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The the the the the the the the Now, Revelation 17, verse 1, the Bible reads, 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 whore that sitteth upon many waters, 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. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. Now, we just finished up with the seven vials of God's wrath in chapter 16, and now we're going to see the judgment upon Babylon. Now that judgment's actually going to be carried out in chapter 18, but in chapter 17, we're just seeing the details of who the whore is and other details about that. Now if you would, go to chapter 21. I want you to put your finger in chapter 17 and flip over to chapter 21 because it's interesting when you look at the first three verses of chapter 17 and compare them to chapter 21, verses 9 and 10, you'll see that they're worded almost exactly the same. And so there's a great contrast that we can draw here to help us understand who the great whore of Revelation 17 is. It says in Revelation 21, 9, And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues. And that's pretty much exactly what it said in chapter 17. And it says that he talked with me saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the lamb's wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. So in chapter 17, the one that came and talked with him was one of the seven angels that had the seven vials. They said the exact same thing, Come hither, I will show unto thee. The difference is that in chapter 21, he says, I'm going to show thee the lamb's wife. Chapter 17, he said, I'm going to show thee the judgment of the great whore. And then in chapter 17, verse 3, it says, So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet cut beast. In chapter 21, verse 10, it says, He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. So you can see there's a very strong connection between these two viewings where John is showed basically a woman in both cases. Obviously this is symbolic, but in one case he is shown a great whore and in the other case he's shown a bride. Now these are two contrary things, these are two opposite things. I mean when we think of a bride in the white wedding dress and we think of a whore, I mean you're thinking of two things that really couldn't be any more different. One is a legitimate partner. One is a legitimate life's companion. The other is something that God has told us to flee from. He said flee fornication, not to be a whoremonger. And so what does this represent? Well if we can understand who the bride represents, that'll help us understand who the whore represents. Flip over if you would to Revelation 21 and let's see who the bride represents. It said in verse 10, He carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. And then if we go down to verse 24 for sake of time, it says, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it, saying they're going to walk in the light of the city, and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. Now if you would flip over to Revelation 19. So in Revelation 21 when he's shown the bride, he's shown the great city, the heavenly Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God and it says of that city that the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. Look at Revelation 19 verse 7, it says, Let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife hath made herself ready. So here we have the bride again, or the wife, and it says to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine linen is the righteousness of who? Of saints. So in Revelation 19 we see that the Lamb's wife is clothed in white linen which represents the righteousness of saints. And then in chapter 21 we see the heavenly Jerusalem come down and if you would look at chapter 21 verse 2, it says, And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So in chapter 21 it's the city, the heavenly Jerusalem, and the nations of them which are saved are walking in the light of it. In Revelation 19 we see that the bride, or the Lamb's wife, is clothed in white linen which is the righteousness of saints. So it's clear that this woman represents a group of people. In the case of the bride, it represents the saved or the saints. That's who we're dealing with when we deal with the Lamb's wife or the bride of Christ. The saved or the saints. Now a lot of people today will say, you know, that the church is the bride of Christ, well the wedding hadn't happened yet. The wedding will happen in Revelation 19 where the Bible says, Let us be glad and rejoice, the marriage of the Lamb is come, meaning right now, here it is, that's at the end of the seven years, that's in Revelation 19. There is no bride of Christ today on this earth, okay? There will be a bride at the marriage, at the wedding. So when we understand that the bride of Christ or the Lamb's wife represents a group of people, and that group are the saints, the saved, those who are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now let's look at chapter 17 with that in mind. It says in verse number 1, 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 whore that sitteth upon many waters. You say, well what does it mean that the great whore sitteth upon many waters? Well if you jump down to verse 15, it interprets that for us. It says, And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. What the Bible's teaching here is that the great whore sits upon many waters, meaning that the great whore is not localized to a certain geographic location. The great whore is a worldwide group of people, because the waters upon which the whore sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. Now if you would look at verse number 9, it says, And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. So the woman is seated both upon seven mountains, but also upon many waters, meaning all these nations, kindreds, tongues, and peoples throughout the entire world. So basically there's a headquarters that has seven mountains, but then there's also influence all over the entire world. The people who make up this group represented by the great whore are all over the world, you know, all different nations, tongues, and peoples, because those are the two different seedings that we see. So it says at the end of verse 1 that the great whore sitteth upon many waters. Verse 2 says, 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. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, which is obviously very familiar from chapter 13. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, and when I saw her I wondered with great admiration. So who is this whore? What is represented here by the great whore, or Mystery Babylon? Well it's simple. The bride of Christ represents the saints or the saved, the true believers on the Lord Jesus Christ. The great whore basically represents apostate Christianity, false religion, okay? A counterfeit, a fraud of the real thing when it comes to biblical Christianity. You see we can get some of the clues here about what is being dealt with when we see that first of all it says in verse 2 that the kings of the earth have committed fornication with the whore, and it also says that they've been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Then we see in verse 3 the statement toward the end of the verse, full of names of blasphemy. Then we see in verse 4 scarlet color, gold, precious stones, at the bottom there fornication, Mystery Babylon. Now if we put all this evidence together, first of all we can paint a picture of the Roman Catholic Church. Now I don't believe that that's all that this chapter is referring to, and you know many preachers have preached