judged anymore, and that Jerusalem is a kind of city that will forever be free from judgment since the Jews are back in the land.

But there are many passages that speak of a future eschatological judgment of Israel, that contains elements that are beyond the scope of any previous judgment.

When a prophecy fits this description, it almost always speaks of it in the same way, using similar vocabulary and themes. It speaks of a fiery trial, a purification of Israel that immediately precedes their ultimate redemption and their final atonement for past sins, this final reconciliation for sins is typified in the completion of the 70 weeks of Daniel.

A good example of this fiery judgment, just before reconciliation is found in Isa 4, just before passages which are widely considered to be talking of the millennial reign. The Millenial period seems to have the prerequisite of purifying judgment by fire for the Jews.

When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning. And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain. – Isa 4:4-6

We see similar language in the post exilic prophets, the reason why their being post Babylonian exile is important is that one can not say that the following were prophecies of Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem.

For example a post exilic prophecy that wasn’t fulfilled completely by 70AD is found in Zechariah 13 8-9

In the whole land,” declares the LORD “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will put into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people, and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’” – Zechariah 13 8-9

This fiery refining just before their redemption is the time spoken of as the time of Jacob’s trouble which begins with the eschatological Day of the Lord and ends with the end of the 70^th week. It is often missed that the one who troubles Jacob in this time, is God himself even though He may do this through various agents. He will refine one third of national Israel during this time of judgment, This one third of national Israel will come to know Jesus as messiah possibly through the ministry of the two witnesses, but either way they will help to populate the millennial kingdom that we saw earlier in the charts.

So yes, Israel will be judged for its sins, particularly their embracing of the antichrist. They are not going to be exempt, and the teaching that they are, is simply not biblical, or logical.

Finally, some people wonder if the interpretation that the eschatological city of Jerusalem is Mystery Babylon is in some way anti-Semitic. Or they will wonder exactly how we should view modern day Israel and Jerusalem in light of this information.

The short answer is no, this is not anti-Semitic. Reading about Israel’s falling short in the OT is not an anti-Semitic activity and neither is this. But more to the point, this is not a theory about current Jerusalem but a future one that we have not seen yet. And when it comes their future sin of worshiping and promoting the antichrist, it is really no different than the rest of the world’s sin which do the exact same thing. Their future sin is compounded by their fierce promotion of the antichrist as messiah and their having known the True God previously. But this embracing of the antichrist is not unique to them. It is a sin that the entire unsaved world will share in.

As far as how we should view Israel in light of this information, I think anyone that knows me or my previous work knows that I tend to default or err in support of Israel. But that does not mean that I think they can do no wrong or are on the right side of every political issue. I think we are instructed to pray for them, and preach to them and love them.

I recognize there Is all kinds of hate toward Israel in the unsaved world, I personally have a theory that the primary reason for this is that Satan believes that if he can eliminate a certain amount of Jewish people he can prevent Christ from returning to take His throne because the Jews petitioning their messiah is one of the last things he can try to stop to prevent Christ’s return.

That is why certain efforts have been made at genocide by governments that have been particularly given over to demonic powers such as Hitler, Satan is just being strategic in his attempt to protect his power, This attempt to prevent Christ taking his throne culminates ultimately in Revelation 19 with Satan literally trying to prevent the decent of Christ with some type of weaponry presumably.

I hope that this has been helpful in clearing up some of the objections you may have had stay tuned as next week we get right back to the verse by verse study of Mystery Babylon.

Mystery Babylon Study – Part 3 – Rev 17:7-11 from Chris White on Vimeo.

And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. Rev 17:7 

And the angel said unto me

The angel is going to tell John what it is he has been seeing so far. There are many examples in scripture of a prophet seeing a vision that they did not fully understand until an angel interprets the vision for them. We find examples of this in Daniel, Zechariah and several times in the book of Revelation.

I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.

It is so important to keep in mind that there are two distinct characters in this vision, the woman known as Mystery Babylon and the seven headed, ten horned beast that she rides.

Mystery Babylon which the angel will later say is a city, is riding the seven headed ten horned beast, which is the antichrist, this seven headed, ten horned beast will later turn on her and kill her. Rev 17:12-16. I emphasize that these two are distinct because some folks, when studying the passages we will be talking about today forget this distinction, and failing to see that can cause and incorrect understanding of this prophecy.

Moving on to verse 8:

The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. – Rev 17:8 

So the angel begins to talk to John about the seven headed 10 horned beast that it mentioned in the previous verse.

Let’s also go back to the beginning of this particular vision in Rev 17, so we can see the full description John gives to this seven headed ten horned beast:

…scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. – Rev 17:3b

Here we also pick up the additional information that this seven headed ten horned beast was also scarlet and was “full of names of blasphemy”

This is the same description given to the beast four chapters earlier in Revelation chapter 13, which is about the antichrist. The beast in that chapter also has seven heads, ten horns, and has “names of blasphemy”

This is not coincidental, nor is it the only time in our verse, Revelation 17:8, that there is an explicit reference to Revelation 13 (about the antichrist beast.)

In fact, I intend to show that almost no new information is given by the angel in this verse, The new information from the angel about this beast will come after this verse, but verse 8 here almost serves as a very long re-introduction to the antichrist beast of Revelation 13 using titles and descriptions of him already clearly established.

Take for example the part of this verse that says that those that “dwell on the earth”, or the earth dwellers, which is kind of a technical term for those that are unsaved, as it clarifies here by adding that “their names are not written in the book of life,” These earth dwellers will worship the beast that was and is not and yet is.

This was not new information to John in Revelation 17 because he wrote the exact same description of the beast in Revelation 13 using identical language. For example:

And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. – Rev 13:8

The Angel back in our verse is calling to remembrance the beast that John has already seen with these exact phrases and descriptions. We will see that even the little things like the earth dwellers “wondering“ in 17: 8, is also a reference to them “wondering” at the beast in chapter 13.

Was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:

This phrase gives people a great deal of difficulty, and so we will spend a bit of time on it:

I intend to show that this idea of “was, and is not, and coming out of the bottomless pit” is a title referring to the antichrist’s having been miraculously healed or resurrected from the dead.

The last phrase in this verse; “The beast that was, and is not, and yet is” being another way to say the exact same thing. That is he lives, he dies, and he seems to rise again, and will ultimately go to destruction or perdition. It’s sort of a chronology of his entire career on earth and it functions as a title on several occasions in the book of Revelation. Before I begin to explain the details of this we need to refresh our memories to the significance that the bible puts on the seeming resurrection of the antichrist from the dead.

Let’s review Revelation 13 which is primarily about the antichrist, to make sure we understand this preliminary idea.

In the relatively short chapter of Revelation 13 it mentions three times the fatal wound of the antichrist beast that was healed. The first instance being in verse 3:

And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? – Rev 13:3-4

It seems to imply here that the world’s worship of the beast is directly connected to his deadly wound being healed. It says that they wondered after him saying who can make war with him?. This is the exact same word used in or current verse “wondered” and it is in the exact same context, that is wonder from the earth dwellers, associated with worship, and resurrection from the dead.

