Bible Study No 26 of Revelation

Well, good evening, brethren. We continue tonight with our next study on the Book of Revelation.

And up to now, we have seen how the Apostle John has described the various events leading up to Christ's coming. You know, God through Christ revealed it to him, through an angel, obviously, and we see the events which will take place up to and including during the period of the seventh and last trumpet. Then we also saw him describing the events of the seven last plagues, which are part of the destruction of Satan's kingdom. The way we've seen, just as a reminder, in Revelation 11 verse 15, if I remember correctly, let me just double check, correct, we see the seventh angel sounding and the seventh trumpet, which represents Christ's coming, and the beginning of those events symbolized during the period of Christ's coming, which means the seven last plagues are part of that time period, which we symbolize or call it as the period of Christ's coming. There are a number of events that occur during that period of time.

Then we get into the set of inset chapters, which is part of the section is inset, and then it kind of continues with the story, but it's describing a number of other events, particularly related to destruction of Satan's system. In other words, Satan's system will be destroyed, both religious and governmental. So that is Revelation 17 through 19, although, as you know, Revelation 19 talks about the scene in heaven, and then it shows the marriage of the bride.

But then it shows as Christ's coming, that final climax, the destruction of those people that are fighting against Christ. So it's a series of events during this whole set of activities that happen during this period of the lost trumpet, because the lost trumpet includes a number of things that have to happen, which will surely occur over a period greater than 24 hours.

So then we, in the last study, started with Revelation 17 verse, we started with Revelation 17 verse 1 through 4, and we showed how God regards spiritual adultery as a serious abomination and uncleanliness. We also looked that for the person, or the person that has been deceived by this spiritual adultery, or let's call it false religion, you know, as a person that has become very involved in this religions of this world, it is much more difficult for them to learn the truth, because they have to unlearn so many false ideas. You know, I've encountered so many people that there are, let's call it religious, and they have a lot of quote-unquote foundations in religion, but because a lot of these foundations are based on false promises, or false premises, should I say more correctly, they struggle having to prove from the Bible, which we can, but they have to prove, and as they prove these things from the Bible, they have to, let's call it, reprogram their way of thinking into a completely different way, because they realize that what they were told was not the truth, according to the Bible, because that word is truth. So they have to reprogram themselves and learn.

What happens, therefore, with people like that, when they go through that process, they go through different stages of confusion, because they say, but what about this, and what about that, and therefore it is like they're busy, like a person that is drunk with wine.

So that is a very interesting and effective analogy that we get. So now, today, we're going to continue on Revelation 17, and basically we're going to cover the rest of Revelation 17, this chapter, and we're going to start in verse 5, and it says in verse 5, And on her forehead a nameless written mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of holids, and of the abominations of the earth.

One thing we have learnt many a times is that in Greek there are no punctuations. So, the way it's written, we sometimes think that it's mystery Babylon the Great, but in other languages, I know in Portuguese it says, was written a mystery, and then it says Babylon the Great. Mystery is a descriptive term for the title. It's not the title. The title is Babylon the Great, and that is a mystery. So, if we look at Revelation 16 verse 19, Revelation 16 verse 19, it gives the name here. It says, Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and great Babylon was remembered before God, or Babylon the Great. So, that's that city, Babylon the Great. If we also look at Revelation 18 verse 2, it says, So, the name of the city of the title is Babylon the Great, but this is a mystery that people don't understand, and it is the mother of all its and of the abominations of the earth. As we know, a woman represents a church in this biblical symbology, and YHAN represents or corresponds to what Babylon was in its original religious form, the Old Babylon. And so, this meaning now, this Babylon the Great, which is kind of a resurrected Babylon from the Old Babylon. Remember, there was Old Babylon where it says, Nebuchadnezzar, you are the head and you're reigning over Babylon. So, that Old Babylon is, let's put it this way, this whole system has propagated to this end time. And now we have Babylon the Great, the mother of all its.

So, this wicked and pagan Babylonian rights or religious rights have infiltrated, have gone through as paganism. Let's just call it paganism. And that paganism infiltrated the early church. The church right earlier, and we saw that when we went through the letters of Revelation 2 and Revelation 3. And that led to that Babylonian pagan system is responsible for what we have today as the corruptions of the Roman Catholic Church and its Protestant and evangelical daughters.

