Armageddon and Babylon the Great

The bad things you see happening today are not because God is causing them to happen.

They're there as the consequences of the sinfulness of men. But Dr. Tony Evans says that won't always be the case. In the tribulation, the last seven years, you will see God unleashed. The sight of Him you've never seen will be fully expressed. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning. That powerful truth from Psalm 30 verse 5 unfolds in the book of Revelation, where the intensity of God's judgment is building. Today, Dr. Evans looks at Armageddon and Babylon the Great, revealing how God's final judgments are paving the way for His perfect kingdom.

Let's listen. In chapter 14, we've got the 144,000. These are godly people who are not defiled, verse 4, for they have not been defiled with women. They have kept themselves chaste. They are the ones who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been purchased from among men as firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. The firstfruits refers to something that goes ahead of something else that is to come.

So in crops, it would be the first fruit to grow up out of the ground, meaning there's a lot of other fruit coming later. So these 144,000 evangelists are going to take the gospel and be preaching during the time of the tribulation. Beginning in verse 9, we have those who are now going to worship the beast. Another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with full strength. So here we have the statement.

If you take the mark of the beast, 666, on your hand or on your forehead, then what you do now is that you've now positioned yourself against God and therefore have become a subject of His wrath because you have aligned yourself with the beast, that is, with the Antichrist. And I heard verse 13, the voice from heaven, saying, Right, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, so that they may rest.

You see that? Rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them. So these are those who will be persecuted during the tribulation period, but who will find rest with the Lord, which is just the opposite of those who take the mark of the beast. Then I saw, verse 14, a white cloud, and sitting on the cloud was one like a son of man, having a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. The sickle is something you swing to cut, so it's coming another judgment. Another angel came out from the temple, crying with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe.

That is, ripe for judgment. Another angel comes in verse 17, and he also has a sharp sickle. Another angel in verse 18, who has power over fire, came from the altar, and he called with a loud voice to him who had the sharp sickle, saying, Put in your sharp sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, because her grapes are ripe. So the angel swung his sickle to the earth and gathered the clusters of the vine from the earth and threw them out in the great winepress of the wrath of God. So the sickles, and you've seen that, you've seen death have a sickle, has to do with judgment and death because of rejection of God.

And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood came out from the winepress up to the horses' bridles for a distance of 200 miles. In chapter 15, we're introduced to a scene in heaven, and I won't spend a lot of time here, except to say, verse 2, I saw something like a sea of glass mixed with fire, and those who had been victorious over the beast and his image, and the number of his name, 666, standing on the sea of glass holding harps of God. And they sang the song of Moses, the bondservant of God, and the song of the Lamb, and he lists you some verses there. Verse 5, after these things I looked, and the temple and the tabernacle, a testimony in heaven was opened, and seven angels, so that seven again is our complete number, who had seven plagues came out of the temple, clothed in linen, girded around with golden sashes, and one of the four living creatures gave the seven angels and seven golden bowls full of the wrath of God, who lives forever. So you've got this worship service, and then you've got now the unleashing of more wrath, which brings you to chapter 16.

Now, we've referred to chapter 16 a number of times, because chapter 16 deals with the bowl judgments. We have one particular judgment after another on men who are rejecting God. God has two sides. He has the goodness side that everybody likes and wants to talk about.

God loves everybody. And He has the wrath side. That's why His goodness is forever and His wrath is forever, because He is forever. So He's an eternal being. So whatever it is true about Him is eternal. The death of Christ on the cross held back His wrath, because God expressed His wrath on Jesus Christ on the cross.

It's when He died for the sins of the whole world. So the bad things you see happening today are not because God is causing them to happen. They're there as the consequences of the sinfulness of men. The sinfulness of men has created the consequences in the world. If men weren't sinful, you wouldn't be seeing all the stuff you're seeing on the news. But men are sinful, and there are consequences to their sin. So that is what I call, again to review, the passive wrath of God.

That is, where He doesn't do it directly, but He frees you up to reject Him, and you bear the consequence of your actions of rejection. But in the tribulation, the last seven years, it is the active wrath of God. You will see God unleashed. And when you see God unleashed, the side of Him you've never seen will be fully expressed. And that is because that is a part of His nature that was poured out on Christ. But because it was poured out on Christ, God now does not have to do that. But once this enters in, and we're in the tribulation period, then God's wrath due to rejection is expressed, and as you see, it's not a pretty picture. Or as the Scripture says, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

So malignant sores come out. The second angel, with the bowl of judgment, and the sea became blood like that of a dead man, and everything in the sea died. So now the sea is turning to blood, and sea creatures can't live in it. The third angel poured out his bowl into the rivers and the springs of water, and they became blood, so seas, rivers, springs. And I heard the angel of the water saying, Righteous are you, who are and who were, O Holy One, because you judge these things. So what is judgment? Judgment is an expression of God's righteous standard. God has a standard.

