Chapter 18

Once again we are going to meet the king of arms, the highest-ranking angel in the college of heralds. Most angels do not have wings, therefore when angels do have wings it signifies rank, and with elect angels it means that they have done something special in the prehistoric angelic conflict. Seraphs are defined as angels that have six wings. They are the highest-ranking category of elect angels, according to Isaiah 6:2. Prior to the prehistoric fall of Satan the highest-ranking category of angels were cherubs, their insignia of rank was four wings. At the conclusion of the pre historical angelic conflict a new rank was created for those elect angels whose modus operandi during the prehistoric conflict had glorified the Lord in a special way. In other words, every seraph received a battlefield commission from the prehistoric conflict. Of course, this is analogous to the eternal rewards for mature believers at the judgment seat of Christ.

The king of arms is one of those who has six wings. There are probably about seven or eight out of all of the millions of elect angels who hold this highest rank and the highest of all is the king of arms. The king of arms had a very special ministry in the days of Isaiah, Isaiah 6:6. He was the herald with the special message to Isaiah, Isaiah 6:7. So the king of arms is the first personality that we meet in chapter 18.

The outline for the chapter

Verses 1-8: the announcement of judgment.

Verses 9-19: the reaction of public opinion.

Verses 20-24: the response in heaven.

This is the judgment of ecumenical religion included in chapter eighteen. There are three categories of seraphs in the angelic college of heralds, the one we meet in verse one is the king of arms. We have noted a number of references to the king of arms in Revelation. In 5:2 where he announced, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the books?” In 8:3-5 the king of arms is portrayed as the angel with the golden incense shovel. In 10:1 again he is called the powerful one. We also note that he has other great decorations indicating that he is the apostle Paul or the Moses of the elect angels. He is said to be the powerful one and is said to be wearing a crown. The crown indicates tremendous decorations. The rainbow over his head is a promise from God for the perpetuation of the human race, and he is the one that carries this part of our Lord’s coat of arms. His face was like the sun, a reminder of grace provision for historical disaster, his feet like columns of fire, the wall of fire for positive believers in time of historical disaster. The king of arms carries all of these messages in the coat of arms which he carries. In 14:18, “In the meantime another angel [the same king of arms] who had authority over fire came out from the altar.” Now in 18:1 we see him as “another angel.” In 18:21 we will see him again as the strong angel; in 19:5 we will see him again. He is said to be a voice coming from the throne; in 19:17, “I saw one angel standing in the sunlight; and he shouted with a loud voice, saying to all the vultures ...” All of these are references to the king of arms, the highest-ranking of all seraphs.

There are at least two having a lesser rank: officers of arms. They rank second in the seraph order. The first is the messenger sent from God the Father to God the Son, Revelation 14:15, and the second one is the angel with the key to the abyss whom we will study in 20:1-3. Third in rank among the seraphs are those who have the full rank of heralds, e.g. 15:7.

The king of arms resumes the interpretation in verse one. The first words in the Greek are part of a prepositional phrase, meta is the preposition, plus o(utoj the demonstrative pronoun in the neuter plural, “After these things.” The word “and” does not occur in this passage. It refers to the content of the previous chapter, the rise and fall of ecumenical religion during the Tribulation. Then we have the verb, the aorist active indicative of o(raw, “I saw.” John is speaking as the author of the book and the constative aorist tense is simply indicating that point of time when he saw these things. The active voice: John as the human author produces the action. The indicative mood is for the continuation of the content of the book.

At this point we have the most dramatic of all the angelic creatures described here simply under the accusative singular direct object. First of all the adjective a)lloj and the noun a)ggeloj, “another angel,” another of the same category, meaning another angel in the angelic college of heralds. This is the king of arms, the highest-ranking one. He is said to be descending under the present active participle of katabainw. At this point a higher ranking angelic creature has to come down and handle the information. Up to this point we have had a pur sui vant messenger. We studied seven pur sui vant messengers in chapter 16, and number seven, after he administers the seventh bowl judgment which destroys ecumenical religion he stayed around acting as an interpreting angel. All of the angelic creatures in the college of heralds, seraphs, cherubs and pur sui vant messengers, are qualified teachers of Bible doctrine. But after he finished teaching chapter seventeen he had to step aside for the highest-ranking of all, the king of arms, who now comes down to take over to fill us in on the rest of the fall of this great religious empire that we have noted in the past.

“After these things I saw another angel [the king of arms].” Now we come to the first relative clause which is introduced in form by the present active participle of e)xw, translated “who had.” The present tense is a static present representing a condition as perpetually existing. The king of arms has the greatest authority as the highest ranking angelic creature in the college of heralds. The active voice: the king of arms produces the action. It is a circumstantial participle to form a relative clause, and he is said to have great authority. Great authority, by the way, is a reward for both angels from the past prehistoric conflict and for believers who are advancing to maturity and glorifying the Lord in this phase. In the Millennium the greatest authority will go to those members of the royal family who succeeded in utilising the protocol system to the maximum. The exploitation of the protocol system to the maximum means that certain believers will actually rule nations for the last one thousand years in history. Therefore, members of the human race in resurrection bodies — some, a few — are going to have great authority. This is authority given by God as a reward. “After these things I saw another angel who has great authority, coming down from heaven.” Note that we have inserted the relative clause in order to make better English.

So we have the angelic replacement now for the doctrinal teaching which follows. This will be the highest doctrinal teaching of all. Therefore what follows becomes very important.

Principle

In the previous chapter 17 we had a teaching angel which was a pur sui vant messenger. This does not mean that the content of this chapter is any greater than any previous chapter, after all it is all the Word of God, but it does mean that it is a different type of content which the pur sui vant messenger is not permitted to handle. There are certain types of information that can only be handled by certain types of individuals. That is true in the realm of the elect angels and it is true in the realm of Christianity today. There are certain types of doctrinal information that demand the spiritual gift for their proper development and communication. This does not mean that there is any difference in the spiritual life between layman and clergy, it simply means that God has in the total sense of His order allowed certain functions to go with certain spiritual gifts. The content of the message communicated by the pur sui vant messenger, which we have just completed in chapter 17, reveals that ecumenical religion during the Tribulation by its own bad decisions brought about its own downfall. The policy of religion dominating the civil government of the nation inevitably leads to the downfall or loss of power on the part of that religion. Many times in medieval history the Roman Catholic church actually dominated the civil life of people. Wherever it did eventually there was a break away from it and there was a reaction to it. In the 18th, 19, and 20th centuries in South America, Central America, and Mexico, the same situation has occurred. There is never a time when religion dominates the central government of a nation when it does not lead to the destruction of freedom, the loss of concepts of privacy, freedom, and the concept of sacredness of property and life. This means, of course, the downfall or loss of power on the part of that religion because inevitably people will react to it and destroy it. And while Christianity is not a religion it suffers from the same malady when it tries to control the state or become involved in crusader arrogance through social action and civil disobedience.

Christianity is not a religion but occasionally it tries to take on the role of religion. This is because of too much cosmic involvement and the shrinking of the pivot. Christianity is not a religion, nevertheless it suffers from the same malady of religion when it tries to control the state or become involved in crusader arrogance through social action and civil disobedience. The influence of Christianity within the state must be always spiritual. When a client nation declines it is always because born-again believers have become indifferent to the Word of God and the modus operandi of the protocol system. When Christianity tries to be the state, or influence the state through revolution, through violence, through any of the systems of social action or civil disobedience, it becomes apostate. The apostasy is a religious apostasy and Christianity destroys itself and the state. God blesses the civil government and the client nation through the principle of blessing by association related to a large pivot of mature believers. That brings us back to the doctrine of historical trends: as goes the believer, so goes the national entity.

The pivot is where we have to start, then, as we move into this particular chapter

The Pivot

1. The pivot is defined as the accumulation of mature believers living in a client nation or under a civil government in a specific geographical location. Pivots were actually started in the 19th century because they were under the government of the British empire, and the British empire brought establishment to the bush. Behind establishment came missionaries who presented the gospel and taught Bible doctrine and so little pivots were formed in the 19th century in almost every one of the areas of the world.

2. While the pivot is composed primarily of mature believers who have achieved gate eight of the protocol system in the plan of God it may also include, of course, those positive believers whose momentum has taken them past that first great mandate, virtue first.

3. Technically, then, the pivot may include all believers who have fulfilled the principle of virtue first as one of the major priorities in the plan of God.

4. The pivot stands out in contrast to believers living in the cosmic system, believers whose arrogance from motivational evil results in self-righteous arrogance.

5. These believers are apostate, and you can always recognise apostasy by the platitudes, by the self-righteousness, by the crusader arrogance, by the distortion of doctrine and disorientation to reality. There is a certain percentage of born-again believers who are mentally ill from arrogance.

6. The true Christian influence in the national entity is spiritual while the believer’s responsibility is defined under the laws of divine establishment.

7. Christianity must never be the state. Religions always try to be the state, e.g. Iran, Arab countries. The influence of Christianity is not influencing the state with Christian principles but growing in grace, establishing a pivot. We therefore believe and advocate to the ultimate the separation of church and state for the true function of freedom and the fulfillment of human volition in the angelic conflict. We support the state, we support establishment, but we are not the establishment.

8. This does not imply that Christians should not serve in government. It does imply that believers in government service must abide by the laws of divine establishment and they must never seek to force Christianity on others. No one should be forced to believe in Christ. People must accept Christ by their own personal consent. In other words, Christianity must not be the state. The reason that ecumenical religion went out under finesse judgment is because they destroyed themselves. When religion seeks to become the state it is a bad decision, and therefore evil cancels evil. God uses evil to punish evil.

The pivot and the client nation

1. The client nation to God is not a Christian nation. There is no such thing as a Christian nation. A Christian nation would mean that every person in the nation is a Christian. It has never existed and it never will, but there is a such a thing as a client nation to God. However, a client nation to God is not a Christian nation, it is simply a national entity in which the civil government recognises establishment principles of freedom, including privacy and the sacredness of property and life.

2. The client nation to God contains a pivot of mature believers, those who have achieved spiritual momentum in the protocol system — spiritual influence.

3. This means that there is enough freedom in that nation to provide for extensive evangelism without government interference or federal persecution. From this evangelism there comes a cadre, a cadre for the pivot. It must be remembered, however, that in the development of a cadre for the pivot not all believers execute the plan of God. So that one of the greatest enemies to spiritual influence in a nation are born-again believers who want to crusade. Not all believers execute the plan of God, they become apostate through life in Satan’s cosmic system. And these cosmic believers become potential revolutionists through civil disobedience, they become fanatical crusaders disrupting the freedom and rights of others through social action.