So, that's really what it's talking here and it's addressing this woman, which is a mystery. Why? Because many people don't understand this. Some do, but many don't. So, that's why it is a mystery. And this, Babylon, is a counterfeit of the truth. In other words, a pseudo-religion that has plagued Israel in all times, in all the Testament, and continues to plague today the spiritual Israel in the New Testament. So, that Babylon has continued. That system, that pseudo-religion, sure now, in modern days, it's called Christianity. But that is the source, that is the genesis or the beginning of many false religions, which includes what is so called, today, Christianity. So, the subject of Babylon begins. It begins. It's very source. It is in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 10, verse 6 through 10, Genesis chapter 10, it talks about the sons of Ham with Kush, Mizrim, Put, and Canaan.

And the sons of Ham, the sons of Kush, that it describes, and Kush begat Nomerod.

He was the boulder of Babylon, Nomerod, and he began to be a mighty one on earth.

Why was he a mighty one on earth? Mighty because of this religious power that he had, and it was accepted. Quite often we read he was a mighty one with think, and I'm not saying it would have just been that, but quite often we think that was physical. But yeah, we have a religious power causing influence on the earth, becoming a mighty one, a man of great influence. Sure, physically he was a mighty hunter, but look at the spiritual analogy. Could there not be a hunter of people, of lives, through false religion, before the Lord?

Therefore, it said like Nomerod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. A hunter instead of being a shepherd, a hunter. Can you see the analogy there, how it ties something very interesting? And so Nomerod, and then it says, and at the beginning of his kingdom, was Bible, Eric, Akkad, Calne in the land of China. Now, Eric, that is that second town, the first one is Bible, the second is Eric, which we see in Genesis 10. And this was run about 2,200 years before Christ. Archaeology has discovered the common practice in that town of Eric was to build huge mounds, ziggurats of sun-dried bricks. So they had technology and capability of building bricks, sun-dried bricks, and building mounds like pyramids and things like that.

Now, in Genesis 11, verse 1 through 4, then it shows their rebellion, because it says, now the whole earth had one language, had one language and one speech. Yeah, they all spoke one language from the creation. God gave them one language. And then it says that they found a plane in the land of China, and they dwelt there. Then they said to one another, come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar.

And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, who stop us in the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the old earth. So yeah, we have a demonstration of rebellion against God, and they tried to build a tower that would reach heaven. Clearly, we see here is an act of human pride and rebellion against God. Now, in verse 5 through 9, we see God's judgment. And because it says here in verse 6, look carefully at verse 6, it says, and the people are one. So we see, and we read that section, and you know what that section says? Then God scattered them and gave them different languages, and therefore, he deliberately calls the people, God deliberately calls the people to scatter.

He gave God the letter. Now, in Genesis 11 verse 6, it says, and the people are one.

I diverged a little bit here to emphasize this one point, the people are one. The word for one, Yah in verse 6, is the Hebrew word, echad, Hebrew zero two five nine, which means one. Clearly, therefore, the term echad does not mean that the people, the nations, humanity, were one person, were one person, but they were echad, one. In Deuteronomy 6 verse 4, we read here, O Israel, the Lord our God, Elohim, the Lord is one, echad. It does not necessarily mean it's one person, because just before that it refers to Elohim, which is plural. Echad, just like the people, are one.

