The use of the ancient kingdoms of Babylon and Rome. Help describe and identify these key characters because of the characteristics they share, linking them to the Old Testament prophecies. And warning. What's coming? As I mentioned, one is apostate Christianity known as Mystery Babylon, mother of all harlots.
She has introduced into the church the occultic practices, the pagan practices, and are here to this day. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Revelation. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Revelation chapter 18 with today's edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Revelation chapter 18, and I hope you don't have Revelation fatigue. There's a lot of stuff here. and some of it's hard-hitting. And be careful that you do not become a defender of wrong things because you don't like them.
Well, point some of that out. Babylon's final fall. If you have your Bibles, please stand. We'll read verses 1 and 2. After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven.
having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. and he cried mightily, With a loud voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. He had more to say, but so do I, so we've got to get to it. Babylon's final fall.
God is telling the world through the Bible how the world's going to end. And he's been giving us pieces and bits in the Old Testament, and then he really just starts putting it together when Jesus gives his. Mount of Olive discourse when he talks about the end times. Paul and Peter and John ring in a little bit more, and then we get to the Revelation where. It really begins to Take shape.
The Bible is not only the truth, it is the authoritative truth. It is the truth. by which we will be judged.
Now, we have to identify the two end times Babylons. There are four Babylons in Scripture. And two of them are apocalyptic. They take place in The Great Tribulation Period. that we are covering now.
This might confuse you if you're a novice. If you're not a novice, then you should be able to say, okay, this is answering some of the questions, or maybe you already know this. They are distinguishable. We can tell one from another. It's in the scripture.
We covered it in apostate Babylon. This time we're getting secular Babylon. or political Babylon. They have multiple names, and the names contribute to our understanding them and being able to distinguish them and see what's going on.
So the apocalyptic Babylon Is two anti-scriptural entities. The apostate church, which is already here, unlike ever before, you find churches with defective flags, defective rainbows outside. They're telling you. We're staying within Christendom, but we disagree with Christ. We disagree with the scripture.
And we're going to jam this down your throat. That is the beginning of the apostate church. That shouldn't be a far stretch. to see that They're going to not be raptured. They're going to enter into this great tribulation period coming upon the whole earth.
And there's going to be a lot of them. And they form part of that false religious system. or the apostate is a difference. It's an apostate system. It Pretends to belong to Christianity, but it has fallen away from Christianity long ago.
So One is an apostate system, the other is secular. But it has its religious flair to it. It's into the occult But it's not part of Christendom. It tolerates Christendom, false Christendom. Doesn't tolerate true Christendom, thus, the persecution of the Christians in the Great Tribulation age.
And thus, the woman rides the beast. She's not part of the beast. She's not one of the ten horns. She rises atop, she's distinct. And she, too, is the mystery Babylon.
the great harlot. And we've identified her, and we'll hit back at that again. You've got one band of Christians saying, Pastor, I want you to really hit the Roman Catholic Church and all of her apostasy. And you got another say, wait a minute, I got family in that church, and I don't want, you know, I love them, and I don't want to see, you know, and how do you balance that?
Well, we're going to find out. I hope we don't mess that up. I don't want to mess anything up when I'm in this pulpit. Anyway, the use of the ancient kingdoms of Babylon and Rome. Help describe and identify these key characters because of the characteristics they share, linking them to the Old Testament prophecies.
And warning. What's coming? As I mentioned, one is apostate Christianity, known as Mystery Babylon, mother of all harlots. She has introduced into the church the occultic practices, the pagan practices, and that are here to this day. The other is made up the political Babylon.
is Western civilization. Made up of leaders who are controlled by the Antichrist, the man of sin, the son of perdition, the man of pompous words. There are many names he has. to describe how he does business. This Western civilization, the Roman Empire.
Resurgence. The resurgence of the Roman Empire is going to have many similarities. to that empire. And Daniel brings that out quite clearly. Anyway, There's a distinction made between This Western civilization and the kings of the East that show up in chapter 16.
They're under Antichrist authority. But there's some problems there.
