REVELATION
SIMPLIFIED
CHAPTER 17.5b
Gleanings
from the Book of Revelation:
A
Weekly Verse-by-Verse Bible Study Series
The
REVELATION
TO JOHN
Chapter
Seventeen
The
Great Tribulation
Parenthesis
Mystery
Babylon
Forward
Literal
Babylon most likely will be rebuilt during the Tribulation Period. The city of
Babylon is mentioned more times in the Bible than any other city except for
Jerusalem. However, instead of knowing its historical background does not
suffice when attempting to understand apocalyptic literature. Peering through
the religious component of Babylon would allow a better comprehension of what
the Holy Spirit is revealing through John. Thus, not only will it become an
eschatological symbol of satanic power and deception but will also be the
headquarters for Antichrist’s false religious system.
Introduction
God’s
Prophetic Plan for Israel
The Law
The
first of the Ten Commandments reads as follows:
Exodus 20:3-5a – Thou shalt have no other gods before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the
water under
the earth: Thou shalt not bow
down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the
LORD thy God am a
jealous God.
Israel’s First Family
Terah,
the father of Abraham moved his family approximately 600 miles upstream of the
Euphrates River from Ur of the Chaldees, a city in southern Mesopotamia where a
ziggurat stood and idolatry flourished, then he settled in Haran. God specifically
chose Abram and his wife Sarai to move about 400 miles southwest to be separate
from the world and give him and his descendants the land of Canaan (Palestine)
to form a nation unto Himself. There, He established the Abrahamic Covenant that
through him all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed (cf. Genesis 11:26 – 15:21; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). This
nation was purposed to be a light of all
nations, set apart and free from idolatry, a testimony to His grace:
Isaiah 42:6 – I the LORD have
called thee in righteousness, and
will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a
covenant of the
people, for a
light of the Gentiles.
Isaiah
49:6b – I will also give
thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be My salvation unto the end of the earth.
Isaiah 60:3 – And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
Hence, Israel was to be a source and a blessing to all nations
by being God's representative on earth which was increasingly leading down the
path of corruption as did once before the Flood.
The Land of Canaan
As Abraham’s descendants grew into a nation, God
selected a prime real estate for them to inhabit. The Land of Canaan would
express God’s glory throughout the known world. However, Canaan's inhabitants
were extremely idolatrous people and worshipped Baal and other gods. Later,
when it was time for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land, God delineated
detailed instructions before their occupation:
Deuteronomy
7:1-2, 5 - When the LORD thy God
shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to
possess it, and
hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the
Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the
Jebusites, seven
nations greater and mightier than
thou; And when the
LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou
shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou
shalt make no
covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them: Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his
daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they
will turn away thy son from following Me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and
destroy thee suddenly. But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire.
Israel’s men were forbidden to marry the
aforementioned foreign women (later expanded to all foreign nations) due to
their allegiance to pagan gods. However, the gods being associated with sexual
immorality was a great temptation for indulgence to Israel.
Baal Worship
Baal (lord), the principal god of the Canaanites
was the enemy to the God of the Israelites. He was universally known by several
names, some of which embrace:
1. The king of the gods
2. The god of fertility
3. The lord of the rain
Apart from idolatry, widely practiced were incest, homosexuality, bisexual orgies,
bestiality, and other grossly immoral sexual behaviours. Naturally, the
consequences of such behaviours would produce unwanted pregnancies.
Consequently Baal worship, apart from human sacrifice specifically
involved and perpetuated child sacrifice. They would sacrifice young children
and often bury them in the cornerstone of a house or a public building at the
time of construction to appease Baal. The Bible
records one such example:
Joshua
6:26 – And Joshua adjured them at that time, saying, Cursed be the
man before the LORD, that riseth up and buildeth this city Jericho: he
shall lay the
foundation thereof in his firstborn, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it.
Consequence for Disobedience
However, when the time arrived for Israel to
enter the land, destruction had not occurred in
the invasion of Canaan. The allurement of immorality eventually caused Israel’s
disobedience to God and their punishment for seventy years of captivity by the
Babylonians, the pretext for Revelation 17 and verse 5…
(Verse
5)
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Roots of Religious
Babylon
The Tower of Babel
Not far removed from
the Flood, the descendants of Noah once again began to turn from God as they
settled in the Land of Shinar, the region of the Euphrates and Tigris River
Valleys. Patriarch Nimrod became the first apostate (cf. Revelation Study 14.6).