This is one of the first descriptions of the antichrist we are given in Revelation, right after the symbolic imagery of verse 1 and 2, this is the first thing that we are told about the beast, that he has a deadly wound that is healed The bible, as we will see, considers this event very important, if not preeminent.

By the second reference of this event in verse 12, the idea of a healed deadly wound has become a title or identifying description of the beast. Here it distinguishes between the first beast from the second by adding the clarification: “whose deadly wound was healed. “

And he [false prophet] exerciseth all the power of the first beast [antichrist] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.  – Rev 13:12

And here in the third reference in 13:14 we see that the healed deadly wound is used again as a title or distinguishing characteristic of the antichrist beast. Here it says:

And [the false prophet] deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.  - Rev 13:14

So here we see again this idea of a resurrection being used as a type of title and to distinguish which beast is in view.

So this phrase “was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit” is basically just another way of saying the same thing, It is an identifier as to which beast we are talking about, it is the one that was (lived), is not (died), and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit (come back from the dead)

Arthur Pink, an early English bible scholar who wrote extensively on the antichrist agrees, he said the following:

A further reference to the resurrection of the Antichrist, his coming forth from the Bottomless Pit, is found in Rev. 17:8… It is to be noted that the earth-dwellers wonder when they behold the Beast that was (alive), and is not (now alive), and yet is (raised again). The world will then be presented with the spectacle of a man raised from the dead. – Pink

Pink as well as many other people associate the phrase “coming out of the bottomless pit” in Revelation 17:8 with the apparent resurrection of the antichrist in Revelation 13. We will see explicit biblical proof of this interpretation at the end of today’s study.

The bible uses this word abyss which is here translated as “Bottomless pit.” In many different ways. It is prison for spirits in Mark 5, it is almost synonymous with the abode of the dead in the OT.

This word abyss is also the same word that the Apostle Paul uses to describe where Jesus went during at least part of the three days in which he was dead before he resurrected:

For context I’ll start at verse 6:

But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? [Abyss] that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. – Rom 10:6-7

So this same word for bottomless pit or abyss is also the place where Christ came out of when he resurrected:

We find more detail on this event in Acts 2:27-32 where Peter starts off by quoting from the Old Testament when he says:

Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell [hades], neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.  Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne; He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell [hades], neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. – Act 2:27-32

Now this is interesting because here the word hades was mentioned as the place where Jesus soul went when he died, when Paul says that it was the Abyss. But we can see that contextually they are both talking about the place where Jesus’s soul went during his death.

My point is not to do an exhaustive study on this subject but only to show you that Jesus went to the abyss at some point during his death.  He may have also went to other locations in hades such as paradise and even Tatarus. There are more references to this event in which I will leave for you to study further:  Eph. 4:8-10, 1Pe 3:18-20, 2 Pet. 2:4-5, Matthew 12:38-45, Luke 23:43 My only point is that coming up from the abyss can be shown from scripture to mean resurrection from the dead.

So these phrases are used like a title referring to the antichrist’s apparent resurrection from the dead. It is as if it is a chronology of his career, and a title all at the same time; He is the beast that lives, dies, resurrects, and ultimately meets his doom in perdition or the lake of fire in revelation 19:20.

So I would suggest that the following phrases all are referring to not only the same person (the antichrist), but the same identifying event in that person’s life, (his apparent resurrection.)

• The beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
• The beast was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:
• The first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
• The beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live
• The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit

I should briefly mention before I get in to this next point, that I am not dogmatic about it and if you disagree with me it wont matter in the big picture of our study of these great chapters. But it is my conviction that the antichrist is not being referred to in another passage in Revelation 9 during the fifth trumpet, Even though the bottomless pit is mentioned there as well.

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. – Rev 9:11

First it should be noted that this angel is nowhere said to be itself from the bottomless pit, or having come out of the bottomless pit, It simply ruling over, and directing the beings that do come out of it and making sure that they do what they are suppose to.

In fact Revelationcommentary.org notes:

“ The angel of the abyss  is identified as king over the horrible locust-like-creatures. The exact identity of this angel is not certain. The particular grammatical construction (Genitive of subordination) here indicates that this angel is over the bottomless pit. It does not say that the angel is from the bottomless pit.”

There are many reasons that I don’t see these two figures: the angel named Abaddon, and the beast we know as antichrist being the same.

A few reasons would be that this passage in Rev 9 would constitute the only time in scripture that the antichrist is referred to as an angel, and not a man.  It would also be the only verse in scripture that connects the antichrist with things like the fifth trumpet, or ruling over a 5 month physical torment of only wicked people, or his name being destroyer. it seems much more likely that this passage should simply be taken at face value.

The fifth trumpet here, about the locusts being let out to torment those who do not have the seal of God for 5 months seems to be no different than the other trumpet and bowl judgments, in the sense that they have mostly Godly angels oversee the destruction of the wicked.

I see no reason that this should be taken out the of context of the simplicity and limited nature of the fifth trumpet. All that happened in the fifth trumpet is the destroying angel (this is what Abaddon and  Apollyon mean) oversees the entities that torment the earth an event that lasts for five months and five months alone, that’s it. There is no other mention of this angel as having any further purpose in the end-times scenario.

It may very well be that the entities that are let out of the abyss are demonic spirits but the angel who rules over them, makes sure that they only target the ungodly, and only for 5 months.

The function of this angel is like the destroying angel of exodus in the sense that the godly are passed over to kill the ungodly, and almost  no one disagrees that in exodus it was an angel of God, if not God himself designated as the destroyer and angel .

Or consider 1 Chronicles 21: 15 where we see an unambiguous case of a godly angel designated as a destroying angel this is where David had sinned in the taking of the census issue.

And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. ..- 1Ch 21:15-16

So back in Revelation 17:8 the angel is about to explain some very interesting details to John about the seven headed beast that John saw, but this entire verse is basically preliminary, it is simply the restating of the characteristics of the beast of Revelation 13 as to clarify that the beast he saw is the same one he saw in a previous vision.

But before we get to new information about the beast, there is one more aspect of this verse that must be covered.

There are a lot of interpretations that even though they might understand that these phrases like “the beast that was and is not and yet, is” is referring to the antichrist’s resurrection. They will say that the tense of these verses make it necessary for the antichrist to have lived before the time of John.

They will say that since John wrote in the late 1^st century, the past tense of the word “was” in the first part of the phrase I.E. “the beast that was” means that the beast that will come to live in the future as antichrist, must have lived sometime before the time of John. Common candidates proposed in this scenario are Judas or Nimrod, again they are saying that the beast that is yet to come must have been dead already when john was writing. This I believe can lead to any number of wrong conclusions about the identity of the antichrist.

They fail to see that John consistently uses these phrases like “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is,“ as a title for the beast of his visions, visions in which he sees all the way to the end of knowable time in some cases. Yet he never ceases to refer to everything he sees as having happened in the past. For instance even the New Jerusalem’s decent in Revelation 21, which is almost universally considered to be a future event, must have already descended in the first century, if this was the correct way to view the text because John said “And I John saw [past tense] the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down “. But more to this specific point about the phrases like ”was and is not and yet is,” if you applied it consistently to the other titles that refer to the antichrist resurrection, the theory that the beast must have already existed like Judas or Nimrod would quickly break down.

