Revelation 17:1-13 - In Depth - Pastor Chuck Smith - Bible Studies

Let's move on to chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation, in chapter 16, under the seventh cup of God's wrath that is poured out on the Earth with a great earthquake, it is declared that the great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give him the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath, so in chapter 17 one of the Seven Angels, no doubt one of the angels who was pouring out these vials of the wrath of God upon the Earth, who had the seven vials, spoke with me and said to me, come here and I will show you the Judgment of the great one who sits on many Waters with whom the kings Kings of the Earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the Earth have become drunk with the wine of their fornication so he took me in the spirit.

In the desert and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of names of blasphemy, that is, the Beast is full of names of blasphemy that had seven heads and 10 horns that describe the Beast and the woman was dressed in purple and scarlet color. and adorned with gold and precious stones and Pearls having in her hand a golden cup full of Abominations and filthiness of her fornication and on her forehead was written a mystery name Babylon the great the mother of the harlots and Abominations of the Earth and I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the Saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I marveled with great amazement and the angel told me why you wonder, I will tell you the mystery of the woman and the Beast that leads to the which has the seven heads and 10 horns after the flood and Noah and his family abandoned the ark, they settled on the Babylonian plain and that is why it is generally accepted that Babylon was the cradle of civilization, it was not long after the flood, but that man began to become corrupt again and the Bible records in Genesis that back in Babylon they decided that they would build a tower the translation reach to heaven is an unfortunate translation in that we thought they were trying to build it so high that Could you know how to go up to heaven that not the idea at all?

The idea of ​​building the tower was a place where they could communicate with the gods, they were pantheists and there really was the birth of all the systems of false religion that have infected man throughout their history, the belief in reincarnation and that if If you were good enough you would be reincarnated in a higher order and some men who were very good were reincarnated as stars and so they were able to exert a tremendous influence on the people of Earth and of course all the influence depends on what time of year you were born, what stars were rising in ascendancy etc., and what constellations were dominant at the time of your birth and therefore these ascended types of Masters or people ascended to the god. evolutionary spiral of man or in the product of um.

The Reincarnation now reincarnated in God has a tremendous influence, so they began to develop the astrological charts and all the horror Scopes and so on, and that was really the purpose of these towers was Study the heavens and develop this concept of the influence that the heavens have on your life, on your personality, your personality characteristics, etc. There in Babylon there was a woman named Simaris, she supposedly had a son born of a virgin whom she called. nimrod IM Rod is mentioned in the Book of Genesis and again it is an unfortunate translation, a powerful hunter before the Lord, but that is not a good connotation in Hebrew, this man was considered evil and was in fact evil according to the legends Nimrod, who was born in December.

Number 25 was hunting wild boars when he was attacked by a wild boar which gored him and he died or uh, the Havalina type of wild boar, his body supposedly remained there for 3 days, after which his life returned and he began to be worshiped and celebrated and His resurrected life was celebrated here by coloring eggs in the spring of the year because eggs are a symbol of perpetuated life, birds and chickens hatching from eggs and reptiles, etc. It is a symbol of perpetuated life and therefore the celebration of his supposed Resurrection from the dead and so it came to pass that over the years under different names as he moved from country to country he became astart and became Diana of the Ephesians this woman known as the mother of God was worshiped and her son Nimrod who was known as the Son of God and of course the worship of her name was changed in different countries but the basic concepts and worship were the same, It would appear that Satan was creating a counterfeit long before Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and in Babylon all false religious systems arose throughout the world when there was the divine placement of tongues and people were scattered across the face of the Earth. at the time of the construction of this Tower in Babylon.

It is interesting that this Babylonian religion once the basic concepts were carried around the world so when studying from an anthropological point of view the religions of the Inca Indians of the ancient Chinese of those of ancient India and even of some of the primitive cultural groups that still exist in some of the In remote areas of the world today there is enough similarity in their cults that dictates that they had a common origin, their ideas, their concepts, their religious beliefs are similar enough to bear witness of a common origin now as we come to the Book of Revelation and as we delve into this mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, from a biblical point of view, any false worship by an individual is considered by God as fornication , you see, God created you, God created you so that you could have communion with God, our communion with God creates. within us that worship of God man was made to worship there is something innate within us that we were simply made to worship and if you don't worship God you are worshiping something some guys worship their girlfriends some worship their cars but we are simply made for worship is that we are creatures of worship but the worship of anything other than God is a perversion of that very nature of man that is why God classified it as pornea or fornication or spiritual adultery you belong to God you are his by creative rights God He created you therefore you belong to Him and to use your life and your body for any purpose other than worshiping God and serving God is taking what belongs to God and using it for another purpose.

