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Zechariah, chapter number 5, the Bible reads, beginning in verse number 1, Then I turned and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, a flying roll. And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll. The length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits. Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth. For every one that stealeth shall be cut off, as on this side according to it. And every one that sweareth shall be cut off, as on that side according to it. Now when the Bible talks about him seeing a giant roll, we would actually think of this as a scroll. Okay, I might make it a little easier for you to understand what's being said here. It's a rolled up piece of paper, a rolled up parchment that would have writing on it. And I believe that that writing would be the word of God. And the reason why I say that is because that scroll with God's word on it is a curse upon those who would steal, and a curse upon those who swear falsely, which are obviously both things that the Bible speaks against. And we'll get into that a little bit more as we go through the sermon here. But it says in verse number four, I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name. And it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof, and the stones thereof. Now before we get into the rest of the sermon, let's talk about this issue of swearing falsely by God's name, okay? If you would go over to Matthew chapter five in the New Testament, Matthew chapter number five, Matthew chapter number five, and as you're turning there, I'm going to read for you from James chapter five, verse number 12, where the Bible reads, but above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yay be yay, and your nay nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. Now that is an important commandment simply because he says, above all things, my brethren, swear not, so he's actually saying that that command is more important than some other things that he'd been saying, so we should put great importance on that as well. And if we go to Matthew chapter five, we can see Jesus saying something very similar in verse number 33 of chapter five there. Again, ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, thou shalt not forswear thyself, and forswearing thyself would be to swear falsely. It says thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths. But I say unto you, swear not at all, the exact same thing that James taught, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king, neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let your communication be yay yay, nay nay, for whatsoever is more than these, cometh of evil. Now, in the Old Testament, you'll see people often swearing in the name of the Lord. They'll say, as the Lord liveth, so and so, or whatever. They basically are invoking either God or heaven or something just to put strength behind what they're saying and just to say, you know, I promise that I'm telling the truth, I'll swear it even on God or I'll swear it on the Bible or whatever. And people will say those kind of things even nowadays. People will say, I swear by God or I swear to God or, you know, things like that. And the Bible is actually telling us that that is something that we should not ever do. But that rather we should just say yay or nay. Just say yes or no and our yay should be our yay and our nay should be our nay without us having to swear to it. This is why, even if you go to a courthouse today in the United States or fill out any kind of a legal document, it's not just an oath or a solemnly swear. It actually will say oath or affirmation. Who's ever seen that before, oath or affirmation? Why? Because they knew that there are many people who are religiously objected to making an oath and to swearing to it. So basically instead of swearing, you can say I affirm, meaning yay. You're going to let your yay be yay but you're not actually swearing to it. Now when we think of swearing, if people say he was swearing, they say, you know, oh, he was using cuss words. You know, they're actually misunderstanding what the Bible means by swearing because when the Bible says him that sweareth, it's not talking about a guy who has a potty mouth. What it's actually talking about is a guy who is, you know, saying thus saith the Lord or as the Lord liveth or, you know, whatever and he's not telling the truth. You're actually lying about that, okay? Now go back to Zechariah chapter 5. The other sin that is brought up is the sin of robbery and God is saying, you know, both he that stealeth and he that sweareth falsely are both going to be cursed. I'm sending forth a curse upon people that would commit these sins. And truly that is a theme throughout the Bible that those who sin will be cursed and those who do right will be blessed. And over and over again God tells the children of Israel, I'm setting before you this day a blessing and a curse. I'm setting before you life and death. Choose life. Now we as Christians, we're saved if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior. We have everlasting life and we shall never perish. We don't have to worry about losing our salvation because we can't lose our salvation. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The Bible says that we're sealed by that Holy Spirit of promise until the day of redemption. The Bible says that we've been passed from death unto life. The Bible teaches over and over again that all of our sins are forgiven and forgotten. But just because we have spiritual salvation, just because we are God's children and he will never leave us nor forsake us, yet he does chasten and chastise his children. And the Bible says, whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If we want God to bless us in our lives after we're saved, if we want to be blessed, we have to do what's right. We can't just live a life of sin, a life after the flesh, a life of robbery, a life of swearing falsely and lying, and expect God to bless us. It's just simply not going to happen. Whereas, if we live a life of righteousness, godliness, obviously we're all sinners, but if at least we're going to church, we're reading our Bibles, we're praying, and we're seeking after the Lord, we're trying to be a fisher of men, we're doing the best that we can, you know, obviously then God's going to bless us than if we're just completely ignoring his word. Think about your children. They're not perfect, but when they do right, you bless them. And when they do wrong, they get a whooping, and it's the same thing with God. So, there is a curse on all those who disobey the commandments of God, that bad things will happen as a result. Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. Those who are unsaved, they suffer the consequences of the sins that they commit, often in this life, but even if they don't get it in this life, they get it when they go to hell when they die. But those that are saved only suffer consequences in this life. And whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourges every son whom he receiveth. So, there is a curse upon sin. That's what we see in the first half there. God sending forth that scroll, he's sending forth his word. And God's word is either a blessing or a curse unto you, depending on, you know, which side of things you're on. You know, when we hear the word of God, it's a blessing unto us. We love the word of God. It's sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. But to a person who's not saved, it's a word of condemnation. To a person who steals or swears falsely, it's actually a curse on them. It's actually pronouncing their doom and judgment that's coming. So, God's word is truly a two-edged sword. It cuts both ways. It's either the best thing ever or the worst thing ever to you. It's either going to, you know, be a rock of a foundation that you can build your life on, or it's going to be a rock that's going to crush you to pieces because you don't submit unto the Lord. So, that's the way the word of God is. So, that's what I believe this scroll represents God's word. Now, let's keep reading here in Zechariah chapter 5. It says in verse 5, Then the angel that talked with me went forth and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said, Moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth. Now, what is an ephah? Well, if you remember in the Old Testament, the ephah is often used as a measurement of dried goods. Now, in today's measurements, well, actually not today's, but in the traditional English measurements, a bushel would be used, right? And the bushel is a unit of measurement, but also we would refer to a bushel as being an object that contains that quantity, right? When we sing the song, This Little Light of Mine, I'm going to let it shine. Hide it under a bushel? No. All right? So, the bushel would be sort of like the ephah in the sense that it is a unit of measurement, but it could also refer to the object like the container, if you will, that would carry one ephah. So, it's a certain size container. So, what he sees is an ephah that goeth forth. And it says at the end of verse 6, This is their resemblance through all the earth. And behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead. A talent is a unit of measurement, a certain amount of weight. And this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. So, there's a woman that sits in the midst of the ephah. This is what he sees, a container, a woman sitting in it. Let's keep reading. And he said, This is wickedness. So, wickedness is basically being personified here as a woman. Now, this is really an epiphany. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, that's not the moral. We're still moving forward. It was a joke. All right, but it says, you know, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah. And he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth there. So, everybody try to get the picture here. I know this can seem a little bit dark and cryptic and hard to understand. But basically what it is, is there's this container, this ephah. And there's a woman in the midst of it that represents wickedness. Of course, there's also a woman in the Bible that represents wisdom. And there are all kinds of positive manifestations of the female spirit as well. But here we have a woman representing wickedness that is inside this ephah. And then there's a weight of lead over the top of it as the lead basically holding her inside. Does everybody understand that? She's in the ephah. The lead is placed on top. Why? Because lead is something that is heavy. It would be like a lid for something. Then it says in verse 9, Now, usually when the Bible talks about angels, it actually just describes them as looking like normal men. They don't really look like what we would think of as an angel. When the two angels go to Sodom, they just look like two ordinary men. And throughout the Bible, that's often how they appear unto man. But in some places in the Bible, there are descriptions of different types of angels that do sort of look like what we would picture as the typical angel. Because we think of angels as being a female figure with wings like a stork. So if you wonder where that image is coming from, this is actually one place in the Bible. There are other places also that actually describe such a thing. So that image is not just way out of left field. Somebody just made that up. It actually does have biblical basis. So a lot of people, if they ever see an image of a woman with those kind of wings, they're just like, that's not biblical, or they just kind of freak out when in reality it does have some biblical basis. And there are also the cherubims that have four wings. And then there are the seraphims that have six wings. There are these different types of angelic beings that look like this. But it says here in verse number 8, this is wickedness, and he cast it in the midst of the ephod, and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings, for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephod between the earth and the heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephod? And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar, and it shall be established and set there upon her own base. Now, if you understand the place Shinar in the Bible, it is the place that we would normally call Babylon, okay? The Tower of Babel was built in the plains of Shinar, and it talks about Babylon being in the land of Shinar repeatedly in the Bible. Now, what's interesting about this is if you go to Revelation chapter 17, you'll see that there's a description of what the Bible calls the great whore. Now, if we think of a woman that represents wickedness, which is what we see in Zechariah chapter 5, wouldn't that kind of make us think on, for example, the great whore, which would be also a woman that's representing great wickedness? And in fact, that woman in Revelation 17 that's known as the great whore, that obviously is a very wicked representation, it actually says that that woman hath a name written on her forehead, Mystery Babylon. It's kind of hard to ignore that this woman in Zechariah chapter 5 is being transported or carried unto Babylon, being carried unto Shinar, and that that's where