• The beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
• The beast was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:
• The first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
• The beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live
• The beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit

So,  if we applied this 1^st century tense idea to these other passages we must also conclude that the antichrist not only has lived and died by the time of John, but that his wound had to have already been healed in the 1^st century as well, as it is also referred to in the past tense by John.

This would of course not be agreed upon by those making this claim, as they would not say that this pre-John character has risen from the dead yet, they would only that he would have already died before john’s time.

The answer here is to realize that phrases like “the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”  or “The beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live” or “The first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.   have the same function as being a way to refer to the antichrist, and the event that comes to define not just his life but the entire end times course of events, and the tense being used is the exact tense you would expect from someone who was trying to refer back to an event he saw in a vision that consisted of future events) we will again see proof of this in our last verse today.

We are finally ready to move on to the next verse. I’m going to take verses 9 and 10 together because as we will see, they are kind of a package deal.

So this is when the angel begins to tell us more about the seven headed, ten horned beast

Here is the mind which hath wisdom. 

I still haven’t figured out this phrase, or why it is here. It says the same thing earlier when it is talking about the mark of the beast:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. – Rev 13:18

I think it may have something to do with how the next idea should be viewed, but again I am not sure, I bet the answer is somewhere in the Old Testament, but I don’t know. So let’s will move to the next idea in this verse.

The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings

Now we come to one of the most misunderstood passages in this chapter. You know how I said I have found 90 plus characteristics of Mystery Babylon so far, well most commentators seem to think there is only one, and that is that the city of Mystery Babylon sits on seven hills, which they derive from their interpretation of this verse. Often they will say that this city on seven hills is Rome, which is famous for its seven hills, but it doesn’t stop those who think Mystery Babylon is Mecca or even Jerusalem from claiming that their city also sits on seven hills. The only problem is that this is not what this verse is talking about at all.

There are many ways to show this is true, grammatically, contextually, logically, and by comparing scripture with other scripture.

Let’s start with the grammar.

The key is in this phrase “ And there are seven kings:”  this is how it reads in the KJV which I have been doing this study in. Other versions render this with a very important distinction. They say that the seven heads of the beast are seven mountains and the angel further defines these mountains as being seven kings.

Such as the ESV which says:

(ESV)  they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he

You can see the difference. The King James gives us the idea that the angel begins to talk about a totally separate thing when it talks about the kings, where the ESV defines the seven mountains as seven kings and then begins to give further info about these kings which we will look at later…Well…which one is right?

You should know that this difference in translation is not an issue with the Greek texts, like the Textus Receptus or the Wescott and Hort. The Greek texts say the exact same thing here, so it’s not one of those issues. This is simply a matter of translator error.

There is near universal agreement among bible translators that the grammar here is saying that the seven mountains are in fact seven kings. Here we see this is the way it is translated in almost every major English Bible.

Grammatically a major reason for this that the word εἰσιν [eisin] here translated as “there are” is the 3rd-person plural of ειμι [eimi], meaning I am, which should be rendered, they are.

When describing the ten horns a few verses later, a similar phrase occurs [deka basileis eisin] There, the KJV and NKJV translate the phrase correctly, without substituting there for they as is done in verse 10.

I am not a Greek scholar, and I would not want anyone to believe me based on my explaining this to you grammatically, so let’s move to showing that the angel is telling us that the seven heads are seven kings by the context of the passage and by comparing scripture with other scripture.

I want to start by reiterating that all the other times in this chapter, chapter 17, that the seven headed beast with ten horns is mentioned. It seems to go out of its way to use phrases that are used back in Revelation 13,

And we saw that the beast in our chapter Rev 17 has many of the same characteristics as the one we looked at in Revelation 13, they both had seven heads, ten horns, they both had names of blasphemy on their heads, they both were referred to by their having been killed yet living, they both have the earth dwellers wonder at them when they see their apparent resurrection, they both have people whose names were not written in the book of life worship them. I know this seems almost obvious, but you should know that the view that the seven mountains are seven hills of a city prevents people from seeing this most basic point.

Our passage goes on to say that one of these heads, which are kings is the same “was and is not” king talked about in Revelation 13 which gets the mortal wound, so Lets flip back to Revelation 13:3 and check it out:

One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. – Rev 13:3

So you see here that one of the beast’s seven heads is referred to as having a mortal wound. This is an exact match with our verse if you are willing to admit that Revelation 17:9 has nothing to do with physical hills in Rome or Mecca or anywhere else. I mean do you really think that one of the hills in Rome is going to be mortally wounded, and then come back to life, and everyone marvels at one of these hills, and begins to worship a hill.

Five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come:

This will explain how this seven headed beast and its heads work, the question I always had was this: If the seven headed, ten horned beast was supposed to be the antichrist, how come only one of the heads of this antichrist seem to be in view?

The bible un-apologetically disregards the other 6 heads of this beast as basically unimportant, and really only tells us about one of these heads, and somehow both the entire beast and this one specific head are called the antichrist.

Well this verse will explain that issue.

Five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come: So five of these kings have fallen. “Fallen” among other things, is a biblical term for having died (Exodus 32:28, I Samuel 4:10, 2 Samuel 1:19 , 1 Chronicles 5:10) One is, (presumably currently living in John’s day) and one is yet to come.

The beast is the spirit of antichrist has manifested itself in the form of particularly antichrist-like kings throughout history.  In  1 john 2:18 John says:

Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour. -1Jn 2:18

These 5 fallen antichrist kings, I believe can be determined using no other tool than the bible:

These would be kings that are biblically obvious types of the antichrist, For example:

Pharaoh during the time of the exodus, or people like Nebuchadnezzar who built an image of himself and forced everyone to worship it or be killed, could be a candidate. Or Nimrod, the first world government leader. Or Antiochus Epiphanies who Daniel spent so much time describing, is  clearly a type of antichrist, with his setting himself in the temple and declaring himself to be god.

I am not going to attempt to give you a perfect list of these kings, but I will say that  I think they can be determined using the bible alone.

Some people would say that these heads are not physical kings at all but rather kingdoms. They do this by adding a step to the angel’s interpretation of the seven heads of the beast. The angel says the seven heads are seven mountains which are 7 kings, but they will add a step to this, they will say the seven kings are seven kingdoms.  They rationalize this by pointing out that in the book of Daniel kings and kingdoms are pretty much interchangeable terms. Often before they will take you to this verse in Revelation 17, they will have you agree to the condition that kings means kingdoms, If you agree, then they will have you flip to Revelation 17 and say “well then, we know that these kings are not kings, but actually seven kingdoms.”

This I believe is not a good way to interpret the bible.

