Now look, we are looking at Revelation 17 and by far out of all the chapters of the book
Revelation, this is the one that I've spent most time studying, thinking, challenging my
preconceived ideas. And it's quite a challenging chapter. I don't think it's the hardest chapter,
but it's definitely a challenging chapter and it's very deep. And so look, I've got, I normally
have two or three pages of notes. I've got five pages of notes. I'm going to do my best for this
not to be a two hour sermon. I'll do my best, very best. So look, if there are references that
I turn to and you can't keep up, that's fine. You can always go back and listen to the sermon later
on and get the references, but look at Revelation 17 verse number five. It says, and upon her
forehead was a name written mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of
the earth. The title of the sermon this morning is Babylon, the great Babylon, the great.
Now, um, over the years, I've heard many different interpretations of who Babylon is,
different opinions that are out there. Um, some of the, the one that I heard the most growing up
in a, in a, in the Christian world, in the Baptist world is that Babylon here is a Roman
Catholic church. That's the one I've heard of the most. Um, the one that was preached maybe six
months ago, roughly by pastor Stevenson, um, here at this church was he gave his opinion that
Babylon is Jerusalem. And obviously there were going to be various other, I've heard, you know,
that Babylon is the United States and, and things like that. And I look, I'm not going to give you
necessarily a sad, I don't know if it's going to be a satisfying answer to you that I'm going to
give you today. I can't tell you that I know who the city is specifically as we live in 2024,
because a lot is going to change in the geopolitical world, even when we enter into
these seven years. And so Babylon, essentially, I don't think we can necessarily know for certain
who Babylon is. And even those that have different varying views will say, well,
you know, going, you know, a hundred years from now, 200 years from now, things can change. And
obviously we're looking at events of the world today, and we're assessing that and trying to
fit that with the scriptures that we see, uh, in the Bible, but we don't know when all this
is going to take place. What is this? What is 500 years from now? We have, you know, again,
the, the, the, the climate of the world can be very, very different. And so just very quickly,
because past and past seems a different of mine. I'm not trying to have a go at him or anything
like that. But one of the reasons I don't believe, I don't believe it can be Jerusalem
is if you backtrack to revelation 16, before we get to revelation 17, revelation 16, verse 19,
it says, and the great city. And let me stop there. As we've been going through the book of
revelation, the great city has already been identified for us as Jerusalem. And it says
the great city was divided into three parts. And so the city gets broken up during the, the, the,
the seventh Bible and the earthquakes and what have you. And so this city is already suffering,
the wrath of God. And then it says, and the cities of the nations fail. So these are all
the other cities essentially around the world. And then it says, and great Babylon came in
remembrance before God to give unto her the cup of the wine or the fierceness of his wrath.
And so God has not yet poured out his wrath on Babylon. God has not done that, but it's come to
his remembrance. Now, this is the next stage of my wrath to destroy Babylon, but we've already
seen that the great city, which is Jerusalem has already been divided into three parts.
And leading up to this, it's already been, uh, there was already two witnesses preaching,
you know, that they were essentially pouring out God's wrath. We fire coming out of the mouth and
they were preaching in Jerusalem. And so Jerusalem has already played a significant role in the end
times events. Now, after the seventh vial is being poured out, now, God says, Babylon has
come to his remembrance. Now it's time for him to pour out his wrath on Babylon. And so just by
the narrative of the end times and the chronology of the end times, I do not believe this can be
Jerusalem. All right. The other thing that's quite interesting is that when it comes to this
end times Babylon, this end times Babylon is brought to desolation within an hour.
And when it comes to Jerusalem, uh, the, the desolation of Jerusalem begins at the midpoint
of the seven year period and its desolation continues for 42 months or three and a half
years. And so I don't see how they can be lining up as one of the same thing. The other thing
about, um, uh, Babylon is that when it comes to end times Babylon, this is not the only time in
the Bible that we learn about this end times Babylon. In fact, if you read through the old
Testament, um, Babylon and the destruction of Babylon, as far as an end times prophecy
gets brought up numerous times, and probably the most famous ones that I'm familiar with
is Jeremiah 51 and Isaiah 13. You can read this in your own time. These are judgments that fell
upon Babylon of that day, prophecies of Babylon of that day. But if you read Jeremiah 51 and Isaiah
13, it's very clear that then God is using that as a type of end times Babylon and the destruction
that's going to come. And in both of those references, it says when Babylon is destroyed,
it will never be inhabited ever again. And the reason this can't be Jerusalem is because no
matter what happens to Jerusalem in the end times, there are so many scriptures. I can't even name
them all where it teaches that Jesus Christ is going to rule from Jerusalem in his thousand year
kingdom reign. And so if it's a place that will never be populated ever again, it cannot be
Jerusalem because for a thousand years Christ is ruling from that very city. And so what about all
this other similarities that are between, you know, the references to Jerusalem and end times
Babylon? And I'll give that, yes, there are many similarities. There are a lot of parallels with
Jerusalem and end times Babylon, but just because there are parallels doesn't mean it's the one and
the same thing. For example, I can show you the dragon in Revelation chapter 12, which has seven
heads, seven heads and 10 horns. And that's the dragon. And then I can show you those parallels.
In the beast, in the next chapter, Revelation 13, where the beast or the Antichrist kingdom has
seven heads and 10 horns. And while there are parallels and there are similarities,
obviously we won't turn around and say that the Antichrist or the beast is the same person as
Satan. We would say, well, there are parallels, there are similarities,
yet they are different entities. And so just because there are, you know, I mean,
think of the definition of parallel. You know, yes, they are headed, there are similarities
in the sense of the direction that parallels are headed, but the other definition of parallels,
these are two lines that will never meet. Okay. So, you know, just because you find parallels
doesn't actually mean that confirms that to be true, you know, or to say, well,
there are similarities. Therefore it must be the one and the same thing. Now I'm not going to spend
my time. I could preach a whole sermon on why it's not Jerusalem. I don't want to do that.