The general characteristics of a client nation to God include the following:

1. A civil government and policy based on the laws of divine establishment. That includes free enterprise.

2. The function of evangelism under the principle of freedom. We who evangelise must recognise the freedom of others. Freedom means privacy. Our job is to clearly present the gospel but we do not force people to accept Christ. We leave people with the information; they must use their volition, and it is wrong on the part of Christians to pressure people.

3. The establishment of local churches which are autonomous. To the extent that local churches form into denominations you are destroying the client nation principle. Denominations become the enemy of client nations. Autonomous local churches: neither connected with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence, nor involved in any movement which seeks to unite church and state. One of the things that hurt England more than anything else was the fact that Henry the Eighth established his own church and made it part of the state.

4. A vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching to believers which emphasises the protocol system in the plan of God.

5. Missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments but providing both gospel and Bible teaching for people in the nation. No missionary has the right to interfere with the government and become involved in the politics of the nation where he goes.

God uses one system of evil to cancel another system of evil, and we are seeing that. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is a system of political evil and God used that agent for the destruction of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. Ecumenical religion was destroyed by the agency of the political evil that once sponsored it. That is finesse judgment. In this judgment of ecumenical religion in chapter eighteen we will note in verses 1-8 the announcement of the judgment. The announcement will come from the standpoint of finesse judgment. Then in verses 9-19 we will see the reaction of public opinion in three categories: the rulers of the world, the merchants of the world, the transportation industry of the world. Eventually we will see the response of heaven in verses 20-24.

Why is the fifth cycle of discipline administered to any given nation? Take the cause of the northern kingdom: Hosea chapter 4:1-6, “Hear the doctrine of the Lord you citizens of Israel [northern kingdom, a client nation at the time], because the Lord has a court case against you, the citizens of the nation, because there is no doctrine [no doctrine being taught] and nothing of grace being applied. Obviously there is no knowledge of God in the nation. Instead there is lying and deceiving [lack of virtue among the citizens], both murder and stealing, and rape, plus unrestrained violence. For this cause the land shall mourn, consequently everyone who lives in it shall lose strength [shall languish], along with the animals of the field,” in time of degeneracy cruelty to animals is one of the functions, “both the birds of the sky and the fish of the lakes are taken away. Yet, let no one contend [blame others for the judgment], and let no one impugn; for you people are like those who contend against the priest [the communicator of doctrine. They are resisting the doctrine]. Therefore you have stumbled by day [application of doctrine in daily life], furthermore the prophet also will stumble with you by night [the apostate teaching in Bible class]; then I will destroy your mother [nation]. My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge [of doctrine. The reason they went down]. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being my priest nation [client nation]. Since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect the next generation [termination of the nation].”

Jeremiah 7:24-26, the reason why the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the southern kingdom in BC 586: “They did not hear my doctrine nor inclined their ear [negative volition], but they walked in their own counsel [arrogance and human viewpoint generated in the cosmic system] and in the stubbornness of their evil right lobes [scar tissue of the soul from cosmic two], they also went backward not forward. Since the day that their ancestors came out of the land of Egypt [the beginning of the client nation] until this day, I have sent to you day by day my servants the prophets , rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to me [negative volition toward doctrine] nor inclined their ear, but they stiffened their neck [scar tissue of the soul]; they did more evil than all of their ancestors.

Jeremiah 15:6, “You have forsaken me, says the Lord, You keep going backward. Therefore I will stretch out my hand against you and destroy you.” This is addressed to believers.

And why did the final Jewish client nation go out under the fifth cycle of discipline? Matthew 23:37, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered you as my children together, and you were not willing [negative volition].”

It should be noted that the influence of the believer in the client nation, then, is related to his knowledge of Bible doctrine, therefore his momentum in the plan of God. The believer does not interfere or obstruct the function of civil government. To understand the believer’s responsibility to his country it is necessary to understand the protocol system, the divine dynasphere.

“After these things,” says Revelation 18:1, “I saw another angel who had great authority coming down from heaven.” We also notice that he is highly decorated. This is brought out in the next phrase, the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the nominative singular subject, “and the earth.” Next we have the aorist passive indicative of the verb fwtizw which means to illuminate, “and the earth was illuminated.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in the moment of time, the great flash of light that came from his descent. The active voice: the earth receives the action of the verb as a result of the king of arms coming to earth. The indicative mood is declarative for the glamour, the glory of the uniform of glory in the form of light won by the king of arms as a part of whatever type of eternal reward he possesses. Next we have the preposition e)k plus the ablative of means from doca plus the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “because of his glory.” Usually the ablative is not used to indicate means, that is the instrumental case in the Greek. While the instrumental is used to express means when the expression of means is accompanied by the implication of origin then the ablative is used instead; in this case the ablative of the preposition e)k.

After these things I saw another angel who had great authority descending from heaven; and the earth was illuminated by means of his glory.”

The glory indicates that the elect angels already have their resurrection bodies, or whatever is the equivalent, and they have already received their rewards for the eternal state. So great is the glory of this angelic body that the entire planet earth is illuminated and the translucent light indicates the greatness of this seraph during the prehistoric angelic conflict. This angelic creature is like Moses or Paul as far as his activities in the prehistoric conflict is concerned. His glory is a reward, a part of the decorations that he received for his faithfulness to God in that ancient period.

The announcement of the king of arms is given in verse 2. We have a sequential kai, “Then.” Next we have the aorist active indicative from krazw, “Then he shouted.” This is the proclamation which he makes. The constative aorist tense covers the sound of his voice. The active voice: the one who is making the announcement, the king of arms, produces the action. The mood is declarative indicative for an eschatological event of the future. With it we have en plus the adjective i)sxuroj plus the noun fwnh, “with a powerful voice.”

Then the announcement: the aorist active indicative of the verb piptw which means to fall. We have the aorist tense as a constative aorist contemplating the function of finesse judgment in its entirety. The active voice: Babylon is the title given to the ecumenical religious system, for two reasons: because Babylon was the origin of the system that is used in the religion; because as Peter tells us is 1 Peter 5:13 Babylon became the title for Rome during the Roman empire. Today in Rome we have Rome as the capital of Italy, so that is Rome the city. In Rome, the city, we have the Vatican which is a state in itself and is a religious capital of a semi-ecumenical religion. So in Rome in the future there will be a religious city and there will be a civil city. The religious city is the one that is going to be nuked. We will see the word that tells us that under finesse judgment the political Rome will get tired of being pushed around by the arrogance of the religious system, ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. So political Rome being one system of evil is going destroy the ecumenical religious system as another system of evil. We know that from a very interesting noun purwsij, a noun that refers to conflagration and the results of a nuclear blast. This word comes later on in our passage.

In the meantime we have a similar verb repeated in the same morphology, “fallen, fallen” is a good way to translate it and bring out the constative aorist. “Then he shouted with a powerful voice, saying, fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great.” This announcement of judgment coincides with the sevenfold judgment in chapter 16:19. Though the seventh bowl judgment is like the sixth, not only is it a finesse judgment but in the administration of finesse judgment there are going to be some of those unbelievers who are going to survive under the principle of judgment by pain. This is crisis evangelism. They have been evangelised under normal conditions and said no. They went as a result into the cosmic system and in the cosmic system they cannot make a good decision because of the resultant subjectivity, and in order the restore objectivity to their souls they are given pain which blacks out the influence of the cosmic system so that one more time they have a chance to accept Christ as saviour. Then there is one more judgment by death and even though this is at the time of the second advent the principle still remains: God guarantees to keep alive the human race. The human race will not be destroyed but He will perform radical surgery on certain sections of the human race in order to protect the human race.

We have next the two analogies to demons. There is an analogy to birds at the end but that doesn’t have anything to do with the demons. First of all, then, we have ecumenical religion as a habitation for demons. The intensive use of the conjunction kai is translated “In fact.” Then we have the aorist active indicative from the verb ginomai, “it became.” This is a reference to the destroyed headquarters of ecumenical religion. The culminative aorist tense views the demon connection in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: demon influence and demon possession of the cosmic system continue even with nuclear destruction. Notice that the nuclear destruction of Babylon does not in any way keep the demons from operating in the area. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this doctrinal principle. Then we have the accusative singular direct object from katoikhthrion which means simply “habitation.” Even after the nuclear destruction of that area and everyone is standing around at a distance because they don’t want to get contaminated, and they are making their comments. Even though that happens right in the middle of it the demons are still active. Demons are not affected by nuclear activity. Then comes the possessive genitive plural daimoniwn, “it has become the habitation of demons.” This means that demons can operate in any area where any of the great sophisticated weapons are operating. Both demon influence and demon possession is always identified with any form of Satanic religion. The point is that the headquarters for ecumenical religion is destroyed by nuclear weapons and the people at headquarters are all killed but the demons continue to operate. The existence of demons there indicates the fact that the great motivation and the great sustaining power of any form of religion is demonism. Demons are always the sponsorers of religion and, as a matter of fact, religion is called the devil’s communion table, 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. When the revived Roman empire finally gets around to putting a nuclear missile into the headquarters of the religious ecumenical empire they destroy people but the demons are totally unhindered. The unclean spirit here is synonymous with demons as fallen angels. Demons function through religion like idolatry.

Demons can influence the thinking of people, both believers and unbelievers. We call that demon influence. But demon influence can only exist on Satan’s playing ground, the cosmic system. Demon influence means demons influence the thinking of believers in the cosmic system, and obviously they also influence the thinking of unbelievers. So demon influence is the first function of demons and it is always directed toward the soul, the thinking and sometimes lack of thinking, because thought is the source of true emotion and if you have emotion without thought you have unlawful emotion, like the holy rollers. True emotion is always generated by thought and the holy rollers can’t think. Unlawful emotion comes from taking dope or speaking in tongues.

Demons can indwell the body — demon possession. That is directed toward the body and demons can indwell the bodies of unbelievers; they cannot indwell the bodies of believers. The body of the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit and he will always be indwelt by the Holy Spirit and the demons cannot go where the Holy Spirit indwells, the demon can only control the soul when the individual is in the cosmic system. Religion, by the way, is one of the many ways in the cosmic system that demons influence the thinking of both believers and unbelievers. Apart from cosmic involvement there are two volitional systems for demon possession: the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, and passive submission to demons.