Especially because John is a different writer than Daniel, and he uses the word kings a few times to refer to an obvious individual king, and in Rev 10:11 he even seems to contrast the kings with kingdoms or nations:

And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings. Rev 10:11

 But I think the obvious thing is that the antichrist in Daniel, Matthew 24 and parallel passages,  2 Thessalonians,  and Revelation is always referred to as a man, he does things that only a man can do, he sits in a temple in Jerusalem and declares himself to be god, he is called a man on several occasions, it says he won’t regard the god of his fathers, I could go on, but my point is that it takes twice as much work to make the antichrist be a kingdom than it does a king. Unfortunately there are entire systems of theology that rely on this kings = kingdoms issue, so you will have people go to great lengths to interpret the bible in allegorical ways to make this kings mean kingdoms.

I would say that the antichrist will be a part of and control specific kingdoms which is important to the book of Daniel and Revelation, but the fact that there is a man that moves and rules those kingdoms is attested to over and over again in scripture.

One is:

I will not speculate as to which king was the manifestation of the antichrist in John’s day either, as I honestly don’t know myself, Some speculate Nero, but I have not decided what my view is on this point.

The other has not yet come

This is one that I think we can have more explicit biblical information about. And I will include this phrase as we move on to the final verse that we will be looking at today, verse 11.

So this future king, this future manifestation of the beast, has at least one specific characteristic mentioned here. It “must continue a short space.”

This phrase I believe is strong evidence that the king that is future is the one that has the fatal wound and yet lives, the antichrist head. The head we have been discussing in Revelation 13, the one that so much time is spent on.

This idea of a “short space” is good evidence to that effect.

By far the most talked about time period in prophecy is the 3.5 years in which the antichrist is given to do his thing. It makes reference to this exact time period 7 times in scripture, and talks about the detail of it in many more places. It refers to this 3.5 year period is the following ways:

• 42 months
• 1260 days
• A time times and half of time

It refers to this time period being a “short time” as well, in fact using the exact words used in Rev 17:10 when it says:

Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. – Rev 12:12

The idea that he must continue a short time seems to match up well with the references about the antichrist who has the mortal wound and lives. It says in Revelation 13:5:

And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. – Rev 13:5

Rarely are characteristics of the antichrist found in only one verse, this idea is backed up in several places.

And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time. – Dan 7:25

I would propose that this idea of “short space” is referring back to the short space given for the dragon to continue in Revelation 12 and the 3.5 year period given to the antichrist in Revelation 13. It is also to be noticed that 3.5 years is an extremely short time for a king to rule.

Other people that want to make this future king one that has already been alive in the past, like Nimrod will propose that the yet to come king of Rev 17:10 was Hitler, but Hitler ruled about 12 years.

The reign of antichrist is short because it needs to be short. Jesus said of these 3.5 years which start just as the antichrist declares himself to be god in the temple:

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. Mat 24:21-22

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. – Rev 17:11

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition

Notice first the similarity to this phrase and the one we looked at earlier in Revelation 17:8

• Rev 17:8  The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition:
• Rev 17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 

The difference here is the middle of these two verses the part about the resurrection, in 17:8 it describes the resurrection as “ascending out of the bottomless pit. “

in verse 11 the part that says “even he is the eighth and is of the seven” is not only, as we will see being used to convey the exact same thing, that is the resurrection portion of his chronology, but it is also giving us more information about this king.

This phrase even he is the eighth, and is of the seven is saying that though there are only seven kings there will be eight reigns, that is, one of these kings will rule twice, the resurrection of antichrist explains how there can be eight reigns and only seven kings, This is almost universally considered to be speaking of a resurrection of one of the dead seven kings to rule twice. In other words he will be the eighth king while never ceasing to be the one of the seven kings.

So this gives gives great credibility to the earlier interpretation that this phrase is a technical title of the beast in revelation 13 and that the “bottomless pit” in verse 8 is a reference to the beasts resurrection, just as the phrase, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven is a reference to the resurrection, and all of it is packaged in an identical word structure, so we can be confident of our interpretation that this is a title of the antichrist that refers to his most identifiable trait, his apparent resurrection.

Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Ok this is a loaded verse and there is a lot to cover, so let’s get started.

Arrayed in purple and scarlet colour: This particular phrase purple and scarlet occurs 29 times in the Old Testament, the entire old testament phrase is usually “blue purple scarlet and fine twisted linen” so here we have a notable lack of blue which is usually included, which we will talk about later.

An example of its usage is in Exodus 26:1

Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.  - Exo 26:1

These curtains of the temple were by no means the only things that were suppose to consist of blue purple and scarlet and fine linen, the same phrase was used in relation to the following items:
The Curtains of the tabernacle:
The veil of the temple
The hanging for the door of the tent with lampstands
The hanging for the gate of the court
Certain offerings
Cloths of service
The Girdle of the high priest
The ephod of the high priest
The breastplate of the high priest
The stitched pomegranates on the high priests garments

Almost everything that was cloth in the service of the temple was to be made out of these colors.

But what will be of particular interest to us as we progress is the relationship of the clothes of MB to the clothes of the high priest.

Notice though there is a difference between what was said of the clothing of mystery Babylon:

“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, “

And the clothing of the high priest and the various items associated with temple worship.

“Blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen”

At first it would seem that fine linen is not mentioned in relationship to Mystery Babylon, but in a later verse it actually does mention that fine linen is included as well.

And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! – Rev 18:16

So the only difference between the clothing of mystery Babylon and the clothing of the high priest is the color blue. This could be due to the significance that the bible put on the color blue in relation to its symbolism of being in a right standing with God and his commandments:

Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring: That ye may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God. – Num 15:38-40

The ark of the covenant in the Tabernacle was also covered with blue cloth (Numbers 4:5-7; 11-13). The robe of the High Priest was also blue.

I am suggesting that MB is wearing  the clothing of a harlot high priest that is promoting the worship, not of the true god in temple service, but of the antichrist who also will make use of the temple.

This interpretation is greatly strengthened when we get to the next verse, about the name on the woman’s forehead and we will see the connection to the high priest and the name that was on his forehead. But for now let’s continue on with the present verse.

Decked with gold and precious stones and pearls:

Decked is really the key word here.  It is different than the word “arrayed,” “Decked “has more to do with jewels , one definition says that it means: “To bring an ornament upon”

Decked is not a very common word in the Old Testament, in fact only used 10 times.

The overall picture of its use in the Old Testament is God saying that He decked Jerusalem with precious jewels when she was in her youth, but as she began to commit adultery, by the worship of pagan gods, she then begins to deck herself in a different manner. For example here in the first part of Ezekiel 16 we see how God decked her in her proverbial youth:

I decked thee also with ornaments, and I put bracelets upon thy hands, and a chain on thy neck. And I put a jewel on thy forehead, and earrings in thine ears, and a beautiful crown upon thine head. Thus wast thou decked with gold and silver; and thy raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and broidered work; thou didst eat fine flour, and honey, and oil: and thou wast exceeding beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom.  And thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord GOD. But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. – Eze 16:11-15

Then later, when Jerusalem becomes a prostitute, she decks herself a different way:

Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,  And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.  Eze 16:17-18

We see another example of this in Ezekiel 23:40

And furthermore, that ye have sent for men to come from far, unto whom a messenger was sent; and, lo, they came: for whom thou didst wash thyself, paintedst thy eyes, and deckedst thyself with ornaments – Eze 23:40