the base, you use the word base, is going to be of wickedness. The base is going to be in Babylon, and then in Revelation 17 we have Mystery Babylon being a great whore. And what's even more interesting is when you understand that this great whore, this woman that represents wickedness, is actually one that is not limited to a certain geographic location. That is, the base changes from time to time. Let's start reading in Revelation 17, 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. So notice that the woman sits upon many waters. Now jump down to verse 15. The Bible says, He saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. So let me ask you this. Is this woman just sitting upon one nation, one city, one ethnicity? No, no, no. It says that she's seated upon many waters, and those waters represent various nations, peoples, tongues, etc. Let's go back to verse number two. The Bible 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. Now when you think about someone who commits fornication with a whore, basically they are using that whore, right? It's not any kind of a loving relationship. She's being used. And afterwards she's not going to be respected or loved. She's going to be despised and discarded. Does everybody understand that? That's just earthly speaking when it comes to a whore, which is what the Bible, you say, I can't believe you used that word. Well, let me introduce you to the Bible. This is what we're preaching tonight, and we're not going to teach the words which man's wisdom teacheth. We're going to use the words that the Holy Ghost teacheth. If you're offended by that, I'm sorry to offend you with the word of God. Sorry that the Bible offends you. But the Bible says here that 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 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. Harlot is just another word for a whore. The Bible says, 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. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her which hath the seven heads and ten horns. So the name is written, Mystery, Babylon the Great. But it doesn't have to be a mystery to us because he says, Don't marvel. I'll tell you the mystery. I'll explain it to you. I'll expound it to you. And he says in verse 8, The beast that thou sawest was and is not, remember the woman is riding a beast, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perpetition, and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Now let's stop right there and talk about that. Seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Now, I believe that this actually has a double meaning here. Okay. First of all, there is the city of seven hills, which is universally known as Rome. When I was even a sixth grader and just in public school, the chapter on Rome in my public school textbook was called Rome, the City on Seven Hills. Now, a lot of people will try to bring forth a lot of other alternate theories, Oh, this city's on seven hills. Well, you know what? Pretty much any city can be claimed to be on seven hills because if you actually go to Wikipedia, there's a list of every city that claims to be on seven hills, and there are about 80. No joke, 80. It's like Jerusalem, Mecca, Albany, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. I mean, it's just like every city that you can think of. A lot of them claim to be built on seven hills. But what's the one that has historically been known, everybody thinks of as the city on seven hills? That would be Rome. That's not the only evidence that we're talking about Rome here. I don't have time to take you back to the book of Daniel, but the book of Daniel makes it very clear that there would be four great kingdoms. There's, of course, the statue that is in four sections, and then there are the four beasts of Daniel. And basically, those are expounded in later chapters of Daniel, and it is made crystal clear that those four kingdoms are the kingdom of Babylon, the kingdom of Persia, the kingdom of Greece, and the kingdom of Rome. Those are those four great empires that would rule the earth, okay? Babylon was the head of gold. Persia and Media were the silver arms and torso. And then it goes to the brass, which is Greece. And then it goes to the iron, which is Rome. Four kingdoms. Then at the bottom, of course, you have the feet, which have ten toes, which represent the ten kings, the ten horns. But it's still part of that fourth kingdom. It's still connected to that because it's still the iron. It's just the iron mingled with clay. So we see that the Bible lays out for us in Daniel these four kingdoms, because as you get into later chapters, he explains in more detail Media and Persia and the prince of Persia and the prince of Greece, and he explains all that. And then he gets into the fourth kingdom when he talks about them, of course, desolating Jerusalem. Talks about Jerusalem being laid desolate, which happened in AD 70 at the hand of who? The Romans. The Romans destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. So there's a lot in Daniel about these four kingdoms, and they're all connected. It's one image. One statue. And in Revelation 13, it's one beast that basically combines the four-headed beast, the four-headed leopard, which is Greece, and then the other three heads of the other three kingdoms, and it makes the seven-headed beast. It's complicated to go into in a sermon like this on a Wednesday night, but the bottom line is there can be no question that the fourth kingdom is Rome. So therefore it makes perfect sense that Babylon is succeeded by Persia, succeeded by Greece, succeeded by Rome, and in John's day, that was the Babylon of his day. The Babylonian empire didn't exist anymore. Rome was the new Babylon. It was that Roman empire that ruled over the kings of the earth. The city that ruled over the kings of the earth in John's day, in Peter's day, was Rome. Rome was their Babylon. Does everybody understand that? So it makes sense where he says, hey, it's seated upon seven hills, seated upon seven mountains, but I think that the Bible often has multiple meanings because the Bible's very deep, so it has layer upon layer of meaning. Actually, there's another meaning here because remember the whore sitteth upon many waters, and the seven mountains where the woman sitteth could also be seven kingdoms, and here's why I say that. Because in the Bible, a mountain is often used to refer to a kingdom. For example, the Bible talks about the great stone that smashes that image of gold, silver, brass, and iron, and when that stone, which is Jesus, the cornerstone, when Jesus smashes those kingdoms, it says that the stone became