But we see that this apostate religion or apostate church or apostate group is based
on a city with seven hills.
Now, you say, "Well, you know, okay, are there other cities with seven hills?
You know, are there other cities that would fit that bill?"
People brought up Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or even Jerusalem as being places where there
are seven mountains or seven hills.
And they say, you know, "Couldn't it be a different city, a different place?"
Well, think about this for a moment, okay?
The Bible is teaching here that, you know, the great whore is on seven mountains where
the woman sitteth and is known as Mystery Babylon.
Well, if we go back to Daniel, and, you know, I did this in my sermon on Revelation 13,
but when we go back to Daniel, there's a prophecy that keeps coming up about the end times.
And some of it had to do with things that were going on back in Daniel's day.
Some of it has a futuristic application that's still to come.
But remember, the four kingdoms keep coming up over and over again.
In chapter 2, we have the image with the head of gold, and then it goes to silver, bronze,
and iron.
Those four kingdoms, if you remember the sermon on chapter 13, were Babylon, then the Medo-Persian
Empire, then Greece, and then Rome, okay?
And when we saw the Antichrist or the beast having seven heads and ten horns in Revelation
13, that beast is described as having, you know, the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear,
and it's likened into a leopard, a bear, and a lion, and it's those four same kingdoms
that we saw described in Daniel 7.
I'm not going to re-preach the chapter 13 sermon, but we see that Babylon and Rome are
connected, aren't they?
If we think about it, and we see that these four beasts of Daniel 7, the lion representing
Babylon, the bear representing the Medo-Persian Empire, the leopard representing Greece, and
then the fourth beast was the dreadful beast that was unlike the others, that crushed everything
with iron, that was the Roman Empire, okay.
So we see that in Revelation 13, in the end times, the one world government that emerges
is like an amalgamation of all four beasts, from Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman
Empire, all combined into one, okay.
So therefore, there is a link that ties in Babylon with Rome more so than with Jerusalem
or with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for example, okay.
We see that there is a biblical strong connection in the book of Daniel between Babylon and
Rome.
Here's why.
Because at one time, Babylon was the empire that ruled over the civilized world, right.
And when Babylon ruled over the civilized world, there was a man at its head who basically
thought of himself higher than he ought to have thought, and there's a great image made,
and people had to worship that image in Daniel chapter three.
And if they wouldn't worship the image, what happens to them?
They're going to be killed, right.
Okay, what happens in Revelation 13?
The Antichrist, the man who's the head of that global government, he basically has an
image made.
If you don't worship the image, you're going to be killed.
It's exactly like what we saw in Daniel chapter three.
So the Babylonian Empire was a precursor or a foreshadowing of the global government that's
going to come in the end times, and King Nebuchadnezzar foreshadowed the Antichrist as being a leader
that's commanding you to worship his image or die.
So we see that connection, don't we?
Then we also see the connection between Rome and the global government at the end times
because when Jesus Christ came on his first coming, the Roman Empire was there, ruling
and reigning over the world at that time.
The leaders of the Roman Empire thought of themselves as God.
They thought of themselves as greater than just a normal human being, and they also caused
people to be killed for their beliefs, and so thrown to the lions and so forth.
So we can see a very strong connection between Babylon and Rome, and those are both used
as pictures or symbols of this global government in the end time.
So we see, yes, a global government in the end time, but we also see a global religion,
a universal religion, a one world religion.
Now don't mistake this, because we don't want you to think that I'm saying, "Hey, in the
end times everybody's going to become Catholic, and the Antichrist is going to be the next
Pope or something."
I don't believe that, okay?
Because I believe that the one world religion in the end time is going to include more than
just the Catholic Church.
That's why I think sometimes people get too carried away when they're looking at Revelation
17.
They get so fixated on the imagery and the symbolism and the link with the Catholic Church
that they misunderstand the fact, "Wait a minute, this isn't just the Catholic Church.
This is the global false religion that's going to be around the Antichrist, okay, or that's
going to basically put the Antichrist into power.
There's going to be other apostate Christians that join with the Catholic Church in believing
this.