What else can demons do? Most other things have been restrained from them. Everything that demons do deals primarily with, for example, demon possession. A person is sick because demons indwell their bodies who have certain categories of illness. There are demons who produce illness. Then they have some so-called healer stand up and “bop” them on the head or wave a towel over them or pronounce the magic word, and Satan tells the demon to go. The demon then leaves the body and you have an actual case of “healing.” The healing was demon-induced and the removal of the demon means instant cure. So a lot of the extra natural activity that demons do are related to demon possession. Some are even related to demon influence. Demons can influence the thinking for very strong ideas.

“and is a prison for every unclean spirit,” the demons or the unclean spirits are synonymous. We have two phrases here mentioning that fact. The second phrase: the connective conjunction kai, meaning “and,” and with it the noun fulakh which means prison, “and is a prison.” Then we have the objective genitive singular using three words. First of all, the adjective paj, “every,” and then a)kaqartoj, meaning unclean, and then finally the word pneuma used for spirits [demons, disembodied spirits]. There are two categories of demons: those who still have their bodies and those who are disembodied spirits. This is a reference to disembodied spirits but regardless of the category we have noted that they survive any kind of a nuclear holocaust — “and is a prison for every unclean spirit.” Nothing is left of the headquarters except the demons who were there before, and they are still there. As a matter of fact it is now a prison. Apparently the Lord will not permit these demons to move out and go anywhere and now this is their prison. All of the individuals in the religious headquarters which they were influencing are all gone. Nothing is left now but the demons to keep each other company, they have no people to influence or indwell.

Because of the demon infiltration in Genesis chapter six God has placed certain restraints on demon function during the historical phase of the angelic conflict. In Genesis 6:1-6 we have the genetic attack of demons upon the human race. It was accomplished in bodies. That was the first attack and as a result of that God put a limitation on demons for the rest of human history. Until the middle of the Tribulation only disembodied spirits [demons] can function on earth and their attacks are limited to the soul of mankind which they can penetrate, but not apart from man’s consent, and the bodies of human beings which they can penetrate but not apart from human consent. The human consent has to do with involvement in the cosmic system. Demons cannot cohabit with the human race. However, they can influence the human race in various ways.

Apart from the incarnation and the resultant hypostatic union Christ could not have gone to the cross the be judged for our sins. As eternal God Jesus Christ is sovereignty, perfect righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. These characteristics of our Lord Jesus Christ make it impossible for Him to be judged for our sins. Jesus Christ is eternal life: He cannot die. Jesus Christ is immutability: He cannot change. Jesus Christ is perfect righteousness: He cannot have anything to do with sin, including bearing the sins of the world. Jesus Christ as God is omnipresent, and that means He is infinite: infinity cannot be reduced to the finite situation required for bearing our sins. Therefore, as God Jesus Christ cannot encourage sin, He is not the author of sin, He cannot tempt to sin, Jesus Christ as God can have nothing to do with sin. In order for Jesus Christ to become our saviour He had to be true humanity, and this true humanity had to be perfect. He had to arrive at the cross as Adam was created and that is exactly what happened. He was born perfect because of the virgin birth and He lived out His life inside the prototype divine dynasphere so that He came to the cross in a state of impeccability. In that state of impeccability there was a printout from the computer of divine decrees and all the sins of the entire world were in that printout. Jesus Christ was judged for those sins on the cross, but He was judged in His humanity, he bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The deity of Christ could not be judged for our sins, only the humanity of Christ. Therefore, of course, it was the greatest attack of demons with bodies [not disembodied spirits but fallen angels with bodies] which was made in Genesis 6:1-6 in an attempt to frustrate the true humanity of Christ. He had to be true humanity, there could be no angelic infiltration into the genetics of mankind. Therefore when God headed that off He also put some limitations on demon activity.

So there are two ways in which demons attack the human race today. First, demons can influence the thinking of both believers and unbelievers but demon influence can only exist in the cosmic system. This is an attack upon the soul. Religion is one of the many ways in which in the cosmic system believers and unbelievers are influenced by demons. The demon attack is against your thinking. Secondly, demons can indwell the bodies of certain unbelievers. There is no such thing as demon possession of the believer. The believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which eliminates any possibility of any demon penetrating the body of the believer, therefore demon possession is limited to unbelievers only. But, again, this is only in the cosmic system. Apart from cosmic involvement there are only two volitional systems for demon possession. Firstly, the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, the body is brought under the control of the soul and the soul is given to Satan, for example, in modern times, the Satanic mass. Such a person becomes, as it were, a disembodied spirit. Other concepts of this system, in part, include mental telepathy, extrasensory perception as a vehicle for the isolation of dormant faculties, spiritism or evil supernaturalism. The isolation of dormant faculties can occur in such things as a seance where a demon-possessed medium is involved. Telepathy or thought transference can be related to demon influence but only inside the cosmic system. Certain forms of hypnosis might even be involved. Secondly, there is passive submission to demons. This can only be accomplished through religion, idolatry, the function of the phallic cult, the use of drugs.

Religious and cosmic systems are demon contact systems devised to neutralise any positive volition toward the truth. For the unbeliever, positive volition toward establishment and the gospel; for the believer, positive volition toward the doctrine of the Word.

“Then he [the king of arms] shouted with a powerful voice, saying, fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great; in fact it has become the habitation of demons and is the prison for every unclean spirit.”

In anticipation of something we will study later on we conclude this verse with the last phrase: the conjunction kai, and once more we have the noun fulakh which generally means a prison of some sort or other. But since Babylon the great has been destroyed we have to call this a prison for demons [nothing left but demons] but with the demons we have all the corpses. The demons are left with the corpses and therefore birds are invited in to the area. That is the last invitation here. Fulakh also means a sentry post and that is the way we are going to translate it here. It is the predicate nominative, “and is the sentry post for.” Then we have a)kaqartoj once more and it refers to birds that live on carrion. It is called unclean and it refers to birds, therefore, like the vulture, the buzzard, the eagle. These are the vultures of Matthew 24:28 who gather for the great feast. They are also called by the genitive singular perfect passive participle of misew used as an adjective and can be translated “hated”. With this we have the noun o)rneon, “bird.” Unclean refers to birds that could not be eaten by the Jews. Inasmuch as the vulture and the buzzard and the eagle feed on carrion they were said to be taboo. They eat human flesh. It is the king of arms who invites them to the feast. We have therefore the participle used as an ascriptive adjective and it views carrion birds from the standpoint of the average person. The average person has no appreciation of the fact that in much of the wilderness, apart from the trash that man leaves, the carrion birds do a great job, “and is the sentry post for every unclean and hated bird.”

In Revelation chapter 19:17,18 we are going to see a very interesting banquet. “Then I saw a unique angel [the king of arms] standing in the sunlight; and he shouted with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in mid air [birds who eat carrion], Come and gather to the great feast from God in order that you may eat the corpses of kings, and the corpses of general officers, the corpses of the mighty, the corpses of horses and their riders, in fact the corpses of all, both volunteers and draftees, both enlisted personnel and the officer corps.” So there will be a great banquet in the future and this is a part of that banquet.

We note the principle of evil. A mandate has come from God by which we are warned about these things: Romans 12:21, “Stop being conquered by evil, but conquer evil by means of the good.” That is a mandate that is directed to Christianity, to us, because we have the protocol system inside of which is insulation and protection against evil, the evil of the cosmic system. Evil is a factor the believer must face, it was not judged on the cross. For example, Hebrews 5:13,14, “For everyone partaking of milk [new believers, or losers] is ignorant of doctrine pertaining to righteousness [or virtue], because he is immature. But solid food [advanced doctrine] is belonging to the mature believer, who because of self-discipline keeps having his perceptive faculties well trained with reference to differentiating between the virtuous and the evil.” This is one of the most important factors in our daily thinking. We must differentiate between what is virtuous and what is evil, what is honourable and what is dishonourable. False doctrine is both evil and even insanity, says Ecclesiastes 9:3, “This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, namely that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the right lobes of the human race are full of this evil, and insanity in their right lobes throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.”

Psalm 21:11, “For they stretch out evil upon you, they devise a conspiracy which they are not able to carry out.” Conspiracy is said to be evil. It is the result of arrogance, therefore evil, cosmic involvement.

Proverbs 12:12, 20, 21, “The evil desire the plunder of evil men, but the root of righteousness produces virtue. Deceit is in the right lobes of those who devise evil,” they are thinking evil, they are deceptive, they are arrogant. Arrogant people cannot be trusted, they have no virtue, they are thinking in terms of motivational evil, “But counselors of establishment possess happiness. No evil happens to the righteous [the believer who is inside of the plan of God], but the evil are filled with trouble.” Only the plan of God can take the evil of men against you and turn it into good.

Psalm 121:7, “The Lord will protect you from all evil; he will guard your soul.”

Proverbs 1:33, “He who listens to me [doctrine] shall live in security, and shall be at ease in the face of evil.”

There are four demon attacks on the human race. The first was a genetic attack in the antediluvian civilization, Genesis 6:1-6. That was accomplished by demons with bodies. The second was the attack of demon possession, an attack of disembodied spirits. The third is the attack of demon influence, also the attack of disembodied spirits. The fourth comes from the Tribulation: the physical attack of demon armies at the end of the Tribulation: Revelation 9:1-12; 13-21; 12:7-17. There is one other possible demon attack which we will be studying in chapter 20:7-10, the activity of demons during the Gog revolution. During the Millennium there will be no demon attacks of any kind.

Before considering Genesis 6:1-6 we should make a distinction between a fable and a myth. A fable is a story like The Fox and the Grapes in which the characters and plot neither pretend reality nor demand credence. A fable is fabricated as the vehicle of a moral or used for didactic instruction. A myth, on the other hand, is a story of anonymous origin prevalent among primitive people and by them accepted as true. They concern supernatural beings and events as well as natural beings and events influenced by supernatural agencies.

There are two kinds of demons operating today: those with bodies who at the present are not permitted on planet earth; those without bodies which we call simply disembodied spirits who are operational on the earth today. Those with bodies are visible and beautiful in appearance. They are the subject of the first demon attack in Genesis chapter 6. Disembodied spirits are invisible demons who are responsible today for both demon possession of the unbeliever, which is the invasion of the human body of the unbeliever in the cosmic system, and demon influence, the invasion of the soul and the personality of both believer and unbeliever in the cosmic system.

The antediluvian assault actually has to do with the very nature of the antediluvian civilisation. It began with the creation of man and terminated with the flood which destroyed the entire population of the earth except for eight believers, Noah and his family. Each civilisation begins with believers only and terminates with some cataclysmic judgment from God. Each civilisation even has its own climate, its own environment, and its own characteristics within species. Man has a different life span in each of these civilisations.