a great mountain that filled the whole earth. What's the great mountain that filled the whole earth? The kingdom of Jesus Christ that will be a worldwide kingdom, where Jesus Christ will rule and reign for a thousand years. So this could also be seven kingdoms whereon the woman sitteth. Basically, seven bases for this kingdom. Think about that. Seven kings. Now keep reading. What's it say? Verse nine, here is the mine which hath wisdom, 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. Now let's think about this from John's perspective. If we're to think of seven kingdoms, now we already mentioned the four from the Book of Daniel, starting with Babylon, but there were actually two kingdoms before Babylon that are actually similar to Babylon. Because who did Babylon defeat to take over the kingdom? Nineveh, which is Assyria. So before Babylon you have the Assyrian empire, and then you also have the Egyptian empire. Those three you'll see in the Old Testament vying for power in that region. You've got the Egyptian empire, you've got the Assyrian empire, and then you've got the Babylonian empire, and then that goes into the Persians, into the Greeks, into the Romans. So if we're talking about these seven kingdoms of Babylon, as it were, spiritual Babylon, then if we count Assyria and Egypt as being before Babylon, and then we have Babylon itself, and then we have Persia, and then we have Greece, then we have Rome. Well, here's the thing, five are fallen. So from John's perspective, five of those kingdoms have fallen. One is. What's the one that is? Rome, the Roman empire. And the other is not yet come. What is the other that is not yet come? That would be the kingdom of the end times. That would be the final anti-Christ kingdom, as it were. Does everybody understand that? So that's why he says five are fallen, one is, the other is not yet come. And when he cometh, meaning the final one, 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. So basically, the seventh is the anti-Christ, the seventh king. And then basically, he's going to die and come back. He receives the deadly wound, comes back as the eighth, but he's of the seven. Okay. So does that make sense? So let's keep going. It says, And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, also the ten toes of Daniel, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 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. And 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 radeth over the kings of the earth. So what do we have here? We have the woman that rides the beast, and then we have the beast itself. These two are not one and the same, because the Bible says that at one point, the ten kings, which are the ten horns of the beast, will hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Now, does it surprise you that kings who use a whore would then turn around and make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire? There's no love in the whore-client relationship, is there? Now, a loving relationship is between husband and wife. That's God's plan. But the whore and the one who uses the whore, or you could even, you know, pardon my language, but, you know, the whore and the pimp, you know, there's no love lost there. Does anybody understand? We're talking about an unloving situation. Hey, love is the fulfillment of the law. Right. And God's law is contrary to all these things, and so don't tell me that it's a loving relationship. So, therefore, it shouldn't really surprise us that those who use the whore turn around and devour the whore, hate the whore, burn the whore, right? Is everybody kind of following the passage here? So the whore and the antichrist and the ten kings, they're not one and the same. There's the beast, and then there's the woman that rides the beast. Two separate entities here. He told us he was going to tell us the mystery of the woman, and, you know, he tells us in verse 18, if you look down at your Bible, the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Now, the city that reigns over the kings of the earth changes over time. It's not just one city that always reigns over the kings of the earth. It's not always Rome. It hasn't always been Rome, and it won't always be Rome. It changes, doesn't it? That's why in Zechariah 5, we see that it's being packaged up and moved somewhere. It's going to be set up in Shinar. That's where it's going to be based. That's where the base is. But was the base always there? Now, you say, well, but why is it called Babylon if Babylon wasn't even the first? If Babylon wasn't the original, why isn't it called Egypt? Why isn't it called Assyria? Here's why. Because it goes back to the Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel was a place where man thought he could work his own way to heaven, build his own tower to heaven, and where it was a universal system, sort of a one-world system where they said they have one language. All the people is one. Whereas God ordained separate nations. He did not ordain all of mankind to be united as one government, one system. That's why he divided their languages. Well, if you look at these kingdoms like Egypt and Assyria, the goal is to conquer the world. The goal is to basically take over nations, destroy their sovereignty. Now, think about what these nations also had in common. When you think about Egypt, when you think about Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, the Roman Empire, don't you think that they all had a lot in common? How about the fact that they all have these big obelisks? Have you noticed that, like a big obelisk? Or how about this, a lot of idolatry? Think about that, because you have a woman that's Athena, right? But then if you go back to the Greeks and the Babylonians and the Assyrians, the Egyptians, they have all the same gods and goddesses. It's only the names that are changing. Everybody following the logic here? I mean, you got the same obelisks, even a lot of the same style of just worship. Also notice they have these leaders that are like a god-man, right? Think about the pharaoh was worshipped as a god at one point. The king of Nineveh, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar made a great image and said, hey, you got to worship this image or you'll be killed. Does that sound familiar to the Antichrist? Nebuchadnezzar. We see the kingdoms of Persia and Greece also being ruled by people that are worshipped in a sense. And there are so many similarities and so many things that you can almost find exact parallels between the Greek gods and the Roman gods. You know, he's called over here Thor and Zeus. But then over with the Romans it's called, you