God is one. There is no other God besides the true God, besides the spiritual beings of the kingdom of God. Who is the kingdom of God now? Who is in the kingdom of God? Today, is two divine beings. Who are they? The God, which is now called the Father, and the Lord, now called the Son. As per John 1 verse 1, it says. John 1 verse 1. If we just quickly look at John 1 verse 1. John 1 verse 1. In the beginning was the word. So that denotes, in the beginning, that the word existed. So it denotes existence, eternal existence, and it has the definite article, the word. So it is a separate being, the word, a separate spiritual being. And the word was with the God. Now, your Bible, in the New King James Version, does not have the word the there, but in the Greek it has the definite article, the. So the word was with the God, which is now the Father. And the word was God. The word, which is now Jesus Christ, was of the God Kingdom, which is now called the God Family. So the point that I'm emphasizing here is the word one, Echad, means a sense of unity, of being in complete unity. When you read, for instance, in John 17, Christ's prayer, that he says, Father, I pray that they may be one, like you and I are one. You see, it shows that unity to be together in unity. Anyway, continuing with the story, as I said, I've diverted briefly there. The Bible, that city of Babel, meant confusion because they went into different languages because they were one people first. And so we got separated, or scattered them. And then that beginning of Bible, even though it's scattered, it took some other 1,600 years later. Think about it. 1,600 years later, that well's roots grew and grew, and that false religion, false concept grew.

And then it led to the point of becoming Babylon. Babylon was the nation that took the Jewish nation to captivity. See, the first one was Assyria that took the Israelites to northern Tingu.

And the second one, after Assyria, was Babylon. The way I'll usually remember is, Assyria is an A, Babylon is a B. So A, B. So that's how I usually remember. Assyria came first and took Israel. Then Assyria was destroyed by Babylon. And Babylon took Judah. From there onwards, we've got the reign of the Gentile kingdoms. And I went through that, through various pictures and graphs with you, about the reign of the Gentile kingdoms. And that was run about the year 600 before Christ.

So it took 1600 years for this system to be ingrained all over society. You know, you think about a root system that spreads itself like a weed, that spreads itself with its roots. And you leave it year after year, it just gets worse and worse and really ingrained. So this is what happened. This is what happened. Now, what was this religious system? Well, Nimrod's wife was Semiramis.

And she became the head of Babylonian pagan religious mysteries.

Right. So Semiramis was the mother of Tammuz. Tammuz, the symbol T, which became the symbol for a cross, which can be like this or like that, for Tammuz. Tammuz was given birth in a miraculous way.

Legend say whatever. So the names of Hever vary from nation to nation.

Other names for Semiramis, which is the wife of Nimrod, which is the mother, is Ishtar, is Astart, Ashteroth, the Bible sometimes says Ashteroth or Ashteroth, Yostre, Ostaran, Ostara, Inanna, depending on languages, because this came from Bible when God confused the languages. So all this kind of went through and filtered into every other nation.

You can see how it started at the time or before the Tammur Bible, when Nimrod was a mighty hunter.

So Tammuz, on the other side, which is the son, was considered a savior of the people, a false messiah who claimed to be the fulfillment of the promise given to Eve.

When Satan deceived and we see that in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, and it says there, and I will put enmity between you and a woman and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. So remember the story about eating the fruit or the knowledge of good and evil? And then God went to Adam and says, no, it's her fault. He went to evil and says, no, it's the shepherd's fault. And then, you know, one accusing another. And then there is this little messianic prophecy. And so Tammuz was considered to be the fulfillment of the promise given to Eve. Now, let's put this into this same verse. Let's add a little bit of comments here. And I'll put enmity between you, Satan, and a woman. From the woman came mankind, people. But ultimately, you know, the woman represents a church, the church of God. And between your seed, that is, Satan's seed, which is what did Satan do? What came from him? All the false prophets, all the false religion, all the false ideas. And her seed, what is the seed that came through mankind, through these reliance, through that? It's the Son of Man. He's the seed capital, Jesus Christ. And he, Jesus Christ, shall bruise your, that's Satan's head. And we're going to look at Romans 1620 in a moment. And you, Satan, shall bruise his heel, the heel of Christ, which is, you know, Christ himself, but also the church. So Christ was persecuted, but Christ resurrected. So his head is not destroyed. It's not bruised. Now, in Romans 16 verse 20, so let's just look at Romans 16 verse 20. It's right at the end. Not exactly right at the end, but at least on the last chapter of the book of Romans. It's, as you can see, if you start reading verse 17 and it says, and now I heard you brethren. So he's talking to the brethren, saying, note those that cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you've learned and avoid them, because they come with flattering speech and smooth words, etc.

And then it says in verse 20, and then it says, and the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.