There are three civilisations in which demon activity occurs and is different in each one of these civilisations. First there is the antediluvian civilisation which begins with the creation of man and goes to the flood. It started with two believers, Adam and Eve. They were both saved after the fall. After the flood civilisation starts again with eight believers only: each civilisation is characterised by beginning with believers. The next civilisation is going to be the Millennial civilisation and it begins with believers only. There is demon activity in the antediluvian civilisation and there is demon activity in the post-diluvian civilisation. In the antediluvian civilisation in which demons are involved they are demons with bodies. They are involved in a sexual invasion which is recorded in Genesis 6, Jude 6, 2 Peter 2:4,5, and 1 Peter 3:18-22. This is a genetic attack on the human race to destroy true humanity on the earth and therefore frustrate the first advent of Christ: to keep Christ from coming in the flesh. The second is the post-diluvian civilisation which begins with Noah plus the seven and concludes with the second advent. There are two demon attacks in the post-diluvian civilisation but both are by disembodied spirits. The third civilisation in history is the Millennial civilisation which begins with the second advent and the Tribulational believers who survive. The attack comes at the end of the Millennium, there is no demon activity in the perfect environment of the 1000 years of Millennial history. At the end of that time Satan is released from prison and there will be an attack.

Ethnic demonology is related to the polytheism of the Babylonians, the Assyrians, the Greeks, the Phoenicians, the Canaanites, the Germanic and Indo-European types of demonology or polytheism. All of them include the same things: violence, human sacrifice, the phallic cult, idolatry. All of this involves worship of demons , according to 1 Corinthians 10:19-21. Demons appear, then, to fall into two categories: those who possess bodies and the invisible demons who are disembodied spirits who operate on the earth today but cannot be seen by the visible eye. They have no body and therefore they seek to invade the body of the unbeliever.

In Genesis 6 the object of the demon attack was to frustrate the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, to prevent the humanity of Christ in His hypostatic union and therefore to hinder His saving work on the cross being judged for our sins. Satan tried many times during Old Testament times to destroy the true humanity of Christ. He attacked Adam’s seed through the murder of Abel in Genesis chapter four; he attacked Abraham’s seed when Sarah was found in the harem of the Egyptian king in Genesis chapter twelve. Pharaoh’s mandate to kill the male line of Israel in Exodus 1:10 or to destroy all Israel in Exodus chapter fourteen were simply other Satan-inspired attacks. There are many attacks on the line of David which we have noted before, but the greatest attack of all came in Genesis chapter six.

Verse 1, “Now it came to pass when, man became numerous on the surface of the earth.” The word for mankind is ha adam and it refers to both male and female. It is a generic term and it does not refer to women as such, it has no gender connotation. However, the gender does come into the picture with the population explosion which is mentioned in Genesis chapter six, “that daughters [beautiful women] were born to them.” This is simply a way of saying there was an excess of females.

Verse 2 — “the sons of God,” this should be translated “the sons of the gods.” It is beni-ha-Elohim which is not son of God or sons of God. It is in the plural. Elohim is a title for the members of the Trinity when they are considered as a group, and then you call it “God”. The suffix im is a plural suffix and it can be translated literally, “the sons of the gods.” It is a technical term which is used four times in the Old Testament — Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7; Daniel 3:25, and in each case it refers to angels. “Son of God” in the Greek is a title for the Lord Jesus Christ used in the New Testament and is a different language entirely. The “sons of gods” are demons. They would include the Titans.

In Genesis 3:15 after the fall God said to the first parents: “I will put hostility between you [Satan] and the woman [the true humanity as the source of the humanity of Christ], between your seed [Satan and the demons and unbelievers] and her seed [Christ in hypostatic union],” so one of the first titles of our Lord is “her seed.” “And he [Christ] will crush your head [the head of Satan], and you [Satan] will crush he heel [at the cross].”

So the “sons,” like Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, and grandsons like Apollo, are “the sons of the gods,” the sons of the Titans.

Verse 2, “the sons of the gods saw the daughters of mankind, that they were beautiful; so they took for themselves women, whomever they selected.” Why were they able to do so well with the ladies on earth? Because of their extreme beauty.

Verse 3, “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit [God the Holy Spirit in His function of common grace] will not contend with man forever,” the key here is “forever.” In other words, the only time you can be saved is in time, now. That is why you must believe in Christ while you are on earth, there is no change of status in eternity, “in his going astray [fornication with demons] he is flesh [true humanity],” in other words, the women who fornicated with the demons were true humanity, but their progeny will not be, “therefore his days will be one hundred and twenty years.” The Spirit would strive with man for 120 years because the judgment that would take them all into eternity would not occur until then, and for 120 years you have the same kind of powerful evangelism that will occur in the Tribulation. There would be 120 years before the flood destroyed corrupted humanity involved in that angelic conflict.

This attack apparently began 120 years before the flood. As a result of the fornication with demons we now have an attack upon the human race. We now have the progeny which is half demon half human. This group would all turn down the strong evangelism and would be destroyed by the flood. A very interesting thing comes out of this. God has promised not only that the human race will never be destroyed but that the earth will never be destroyed by flood. When the flood came there were apparently only eight human beings left on the earth who were true humanity.

Verse 4, Half human, half demons are called ha nephalim which means “fallen ones.” The word is taken from the Hebrew verb naphal which means to fall. It is equivalent to the Greek piptw. Nephalim means “fallen ones.” “The Nephalim were on the earth in those days,” the half human-half angelic creatures that were multiplying so rapidly that is was going to become a race down to the time of the flood, “therefore also afterward, the sons of the gods went in [had sex] with the daughters of men, and had children by them, were the heroes who from ancient history were famous men.”

We might notice some of the things that happened as a result of this.

The pattern of demon activity from the genetic attack on the human race: ecstasy, frenzy, and violence. We have Dionysus the god of wine, the promoter of orgiastic demon cults emphasising emotion taking over reason. Normal emotion is simply the result of reason. Hence, demon penetration of the soul was involved here as well. The emphasis was on utter freedom, escape from human limitations by total communion with demons in the ecstasy brought on with wine, music, torch light dancing, and so on. The results were violence, sexual orgies. Dionysus became the demon of orgy and abandon. He was accompanied by demon-possessed women called “mad ones” who abandoned themselves to the demons to produce a lust frenzy related to both sex and violence. The Dionysian cult became an orgy of sex and human sacrifice, and in the middle of these things the priest and the priestess couldn’t control it and people were just torn apart.

Demon influence on thought and politics, an entire different type of demon activity: Apollo and the oracle of Delphi is one of the greatest illustrations. Apollo is the champion of lucidity, the embodiment of the Hellenistic spirit. As the god or demon of light Apollo was very much involved in the kingdom of darkness and he had a number of priestesses at Delphi. The priestess would go into a trance, her body would be possessed by the demon Apollo, and then she would make the pronouncements. The ancient world went to the oracle of Delphi for advice and to look at the future. Delphi became a demon system for controlling the lives of famous people, rulers, and even nations. Apollo represents the doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1,2.

The deceit of demon miracle healing.

Mythology gives us the pattern in the god or demon of healing, the progeny of Apollo. He was the demon who had charge of all illness and could produce it. Healing temples were constructed for his worship. To understand how demon healing works you have to go Satan’s two demon princes. One is Abaddon or Appolyon, Revelation 9:11, the prince in charge of overt warfare. The second is Beelzebub who is in charge of covert warfare and who also has charge of a sub organisation, operation mole, which is a plan to give Satan’s human servants credibility in the Christian community. Satan’s human deceivers include sorcerers who perform feats of necromancy, exorcists, divine healers, unbelievers involved in the tongues movement. Beelzebub is a ruler or a prince of demons and in some of his under cover activities, we note in Matthew 12:24, “When the Pharisees heard it, they said, ‘This man [speaking of Jesus] casts out demons only by Beelzebub the ruler of demons.’” In other words, they claimed from their own theology of the past that Beelzebub was actually pulling out these demons who caused the illness and they alleged that that is how the Lord was performing the miracles of healing. Mark 3:22, “And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, ‘He is possessed by Beelzebub,’ and ‘He casts out demons by the ruler of demons’.” This is the way they tried to explain away our Lord’s acts of healing.

Actually, there are three sources of human illness. There is psychologically-induced illness, there is physiologically-induced illness, and there is demon-induced illness. Demon-induced illness is operation mole. Some demon gets into the body of an unbeliever, he has an illness, then Beelzebub gives a command to come out, and there is instant healing.

In Genesis 6:1-4 we have the genetic acts that started the ball rolling. Verse 5, “Then the Lord observed that the evil of mankind was great on the earth, and every motive of the thoughts of his right lobe was only evil all the time.” In other words, demon influence among those who were even true humanity, with a few exceptions. It must be remembered that all of this time great evangelism is occurring on the earth. The genetic destruction of true humanity became highly contagious. The half angel, half human creatures possessed super intellect and super strength, but with super intellect and super strength they had no virtue or restraint of any kind. The violence, the arrogance, and the unrestrained high IQ in a strong body was disastrous to the human race. The stories of the gods of Mount Olympus and the gods of the Canaanites and Phoenicans are filled with every category of evil. Evil and violence ruled the world in the antediluvian civilisation.

Verse 6, “Therefore the Lord himself repented that he had made man on planet earth, and he was grieved in his right lobe.” That He repented means that He changed His mind that he had made man on planet earth. Actually, this is merely an anthropopathism. It is going to explain why the flood; why the human race as it was then known had to be destroyed. Repent, changing the mind, is a human function and in order the bring to an end this demon invasion and to make it possible for true humanity to continue on the earth and for us to be here today we have judgment by death. Both evil and genetics were destroying the very purpose for which the Lord created mankind so something had to be done about it.

Verse 7, “Then the Lord decreed, ‘I will blot out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to reptiles, to birds in the sky; For I have changed my mind that I have made them’.”

Verse 8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Noah was a believer. Then follows the family history of Noah. Noah, a justified man [faith in Christ, he was a believer] was uncontaminated in his entire genealogy. From Adam to Noah through the line of Seth there was no demon genetics of any kind. The line was uncontaminated by genetic attack of the demons. Furthermore, Noah himself walked with God. He was the original pivot type believer. In the perpetuation of true humanity Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Verse 11, “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God,” the effectiveness of the demon genetic attack from fallen angels with bodies, “furthermore the earth was saturated with violence.” This helps to explain judgment by death. When violence becomes too great on the earth, in order t protect the human race God destroys certain segments of the human race.