So we know the beast with ten horns, seen by Daniel as the iron mixed with clay. Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, couldn't shake it. He was so serious about it, he was willing to kill people to find out what it meant. Daniel says, I can do this. And he ends up going before King Nebuchadnezzar, who is the king of ancient Babylon.
the kingdom of Babylon. And we'll I'll get to the four Babylons in a moment. Anyway, Daniel says, I'll tell you what you had a dream about. You saw a giant statue. The head was gold, the chest and the arms were silver.
And then it worked down to the midsection with the bronze, and then into the legs, became iron, and then the feet were clay mixed with iron. The head is your empire, O Nebuchadnezzar, this glorious kingdom. And then it's going to split, though, and it's going to be less of a kingdom when the Medes and the Persians take over, thus the silver chest and the arms. After the Medes and Persians will come Alexander the Great.
Now, he's not naming Alexander the Great, he's just saying the kingdom is going to devolve. into something less, with each precious metal decreasing in value. And finally he gets to the iron legs, the iron eagle of Rome. And then ultimately That fourth beast that he saw in another part of Daniel's prophecies, which is. Rome returning in Western civilization, the iron mixed with clay.
They don't. Mix well. and they will be knocked down. By A stone not made with human hands, which is the return of Christ. Daniel 2.34, you watched Daniel telling the king, while a stone was cut without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces.
That's the return of Christ we get to in chapter 19 of Revelation.
So, as I mentioned, the woman who rides this beast is distinct, and she is referred to as Mystery Babylon. But this other Babylon, So let's talk about the four Babylons that show up in Scripture. They are All infested. With An attitude against the authoritative truth of God's word. First is original Babylon.
They built the tower. They weren't yet called Babylon. That's where God split the language of the human race. And then we have our word Babel coming from that.
Well, they stayed there and some dispersed throughout the world, but their motives were wrong. They were exalting humankind. They were creating their own ideas of God. And they thought they could protect themselves from another flood. We'll build a tower up so high we won't be able to get to us, it seems to.
Belong to their thinking.
So that's the original Babylon. But it didn't become this glorious kingdom that Nebuchadnezzar ruled over, though geographically it in the same area, modern-day Iraq. Which brings us to ancient civilized or the ancient kingdom of Babylon. And they conquered. They had outstanding commerce.
And the Chaldeans, it was, you know, the Mesopotamians. It was Ur of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans were into the occult, the astrology and astronomy. They were also into other disciplines of science, but all of it mingled. with the spiritual realm.
apart from Yahweh. An occultic, priestly cast of idolaters. and astrologers and diviners. And this butted heads with the Jews when they were taken prisoner. to that ancient Babylon.
So we've defined two of them from scripture: Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom. The original. One, and now we come to the apocalyptic Babylon's again, mystery Babylon. Incidentally, This Religious or apostate Christianity in the Great Tribulation period that rides the beast, never rebukes the beast. For her persecution of the Jews.
For the persecution of True Bible believers. Instead, she's living luxuriously, quite comfortable. Where she is. perched. And Then we come to apocalyptic Babylon, which is the global regime of Antichrist.
So, when you get to the book of Revelation, you have two Babylonian systems. that point back to ancient Babylon. They are powerful. And they are pagan. And apostate.
Christianity, as well as the world order of Antichrist, globalized. You know, the world's trying to globalize. We have a president in the house trying to shut that down. But ultimately, The world will be globalized under Antichrist, and it will take violence and cunning. to pull it off, but it will happen for Seven years.
It will be under his thumb. And then in the last three and a half years, of course, The madman comes out.
So it's mingled with these features of the Roman Empire. Not absolutely. But enough. to have it to understand this is Western civilization distinct from the kings of the East. It will be global.
Unprecedented Evil, final, mercantile Babylon. It will collapse. And so these descriptive names Helping us to identify. Let's go back to the apostate Babylon, mystical Babylon from chapter 7. Which is the apostate?
Religious Babylon, ecclesiastical Babylon. They're different names that commentators will use to point to this distinct entity and they're all correct. Secular Babylon, on the other hand, is referred to as commercial Babylon, political Babylon. It is the beasts from the sea. In chapter thirteen of Revelation, under this Antichrist.
One is the beast. The other rides the beast They are in rhythm for a while until the Antichrist will no longer tolerate it, and thus we read that in chapter. 17, where apostate Christianity is completely destroyed by the Antichrist.