I want to focus on the passages that we see here in Revelation 17. So let's start there in verse
number one, it says, um, and there came one of the seven angels, which had the seven vials and
talked with me, saying unto me, come hither. I will show unto thee the judgment of the great hall
that sitteth upon many waters. Now the word hall is the word we would use today as prostitute.
Okay. And so this is something we need to consider when we talk about this Babylon, it's a hall,
it's a prostitute. Okay. It's a, you know, and I'm sorry that I've got to go into a bit of detail
here, but obviously it's described as a woman that you pay for her services. You have no love
for her. And once you've used her, well, obviously we shouldn't do that as God's people, but that's
what a prostitute is, right? Once she's used for her services, she's discarded. She's not loved.
She's not taken care of. That's the idea of what a prostitute is. And that's why God uses the term
hall to describe this great city. And then it continues in verse number two, and which it says
here with whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of
the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. All right. So you can see here
that there are different governments and authorities and leaders across the earth
that have used the great hall, you know, use her services, but really don't really have any great
love for the system or the, the, the city of Babylon. Now let's understand who this woman is
very quickly dropped down to verse number 18. It says in verse number 18, and the woman which
thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the Kings of the earth. And so now we understand
who this woman is. The woman is a city. It's now again, it's mentioned as the great city,
but I want you to understand the great city before was a picture in Jerusalem, but now the attention
has brought toward another great city, that city being Babylon. But I just want to show you that
this woman, you know, is obviously not a literal woman, but this whole chapter is very symbolic.
Okay. And when it comes to symbolism, this is where it gets really deep. And sometimes we have
to go beyond the realms of what the Bible says, just to paint a picture of what we're seeing.
But I want to be careful. So you understand the difference between what the Bible says and what
my opinion is on these matters. Now we also saw in revelation 17, verse one, that this woman,
this great hall sits upon many waters. So let's understand what the many waters are.
Look at verse number 15, verse 15, it says, and he's safe unto me, the waters, which thou sawest
where the whole city are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And so if she reigns over
the Kings of the earth, she's also raining over multitudes, nations, tongues. So what we see is
this woman is a great kingdom on the earth. Okay. So many nations under her authority,
it's a great kingdom on the earth. Now I also want you to remember that when God speaks of kingdoms,
many times he also refers to them by the capital city or even by the King that is ruling in that
kingdom. Many times in the Bible, it's essentially all one and the same idea. Okay. And so while it
is a city, like think of Babylon, think of Babylon in the Old Testament days. Okay. We know that as
the Babylonian empire. Okay. Uh, or even the Chaldean empire, some people refer to it as,
as that, but we know that it's capital city. The reason it's called the Babylonian empire
is because the capital city was Babylon. Okay. But obviously the empire reached beyond the
capital city. Okay. And then sometimes we also know of the, of the empire as Nebuchadnezzar
because Nebuchadnezzar the King is the most prominent King that we read about that ruled
in the Babylonian empire. All right. So it's an end times Babylon. It's an end times empire
that is ruling over pretty much the entire earth. Okay. Now we get more information about this
woman. Verse number three, it says, so he carried me away in the spirit, in the spirit into the
wilderness. And I saw a woman sits upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and 10 horns. So this gets repeated. This beast that she sits on
is given a color scarlet, full names of blasphemy. Like this should not be new to us. This is not new
information to us. If you quickly go back to Revelation 13, come with me to Revelation 13
and verse number one, Revelation 13 and verse number one.
So this beast is full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and 10 horns.
And in Revelation 13, verse number one, it says, and I stood upon the sand of the sea
and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and 10 horns and upon his horns,
10 crowns and upon his heads, the name of blasphemy. So you can see it's the same beast
that we read about there in Revelation 17. Let's keep going there verse number two.
And the beast, which I saw was like unto a leopard and his feet were as the feet of a bear
and his mouth as the mouth of a lion and the dragon gave him his power and his seats and
great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death and his deadly wound
was healed and all the world wondered after the beast. All right. So we also see that this, this,
this kingdom that we see here with the 10 horns and the seven heads also applies to the man,
the antichrist, who's going to die and come back to life. And the reason it's got names full of
blasphemy is you may recall when the antichrist comes back from the dead at the midst points of
the week, he starts to blaspheme the name of God. He starts to refer to himself as the God above
all gods. And so obviously he's blaspheming against the God of the Bible. All right,
come back with me to Revelation 17, Revelation 17. So you can see that the woman represents the
city. The beast that she sits on represents a kingdom. Okay. And again, we have those
seven heads, 10 horns. All right. Now let's keep going there verse number four. It says,
and the woman was arrayed in purple and Scarlet color and decks with gold and precious stones and
pearls. So she's a very wealthy city. So it's having a golden cup in her hand, full of
abominations and filthiness of her fornication. So now we understand what the symbolism of being a
prostitute and a fornicator of the Kings of the earth represents. The Kings will fornicate with
her in the sense that her service, what she provides, obviously she's very rich. So the Kings
of the earth are paying into her. You know, this might be where the global banking system is
located during these end times where these payments are being funneled into her and her
service in return is a cup full of abomination and filthiness. So, you know, she's essentially
polluting and destroying the earth. Okay. She's bringing all kinds of immoral wickedness,
and we're going to see later on, not only is she a very immoral, you know, world effect,
city effect in the entire world, but she's also responsible for killing the believers that we
read about in the great tribulation. All right. So there are benefits to the hall. Okay. Though
the Kings funnel money into her, she's very wealthy. And then she with her power affects
the world in a negative sense. Okay. Verse number five and upon her forehead was a name written
mystery Babylon, the great, the mother of harlots, the abominations of the earth.