know, Jupiter is Zeus, right? And then basically you've got Neptune being the Roman version of the Greek Poseidon. You've got the Athena being the Roman version of, somebody help me out? I mean Athena is the, I'm sorry, Athena is the Greek version, right? You know what, thank God for a pastor who's not an expert on false gods because I'm not trying to learn the way of the heathen tonight. But the point is, you get the idea though. There's a parallel between Mars and whatever the Greek god Hercules or whatever and Mars, right? I believe that's the parallel, the god of war or whatever. So you have all these parallels. But if we went back to Egypt we'd find a lot of the same gods and goddesses and just idolatry, just a lot of idolatry. What is idolatry? Graven images, molten images, what we would call statues, but they're idols. They're graven images according to the Bible. Okay, so think about this then. As this torch is sort of being passed, as we go, okay, who kind of holds that power today? Who's the world empire today? Is it Egypt? Is Egypt ruling today? Ruling over the kings of the earth? Is it Assyria? Is it Nineveh? Is it Babylon? Babylon's been gone for a long time. Is it Rome, Italy? Is Italy ruling over? You know, the one who is actually exercising that kind of political, global power is the United States of America. That would be today's Babylon. And if you think about it, go to Washington DC and what are you going to see? You're going to see a statue of Athena and statues of all the Greek gods and goddesses, statues of all the Roman gods and goddesses. Go look at it. Who's been to Washington DC and toured it? Even the monuments that we think of, okay, like the Washington Monument, hmm. But even besides those, if you actually physically go there and you'll see a lot of monuments that aren't really the main monuments, it's just a lot of gods and goddesses and just, it's literally in a Greco-Roman style. All of the architecture is Roman. All of it. And, you know, look at the founding fathers. What kind of language are they putting on the coins and they're using Latin and they see themselves as the new Roman Empire. And they talk about that. That's why we have the Senate. Where does that come from? Roman Empire. Roman Empire. A lot of the things in our government, the way our government's laid out, it's all laid out from Rome. But, you know, it's actually Babylon, right? Because Rome just carried the torch from Greece which carried the torch from Persia and Babylon. And it was the devil that was behind all of it actually. It was actually Satan. The prince of Persia was Satan in Daniel. Prince of Grecia and so forth. So we see that in that sense the United States is the new Babylon. You know, and here's the thing. If this happens any time in our lifetime, which I believe it will, I don't think it's going to be hundreds of years from now. We don't know when it's going to be, but I think it's going to be sooner rather than later. I don't think it's going to happen tomorrow. Although it seems like World War III might be about to start, but I don't know. But the bottom line is, you know, we don't know how far out this is. But stop and think about it. If it were to happen now, though, it's the United States that is the city that rules over the kings. You say, well, it's a city. But back then they had city states. You know, Babylon was the empire. It's also a nation which is the United States. I believe it's the United States as a whole that wields that power. You know, most of that power is concentrated in New York City in the sense that that's where the money is. And that's, you know, the money is what makes the world go round. And in New York City is where the United Nations, the global government's headquarters is right now in the United Nations. New York. Okay. That's the financial hub. That's the place. So when we stop and think about it in that way and we realize that, then we realize that the United States is going to basically, you know, if this were to happen in the near future, the United States would basically be the Antichrist whore. Put that in your patriotic pipe and smoke it. You know, I mean, look, we're going to be used and abused. You know, I mean, we're, you know, I mean, I'm trying to keep it from being graphic here. But we're, you know, we're going to be used and abused by this Antichrist kingdom. And eventually burned, destroyed. That's what we see in Revelation 18. You say, well, come on, that's not the United States. Well, then how come in Revelation 18 it says that when Babylon's destroyed, all the merchants of the earth are going to weep and say no man buyeth our merchandise anymore. Who could you say that about besides the United States? Some people have said, no, no, no, Babylon is, it's Jerusalem, they said. This theory is false for so many reasons. But just, you know, they'll say, well, but wait a minute, the Antichrist, you know, that's all about Jerusalem. Yeah, the Antichrist is going to hate the whore and eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Okay. And the destruction of Babylon occurs at the very end of Daniel's 70th week. After the seven vials, it's like the last thing where he's poured out his wrath in seven vials. And then all of a sudden Babylon comes in remembrance before God to give unto her the cup and the wine and the fierceness of his wrath. That comes into his mind after the seven vials. I mean, it's the last kind of thing that happens. Whereas Jerusalem gets what's coming to them at the midpoint. Totally different scenario. They get it at the midpoint, Babylon gets it at the very end. Okay. You know, if Jerusalem were to be destroyed, nobody would be saying, who's going to buy our merchandise now? Jerusalem's gone. And not only that, but, you know, Jerusalem, I mean, it's just, when you got a hammer in your hand, everything starts looking like a nail. So some people just get, they realize, wow, the Jews are bad. So then it's just like everything's the Jews. But do you know that there was wickedness in this world before there ever was a Jew that ever walked on the face of the earth? Look, this is coming from the producer of Marching to Zion, all right? But I'm just being honest with you. You can't just have this handy hammer theory where just everything, it's all the Jews. Because guess what? Before there ever was a Jew, there was wickedness in this world. I mean, where was the wickedness coming from? In Abraham's day, Isaac's day, Jacob's day. Where was the wickedness coming from when the kingdom was united under Saul and David and Solomon? Those guys were not a source of wickedness. Those guys were worshiping the Lord. Where was the wickedness