The biblical account chronicles:
Genesis 10:9a, 10a – He (Nimrod,
grandson of Noah) was a mighty hunter before the LORD… And the beginning of his (Nimrod’s) kingdom was Babel
(confusion).
Genesis 11:1-4 - And the
whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And
it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick
for stone, and slime [bitumen (pitch) – the same asphalt-like substance Noah used
for the Ark] had they for morter. And they said, Go to,
let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us
make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
As the city of Babel was under construction, Nimrod ordered a
temple to be built dedicated to the god Belus, who would later be called Baal.
At the same time, he oversaw the building project of the Tower of Babel (not specifically mentioned in the Bible but known
as such, the gate to God).
A tower temple was erected,
in the form of a ziggurat, which reached into the heavens to persuade his
followers to depart from the worship of Jehovah God. Its purpose was to
establish a world federation of super-states that would be governed through
religion and politics. This diabolical anti-God organization
would sway millions of people, speaking one language, around the world. And eschatologically, the system would be
re-established during Tribulation.
Babel’s heavenly tower was essential as such:
1. The first object of worship
2. The first idol
3. The first point of pride
Thus,
the tower would serve as a forerunner of later ziggurats built to worship heathen
deities.
God’s
intervention
Seeing
that nothing will be restrained from them, which they have
imagined doing (cf.
Genesis 11:6), the text indicates:
1. They had one language
2. They had
one mind
3. They had one purpose
Intended to escape another possible flood, the tower project
was interrupted by God:
Genesis 11:7-8 - Go to (Come), let Us (the
Triune Godhead) go down, and there confound (confuse) their language, that they may not
understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them
abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth: and
they left off to build (stopped
building) the
city.
As a result, a diaspora of humanity spread throughout the
world, settling where diverse groups of people spoke similar languages (cf.
Genesis 11:8-9). Of course, ziggurats patterned their worship. Tops of
ziggurats were utilized by pagan priests to chart stars and the zodiac.
The Origin of False
Religion
Her
true origins are unknown, but according to historian Eusebius and ancient
legends, Nimrod had a wife, Noah’s granddaughter, named Semiramis, a later Hellenized form
of the Sumerian name Sammuramat (gift of the sea). She
also came to be known by a few other names including:
1. The
Queen of Babylon
2. The
High Priestess of Idolatry
3. The
Divine Mother of the Earth
Conceived
by a sunbeam, Semiramis gave birth to a son named Tammuz (a counterfeit of the
virgin birth). At the time, he was hailed as the promised deliverer. During his youth, however, after being gored
by a wild boar and pronounced dead, his mother wept and fasted for forty days. Interestingly,
at the close of the forty days, Tamuz rose from the dead (a counterfeit of the
Resurrection). As a side note, each year temple virgins entered into a
forty-day fast in memoriam to Tamuz.
Semiramis’
mourning observance later became known as Lent, a Latin word Quadragesima meaning fortieth. After forty days,
a festival called Ishtar was held. And
intriguingly, the imagery of eggs (the giving of life) emerged from this story.
Additionally, early art forms of the mother-child (Madonna and Child) relationship
are usually depicted with a glow or halo round about their heads.
Proliferation of Idolatry
When God confused (babel) the languages, people moved from
Babel and carried their idolatry with them. The temples of Semiramis
and Tamuz were often found together. Tamuz was their principal god and
Semiramis their goddess. Sexuality was always associated with their religious
symbols. Priestesses were temple prostitutes and the Sodomites were male temple
prostitutes.
Throughout
history, her religious practices spread throughout the world and morphed into
many disgusting and immoral practices. Not only that, but Archaeology has
uncovered temple ruins where jars were found containing body parts of children
sacrificed to gods. And, numerous images, statues, and plaques with rudely
exaggerated reproductive organs designed to foster sensuality were also unearthed.
The
Days of Daniel
Significant
to Israel’s seventy years of captivity was Babylon’s religious system. Mesopotamia
was completely encroached on by polytheism. Pantheons of major gods were
worshipped along with thousands of minor gods. Around the second millennium
B.C., Marduk (associated with storms, agriculture, judgment, and magic), became
the king of gods. He would be a corruption of Baal and the predecessor of later
gods such as Zeus of the Greeks and Rome’s Jupiter. Coincidently, his temple resembled
that of the ziggurat at Babel.