The Bible often speaks in a husband and wife relationship in that God and his people are concerned about Jesus and the church is spoken of in a marriage type relationship, the church is the bride of Christ united to him and as the bride of Christ our love must be supreme towards him and love something greater than ours, love for him is adultery in that sense that if I love any other woman older than my wife, if I had another woman other than my wife I would be committing adultery. so for you to be carrying with some other God some Another passion of the Master in your life other than Jesus Christ from a spiritual point of view is adultery or fornication and that is why we read these terms as often as God condemns the man who worships to false gods.

God uses the analogy of marriage and, uh, with Israel when they started. worshiping other gods bowing down and uh moak and Mammon and all God speaks to them as being an unfaithful wife becoming a harlot committing fornication in a spiritual sense Mark said religion was the opium of the people I think he was right I think religion is the opium of people around the world people are very religious religious and even those who profess to be atheists are religious their religion is atheism humanism and humanism is a religion evolutionary theories are a religious system of beliefs requires tremendous acts of faith and in in most cases blind faith to believe the theories the time has come when God must judge the false religious systems now unfortunately many of these false religious systems were incorporated into the church and came under the guise of Christianity now the Beast here represents, of course, the state, the government, the woman represents the religious system.

Note that in the figure here, when John sees that the woman is writing about the Beast, there is and has been a conflict regarding the rule over man, whether the man is ruled by the state or by a religious system. There were times when the church sought to rule the state and there is constant conflict between whether the church is ruled by the state or the church rules over the state. I don't believe that is God's intention nor has it ever been God's intention. for the church to rule over the state that will not take place until Jesus Christ comes to rule, but there is that conflict and between the church and the state, but also between the religious systems and the state, because look at the big problems in India today in day, the searches and Hindus sought to rule Pakistan because it was basically Muslim, separate from India, it was religious and many of the conflicts in the world come from religion.

False religious systems basically in religion have man's effort to reach God. If I were to draw an image of religion I would draw a round circle that represents the planet Earth, I would put a little man on it with his hands raised towards the sky and you have the image of religion, is the man standing here on earth trying to reach God starting with an earth base and basically there you have the Tower of Babel, since they decided that they were going to build a tower that would reach heaven, that is the heart of religion, start with an earth base and try to reach God, but you have a problem.

How can an infinite man, starting with an earthly base, build a bridge to the Infinite to touch God, to reach God? It cannot be done and that is why all religions are doomed to failure. They cannot satisfy man because they cannot bring him to God. they can make their promises now Buddha said look, your only problem, man, is that you have all these material desires and you don't realize that material things are bad, the material world is bad and as long as you have material desires, you will be bad. In the midst of confusion, you will get angry, you will never have peace if you want to reach this state of Nirvana, this state of consciousness where everything is just peace and bliss, you must get rid of your desire for material things, food is material, etc.

Among the material things that you must lose the desire for is the desire for food and of course, ultimately, if you reach the highest level of Buddhism, you will no longer eat and they do periodic fasts to see if they have lost the desire to eat. . The food is tragic because I have never met a Buddhist who has achieved nervana. It is always a hope that one day maybe you will enter the realm of pure Spirit, you know, get rid of the material, dissociate yourself from the material when you can enter the realm of pure Spirit of Po.

You have entered Nirvana and you have achieved it now. Christianity is in direct opposition to religion in the sense that Christianity teaches that God seeks to reach man, it is not man who seeks God. In Christianity you have God seeking man. begins with an earth base trying to reach the infinite God begins from the infinite God reaching the finite man because God loved the world so much that he gave his only begotten son God initiating God reaching out to man now where I can see the difficulty and the impossibility that the finite man can reach and touch the infinite God I have no problem with an infinite God being able to touch the finite man, an infinite God can do anything and there would be no problem for the infinite God to touch the finite man that according to the scriptures God made through Jesus Christ the Word became flesh and dwelt among us as John said what was from the beginning what we have seen what we have heard what we have touched God became touchable as the word dwelt among men but not man reaching to God God reaching man God the initiator man the responder now unfortunately even within the church corruption and religion began to establish themselves in religion always likes to establish ritual forms methodologies while when the woman of Samaria asked Jesus about of God and how to touch God or find God Jesus said that God is spirit and those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth but man developed through religions the formulas, rituals and so on through which one could touch God or you could commune with God and unfortunately it invaded the church. religion prays about the people and about the people's desires for God it takes advantage of them it makes merchandise out of them and unfortunately the church in so many areas became religious and began to make merchandise out of the people it exploits the people it develops the rituals and thus it has time come in the Book of Revelation here where this mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, religious systems must be judged now this entire religious system comes riding on the Beast, it is not long before the Beast is turn against it and seek to destroy it. the conflict of church and state again or religion in the state and the Beast turns to try to destroy it, it will go further down the line, but the Beast is identified as having seven heads and 10 horns, so this Beast identified we know it from Daniel. will be the final world ruling power because inDaniel had a vision of the kingdoms that were to rule the world beginning with the Kingdom of Babylon which was conquered by the Persian Empire MEO which was conquered by the Greek Empire which was conquered by the The Roman Empire and the Roman Empire were this Beast that could not describe and from this Beast came 10 horns, the Beast had seven heads and from it came 10 horns, so the final world ruling Empire will be a kind of Rebirth of the Roman Empire. or the United Nations, the European nations that federate together to form a powerful military-political bloc;

