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REVELATION 18 SERIES, STUDIES #6 THRU #10, by Chris McCann
Note: This Word document includes all five studies, consisting of 22 pages.
Revelation 18 Series, Study #6 by Chris McCann, originally aired January 22, 2015
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.
Tonight is study #6 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are going to read Revelation 18:2:
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is
become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean
and hateful bird.
As I mentioned in our last study, the word “hold” and the word “cage” are a translation of the
same Greek word that is also translated as “prison.” We went to Matthew 5, verses 25 and 26,
and we went to Luke 12, verses 58 and 59, and we saw how God uses that word, Strong’s #5348,
to point to a prison that has to do with making payment for sin. In the passages I just mentioned,
the Lord likens Himself to an adversary and it said in Matthew 5:25-26:
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the
adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid
the uttermost farthing.
So “prison” is a place where penalty is exacted and that is what Judgment Day is, as God
punishes the unsaved of the world. Why is God punishing the unsaved? It is because they have
transgressed the Law of God and the Bible declares that when you break the Law of God, the
wages of sin is death. The penalty is death, so God brought judgment upon the world on May
21, 2011 and when He shut the door of heaven and ended His salvation program, He brought the
world into a condition of death. The unsaved people of the world, for all intents and purposes,
were slain on that day, at the beginning point of Judgment Day and throughout this period of
time. Their spiritual condition cannot change and that is what God tells us in Revelation 22:11:
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still…
What this means is that the unsaved will be “unsaved still.” They were “killed” by that action
because it guaranteed they would be destroyed; they will remain spiritually slain until God
literally destroys them at the conclusion of this long Day of Judgment. So the unsaved of the
world have been brought into this “prison” where God is carrying out the penalty which the Law
of God demands. He is bringing the cup of His wrath and punishing the unsaved inhabitants of
the earth. This is part of the reason that God says that upon Babylon’s fall, it “is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful
bird.” The words “hold” and “cage” are the word “prison.”
Just as those words are a translation of the same Greek word, so, too, are the words “foul” and
“unclean.” The Greek word is normally translated as “unclean,” and it is Strong’s #169. Let us
look at a few places this word is used. It says in Matthew 10:1:
And when he had called unto *him* his twelve disciples, he gave them power *against* unclean
spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.
Then let us go to Mark 1:23-27:
And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, Saying, Let
*us* alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I
know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace,
and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he
came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves,
saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine *is* this? for with authority commandeth he even
the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
In healing the man with the unclean spirit, Jesus was giving an illustration of salvation, like all
the healings Christ did as He would grant sight to the blind or ears to the deaf or a mouth to the
dumb. They all typified salvation. Casting out “unclean” spirits is a picture of salvation.
It says in Mark 5:2:
And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with
an unclean spirit,
Then it goes on to say in Mark 5:8:
For he said unto him, Come out of the man, *thou* unclean spirit. And he asked him, What *is*
thy name? And he answered, saying, My name *is* Legion: for we are many. And he besought
him much that he would not send them away out of the country. Now there was there nigh unto
the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us
into the swine, that we may enter into them. And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the
unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep
place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
Again, this is another illustration of salvation as this man is cleansed of these “unclean” spirits
and then he follows the Lord. When a man is in his sins, it is as though he is possessed of an
“unclean” spirit. Salvation does cast out an “unclean” spirit because God gives the one He saved
a new heart and a new spirit, so the spiritually dead soul is resurrected and we have a living soul
and the Spirit of God within us, so this is actually a very good illustration when God speaks of
“unclean” spirits as typifying the unsaved.
It says in Mark 9:20-25:
And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he
fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming. And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this
came unto him? And he said, Of a child. And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the
waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus
said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway
the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit…
Remember that this same Greek word can be translated as “foul,” but it can also be translated as
“unclean.” Here, it is in verse 25 of Mark, chapter 9, it is translated as “foul” spirit. Then it goes
on to say in Mark 9:25-27:
… saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one
dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up;
and he arose.
Here, we have a young man with an “unclean” spirit rising as though from the dead. This is a
little more detailed spiritual picture, as this young boy was his father’s only son, so in a way, it
points to Christ. But it is still an illustration of someone with an “unclean” spirit that rises to life
and it is a picture of salvation.
It says in Ephesians 5:5:
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an
idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
So to have an “unclean” spirit cast out points to salvation, but what if the “unclean” spirit is not
cast out? Then you would remain “unclean,” or as it is said in Revelation 22:11, you would
remain unjust and filthy. What God has done in our verse in Revelation 18:2 is that at the point
of Babylon’s fall, which occurred at the end of the Great Tribulation on May 21, 2011, Judgment
Day began and Babylon became the habitation of devils and the “hold” or “prison” of every foul
spirit and the cage or “prison” of every unclean and hateful bird. This world has been turned into
a prison in which God the righteous Judge has cast those that could “not agree with the
adversary” because they had no Saviour and Christ had not paid for their sins. They will have to
pay the uttermost farthing or the last mite, as they are cast into the prison of the wrath of God.
By the way, remember how God spoke of Satan’s binding when he was bound at the cross? It
said in Revelation 20:2-3:
And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a
thousand years, And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him,
that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after
that he must be loosed a little season.
The “bottomless pit” is like a prison and it is language that God uses in Revelation, chapter 9 and
other places to speak of the condition of “hell.” Satan was in the condition of “hell” and he was
in a “prison.” He was laid hold of and bound and held in that bottomless pit for the figure of a
thousand years. We know it was like a prison because it says in Revelation 20:7:
And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
The word “prison” is the same word translated as “hold” or “cage.” This means that Satan was
punished at the cross. It was a form of punishment to be bound, although it was not the
completion of punishment upon him. He was held prisoner for a “thousand years,” which
pointed to the completeness of that particular judgment upon him, but there is more judgment
upon Satan, which will include his final destruction. But that particular sentence upon Satan was
a figurative “thousand years,” just as it appears that God has set a 10,000-day sentence on the
unsaved inhabitants of the world. The majority of this sentence had to do with those that were
called by His name, as judgment began at the house of God and lasted for 8,400 days, but then
God expanded the judgment to include the entire world. There is a strong likelihood that at the
end of this 1,600-day period (on the 10,000th overall day) God will have completed the judgment
upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. It would include the unsaved in the churches and all
the unsaved of the world. In a figurative sense, it is as though they have been placed in “prison”
under the condition of “hell” until the completeness of the sentence. The sentence goes for
10,000 days. God also uses the 1,600 final days, which breaks down to “40 x 40.” Remember
how God speaks of a judge administering stripes in the Book of Deuteronomy, chapter 25. It
said in Deuteronomy 25:1-3:
If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that *the judges* may
judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked. And it shall be, if the
wicked man *be* worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be
beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Forty stripes he may give
him, *and* not exceed: lest, *if *he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes,
then thy brother should seem vile unto thee.