on this and exposed the similarities between Revelation 17 and what we see with our own eyes and through the historical record of the Roman Catholic Church, and I believe that. But there's more to this chapter than just that, but let's examine that connection first of all. The Bible says in verse 9, and here is the mine which hath wisdom, the seven heads or seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Well Rome is universally known as the city of seven hills. Even when I was in public school as a sixth grader, our textbook for history had a chapter called Rome, the City on Seven Hills. So there's a connection there with Rome. If you look at verse 18, it says the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. And historically, the city of Rome or Vatican City in Rome has been a seat of power that reigned over kings of the earth. For example, in the Middle Ages, in the Dark Ages, the kings of Europe were crowned by the Pope. I mean, he's the one who gave them their authority. He would literally put the crown on their head, which shows that he has more power than them because the Bible says without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And so he had more power than them. He's the one crowning them. And of course, the famous moment in history where Napoleon crowned himself. The Pope was going to crown Napoleon and he took the crown out of his hand and put it on his own head. Okay. So we see that throughout the Middle Ages, throughout the Dark Ages, Rome, Vatican City, the Pope, the Roman Catholic Church ruled over the kings of the earth. So we see that similarity. We see the city of seven hills being Rome. And then when we look at the wine, you know, the wine of her fornication, what is a religion that heavily emphasized wine? The Roman Catholic Church. I mean, you can't go to a Catholic service without there being wine involved because their whole service and their whole religion is based upon the Eucharist, which they believe that they're literally eating and drinking the blood of Christ, which is obviously a very strange doctrine indeed to think that they're actually literally consuming Christ's body and blood and that it's not figurative whatsoever. But anyway, we see the wine, we see the seven hills. We see the martyrs of Jesus, it says in verse six, look down if you would. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration, has the Roman Catholic Church killed the saints or killed martyrs for the cause of Christ? Absolutely. All throughout the Middle Ages again and the Dark Ages, we see them burning people at the stake just for trying to translate the Bible into the language of the common man. We see them putting people to death as heretics for rejecting the doctrine of transubstantiation, for rejecting the doctrines of baptism of the Roman Catholic Church. And so that fits the bill perfectly when you think of the millions and millions of people executed because of their beliefs by the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Dark Ages, throughout the Spanish Inquisition, etc. Also we see here in verse number three, full of names of blasphemy. Does the Roman Catholic Church use names of blasphemy? Well every single Catholic priest is called Father and the Bible says, and called no man your father upon the earth, for one is your father which is in heaven. It is blasphemous to give that title of Father unto a man because we only have one Father that is God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have a father that's a religious figure that we go to to get our sins forgiven and confess unto him. You know, he ought to confess his sins back to us because he is just a man, he's just a human being, he is not the representative of God on earth. He is just a human being, in fact he's promoting a false religion, in fact he needs to put on a pair of pants and dress like a man, but these guys are not teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they are elevating themselves to a position where they have the power to forgive your sins instead of all forgiveness coming through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says there's one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I don't need to go to a Catholic priest who calls himself Father as a mediator between myself and God, and I definitely don't need to go to the mediatrix, which is what they call the Virgin Mary, and they say well she's the mediator, she's the mediatrix, no there's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So these things are all fitting the bill perfectly, then when we get to verse 4, the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, and we see that that fits the bill perfectly because we see the Roman Catholic Church of course, you know, adorned in these exact colors, and having all kinds of lavish luxury about their buildings, about their cathedrals, about their churches, about the Pope, and when the Pope comes to town, I mean he's dressed in scarlet color, he's got all the gold and silver and precious stones and pearls adorning him, he's got all the riches that come with preaching a false religion. The Bible talks about people who teach things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake or for the financial gain. And throughout history the Roman Catholic Church has compromised doctrine for financial gain, like when they sold indulgences and said here, pay us money, we'll forgive your sins. And they raked in all kinds of treasure and wealth as a result. Also we see here in verse number 4, it says that she had a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication, and you know, there's a lot of filthy fornication that goes on within the ranks of the Roman Catholic clergy. I mean, how many times do you hear about, you know, the bastard sons that are fathered and the molestation and the sodomy and all the wicked fornication that goes on with these celibate Catholic priests, which is obviously totally unnatural since the Bible commands that the bishop must be the husband of one wife. I mean the Bible commands in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1 that a bishop must be married. The Roman Catholic Church teaches the opposite and says the bishop cannot be married. Well guess what, when you're not married and you're a heathen, like these Catholic priests are, you're going to be committing fornication. You know, it's that simple. And they even go after strange flesh in many cases, as we've seen all the different, you know, anecdotal evidence of that. So when we look at verses 1 through 6, there's a lot of really strong correlation between what we're seeing here with the great whore, Mystery Babylon, and what we see with the Roman Catholic Church, which makes perfect sense because the Roman Catholic Church is the largest apostate Christian religion in the world. The largest false, fake fraud of Christianity. And good night, there are all kinds of false denominations and false cults and variations and twistings of the Gospel. But what's the biggest one? What's the biggest phony Christian church that there is? The Roman Catholic Church. So it makes perfect sense that when we're looking at a discussion of, you know, apostasy, a fraud, not the true bride of Christ, not the saints or the saved, but rather when we look at twisted version of that, the whore, the false religion, the imposter, it makes sense that it would mirror the largest example of that and that that would be, you know, the headquarters. And not only that, look at verse 5, it says, upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. You say, well what does the Roman Catholic Church have to do with Babylon? Well Babylon comes from the root word of Babel, which is