He does not lower His standard. So since God does not lower His standard, either we have to meet the standard, or we have to have a substitute who's met the standard for us. See, we're going to heaven because somebody has met the standard for us.

And when you accept Jesus, the standard has been met. But because they rejected Jesus, and not only have they rejected Him, they have now lent their allegiance to the beast, the antichrist, so they have chosen Him as their God. Once you choose Him as their God, you get what your God offers you. And since the beast is going to be judged, then of course those who follow Him are judged as well. They poured out the blood of the saints, of the prophets, and you have given them blood to drink. They deserve it. In other words, they were slaying the people who followed Christ, and now they sowing and reaping.

They're going to get back what they gave out. And I heard the altar saying, Yes, O Lord, God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments. God never judges unrighteously. In other words, He's never unfair. People are unfair. Things are unfair.

God is not unfair. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun, and it was given to it to scorch men with fire. Now, you think it's hot in Texas. So the sun will become unleashed. The sun is what, 93 million miles away from Earth? It would take you driving 100 miles an hour, 200 years to drive to the sun. It would take you 200 years to drive to the sun if you could drive a car there from planet Earth. Something that far away can heat up a whole planet.

Something that far away. And the Bible says, and all God did was call it into existence by His word. And it's been doing it for thousands and thousands of years, just consistently doing what it does. Well, on this occasion, God's going to break rank with the sun's normal activity. And it says men will be scorched with its heat. And we'll hear more of what's in store during this intense time of God's judgment and revelation when Dr. Evans continues our study in just a moment. First, though, I want to tell you about a special offer that includes this current series on Revelation, as well as Tony's newest book, Trusting God in Turbulent Times.

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That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat that contact information after part two of today's lesson and this special word from Tony. Let me start off by thanking all of our friends for how you've walked with us and stood by us all year long. We've felt your prayers, and they've made a difference in the lives of people that we've had the privilege of ministering to. And as we anticipate the new year, we want to take advantage of all the opportunities that God has brought our way for the building of strong, biblically-based families, for strengthening churches so that they are able to do the work of kingdom building God has called them to do, and for speaking into the culture. This culture needs to hear a word from God and a word that works, and that's what we're committed to do. Stand with us with your generosity and your prayers, because you know this word, a word that the world desperately needs today. Visit tonyevans.org to give.

That's tonyevans.org. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and was given the scorchment of the fire. Men were scorched with fierce heat, and they blasphemed the name of God. Now, you would have thought that if all of this is happening, I want to know what I got to do to get right with God. But that's not what's happening.

Why? Because once they take the mark of the beast, they have confirmed their allegiance. The fifth angel pours out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened, and they gnawed their tongues because of pain. So they are blaspheming the name of God while they're going through this. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates, and its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings of the east.

Ah. Remember, we've got king of the north, king of the south. We've got the antichrist, who's over the west. And then we've got the kings of the east.

That's the Orient. So these kings—and what God does is He judges the river Euphrates, which opens up—that thing is huge—which opens up now a gangway or a travel route for those armies now to descend onto the Middle East as part of the War of Armageddon. So even when God judges, He's carrying out His purposes. Verse 17, the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came from the temple, It is done. And there were flashes of lightning and sounds of pearls of thunder, and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth. So this is an earthquake like you've never seen before. So great an earthquake was it and so mighty. The great city was split in three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the Great was remembered before God to give her the cup of wine of his fierce wrath.

I'll explain that in a moment. And every island fled away, and the mountains—so this is a worldwide earthquake— and the mountains were not found, huge hailstones, about 100 pounds each. Now, in chapter 17, one of the seven angels who had come with the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here, I will show you the judgments of the great harlot who sits on many waters. The great harlot who sits on many waters. What does he mean by many waters? Look at verse 15. And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.

So when he says the waters, he's talking about the different nationalities, the different nations, and the different people groups. He says that the harlot sat over many nations with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. And he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman with clothes in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, and having in her hand a gold cup full of abomination and of the unclean things of her immorality. And on her forehead is the name written, a mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

A mother is someone who gives birth to someone. So she is the mother of this harlot, this unfaithful woman, called Babylon. That takes us all the way back to the Tower of Babel, which is the root of Babylon. The Tower of Babel was developed by a man named Nimrod.