Just as 10,000 days points to the completeness of judgment, the Lord has also set a limit to the
degree of wrath that can be meted out. You cannot exceed “forty stripes,” and God does speak
of Judgment Day as the time when those that had identification with Him by being in the
churches receive many stripes and those that had no identification with Him receive few stripes.
The stripes point to the wrath of God being applied to the unsaved of the earth. When we have a
number like “1,600” to represent the duration of Judgment Day and within that number is the
breakdown of “40 x 40,” it appears God has taken great care not to go beyond “40,” as this
would be the “utmost” of 40 or “40 x 40.” Of course, this is just a type and figure, but it is as
though God is emphasizing that His wrath is not going beyond “40,” so the “1,600” also
represents the severest penalty that God could justly administer, as God is very concerned with
justice. That is why Romans 2:5 speaks of the “righteous revelation of the judgment of God.” It
is the righteous revelation of God’s judgment and His judgment is carried out to the furthest
point of the Law but it does not exceed the Law. It must be in perfect accord with the Law of
God, but it is the fullness of the penalty of God’s wrath.
God speaks of Babylon, which is fallen, and He says it has “become the habitation of devils, and
the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.” Why does God say
that? We understand that man is “unclean” and every unclean individual shall not inherit the
kingdom of heaven. Man, in his sin, is certainly unclean, so we understand that man has an
“unclean” spirit that desperately needed salvation, but now it is Judgment Day and the day of
salvation has ended and all those that are unclean will remain unclean.
But why does God speak of “every unclean and hateful bird”? We have to remember that this is
the Bible and God has set a pattern in the Old Testament. We have talked about this before, but
theologians call it “Hebrew parallelism,” and this is when God makes a statement and then He
slightly rewords it; the first part of a verse will make a statement and the second part of the verse
will say the same thing in slightly different language. It appears that is what God has done here
and that is why He used the same word translated as “hold” and “cage,” but it is the word for
“prison.” It is the same case with the words “unclean” and “foul.” So it could say that Babylon
is the “prison” of every foul spirit and the “prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Just as
“foul” spirit points to unsaved mankind, so, too, do the “unclean” and hateful birds.
How can we show that? Let us go back to Leviticus, chapter 11, where God speaks of unclean
birds. It says in Leviticus 11:13-17:
And these *are they which* ye shall have in abomination among the fowls; they shall not be
eaten, they *are* an abomination: the eagle, and the ossifrage, and the ospray, And the vulture,
and the kite after his kind; Every raven after his kind; And the owl, and the night hawk, and the
cuckow, and the hawk after his kind, And the little owl, and the cormorant, and the great owl…
Then it goes on to list several more birds. Here, God speaks of these as “unclean” birds, so we
have similar language to our verse in Revelation 18:2: “every unclean and hateful bird.” The
word “hateful” has been added, but we have unclean birds mentioned in our verse.
If you remember in Acts, chapter 11, God revealed to Peter that the Gentiles were to be partakers
of the Gospel, just like the Jews. There was no difference as “God is no respector of persons”
and He could save either people and God showed this to Peter by giving him a vision of
“unclean” animals. It says in Acts 11:5-9:
I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it
had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me: Upon the
which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and
wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise,
Peter; slay and eat. But I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time
entered into my mouth. But the voice answered me again from heaven, What God hath cleansed,
*that* call not thou common.
So the “unclean” animals including “fowls of the air” represented the Gentiles or the people of
the nations of the world. They were also to hear the Gospel and the Gospel was not to be held
back from them. We can see that as God speaks of Babylon, a representation of this world, and
He says it is the time of the fall of Babylon (the Day of Judgment) and it becomes a prison for
every foul spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. As we see in Acts 11, unclean
birds can represent unclean men, the people of the world. That explains why it is a “hateful
bird,” because that is unsaved man’s attitude toward God, God’s Word and the people of God.
They hate the kingdom of heaven in all of its aspects. That is why the Bible says, “Marvel not,
my brethren, if the world hate you.” The “unclean and hateful bird” is pointing to the unsaved
inhabitants of the earth and that also helps us to understand Isaiah 13, which we looked at
previously, and Isaiah 34. These are chapters in which the judgment upon the world is laid out
and in both cases it speaks of the wrath of God and it says, for instance, in Isaiah 34:8:
For *it is* the day of the JEHOVAH'S vengeance, *and* the year of recompences for the
controversy of Zion.
Then it leads into these statements in Isaiah 34:10-11:
It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation
to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever. But the cormorant
and the bittern shall possess it; the owl also and the raven shall dwell in it: and he shall stretch
out upon it the line of confusion, and the stones of emptiness.
Then it says in Isaiah 34:13:
… and it shall be an habitation of dragons, *and* a court for owls.
It says in Isaiah 34:15:
There shall the great owl make her nest, and lay, and hatch, and gather under her shadow: there
shall the vultures also be gathered, every one with her mate.
Every “unclean and hateful bird” dwells in the world under the judgment of God. It is Judgment
Day upon the unsaved and unclean in spirit.
Revelation 18 Series, Study #7 by Chris McCann, originally aired January 23, 2015
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.
Tonight is study #7 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are going to read Revelation 18:2-3:
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is
become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean
and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the
kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed
rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
I will stop reading there. We have seen how Babylon has become a “prison” for the unsaved or
“unclean” of the world. God speaks of casting them into prison in order to exact payment from
His adversaries; this is exactly what God did when He shut the door of heaven on the world on
May 21, 2011. He turned the entire world into a prison house in which He would punish the
unsaved inhabitants and exact payment for their sin because they had no Saviour. Therefore, the
Lord Jesus Christ had not paid for their sins from the foundation of the world and, yet, payment
must be made to the uttermost farthing.
It appears that God has laid out a 10,000-day period in which to collect the payment for sin. The
wages of sin is death, so when the Lord shut the door of heaven, He brought the world into the
condition of death or “hell.”
It is interesting that in Isaiah, chapter 24, God describes the judgment on this world and He says,
for instance, in Isaiah 24:17:
Fear, and the pit, and the snare, *are* upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
Then it says in Isaiah 24:19-20-22:
The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the
transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall
come to pass in that day, *that* JEHOVAH shall punish the host of the high ones *that are* on
high, and the kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall be gathered together, *as*
prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall
they be visited.