where the Tower of Babel was. And if we go back to Genesis 11 and look at the Tower of Babel, we see that there are two main things about the Tower of Babel. Number one was that God wanted them to scatter throughout the earth, to overspread the earth, to divide into nations and families and replenish the earth. He did not want them all to be joined together and united. He wanted them to be in separate families, nations, etc. So we see at the Tower of Babel, they all joined together contrary to God's wishes and said, we want to stay together, we want to be united, we want to have one government, one name, one place where we're all going to be joined together. And then the other thing that we see is that they said, let's build a tower whose top may reach unto heaven. You know, they're building a tower to heaven. Now you say, you know, you can't build a tower to get to heaven. Well I know that. Okay, I know that you can't build a tower to get to heaven where God lives, you know. And you say, well that's ridiculous, that's foolish to actually think that you could build a tower high enough to get to heaven. But you know what, that represents man making his own way to heaven, building his own way to heaven, working his way to heaven, as opposed to just trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ to get him there. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He's trying to build his own way. And what does false religion or apostate Christianity teach? It teaches a workspace salvation. It teaches a salvation that says, well yeah, Jesus died on the cross for you, but to get to heaven you have to do X, Y, and Z, you have to work your way to heaven. You have to commit all these good works and righteous acts and you have to go to church and you've got to put money in the plate, you've got to confess to the priest, you've got to pray this prayer every day, you know, hail Mary and our Father. And you have to do all these good deeds to work your own way to heaven. That is the Babel religion. And you say, well it's just so foolish that anyone would think they could physically build a tower of the rings, but you know what, it's foolish to think that your works are going to get you to heaven. Because the Bible says all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God. And so to think that your filthy rags worth of righteousness is going to get you to heaven is just as foolish as thinking that you're going to build a physical building that's going to get you there. It makes no sense. So we see those two things about the Tower of Babel that match perfectly with the Roman Catholic Church because the word Catholic means universal. It means universal. So a one world religion and a one world government and a one world, you know, population there in the Tower of Babel is a perfect picture of the Roman Catholic Church which is basically seeking to have a universal church, a universal religion. God has mandated separate churches. God has mandated all throughout the New Testament, you know, the churches of Galatia, the church at Corinth, etc. And I had a guy, I was out soul winning one time, and I had a guy say, you know, you Baptists, you think that there are more than, you know, there are all these churches. He said there's only one church. You believe in all these different churches, there's only one. And I said to him, I said, okay, then why in the New Testament scores of times do we see the word churches plural? In fact, the word churches plural I believe is used more often than church singular. What do you do with the letter of Galatians that's written to the churches of Galatia? That doesn't sound like one to me. That's multiple churches in various locations. And here's the thing, if you look at the letters that Jesus Christ sends out to the seven churches which are in Asia in Revelation 2 and 3 where he gives a different message to each church, he threatens each one individually that had problems. He says I'll remove your candlestick out of his place. And the Bible says the candlesticks are the seven churches. He says I'm going to remove your candlestick out of its place. But let me ask you this, if the candlestick is removed from Ephesus, does Smyrna have to go down? No, just because Ephesus lost their first love, that doesn't mean Smyrna did. And if God removed the candlestick from Ephesus, that doesn't mean that Smyrna or one of the other church, Philadelphia, couldn't continue to thrive and be a great Bible believing church because they're separate. But what if all seven of them were all united together into a denomination with a pope over them? Then the corruption is going to spread within the organization and it's all going to filter down from the top. Whereas, in Revelation 2 and 3, we see independent churches that have different doctrine because some of them were going into false doctrine, others weren't. They have their own doctrine, their own problems, their own strengths, their own weaknesses. We see seven separate churches. Throughout the New Testament, we see all these seven separate churches. But the Catholic Church teaches no, there's only one true church. Universal church. Catholic means universal. And what do we see going into the end times when we study Revelation 13 and when we study the whole book of Revelation, we see what? Global government, universal political structure, a universal system of money, a universal religion, a one-world religion, a one-world government, them seeking to unite everything instead of having separate sovereign nations. No, it's all united. And it's not God's plan. It's not God's will. God ordained separate families, separate nations, and separate churches, not just this universal church that all Christians, and you know, if you're a real Christian, you're a part of that one true church. No, that's not true. That's not biblical. The word church means congregation. In Psalm 22, it says, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. In the Old Testament, it says in the midst of the congregation will I sing praise unto thee. When Psalm 22 is quoted in Hebrews 2.12, it says in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Showing the church and congregation are two synonymous words. So a church is not this big overarching organization, but rather it's a local congregation, a local assembly of believers, whether it be Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, or Tempe, Arizona, you know, wherever it happens to be located. So we see here apostate religion exemplified in the Catholic Church. I mean, the Catholic Church is the archetypical apostate church, perfect example of an apostate church. And keep in mind, for hundreds and hundreds of years, people were reading the Bible throughout the Dark Ages, and I'm sure they were able really to relate to this passage, you know, as they looked at the Catholic Church. They looked at the political structure of their day. They looked at what that false religion was doing. They looked at the martyrs of Jesus. They saw people being tortured, burned at the stake, killed. They saw all the false religion and apostasy and all the wealth of the Catholic Church as the common man starving to death. You know, they see all this and it made perfect sense to them that, you know, that the Catholic Church is the great whore of Revelation 17. But here's what we need to understand. It says at the end of verse 5 that this apostate church or false, you know, group of saints, not the true saints of the bride of Christ, but rather a fraud. It says here that Mystery Babylon the Great is the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Therefore, what we see here is that this group of people or this organization or this city or, you