Today we see in Europe that formation of several governments together in what is known as the European community and you go to Europe and you see the Euro card, you see the Euro Mart and there is this unification of the European States and really everything is part of the prophetic image in the Bible that sets the stage for the final world empire that dominates the The resurgence of the Roman Empire and that is why the woman dressed in scarlet purple has been writing about this entire system of the Antichrist because the Antichrist will ultimately control this beast and that is why you have the beast in two forms: the Beast is known as the kingdom. which is the Federation of the 10 Nations, but the Beast is also known as an individual and therefore, whether you are not talking about the individual known as the Antichrist or the Kingdom from which he rises and reigns, you can Solo I say this from the context of Scripture, so as John looked at this whole scene and stood there in amazement, the angel said, “Why are you amazed?” I will tell you the mystery.

I will tell you what is the secret of this woman and the Beast that carries her that has seven heads and 10 horns, the Beast that you saw was and is not and will ascend from the abyss and will go to the prediction and those who inhabit the Earth will wonder whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world when you behold the Beast that was and is not and yet now it is here is the mind that has wisdom the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits and There are seven Kings, five have fallen, one is and the other has not yet come and when he comes he must continue for a short space and the Beast that was and is not even he is the eighth and is of the seven and enters into prediction thus the description of the Beast and the Lord is a little cryptic, but still the Lord says now you know, here is wisdom, find out and gives us some clues to work with, first of all, the Beast that John saw did exist, it does not exist now, but is going to ascend. of the Abyss now earlier in the study and some of you were not here in the first part of our study, but in the first part of our study we read where an angel came from heaven or a star that fell from heaven instead of having the key of abuse the abyss the abyss is a well and that is what it is about the literal meaning of the word abuse is a well a well that evidently goes from the surface of the earth to the interior of the earth to what is called Hades which is in the center of the earth while Hades is the place of imprisonment for the evil dead this abuse is the place of imprisonment for evil spirits probably those fallen angels who rebelled with Satan and joined him when he rebelled against God's authority in The gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus coming with his disciples to the country of the Gines, this is across the Sea of ​​Galilee from Capernium to the far north and the city of Gadera and there he lived in the tombs outside the city of gadera a man who was possessed with evil spirits who was extremely fierce no one could pass through that path or he beat them they tried to chain this man but he broke the extremely powerful chains under the control of these demonic spirits and when Jesus and the disciples landed on his small On the boat this man came down in a threatening manner and Jesus told the demons what are the names of the demons that possess this man and they responded Legion we are many and then he says that They begged Jesus not to send them to abuse before. time and there was a herd of pigs nearby that were grazing there on the hillside and Jesus gave them freedom to go and they went towards the pigs and the pigs panicked and ran towards the sea and drowned, but they knew that in the end they were going to go. being imprisoned in this place called abuse the abyss translated in our Bibles the pit or the bottomless pit is interesting when the Beast that John saw to be is not living at this moment when he enters the scene he is going to ascend from the abuse but then he is going to be sent to Gehenna now Gehenna is the place the final home for Satan and all who have chosen to follow him Jesus in Matthew 25 when he comes to judge the nation says depart from me you workers of iniquity to the fires of Gehenna that were prepared for Satan and his angels and those who choose to follow Satan those who choose to ally themselves with him will be thrown into Gehenna with him, that is the ultimate end of those who have chosen to rebel against the authority of God.

