the earth 6 Chapter 17 is about the cspiritual Babylon d Vs.<br><br> 1 1 cCome, d this is only the second time in the book that John is told to ccome d: o The other being chapter 4:1 when he is called to heaven o The last time this phrase is used in 21:9 when he sees the holy city of Jerusalem o So this is very significant, on the same par as seeing heaven and Jerusalem © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 3 of 9 8 This is the theme of the chapter : the great judgment of the whore, the religious system 9 This cwhore d is seated upon many waters ? Now look at vs 15 10 Read vs. 15 11 This judgment will come when this system and city are ruling over and influencing the kingdoms of the world.<br><br> 12 So, Babylon is having a world-wide influence: al of the nations and tongues are worshipping in Babylon Vs. 2 1 Revelation 14:8 And another angel followed, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." NKJV 2 Lenin was right: cReligion is the opiate of the people d 3 People are incurably creligious d because God created us all to be worshippers: all people will worship something, if not the true God it will be false religions and false gods 4 Throughout the Bible, particularly the OT, when we read of other religious systems that oppose the true and living God, are called cadulterous, d cintoxicating, d cdrunk d luring the people of God into fornication Vs. 3-5 5 So, John is taken out into some wilderness in order to get a view of the harlot and Babylon 6 I want you to notice that the woman is separate from the beast she is riding 7 Ex.<br><br> If you have ever seen someone riding a horse, on the horizon, from a distance, they look to be one unit, not separate 8 The Anti-Christ and the Babylonian System and the Dragon, Satan will all look the same: they will represent the system and all that that embodies 9 He saw ca scarlet covered beast full of names of blasphemy having 7 heads and 10 horns d © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 4 of 9 10 Turn to chapter 12:3&13:1 o Chapter 12:3 a fiery red Dragon having 7 heads and 10 horns o Chapter 13:1 the beast with 7 heads and 10 horns o The Anti-Christ personally embodies the Babylonian system o It is difficult to differnteriate these 11 The woman is cholding a golden cup of abominations& d she is involved in the wealth and wealthy systems of this world. She is an idolater and spiritual fornicator 12 The woman is Babylon, see vs. 18 13 The Scarlet Beast is the Anti-Christ Vs.<br><br> 5 1 There are 6 chapters in the Bible that talk about Babylon directly: Isa 13- 14; Jeremiah 51-52; and Rev 17-18 2 The entire Bible is a kind of Tale of Two Cities: Babylon and Jerusalem o Babylon is mentioned 287x in the Bible (Jerusalem 821x) o The influence of these two cities are very significant to the great spiritual battle for the earth o Babylon represents all of the idolatry and rebellion of the earth&every major cult and religion on the earth can be traced back to ancient Babylon 3 Babylon represents are literal place but also a world-wide system: Like cWall Street d which represents both a place and a system. The Terrorist bombed the Word Trade Center because it represented a system that they hated 4 Look at Genesis 10 o Table of nations after the flood o We are of the same ancestors, same blood © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 5 of 9 o The world was repopulated by Noah and his sons o Dr. William F.<br><br> Albright, not a believer, but world class archeologist and anthropologist has said, cthat the table of nations in Genesis 10 is unparalleled and unsurpassed in its accuracy d o This gives us the spread of the nations of the world o Vs. 8&Nimrod means cthe one who rebels; the rebellious one d o Vs. 9 meaning a hunter cagainst d God, some have said it means he was a chunter of men d o Vs.<br><br> 10 Babel&ancient Babylon&in the land of Shinar , Mesopotamia, Iraq today! o In Chapter 11 we see Nimrod building the Tower of Babel in the cland of Shinar d and o They built a tower to the heavens, meaning that the host of heaven were worshipped: astrology&they set up a political and religious center and drawing the world to it Babel meaning the cgate of god d in ancient Sumerian religions. But it also means confusion o It is in ancient Babylon that we have the first ancient worship, and ancient system of rebellion against Yahweh, El Shaddai o Now, Babylon is the Founthead of a religious system of rebellion against God on the earth o Nimrod is said to have taken a wife, Simeramas, and took upon herself a godlike image, and called, cthe queen of heaven d o Supposedly she had a son by miraculous birth whom she named Tammuz, identified with the sun god, o Tammuz was supposedly gored and after 3 days (some say 40 days) he was resurrected&and the sign of the cross became the symbol of Tammuz because of the Tau, the first letter of his name&So we have the mother/child cult developing o Because Satan knows that he is cursed in Gen.<br><br> 3 and that this curse would involved a virgin birth that would destroy him&here we have a mother/child cult to imitate God 9s way © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 6 of 9 o This is the oldest counterfeit religion: you see Satan knows if you can 9t beat 9em join 9em by counterfeiting 9em o Babylon is the mother of the religious harlots of the earth! It all started here! o 180 shrines to the god Ishtar o The mother/child cult of the Madonna and child with the halos over their heads goes back to the Sumerian religions of Babylon o There re mother/child cults in Egyptian religions&in Rome it was Venus and Cupid&all coming from the fountainhead of Babylon o As we look at the religious system of radical Islam today, we are only seeing the ancient religions of Babylon in a new form Over the years many have felt that this whore riding on the scarlet covered beast is a picture of Rome and the Roman Catholic Church 1 I have been in the Vatican and you see these beautiful tapestries showing this scene in Rev.