know, all the different levels on which Revelation 17 is interpreted is not the only harlot out there, is not the only whore that's out there, and is not the only abomination that's out there. Because it says here that the great whore is also the mother of other harlots and abominations. So I don't believe it's a good interpretation of Revelation 17 to just interpret this as, you know, it's just the Roman Catholic Church, that's it, case closed. There's more to it than that. Because there are other apostate churches, there are other forms of apostate religion and apostate Christianity and counterfeits of true biblical Christianity that also fit the bill, that also teach a workspace salvation, a Tower of Babel type salvation where you get there on your own works instead of just trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, and that also believe in a universal church. I mean, most of your apostate Christian churches, they teach the doctrine of the universal church. Okay, they just maybe package it in a different way. But if you asked your average liberal mega church or whatever and just said, you know, do you believe in the universal church, they're going to tell you yes. In fact, churches that recite the Apostles' Creed, which are Presbyterian churches, which are most of your mainline Protestant churches, and I've been in Baptist churches where people recite it. I mean, it's unbelievable. But they will recite it and say, we believe in the holy Catholic church. But they'll change it because they say, well, you know, we're not Catholic. So then they'll change it and they'll say, we believe in the holy universal church. So when they recite the Apostles' Creed, which is not biblical, which is not something that the Apostles had anything to do with, when they recite that thing, they say, we believe in the universal church. That's what they're saying. They believe it. So is the Catholic church the only one that fits this bill of false religion, of using false doctrine and false teaching about the word of God for financial gain to adorn themselves in gold and silver and precious stones and pearls? Are they the only ones who have names of blasphemy? Are they the only ones who teach this kind of false doctrine? Are they the only ones who have persecuted and killed the true believers in the Lord Jesus Christ? No, they're not. And so yes, the great whore, the mother, based on the City of Seven Hills, I believe is a clear reference to the Catholic church, but we see a lot of other harlots and abominations that have sprung forth from the Roman Catholic church. And if you think about it, it says here that the great whore is the mother of abominations. When you look at the false doctrines today of churches. For example, here's a major false doctrine. Infant baptism. Okay, that's something that the Bible never teaches and usually, of course, this is done by sprinkling. Well, and the Bible says we're buried with them by baptism into his death. That like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk into his life. It talks about Jesus going down into the water, coming up out of the water. Talks about John baptizing an anon near to Salem because there was much water there. If you're sprinkling, you don't need much water. But he had to go to a place where there was deep water where he could actually baptize people by immersing them, dunking them under water, signifying the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You know, buried with him by baptism into his death. But when we see churches today that baptize by sprinkling, churches that baptize babies when the Bible says that before you get baptized, you have to believe with all your heart on the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 837, if thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest. When we see churches teaching infant baptism and baptism by sprinkling, you have to ask yourself, where is this coming from? You didn't get this from the Bible. As Paul said, this persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you. And you know exactly where it came from. It came from the Roman Catholic Church. Because you're not going to just read the Bible and just come up with that on your own. Oh, let's baptize by sprinkling instead of immersion. Oh, let's baptize babies. It comes from the Roman Catholic Church. And see, a lot of your mainline Protestant denominations go back and research where they came from. Find the roots of it. Go back and figure out where John Calvin came from and where Martin Luther came from. And you know what you're going to find? You're going to find that they were Catholic priests. And that's why they brought a lot of this false doctrine with them. That's why when you find Lutherans today, you know, baptizing by sprinkling or baptizing a baby, and you know, where are these Lutherans getting it? From the Roman Catholic Church. Because the Roman Catholic Church is the mother of these doctrines. They're the source and origination of these doctrines and they have filtered down from the Catholic Church to all these other apostate Christian denominations. Whether it be work salvation, whether it be the doctrine of purgatory, whether it be a teaching of infant baptism or baptism by sprinkling. And you know, I don't want to just go on and on about that because I want to preach the whole chapter here. But you can see that the Catholic Church is the source of a lot of these false doctrines amongst various brands of apostate Christianity today. But we see that this apostate religion or apostate church or apostate group is based on a city with seven hills. Now you say, well, you know, okay, are there other cities with seven hills? You know, are there other cities that would fit that bill? People brought up Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or even Jerusalem as being places where there are seven mountains or seven hills. And they say, you know, couldn't it be a different city, a different place? Well, think about this for a moment, okay? The Bible is teaching here that, you know, the great whore is on seven mountains where the woman sitteth and is known as Mystery Babylon. Well, if we go back to Daniel, and you know, I did this in my sermon on Revelation 13. But when we go back to Daniel, there's a prophecy that keeps coming up about the end times. And some of it had to do with things that were going on back in Daniel's day. Some of it has a futuristic application that's still to come. But remember the four kingdoms keep coming up over and over again. In chapter 2, we have the image with the head of gold, and then it goes to silver, bronze, and iron. Those four kingdoms, if you remember the sermon on chapter 13, were Babylon, then the Medo-Persian empire, then Greece, and then Rome, okay? And when we saw the antichrist or the beast having seven heads and ten horns in Revelation 13, that beast is described as having, you know, the mouth of a lion, feet of a bear, and it's likened to a leopard, a bear, and a lion, and it's those four same kingdoms that we saw described in Daniel 7. I'm not going to re-preach the chapter 13 sermon, but we see that Babylon and Rome are connected, aren't they? If we think about it, and we see that these four beasts of Daniel 7, the lion representing Babylon, the bear representing the Medo-Persian empire, the leopard representing Greece, and then the fourth beast was the dreadful beast that was unlike the others that crushed everything with iron. That was the Roman empire, okay? So we see that in Revelation 13, in the end times, the one world government that emerges is like an amalgamation of all four beasts from Babylon, Persia, Greece, and the Roman empire all combined into one, okay? So