Who's feet? The brethren. But to do that, to crush Satan on your feet, the symbology is that the serpent bruises the heel of the feet, but the feet will ultimately bruise Satan's head.

So it's got some very powerful profound meanings here that is very interesting. Anyway, so we get back to this mother child legend, which came or brought in and inserted and brought into these organizations, into all these things, and to pagan rites in very different countries and religions. But there is one common factor, which is a mother and a child. The mother, Semiramis or Astaroth, and the child, Tammuz. So many idols have been made all the way from ancient ancient times about this mother, also called the Queen of Heaven, with a baby in her arms, which are found all over the world.

And today it's what they call Virgin Mary. Tammuz was said to have been killed by a wild beast. This miraculous birth son, Tammuz, was killed by a wild beast and then resurrected, obviously a satanic deception in anticipation of Christ's resurrection. So you can see Satan, knowing in some ways God's plan, started creating fake stories, false stories, to deliberately distort the truth later on. He's smart. Satan is very clever, brave, right? But God is a lot clearer. So according to the Babylonian mythology, Tammuz died annually and was reborn year after year.

Interesting, isn't it? So you bring these holidays, pagan holidays. Tammuz was also known as Baal. The Baalim, do you remember? Baal. Baalim is plural. All these Baal gods. And you know the Israelites. Quite often, either coming out and saying, stop worshiping Baal or Baal or whatever, which is Tammuz, which is the son of Semiramis. So those basically brethren were false gods. God manifested these wrath against Israelites when they served these false gods. And we can go all the way to Judges. So let's just quickly look at that. Judges 2, verse 13 and 14. They forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth, basically, Semiramis and Tammuz.

And they had different little idols that they would sell and little things that they would sell. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. Look also in Judges chapter 10, verse 6 and 7. Judges chapter 10, verse 6 and 7. It says, And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baal and Ashtaroth, the gods of Surin, the gods of Sion, and the gods of Moab.

Well, they are all the same, but they just had different names and different versions and different whatever. You see, they're all pagan. They all came from Babylon. And so the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the people of Ammon. Look at 1 Kings. 1 Kings chapter 11. 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 5. 1 Kings chapter 11, verse 5. It says, And Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sudanians. You see, and Solomon did evil, and did not fully obey God.

And look at verse 11. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, Because you have done this, and have not kept my covenant, and my statutes, which I commanded you, I'll surely tear the king away from you. You see what he did? Spiritual adultery. That's what he did, spiritual adultery. That's what we covered in the last study. Look at Ezekiel chapter 8. Ezekiel chapter 8, verse 14 through 18. Ezekiel chapter 8, verse 14. He says, So he brought to me, me to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house, and to my dismay, women were sitting there weeping for Tamos.

So you see that? Tamos, that T, where they got the cross. You see all the paganism that's in there. And then it goes on. And in verse 17, and he said to me, Have you seen this or Son of Man?

Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abomination which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and they have returned to provoke me to anger. Indeed, they put the branch to their nose. Therefore, I will also act in fury. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears of loud voice, I will not hear them.

Brethren, when people are worshipping the modern-day Samaramas and the modern-day Tamos with their symbology of the T, and all that stuff goes with it, it says, God hates that.

And he says, I'll not spare, nor will I have any pity. Look at Jeremiah 7. Jeremiah 7.

Verse 18. Jeremiah 7. Verse 18. And the children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the woman needs dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. Now, what cakes are these? This is what we call today hot-cross buns. That's what it is. These buns with a little cross for Tamos and oat cakes for the queen of heaven. Can you see how everything gets connected? When you start connecting the dots, weeping, making dough for the queen of heaven. That's Samaramas. That's the Eshtaroth.

Look at Jeremiah 44. Jeremiah 44. verse 17 through 19.

But we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth to burn incense to the queen of heaven.

To pour out drink, offerings, etc., etc. And in verse 18, but since we stopped burning incense to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink, offerings to her, we've lacked everything and have been consumed by sore and by famine. And look at verse 19. And the woman also said, and when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink, offerings to her, did we make cakes for her to worship her and pour out drink, offers to her without her husband's permission? Then Jeremiah spoke all these things. And you see, it goes on. It goes on. Look at verse 25. We'll surely keep half-hours that we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven.