There is a parallel passage which begins in Matthew 24:37, “For the coming of the Son of Man [second advent] will be just like the days of Noah.” The genetic angelic attack in the time of Noah is comparable to the attack of the demon assault armies at the end of the Tribulation.

Verse 38, “For in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking [normal functions], they were marrying and giving in marriage [normal functions], until the day that Noah entered the ark” — they were preoccupied with their normal pleasures [preoccupation with self]

Verse 39 — “and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.” There was no effective client nation in the time of Noah therefore the absence of the laws of divine establishment meant unrestrained demon activity. People were in better health than they had ever been in history. Health is not spirituality. There was no establishment, however.

Genesis 6:12, “Consequently God looked at the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.” This effectiveness of the genetic attack by demons. True humanity was almost extinct. The line of Christ must be true humanity all of the way from Adam to the virgin Mary, therefore the necessity of destroying the hybrid race — half human, half angelic creature.

Verse 13, “Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me,” an idiom meaning I’m thinking about destroying the entire human race, “for the earth has become saturated with violence because of their presence [of demon sexual attacks and the evil function of their progeny]; now behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth’.” Corrupted humanity and fallen angels were to be removed from planet earth to Hades.

The fallen angels who were involved in the Genesis chapter six modus operandi were judged. In 2 Peter 2:4 we have a reference to their judgment. “For if God did not spare the angels [the Nephalim] when they sinned, but incarcerated them in pits of darkness in Tartarus, to be constantly guarded for future judgment.” The fallen angels involved in the genetic attack on the human race were sent to Hades and imprisoned in Tartarus. We note that in our passage in Revelation 18:2 it says, “Then he [the king of arms] shouted with a powerful voice, saying, Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great, in fact it has become the habitation of demons and a prison for every unclean spirit.” The demons involved in the function of the ecumenical system of the Tribulation could not leave the area even though they were not destroyed by the nuclear attack. This tells us something about disembodied spirits. In Jude 6: “And the angels [demons] who had not kept their status quo, but abandoned their proper place of residence, he guarded them in eternal chains under thick darkness for that judgment day.”

Summary of the genetic attack of Genesis chapter six

1. The demons involved in the attack have been imprisoned in Hades in the compartment known as Tartarus, and they are there until the judgment day at the end of the Millennium.

2. The corrupted part of the human race was destroyed by the flood, and the corrupted part are also in Hades but their location is Torments where they are waiting for their trial and judgment at the great white throne.

3. Demons who at present function on planet earth under Satan’s command are disembodied spirits. This means that having no bodies they have no sexual capabilities. It further means that they are invisible to mankind.

4. Disembodied demons seek to invade the soul of mankind, and this is called demon influence. They also seek to penetrate the bodies of mankind, and this is called demon possession. Demon influence can only occur, however, when the believer or unbeliever is living in the cosmic system. There is no vulnerability to demons except in the cosmic system. Demon influence is the invasion of the soul of a believer or unbeliever. However, demon possession is the invasion of the body of the unbeliever only, and it can only occur in the cosmic system.

5. Present day invasions of demons do not include sex. Hence, never again will the human race undergo any genetical attack from Satan. The genetical attack was terminated at the flood, it was peculiar to the antediluvian civilisation.

6. All demon sex must be accomplished through a demon possessed person [an unbeliever] or a demon influenced person [believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system]. This means that the can simply influence mankind in that direction but they have no direct involvement. All sexual activity, however, in the phallic cult, including fornication, homosexuality, bestiality, etc. result from demonised human beings. The genetic attack upon the human race has been defeated and will never again be repeated.

The inevitable and eternal victory of our Lord Jesus Christ then comes into focus. The genetic attack failed. It failed because of the grace of God; it failed because Jesus Christ controls history; it failed because true humanity continued to live on planet earth. 1 Peter 2:24 tells us of the victory of the cross, “Who his own self bore our sins in his own body on the cross.” Jesus Christ went to the cross as true humanity, and the reason He did is because Satan’s greatest attack upon salvation at the cross was frustrated by the flood. At the time of the flood there were only eight people left on earth who were still true humanity from Adam to Noah. The reason they were still true humanity and had resisted every genetic attack is because they were believers, some of them believers of maturity. All of the human race is descended from Noah and his three sons. Our Lord Jesus Christ specifically came from Shem. There were other attacks upon the line of Christ; none of them succeeded. The issue is: Jesus Christ as God cannot be judged for the sins of the world. As God Jesus Christ can only condemn sin, so it was the humanity of Christ [1 Peter 2:20] which was judged for the sins of the world. The victory occurred at the cross, 1 Peter 2:24, but the proclamation of that victory to the Nephalim was announced in 1 Peter 3:18-22. What did our Lord say to them? Hebrews 2:9-15, “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than angels,” Jesus Christ did not become an angel, He was made lower than angels [the hypostatic union, true humanity], “now crowned with glory and honour; because he suffered death so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone [unlimited atonement]. For in bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God [the Father], for whom and through whom everyone exists, to bring to the objective through sufferings the author of their salvation. For both he who sanctified [Jesus Christ through the agency of the baptism of the Spirit and resultant positional truth] sanctifies, and those who are being sanctified [the Church or royal family of God] are all from one source [God the Father is the author of the divine plan]: for which reason he [God the Son] is not ashamed to call them [the royal family] brethren, saying, I will declare your person [Christ the victor] to my brethren [the royal family], in the middle of the Church I will sing your praises [the praises of Christ as the strategic victor of the angelic conflict]. And again [quoting Isaiah 8:17], I [the Church Age believer] will put my trust in him. And again [Isaiah 8:18], Behold I and the children whom God the Father has given to me [a royal family for His third royal warrant]. Since, therefore the children share a common blood and flesh,” note the Greek order: blood and flesh. Flesh means simply the body; it is the blood that provides the life in the body, so life comes first, a reference to the perpetuation of true humanity on planet earth in spite of the demon genetic attack in the antediluvian era of history, “he also himself [Christ] shared their humanity [became blood and flesh],” the genetic attack did not frustrate the hypostatic union and the incarnation of Christ. This was our Lord’s message to the fallen angels in Tartarus, “in order that through death [the saving work of Christ on the cross] he might destroy [neutralise, render powerless] him who had the power of death, that is, the devil; and might deliver those who through fear of death were subjected to slavery [in the cosmic system] all their lives. For obviously he [Christ at the first advent] did not assume the nature of angels; but he did take on the seed of Abraham.” Abraham is post-diluvian and the humanity of Christ is descended from Abraham, David, and so on down the line. This gives us some concept of an attack by demons with bodies.

On the other hand, today, demons with bodies are no longer permitted on earth. They will not be permitted on the earth until the middle of the Tribulation at which time the three demon assault armies will make their attack.

Demon possession is defined as the demon invasion of the body of the unbeliever. It is in contrast with demon influence which is the demon invasion of the soul and the personality or believer or unbeliever. Of the four demon attacks in history of mankind the most prominent today is actually demon influence. It is the most general and it is the most common. The reason why the demons can penetrate the body of the unbeliever is because God the Holy Spirit does not reside in the unbeliever, and the reason why no believer can be demon-possessed is because the body of the believer is the temple of the Holy Spirit. When an unbeliever resides in the cosmic system the potential for demon-possession is there, primarily through religious activity and other ways we will discuss in the future. In the meantime we are looking at believers living in the cosmic system and we see the penetration of their soul by demons.

Indirectly, demons are capable of two categories of violence. Disembodied spirits, demons, operating on planet earth today are capable of these two categories. The first is indirect violence in which the demon must use another human being as the vehicle for the expression of his violence. This is the attack of man against man and it can come from two sources: demon possession of the body in which the body becomes violent an uncontrollable, or demon influence of the soul where a person is motivated to violence. Both demon-possession and demon influence result in violence. All terrorism, all criminal activity, including rape [which is not just fornication, it is a crime and should be punished by death in every case], all the function of religious cults, organisations like the KGB in Russia, are the results of either demon influence or demon- possession, or both. In the case of idolatry certain religious activity are involved in demon-possession. Much more common, however, is demon influence in the cosmic system which is the source of most violence at present. This would include acts of hatred, anger, and certain forms of arrogance. All Muslim activity is related to demonism. Terrorism today is demon influenced. The support of third world terrorism by the Word Council of Churches is demon-influenced. Believer and unbeliever, apart from perception of doctrine and fellowship with God in the divine dynasphere, are vulnerable to cosmic involvement and demon influence. That would be indirect violence.

Secondly, direct violence from demons is a phenomenon reserved for the last half of the Tribulation. It was also the function of the antediluvian civilisation. So only in two areas of history will there be demon violence from demons with bodies.

The origin of all of the demon influence or demon attack is always the same. It is always the decision of mankind. We are always the products of our own decisions, and in the case of demon influence, demon-possession, or the terrible things that happened in the past and will happen again in the future, they are decisions from a position of weakness. A position of weakness is described and defined as residence in the cosmic system of Satan. In that cosmic system is the function of arrogance and preoccupation with self. All decisions to enter the cosmic system are decisions made from the position of weakness; all decisions made in the cosmic system are decisions from a position of weakness. From this comes the demon influence of believers and unbelievers, and demon-possession of unbelievers only. Decisions made by the believer inside the divine dynasphere are decisions made from a position of strength. Only two decisions can be made in the cosmic system from a position of strength: the decision of the unbeliever to believe in Christ and the decision of the believer priest to rebound means the instant removal from the power of the cosmic system. Since man is the product of his own decisions it is imperative, therefore, that he makes good decisions from a position of strength rather than bad decisions from a position of weakness. Since the flood no member of the human race, believer or unbeliever, ever becomes involved with demons apart from his own free will. All demon involvement in the post-diluvian civilisation comes from one’s own decision. The decision to live in the cosmic system inevitably brings one into contact with demons. The target for the demon attack at the end of the Tribulation is the person living in the cosmic system. It is another case of finesse judgment whereby Satan’s demon armies attack Satan’s human servants living in the cosmic system. They are victims of violence. All demon activity is related to man’s free will, human consent. No one has any contact with demons apart from his own bad decisions. All demons are fallen angels under the command of Satan.