Jesus describes it as the place of outer darkness where there is weeping, groaning and gnashing of teeth and Jesus said that where the worm does not die, Gehenna is described in Revelation as a lake burning with fire and smoke ascending forever and ever. centuries, you can make of that what you want. I personally leave it alone. I don't try to modify it, understand it or explain it, and I just tell you what the Scripture says and you can do with it what you want, whether people suffer eternally there or not. I don't know, it would seem to indicate that there are other scriptures that indicate that there could be destruction.

Don't know. I don't mess with that. No. I don't go into that area because the Bible says that if you add to the words of this book, the plagues that are in the book will be added to you, so I'm not going to waste time and add things to it, and if you take away the words from this prophecy, your name will be removed. from the book of life and so I don't get confused, you can add and remove if you want, but not only did the Lord leave it to me, then he begins to identify himself a little more completely, then he speaks about the Seven Hills, here is the mind that has wisdom, the seven heads are the seven mountains on which the woman sits the historians the early historians always identified and tacus and others, especially those who wrote about the time when John was writing in that period always referred to Rome as the city of the Seven Hills then The Lord is giving us now the city of Rome is the place where the woman sits the seven heads are the seven mountains there are seven Kings five have fallen One now there must be another who you see will reign for a short period but the eighth is one of the seven there were seven main emperors of Rome now the Beast that you saw was and is not It will ascend out of abuse it will go to Gehenna it would seem that there is wisdom here.

It would seem that the Beast the Antichrist will be one of the five Roman emperors who had reigned before John wrote the Book of Revelation and the closest candidate you can think of would be Caesar Nero when Caesar Nero began ruling. During the Roman Empire he was a pretty decent man, but there came a time when there was a change in the man's life where he became as if he were possessed. That change in Nero, according to historians, when you combine it with a biblical account that changes. It took place right around the time he met the apostle Paul, remember when Paul was receiving the royal escape in Caesaria from Phus?

The governor of the Roman government, Paul, said, I appeal to Caesar, you know that you guys, do not give me any more evasion, I appeal to Caesar, that was the right of every Roman citizen and that is why he said: you have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you will go, and that is why Paul was sent to Caesar. We now know that every judge Paul appeared before strove to convert to Christianity. Paul would put his testimony on him man, I used to hate Jesus, I used to hate, you know, these people that followed him and I was determined to exterminate them, but man, I met the Lord and he gave him a testimony and it seems that the higher The person's position was more difficult than the Tes that Paul imposed on him, so when he finally reached the King of Grippa he said: "Oh, I consider it a real privilege, King of Grippa, to share with you what happened to me, you know, because I know". you understand the scriptures, you know the prophecies and everything, you've studied the scriptures and so I'm very excited to have this opportunity to share them with you and as Paul was sharing with the grippa, I'm sure in Paul's heart he was thinking , man.

If he could turn this guy, what influence could he have, you know, ruling this whole area, wow, and Paul gave him a hard time and Paul started approaching the guy, they call him a supposed clothing salesman, he said, Agrippa. believe in the scriptures, I know you believe in the scriptures and when Paul started to put these heavy clothes on Fesus, finally Craw shouted and says Paul, your great learning has driven you crazy and Agria said you almost persuaded me to become a Christian. Paul said man. I wish he could do it now, when he appeared before Nero, what do you think he thought?

Boy, if he could turn this guy, I mean, this is the top guy, you know, and if I can get him, I can imagine Paul spent a lot of time. time in prayer knowing that he was going to appear before Nero and I imagine that when he appeared before Nero the power of the spirit of God was working powerfully in the heart of that guy, Paul probably gave him a testimony that he did not renounce and Nero when he found himself face Faced with the claims of Jesus Christ he had to make a decision and unfortunately his decision was wrong, he rejected it and at that same moment historically is when he had a complete Personality change, he released Paul and Paul went on to Ephesus and ministered to the saints and everything, but they arrested him again and Nero then beheaded him, but Nero became almost manic, he became manic in his persecution of the church, he would take Christians and tie them to posts in his garden, cover them with tar. and illuminated their bodies at night and drove his chariot through the gardens with the lights on by the screaming naked burning Christians he went crazy and of course he is best known for playing the violin while Rome burned, he set fire to Rome, he wanted rebuild Rome, so he thought the best way to do it was to just burn down Rome and then he would have a chance to rebuild a madman.