Here is matching language to Revelation 18. Babylon, the kingdom of Satan or the kingdoms of
this world has become a “prison” for every unclean spirit and a “prison” for every unclean and
hateful bird. Both of these phrases point to the unsaved people that are in Satan’s kingdom of
darkness and the world has become a prison. They have been “gathered together, as prisoners
are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison.” God shut the door of heaven. In so
doing, He protected His people that are within, spiritually, and He shut out the rest of mankind
that were without. This is what we read in Revelation 22:14-15:
Blessed *are* they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and
may enter in through the gates into the city. For without *are* dogs, and sorcerers, and
whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.
Without, or outside, is everyone that is unsaved at this point. That is why God refers in a few
places to “outer darkness.” Outside the city of Zion or outside of “heavenly Jerusalem,” which
consists of everyone God has saved, there is “outer darkness.” That is where all the unsaved
people are located and God is punishing them through this darkness, because He is the one that
put out the light of the sun, moon and stars, spiritually, and made this world a dark prison house
in which the unsaved people are being punished as prisoners in a pit in the condition of “hell.”
Death and “hell” are synonymous and God has brought the world, for all intents and purposes,
into the condition of death, once He shut the door of heaven.
Remember we saw language in Isaiah 13 and Isaiah 34 that dealt with JEHOVAH’S wrath and
details about a desolate land with “unclean” birds. You know, the Bible is an amazing Book.
People read these kinds of things and they have read it ever since the Bible was first written and
it made the Bible difficult or even impossible to understand. For instance, God says in Isaiah
13:11, “And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity.” Then He
would start talking about the Medes and the Persians coming against the Babylonians. How does
that connect? They must have wondered. It is only now in our day that we understand these
spiritual types and figures. We understand that Babylon is a picture of this world and Babylon
was victorious during the Great Tribulation. Immediately following the seventy years,
historically, the Medes and the Persians conquered Babylon. Likewise, immediately following
the Tribulation, Christ conquered the kingdom of Satan, and so forth. Not only is Isaiah, chapter
13 difficult due to its switching back and forth between discussions of Babylon and to the end of
the world and the final judgment of mankind, but it is difficult in its conclusion, as it says of
Babylon in Isaiah 13:19-22:
And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when
God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in
from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the
shepherds make their fold there. But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And
the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in *their* pleasant
palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.
So to make it even more difficult, God suddenly speaks of a desolate Babylon that is inhabited
by dragons and owls and doleful creatures. It is only when we recognize that at this point it is
because Babylon is a picture of the world that has become a prison house for every unclean spirit
and every unclean and hateful bird. Unclean spirits point to unclean men as do unclean birds, as
God speaks of unclean animals in Leviticus, chapter 11, or as when the Apostle Peter was shown
the sheet of unclean animals (including unclean birds) and Peter was told to “Rise, Peter…and
eat.” Then God explained to Peter he was not to call any man “unclean” and it had to do with
the Gentiles, the people of the world. So Babylon has now become a prison for every inhabitant
of the world, in the sense that they have never been translated out of Satan’s kingdom through
salvation and into the kingdom of God’s dear Son – they are all in “prison.”
Just to confirm this even more, let us go to Jeremiah 50:35:
A sword *is* upon the Chaldeans, saith JEHOVAH, and upon the inhabitants of Babylon…
Then it says in Jeremiah 50:38-40:
A drought *is* upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it *is* the land of graven
images, and they are mad upon *their* idols. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the
wild beasts of the islands shall dwell *there*, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no
more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. As God
overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour *cities* thereof, saith JEHOVAH; *so*
shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
Again, when God speaks of making a land “desolate, without inhabitant,” the inhabitant He has
in mind is Christ. This is why it says in Jeremiah 50:40:
… *so* shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man dwell therein.
This is because Jesus has the name “Son of man.” Again, and again, as we read the Gospel
accounts, we read things like “The Son of man must suffer many things,” as Jesus was prepared
to go to the cross. When God has ended His salvation program and He is no longer evangelizing
the earth, it is as though the “Son of man” has departed from Babylon, the kingdoms of this
world, and He made this world a “desolate land” and no man (Christ) shall abide there, neither
shall any son of man (Christ) dwell therein. We still have a world populated with people, so it is
not desolate in that sense, but it is desolate in the most important sense: God has left the world,
as far as salvation is concerned. He will not return to save anyone, ever again, and this is why
Babylon has become a “prison.”
Let us just take a quick look at that statement again in Matthew 5, where God speaks of sin being
paid for in “prison.” It says in Matthew 5:25-26:
Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the
adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid
the uttermost farthing.
Payment for sin must be completed. If a man is able, he can make payment just as Jesus did
from the foundation of the world. Christ made payment in full for the sins of all His elect
people, the great multitude which, perhaps, numbered 200 million. Jesus died for every one of
them and God’s Law was satisfied because He was the perfect sacrifice and He was also eternal
God, which qualified Him to pay for the sins of His people. But, for the rest of mankind for
whom He did not die and whose sins remain upon them, they must make the payment for sin and
that payment is death. In that official Day of Judgment, that payment is carried out over the
course of the prolonged period of judgment upon the world. Finally, each individual will be
annihilated and utterly destroyed. Christ was slain by God at the point of the world’s foundation
and, yet, being God, He was able to come through death and rise from the dead to live again and
justify all those for whom He died. All their sin is removed and the debt is paid. God does not
allow “double jeopardy” and no one can be charged a second time for sin. Christ did not have to
die twice for sin, so He was not making payment for sin in 33 AD and the individuals Christ died
for also do not have to pay for their own sins because it was already paid for by Him and they are
set free to live for evermore; they have been given eternal life. No sin they could ever commit
can take that away because any sin they would commit in their lifetime has already been forgiven
in Christ.
But, for the billions of people that were not predestinated unto salvation and whose sins were not
laid upon Christ, their sins remain upon them and God is punishing them. If somehow they
managed to die and come back to life as Christ had done, they would also live forever. They
could say, “I paid for my sins. I died and now I live and I will enter into heaven.” But, of
course, there is an insurmountable problem with that and that is that they are “mere men.” They
are creatures and not the Creator. They are finite and not infinite in their being. They are weak
and they do not possess the power to overcome death, as God says in Ecclesiastes 8:8:
*There is* no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in
the day of death: and there is no discharge in that war; neither shall wickedness deliver those
that are given to it.
The Bible declares this truth and we know it. Man, in his weakness and the fact that he is just a
creature means that when the full force of God’s wrath comes down upon him and God’s Law
declares he must die for his sin, man has no power in the day of his death. He cannot retain his
spirit and he cannot rise from his dead condition. He remains dead and he is no more, nor will he
ever be again. This is why it is a final judgment and final destruction and annihilation of the
sinner because he lacks the power of Christ to overcome death.