Now it's very interesting that, you know, she's referred to as Babylon, the great for me,
this is the biggest signifier of who this city represents. Okay. Now I've already said to you
that when you read through our old Testament prophecy and even today Babylon, like earthly
Babylon in Iraq is desolate, like a desolation. Okay. It's not populated. What God prophesied
is correct. But again, I explained that that, you know, very, if you read those chapters,
it's very clear that it's a type, a shadow of the future Babylon of the end times.
Now, when we read about Babylon, we should automatically think about, you know, the,
the Southern King of Judah being taken into captivity by the great empire of Babylon in
those days. So let's go to Daniel chapter two, come with me to Daniel chapter two and verse
number one, Daniel chapter two and verse number one, Daniel chapter two. And let's start there
in verse number one. And we're talking about a time when yes, Babylon was at its peak and we
had people like Daniel, great man of God, you know, being taken, he was taken captive out of
his land, away from his family. And he was serving in Babylon. He was serving the King of Babylon.
And in Daniel chapter two, verse number one, it says, and in the second year of the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar dream dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep
break from him. And the King commanded to call the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers
and the Chaldeans for to show the King his dreams. So they came and stood before the King.
And the King said unto them, I have dreamed the dream and my spirit was troubled to know the
dream. All right. So King Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon has this great dream and is bothered,
the dream bothers him. He wants to know the answer. Well, let's drop down to verse number 19.
It says, then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision.
And then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, this is important.
Blessed be the name of God forever and ever and wisdom and might are his. Verse number 21 is
important. God's given him the interpretation of the dream. Okay. He's just received the
interpretation of the dream. He says these words in verse number 21. And he, speaking of God,
changeth the times and the seasons. He removeth kings instead of up kings. He giveth wisdom
unto the wise and knowledge to them that no understanding. So verse number 21, he's speaking
about himself, that God has given him wisdom, wisdom for the wise. God has revealed to Daniel
what the dream is and the interpretation of the dream. But not only that, notice how he said
about God, he removed the Kings and set up up Kings. This is because he's just, I get what the
dream is about, which is about setting up Kings and removing Kings, changes of kingdoms, changes
of authority is what this prophecy or not that this a dream is about. And look at verse number
22. He revealeth the deep and secret things. He knoweth what is in the darkness and the light
dwelleth with him. All right. So Daniel's got the answer. He's going to the King to give the answer
to the dream. We could drop down to verse number 31. 31, he begins to give the King the answer.
Thou, O king, sorest and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent,
stood before thee and the form thereof was terrible. This image's head was of fine gold,
his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass, his legs of iron,
his feet part of iron and part of clay. So this is one image. This is one eye, one statue that
he sees. Okay. And different parts of the body is made of different, um, alloys, metals and alloys.
Okay. Verse number 34. It says, uh, thou sorest till a stone was cut out without hands,
which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces.
Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver and the gold broke into pieces together
and became like the chaff of the summer, fresh in claws and the wind carried them away that no place
was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole
earth. So notice that this stone that hits the image at his feet also destroys the entire image,
the entire statue, even the gold, the silver, the brass, the iron. Okay. All of it gets decimated by
this stone. All right, now let's keep going there. Verse number 36.
This is the dream. And we will tell the interpretation thereof before the King.
Thou O King are the King of Kings for the God of heaven have given thee a kingdom, power and
strength and glory. See how he says to Nebuchadnezzar, God gave you this power. God gave you this
kingdom. And that's what that goes hand in hand with what Daniel said earlier, that God sets up
Kings and removes Kings. Okay. So let's keep going there. Verse number 38. And where are so
much the children of men dwell, sorry, is that what I'm reading? Yeah. The beast of the field.
Oh yeah, sorry. Verse number 38. And whether so the children of the men dwell, the beast of the
field and the fowls of the heaven, have he given into thine hand and have made the ruler over them
all, thou are this head of gold. So when it comes to this statue, this image, the head of gold is
Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire. Okay. And then in verse number 39 says, and after thee
shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear
rule over all the earth. And so the kingdom that took over the Babylonian empire was the
Medo Persian or the Persian empire. Okay. It's inferior. And that's why in this dream,
it's given the description of silver. I mean, silver is still a very precious metal,
but it's not as precious as gold. And so it's an inferior kingdom. And of course, then the,
after the silver, you see the, sorry, brethren, I'm losing my place here. 39. Oh yeah. Another
third kingdom of brass. Okay. And if you understand, you know, you thought you understand
history and you probably are familiar with this, the brass represents the Grecian empire or the,
even the Macedon Grecian Macedonian empire under Alexander the Great. Okay. Which shall bear rule
over all the earth. And then look at verse number 40, it says, and the fourth kingdom
shall be strong as iron for as much as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueeth all things.
And as iron that breaketh all these shall break in pieces and bruise. And of course that iron
kingdom is the Roman empire. Okay. And so what we're seeing here, even though they're different
empires, they're all part of the same system where God is raising kingdoms, letting them drop,
be removed, taking them. And again, this is why I don't bother about the powers of the earth.