You see, so this thing just goes on and on and on. And God says, verse 29, and this shall be assigned to you, says the Lord, that I will punish you in this place.

So there it is. The queen of heaven is an apostasy that continues to this day, this mother-child legend apostasy. And in Revelation 18 verse 4, so we'll go back to Revelation now, in verse 4, it says, and I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out over my people, lest you share innocence, and lest you receive of her plagues. Come out of this false religion of Babylon, the Great, which is this false religious church, the mother of all its children, and this all pagan religion. Therefore, syncretism, mixing truth with a little bit of lie, is wrong.

Don't keep watching and listening to types and videos of false prophets, teaching, oh, maybe good things, maybe things that appear very nice, but insert in the middle there, or insert it in the middle there, there's a little poison pole, a little poison that starts taking away from the truth. Be careful. So, continue in Revelation 17 verse 6, it says, I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and of the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw it, I marveled with great amazement. So, we have a church which is actively involved in the persecution of true Christians. Now, verse in Revelation 17 is not the Babylon revolve, but is the modern day, today's apostate so-called Christian churches. And when we read in verse 17, chapter 17 verse 7 through 14, now it starts giving another little statement here, because in verse 7 it says, but the angel said to me, because he said in verse 6, I marvel. So, it says, why'd you marvel? Why are you surprised? Who tells you the mystery of this woman? You see, it's a mystery. You see, this woman is a mystery, the great, the great Babylon. I'll tell you the mystery of this woman, of the woman, and of the beast that carries her. Aha! So, we have this false church being carried by the beast. Remember, I said, there is we covered that in Revelation 13. There were two beasts. One was the beast from the sea, from verse 1 to verse 10 of Revelation 13, and that was a civil government. That is what we normally call the beast. And then, in Revelation 13 verse 11, onwards to the end of the chapter, it's talking about another beast coming out of the earth, which is out of this false religion that is already on the earth, another leader that comes out of it. And that leader is described here in Revelation 17 as a woman, as a false church, as Babylon the Great. And so, yeah, in verse 7 of Revelation 17, it says, Why do you marvel? I'll tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has seven heads and ten horns. You see, the beast that carries her is that civil government, which has seven heads and ten horns. Remember, we went through all that very carefully. Now, the beast, verse 8, that you saw was and is not and will ascend out of the bottom of the spit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was and is not and yet is. So, this beast would have died, the Roman Empire died, and it came back. And again, all these different resurrections went, currently is not, and will come back. And we went through that. And then in verse 9, very important, YH is the mind which has wisdom.

The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits, basically, around.

You see, seven mountains, which talking about seven governments. You see such duality, because it's sitting over this beast. This woman is going to sit over seven sets of governments.

Remember, they were ten, three were plucked out, and then the beast rode over the last seven, the last seven mountains. But duality also ties in to Rome, because it is headquarters, this church, this false religion, is headquartered in Rome, with seven mountains. And then it says, verse 10, five have fallen, one is, and another has yet to come.

So YH proves that these seven mountains are not, or these seven governments, are not contemporary, because five have fallen, one is, and the other one has to come. Remember, I covered that in great detail in Bible study number 22, and in that we showed that this was revealed, this was understood at the time when that one was. You see, five have fallen, one is. So at that time when that one was, that was during the runabout period of the Second World War, that was understood by Mr. Armstrong, and that is therefore a specific window in time when this is true, because, and the other has yet to come, that means when the other comes, then the one that is is no more, because would have fallen, because five have fallen, then that one that is will also have fallen, and then the last one would come. So we are talking here about governments that are not contemporary, you know, it was that they're not running at the same time, that one, and then another, and another. We showed that before, and it says, and one has not yet come, that has not yet come, only lost for a short period. This we covered, as I mentioned, in previous studies. You remember that we tied all that to this chart of the reign of the Gentile Kingdoms, which I explained Daniel 2, Daniel 7, Revelation 13, and Revelation 17.