This is one of the wonderful and glorious things about the resurrection and why Easter is such an
incredibly wonderful time to recognize the great power of God. He had the strength to overcome
death itself and to be victorious over death. It is not a little thing to die and then to come back to
life and rise again from the dead. It is a testimony to the infinite nature of God’s power. We can
only thank God and glorify Him and praise Him that He was able to do this. Can you imagine if
He did not have that power to overcome death? We would have no Saviour and we would still
be in our sins and we would have to die for our own sins. But He does have that power and that
is another reason why the child of God insists (because the Bible insists) that our Saviour is
JEHOVAH and Christ is Eternal God. Who else could possess the power to die for the sins of so
many and to conquer death and to be triumphant over death itself? Men certainly do not have
that kind of power. Prophets do not have that kind of power. Angelic beings do not have that
kind of power. Only Eternal God possesses the power to overcome death.
We will stop here. Lord willing, in our next study we will pick up in Revelation 18 and we will
go on to verse 3.
Revelation 18 Series, Study #8 by Chris McCann, originally aired January 26, 2015
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.
Tonight is study #8 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:3:
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies.
This is referring to Babylon. The nations of the world have drunk of the wine of her fornication.
We have seen similar language in previous chapters in the Book of Revelation. It says in
Revelation 14:8:
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she
made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Also, it said in Revelation 17:2:
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.
Then it says in Revelation 17:4:
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication:
It is the cup of her fornication that the nations of the world drank from and in their drinking of
that cup of her fornication God has prepared the world for the final judgment. In loosing Satan,
God is the one that set these things in motion and, at the same time, God lifted His hand of
restraint, to a great degree, from the hearts of men, which allowed them to go after their sinful
desires which they had always wanted to do. But now they were unrestrained and they went
after sin in full force and we find ourselves living in a world where Sunday is like any other day
of the week. It is no longer recognized by the people of the world as a day set apart. We find
ourselves living in a world where men marry men and women marry women, as if it were fine,
but it is completely contrary to the Law of God. And there are many other sinful activities the
world is doing that they were not as prone to do in generations past, but now at the time of the
end through the loosing of Satan, God allowed Satan to receive worship from the churches and
from the world. As people serve sin, they also serve Satan to a higher degree.
We read in Jeremiah 51:7-8:
Babylon *hath been* a golden cup in the JEHOVAH'S hand, that made all the earth drunken:
the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen
and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
Again, just as in Revelation 14:8, Babylon is fallen and then God mentions the golden cup that
Babylon has caused the nations to drink of and it identifies with Satan’s rule during the 23-year
Great Tribulation period when he was called the beast and he received great glory from the
nations of the world and all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth. This has prepared the unsaved
people for the final judgment and that is where we find ourselves now. The world has drunk
from the cup of fornication. The world is “mad,” as it said in Jeremiah 51:7: “the nations have
drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.” In Jeremiah 50 God uses this same word
“mad” in Jeremiah 50:38:
A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and
they are mad upon their idols.
Concerning “idolatry,” God said they are “mad” in doing service to their idols. This is all related
to their having drunk of the cup of fornication out of Babylon’s hand and the world has been
given over to idolatry. Remember, God calls “covetousness” idolatry; that would be the spiritual
aspect of idolatry. A person does not have to carve a tree and deck it with gold and silver and set
it on their mantle and bow down to it, but “covetousness” or “lusting” after things of the world
can be just as idolatrous. That is more the nature of idolatry today with mankind. It is an idol
that is within their hearts and in their minds, as they crave and lust after the things of the world.
It is one of the reasons why God says in our verse in Revelation 18:3:
For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth
have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies.
It is not just the “kings of the earth,” but the merchants of the earth. Actually, once we get
deeper into this chapter, we are going to see that there are “woes” pronounced. The word “woe”
is translated “alas” and it is found three times and is “doubled” each time: “Alas, alas,” or “Woe,
woe!” It is just like Revelation 8, verse 13, when God made the transition from the judgment on
the churches to the judgment on the world, it said, “Woe, woe, woe to the inhabiters of the
earth.” Three “woes” were pronounced and then it went into chapter 9 and following, and the
“three woes” dealt with Judgment Day. In a sense, there are three woes that are recorded here in
Revelation 18 and each “woe” is doubled. Just like when it says, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” it
says, “Alas, alas,” and God addresses certain groups of people before He pronounces the “woe.”
Actually, there is pretty much a pattern established, if we look at Revelation 18:9:
And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall
bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off
for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one
hour is thy judgment come.
This was addressed to the kings of the earth and they were also mentioned in our verse 3. But
then notice what it says in Revelation 18:11-17:
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their
merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls,
and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of
ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And
cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and
wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the
fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and
goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these
things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and
wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and
scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls! For in one hour so great riches is
come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as
trade by sea, stood afar off,
So there are three groups: the kings of the earth, the merchants of the earth and the shipmasters
and companies in ships. Each one stands afar off and they wail and mourn and they cry, “Alas,
alas.” After addressing each of them, it says things like “For in one hour is thy judgment come.”
It is a pattern that God repeats three times as He addresses these three different groups and He is
speaking of Babylon, the kingdom of Satan, which are the kingdoms of this world. It is unsaved
people of the world and God is addressing them and identifying them as merchants of the earth.
We wonder why God addresses the people of the world as “merchants of the earth.”
We understand when it comes to the Gospel that God likens Himself to a merchantman. As He
says in that wonderful verse in Isaiah 55, to come without money and buy because He freely
gives the Gospel and, yet, He uses the language of a merchant dealing in the Gospel. The Gospel
merchandise is part of Babylon because Babylon conquered Judah or Satan conquered the
churches and the churches became another province of Babylon, just as Judah became one of the
conquered nations that Babylon ruled over and the corporate church became another kingdom
that Satan ruled. He had ruled over the nations and then he added the entire corporate church
and, finally, he was the sole ruler over the churches and congregations of the world. So there
was “buying and selling” and “merchandising of the gospel” going on in the churches and that
does relate to the language in Revelation, where it said they dealt in “souls of men.”
But there is more to it. It is not just the churches, but it is the world that is involved heavily in
“merchandising.” For instance, if we go back to Ezekiel, chapter 27, we read of Tyrus and Tyrus
is a picture of mankind or of the world. It says in Ezekiel 27:2-4:
Now, thou son of man, take up a lamentation for Tyrus; And say unto Tyrus, O thou that art
situate at the entry of the sea, *which art* a merchant of the people for many isles, Thus saith
the Lord GOD; O Tyrus, thou hast said, I *am* of perfect beauty. Thy borders *are* in the midst
of the seas, thy builders have perfected thy beauty.
When you read Ezekiel 27, you will see, again, and again, the context describes the involvement
of Tyrus with “merchants. For instance, it says in Ezekiel 27:8-9:
The inhabitants of Zidon and Arvad were thy mariners: thy wise *men,* O Tyrus, *that* were in
thee, were thy pilots. The ancients of Gebal and the wise *men* thereof were in thee thy calkers:
all the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise.