And Hosea 2:13

And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.  - Hos 2:13

But one of the most provocative uses of the word “decked” in relation to our verse in Revelation 17:4 is found in Jer 4:29-30 where speaking of the city of Jerusalem it says:

The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.  And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.  - Jer 4:29-30

The connections to Mystery Babylon here should be quite obvious, it is also interesting to note that her lover will despise her and take her life. And if you remember from last week, that is exactly what the beast that Mystery Babylon rides, which she calls her king and her husband, will do, he will despise her and turn on her and kill her.
One interesting thing is the mention of pearls in this verse. I found this reference somewhat curious as there is only one mention of Pearls in the OT, in fact only 8 references in the entire bible, and half of those are in the book of Revelation. Three of the other references are using pearls as an example of something valuable, like “the pearl of great price” or “don’t throw your pearls before swine.” The only pearl reference that is left is also one that I think is applicable to this verse. it is found in 1 Timothy 2:9:

In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;  - 1Ti 2:9

Here being decked with pearls is used as the opposite of modest clothing, That would seem to fit the description of the Mystery Babylon, but there may be other significance to it that I am not aware.

having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

The only other time this phrase “golden cup” appears in the bible that I know of is in Jer 51:7 where Im sure it is not a coincidence that the entire chapter is talking about the actual fall of Babylon the city, which I believe is a prefiguration of mystery Babylon’s fall. Many parallels can be seen between these two chapters if you read them carefully, this phrase golden cup is certainly one of them. The verse reads:

Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. – Jer 51:7

Notice here also that the nations are drunk with the wine in the cup, it makes them mad, this is a direct parallel to Revelation 17:2 which says:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.  - Rev 17:2

It is often missed ,and I think very important ,that what is in the cup is her own sin, her own idolatry and the nations are made drunk by it.

I think that Revelation 18:3 gives us more detail on this:

For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. - Rev 18:3

This phrase “wine of the wrath of her fornication “ as the KJV has it is kind of an odd way to put it, I mean , does fornication even have wrath? The ESV I think captures the sense of this verse when it says:

(ESV)  For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her [fornication]

What I’m suggesting here is that she is so passionately promoting the antichrist as her messiah, as her god, that it entices the world to join her in her fornication, they also commit this abomination themselves,  but it is because of her own fierce promotion of this idolatry that the world joins her in this sin of worship of the antichrist. It is also in this sense that she fulfills the role of a idolatrous high priest.

Rev 18:4 expands on this idea that her own sin is causing others to sin:

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.  - Rev 18:4

Rev 17:5  And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

The first thing I want to focus in on is this phrase upon her forehead: There are two notable things about foreheads in the Old Testament that are going to be important: The first is in relation to the high priests uniform. In Exodus 28 it is discussing the headband of the high priest, and it says:

And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the LORD.  - Exo 28:36-38

This is a very interesting bit of information considering the connection to the high priests garments we have already seen.

The High Priest had a gold plate that covered his forehead with the words Holiness to the Lord engraved on it.

This is compared with Mystery Babylon, the harlot high priest, who has on her forehead the words:

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS

This brings us to the another usage of foreheads in the OT, which I think is also at play here:

Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

There is a refusal to be ashamed of her idolatry here, which is exemplified in Mystery Babylon by the proud boasting of her abominations written on her forehead.

This should not be understood ,I don’t think, as her knowing that she is worshipping and promoting the antichrist, because she does say that she is not a widow, and she says she sits as a queen. I think it just means that her promotion of the Antichrist as Messiah will be very bold and out in the open, as the verse of the ESV said “the passion of her [fornication]” is what will intoxicate the masses.

MYSTERY

Notice the comma in the king James, as in: “Mystery, Babylon”  the name is not a proper name Mystery Babylon, as I have been using it, and probably will continue to use it, but rather the mystery here is signifying that there is something secret about the name Babylon the great. other translations reflect this a little better I think:

For instance

(The Geneva Bible)  And in her forehead was a name written, A mysterie, that great Babylon, that mother of whoredomes, and abominations of the earth.

(ESV)  And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”

(ISV)  On her forehead was written a secret name: BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND DETESTABLE THINGS OF THE EARTH

The word in Greek “Mystery” is:

mustērion’ It means: a secret or “mystery” (through the idea of silence imposed by initiation into religious rites, in other words it’s a secret that can be discovered.

This alone is a strong argument against her being the literal city Babylon that fact that the name Babylon is a mystery.

This idea of giving cites spiritual names that depend on the type of characteristics they exhibit or have exhibited is demonstrated earlier in the book of Revelation when it calls Jerusalem by two “spiritual” names, it says, speaking of the two witnesses:

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.  - Rev 11:8

later on we will look more in depth at this verse, but now I only want to call your attention to some of the other spiritual names given to Jerusalem here. They are Sodom and Egypt, both cities known inter-biblically for their various sins and when Jerusalem acts like one of these notorious cites The bible calls them by that name.

The next word in this title is BABYLON

Is there any indication in scripture of Jerusalem being called Babylon?

I think we see this exact thing in 1 Peter 5:12-13:

By Silvanus, our faithful brother as I consider him, I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God in which you stand.  She who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you; and so does Mark my son. – 1Pe 5:12-13

In addition to Jerusalem this verse is also argued as referencing  Rome as well as to the literal city of Babylon.

It should be noted that there are strong religious motives for making Peter be referencing Rome here.

The catholic church literally needs Peter to have been the first bishop of Rome. This is part of one of the most important of all catholic doctrine, The entire concept of the papacy relies on this historical claim of Peter being in rome and serving as its bishop, therby being the first pope. and because of the lack of any biblical evidence for Peter even visiting Rome, and therefore lack biblical support for the papacy, this verse has been used to support the idea That Peter did go to Rome, and that he called it Babylon.

A smaller minority argue that Peter actually was in the literal city of Babylon, which was described by Pliny and Josephus as a “wilderness” even by Peter’s time.  And According to Josephus, all Jews had been expelled from the country of Babylonia.

Those that argue for the literal Babylon here would say that there was a very small remnant of people still there and that Peter must have taken a missions trip there.

The case for Peter being in Jerusalem, and thereby referring to Jerusalem as Babylon here is much stronger, and is the only argument with any biblical support.

1 – Peter’s residence can firmly be established as him living in Jerusalem:
1a – After the great persecution the church was scattered, but the apostles (i.e. Peter) stayed in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).
1b – When Philip preached in Samaria, the apostles at Jerusalem sent Peter and John to them. Thus Peter must have been living there (Acts 8:14).
1c – When Herod Agrippa imprisoned Peter, he was in Jerusalem (Acts 12:1-4).
1d – Three years after his conversion, Paul goes to Jerusalem to see Peter and even abides with him there. Therefore, Peter must have lived there (Galatians 1:18).
1e – Fourteen years after his conversion, Paul again returns to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. Peter is there again and even named as a “pillar” in the church at Jerusalem (Galatians 2:1, 9).
1f – Paul tells us that Peter was intimidated by “Jews from James (i.e. Jerusalem)”. Surely this would be because Peter’s residence was there and he had to live with these people (Galatians 2:11,12).
1g – In the scripture in question (1 Peter 5:13), who is Marcus? If it is a reference to John Mark then we presumably know that his original residence was in Jerusalem in the house of his mother. So if Marcus is John Mark, then the “church” would also be at Jerusalem (Acts 12:12).
Peter did some evangelical traveling with his wife as is stated by Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:5 and therefore could have visited Babylon, but where he visited is left to our imaginations.