The concept of demons: there are many words in both the Hebrew and the Greek. The word shedim in the Hebrew, taken from the noun shed, is one of the common words for demons but it is also used for idols because idolatry is the most basic way to come into contact with demons. We have noted that under the devil’s communion table, and we have certain prohibitions regarding idolatry, Leviticus 17:7; Isaiah 13:21. The word for sater demons in the Hebrew is saair. In the destruction of Babylon it was prophesied by Isaiah that the sater demons “will frolic there.” In other words, they were imprisoned in that geographical location in the past, just as in the future destruction of Rome, the headquarters of ecumenical religion, the demons will be imprisoned there. Demons, in general, are called in the Greek daimwn. It is mistranslated in the King James version by the word “devils.” There is also a specific category of demons, always determined by context when they are discussed categorically, where they are called daimonion, 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. Also there is an adjective: daimoniodhj which means demonic and is used, for example, in James 3:15. Then there is a verb: daimonizw which means to be tormented by demons, to be possessed by demons, sometimes even used for being influenced by demons.

Demon-possession, again, never occurs apart from human consent. Some form of bad decision is made resulting in the demonisation of the body of the unbeliever. These decisions are related to cosmic involvement, idolatry, religious, activity, dabbling in the occult, consulting mediums, the function of necromancy, plus decisions to become involved with drugs, under the title of farmakeia, used for drug addiction leading to demon activity, Galatians 5:20; Revelation 9:21.

The phallic cult, which includes both human sacrifice and idolatry as well as unrestrained sexual activity is mentioned in Luke 8:2, “Also some women who had been healed from demons and sickness.” For example, Mary Magdalene from whom seven demons had been cast out. Idolatry is the basic system for demon-possession, Leviticus 17:7; Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 96:5; Psalm 106;37,39. Passive submission to demons is accomplished through idolatry, drug addiction, the function of the phallic cult, the emotional revolt of the soul. It is possible for emotion apart from thought to isolate normal faculties and bring them into focus for demon influence or demon-possession. Prolonged involvement in the cosmic system is really the secret. Active submission to demon-possession is violent and painful. The case history is found in Luke 13:11-16.

Demonism destroyed Canaan; demonism is a part of degeneracy. Saul is a case of demonism. He dabbled in the occult and because of his practice of necromancy he was punished with maximum disciple, the sin unto death, 1 Chronicles 10:13,14. Demons are often used by God for the administration of the sin unto death, and there are two illustrations in the New testament: 1 Corinthians 5:5; 1 Timothy 1:19,20. The believer involved in 1 Cor. 5:5 changed his attitude, however, and rebounded. His discipline was canceled short of death, whereas the one in 1 Timothy was carried out. Furthermore, the demonisation of a nation results in the destruction of that nation. There is a case in Isaiah chapter 47 and also in Jeremiah chapter 27. Ministers who faithfully teach Bible doctrine are often targets of demon influence, 1 Timothy 3:6,7. Demon influence is always thought transference of demon doctrines to the believer or unbeliever in the cosmic system and therefore is different from demon possession. Demon influence involves thinking, motivational thinking to many evil things. Evil can be accomplished through motivational thinking or evil can be accomplished by direct demon possession and, of course, only the unbeliever can be demon-possessed and therefore only the unbeliever is involved in those forms of evil that are direct. But those that are indirect from thought motivation come to both believer and unbeliever under the principle of demon influence.

In 1 Timothy 4:1 we read, “But the same Holy Spirit [the One who vindicated our Lord in the prototype divine dynasphere] explicitly communicates that in latter periods of time [technical for the time between the first and second advents of Christ] some believers will become apostate from doctrine, paying attention to deceitful spirits [the category of demons who are disembodied spirits] and concentrating on doctrine from demons.”

So demon influence is thought transference. Doctrine by definition is a system of teaching. Demons are engaged in a system of teaching through thought transference or demon telepathy in the classroom of the cosmic system. Demon influence is the invasion of the soul, the mind, the emotions, the self-consciousness, of the soul, and the resultant invasion therefore of the human personality of the believer or unbeliever who is living in the cosmic system. Again, the cosmic system is the classroom. One enters the cosmic system through active or passive function of the free will. Once inside the cosmic system negative volition toward true doctrine creates a vacuum in which demon influence operates. The Word of God calls that “resisting the doctrine.”

In Ephesians 4:17, “This therefore I explain, and make an emphatic demand through the Lord, that you no longer continue walking just as the Gentiles walk, in the vacuum of their mind.”

That vacuum is a system for drawing in demon doctrine once you are in the cosmic system.

1 Corinthians 2:5, “That your doctrine should not depend on the wisdom of man” — another way of saying demon influence in the cosmic system, “but on the power of God,” doctrine inside the divine dynasphere.

In James 4:6-8 we have a passage that mandates resistance to the cosmic system, “He [God] provides greater grace [grace after salvation: logistical grace, supergrace blessings]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war against the arrogant, but he gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God [life, residence, momentum inside the divine dynasphere]. Resist the devil and he will flee from you [the use of volition in rejecting the temptations of the old sin nature. In other words, staying out of the cosmic system]. Draw near to God [momentum in the divine dynasphere] and he will draw near to you [supergrace blessing to the believer who reaches gate eight]. Cleanse your hands, you sinning ones [the use of the rebound technique]; purify your right lobes [the avoidance of demon influence or demon telepathy], you double-minded [a description of the believer under demon influence].”

Demon influence is relative. That is, there are degrees of demon influence which in effect correspond to the degrees of reversionism. Demon influence is a process of demonisation in which every facet of the soul is essentially controlled by demon thinking so that there is a complete personality change to some form of sociopathic or psychopathic behaviour and personality. We should notice that these things become extremely important as we get into our passage in Revelation chapter eighteen. Here are demons who are forced to stay in their own geographical locality, and until someone comes back and occupies that locale those demons must remain there. However, the second advent will remove that, but there is a precedent found in verse two and that is the fact that demons are often relegated to a geographic only and unless people come back to that area they can’t have demon contact. The headquarters for ecumenical religion in the Tribulation is obviously one place that is saturated with demons and once the headquarters is destroyed then the people are dead but the demons are alive, yet they cannot go anywhere. The word “prison,” fulakh, in verse 2 is very important, it means that they cannot leave that area.

Verse 3, the influence of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. We are going to see a fascinating thing in the middle of this chapter. Even though this headquarters has been subjected to nuclear attack which totally destroys the headquarters and all the people are wiped out the demons are still alive there, but very interesting is the fact that three categories of people are going to gather in that periphery and make comments, and express the reaction of public opinion at this finesse judgment of God. That means that even though there is nuclear activity in the Tribulation the population is not destroyed and, as a matter of fact, the population in that geographical area is not destroyed. Nuclear weapons do not wipe out the population of the world.

We begin the verse with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, which should be translated “Because.” “For” is the post positive conjunctive particle gar which is not being used here. O(ti is being used all through this passage but for some reason they wanted to translate it like gar. Then we have a nominative plural subject made up of three words: paj, the adjective “all”; the definite article ta; and the noun, e)qnoj, “Because all the nations.” Then we have the perfect active indicative of the verb pinw which means to drink. We translate it, “Because all the nations have drunk” because this is an intensive perfect tense emphasising the existing results from the past completed action. Emphasis on the result is intensified, which is an emphatic method in the Greek of presenting a fact or a status. It is a strong way of saying that a thing is in the past. It has been occurring throughout the Tribulation. Ecumenical religion has accomplished under Satan a tremendous job of evangelising for the cosmic system. The active voice: the nations of the earth during the Tribulation produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.

Then we have a long phrase: the preposition e)k plus the ablative from o)inoj, “wine,” not literal wine here but a reference to passion or losing the ability to think, an emotion functioning in the soul not originating from thought. It is the descriptive genitive of qumoj. Qumoj tells us that, first of all, all genuine emotion originates from thought. When you have thought with or without emotion you are in a normal status quo but if you have emotion which has no origin in thought, then you are abnormal and you are suffering from what the Bible calls emotional revolt of the soul. Here we simply translate it “passion,” passion in the sense of emotion without thought. The reason we have translated it passion is because of the next word, the possessive genitive from the noun porneia, not for literal fornication but for spiritual fornication which is life in the cosmic system. All believers in the cosmic system are committing spiritual fornication. The degeneracy of nations in the Tribulation is manifest from their participation in the phallic cult phase of this Satanic-type international religion. Idolatry is always the key to the phallic cult and this international religion is characterised by idolatry, the worship of the abomination of desolation.

Now we know something else about the geographical location of demons. Wherever someone sets up an idol of any kind demons are permitted to go to that geographical area and are permitted to function there by God. Once the idol is destroyed they have to stay there unless some idol is set up nearby and they have to have divine permission to travel. Demons are simply not free to roam around the earth at will. Even though Satan is the ruler of this world they are limited to geographical locations which can be traced by the history of idolatry in the human race. This is why in 1 Corinthians 10:19-21 we have this great principle of the devil’s communion table. The devil’s communion table is nothing more or less than an idol being set up somewhere, or an idol temple, or the unlawful isolation of dormant faculties, and this brings demons to that area. They function there until that situation is destroyed and to leave that area they have to have divine permission. Obviously, they were not given that permission to leave the area of the destruction of the headquarters of ecumenical religion, verse 2. That is why the destroyed area is said to be a habitation of demons and a prison for every unclean spirit.

The word “wine” is used here for the wine of religion intoxicating its converts, making them drunk with arrogance. Therefore “drinking from the wine of the passion of her fornication” refers to involvement in the cosmic system. This means that religion had a tremendous influence over rulers at that time. We have, again, the conjunction kai introducing additional information, translated “Furthermore.” Next we have the nominative plural from the noun basileuj, “the kings,” means the rulers, with the adverbial genitive of place gh, “the kings of the earth.” Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb pornew which means to fornicate, “the kings of the earth fornicated.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: the influence of ecumenical religion on these kings or rulers. The active voice: the rulers of planet earth during the Tribulation produce the action. The mood is declarative indicative for eschatological reality. “With her” is a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun a)utoj.

Then there is an influence over business. Not only do they dominate politics of the Tribulation but they dominate the economic situation. By the way, the Tribulation up until near the end is a time of great worldwide prosperity and a lot of it has to do with this religion.

We have the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, translated “also,” then the nominative plural subject from e)mporoj which means business men, wholesale dealers and retail dealers, merchants. We have the adverbial genitive of place again, “also the merchants of the earth.”