Then it says in Ezekiel 27:12-22:
Tarshish *was* thy merchant by reason of the multitude of all *kind of *riches; with silver, iron,
tin, and lead, they traded in thy fairs. Javan, Tubal, and Meshech, they *were* thy merchants:
they traded the persons of men and vessels of brass in thy market. They of the house of
Togarmah traded in thy fairs with horses and horsemen and mules. The men of Dedan *were*
thy merchants; many isles *were* the merchandise of thine hand: they brought thee *for* a
present horns of ivory and ebony. Syria *was* thy merchant by reason of the multitude of the
wares of thy making: they occupied in thy fairs with emeralds, purple, and broidered work, and
fine linen, and coral, and agate. Judah, and the land of Israel, they *were* thy merchants: they
traded in thy market wheat of Minnith, and Pannag, and honey, and oil, and balm. Damascus
*was* thy merchant in the multitude of the wares of thy making, for the multitude of all riches; in
the wine of Helbon, and white wool. Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs:
bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market. Dedan *was* thy merchant in precious
clothes for chariots. Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and
rams, and goats: in these *were they* thy merchants. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they
*were* thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious
stones, and gold.
And it goes on from there. Then it says in Ezekiel 27:24-25:
These *were* thy merchants in all sorts *of things*, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in
chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise. The ships
of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in
the midst of the seas.
This is like a business report. It is speaking of Tyrus involved with this nation and that nation,
and so forth: “They were thy merchants.” It seemed that Tyrus with involved in trading and
merchandising with all the nations and that is because Tyrus points to mankind. We know this
from Ezekiel, chapter 28. It says in Ezekiel 28:2-5:
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Because thine heart
*is* lifted up, and thou hast said, I *am* a God, I sit *in* the seat of God, in the midst of the
seas; yet thou *art* a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:
Behold, thou *art* wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: With thy
wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and
silver into thy treasures: By thy great wisdom *and* by thy traffick hast thou increased thy
riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:
The word “traffic” is a translation of the same Hebrew word translated as “merchandise.” The
heart of man is lifted up because of his “merchandise.” Just to prove this is man, it says in
Ezekiel 28:12-13:
Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord
JEHOVAH; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in
Eden the garden of God; every precious stone *was* thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the
diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and
gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou
wast created.
So “Tyrus” was in the Garden of Eden and was created and then God says in Ezekiel 28:14:
Thou *art* the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee *so*: thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
Only man qualifies to be called the “anointed cherub,” as God is likened to cherubims and the
cherub identifies with God and mankind was created in the image of God. It can only be either
Satan or mankind and Satan is not the “anointed cherub.” He was not created in God’s image.
Then it goes on to say in Ezekiel 28:15-16:
Thou *wast* perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in
thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and
thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will
destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
And God did judge mankind because of their sin, even though they were created “good.” God
cast man out of the kingdom and that is why it is through salvation that a man or woman can be
translated into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. It is because mankind was outside of the
kingdom of God due to the fall. So we see that “Tyrus” was in the Garden of Eden; he was
created; he fell into sin; he is called the anointed cherub. So it must be man who had an intimate
and personal relationship with God, just as the corporate church did, but this was the initial
relationship between mankind and God. Then that relationship was broken.
In speaking of mankind or “Tyrus” as a merchant that deals with all manner of wares with the
nations of the world, God is putting His finger on the problem of mankind: his covetous nature
and his lust and desire for the things of the world. God warns us to love not the world or the
things of the world, as it says in 1John 2:16-17:
For all that *is* in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he
that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
That is basically the image that God is presenting in Revelation 18 when He speaks of the
merchants of the earth and all the merchandise they deal in, all the wonderful things of the world.
They love the world and the things of the world. But now has come the fall of Babylon. Now
has come Judgment Day and now comes the removal of these things. Their merchandise will be
taken away and there will the destruction of all of her earthly treasures and the sinful pleasures of
mankind.
Just think of the world we live in and the world we are familiar with, if you are having trouble
seeing Babylon and the merchants of the earth as representing mankind. Just think of how
important the stock market is to this world or think of the malls and stores that are everywhere
and they are open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Even on the Lord’s Day, they are open
and operating and ready for business. Think of the TV and radio commercials that constantly
bombard the viewers and listeners with advertising. What is advertising? It is merchandising
and it urges you: “Buy this and buy that! We are offering a discount. We have a sale going on.”
What about the holidays? There is “Black Friday,” a time of great merchandising and the
Christmas holiday season is a time to go shopping and buy, buy, buy! It is the constant theme of
the world: buying and selling. It is merchandising in cars and houses and clothing. It is money
that allows you to operate in the world in order to buy these things. Yes, the world is full of
“merchants.”
Revelation 18 Series, Study #9 by Chris McCann, originally aired January 27, 2015
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.
Tonight is study #9 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:4:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Once, again, this is describing God’s judgment on Babylon and the fall of Babylon. God is
speaking to His elect people, those that were saved out of the Great Tribulation all over the earth.
He is commanding them, “Come out of her, my people.” This has application to the time leading
up to May 21, 2011, because that is when God was still saving; whenever a person became
saved, they had previously been in the kingdom of Satan and they were translated out of the
darkness and into the light or into the kingdom of God’s dear Son. Therefore, they came out of
the darkness and out of Babylon, the kingdom of Satan, and they were then citizens of the
kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and of God; they never went anywhere, physically and they did
not leave the world. They did not go into heaven, except in the Person of Christ, because at the
point of salvation we are lifted up into heavenly places to be seated in Christ Jesus and that is
where our citizenship is and we have that heavenly citizenship. Yet, we remain on this earth
until we die or until God takes us out of this world. That is what happened to all of God’s people
that were taken out of Babylon, spiritually, in salvation.
There is another aspect to this as God saved that great multitude outside of the churches and
congregations during the “little season” or the second part of the Great Tribulation called the
Latter Rain. He saved people in Muslim lands and He saved people of other religions and of “no
religion.” He saved people in faraway places that may have had no Bibles. He saved them
through a billboard or through a tract and then they went on their way. It only takes a Word
from the Bible, the living Word of God, to create a new heart. So if they were one of His elect,
God would have saved them through the hearing of His Word.
But what about the “follow up”? The church age was over; God did not want them in the
churches and there was no direction from God to go to the churches, so these people had no
ability to follow up with that information by going to a church, which had been typical during the
church age. Instead of churches, they would have had mosques that were in their cities or towns,
as in the Muslim religion, so they could not “follow up” there with what they had heard of God’s
Word. So where were they to follow up? That is one of the reasons that God says, “Feed my
sheep.”