On this phrase THE GREAT

The bible commentator Adam Clark said:

“This woman is also called Babylon the Great; she is the exact antitype of the ancient Babylon in her idolatry and cruelty, but the ancient city called Babylon is only a drawing of her in miniature. This is indeed Babylon The Great. “ – Clark

MOTHER OF HARLOTS

We have already discussed the lack of the word all here, as in the “mother of all harlots”, some try to make this phrase more than the text makes of it. This city is the mother of harlots, that is that it has inhabitants that are harlots.

This is one of the most consistent idioms in scripture, that cites have children, which are often referred to as daughters or children.

One example we have already seen in the previous study:  Was with Jesus when, on the road to be crucified says this:

But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.  Luk 23:28-29

In Isaiah 4:4 when speaking of the institution of the millennial kingdom

It says this:

When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and purged the blood of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning. – Isa 4:4

A side note here is that this purging of Jerusalem in the context of Isaiah 4 happens just before the millennial reign, exactly the place that Mystery Babylon is judged in Rev 16-19, this is strong support for an eschatological double fulfillment of the judgments of Jerusalem.

Yet another example of the inhabitants of a city being referred to as children of that city can be found in another appropriate verse which we looked at last week.

“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate;  - Mat 23:37-38

Of this phrase: ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

We see more parallels to Jerusalem here in Jeremiah 6 where it says:

Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the LORD. – Jer 6:15

Abominations are used pretty consistently in scripture as things which are absolutely detestable to the LORD, but especially that of grievous idolatry and false worship. Of note here is the so called  “Abomination of Desolation” spoken of by Daniel, Jesus, and Paul when the Antichrist declares himself to be God in the temple.  This would be the ultimate abomination, one that will ultimately involve the entire world.

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This verse is one that is often used to prove that the woman is Rome, Islam, or even an allegorical pagan system from time immemorial.

This verse is simply talking about persecution; the woman here kills a lot of Christians. The commentators always try to prove that there version of Mystery Babylon has killed more than the other candidates of mystery Babylon, and I suppose whoever quotes  the highest number , accurate or not wins.

I suppose I too will join in this game, but unlike them, I have explicit biblical support that the worst persecution of all time will have its epicenter in Jerusalem.

Speaking of the abomination of desolation which will occur at the temple mount in Jerusalem Jesus says in Matthew 24:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened. – Mat 24:15-22

So this killing will be so bad that if its days were not cut short, then none of the elect would even survive! Jesus also says that this will be more severe than any before it or any after it.

Even if you believe that Matthew 24 is for the Jews, We know the  people here  are Christians because of the earlier point Jesus makes in verse 9:

“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. Mat 24:9“

In any case, it is the worst religious genocide of all time, and its epicenter is the city of Jerusalem.

The very fact that the Lord  is emphasizing the importance of fleeing quickly when they see the abomination of desolation here is proof that there will be many in Jerusalem that will not consider the Anti-Christ’s seating himself in the temple, and declaring himself to be God, an abomination at all! In fact, just the opposite, they apparently begin to carry out the antichrist’s orders to kill Christians at this point. This killing may indeed spread to the entire world from here, but the fact that its epicenter is the city of Jerusalem is one of the most attested to prophetic events in the bible.

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

It is not clear here whether John means two separate groups of people when he says: blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:

We do know that in addition to Christians, prophets are twice added to this list of those that she kills:

And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.  - Rev 18:24

It is also notable that the two witnesses, who are called prophets in Rev 11, Are said to be killed in the city of Jerusalem:

And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.  - Rev 11:8

The city where our lord was crucified is unambiguously Jerusalem.

And we will stop here at verse 6. If you would like to see the whole series you can go to versebyversebibleteaching.com or click the links in the description section for more of the videos in this series.

Mystery Babylon Study – Intro – Revelation 17: 3 from Chris White on Vimeo.

This will be a multi-week study on Revelation Chapter 17-18, widely considered to be some of the most difficult chapters in Revelation. I hope that you will make an effort to go through the whole study, which is available in multiple formats, such aids veo, mp3, or text, all available at the website versebyversebibleteaching.com

Why do such an in depth study on this issue?

In addition to the study of “The Woman that Rides the Beast”, we will also be studying the beast itself in depth, which is widely considered to be the Anti-Christ.

This section of Scripture offers so many opportunities to study other events in prophecy, such as Daniel and the timing of the events in the Book of Revelation.  Therefore, it’s a great study of all things prophecy.

There is so much confusion about the identity of Mystery Babylon. Some of these interpretations not only lead to bad doctrine, but put the church in danger of being deceived in the end times.

It’s also important to study prophecy in general, because a major portion of the Bible consists of prophecy. Thus, if we neglect prophecy, we are neglecting a major portion of the Bible.  The Scriptures cannot be rightly understood or unfolded if the prophetic sections are neglected.

Even among dedicated Bible scholars and teachers, there is a huge variety of views about the identity of Mystery Babylon, yet the angel in Rev 17:18 actually tells John what it is he has just seen.  That angel tells John that it is a city.

Rev 17:18: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

It is referred to as a city eight times in Revelation, and all the things that happen to it seem to be talking about a literal city.  For instance, the city is burned down, and the smoke can be seen from the nearby sea.  This, and many other factors cause most Bible scholars to believe that it is talking about a literal city.

There are many candidates proposed for the identity of the city by Bible scholars, including Rome or Vatican City.  Many early reformers saw it as Rome.  Somewhat ironically, the Catholic church also teaches that it is Rome in their new American Bible commentary on the Vatican website, though it is referring to ancient pagan Rome, where the protestant reformers would say that it was the Rome of the Catholic church.

Some suggest the actual city of Babylon in Iraq. In this scenario, they say Babylon will be rebuilt in the future. In our study, we will look at this possibility in depth, as well as the other possibilities.

Mecca, or some other Arab cities have been proposed. This view has been especially popular very recently.

Jerusalem is also suggested, and this is one of the oldest viewpoints of Christians, and is held by many different groups.  It probably has the widest range of proponents.

There is a long list of other less popular candidates, New York included.

Some other very popular viewpoints assert that the Bible is metaphorical, and say it’s not referring to an actual city, but is symbolic of something else entirely, possibly, a world pagan religious system, and/or a world a world financial system.

There is no reason that there should be this much confusion. I have counted the characteristics given to Mystery Babylon. In the three chapters that deal with her, over ninety characteristics are mentioned. That’s an astonishing amount of detail given for her.  In this study, I will show that there is explicit Biblical evidence for most, if not all, of these ninety characteristics.  There is no need to guess, because the Bible has made sure we can know for certain, simply by comparing Scripture with Scripture.  I’m sure you will agree that the answer to this age-old question of the identity of Mystery Babylon (MB) is found within the pages of Scripture.