therefore there is a link that ties in Babylon with Rome more so than with Jerusalem or with Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for example, okay? We see that there is a biblical strong connection in the book of Daniel between Babylon and Rome. Here's why. Babylon was the empire that ruled over the civilized world, right? And when Babylon ruled over the civilized world, there was a man at its head who basically thought of himself higher than he ought to have thought, and there's a great image made and people had to worship that image in Daniel chapter 3, and if they wouldn't worship the image, what happens to them? They're going to be killed, right? Okay, what happens in Revelation 13? The Antichrist, the man who's the head of that global government, he basically has an image made. If you don't worship the image, you're going to be killed. It's exactly like what we saw in Daniel chapter 3. So the Babylonian empire was a precursor or a foreshadowing of the global government that's going to come in the end times, and King Nebuchadnezzar foreshadowed the Antichrist as being a leader that's commanding you to worship his image or die. So we see that connection, don't we? Then we also see the connection between Rome and the global government of the end times because when Jesus Christ came on his first coming, the Roman Empire was there, ruling and reigning over the world at that time. The leaders of the Roman Empire thought of themselves as God. They thought of themselves as greater than just a normal human being, and they also caused people to be killed for their beliefs, thrown to the lions and so forth. So we can see a very strong connection between Babylon and Rome, and those are both used as pictures or symbols of this global government in the end time. So we see, yes, a global government in the end time, but we also see a global religion, a universal religion, a one-world religion. Now don't mistake this because we don't want you to think that I'm saying, hey, in the end times everybody's going to become Catholic, and the Antichrist is going to be the next pope or something. I don't believe that, okay? Because I believe that the one-world religion in the end time is going to include more than just the Catholic Church. That's why I think sometimes people get too carried away when they're looking at Revelation 17. They get so fixated on the imagery and the symbolism and the link with the Catholic Church that they misunderstand the fact, wait a minute, this isn't just the Catholic Church. This is the global false religion that's going to be around the Antichrist, okay, or that's going to basically put the Antichrist into power. There's going to be other apostate Christians that join with the Catholic Church in believing this, okay? Now let's keep reading. It says in verse 7, and the angel said unto me, wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carryeth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. Now again, if you study your Bible, that term is not is referring to someone being dead. Joseph is not is what Jacob said when he thought his son was dead. And so when it talks about the beast that it was and is not, it's talking about the beast was alive, now is dead, right? And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. So basically the beast has died, gone to hell, and is going to ascend out of hell. And I covered that in Revelation 13. It's going to go into perdition, eventually to go back to damnation or perdition. It says and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder. Of course people are going to be amazed, right, when someone dies and comes back to life, which is what we saw in Revelation 13. But it doesn't say that everyone who dwells on earth will wonder. It says that those 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. The one that was and is not and yet is comes back to life is what that's basically saying. Now let's look at that phrase that says whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. What's interesting is if you study the book of life from Genesis to Revelation, the Bible never talks about people's names being added to the book of life. We often get this idea that when a person believes on the Lord Jesus Christ and gets saved, at that moment their name is added to the book of life. That's actually never found in the Bible, believe it or not. And in fact, the only reference to when those names made it into the book of life is basically right here when it says that these names were written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, meaning that if you're saved today, your name was already written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. It did not get added the moment that you got saved, okay? Your name was written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Now the Bible does often talk about people's names being removed from the book of life. You'll find plenty of references to being blotted out of the book of life, being removed from the book of life, but you'll never find someone being added to the book of life. And so what I believe and what I take from that as I study the Bible is that everybody's name starts out in the book of life, okay? And what we see is that in Revelation 3, for example, it says, to him that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. So again, we don't see that it's being added, we just see that it's not being removed. It's not being blotted out. So there does come a time when people's names are removed from the book of life or blotted out from the book of life. Go to Revelation 22 for a classic example of this. In Revelation 22, the famous verse in verse 18 says, for I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book. And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life and out of the holy city and from the things which are written in this book. So this curse upon those who would remove from God's word and take away part of God's word, he said, I'll take away his part out of the book of life. So if a person is to tamper with God's word, that's what's going to happen. Now is there anything else that a person can do that will cause that person to basically have permanently sealed their fate to where they can never be saved? I mean this guy, he's going to hell. He tampered with God's word, he's done. An unsaved person obviously seeks to pervert and to change God's word, remove stuff, add stuff. He's going to hell. End of story. His part has been blotted out of the book of life. Now people say, oh he lost his salvation. No, he didn't lose his salvation. He never was saved, but his part is taken out of the book of life. Now he doesn't even have the opportunity to get saved. He's done. It's a done deal. Well think about this. What about when someone worships the Antichrist and receives his mark in his forehead or in his hand? What did the Bible say about those people in Revelation 14, 10, and 11? That they're for sure going to hell, right? So think about this. If somebody worships the beast, they're done. Just like if they tampered with God's word. Just like when the Pharisees of Jesus' day, who of course never believed on him. They didn't lose their salvation. They were never saved. You can't lose your salvation. It's eternal life. It's everlasting life. He promised to never leave us or forsake us. We've been passed from death unto life. But remember how it said that if you take the mark of the beast, you're done. The Pharisees of Jesus' day blasphemed the Holy Ghost. They were done. You know, he said, you have no forgiveness, neither in this world nor in the world to come. You know, you've gone too far. You are blinded at this point. You are reprobated at this point. You are rejected at this point. Those who worship the Antichrist are the same way. So it makes sense that their names are not in the book of life anymore. Anybody who worships the Antichrist, all the people that dwell on the earth who are worshiping him are peoples whose names, and let's read it again in Revelation 17 there. 