Later, when the Medes and the Persians destroyed the city of
Babylon, the high priest, priests, and priestesses fled to Pergamos and transported
their religious idols and paraphernalia with them. So in Revelation when Christ
addresses his Letter to Pergamos, He says, “I know you live where Satan has his throne (cf.
Revelation 2:13, CEB).” And, history informs after Pergamos they fled to Rome. Hence,
Rome became the headquarters of the Babylonian cult, eventually paganizing
Christianity.
Other
Biblical Examples
Peppered throughout Old
Testament history is Israel’s attraction to the counterfeit religion:
1. According
to the Book of Kings, Ahab’s wife Jezebel persuaded him to abandon Yahweh and
promulgate Baal and Asherah worship. After Israel became engulfed in idolatry,
the prophet Elijah had 850 prophets of Baal and Asherah summoned to the
notorious contest at Mount Carmel:
1 Kings 18:19 - Now therefore send, and gather to me all Israel unto mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves (Asherah) four hundred, which eat at
Jezebel's table.
2. Jeremiah
wept as Judah persisted in worshipping the mother-child cult. He warned of
their apostasy:
Jeremiah 7:18 - The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods,
that they may provoke Me to anger.
3. In
Ezekiel’s prophecy, he envisions God’s Temple being desecrated by the worship
of Tamuz:
Ezekiel 8:14 – Then He brought me (Ezekiel) to the door of the gate of the
LORD’S house (the Temple) which was toward
the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.
Ancient
Religions*
Phoenicia
was the original land of Canaan where Baal was substituted for Tamuz and
Ashteroth for Semiramus, the personification of the reproductive principle in
nature. The substitution chart below simply serves as an example to show how
counterfeit religious systems spread throughout the world set opposing God’s
plan of redemption through His Son Jesus Christ.
1. Phoenicia
(Canaan)
a. Baal
– The storm god
b. Ashtoreth
– Goddess of fertility, motherhood, and war
2. Egypt
a. Osiris
- God of the underworld, and rebirth
b.
Isis - Goddess of magic, fertility, motherhood,
death, healing, and rebirth
3. Babylon
a. Marduk
– The national god of Babylon
b. Sarpanit
– The mother goddess
4. Assyria
a. Tamuz
– The sun god of Assyria
b. Ishtar
– The goddess of war, fertility, and sex
5. Greece
a. Eros
– God of love and sensual desire
b. Aphrodite
– Goddess of beauty, pleasure, and fertility
6. Rome
a. Cupid
– God of desire, affection, and erotic love
b. Venus
– Goddess of beauty, sex, and fertility
7. India
(a pantheon of deities)
a. Brahma
– The creator god
b. Ishvara
– The concept of a (queen) supreme soul
8. China
a. Shing Moo – China’s
holy mother, the gazing mother of the earth
b. Ma Tsoopo – A
vulture (cf. Job 28:7)
*NOTE:
Presented
is a simplistic overview of some
major pagan deities throughout
antiquity. A wealth of information is readily available for further discussion
or research on said pagan deities (i.e., dictionaries, encyclopedias, and Wikipedia).
Babylon
of Revelation 17 represents an accumulation of evil apostate universal
religious systems under the control of Satan. All false religions scattered
since the Tower of Babel will finally be gathered and re-established from around
the world into one worldwide apostate church.
A
warning against such apostasy is foretold to the New Testament Church:
1 Timothy 4:1-3 - Now the (Holy) Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to
seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
having their conscience seared with a hot iron.
Summary
A worldwide system of
apostate religions is involved in a one-world system reminiscent of a harlot
pictured controlling illicit intercourse with the world. Recall, a prostitute
is someone who sells himself or herself for profit and gives up purity and chastity
for money. Likewise, Mystery Babylon
is a religion of harlotry, committing adultery and immorality with the kings of
the earth. Therefore, she is in view during Tribulation, as THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS OF
THE EARTH AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
In the next lesson and following, careful attention will be
given to the discussion of the woman
drunken with the blood of the saints and martyrs and a description of the
beast and its character.
QUESTIONS:
1. Why is God so adamant against idolatry?
2. Why did God want the Canaanites destroyed?
3. Why is Baal worship so horrendous?
4. What was Nimrod’s agenda?
5. How did God intervene in Satan’s program?
6. Describe the religious beginnings of Babylon.
7. Why is Babylon called The Mother of Harlots?
If this study was a blessing to you, make it a blessing to others.
SAVE
AND FORWARD THIS LINK
http://breadoflifeministriesassoc.blogspot.com/