So John saw the destruction of both. Thus seventeen and eighteen are Of Revelation, and he will see the coming of the Lord that puts an end to this world system. Remember who these people are. In the middle of this great tribulation period, who not only have the mark of the beast, but they worship him. They cheered.
The murder of the two witnesses of Christ. They exchanged gifts with each other. They were so happy to see them dead. We're s already seeing this kind of behavior start happening now. Where people are wishing for the death of people who do not politically agree with them in this country, unlike ever before.
They were guilty of unspeakable atrocities. Against Israel and the converts. In fact, Up to the end, they're trying to wipe Israel away. All the Jewish people. That's their goal.
They won't succeed.
So now, that's the introduction. Let's dig into where these things come from. Verse 1. After these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority. and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
Now, we're not supposed to be here for this if you're a believer of Christ, and if the rapture were to come today, that you would be spared. The evil that is coming upon the whole earth. That's what the Bible teaches. I don't know why there are people who say, I'm a Christian, I believe in the Bible. But the Christians are going through the tribulation period.
I think they have guilt. I think they feel, you know, we need to be punished. Light's punishment enough. Anyway, I mean if you're asking me and you didn't but I offered it. Uh After the beast destroys apostate Christianity, which probably occurs uh sometimes late in that the last three and a half years of his reign.
John says, after the destruction of The woman that rides the beast, I saw another angel coming down from heaven.
Now we've not seen this angelic character before, but But all heaven is about to break loose. You're supposed to say that's genius, Pastor. Genius. You didn't say all hell's going to break loose, all heaven's going to break loose. That's right.
I'm just putting it right, 'cause that's what I do, and I do it pretty good. Hey, when you're humble, you just have these re these superpowers. Yeah. All right. Yeah.
I hope no one's real stuffing.
So be serious.
Well, I am seriously having fun in the midst of seriousness.
Well, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory.
Now we're attempting to say, well, this must be he must be divine.
Well, he's presented as an angelic being, and I don't think we should go any further than that. He's high-ranking and he's powerful. And again his truth truth is authoritative. How many other created beings exist in the spiritual realm of God that we know nothing about? It's gonna be, you know, I don't know if there are gonna be tours when we get to heaven.
That would be awful. Mad, we've got to get there on time. The bus is leaving.
Okay. I do believe God will impart to us all we need. and we don't have to go through receiving. or the rookie classes, you know.
Okay, now see that old that side, you don't go over that line. You won't have to do all that. Won't you be glad? Who likes to be the new guy on the job? We haven't figured out who the troublemakers are and the whiners and All the people that you have to pray for.
Anyway, verse 2: And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon, the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean spirit. and hated bird. Did you catch that last chapter? It was Mystery Babylon. The great harlot, mother of all harlots, and she, that Babylon, was destroyed.
But here Is still another Babylon. It is the great Babylon.
So we have that, that's where we get the understanding. Hey, there's two systems of Babylon operating at the same time. One is inferior to the other, but they're both just as vile.
Well, one thing that this is telling us Where he repeats it, fallen, fallen. Evil will not be around forever. Evil is not eternal. And this is the glory of the return of Christ and of course the When he makes the new heaven and the new earth.
Now, Isaiah the prophet anticipated. Babylon's rise to power. her idols, her judgment. Long before Babylon was even a threat to the nations, the prophetic nature of prophets.
Well, 200 years before Babylon really became a A force in the region, in the Middle East as we call it today. Isaiah was saying Babylon's going to be a problem. They're going to be a problem to the Jews, also. And then you come to the prophet Jeremiah, and he says, Hey, here, and they are the problem.
So the profits calling the future. Also, in Revelation 14, verse 8, we read: Fallen, Fallen Babylon the Great, because that is anticipatory of the end.
Sort of like the prophets beginning to You know, get us ready for what is going to be revealed later, which was what was happening with John. The question is: where will you be when these things happen? You're either going to die before they happen, Or you're going to be raptured when they begin to happen or not raptured. And do you have a say-so in this? Absolutely.
You give your life to Christ. You name him as Lord and Savior. You become a disciple of Christ, not only a convert. Convert certainly Essential. Hopefully, this time to develop.
The thief on the cross converted to Christ. He didn't have any time to be a disciple, but yet he's in paradise.
