Well, we
finally made it to chapter 18. As this
chapter opens, John sees yet another powerful angel descending from
heaven. This angel’s power is evident
from the brightness of his glory as it lights the earth.
Revelation 18:1–3 “And after these
things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the
earth was lightened with his glory. 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. 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.”
The angel declares his message loudly with great
force. “Babylon the great is fallen….” Reminder, the chapter
divisions most commonly used in bibles today are credited to Stephen Langton, Archbishop of
Canterbury in the early 1200s AD. In context with the previous chapter, the
connection is clearly to the city mentioned in the last verse of that chapter.
As the birthplace of false gods and false religions, she has seduced the world
and its leaders to practice spiritual fornication and has used that influence
to emerge as the leading economic power base in the world as shown by the
verses to follow.
Remember, John is being shown the judgment of the
“whore.” The identity of city, woman and whore are inextricably connected
to one another. This city has become the dwelling place of demons/evil
spirits, a cage for unclean spirits, sometimes pictured as birds in scripture.
Matthew
13:3–4 & 18-19 “And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying,
Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the
way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up…. Hear ye therefore the
parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and
understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which
was sown in his heart.”
I couldn’t help but make a comparison to what is
happening in the church today. The “business” of church is growing day by
day. It’s becoming more like a picture of the Laodicean church on
hormones. Peter warned that this would become the modus operandi of false
teachers in the professing church. They
are all motivated by the love of money as they promote their “damnable heresies”
and deny the truth of God’s word.
2 Peter 2:1–3 “But there were false prophets also among the
people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily
shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them,
and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their
pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. And
through covetousness shall they with
feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time
lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.”
Paul warned Titus of the same thing.
Titus 1:10–11 “For there
are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the
circumcision: Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for
filthy lucre’s sake.”
I
found a pertinent quote at www.biblelife.org
in an article entitled Church Bondage: “The modern Christian churches use brainwashing,
mind control, indoctrination, oppression, coercion, intimidation, legalism,
false teaching, guilt, shame, peer pressure, and other bondage techniques to
control members, increase church attendance, and obtain more money. The goal is
said to be "winning souls to Christ," but the underlying agenda is
the desire for more power, control, and money. These mind control and bondage
techniques are not needed to win souls to Christ. In fact, they are very
counter-productive to soul winning.”
And
another from an article at www.ukapologetics.net: “The typical 'money-man' of tele-evangelism wears highly expensive
silk suits, he (or she) purposefully strides the stage (yes, it often appears
to be a stage-like setting, as for entertainers, rather than a pulpit, as for Bible
teachers - significant?) while yelling out their spiritually-subversive
money-based spiel (yes, they often seem to prefer to yell as this world yells,
rather than to employ the 'still small voice'). They either directly state or,
more often, imply that you too can share their obviously affluent and
prosperous lifestyle if you will send your money in to them (oh, I beg your
pardon, I mean send in your “tithes and offerings”). Yes, Jesus is
mentioned too although quite often in rather a flippant way, rarely (I have
noticed) in a respectful manner - but their gospel is a different gospel
which would have been unknown to the original apostles.”
This scripture (Rev. 18:3) makes it clear that the
one-world religion of the tribulation will be totally consumed by the love of
money. Scripture is very clear in declaring the love of money to be the
root of all evil—and evil is unbridled at this point in time.
1Timothy
6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted
after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.
(to be
continued…)
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