<br><br> 17 and they will tell you that it is a picture of the Roman Catholic Church 2 On the tour of the Vatican Museum they will tell that Rev 17 is symbolic of the Catholic Church! 3 I actually don 9t think that Rev 17 is a picture of the Roman Catholic Church Vs. 6 1 This religious system has murdered Christians and persecuted the church Vs.<br><br> 7 2 This angel is now going to tell us the mystery of the woman and the beast Vs. 8-13 3 Now we should all be comforted that we now know so clearly what we are seeing (humor) 4 If that is an angelic explanation I am lagging way behind 5 Let 9s take a shot at it! © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 7 of 9 Vs.<br><br> 8 1 I think this is both the Anti-Christ and his government about to be destroyed 2 I have wondered if the cascension from the pit d possibly meaning a kind of resurrection of some great historical figure? I know that is really weird 3 Revelation 11:7 4 7 Now when they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them. NKJV 5 But it could also be of the demons and Satan coming up out of the pit of hell Vs.<br><br> 9 1 By the way, any Christian in John 9s day would have thought this was Rome, because Rome was known as the city on the 7 hills or mountains 2 But John doesn 9t leave it there Vs. 10 1 We know ancient Babylon was the mother of these kingdoms, born out that religious system was the religious systems of Egypt, Syria, Nebuchadnezzar 9s Babylon, Mesopotamia, Greece, and of Rome& o 5 have fallen: Egypt, Syria, Babylon, Mesopotamia, and Greece& o 1 is: Rome in John 9s day&and o the one to come will be the kingdom of the Anti-Christ 2 This is the flow of ancient history and now a reviving of a Babylonian Empire Vs. 11-12 1 I believe this will be 10 regions of the world 2 I don 9t think it will be 10 nations in Europe, but 10 regions of the world © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 8 of 9 3 The Anti-Christ and his kingdom will become that 8 th kingdom and force the world to worship him&read Daniel 7 about it Vs.<br><br> 13-18 1 Interesting picture: this woman is a spiritual influence that will influence all of the world with a demonic presence that is counter to the Lord Jesus Christ 2 This woman represents all that opposes God: MTV, Dungeons and Dragons, Computer games, pornography, greed, pride, materialism, anything that steals our heart away from the true and living God is the Woman riding the scarlet beast 3 Do you hear what I am saying? The cwoman; the whore d is upon us today!! And has been on the earth since the Garden Let 9s look at a very interesting passage in Zechariah: Zechariah 5:8-11 8 then he said, "This is Wickedness!" And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead cover over its mouth.<br><br> 9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. 10 So I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are they carrying the basket?" 11 And he said to me, "To build a house for it in the land of Shinar ; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base." 1 A stork was considered unclean, note a cwoman d (like our passage) 2 Land of Shinar once again is current Iraq, ancient Babylon 3 For more than 1,000 years, Babylon was one of the world's most celebrated cities, where King Nebuchadnezzar II built the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The city 50 miles south of Baghdad declined and fell into ruin after it was conquered by the Persians under Cyrus the Great around 538 B.C.<br><br> 4 Sadam Hussein prided himself for what he called, cthe rebuilding of Babylon d for over 25 years 5 Untold billions of dollars went into this from Saddam Hussein 6 After the last war, we have been pouring now millions of American dollars into rebuilding it through PRT 9s or Provincial Reconstruction Teams © Pastor Steve Holt // Mountain Springs Church Page 9 of 9 Modern Babylon will become the Eastern Capital of the Anti-Christ 7 In the ancient city they discovered an ancient temple, Ezzi Gila , (in Nebuchadnezzer 9s day the Temple of Mardok), which was over 300 feet high with a temple at the base and a temple at the top, the ancient name is cI taman anki d which is the ctemple of the foundations of the heaven and the earth d 8 I believe the Anti-Christ will destroy the religious systems of the world and take the name of God for himself and take the religious, political, and economic system that he has set up to the Ancient city of Babylon and will rebuild the ancient Temple of Mardok!! 9 The great historian Arnold Toynbee proclaimed Babylon to be the ideal spot for a cultural, political, economic, religious center 10 It makes perfect sense that this would happen: modern Babylon is the strategic crossroad for Asia, Europe, and Africa, located not far from the Persian Gulf 11 It is also near the richest oil fields in the world: second greatest oil fields in the world are in Iraq 12 Unlimited water supply 13 This is just my opinion and thoughts on this&I can 9t be dogmatic about this stuff

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