Nimrod leads the world against God in establishing the Tower of Babel. Okay, that's in Genesis 11. God told them, God told them to go and to spread out on the earth. They said, we're not going to go and spread out on the earth. We're going to stay together and we're going to build our own civilization. We're going to build a city, civilization, and we're going to build our own tower and our tower will reach up to heaven.

So Babel is a civilization with man at the center, acting like God. So the mother of Babylon is building civilization independently of God as man seeks to replace God. That's the mother.

Mama then had some babies. One of her babies is in the book of Daniel. Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar—remember Daniel and his friends were taken to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar is the king in Babylon.

Nebuchadnezzar says, look at this great Babylon that I have built. He built a statue to himself. And remember, he demanded that Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, they all bow down and worship him. In other words, he set himself up as the image of God. And God made him go cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, remember? Made him go insane, the Bible says.

And he lost his mind trying to be God. And it was Babylon. So the mother, civilization with man at the center, has children throughout history. And in the day that Jesus lived and walked the earth, in the Roman Empire, it was the same thing. If you picked up a coin in Rome, it would acknowledge Caesar as God. And it was a world civilization. It was a civilization in Rome. They didn't mind you going to church as long as you recognized Caesar as God.

Because the followers of Christ wouldn't recognize that, and that's where the persecution came. So when we talk about Babylon, we're talking about civilization with man as the center acting like he's God. So that's the concept of Babylon. Babylon is riding on the beast. The beast is the antichrist.

Why? Because remember, the antichrist sets himself up as God. But he's a man. But he sets himself up as God, and what is he seeking to do? Build a world dictatorship, civilization with man at the center, acting like God. So the principle of Babylon is the principle of civilization with man at the center.

Homocracy, not theocracy. And whenever you dismiss God, that's exactly what you're doing. This is why, by way of application, this is why the great sin in the Bible is pride.

Because it is thinking more highly of yourself than you ought to think. It is when you place yourself as an equal with God, which is what Satan did originally, sought to build an angelic civilization without God. When you play, you have now positioned yourself to be put in your place by God, the real one.

There's only one God, and I and you are not He. And so that's the concept of Babylon. Babylon is riding on the beast. The beast is carrying it, because the beast is the one with the clout, with the power, and it's bringing now, in this case, the Roman Empire, giving it power and clout, which is why they're going to be able to defeat the armies of the north and the armies of the south, which will bring in the armies of the east, because they're piggybacking. The beast has made the empire wealthy because he's been so successful and can do all of these miracles and all of this. So it's the abominations of the earth, verse 5 says, because its influence will go that far.

It will be a worldwide tower of Babylon influence. Dr. Evans will return with a final thought to wrap up this study of Armageddon and Babylon the Great in just a moment. Before he does, though, I want to encourage you to visit tonyevans.org to take advantage of our current featured resource package that includes Tony's newest devotional book, Trusting God in Turbulent Times, and his 10-part audio series on the book of Revelation.

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That's 1-800-800-3222. Much like a long-awaited championship game, The Return of Christ in Revelation marks the ultimate showdown between good and evil. Tomorrow Dr. Evans will walk us through this powerful moment to come.

Right now, though, he's back to finish out today's broadcast with these closing words. Nobody can predict dates. Anybody can predict a date that's going against the Bible because the Bible says you can't do that. But what we can say is that it sure looks like something is going on. So all I'm trying to say is that it could be closer than you think. All of this prophecy of Revelation could be closer than you think just looking at the news.

Just looking at the news. When you see the removal of God from America, you've seen over the years, regardless of your political persuasion, the removal or the marginalization of God. The further God gets from a life, a family, a church, or a nation, the more chaos will take in that vacuum.

The more chaos. So we're seeing chaos everywhere as the natural overflow of the rejection of God. But what I want you to know is now is the time to give everything you've got to work on your rewards. If you're a Christian—if you're not a Christian, you need to get saved, accepting Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, you need to be working on your rewards out of appreciation for your salvation.

But at the same time, God is going to reward those who serve Him and are committed to Him. If you're ready to find out how to become a Christian, visit tonyevans.org and click on the link that says Jesus. Tony has posted a short video that explains it all, and you'll find some free follow-up resources there as well. As Dr. Evans just said, now is the time. Be sure to visit tonyevans.org today.