Cause God knows God sees. And if God wants to raise one, he does. And if God wants to
destroy one, he does, you know, I don't get overwhelmed with the political realm and
who's taking, you know, who's behind the scenes. Who's there's some Babylon behind the scenes
running everything. It's always been the case since Nebuchadnezzar. Okay. I mean, this is just,
again, nothing new. There's nothing new on the sun. So I don't get all worked up and send your
conspiracy videos about who, you know, who's really behind the scenes of everything. Yeah.
It's some wicked power, you know, but God knows who they are. And it's up to God to decide when
he wants to take them down or to raise them up, but let's keep going there. Verse number 41.
It says, and whereas thou sawest the feet and toes. Now, when you think of toes, how many toes
does a normal person have? 10. Remember the beast that came out had 10 horns. Okay. So this is all
one of the same. So what we're looking at now is this Babylon empire in the end times. Okay.
And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes part of potter's clay and part of iron,
the kingdom shall be divided. Kind of like your toes are all divided, right? But there shall be
in it the strength of the iron for as much as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay. And so
it's still a strong kingdom. It's a very strong kingdom there. Okay. But then it says verse 142
and as the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay. So the kingdom shall be partly
strong and partly broken. All right. So, um, it's, it doesn't, this, this, these 10 toes
represents a kingdom where there is strength. Okay. And we'll touch upon that in a moment,
but just remember that some of it is broken. Okay. It's not all strong completely. Let's
keep going to verse number 43 and whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay,
they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men, but they shall not cleave one to another,
even as iron is not mixed with clay. And in the days of these Kings shall the God of heaven set
up our kingdom. Okay. So we know that Christ is coming back to set up his kingdom. It says here,
which shall never be destroyed. And the kingdom shall not be left to other people,
but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms. And it shall stand forever
for as much as thou sawrest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands.
And that it break in pieces, the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold,
the great God has made known to the King, what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is
certain and the interpretation thereof. Sure. He goes, this is certain. This is going to happen.
That's why we read about in the book of revelation that this is definitely going to happen, right?
This is all going to play out exactly as God has spoken. Now, when it comes to all of these empires
that we just looked at, okay, they all have a capital city as well. Okay. So obviously,
like I mentioned, the Babylonian empire had Babylon as its capital. The Persian empire had
Persepolis as its capital city. The Grecian or Macedonian empire had Pella as its capital city.
And of course the Roman empire had Rome as its capital city. Now, when you think about the
Antilles Babylon, the capital city of Antilles Babylon, of course, is represented by this woman,
Babylon, the great, you know, mother of harlots. That's what she is the capital city of this final
great kingdom on the earth. All right. Come back with me to revelation 17, revelation 17.
The reason we went through that dream is just to show you again, yes, they're different kingdoms,
okay? Different Kings, different periods of time, but it's all the one and the same system.
It's all part of the one and the same statue. And God will bring judgment, not just to Antilles
Babylon, but to the entire system that has, you know, taken over, has taken power and authority
over the earth. All right, let's go to verse number six. And I saw the woman drunken with
the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her,
I wondered with great admiration. All right. So not only is she responsible for a moral
declare across the entire earth, this woman, the city is also responsible for the murdering of
God's people. Okay. Now let's tie a few things together because there are similarities. Okay.
With Jerusalem, there are similarities with the beast. Okay. But we saw that the woman
is being carried by the beast. So the woman is not the Antichrist, but there are similarities.
They've got similar purposes. They've got parallel purposes in the end times.
So come back with me quickly to Revelation chapter six and verse number nine,
Revelation chapter six and verse number nine. So the capital city of this final empire,
okay, is responsible for the death of the, of saints, of the martyrs of Jesus.
And in Revelation six, nine, I know we've turned to this passage many times,
but it's because the Bible is consistent and it's building off what we've seen in the past.
So Revelation six, nine, it says, and when he had opened the fifth seal,
I saw under the altar, the souls of them that were slain for the word of God and for the
testimony, which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, how long Oh Lord,
Holy and true. Dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.
So how long do you judge and avenge our blood? Right. And what we saw in Revelation 17, six,
it says, and I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints.
So when is God going to begin to judge specifically the city that is responsible
for the murders of these saints is now after the seventh Bileys poured out.
Now his attention is brought before Babylon the great. Now he's going to pour out his wrath
on this city responsible for the blood of the saints during these end times events.
Now come with me to Revelation 13, Revelation 13 and verse number six,
Revelation 13 and verse number six, Revelation 13, verse number six.
Now we're talking about the, the, the, the base or the antichrist in this verse, it says,
and he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his name and his tabernacle.
And then that dwelling heaven and look at verse number seven, and he was given unto him to make
war with the saints and to overcome them. And power was given him over all kindreds
and tongues and nations. Now we already saw
that the city is the one that has power over all kindreds, tongues and nations.
So what we see, but when you compare Revelation 13 with Revelation 17, and we know that Babylon
is this great hall is that the antichrist is also using Babylon as a hall as a prostitute.
Yes, he's making war against the saints, but he's using the power of Babylon to make war
against the saints. He's using the authority of Babylon
to make war against the saints, to kill God's people.
All right. So I want you to be able to, I hope I'm making sense.
Like, like I said, this just chapter required a quite deep study and I hope I can communicate
clearly what's going on because we have different characters in these stories and we don't want to
conflate characters, but they can have parallel purposes. All right.
So the antichrist, I'm going to kill the saints of God. I'm going to kill God's people.
But he understands that he's got to use Babylon, the power of the earth,
then the city with all this authority to be able to carry out this plan.
All right. So I suppose he uses it like a prostitute.