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. Now some people will look at the grammar there and they'll say these people's names were never in the book. Like their name was never in the book. It's not that it was removed or blotted out, it just was never there. Well there's two ways to understand the word were there, okay. And you know, I'm not trying to be like Bill Clinton and define the word is here, but I'm just saying, you know, there are multiple ways to understand these verb tenses because if we look at this as whose names were not written, okay, if we were to look at that were as a helping verb of written, were written, then I could see where they were coming from to say, okay, this is saying that the name was never there. But what I believe it's saying when it says that the names were not written, I think it's saying at this time their names were not written, okay. And when it says that their names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, which you have to understand, anybody whose name is written in the book of life, it's there from the foundation of the world. These people's names were not in the book of life from the foundation of the world because their name has been removed. That's the way I interpret that and I believe that that's what it's saying because that's the only way that it would be consistent with the rest of what the Bible teaches about the book of life. You see, my name is in the book of life and it's there from the foundation of the world, okay. My name is in the book of life from the foundation of the world, okay, it's always been there. The person who's not saved, their name is not in the book of life from the foundation of the world. My name is in the book of life from the foundation of the world, their name is not in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Another way that some people have interpreted this is just that, you know, when God removes your part from the book, it's like it was never there, you know, it's just, it's so decimated that it's like as if it had never been there. But that's not the way I interpret it, I interpret it grammatically the way that I just explained it because the Bible talks so much about people's names being removed and so much about being blotted out and that's a whole other study in and of itself. But let's keep going, it says in verse 9, here is the mind which hath wisdom, meaning that he's going to give us a clue, if we're smart enough to understand it, that the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings, five are fallen and one is, and the other is not yet come, and when he cometh he must continue a short space, and the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of the seven and goeth into perdition. Now what I believe this is referring to, the seventh king that continues for a short space, well if you think about it, if the eighth king is going to be the beast or the antichrist, wouldn't it make sense that the seventh king would only continue for a short space if perhaps he's somebody who fills in during the three days or however long the antichrist is dead? Think about that. Because remember the antichrist was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. The Bible talks about in Revelation 13, him receiving a deadly wound to his head, his deadly wound is healed and all the world wonders after the beast. They're all amazed by the fact that this deadly wound is healed. And it talks about in chapter 13 and in chapter 17, and also I think you can derive it from 2 Thessalonians 2, that he's going to die and come back. So while he's dead, somebody's got to be running the show as far as, you know, whatever the antichrist was ruling over at that time. He's not necessarily the antichrist until he comes back, but you know, that man of sin obviously was in power. He was an authority. He was one of those seven heads, okay? And then when he basically dies, somebody else is going to fill in for a short space, I think is what that's referring to. And it says in verse 11, the beast that was and is not, even he is the eighth and is of a seven and goeth into perdition. So he was one of the seven, okay? And then he comes back. Again more evidence that he's basically dying and coming back from the bottomless pit, trying to mimic or counterfeit what Jesus Christ did with the death, burial, and resurrection. It says in verse 12, and the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. Kings have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So we're not talking about the whore at this time. Did you notice that we switched from talking about the whore to talking about the beast? The first six verses we're talking about the whore. You know, we're explaining everything about the whore and all the different identifying features of the scarlet color, the names of blasphemy, the gold, silver, precious stones, the fornication, the wine, all that. But now we've switched, we're learning about the beast that carrieth her, right? Part way down verse seven. We're learning about the beast that carrieth her and we're seeing these sevens and tens because remember, and you know, the chapter 13 sermon is critical. But in the sermon on chapter 13 I went over the fact that the beast, when the Bible talks about the beast, it represents not just the man, it represents both the king and the kingdom and we proved that in the sermon on chapter 13. And so the seven heads and ten horns that the beast is pictured as having are different people. One of the seven heads is wounded to death. That's the one who becomes the anti-Christ and he's also just known as the beast, personally. But also the whole government, the whole global government is called the beast and it has these seven heads which are these seven kings and these ten horns which are ten kings. Also the seven heads represent the seven mountains and so forth. There's a lot of different layers of imagery here, it's not just one interpretation. So these ten horns are ten kings which have received no kingdom as yet, verse 12, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. So what I see here is ten kings or ten, we probably wouldn't use the word king that much today, we would call them like a world leader. We think of men who basically are rulers of various countries. You know, for the United States you think of the President of the United States. And unfortunately he behaves very much like a king. You know, it wasn't set up that way in the early days, it wasn't set up that way in 1787 with the Constitution. But today he's given all kinds of executive orders, he's ruling and reigning as a king, he's making all kinds of decisions unilaterally. His wife, Michelle Antoinette, basically, you know, lives in the lavish luxury of like a queen, right, going on all these vacations and having multitudes of servants and millions and millions of dollars of this, that, and the other. So we have a king. Just because you call him the president doesn't mean that he's not the king because that's what he is. Okay, we have the king, Obama, at this time. And these ten kings are basically ten world leaders. We could think of Putin or whoever, you know, just whatever people across the world who rule China or Russia or the United States or France or England, you know, basically the big power players. For example, you think of in the United Nations, right, there