Then, as we saw, verse Daniel 7, this fourth beast had 10 horns, and then three were plucked out by this little horn, and this little horn ties into Revelation 13, the second beast from verse 11, Revelation 13. Remember, I was talking to you about a little while ago. So that ties into that, and that, which was the Catholic Church, came up, and then that, which is the scarlet woman, that rides the beast. But because the Catholic Church is an organization, it only comes up at this time when she rides the beast. She only rides these remaining seven governments, which are these seven remaining horns of the 10, you see. So, therefore, because she rides this beast, when she rides this beast, therefore, only has seven heads, because when she rides Babylon, the other three had already been plucked out. So, she rides these, and these are not contemporary. You see this first one was the burial restoration, we went through that, and it was the Frankish Kingdom, etc. And these lasted for a period of 1,260 years. Then it was dissolved, the Roman Empire. Then, during the period of the Second World War, there is the one that one is. Remember, we were reading a moment ago in Revelation 17 verse 10, one is. Alright? And one is yet to come.

And one is, and one is yet to come, that is connected to the period when this prophecy was understood by Mr. Armstrong. So, that is very interesting. Now, continuing where we were a moment ago. Now, we read verse 11. And the beast that was and is not, he is himself also the eighth, and is of the seventh, and is going to perdition. Why? Because it's of the eighth, because it's of the Roman government, the one that was destroyed. So, it actually, that was destroyed, the Roman government. Now, these are the seven of the Holy Roman Empire, but it's also the eighth, because the Roman Empire existed during the time of Christ. That was destroyed, but these seven is the ones that the beast rides over. But the beast that was and is not, is also the eighth, or of the eighth. So, this beast, and he's of the seven, and he's going to perdition. So, we can see a connection. Then, we read in verse 12. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, and they receive authority for one hour. Well, yeah, in Revelation 17, we've got these heads which previously were defined as horns, right? These kingdoms. But now, on Revelation 17, they are defined as heads. So, on Revelation 17, when it says, the seventh head has ten horns, which have not yet received kingdom, which means it's of the lost head, they're not yet, it's the future, which means they tie in to the ten toes, back to Daniel 2. You see? Back to Daniel 2. So, and this is a revive Roman Empire. This is the beast that it's talking about, yeah, in Revelation 17. Which what? Which the church rules over, controls. You see? So, this symbols, this combination of symbols, this woman rules the beast, the so-called Babylon. This woman is called Babylon the Great, and that is going to rule this. So now, understand, we were talking, yeah, about that, as I mentioned in Revelation 17, verse 7 to 14, that the angel said to John, why do you marvel? Because in verse 6, it says, John says, I marvel with great amazement. So now, the angel says, why do you marvel? I'm going to tell you a mystery of the woman, of this Babylon the Great. And then he said, well, the mystery is, okay, the mystery is that this woman, this false church, is riding the beast, and then describes the beast, defines it very clearly who's the beast. So it all ties together.

Okay, let us continue. Verse 13, it says, and these are one mind, and they give their power and authority to beasts. So these 10 horns, these 10 kings, give these 10 kings of what we call united Europe today, of future united Europe, not united Europe as it is today, but a future, changed Europe than what it is today. So things are going to happen in Europe to change the way Europe is. Is what's happening in Ukraine kind of causing a trigger for this Europe to change?

Possibly. So these 10 kings of this changed Europe, gave their power to this dictator, leader of the beast. And then we read in verse 14, it says, these will make war with the lamb. Who are these? These 10 kings and the beast will make war with the lamb. Therefore, it shows that these 10 horns, or these 10 kings, are living at the same time, or will be ruling at the same time, during Christ's return. So these indeed are now contemporary on this last 10 kings in this section. So let me go back. Let me go back. So we have understood this. These 10, which are the 10 towers, which are the 10 horns of Revelation 17. These 10 are contemporary. And that's what we're reading. These, Daniel, will make war with the lamb, because that's what it is. These 10 towers. And when that stone of Daniel 2, which is cut not by human hands, representing Christ coming to earth, destroys these 10 kings and this whole statute, this whole beast power that is carried on for years from this beast power, as we've been described here, through all this, from this image of Daniel 2. All this will be destroyed. So continue to read in verse 14.