So where will you be? He says, and has become. How many nations and kingdoms that have hated the Jews have become has-bins. We just cape a few of them. Of course, the ancient Egypt, when under the Pharaoh's persecution, Egypt was not always hostile to the Jews, but it did eventually get to that.
Unfortunately, the Philistines, which are no longer in existence, Those that live in Gaza, those are not Philistines, those are Jordanian Arabs and other Arabs mixed in, they have nothing to do. With the Canaanites that were in the land before the Jews got there. They're all gone. The Assyrian Empire, gone. Babylonian Empire, gone.
The Edomite kingdoms no longer here. The Seleucid Empire really persecuted the Jews. In fact, the Seleucid Antiochus was a type of the Antichrist to come. is such hatred for the Jewish people and the God of the Jews. Romanism's crusaders, they persecuted the Jews, they're gone.
The Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union. Just a short list. of has become. has bins Because they mess with the wrong people. and the God of those people going back to its origins has dealt with them.
and so it will be with secular Babylon. A dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. I like that it's going to be caged. prisoned as Peter talked about. The imprisoned and Jude also talked about this.
This is poetic language. That describes the spiritual filth and uncleanness that belong to the lifestyle and the thinking and the heart and the ways. of apocalyptic Babylon. ancient world talk.
Well, they're going to become a wasteland. Physically, you could look at Chernobyl. But spiritually That's what they're doomed. their end will have nothing attractive about it. People.
will no longer inhabit the world with this kind of behavior, they'll be locked away. Incidentally, much of what John sees and is Given in the prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah. For example, the language he has here about the doom of. apocalyptic Babylon Was applied by Isaiah. to the kingdom of Babylon.
Historical Babylon in the days of Nebuchadnezzar. That's Isaiah 13. Jeremiah 50 and 51. Then Zephaniah talked about, with the same language, The destruction of the Assyrian Empire. They were the ones that took the northern kingdom of the Jews.
When the Jewish kingdom split because of a civil war to north and south, the Assyrians eventually came along and took the the northern kingdom away. And Zephaniah the prophet says, Well, Assyria, you're going to go away too. And they did. And again, back circling back to Isaiah when he talks about the judgment upon Edom for their treatment of the Jews. And they're not the only prophets, they're just the outstanding ones on this subject that I'm dealing with.
So Babylon and all its parts stands for what Christ called the world. But this is in its final, most satanically developed. form and in the end It is cursed.
So now, verse 3: For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. The kings of the earth have I've committed fornication with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of of her luxury.
Now, this entire chapter, we won't get at all. We'll just get to verse 8. That's the plan. Uh it was going to deal with this. with this apocalyptic Babylon.
being dissolved. and we'll be able to identify. It's in the city of Rome.
Okay, this is I shouldn't say this, but I'm gonna say it. No, this is not bad. You're gonna love it. Uh-huh. I think Antichrist is going to purposely take on the number 666.
I also believe that when he gets rid of. the apostate Babylon led by the Vatican, he's going to take the city and set up his headquarters there. Just to taunt the scripture, just to taunt God, he is known to be the one of pompous words, the great blasphemer. And I think he's going to know these things and do it anyway, because that's how obnoxious people do things. And he is going to be the epitome.
arrogance and evil. And human success and satanic influence all wrapped in To one.
So, and I may come back to that. I will when we get to next session, hopefully, but there's in case I forget.
Well, for all the nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her, fornication.
Well, harmful and unlawful self-satisfaction. That's the application of the fornication. They're indulging themselves in illicit things, and they're illicit because they're harmful to other people. The government of the beast. Very lucrative.
culture was very refined. That's going to get destroyed. We'll get to that next session. And of course, the corporate success.
Well, there's nothing wrong with corporations in and of themselves, it's what they do with. their extreme wealth. Yeah. Mm. This has been Cross Reference Radio with Pastor Rick Gaston.
This program is a radio outreach of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Mechanicsville, Virginia. Pastor Rick has been teaching through the book of Revelation, but if you're interested in learning about a different book of the Bible, we have hundreds of past episodes available to listen to on demand. Just visit us online at crossreference radio.com and you'll find an archive of Pastor Rick's past teachings. While you're there, you can also find links to follow our program on your favorite podcast app, as well as links to get connected with us on Facebook and YouTube. There's also an interviews tab where you can learn more about Pastor Rick's heart for ministry.
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