Funnels her money, whatever she needs. And she goes ahead, corrupts, you know,
the laws of the land, you know, brings into, you know, making, you know, worshiping the,
the idol, um, you know, um, mandatory. And if you don't bow down to that idol,
that you get killed, but that authority is coming from the great city, uh, Babylon in this time.
All right. Back to Revelation 17 and verse number seven,
Revelation 17 and verse number seven. And the angel said unto me,
wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that
carry of her, which have the seven heads and 10 horns.
So you can see that this final beast has the seven heads, 10 horns,
and I don't want to rehash what I preached in Revelation 13,
but in Revelation 12, when we see the dragon with seven heads and 10 horns,
we see crowns upon the heads, the seven heads, seven crowns upon seven heads.
And then when we introduced to the beast in Revelation 13, you know,
that beast symbolized against by symbol also has seven heads and 10 horns,
but now there are 10 crowns on the 10 horns and it shows a transfer of power from the seven
to the 10. Okay. And this is the goal of the Antichrist for him to transfer power
that belonged to Babylon and transfer that power to himself. He's used Babylon. Okay.
He's paid Babylon. She's done his dirty work. But what we see as we keep progressing is the,
the Antichrist does not want to share power with Babylon. He wants his own power base.
He wants his own kingdom. He doesn't want to share it with Babylon, which is why as we keep going,
it is the Antichrist who ultimately destroys Babylon. Okay. Because he wants power for himself,
100% power, 100% control. And so we see that transition from the crowns and seven heads
to the crowns on the 10 horns. So we're going to continue and expand on that as we keep going
through Revelation 17. All right, let's keep going there. Verse number eight, the beast
that the Osiris was and is not, remember that means he's, he passed away. He died
and shall ascend out of the bottom of his pit. So the Antichrist lived, dies, comes back to life.
Okay. And go into perdition and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not
written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. When they behold the beast that was
and is not and yet is. Okay. Then it says this, and here is the mind which have wisdom.
So now we're going to get some more wisdom, some more clarification of all of this symbolism that
we're seeing before us. It says the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman,
on which the woman sitteth. Okay. Seven heads are seven mountains. Now
let's first take this literally. Okay. Let's say, okay, these mountains are literal mountains.
This is why I've grown up in church. I've often heard people say, well, this woman is the Roman
Catholic church because Rome is the headquarters of that church. And Rome is, you know, famously
known as being a city on seven Hills. Okay. So, well, you know, that's why it's Rome.
And those that will say, well, the woman, the great Babylon is Jerusalem because Jerusalem
is also built on seven Hills. And then there's a view where Babylon is the United States.
That's because Washington DC, the capital city of the United States is built on seven Hills.
Okay. And I just did a quick search. So some other capital cities, Lisbon in Portugal,
seven Hills, all of these are built on seven Hills, Brussels in Belgium,
Amman in Jordan, Tehran in Iran, Athens, Greece, Kampala, Uganda, Madrid, Spain,
Varuna in Bulgaria. And the list goes on just to give you some ideas. Okay. There are many,
I don't know what the significance of that is. Okay. Why there are so many cities built upon
seven Hills or seven mountains, but the first church that I attended, the first IFB church
I attended was in seven Hills, like some of the seven Hills in Sydney. So maybe that's Antonina,
but look, you know, I have no problem taking that somewhat literally. I don't think there's a,
there's a problem with that at all. Potentially this, this final and times Babylon city is a city
built on seven Hills. I don't think that's a big issue for me. Okay. But, and I think a lot of
times people park it on that and sort of just, that's it. It's seven mountains, seven Hills.
And I get that because that's what the Bible says. All right. So I'm not trying to say that's,
that's a wrong concept, but as we continue in verse number 10, it says, and there are seven
Kings. So I can hold on seven mountains, but then there are seven Kings. So on this
city on, on, on the, that sits upon seven Hills, is there a King upon all of those mountains?
Well, this is where, you know, again, you need to understand that this is
very symbolic and I, okay. I don't have a problem with that being literally on seven Hills,
but I also believe those Hills represent seven kingdoms. That's why you got the seven Kings
that are brought up here. Okay. And then we get further information about these Kings.
It says five are fallen. So five of them no longer have power. And one is the one has power
and the other is not yet come. So there's still one that will have power. And when he cometh,
he must continue a short space. So once it come is not going to last very long, just short space.
All right. Now, let me share with you what I believe these seven Kings. And again,
these seven Kings represent seven kingdoms. I'm going to share with you who I believe they are.
Okay. Now, when we go back to understanding when the book of revelation was written,
it was written by John on the Isle of Patmos. Okay. In his day, as he was writing these things,
who was the Babylon of the day? Who was the all powerful kingdom on the earth,
the Roman empire. Okay. So if we look at the reference there as, and one is for John,
that would be the Roman empire. Okay. Now he says five are fallen. So from his past now for our past
Rome has also fallen. Okay. But from his past five have fallen. Okay. So if we go backwards,
we've what we've sort of understood. If Rome is the one that it is well before that,
the fifth one would be so, so, so, uh, so number six is the Roman empire. The fifth one would be
the Grecian or Macedonian empire. Okay. The fourth one would be the Medo Persian empire.
The third one would be the Babylonian empire. Okay. Now we're left with two more empires.
Okay. Before Babylon. All right. Now I don't have time to expand on this. I had my own study.
This was just going to take another half an hour. Okay. But if you look at historically in the
Bible, we understand that this end times Babylon is persecuting the people of God. All right.
There are two other great kingdoms on the earth that persecuted the people of God,
even before the Babylonian empire and the Babylonian empire took over the seven kingdom
of Judah, but which great empire took over the Northern kingdom of Israel, the Assyrian empire.