Before I go any further, I am going to tell you what I think scripture teaches that Mystery Babylon is.  When I first heard this theory proposed, I said it couldn’t be.  If you give me a few minutes, though, I hope you will see, just as I did, that there is no one else it can be.

It is the eschatological city of Jerusalem. Notice that I chose my words very carefully in my description.

In other words ,it is the future Jerusalem of the end times, where, according to Daniel 11:45,

the Anti-Christ sets up his end-times world government and end-times world religion headquarters .

The city and its habitants will promote the Anti-Christ as the one true God, thereby committing the ultimate abomination, the ultimate harlotry.  Not only that, but they will promote him and entice the world to follow them in their worship of the Man of Sin.

We know that the Anti-Christ will choose Jerusalem as the place to declare himself to be god (2Thes. 2:4 , Mat 24:15, Dan 11:31-32)  We know that the greatest religious killing of all time will happen in the city of Jerusalem according to Matt. 24:15-21.

So often we look at the “Woman who Rides the Beast” and try to define her in terms of what we have already seen in history, as opposed to what Scripture says we will see in the future. That is the primary reason people miss this.  As we will see, it is not because of a lack of explicit  Biblical support.

For instance, Rev. 18:24 says: “And in her was found the blood of prophets…”

Have you ever known any cities to kill the prophets in Scripture or in history? Actually, we don’t even have to speculate, as Jesus says it is impossible for a prophet to be killed anywhere except Jerusalem:

“The same day there came certain of the Pharisees, saying unto him, ‘Get thee out, and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee.’  And he said unto them, ‘Go ye, and tell that fox, behold, I cast out devils, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected. Nevertheless I must walk today, and tomorrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!’” Luke 13:31-34

This idea is repeated by the Lord in other places, as well. For instance, he tells them that their fathers killed the prophets and they hypocritically built their tombs.  (Luke 11:47)  In Matthew 23, He names Zechariah as such an example who he mentions was killed near the temple.  He also says that they will be held accountable and judged for this blood on their hands.

If the blood of the prophets is found in the mystery Babylon city, it is strong evidence in favor of it referring to Jerusalem.

Jerusalem is specifically called a harlot hundreds of times in Scripture and always in spiritual  context – the harlotry of following false gods and killing prophets, etc.

Just a small sampling of this is in Isaiah 1:21:  “How is the faithful city become an harlot!  It was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.”

Ezekiel 16 is entirely about this subject and it starts out:  “Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations…”

He spends the whole chapter saying things like: “But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.” Eze 16:15-16

Jerusalem is constantly warned in Scripture that if they do not turn from their harlotries they will be judged.  As we go through Revelation 17-18, we will find that the specific judgments Mystery Babylon gets are the exact same as the ones promised to Jerusalem because of her spiritual harlotry.

Here is one example: “They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords. And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more. Therefore, I also will recompense thy way upon thine head, saith the Lord GOD: and thou shalt not commit this lewdness above all thine abominations. Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee, saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.”  Eze 16:40-43

This idea that Jerusalem is as a harlot, and also has children or inhabitants that are harlots, is what is meant when Revelation says that the “Woman” is the mother of harlots – the harlots are the inhabitants and Jerusalem is the mother.

I think that much of the confusion comes from the fact commentators want to put in the word ALL –  “the mother of ALL harlots,” as if it was the source of all bad things from the history of the world.  But that’s not what the texts says Mystery Babylon is – it simply says that the city is the mother of harlots, and that those harlots are the inhabitants of the city.

When Jesus reiterates this prophecy he uses the same language: “But Jesus, turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children. For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.’ Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us; and to the hills, cover us.’” Luke 23:28-30

This view of a futuristic Jerusalem of the Anti-Christ’s reign, being Mystery Babylon is not mine alone.  I am standing firmly on the shoulders of giants.  I first heard of this view from a great Bible scholar named Charles Cooper.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that this view is the earliest recorded view of the church fathers that I have located. There was a writer name Hippolytus who produced the earliest known commentary on the Book of Revelation.  He was probably the most important theologian of the 200′s.  This was an important time because Revelation was written so late that it took a long time to be circulated.  As a result, we don’t find many commentaries on it until about this time.  However, around this same era, the hermeneutic (the way people interpreted the Bible) of the early church was about to change.

Around the time that the Catholic Church began in the 1300’s, people began interpreting the Bible more allegorically as opposed to looking at it literally or with a face value approach. As a result, there is a very short window of time during which we can hear the views of a premillennial and futurist church father on the book of Revelation.  But here is what Hippolytus said about Mystery Babylon:

 “By the unrighteous judge, who fears not God, neither regards man, he means without doubt Anti-Christ, as he is a son of the devil and a vessel of Satan. For when he has the power, he will begin to exalt himself against God, neither in truth fearing God, nor regarding the Son of God, who is the Judge of all. And in saying that there was a widow in the city, he refers to Jerusalem itself, which is a widow indeed, forsaken of her perfect, heavenly spouse, God. She calls Him her adversary, and not her Saviour; for she does not understand that which was said by the prophet Jeremiah: “Because they obeyed not the truth, a spirit of error shall speak then to this people and to Jerusalem.” TREATISE ON CHRIST AND ANTI-CHRIST.

It is also worth noting that HIPPOLYTUS was a student of Irenaus who was a student of Polycarp who was a student of John, the original author of the Book of Revelation.

I used to think the “Woman” was Rome or the Vatican, but when we get to the verses about the seven mountains you will see why I see this interpretation, held by so many, is grammatically and contextually impossible.

I also used to believe that it was referring to an allegorical kind of amalgamation of the worlds occult religion or financial evil. You will see that that view requires a deliberate departure from the plain and simple meaning of the text. It also goes against the angel’s own interpretation of this, the “Woman”. It also tries to force that word ALL into phrases like, ”Mother of Abominations” and “Mother of Harlots.” I’ve actually seen commentaries that DO insert the word ALL into the text, saying instead: “Mother of ALL harlots” or “mother of ALL abominations,” but it’s just not there.

This imaginary “ALL” makes people think that they have to have Mystery Babylon account for all the worlds evil, past, present, and future.  So, they go looking, in the past or in the present, for the most evil thing they can think of. And that’s pretty much how they come up with their interpretation – whatever the most evil thing is in their paradigm, is what MB will be to them. It’s not a coincidence that all the books about Mystery Babylon being Islam showed up after 911.

The strength of verse by verse is in its thoroughness.  However, it will take several weeks to go through this study.  I hope you will stay with me.  This study will give me an opportunity to teach some of the most complicated aspects of the Anti-Christ, as well as the city in which he chooses to set up shop.

After this study, I think you will understand the Book of Revelation better than you ever have.