coming from? I'll tell you where it was coming from, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon. In Daniel's day, who's the bad guy? Is it Jerusalem that's the bad guy? No, it's Babylon. So there's another source of evil in this world. It's not just only Christ rejecting Judaism. Yeah, Christ rejecting Judaism is wicked. But it's not the only source of wickedness in this world. There's also this spiritual Babylon. Jerusalem has a part to play in the end times. But Jerusalem is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. It's not spiritually called Babylon. Different part to play, different scenario. And yet, oh, the Antichrist king is going to be based in Jerusalem. Yeah, but then he hates the whore and destroys it and burns it. He's not going to burn down the house on himself like King Zimrai. But not only that, yeah, he's not going to bring down the house on himself. But here's the thing about when Babylon's destroyed in Revelation 18. It says it'll never rise again. It'll never be inhabited. And in Jeremiah 50 and 51, it talks about, in a parallel passage with Revelation 18, that Babylon will never again be inhabited. Well, to say that that's Jerusalem, hello. Jerusalem's going to be inhabited like a few days later. A few weeks later, right, when Christ is ruling and reigning from? Jerusalem. Jerusalem. So how can you say it's going to sink and never rise again, never be inhabited, when it's the basis of Christ's kingdom shortly thereafter? That theory does not hold water at all, period. So when we see Babylon, now, I'm running out of time, but when we read Revelation 17, it's impossible to ignore the connection with the Roman Catholic Church. Impossible to ignore. Some people try to ignore it, but it's there. Now, let's see. What have we been talking about all night? We've been talking about Babylon and Greece and Persia, and remember how they had all those idols? And remember how they had all those gods and goddesses and statues and, hmm, how could that possibly be connected to the Roman Catholic Church? Well, how about the fact that the Virgin Mary is the new Athena? How about the fact that all the gods and goddesses have become saints? The saints that they have statues of and carved images. Look, what is the Catholic Church? It's not Christianity, my friend. It is paganism. It is Babylon. It's Babylon religion, and it's not just the Catholic Church because she's the mother of harlots and abominations. Well, you know what? She has a whole bunch of little harlots. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America is one of the little harlots. The little harlot known as the Presbyterian Church. And you know what? All these churches are is just Catholic light. That's why they baptize babies. You're like, where did baby baptism come from? That didn't come from the Bible. We're buried with him by baptism into his death. No, infant baptism is Babylon. It comes from paganism. It doesn't come from Christianity. And if you have to ask yourself, like, where is this stuff coming from? It's not coming from the word of God. The idols, the images, the worshiping of female goddess, bowing down to graven images and statues, all the scarlet and purple and gold and silver and precious stones. You know, their supposed first pope, Peter, he said, silver and gold have I none. Did he not say that? Can the pope say that? I mean, could the pope say, silver and gold have I none? He'd say, silver and gold, I'm swimming in like Uncle Scrooge in DuckTales. He's got so much gold and silver and stones. I mean, they have all this wealth, okay? They have all the riches, they have all the idolatry, and they have the same global Tower of Babel idea. It's a perfect phase. It's like putting a hand in a glove, folks. I can't understand when people just look at Revelation 17 and just say, oh, this has nothing to do with the Catholic Church. Yeah, okay, just keep your head in the sand. Keep that blindfold on. Are you nuts? First of all, there was a time when Vatican City was there was a time when Vatican City did rule over the kings of the earth, number one. It's called the Dark Ages. It's called, and it was dark because Catholicism's wicked. It's not called the Age of Enlightened Preaching. You know, it's called the Dark Ages for a reason. And they did rule over the kings of the earth, and they were a continuation of that Roman Empire, sitting on seven hills, and they were decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. They were in scarlet and purple. They were a great whore. Why? There's so much to pack into one sermon, but think about it. There's the bride of Christ, right? What's the bride of Christ, the saved? The true Christians, the people that are believers, right? What's the whore? You know, the whore is not the true Christianity of God, okay? The whore is a wicked idol-worshipping religion, right? So you have true Christianity that says, don't make images of God. Pray to the Father in Jesus' name and make no, we don't have pictures, we don't have images. You know, it's the unseen. You know, no man has seen God at any time, okay? And nobody knows what Jesus looked like. I mean, at the time they did, but I think God purposely leaves out a physical description. He doesn't want us to make an image of him and then worship it. So think about it. This idol-worshipping pagan religion is Babylon. In that sense, it's the same thing that the Greeks and Romans were doing. It's just repackaged and put Jesus' name on it, but it's the same old mystery Babylon cult of the Tower of Babel. Even the word Catholic itself means universal, which doesn't universal sort of remind you of global or worldwide or one world order or new world order. It's all connected. But I think that even though the parallels with the Catholic Church are crystal clear, and if you were living in the dark ages Europe, this would have been really real to you. There would have been no question that this is what the Bible's talking about, right? But I think the mistake people make, though, is when they say, hey, it's only about the Catholic Church because it's not only about the Catholic Church because she's the mother of harlots. This is all apostate Christianity, all fake Christianity that's sprinkling babies that believes in a universal church and a works-based salvation, which none of those things are biblical, you know, are basically descended from the whore in that sense. They're the bastard children of the Catholic Church. Martin Luther is the bastard son of the Catholic Church. John Calvin is the bastard son of the Catholic Church. It's true. He even said, well, Luther even said, I'm still Catholic. He just said, I'm