Also, as we bring the Word of God and the Bible is declaring the news that it is Judgment Day
and the world is soon to end, God is speaking to the people He has saved located in all the
nations of the world and, therefore, in the sense that Babylon is the nations of the world, they
could still be located in the physical nations of the world and God is saying, “Come, my people,”
as He has given them “ears to hear” and He is calling them through His Word and the news that
Babylon is fallen and that judgment is on the world. He is saying, “Come out of her. It is time
for you to live as a child of God.” That can also be a part of this command, but it primarily
relates to salvation as God pictures the deliverance of the entire company of elect at the time of
Babylon’s fall, because it was also the time of deliverance for the people of God. Historically, at
the point of Babylon’s fall at the hands of the Medes and Persians, it brought about a deliverance
of the Jewish captives.
Let us look at some of the language that speaks of God’s command to the Jews to flee out of
Babylon. It says in Jeremiah, chapter 51:6:
Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul…
Right away, God is making a connection between “fleeing Babylon” and “delivering your soul,”
because it relates to salvation.
It goes on to say in Jeremiah 51:6-8:
…be not cut off in her iniquity; for this *is* the time of JEHOVAH'S vengeance; he will render
unto her a recompence. Babylon *hath been* a golden cup in JEHOVAH'S hand, that made all
the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon
is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be
healed.
Again, God inserts the command to flee Babylon in the context of Babylon’s fall. Historically,
we know that occurred at the end of seventy years. Spiritually, it occurred at the end of the 23year Great Tribulation period which ended on May 21, 2011. At that point, they were to be
delivered from Babylon and to “deliver every man his soul.”
Also, in Jeremiah, chapter 51, it says of the fall of Babylon in Jeremiah 51:44-45:
And I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath
swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him: yea, the wall of
Babylon shall fall. My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul
from the fierce anger of JEHOVAH.
This basically repeats the earlier commandment in Jeremiah 51: “Flee out of the midst of
Babylon.” You must flee Babylon or experience the wrath of God. Of course, if God did not
grant you His salvation (the only way to deliver your soul) before He shut the door of heaven,
then when the Tribulation ended, you would have been a part of Babylon, the kingdom of Satan,
and you would experience the fierce anger of God in the Day of Judgment.
Also, in the Old Testament, it says in Zechariah 2:6-9:
Ho, ho, *come forth,* and flee from the land of the north, saith JEHOVAH: for I have spread
you abroad as the four winds of the heaven, saith JEHOVAH. Deliver thyself, O Zion, that
dwellest *with* the daughter of Babylon. For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath
he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his
eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them, and they shall be a spoil to their servants:
and ye shall know that JEHOVAH of hosts hath sent me.
Here, the information is to go forth from Babylon and “Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with
the daughter of Babylon.” Then He says that those that spoil you will be spoiled and that is also
consistent with other things we have seen concerning God’s judgment on Babylon for daring to
put forth their hand against God’s anointed, the churches and congregations. So God brings His
vengeance for the destruction of His temple. That is why He is judging the world, Satan’s
kingdom.
There is one other place we find information in Isaiah, chapter 48. We have looked at this
before, but not in the light of our verse in Revelation 18. It says in Isaiah 48:20:
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans…
We see that these verses have in common a command to “come out,” which God says in
Revelation 18 when He says, “Come out of her, my people.”
Again, it says in Isaiah 48:20:
Go ye forth of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this,
utter it even to the end of the earth; say ye, JEHOVAH hath redeemed his servant Jacob.
So there is seen together the command to flee Babylon and the language of redemption
concerning Jacob, which typifies the elect. As God mentions in other places to “deliver thy
soul,” the going forth from Babylon involves the redemption of Jacob or of God’s elect. It is the
same thing, spiritually. It is the point at which God saves a sinner and “delivers his soul” in
redemption.
I would encourage anyone to carefully look at these verses I am going to read in Isaiah, chapter
48. We just looked at Isaiah 48:20, which said to flee from the Chaldeans (Babylon) and that
took place in 539 BC, historically. It was long ago from our perspective, but that is the historical
date that would agree with the command to come out from Babylon. Then look at what it says in
Isaiah 48:21:
And they thirsted not *when* he led them through the deserts: he caused the waters to flow out
of the rock for them: he clave the rock also, and the waters gushed out.
Did that happen when the Jews came out of Babylon? We can read about it in the Books of Ezra
and Nehemiah and, perhaps, in 2Chronicles. Do we read of that taking place anywhere? No.
We do not read anything about wandering in the wilderness and then drinking of water out of a
rock. Where is that kind of language found? It is language that is involved with the coming out
of Egypt, not the coming out of Babylon. It occurred when the Jews were in Egypt and servants
of Pharaoh, just as the Jews were captives in Babylon and servants of the king of Babylon.
Spiritually, we know that Pharaoh and the king of Babylon point to the same evil being, Satan.
The Pharaoh is a type of Satan and the king of Babylon is also a type of Satan. The captivity of
the Jews in Egypt and the captivity of the Jews in Babylon also point to the same spiritual picture
and that is to be held in the kingdom of the “evil one,” which would identify with being in
spiritual darkness.
Then God brings great deliverance to the Jews in Egypt through Moses and the plagues God
brought upon Egypt. He wrought deliverance for His people and brought them out with a high
hand and they crossed the Red Sea in a glorious fashion. They then began to wander in the
wilderness due to their unfaithfulness and their murmurings and their failure to obey God when
He told them to enter into the Promised Land. Instead, they received the evil report of the twelve
spies that reported that they could not overcome the peoples of that land. Then God judged them
and tested them. Some people say that the number “forty” has nothing to do with judgment. But
when God judged Israel, He said that for the forty days they had searched out the land, they
would wander in the wilderness a year for each day for judgment against them. It was a
judgment and a severe time of testing for the people of God and they would wander in the
wilderness for forty years.
It was during that time that God commanded Moses to strike the rock and water gushed out of
the rock to give drink to the congregation of Israel, which may have numbered as many as two
million people. God also uses the spiritual picture of the kingdom of Babylon as the kingdom of
Satan and the coming out of Babylon as the deliverance from the captivity to sin and Satan. The
deliverance that took place on May 21, 2011 was the final deliverance of all of God’s elect out of
spiritual bondage. All of God’s people then entered into this time period, not after 40 years of
wandering, but after 1,600 days, the very likely duration of Judgment Day, which breaks down to
“40 x 40.” It is a time of judgment on the unsaved and a time of severe testing for the true
believers.