It says, they will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them.

For the lamb he is the Lord of lords and king of kings. And those who are within, those that will be within. Why? Because they are already resurrected. Remember, they're resurrected, as I mentioned to you, in Revelation 11 verse 15, when the seventh trumpet sounded. Now they are with the lamb, and they are called, and chosen, and faithful. They remain faithful till the end. So these will make war with the lamb. And now verse 15. Then he said to me, the waters which you saw where the holid sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. So now it's again trying to fill the picture and say, listen John, the waters that you saw. Okay.

Which waters? On verse 1. So if you read on verse 1 of Revelation 17, he says, come, I'll show you the judgment of the great holid who sits on many waters. So the waters, 17 verse 15, says the waters which you saw where the holid sits are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. What does that mean? That means that this woman is universal, which the word universal is actually the meaning of the word Catholic. So continue reading in verse 16. And then he says, and the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will height the holid. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, now we see climates happening from verse 16 to verse 18. Now it's showing something that we say, what, what? Have you read this carefully? He says, the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will height the holid which rides the beast. So they'll come at time. Here is the climax of this description of what it was trying to describe what the beast was from verse 8 to verse 14. Up to here. Now on verse 16, he's saying, wait, now what we have is these ten horns that you saw height the beast. So we have here a situation, the beast, and the ten kings will finally destroy this religious system. Wow, wait, wait. So in verse 16, it says, continue to read, it says, make a desolate and naked, eat a flesh and burn her with fire. So the dictator of the beast, that's these ten kings give the power to the beast, this dictator of the beast. So it's like an 11th person, right? So this dictator of the beast sometime during the latter part of the great tribulation. Does not say when. Because understand the period of great tribulations was three and a half years. Sometime what we had is the false church helped the beast to become the leader of the nations. Why? Because you have religion motivating with its ideology for people to follow this government. But now that the government is important, I don't need the false religion. Goodbye. So this dictator will no longer need this religious system, the great hallet, that great city, and will replace it with the worship of the beast itself. So instead of worshiping Semiramis and Tammuz, who replaced that with the worship of the beast itself, and this is analogous to what was happening all wrong because the Roman emperors became worshiped. So this is analogous to that. And when we read Revelation 13 verse 8, Revelation 13 verse 8, it says, all dwell on earth will worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the land slain from the foundation of the world. So it'll come a time they will worship the beast.

You see, this beast that comes from the sea, this first beast will worship him. We're not talking about the second beast that came from the earth. That starts in Revelation 13 verse 11. It's talking about the first beast, which is in Revelation 13 between verse 1 and 10. So in verse 8 it says, all dwell on earth, worship him. Why? Because they'll come to a point where they'll destroy this church, false church. And that is also parallel to Daniel 11, 36 to 38. So, continuing in Revelation 17, now verse 17, for God has put it into their hearts to fulfill his purpose, to be of one mind and to give their kingdom to the beast until the wars of God are fulfilled. So, God's purpose is that these 10 nations, 10 kings, who give the power to the dictator, and all this will, until all the wars of God are fulfilled, until Christ comes and all this is destroyed.

So, God's sovereignty permits this weakness to increase until the cap of iniquity overflows.

Wherever we think things are bad, regrettably, I have to tell you, they're going to get far worse.

Far worse. And in verse 18, it says, yeah, and the woman whom we saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth, but it will be destroyed. The woman is against identified, referring to that ecclesiastical power and political control of this church, yeah, because it's an image of the beast. That's how this government in this false church runs, until these 10 kings will destroy this church, as we saw in verse 16.

So, chapter 17 basically covers the destruction of the city of the Great Orland, which is basically of that church and her daughters. After the destruction of religious babylons at the handset of the beast, Revelation 18 deals with the political strength of the civil government, of the beast itself, of the civil part of this Babylon, which is also destroyed.

And so, this Babylon, this Babylonian system, this false system, it's a religious system, but also from Babylon, came a government system. And Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen. And that is going to be covered in the next study. Thank you, brethren. Have a good evening.