Note the next phrase: the aorist active indicative from ploutew, because the merchants of the earth became very wealthy during the Tribulation. Ploutew means to become rich. The ingressive aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb from the standpoint of its beginning. The ingressive aorist denotes entrance into a state or condition, and as never before in history there will be worldwide prosperity. The active voice: the merchants produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood: eschatological reality. Next we have “from the power,” e)k plus the ablative of dunamij, and a technical use of dunamij. Dunamij is often technical for a dynasphere, whether it is the divine dynasphere or the cosmic system. Here is refers to the cosmic system, “also the merchants of the earth became rich from the power.” Then we have a descriptive genitive, strhnoj, meaning luxury or sensuality or both, “of her luxury” or “her sensuality,” either way. This will be the basis for the second wail, the wail of the kings in verses 9,10. It should be noted that the word strhnoj in the Attic Greek means arrogance, wantonness and, in the genitive, eager desire. It also means luxury, sensuality, and this is the connotation carried into the Koine and only used once as far as the Bible is concerned.

This verse emphasises both the political power and the economic influence of international religion in the Tribulation. The lamentation of the political rulers in verses 9 and 10 indicates their loss of power and influence when ecumenical religion receives the administration of finesse judgment. The lamentation of the business men who have prospered from this religion in verse 11-16 also have a terrible grief because the world economy is going to be destroyed when this headquarters is nuked. Lust for luxury comes from life in the cosmic dynasphere. There is one way in which luxury will ruin you every time. There is nothing wrong with luxury — it is often a sign of real prosperity — as long as you can handle luxury. The only way that you can handle luxury is from virtue. People who have virtue have capacity for luxury when it is available and when they can afford it. That is true in the Tribulation. They can afford it, but those who lust for luxury really can never afford it, it destroys them because lust for luxury comes from the cosmic system whereas virtue comes from the divine dynasphere, the protocol system of God. Virtue gives you capacity for luxury but lust for luxury from the cosmic system means that luxury of any kind never makes you happy. The lamentation of the businessmen who have prospered from ecumenical religion in verses 11-16 indicates how the economy of the Tribulation is tied into this Satanic religious system.

There is something else coming up in this passage, and that is the fact that the rulers of the earth mentioned in this passage and the great businessmen have the greatest influence. Rulers have political power and the giants of business have monetary power, and they have a tremendous loyalty to this ecumenical religious system. But note that the loyalty is purchased. The rulers buy power from the religion and therefore have loyalty; business buys prosperity from the religious system and therefore their loyalty is purchased. This is generally the structure of life and this is why loyalty is never really loyalty unless there is virtue. Most cases of loyalty in life are purchased: loyalty only exists as long as the price is right, as long as someone is profiting from it, as long as someone is gaining power from it. Loyalty, therefore, is never a virtue in itself, loyalty is only a virtue where virtue preexists. Where there is loyalty without virtue, loyalty without capacity for life, it isn’t loyalty at all. So we are going to see how loyalty cancels loyalty.

That is what is going to be expressed here. Lust for luxury comes from life in the cosmic dynasphere number one. Converts to the international religious system have no loyalty. International religion of the Tribulation both controls the political life of the revived Roman empire and stimulates the world economy in certain luxury items. The more powerful the religion the greater the demand for luxury items. In other words, this Satanic system creates a market for luxury to accompany lust for luxury. First of all the religion created a lust for luxury. Religion always creates arrogance and arrogance creates lust, and one of the areas of lust is lust for luxury.

Verse 4, The word “And” is the sequential use of the sequential use of the conjunction kai. This is followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb a)kouw which means to hear. Some of the visions are audio and some of them are visual, and we get both kinds in the book of Revelation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: John as the human writer produces the action: the writing of the book of Revelation under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Doctrine and truth is always associated with reality. Not only are we learning doctrine for its application but we learn Bible doctrine to keep in touch with reality in life — not the hard way, not the easy way, but the best way. The best way to keep in touch with reality is through the understanding of Bible doctrine as truth: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”

With this we have the accusative singular direct object from two words, the adjective a)lloj meaning another of the same kind, same category, plus the nominative of a)ggeloj, “Then I heard another angel [the officer of arms from the angelic college of heralds].” He is said to be coming from heaven and saying. We have in this verse a separation mandate from the officer of arms. He is the second in the angelic college of heralds in the seraph rank, he is next to the king of heralds and he is the one who comes with this mandate. This is all a part of the protocol of heaven. We have the aorist active imperative of the verb e)xerxomai, “come out” with the connotation of separation. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: Tribulational believers must produce the action of the verb by separating from the apostate religious system.

That is a very important principle of separation. If you are in an apostate religious system, a cult of any kind, you will be judged or disciplined by God as an apostate believer. You are guilty by association because one of the first principles of doctrine you learn is to separate yourself from any religious organisation. We are in the world but not of the world. That means that we can have those in charge of us — bosses, companies — made up of 98 per cent unbelievers, and that is fine. That is the way it should be. But when it comes to your off time, the time when you are away from business and away from work, then you are required to maintain the high standard of separation. Separation demands that you stay away from apostate religious systems. Both believers in the Tribulation as well as those believers who are living on the earth in this dispensation of the Church who fail to separate themselves from religion will be disciplined by association. There are two ways that believers are disciplined because they fail to obey this command. One of them, of course, is the principle of association and the second one is the principle of participation. Association means that you are as pure as the driven snow but you’re hooked up with a religious organisation; participation means that the snow starts to melt and mixes with the mud.

In your lifetime you are going to have to drive on the same streets as unbelievers, you are going to have to live in neighbourhoods with unbelievers, you are going to have to work in the office with unbelievers, but there are two places, one especially, where you must never get involved with unbelievers and that has to do with your church. The second one is in part your social life, though not altogether because regarding family life you may have a father or a mother or a sister or a brother who is an unbeliever, and you are not required to be unkind to them or to evangelise them by the procedure of snootiness. You do not separate yourself from those who by birth have been joined to you. In other words, never run down your mother. Just because she isn’t a Christian it has nothing to do with the case. There are certain times when the application of doctrine requires for you to be present with your unbelieving loved ones and not only to be present with them but be kind and demonstrate the fact that you since your new birth are royal family. But that is an exception. If you find that too many of your friends are either unbelievers or religious or both they will influence your thinking erroneously and you will suffer by association.

You have to remember that the key to separation is thought. The more doctrine you learn, the more doctrine you understand, the more you will stay away from apostate churches. That is a very difficult thing for people who have been in certain church organisations, some of which are merely social organisations with a strong trend toward liberalism, and people all of their lives had their friends in one of these denominational churches. It is very difficult to break away from those friendships. The recommendation is that people listen to doctrine long enough to understand the issue and then make their decision on the basis of the teaching of the Word of God. We need to note this much: When you compromise with religion, which is always the devil’s ace trump, you may not compromise mentally and your sins may be the same sins you would have in a good doctrinal church, but there is a principle of judgment by association. When that cult or religious organisation is judged by God you will be punished by association. And if you participate in their sins, as born-again believers did in the Tribulation, then you add another instrument of divine punishment — punishment because of participation. In other words, the Tribulational believers who got into the ecumenical religious system, and accepted the mark of the beast and went into the whole thing, they are going to share in the judgment administered to ecumenical religion. This, of course, means a lot would share in the finesse judgment which includes judgment by death.

This is an imperative of command to all believers of the Tribulation who have become involved in both the cosmic system and the ecumenical religious system of Satan. The two go together, of course. Believers in the cosmic system are prone to hook up with the wrong organisation. Remember that this has no application to your ties by birth, or your place of business. Don’t quit your job because you are the only believer in the factory, in the office, in the organisation.

We have a specific following our aorist active imperative, the preposition e)k plus the ablative of a)utoj. The gender here is feminine singular, “from her.” “Then I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out from her.” This is a reference to the great prostitute, Babylon the great, the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

With this we now have a vocative. To whom is this addressed? This is not a command to unbelievers, the only issue that unbelievers must face is, What think ye of Christ? This is a command to believers: the vocative singular from laoj and with it the possessive genitive from e)gw, “my people.” It is a reference to Tribulational people, both Jews and Gentiles. In fact, there were believers involved in the ecumenical religious system and that is why they were called “my people.” It simply means believers living in Satan’s cosmic system and therefore involved in the mark of the beast international religious system. And, of course, the point is: “My people” is also used in a technical way for the Jews since so much of the eschatology of the New Testament talks about the Jews and the abomination of desolation ,and how ecumenical religion came to the Jewish state in Palestine in the Tribulation; but “my people” refers to both Jews and Gentiles. The principle is that many believers would rather renounce Christ than suffer death so under the influence of the cosmic system they accept the international religious system of Satan and they become prominent in some phase of the action, either politically, economically, or religiously — or, all three. Obviously, when the abomination of desolation came to Israel as a part of the treaty between the revived Roman empire and the state of Israel many Jewish believers succumbed. They saw a chance, perhaps, to make some money, they wanted to survive, a lot of different reasons. So the vocative of laoj is addressed to them primarily but does not exclude Gentile believers also involved.

Next we have a purpose clause and it is introduced by the conjunction i(na which is one of the primary ways of introducing such a clause, “that” or “in order that.” Then we have the aorist active subjunctive of the verb sugkoinwmew, taken from the preposition sun, meaning “with,” and koinwnew, meaning “fellowship.” With this also is the negative mh, “that you might not share [participate].” The culminative aorist tense views divine judgment in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, namely believers revolved in the ecumenical religious system sharing the punishment of judgment by death. The active voice: there will be believers involved in the judgment, both Jewish and Gentile, and will die because they hooked up with religion; furthermore, no rewards or decorations in eternity, they will never have a chance to enjoy some of the special privileges of heaven in the future. The gazebo in the garden is closed to them, they will miss that party. The subjunctive mood is potential and has a future connotation used to form the purpose clause with i(na. Next we have the locative plural from a(martia plus the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “in her sins.” In other words, this means judgment by association and it also means judgment by participation. And, of course, judgment means guilt. Sins of religion are contagious to the religious is the principle. Once you get involved in religion and get a little religious then you are vulnerable to the contagion. So this is a warning to believers involved in the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. This anticipates all three categories of judgment used against ecumenical religion but it anticipates believers being involved.

There are three categories of judgment we will note. First there is judgment by pain: the first five bowl judgments — Revelation 16:1-11; second, judgment by death: the seventh bowl judgment, Revelation 16:17-21; third is finesse judgment, Revelation 17:16-18; 18:2-8. Crisis evangelism is always the issue in judgment by pain but since we are talking about believers here the pain is warning rather than crisis evangelism. For the unbelievers it would be crisis evangelism but for believers it is a warning to reach down and get out of there quickly. The death principle means that these people are going to receive that particular judgment and finesse judgment means that they were caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, they were in the headquarters where they go out under nuclear attack. The nuclear attack, the only reference we have in the Tribulation, is very limited and relatively few people get hurt.