So we have these very similar occurrences between the coming of God’s people out of Egypt and
the coming of the Jews out of Babylon, which points spiritually to what took place on May 21,
2011, when God completed His salvation program and completed the deliverance of all spiritual
Israel out of the kingdom of Satan. They were all delivered and that is why God is joining the
two great deliverances together in Isaiah 48, verses 20 and 21, the deliverance of Babylon and
the deliverance of Egypt. He is speaking of them as if it was one and the same deliverance. He
speaks as if the Jews did wander in a wilderness and drank from a rock when they came out of
Babylon, but, spiritually, this did take place at the end of the world at the time of the end of
God’s salvation program. This took place, spiritually, at the end of the Great Tribulation on May
21, 2011. That is the point of the final deliverance of God’s people out of the kingdom of Satan.
This is what the Lord is hearkening back to in our verse in Revelation 18:4:
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
If you would not become saved, then you would be a partaker of Babylon’s sins. The Greek
word translated as “partaker” is Strong’s #4790 and it is also translated as “fellowship” in
Ephesians 5. The word is not translated as “partaker” anywhere else. It says in Ephesians 5:11:
And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove *them.*
That is what God is saying to His people when He says, “Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins,” or do not have fellowship with her sins. It also says, “and that ye
receive not of her plagues.” If a person is not saved, they are still in Babylon and they are still
subject to the penalty of God’s wrath for their sins and, therefore, they will receive the plagues,
which represent the wrath of God. There are no actual plagues taking place. There are not actual
plagues like those that came upon Egypt when God delivered His people. There were no actual
physical plagues upon the churches, but the language of the actual plagues (the darkened sun, the
dried up waters or waters turned to blood) indicate the wrath of God and the judgment upon the
unsaved. That is what God is saying here; if you were not saved and translated out of Babylon,
Satan’s kingdom, into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you will partake of Babylon’s
sins and you will, likewise, partake of her plagues. It is the severe judgment of God upon this
world, which are the “shut door” of heaven, the putting out of the light of the Gospel and the
drying up of the Gospel waters, and so forth. That is the nature of the judgment and the wrath
that is being poured out upon you personally, if you are not a child of God.
Revelation 18 Series, Study #10 by Chris McCann, originally aired January 28, 2015
Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.
Tonight is study #10 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are continuing to look at Revelation 18:5:
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
We have been discussing the fall of Babylon and in the previous verse God commanded His
people to come out of her that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues.
We saw how that relates to salvation. All that God saved would not be partakers of Babylon’s
sins and, therefore, would not be subject to the plagues or judgment of God for their sins.
Now, in verse 5, God is speaking of Babylon’s sin as if Babylon were an entity in its own right,
but, of course, Babylon is made up of unsaved mankind and each unsaved individual bears his or
her own sins, but God looks at it as if Babylon herself was guilty of sin and He says, “For her
sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.”
When we look more closely at the wording, we find that the Greek word for “reached,” which is
Strong’s #190, is always translated as “follow” or “following.” It is often used in connection
with Christ, as when it says to take up the cross and follow Him. It is that word that word and is
always translated as “followed.” It is only translated as “reached” in this verse. In the other
verses where it is translated as “followed” I was not able to find anything about “followed unto
heaven.” I could not find anything that related to the context of Babylon’s sins “reaching” or
“following” unto heaven, but there is a similar verse in Jeremiah, chapter 51. Jeremiah 51 also
deals with the fall of Babylon and it says in Jeremiah 51:8-9:
Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may
be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every
one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up *even* to the
skies.
The Hebrew word translated as “reacheth” here is found many times in the Old Testament and it
is a word that is often translated as “touch” or “toucheth” and it has the idea of reaching unto a
certain point. It is translated as “reached” in Genesis 28:12:
And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven:
and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
Because Christ referred to this verse in the New Testament in John, chapter 1, when He was
talking to Nathanael and He told him that the angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of
man, we know the ladder is a picture of Christ Himself. It “reaches unto heaven” because it is
through Christ that sinners are able to be exalted into the heavenlies and to enter into the heavens
through the salvation. In order to “reach” heaven, you need the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the
“ladder” and we also refer to Him as the “door” or the entry point into the kingdom of God or
into heaven.
This is why it is significant when God speaks of Babylon and He says, “For her sins have
reached unto heaven.” What does that mean? Has not God always known about the sins of the
people within the kingdom of Satan? Have not their sins always been before the eyes of God?
All of men’s sins have been naked and open before His sight, so why does God suddenly say that
Babylon’s sins have reached unto heaven and He has remembered her iniquity? We are going to
look at that word “remembered” shortly.
But right now, the idea God is presenting in regard to Babylon’s sins reaching unto heaven is that
the door of heaven is now affected because of Babylon’s sins and because of the sins of the
unsaved people of the world because it is now time for God to visit them for their sins. It is the
Day of Judgment. It is after the Great Tribulation and we know that Judgment Day began on the
world on May 21, 2011. On that day, God shut the door of heaven. Why did He shut the door to
heaven? It was because the sins of man “reached” unto heaven and, in response God shut the
door and put out the light of the Gospel. The light of the Gospel had emanated forth from
heaven and it had shone down from above. That is the “figure,” even though the spiritual light
came out of the Word of God and, yet, that light comes from God in heaven. So the light of the
Gospel went out and the Gospel program of salvation concluded on that day of Babylon’s fall
because her sins had “reached unto heaven.” It was the appointed Day of Judgment and in
response God ended His salvation program by taking action in heaven. It was His action and His
work of shutting the door. I think that is what is in view when God gives us this Scripture that
says that Babylon’s sins have reached unto heaven.
What about the next part of the verse? It goes on to say in Revelation 18:5:
For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
God says He has remembered her iniquities as if He could have forgotten them. Is that possible
that God could forget Babylon’s iniquities for a time and then, suddenly, one day her iniquities
popped into His mind and He remembered them? That is how it is with people – we always
forget things and then we suddenly remember something that we had forgotten. We might “kick
ourselves,” as the expression goes, and say, “How could I have forgotten that!” We are very
finite creatures and we are not really all that brilliant. Our minds are very limited and we have
the ability to hold onto just a limited amount of information and we cannot continue to contain
all the information we received over the course of time in our lives. So we are constantly
forgetting things, even important things at times, but that is not how it is with God.
God has a brilliant and infinite mind. It really is incredible to consider the infinite mind of God,
that enormous mind that He possesses. Within His mind, He knows all things. That is a very big
statement, but that is what the Bible teaches us. As a matter of fact, the Bible teaches us that
God knows all things, even from eternity past. If you could look backward in time, He knows
everything that has ever taken place over the 13,000+ years of earth’s history, but that is nothing
for God. He possesses all that information and knowledge about every creature He has created –
every butterfly, every ant, every elephant and every thought they ever had. But He knows every
human being He has ever created, from their conception in the womb, their development and
birth (if they got to that point) and everything that happened to them in their lifetime. He knew
every thought they had in their minds, whether consciously or subconsciously. He knows
everything about every individual. On top of that, He governs everything in the entire universe
and keeps it functioning and operating.