Rev 17:1 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, ‘Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:’”

(1)    This first line connects us back to the previous chapter, (chapter 16), where the seven bowls were being poured out. The seventh bowl is the judgment of Mystery Babylon, the very thing we will be studying. So, let’s go back and read that passage first:

“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done.’  And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.” Rev. 16:17-21

As is so often the case in the Book of Revelation, it will now, in chapter 17, zoom in to take a closer look at this great city that has just been judged.  This is a pattern seen very often in the Book of Revelation and Scripture in general. For instance, in Revelation 13, it breaks from a chronological narrative to zoom in on the character of the Anti-Christ and false prophet. This same thing happens in chapter 7 where the chronology of the seals breaks to tell us more about the 144,000 and the “great multitude”, or in chapter 11 about the two witnesses.

Here, it’s no different.  After telling us of the destruction of the great city, it will now zoom in to give us more details about its character.  Those details will go on for two chapters, and will be the focus of our study.

 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me “

This is one of the seven angels in charge of the seven vials/bowls.  We are not told which angel specifically it is, but, in any case, the angel takes John aside and will begin to show him more details about the judgment of the “Great Whore”.

It says here that she “sitteth on many waters.”

This is not left for us to guess its meaning, as the angel will later tell us what this phrase means:

 “And he saith unto me, ‘The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.’” Rev 17:15

When we combine this with verse 18 which says:

 “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Rev 17:18

We see that this is a city that might be the center of a world empire of some kind. It will be the chief city in that empire or system.  It is the seat of authority that the world government and world religious system comes from.

We will also see later on that John, specifically identifies the term “great city,” as Jerusalem.

This would be consistent with Daniel 11:45 where speaking of the Anti-Christ is says:

“And he shall plant the tents of his palace between the seas and the glorious holy mountain…” Daniel 11:45a

 “…with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication…”  Revelation 17:2

“With whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality,” indicates that John is fulfilling his commission given in Revelation 10:11 to prophesy against “kings.” – revelationcommentary.org (RC)

So what is this fornication?

Revelation 19:2 states, “…the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication….”  To corrupt (phtheiro, in the Greek) in this case means, “to cause the moral ruin of” someone.” – RC

The terms “harlot”, “whore” and “fornication”, are used very frequently in the Old Testament (OT), and only in a minority of the cases is it referring to actual sexual harlotry. In a vast majority of the cases, it is used to describe the worshipping of false Gods, especially in reference to Israel.

This is even the case in the famous story of Hosea the prophet. Hosea was told to marry an actual prostitute, but this was intended to be a symbol of God’s relationship with Israel who committed spiritual prostitution by worshipping other gods.

Hosea 3:1 explains: “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.’”

Spiritual harlotry is one of the most attested to symbols in Scripture.  When God refers to harlotry or fornication and it is obviously symbolic, he makes it clear that it is spiritual harlotry achieved by the worshipping of false Gods.

One example that illustrates this well is here:  “Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD: Thus saith the Lord GOD; ‘Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them….’”  – Eze 16:35-36

Here it is speaking of the practice of Israel sacrificing their children to the god Moloch, as well as the worship of idols of false gods.

We find another good example in Jeremiah 3:6: “The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, ‘Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done?   She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.’”

Here again we see harlotry made synonymous with the worship of false gods.  The term “high places” is referring to the altars that would be made to false gods, and “under the green tree” was also a common place of false worship.  This combination of terms is actually referring back to Deuteronomy 12:2:

 “Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the hills, and under every green tree…”

So, if this is the correct view of this fornication, and I think we will see that it is as we progress, then the kings of the earth are both committing fornication with her, and drunk off of her fornications. They are drawn in by her own infatuation and worship of the beast.

I believe this is best understood as the city of Jerusalem promoting the Anti-Christ not just as their messiah, but also as God himself. They will be instrumental in the promotion of the worship of Anti-Christ to the world. We see that the world during the reign of Anti-Christ will do religious service to him, bringing gifts from every nation to worship him. The world will be enticed into fully worshipping the Anti-Christ by the great city and its inhabitants. So, you can see what it means here – she herself is committing this fornication, and the world is made drunk by it, and they themselves also commit the same fornication.

Rev 17:3 – “So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

John is carried away by the spirit, so he is still being divinely directed in this vision.

The wilderness mentioned here does not have the definite article THE in the Greek, so it is actually better rendered A wilderness.

So, here we are introduced to another crucial character in this unholy drama – the scarlet colored beast full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

This is the exact same beast we saw in Revelation 13, which is almost universally agreed to be a description of the Anti-Christ.

Rev 13:1 – “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”

It’s important to understand the basic symbolism – here the great city is riding the Anti-Christ.

This does not mean she is in any way in control of the Anti-Christ.  We know this because later on, in Rev 17:16, the Anti-Christ actually turns on her and destroys her, and, in fact, hates her.

She, however, believes she has found a true husband and her king in the beast.

Rev 18:7b – “for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.”

Sadly, she is mistaken, and it says she will be utterly destroyed by the one she calls her king and her husband.

Being “full of names of blasphemy” is an important description of the Anti-Christ and is used in various places: Rev 13:1-6; Dan 7:8, Dan 7:20, Dan 7:25, Dan 11:36; 2Th 2:4

And notably in this passage:

 “And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods, and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done. Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all. – Dan 11:36-37

And here:  “Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” – 2Th 2:4

We will speak more in depth of the seven heads and ten horns when we discuss verses 9 & 10, but they are speaking of the different occasions in history in which the spirit of Anti-Christ has manifested itself in the form of kings.

As we will see, John says of these heads:

 “…they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.” – Rev 17:10

One of the heads, I believe the seventh one, which is the one John says is yet to come, will be the Anti-Christ who will receive a mortal wound and yet live.

Back in Revelation 13, when John is talking about this seven-headed beast he says the following:

 “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.” – Rev 13:3 

The beast that she rides is the spirit of Anti-Christ that in the time of the writing of this book had already manifested itself in the form of kings six times in history, but one of them, the last head was still to come in the future. We are also told in Rev. 13 that one of these heads, which I believe to be the one yet to come for reasons I will explain later, will be mortally wounded and will seem to come back to life.

This is the beast that she worships instead of the true God.

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⁸Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

⁹And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

¹⁰Called of God an high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

¹¹Of whom we have many things to say, and hard to be uttered, seeing ye are dull of hearing.

¹²For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.

¹³For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.

¹⁴But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

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²Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.

³And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.

⁴And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.

⁵So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, Thou art my Son, to day have I begotten thee.

⁶As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

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¹²For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

¹³Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

¹⁴Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession.

¹⁵For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

¹⁶Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

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²For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

³For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

⁴For he spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.

⁵And in this place again, If they shall enter into my rest.

⁶Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief:

⁷Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.

⁸For if Jesus had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day.

⁹There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.

¹⁰For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

¹⁵While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.

¹⁶For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.

¹⁷But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?

¹⁸And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?

¹⁹So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

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⁸Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:

⁹When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

¹⁰Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

¹¹So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)

¹²Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

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²Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.

³For this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.

⁴For every house is builded by some man; but he that built all things is God.

⁵And Moses verily was faithful in all his house, as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after;

⁶But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

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¹³And again, I will put my trust in him. And again, Behold I and the children which God hath given me.

¹⁴Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

¹⁵And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

¹⁶For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

¹⁷Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

¹⁸For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

8Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

11For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,

²For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;

³How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;

⁴God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?

⁵For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

⁶But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man that thou visitest him?