just not Roman Catholic. You know, I'm still Catholic. He said, I didn't leave the church. The church left me. So they still believe in that universal church. That's why even in Protestant churches, what do they recite? We believe in the holy Catholic Church. They recite the Apostles' Creed, which says that they believe in the holy Catholic Church. But they'll sometimes just update it into modern English of the holy universal church. But, you know, you say tomato, I say tomato. Universal Catholic, it's just synonymous. It's the same thing. So what we see here is that there's a political Babylon that's a one-world government mentality. There's a religious Babylon that is a one-world religion kind of a mentality and so on and so forth. This is not limited to a certain geography. This is not limited to a certain ethnicity. No, this is something that can be transported, it can be packaged up in an ephah, throw a lead lid on it and take it wherever. It can be in Egypt, it can be in Assyria, it can be in Babylon, Greece, Persia, Rome, and you know where it can really be? Look, it's in the United States. See, you say, well, how do you know that the United States is the final Babylon of Revelation 18? Because Revelation 17 is a historic look with whom the kings have committed fornication, past tense, and she has killed the martyrs and all this stuff. Well, let me ask you this. Has the Catholic Church killed the martyrs? People say, oh, the Jews killed all the martyrs. No, the Jews did not kill all the martyrs. Now, the Jews did persecute believers. The Jews did kill Christians, but they're not the only ones who killed Christians because guess what? The Roman Catholic Church, is anybody disputing the fact that the Roman Catholic Church burned Christians at the stake for translating the Bible? How about the 7,000 that were killed in England under Bloody Mary? You know, how about the millions that were killed throughout the Dark Ages by the Roman Catholic Church? The Catholic Church was drunken with the blood of the saints and was not the Roman Empire drunken with the blood of the saints in the centuries after the New Testament is written. So, therefore, yeah, okay, the Jews, but that's another sermon. This is the Babylon sermon, okay? And what you have to understand is that the United States being the end times Babylon is the only thing that could fit that bill in Revelation 18, where nobody's buying the merchandise except them. And plus, look, who is it that reigns over the kings of the earth right now? It's the United States. And people try to say this and that, the United States is the most powerful country in the world by a long shot, not even close. Our military spending is more than double what China is spending or whoever the, you know. I mean, we have a monstrous, a huge military. We have bases. Show me the other country that has bases in 153 countries. We're the world empire, folks. We're Babylon. We have, we have the power. We are the one superpower. It used to be two superpowers, right? The United States and who? The Soviet Union, yeah. Now it's a one superpower. And let me just say this. A lot of you may not know this because you often hear about the New World Order from the perspective of the truth movement or from people like myself or some other radio show or whatever. But here's the thing, though. If you actually listen to the politicians talk about the New World Order as a good thing, you want to know what they're talking about? Ask Henry Kissinger what the New World Order is. Ask Joe Biden what he means by New World Order or George Bush. Ask George Bush what he meant when he said, we have before us the opportunity today to forge a New World Order. What did George Bush mean by that? What did Obama mean when he called for a New World Order? What does Hillary mean? Look, when they talk about the New World Order, they're talking about that after the fall of the Soviet Union, there's one superpower and that is a New World Order. That is what they are talking about. When we talk about New World Order, it's negative. They think it's great. I mean, Henry Kissinger, the Jew controller in our government, one of them, he actually just wrote a book in 2014, published it called The New World Order. I guess he just really wants to be talked about on the Alex Jones show a lot, you know? So he writes a book called The New World Order in 2014. He doesn't think it's a bad thing. It's a good thing to them. Why? Because they think it's wonderful to have one superpower. Because they think it's wonderful to have a one world government that's based in the United States, the United Nations. World War I gave us the League of Nations. World War II gave us the United Nations. World War III will give us a world government. The final stages. You know, unless there's four and there's a World War IV, I don't think so. I think World War III is going to be the last World War in that sense. And I think we're going to be there at that time. We'll see. I'm not trying to make predictions about the future, but I'm interpreting scripture and what we know to be true in our present day. This subject, you know, when you start studying it and then you look around, it all comes together. It all comes clear. And so that's what we're dealing with, with Babylon. That's what that woman is, that great whore. It could be a political representation, a religious representation. I think one of the biggest mistakes people make when they interpret the Bible is that sometimes they think that there's only one interpretation for each verse. When in reality the Bible's so deep that sometimes there's layer upon layer of imagery. You know, well, which one is it? Is it the Catholic Church, Rome? Is it the United States? It's both. It's both. Hello. And why would that surprise us when they're both the same? Look, if the Roman Catholic Church is the largest apostate Christian denomination in the world, does anybody dispute that? The largest false Christian church is the Catholic Church. It's the great whore. I mean, as opposed to the bride of Christ. Okay, but what about this? All of the other apostate Christianity today that's being spread throughout the world, all the televangelists, the TV preachers, where's it all coming from? Where are all the phony missionaries coming from? So, you know, when you just limit it to only the Catholic Church, you're making a mistake. And when you try to make Rome the political power, well, sorry, it's not. It's the United States. I believe that the United States will be destroyed, but it's after we're gone, because of course the rapture takes place at the sixth seal when the sun and moon are darkened, as Jesus