It is just mind boggling to think of how He has in His possession the knowledge of everything
that has ever taken place in the history of this creation, but, again, that is nothing in comparison
to what God knows of eternity past and all the things He has been doing in eternity past. More
than that, He knows the end from the beginning, so He knows everything that will take place
from the rest of the world’s period of existence in whatever time is past. Beyond that, He knows
what will happen into eternity future. He dwells in eternity. He inhabits eternity and He knows
everything about it. He will never be surprised and He will never have to remember something
He had forgotten. If ever there was someone who would have reason to “forget” something, it
would be God. He has such an enormous amount of knowledge in His possession and it would
certainly be understandable if He would forget a sin a sinner commits or if He would forget
Babylon’s sin. But He never forgets and He always retains the fullness of knowledge about all
things.
Why, then, does it say, “God hath remembered her iniquities”? Let us look at a couple of verses.
One of them is in Hosea 8:13:
They sacrifice flesh *for* the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it;* but JEHOVAH accepteth
them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins…
Here, God is speaking of Israel and He is talking about judging Israel, which would point to
judgment upon the churches. He uses similar language. God also says of Babylon, in Revelation
16:19:
And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great
Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness
of his wrath.
This is telling us the same thing. Again, it emphasizes the fact that God considers Judgment Day
as a time to remember the sins of Babylon or of the world. It is just as when there was judgment
upon the churches, it was time to remember the sins of the churches. Remember, God had given
“space to repent” to the churches, but they repented not and He cast them into a bed of great
tribulation. It was at that point He “remembered” their sin.
Let us look at Jeremiah 25:11:
And this whole land shall be a desolation, *and* an astonishment; and these nations shall serve
the king of Babylon seventy years.
We know that God used the king of Babylon and Babylon to bring judgment upon Judah and
other nations. God used the king of Babylon as His servant. Spiritually, we also know the Lord
did the same thing when He loosed Satan to come against the churches and congregations. He
used Satan as a servant to carry out the task of destroying the corporate churches. God used the
king of Babylon for seventy years, which typified the Great Tribulation, and God used Satan for
the actual 23 years of the Great Tribulation. Then it goes on to say in Jeremiah 25:12:
And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, *that* I will punish the king of
Babylon, and that nation, saith JEHOVAH, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and
will make it perpetual desolations.
It is at the end of the seventy years that God then turns His attention to the Babylonians and it is
as if He is “remembering” their sins. For seventy years, it did not come into His mind (as it
were), but only because it was not His focus. His focus was the churches as His judgment began
at the house of God. Of course, God knew the Babylonians were sinning, but there was a “set
time” for them to be judged and when that time came, it was at the end of the seventy years.
Then God (as it were) remembered their sin and turned His attention to the kingdom of Babylon.
Now in Isaiah, chapter 23, God speaks of “Tyre” and we have discussed “Tyrus” in an earlier
study and it should be noted that Tyre and Tyrus are the same Hebrew word, Strong’s # 6865.
Therefore, they represent the same entity, which would be mankind. In Isaiah 23, Tyre is also
said to be a “merchant,” just as we read of Tyrus in Ezekiel, chapter 28, where God spoke of
Tyrus being in the Garden of Eden and being created, and so forth. It says in Isaiah 23:8-11:
Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes,
whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? JEHOVAH of hosts hath purposed it, to stain
the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. Pass through
thy land as a river, O daughter of Tarshish: *there is* no more strength. He stretched out his
hand over the sea, he shook the kingdoms: JEHOVAH hath given a commandment against the
merchant *city*, to destroy the strong holds thereof.
So we can see that Tyre, who is called a “merchant city,” has a similar identification with
Babylon, as we read of it in Revelation 18, and with the “merchants of the earth,” and God goes
in great detail about their merchandise. That is because Babylon represents the kingdoms of this
world (mankind) and so does Tyre. In Isaiah, chapter 23, we find something very interesting
beginning in Isaiah 23:14-15:
Howl, ye ships of Tarshish: for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day,
that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of
seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot
You know, I have looked at this passage and others have looked at it and it never seemed to
make any sense because God said, “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years,” but then after seventy
years, “shall Tyre sing as an harlot.” Then God will discuss her activity after the seventy years.
Again, the seventy year period typifies the Great Tribulation, but it says that Tyre was “forgotten
seventy years” and only seems to become active after seventy years. It is interesting how God
speaks of this. He also adds says, “Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days
of one king.” Remember what we read in Revelation 17 concerning the seven heads of the
beast? It said in Revelation 17:10:
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.
So “Tyre is forgotten seventy years according to the days of one king,” and that would the
seventh and final rule of Satan, as He had been loosed during the Great Tribulation when His
rule was expanded; he had been lifted up to rule over the churches and the world, like never
before. That was his rule during the Great Tribulation, which the seventy years typify. So Tyre
was forgotten during that seventy year period when “one king” is ruling, the seventh and final
reign of Satan during the little season of the Great Tribulation. But then it says, “after the end of
seventy years shall Tyre sing as an harlot.” Then it says in Isaiah 23:16:
Take an harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten…
Now we have something else that is similar to Babylon. Remember, Babylon was called a harlot
and THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS. Here, Tyre is said to be a “harlot that hast been forgotten.”
Now she is told, in Isaiah 23:16-17:
… make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered. And it shall come to
pass after the end of seventy years, that JEHOVAH will visit Tyre, and she shall turn to her hire,
and shall commit fornication with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.
We used to wonder what God was talking about, but now we understand. “Tyre” and “Babylon”
are synonyms for the kingdom of Satan, unsaved mankind, and during the seventy year period,
God is judging the churches and “Tyre” has been forgotten. Her sins are not being called to
mind; her sins are not the object of God’s wrath. God is not targeting the world during the 23year Great Tribulation period, from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011. It is as though the
world has been “forgotten,” but once the Great Tribulation comes to an end and the 23 years is
over (which relates to the end of the seventy years), then it is said that the harlot that has been
forgotten and then remembered: “make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be
remembered.” She is now remembered.
In Genesis, chapter 40, Joseph interpreted the dreams of the butler and baker. The butler was
restored to Pharaoh, while the baker was hanged. The butler had told Joseph he would remember
him, but he forgot. It says in Genesis 40:21-23:
And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's
hand: But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief
butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
This tells us that to be “remembered” is to not be “forgotten.” Likewise, to be “forgotten” means
not to be “remembered.” So when God “remembers” Babylon, it is the time of Judgment Day
when He is now looking at the sins of mankind.