Okay. So the Assyrian empire was also a great kingdom on the earth. And the one that persecuted
the people of God from the very beginning, as far as the nation of Israel is concerned
is of course, ancient Egypt. Okay. And ancient Egypt in its day, by far, everybody would
acknowledge that was the most powerful nation, most powerful kingdom on the earth at that time.
And so I believe though, I can't prove it right now, but I can show many scriptures
that, you know, number two, if, if my line of understanding is correct,
number two would be the Assyrian empire. And number one would be, um, ancient Egypt.
Okay. And all of them, what they all have in common is that they persecuted the people of God
and then follow the line of what Babylon spiritually or symbolically represents.
And then we finally get to, so number six is the, is the Roman empire. Now we need number seven,
okay. And number seven, it says the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a
short space. Okay. So this is a kingdom that is not yet come in the time of, um, John.
And I also believe that this kingdom has not yet come in our lifetime. Okay. I still believe this
is something still happened that will happen in the future. All right. The reason I say that
is because when we consider, um, the, the first three and a half years,
remember there was a great war, a great war, peace was removed from the earth and a quarter
of the population of the earth was decimated. Okay. That would have massive change in the
geopolitical realm. Okay. So for example, the latest great war that we've had on this earth
was world war two, which nation became the most powerful nation following world war two,
the United States, America, of course, but before world war two, who wasn't as the British empire,
you know, the United kingdom, most people would recognize that was the most powerful
kingdom on the earth at that time. But world war two transferred the power and the wealth
to the United States. Okay. And so if you want to argue that the United States is a Babylon today,
I'm not going to argue with that. Okay. When you look at the United States, it's got, well,
this has gone back a few years ago, but the United States has 750 military bases in at least 80
countries. I mean, even though we don't think of the United States kingdom or the empire,
it kind of is an empire to have all these bases in all these countries, even in Australia,
there is 173,000 troops in 159 countries as well. And so, you know, it's a huge power today.
And this is why some people believe that it's the United States. Well, you know,
I guess if it's the United States, then the one that is yet to come has come from that perspective.
Okay. But I believe it's still yet to come. Okay. Now let's continue. Let's continue. Let's go to
verse 11. And again, the reason I believe it's yet to come is because we have that huge warfare
that can change the whole political realm. Okay. But not only that, it says that it continues a
short space. Whereas the United States has been a power since World War II. I don't know if I don't,
I don't think I would call that a short space myself. Okay. Let's continue. Verse 11. It says,
and the beast that was and is not, so the beast that was and is not, that's the one,
that's the antichrist who died and came back to life. Okay. It says, even he is the eighth.
Eight? You go, wait, where's eight coming from? Okay. And he's, but look, and he's of the seven.
Now, is he the seventh? No, he's the eighth, but he's of the seventh. Okay. What I'm trying to say
to you is that he's used the seventh and I believe the seventh kingdom, the seventh kingdom,
capital city is this Anton's Babylon. So he's used the prostitute. He's used the whore. He's
of that system as it were. He's used the system, but it's not really that system. Right? He's the
eighth. His desire is to destroy Anton's Babylon because he wants all power for himself only.
Okay. And then it says here, and goeth into perdition. So that's what the antichrist
because perdition means damnation. Like even though he came back to life,
his end is going to be the lake of fire. All right. Now let's keep going in verse number 12.
All right. Sorry. Sorry. One thing that I do want to mention. So each of these kingdoms has
a capital city. Okay. And they're all different capital cities that represent that kingdom.
I believe the seventh year is represented by Anton's Babylon, but then he's the eighth. So
he's got his own capital city. And what we've seen from the mid points of the seven year period
is that Jerusalem was trodden under the feet of the Gentiles for 42 months. We also have
the antichrist setting up his image in Jerusalem to be worshipped. And so from what I can gather
out of scripture is that the antichrist's power base or city, his own personal city has become
Jerusalem. He's taken over Jerusalem. He set up an image to be worshipped. He's decimating the place
like he's taking control of the entire city. And so I believe when it comes to the eighth himself,
his capital is Jerusalem. Now for me, that makes sense because we've already seen how many times
the antichrist is trying to imitate Jesus Christ. And if Jesus is going to rule from Jerusalem in
the millennium, it's like he's trying to do that already himself, taken over Jerusalem. All right.
So the seventh, okay, Babylon, the great, the capital city of that seventh empire,
he's the eighth, his capital city is Jerusalem. Okay. This is another reason why I don't see them
as one and the same thing. Now he's of the seventh. Don't get me wrong. He's used the system.
He's come through that system, but he hates the system. He hates the whole, he wants to destroy
the whole. He wants his own power. He wants to be the man. He wants to be the one in charge
of the entire earth. All right, let's continue verse number 12.
And the 10 horns. Okay. So we had the seven heads, seven mountains, seven Babylon's. All right.
Also the spirit of Babylon. If you want to use that. Now we have 10 horns,
which our source are 10 Kings, which have received no kingdom as yet. Okay. So this is not some
historical kingdom, but receive power as Kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind
meaning they're in agreements and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
So the antichrist is look, I'm sick of the Babylon system. Let's destroy the Babylon system.
Let's bring in a new system. It begins with 10 Kings, but those 10 Kings then give all the power.
So they're just puppets. They give all the power to the antichrist. Okay. They give all the power
and the strength to the antichrist. The antichrist for a period for one hour finally gets what he
wants power over the entire earth for him and him alone, not to be shared with any other kingdom,
not to be shared with any other power, not to be shared with any other individual.