are all these different nations, you know, 150 some nations, however many there are it changes, but this number of nations that are, you know, supposedly ruling through the United Nations and making policy, but really it's the Security Council that really calls the shots. And the Security Council is made up of 15 members, okay, but it's five of those members that are the ones who really call the shots. They're the permanent members of the Security Council and they're the ones who have veto power in the Security Council. You know, China, Russia, the United States, England, and France. Those five are the permanent members. The other ten, you know, they get cycled through just to make them feel good, right? I mean it just makes them, oh well, you know, Zimbabwe or, you know, New Zealand. I mean they're, you know, they're not really the one that's making policy on the Security Council. You know, it's not like, you know, Argentina is going to be the one who really makes the final decision. Okay, it's the five big ones. But then there are other major nations, you know, obviously Germany has a lot of power and sway. You know, so I think these are going to be ten world leaders that represent all regions of the world, something similar to like a UN Security Council, that are going to basically give up their power unto the beast. So it's like they have their own sovereignty. You know, President Obama, you know, he rules over the United States and someone else rules over China, Russia, England, whatever. These guys have their own power over their own sphere, but they're all going to have one mind, they're all going to agree and they're going to give their power and strength unto the beast. They're going to hand over the power. I mean look, we see our president already handing over power to the United Nations. So is it far-fetched to believe that in the future there's going to be a leader of America that's going to hand all the power to the world government? It's coming. It's coming. We're losing more and more of our sovereignty as a nation and we're going more to a global system, a global government. And so that's what we see here. The global political system, okay? We saw the whore, which is like a global religious system, a global apostate religion. And then we see the global political system where ten world leaders hand off all their power unto the beast and give him the power. They rule with him for one hour and then they have one mind and they give all their power and strength unto him. It says in verse 14, these shall make war with the lamb and the lamb shall overcome them for he is lord of lords and king of kings and they that are with them are called and chosen and faithful. Now remember in Revelation 13 we learned that the Antichrist is taking power of the entire world at the midpoint of the seven years. That's where he takes power of the whole world and he continues that way for 42 months. Well the war with the Lord Jesus Christ where they come to make war with the Lord Jesus Christ when he comes on the white horse, that takes place in Revelation 19 at the end of the seven years. So that shows that these ten kings, they're still there in power, okay? Basically they give all their power unto the Antichrist as the head. He becomes the ruler. But obviously no ruler just rules alone. He's got other sub-rulers under him, right? He's got his own bureaucracy under him and these ten kings, these ten rulers, they still retain some power during the time that the Antichrist is reigning all the way up to the point where they go out to make war with the Antichrist. Go to chapter 16 if you would and I'll prove that to you. It says in verse 12, the sixth angel, this is toward the end of the week when the vials of God's wrath are being poured out. It says the sixth angel poured out his vial on the great river Euphrates and the water thereof was dried up that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. So there still are kings on the earth, aren't there? And it says here, and I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For there are the spirits of devils working miracles which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. So you see again the same thing we saw in chapter 17 of these kings coming to make war with Jesus Christ. The Antichrist is over them, he's the guy at the top, but there are still these kings obviously running things on a more local basis, the bureaucracy if you will. It says in verse 14 of chapter 17, these shall make war with the lamb and the lamb shall overcome them for he is lord of lords and king of kings and they that are with them are called and chosen and faithful and he saith unto me, the waters which thou sawest where the horse sitteth are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. So now we're just getting back to talking about the whore, aren't we? And it says in the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath 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 and the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Now think about this, when we're talking about the destruction of Babylon in chapter 18 and you know of course there's going to be a whole other sermon on chapter 18 that goes into that in great detail. But when we think about the destruction of Babylon in chapter 18, when is that taking place? This is after the seventh vial is poured out and it only takes one hour. The destruction of Babylon will take place in one hour, it will be destroyed with fire. This is taking place at the very end of Daniel's 70th week, it's the last thing, it's after the seven vials. Now think about this, if the theory, because the theory is out there that the great whore is Jerusalem, that basically Jerusalem is also on seven hills. Well think about this, when is Jerusalem destroyed? When does the Antichrist turn on Jerusalem? When does the beast turn and attack Jerusalem? Well Luke 21 taught us, it's at the midpoint that Jerusalem is basically, that's where the abomination of desolation takes place, that's where a lot of Jews are killed with the sword at that midpoint, that's where Jerusalem is attacked. This is Babylon being attacked, this is not at the midpoint, this is at the very end, this is a separate event. And it says that basically at the end of this all, because that's the timing of where we're at because remember this all goes back to chapter 16 verse 19, halfway through the verse after the seventh vial is poured out where it says, great Babylon came in remembrance before God to give under her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. It's happening at the very end, okay? It's in detail in chapter 18 but look at chapter 17 verse 16, it says, and the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, who are the ten horns? The ten kings, right? These shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate and naked and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire for God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will and to agree and to give their kingdom unto the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled and the words of God being fulfilled there are the destruction of Babylon. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Now when we get into chapter 18 it talks about Babylon fallen and it says in verse 3 of chapter 18, all nations have drunk of the wine of her fornication, similar things to what were said about the great whore. Later on in chapter 18 it talks about her being utterly burned with fire, her flesh being the same exact type of terminology so you can't really separate these events. So to put it all together, to kind of tie it all together here what we see is that if we look at the great whore historically because in the first six verses we're talking about the great whore past tense, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her. We're talking about she's been drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. We're seeing stuff historically about the great whore so this is not a new entity, this is something that has existed side by side with Christianity throughout the ages. You know we mentioned the dark ages, we mentioned the middle ages, okay we mentioned the Tower of Babel, you know we mentioned the Roman Empire. The paganism of the Roman Empire also of course spilled over into the Roman Catholic Church with all of its paganism and all the things that it picked up from pagan religion which goes back to the Tower of Babel. So we see historically the great whore has been the Catholic Church and I think if you were preaching this hundreds of years ago during the dark ages you'd be right on comparing this to the Catholic Church and calling the Catholic Church the great whore. And obviously the Catholic Church is still in existence, still a great whore, still preaching false doctrine, still corrupting the world with its abominations and fornications, still exerting power over governments but not as much as it used to. I mean can anyone really argue today that the Catholic Church has the same power today that it had over Europe in the dark ages? You know I don't think so. But historically yes so I don't want to discount that but what I'm saying is that I think that today in 2013 the great whore is seated in the United States. I mean that is where the headquarters or the hub or the base of the great whore is or a apostate religion or apostate Christianity, global government, this globalist system I think is based physically today in the United States. Was it based on seven mountains in John's day? Yes. Was it based on seven mountains in the times of the dark ages when you look at the apostate Christian Church, the Roman Catholic Church? Yes. Okay not discounting the historical aspect but today we see the great whore seated I believe in the United States which is why when we get into chapter 18 I believe we're looking at the physical destruction of the United States and I'm going to prove that a lot of different ways in the sermon on chapter 18. So if you're skeptical about that just wait until the Revelation 18 sermon before you discount what I'm saying. You know listen to the sermon on Revelation 18 and then decide whether you agree with me on the United States correlation. But I just wanted to plant that seed in your mind right now of understanding that you know the whore sits on many waters, not restricted to one geographic location. At one point it was the Tower of Babel and the plains of Shinar, then it was Babylon, then it was Rome. I believe now it's the United States, the United States is the new Rome, the United States is the new Babylon. We see the United States as being the place where the United Nations is based. You know we see the United States as being a global power but also a global force for apostate Christianity. When we get to chapter 18 it talks about Babylon as being the place that consumes all the world's goods and that when it's destroyed people say nobody's going to buy our merchandise anymore. I mean if this happened today what nation could you possibly destroy where people would say no man buys our merchandise anymore? I mean the United States consumes all the goods and if you think about the fact that today all of the phony Christian organizations, it's all based out of the United States if you think about it. I mean you go to Colorado Springs, Colorado that's where there are hundreds of these church organizations and so-called Christian organizations that teach a universal church, that teach work salvation. All these different parachurch organizations and parachurch ministries are all based out of Colorado. They're all based out of the United States and basically who's the one who sends missionaries all over the entire world more than any other nation? The United States there's no question about that and look are all those missionaries preaching the true gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? What percentage of them is? I mean probably most of them are obviously bringing false religion. So the United States is spreading false apostate Christianity all over the world. We are the ones that have the TV preachers. We are the ones who have polluted the world with our sorceries and television all the movies everything is coming from the United States and so I believe that if we were to fast forward to 2013 the modern-day Babylon is the United States and so stay tuned for the chapter 18 sermon because that's the one where I'm really going to tie this in and put it all together but I just wanted to kind of plant that seed in your mind right now at the end of the chapter 17 sermon to try to understand the great whore. I guess the great whore is apostate religion a false religion but the place that's going to be destroyed the place that the ten kings are going to turn on and destroy and nuke to high heaven with fire and brimstone is going to be I believe the United States. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the chance to study it and to try to understand it. Of course we see through a glass darkly when it comes to some of these events because this could happen far off in the future geopolitical landscapes could change perhaps someday another nation could rise theoretically that would that would be similar to the United States and that it consumes all the goods deceives all the nations through TV and Hollywood deceives all the nations through false religions and apostate missionaries and apostate religion but Father help us to understand and to know the times and to study our Bibles to get as close as we can to being accurate about how these things will be playing out and in Jesus name we pray, Amen. I wanted to leave a history behind on what happened to me and some of the co-workers here in this county and it kind of gives the inside look at a phosphate plant mainly the chemical plant where phosphoric acid is made. Our CDC and the liars in Washington DC have only had success in countries that speak English for the vast majority of the disposal of their hazardous waste product that means that you and I and our children in the United States are the largest consumers of hydrofluoroelicic acid call it what it is hydrofluoroelic acid what is that hydro is water fluofluoride silicic sand and it's missing electron it's acidic it'll kill you you take your hand dip it in like that you're gonna die FDA in 1997 required manufacturers of toothpaste to put this warning label on it the same as you'd have on a loaded 38 caliber pistol keep out a breach of children and only use a little pea sized amount which is about the same amount that would be a bottle of water and if that amount is swallowed call the poison control center or seek professional help immediately so if I drink a bottle of water should I call the poison control center too this is just insane there are solutions out there there are answers to this there's a ways to get around and possibly clean up your system what can we do. I really wish this project the greatest success people need to hear this message from all of those that you're going to hear this is powerful information I imagine that in 50 years people will be watching this and they'll look back and say there were some filmmakers who did know what they were covering who weren't willing to just sell out and do some explosions and on screen sex and this and that they actually had a message for humanity that's what you guys are doing. Thank you.