said, whereas the destruction of Babylon is something that happens at the very end of Daniel's 70th week, so nothing that we need to worry about, you know, being a part of that. So let's go back to Zechariah 5 and finish up. And I hope that, you know, everything was clear in the sermon. If there's something you don't understand, you know, see me after the service. You could also go back, you know, we have those Revelation series DVDs back there. You could go back over chapter 17 and chapter 18 where I covered the same subject that we're talking about tonight. But it's kind of a big subject, you know, to cram into the Wednesday night. But it's a subject that fits in perfectly with Zechariah 5 because Zechariah 5 does such a great job of showing us how it's portable. Throw it in an ephah, put a lid on it, take it to Babylon, you know, take it to D.C., take it wherever, okay? Now let's look back at the scripture here and understand, okay, let's tie the whole chapter together. Because you say, what does this have to do with the first half of the chapter? What does this have to do with the book of Zechariah in general? Let's just, in closing moments here, put it all in context, okay? Basically what you have here in the book of Zechariah is them coming back from Babylon. So the book of Zechariah is very negative toward Babylon and very positive toward the children of Israel because he's bringing them back after they've sinned, they've been punished, but now they're ready to do it right. So they're coming back with Ezra and Nehemiah and they're right with God at this point. These are not the Christ-rejecting Jews of 2015, these are those who are right with God, who are going back and repossessing the land, they're rebuilding the wall and the temple with Ezra and Nehemiah. So this chapter fits in perfectly because the chapter is negative about Babylon, which makes sense with the rest of the book. But in the first half, what were the two sins that were cursed in the name of the Lord and by the word of the Lord? The two sins were stealing and swearing falsely by God's name, right? Well, if you think about it, what does false religion do if not steal and swear falsely by God's name? I mean, where do you think the Catholic Church got all that money? By digging ditches and laying concrete and doing plumbing and electrical work and being a carpenter and being a landscaper? No, no, no. The way they got all that money was from stealing it from people, robbing people, deceiving people. Look at the TV preachers, what thieves they are. Look at the Joel Osteens and the Rick Warren, all these fake phony, the Benny Hinns, they're thieves is what they are. And you know what, they're swearing falsely, oh, thus saith the Lord. You know what I mean? If you think about it, they're liars. What is false religion if it's not a liar and a thief? I mean, that pretty much sums it up. They tell lies about God and then they steal God's money. Because when people give their tithe unto an apostate church, who do they think they're giving that tithe to? God, right? Is it really getting to God? No way. When you put your tithe in a phony church, you think you're giving to the Lord, you're giving to the devil. Think about it, if you're tithing to the Catholic Church, tithing to the Mormon Church, tithing to any church that's preaching a false gospel, you're giving your money to the devil. Whereas when you give your money in the house of the Lord, you're giving it to God. It's God's house and he says, bring the tithe in the storehouse that there may be meat in my house, not the devil's house. So therefore, God is being robbed and God's people are being robbed and unsaved people are being robbed. Everybody's getting robbed by these false religions and TV preachers. Whether it's the Catholics or the Protestants or whatever lying evangelists or lying false Christian religion, whatever little harlot is lying and stealing from God's people or from the world for that matter. Lies about the word of God and teaching things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So that kind of helps connect the first half of Zechariah chapter 5 with the second half of Zechariah chapter 5. And here's the illustration that I use about tithing. Sometimes I would make deposits for other people. Like if someone that worked for me when I ran my own business, if they needed to be paid, if they said, hey, you know, I'm short on money, can I get paid my wages early, at least what I've done so far? Hey, no problem. And sometimes I would just deposit it into their account for them. That way they just get, instead of mailing them a check, they're like, hey, I'm getting paid this Friday, can you just deposit it in my account? Okay. I would deposit the money in their account. So I'd walk in with a deposit slip, their name, their account number and I'd deposit their check for them. You know, because these banks are nationwide. So, oh, you bank at Chase Bank? I'll walk across the street, Chase Bank, deposit the check. But what if I walked into Wells Fargo and my employee's account is at Chase? Is the money going to get there? No. Okay, so here's what a lot of people are doing with their tithe. They're depositing it at the Devil's Bank and then they think that it's going into God's account. And God's like, I don't bank at the Catholic Church. I don't bank with the Presbyterians. I'm not banking with the baby sprinklers. And the Presbyterians sprinkle babies, make no mistake about it. I don't bank at the United Methodist Baby Sprinkling Church. That's Babylon. I don't have an account with Babylon savings and loan. You know, you've got to put it into God's house if you want it to get to God's work. And if you want it to go to the Devil, well then send it to Benny Hinn. Send it to Joel Osteen if you want us to give money to the Devil. Send it to the Temple Mount Foundation. Send it to John Hagee if you want it to go to the Devil. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for this chapter, Lord. It's kind of cryptic on the surface. Tough chapter, Lord. But thank you for allowing us to see some insight here and kind of put together the pieces, Lord. And I know that it's complicated, Lord, so I pray that you would open the understanding of your people and help them to continue to study, Lord, because some Christians want to oversimplify things in the Bible, and they want it all to be really simple, but there are some things in the Bible that are strong meat of the Word, difficult to be understood. I pray that you would open the understanding of your people and help us all to study to show ourselves approved unto you. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.