It's all his for an hour. Okay. And then we start to see what he does with his power. Okay. But
let's, um, let's go to Daniel seven, please come with me to Daniel seven,
Daniel seven, verse number seven, Daniel seven and verse number seven.
I want to show you something else that's interesting in the book of Daniel,
speaking of the antichrist and his rise to power.
Look, don't get me wrong. He's been building up his power all the way for these seven years.
Okay. When he gets to the mid points, he claims to be God. He becomes even more powerful. Okay.
He claims Jerusalem for himself. He sets up the image to be worshiped.
And then God begins to pour out his wrath. Okay. He's used the, the, the, he's used Babylon
to help him destroy the believers across the entire earth because she's one of all Kings
powers and tongues and all that. Okay. Now when God's done pouring out all his wrath,
the seven trumpets and the seven vials, now the antichrist goes, all right, now I can claim power.
You know, I told you that the antichrist never gets what he wants. Like the devil always loses
like, like he tries very hard to get what he wants, but he, you know, he, he fails.
Okay. The antichrist succeeds for an hour, but that's not very long to have a kingdom on the
earth. Okay. We'll look at this in a moment. Okay. All right. So Daniel seven, seven,
it says after this, I saw the night visions and behold, a fourth beast,
dreadful and terrible and strong exceedingly. And it had great iron teeth. It devoured and
break in pieces and stamped the residue with the feet of it. And it was diverse from all the
beasts that were before it. And it had 10 horns. So in this, in Daniel's vision here, he sees the
beast, but then he notices the 10 horns that this beast has. Okay. He says in verse number eight,
I considered the horns again, his attention is now drawn to the horns. Okay. And behold,
so there are 10 horns. Okay. We know those are the 10 Kings that we read about in the
book of Revelation, but it says this, there came up among them, another little horn before whom
there was three of them, of the first horns pluck up by the roots and behold, in this horn were the
eyes, like the eyes of man and a mouth speak in great things. I've already proven in previous
sermons that this is the antichrist, but notice that he's doesn't like where it says he's of the
seven, but he's the eighth. Okay. Well, it's like when this beast comes out, he's not there yet.
He's not on the scene. He's not really part of the Babylon system, but then he comes out of the
system. Okay. And as he rises, there were the 10 horns, the 10 Kings. And as the little horn rises,
it knocks down three of the Kings, three of the horns in his rise to power. All right. Now this
is what I think we're seeing here. All right. This is why I think this is another reason why
I think the entire earth is just going to love the beast. Because at some point the entire earth,
and we're even today in 2024, people know there's some corrupt system rule on this earth.
Like probably COVID woke a lot of people up, hold on, what in the world? How can every country
under the, pretty much every country start implementing the same procedures and restrictions
and have our rights removed in the same way? Some places were, you know, some places were
stronger than others, kind of like the 10 Kings, but people have woken up to understand, look,
I don't think we live in sovereign nations, nations that are deciding for themselves what
they want to do. There's something above. Okay. Some mystery Babylon behind the scenes,
you know, operating all of this. All right. Well, I personally believe that the Antichrist is going
to be like a, this is my opinion. Okay. My opinion. I believe he's going to be a grassroots movement.
Okay. He's not really part of the system, kind of like how they want to perceive, um,
Donald Trump today in the United States. Okay. Like the, the, whether he is or whether it's
perceived, I don't know, but it's very clear that they're trying to view him. They,
or the establishment, the system views him as not part of the system, which is why they're trying
to throw him in jail and trying to destroy his, you know, uh, uh, you know, take his wealth and,
and put him into trial and arrest him and all these kinds of things. I'm not saying vote for
Donald Trump on this. I'm just saying, like, I think it's going to be a person like that,
that he's going to come from a grassroots movements and he's going to rise within these 10
Kings. And he's going to have all that movement, all that power, all that love. The people on the
earth are going to love him. He's going to have the solutions of the world. He's going to have
the market of beast technology. So there's going to be normal poverty, poverty, right?
It's going to fix our financial, uh, institutions and all these things. Okay. And people are going
to love him. They're going to see him rise from the dead. It's going to be amazing. They're going
to be following this beast. And so the hearts are going to turn away from Babylon and the
heart to go to turn toward the beast. All right. And so I see him coming through the system. He's
using the system, but it's not really of the system. Like he's not, he's the eighth. He's
not part of that process. Okay. And he's got his own kingdom. And that is like, we saw the
capital of cities established there in Jerusalem. Now, why is there 10 horns and then three of them
get taken down when he rises to power again, we can only speculate what that is, but obviously
if you have 10 Kings and you're moved free, how much have you got left? Seven. Okay. And again,
if the antichrist is just trying to mimic God, okay. We saw earlier, of course, in the book of
revelation that when he spoke of Jesus, that he had the seven spirits of God, you know, and how
many times has God referred to the number seven, you know, as, as, as far as the number of
completion and what have you. So it could be just the devil, the antichrist goes, all right, we had
10 Kings. They helped me get to power, but you know, maybe he just wants to be more like Jesus.
Let's just drop that number, that number down to seven. Okay. So there are going to be seven that
are under his authority. Again, trying to just imitate the numbers that we see in the Bible,
trying to be more like Jesus Christ. All right. Now, where am I up to? Okay. Verse number 14.
Back to revelation 17, please. Revelation 17, verse number 14.
So when he comes to these 10 Kings, okay, it says in verse 14, these shall make war with the lamb.
That's Jesus. And the lamb shall overcome them. Well, he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
And they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. So we know that Jesus Christ is
coming back one day. Okay. Like antichrist is going to ruin for an hour. Okay. He's going to
have power for an hour. Okay. But then Christ comes back and who's coming back with him.