I think he became possessed by a demon. I believe a horrible demon took control of Nero's life. I think that demon that took control of Nero's life and it's interesting that the whole early church called Nero the Beast because he was so terribly maniacally severe in his persecution of the church in the murder of Christians in such cruel and inhuman ways that the Lions and the whole thing spilled over into Rex. I mean he was horrible, you can read in Fox's book of Martyrs some of the things he did, the incredible atrocities. I believe that that same demon that took control of Nero's body is imprisoned in the abuse and will come out of the abuse and imprison the ruler of this 10-Nation European Federation, so in a sense it will be Caesar Nero, the demon that possessed him, will possess this man.

It is interesting that the name Caesar Nero in Hebrew adds up to 666 and we are given that identity of the Beast, the former number of a man. It is the number 666, so the Lord seeks to identify them and again notices that he was, it is not Caesar, Nero was dead when John wrote this, there was another Roman emperor after this one, the eighth, the one who will return was one. of the seven, but he was one of the previous five before John wrote, then goes on to declare that the 10 horns you saw are 10 Kings who have not yet received the Kingdom, but who have received power as kings for one hour with the Beast .

So when the European Community finally unites to take over as the dominant world power, the rulers of these 10 nations will unite and rule with the Beast for one hour and these will be the ones who will make war on the lamb, but the lamb defeat them because he is the Lord of lords and King of kings we will get to that next week this final conflict the victory of Jesus Christ let me tell you that the church is not perfect there is a lot of Babylon that has infiltrated the church and I am glad that the

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Don't tell us to believe in the church because that would be hard.

The Bible tells us to believe in Jesus Christ. There are charlatans in all fields. There are corrupt and perverse men in all areas and Jesus. Jesus warned that not everyone who says Lord, Lord, will enter. to the Kingdom of Heaven There are men disguised as Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ they were there in the scriptures Paul wrote about them in the scriptures he said I testify that their God is their womb in other words they are living for themselves they really do not have a true heart to the min and for the people but they are living for themselves Paul warned against them they existed then they exist now there are those men who every time they see the body of Christ or the flock the Sheep the only thing they can think about is plucking the flock a true Shepherd is interested in feeding God's flock the false Shepherd will try to fleece God's flock because he is so careful that The red flags go off every time you hear a man tell you that God needs your money, that God has bankrupted him and that he is going going to bankruptcy court next week if you don't bail him out.

God is not ruined. God is not about bankruptcy. he is doing very wellthank you he doesn't need your support you need his support I wouldn't want to serve a God I had to support I couldn't trust him much if I had to support him to keep him out of bankruptcy we need his support we depend on him he doesn't depend on us man If God depended on us he would be in big trouble but we depend on Him daily for our strength and our health for our lives and so be it. Be on the lookout when someone comes and is interested in your portfolio and is really pushing for funds.

Peter said that one of the signs of false prophets is that with their elegant speeches and their deceitful words they will try to make a commodity of you, they will send you away. outside All selling magazines or they will put you on the corner selling flowers or in the parking lot selling peanuts they will make merchandise out of you they will try and F you are a sign of a false prophet Peter said but don't be discouraged because the counterfeits are there again God didn't ask you to believe in him preacher God did not ask you to believe in the church he asked you to believe in the Bible and to believe in his son Jesus Christ and the fact that counterfeits exist is only proof that genuine exists because if you do not have a genuine relationship, there is no nothing to fake and you can have a genuine relationship with God, but it is not achieved by works, it cannot be achieved by following a system of regulations, rules and rituals that you do not have. lean a certain way or wear a certain type of clothing and isn't it so sad that so many people that you associate with, you know their relationship with God, like you know the type of clothing that a group of people wear.

I used to think it was a sin to have buttons so they had hooks and eyes, you know they were called The Hook and Ires. Religious things, you won't find God in religion, but you can have a genuine relationship with God through Jesus Christ and that is what God is calling to you, he is reaching out to you tonight, he is offering you the gift of eternal life. and those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth and you can have a spiritual relationship with God if you simply give your life to Jesus.

Christ and I encourage you to do so you will be eternally grateful, let us pray thank you Father for your word that is capable of dividing between the soul and the spirit and Lord we pray that your word is divided between what is only of the psyche. and what is genuinely of the spirit so many people trying to work on our emotions oh God, you want to work on our spirit and Lord, work in us, thank you Lord for loving us, thank you Lord for coming close to us and oh God, help us. us so that we can worship you and serve you as you want us to, not in some way devised by man God, we do not want to be guilty of spiritual fornication or adultery, we want to be pure, Lord, in our worship of you, so guide us. by your Spirit Lord and draw us by your spirit to yourself in the name of Jesus we pray amen God bless you