In revelation 19, it says that a great army is following after him and they're also riding on
white horses. Okay. Now I believe that they are saints. I believe that's you and I. I've heard
some people teach they're just angels. It's not really you and I, they're angels, but verse number
14 tells us who they are. Okay. It says again, for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings and
they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful. So when, when, when the lamb comes to
make war against these 10 Kings on his white horse, those that are coming with him are called,
chosen and faithful. Okay. And just very quickly, when it comes to being called, the Bible says in
first Corinthians, don't need to turn there. First Corinthians 1 26, for ye see your calling
brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called.
Then it says in verse number 27, but God have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound
the wise and God have chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.
And of course, first Peter two nine says, but ye are chosen generation, a Royal priesthood and
Holy nation are peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of him who have called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light. And then these people that are coming with him
are also faithful. And the Bible says in Ephesians one, one Paul and apostle Jesus Christ,
but the will of God to the saints, which are at Ephesus and to the faithful in Christ. Jesus
Colossians one, two says to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colisee.
So those that are coming with him are called chosen faithful. They're the saints,
they're the believers. So the ones that were raptured and have been with the Lord,
we're coming with Jesus Christ on those white horses. And we are going to be part,
look, I don't know whether we're gonna do any fighting or we're just going to like,
like, we're just going to see Jesus do all the fighting. I don't know. Okay. But we're part of
the battle. Okay. We're going to be there riding on white horses, but it looks to me anyway,
from what we see in Revelation 19, that Jesus Christ is doing all the fighting. All right.
Now verse number 15, Revelation 17, 15. And he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest,
where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the 10 horns,
which thou sawest upon the beast. Look at this, this is important. These shall hate the hall
and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
So I can see the entire population that are left here. The Antichrist is finally going to topple
the establishment. He's finally going to topple the Babylon system. Okay. And they hate her.
They've used her. She's a whore. She's a prostitute. They've used her for her services,
but they hated her all along. Okay. They want to destroy her, but noticed in verse number 17,
for God have put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and give their kingdom unto the
beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. Remember Daniel's dream. He says, Oh, God is the
one that raises Kings and removes Kings. Okay. Well, who's put it in the hearts of these 10
Kings and the Antichrist to destroy Babylon. God has, God says, this is my will. It's finally time
for this end times Babylon to be destroyed. And he uses the Antichrist and his new power
to do the destruction toward Babylon. All right. So again, I feel like when you see passages like
this and look, not that we're going to be here anyway, cause we're going to be raptured before
God pulls out his wrath. But again, for me, it removes any fear that I might have of powers. And
look, the God can put, God can put it in anyone's heart, any King's heart,
you know, it's time to destroy the United States. It's time to wipe out Australia. It's time to wipe
out China, whatever it is. Like, you know, we see these events of the earth and we might get fearful
when we see wars and we see maybe the Russia Ukraine conflict or I don't know, whatever it is,
right? Whenever there's this, some battle might be some fear, but you know, I just think, well,
God knows God rises. God takes, God puts his will in the hearts of certain Kings. God decides when
it's time to destroy or to judge a nation. I'll leave it with him. And my responsibility is just
to further God's kingdom. All right. I'm not here to be political. And are you on the side
of the Ukrainians? Are you on the side of the Russians? I'm on God's side is what I am. I'm
on the side of winning souls, whether they're Russian souls or Ukrainian souls,
I'm on the side of winning their souls. That's where we ought to be and not have our minds
focused and listening to all these videos and commentaries on powers and who's taken over who,
who's going to war, wars and rumours of wars. Jesus Christ has told us this is going on forever,
wars and rumours of wars. And brethren, sometimes it's just worth turning off the TV
and sometimes even just turning off the internet. Okay. And just, just,
and just going for a swim and go soul winning, come to church and read your Bible.
And I promise you, if you turn off your TV and internet, and in 10 years you turn it back on,
you haven't missed anything. There's still wars and rumours of wars. There's still some empire
trying to take over some other empire. There's still some destruction of the earth happening.
And someone's still saying, it's all about to happen. Christ is coming back and whatever
it is, right? It's all about to take place now. There's always, it's always been like that.
So we should not get distracted when we know that God can put in the hearts,
even of these reprobates to go and destroy a power base like Babylon.
And then verse number 18, and the woman which thou sawest is that great city,
which reigneth over the Kings of the earth. So this great city, we're going to look at later on,
you know how the, uh, the antichrist got one power with the Kings. Well, that, that hour that he has,
he's going to use that hour to destroy Babylon. In one hour,
this city of Babylon is going to be completely wiped out. This is why a lot of people believe
it's going to be some nuclear annihilation or something like that, right? Some nuclear weapons,
bang, burns the whole thing with fire within an hour, the whole system, the whole city,
that whole city, you know, is destroyed. So brethren, the title for the sermon
was Babylon, the greats got through five pages of notes. Praise God.
Babylon, the great. So pastor, who is Babylon? I don't know. Okay. But I know what she represents.
Okay. And you know, look, I don't think there's anything wrong with having your opinion.
And if you've got your opinion, your opinion differs from mine, I don't care. Like, you know,
like a lot of these end time things are going to be reviewed more and more and more as we get
closer to the time. And I think once we see that final world war that we see in Revelation,
it's going to be much clearer at that point, who takes control of the earth,
who's going to be that end times Babylon. Okay. But whatever that end times Babylon is,
you understand, oh, the antichrist hates it. He's going to use her. He's going to destroy her,
but that is God's will. Okay. All right. Let's pray.