This warning, then, from the officer of arms is directed to believers. They are suffering either warning or intensive discipline because of their involvement with ecumenical religion. This warning is designed to restore objectivity and if the believer will not have objectivity through perception of doctrine then he must learn objectivity through the experience of pain through whatever system of discipline God brings to them. There are only two ways that we can have objectivity: perception and application of doctrine, the easy way, or the experience of divine judgment which is the hard way. The point is that believers must remain objective. You cannot be objective in the cosmic system and you cannot be objective functioning in the system of international religion. So it is always a warning to rebound, to get back into the protocol system. Once back in fellowship the first action of the Tribulational believer must be separation from and even renunciation of the ecumenical religious system — and, of course, whatever the consequences that go with it. Separation, then, is an application of Bible doctrine, but it is in our day a limited application. We do not separate ourselves from the normal functions of life; we do separate ourselves from religion, from what is false and apostate in teaching, and in our social life from people who might have a bad influence on us. Separation is the application of Bible doctrine which can only be effective when believers function under the priorities, and the priority is virtue first. The importance of understanding God’s plan for your life is a major issue. Do you understand God’s plan for your life? If you do then you are familiar with the principle of virtue first. Virtue first will actually resolve where you make your applications and where you do not make your applications. The importance of understanding God’s plan for your life includes everything related to the principle of sorting out in your mind with whom you have contact and those with whom you do not have contact. It applies primarily to your outside-of-work spiritual life and social life. it is imperative, then, that we understand this separation in the light of God’s plan for your life. One of the ways of resolving it is to function under the mandate, virtue first. When you get to gates five and six there is no question about the subject of separation.

“That you might not share in her sins.” Again, this means two problems. There are two ways in which one shares in the punishment that comes through some form of apostasy. One is by association with it and the other is by participation in its sins.

Now we have judgment by association, the alternative to separation, in the rest of this verse. We begin with a connective conjunction kai which means “and,” followed by the conjunction i(na again, “and that.” Then the aorist active subjunctive of lambanw plus the negative mh, and one again we have a negative purpose clause, “and that you might not receive.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views punishment by association it its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: the divine discipline which comes to the believer because of malfunction in the field of separation. Believers living in the cosmic system inevitably will justify their failure to separate where it is necessary. Believers living in the cosmic system become involved one way or another in something that is wrong in their off-duty hours, like ecumenical religion of the Tribulation which is the subject here. Involvement in ecumenical religion which is a Satanic system means judgment by association. This means divine discipline in three possible categories. First of all, warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and if that doesn’t work, dying discipline. Even though some believers will receive dying discipline remember they do not lose their salvation.

Separation is a very important doctrine for this reason: the believer must always be in touch with reality and his reality must come from doctrine and its application, so that the more doctrine that he has the greater the potential for being oriented to reality. But when he gets into the cosmic system then he loses touch with reality through preoccupation with self in cosmic one and through antagonism toward the truth — resisting the truth — in cosmic two. Many of the gates in cosmic two, including the religious gate, have to do therefore with failure to separate. Once you are in cosmic two you just hook up with religion, you hook up with anti-Christian organisations and anti-Christian ideas. And once you get divorced from reality in the cosmic system you may even punish yourself, it is called finesse judgment.

Believers in the cosmic system become involved in the ecumenical religious system in the Tribulation. Involvement, then, has all the forms of punishment. The active voice: in our passage we are talking about Tribulational believers, but we make application to ourselves as believers living in the Church Age. Application is very necessary when we are discussing eschatology because sometimes when we are looking at interpretation we forget that these principles of eschatology have an application to our daily lives. The subjunctive mood is potential, it implies a future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency. The subjunctive mood is used to form a negative purpose clause with i(na plus mh. The subjunctive mood emphasises the volition of the believer, in this case of making bad decisions in the Tribulation.

Then we have a preposition e)k plus the ablative from plhgh, and with it the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “from her plagues,” a reference to the three judgments of ecumenical religion at the end of the Tribulation.

Translation: “Then I heard another voice [of the officer of arms] from heaven, saying, Come out from her, my people [a mandate to Tribulational believers requiring separation from ecumenical religion], that you might not share in her sins [guilt by participation; guilt by association], and that you might not receive punishment from her plagues.”

Verse 5, the divine condemnation. We begin with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti. O(ti is used in several ways as far as the Greek is concerned. It introduces a causal clause here and we translate it, “Because.” We have a reason for all of this. God is never unreasonable. God has a perfect reason from His perfect wisdom for anything that happens. So we have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, rather than the word “For,” beginning verse five.

Next we have the nominative plural subject from a(martia, “sins,” and with it the possessive genitive from a)utoj, “her sins.” Then the aorist passive indicative from the verb kollaw meaning to pile up, “Because her sins have been piled up.” The culminative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: divine judgment. The passive voice: the sins of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of both sin and evil in the system of Satan’s international religion.

With this we have the improper preposition a)xri plus the genitive from o)uranoj. O)uranoj here is a simple analogy meaning the third heaven or the presence of God, not literally but in a figurative sense. In other words, there are three ways in which sin is discussed in the computer of divine decrees. First of all there is the omniscience of God. The omniscience of God deals with creature action, it knows all of the knowable, has known it eternally, and knows it simultaneously billions of years before the universe existed or before any creature existed. The omniscience of God feeds into the computer of divine decrees. One of the areas that it programs is called sin, and the sins of the world have all been fed into the computer of divine decrees. There are a number of printouts of sin. For example, out of the divine decrees came the printout all of the sins in the history of the human race and they were imputed to our Lord Jesus Christ when He was hanging on the cross. That is why salvation is free and the manner of appropriation has to be compatible with grace, Ephesians 2:8,9.

There are other printouts with regard to sin in the divine decrees. Sin saturation is another printout. In any given generation of history degeneracy produces a saturation of sin and evil and whenever that comes out of the computer that means that that generation must receive judgment from the grace of God. First of all there will be judgment by pain. That is the manner of gleaning those who have rejected Christ time and time again by giving a last chance through crisis evangelism: judgment by pain. Judgment by pain will include two other categories: finesse judgment in which some evil organisation will attack and cause great damage, if not destruction, to a client nation to God; judgment by death in which whatever the cancer is it is removed by radical surgery, judgment by death, so that generations to come may have the same opportunity we have to be evangelised, and for the function of freedom.

“Because her sins have been piled up as high as heaven.” That is a generation factor. The computer of divine decrees not only contains the marvelous plan of God in its many printouts, e.g. foreknowledge, predestination, election, imputation, and glorification, but for believers only, and that is for positive believers to become winners. Then there are the printouts for divine discipline: warning discipline, intensive discipline, and the sin unto death for believers. Then there are sin printouts. There are sin printouts at the cross which is the major issue in salvation because there Jesus Christ was judged for our sins. Then there are the effects of sin and evil on any given generation of the human race. “Because her sins have been piled up as high as heaven” is not a literal pileup, that just means that the computer of divine decrees has recorded a saturation point beyond the human race would destroy itself. To prevent the human race from destroying itself we have these various judgments.

Next we have a conjunction kai which introduces a conclusion from the preceding. Therefore we translate it “therefore.” Then the nominative subject is qeoj, “therefore God,” followed by the aorist active indicative of the verb mnhmoneuw which means to remember, “therefore God has remembered.” We have a culminative aorist tense contemplating the action of the justice of God in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results: the grace judgments of God giving other generations of the human race opportunity and freedom, the same opportunity as those in the past have had for evangelism and for the function of the plan of God in their lives. The active voice: God produces the action in grace judgment. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Then we have the accusative plural direct from a)dikhma which means crimes. The possessive genitive from a)utoj — “her crimes.” Religion is criminal in its function. (Christianity is not a religion) Religion uses violence to resolve its problems. So in the Tribulation the sins of ecumenical religion are both criminal and evil, therefore related to the phallic cult. While God permits the escalation of these sins and crimes inevitably the justice of God will judge them. God’s timing in the administration of His justice in punishment is always perfect. God permits the free will of mankind to run its course in any given generation but in the end divine justice overrules its consequences in judgment by pain, judgment by death, and finesses judgment.

Translation: “Because her sins have piled up as high as heaven, therefore God has remembered her crimes.”

The sins piling up as high as heaven is a reference, again, to the computer of divine decrees. These sins, crime, and evil modus operandi of ecumenical religion were entered into the computer of divine decrees in eternity past before the foundation of the world. The justice of God coordinates with the omniscience of God and as a result selects the exact right time for the administration of the seven bowl judgments.

In verses 6 & 7 we see that there are always believers who understand historical trends. These believers therefore give prayers and in these verses we see the principle of imprecatory prayers related to divine judgment and understanding historical trends.

The concept of double punishment now comes into focus in verse 6. We have first of all a statement of the law of retribution and we start out with a second aorist. We are going to have a verb following the same verb in the first aorist and that means that we must now take a look at the first and second aorist. We actually have a verb with a first and second aorist of the same verb. The verb is a)podidomi. The first aorist follows the normal function of the verb, the second aorist is brought in to make it an irregular verb because there are certain expressions that the first aorist cannot bring out.

We start with a)podidomi in the second aorist active in parody. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb, the execution of divine judgment in its entirety, it takes judgment by pain, adds to it judgment by death, adds to it finesse judgment and gathers it all into one entirety: one entirety to show how we often pay double for our mistakes.

In a client nation even the foreign policy becomes a spiritual issue. We saw this when Isaiah came to his cousin, king Hezekiah, and said to him, Your foreign policy is wrong: “Woe to them who go down to Egypt for help.” The Assyrian army was about to invade the land and the worst thing that the Jews could do would be to go to Egypt to go for help. That was a foreign policy blunder and therefore there is a relationship in the client nation only between its foreign policy and its spiritual life. Today our spiritual life, generally speaking, in Christianity is stupid and idiotic with no understanding of doctrine, emotionalism, all kinds of idiotic concepts epigrams representing the worst type of stupidity. Therefore, of course, it reflects itself in our foreign policy.

The active voice: the justice of God produces the action of the verb. We have the imperative mood of entreaty. This is a prayer, not a command to God. It is a prayer from believers during the Tribulation. The imperative of entreaty does not convey the finality of a command but has the force of urgency or request. When the aorist imperative is used it denotes summary action, action without delay or formality. It is, therefore, a part of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational believers.

It is followed by a dative singular indirect object from autoj, “Pay back to her” or “Give back to her,” a reference to ecumenical religion. Then we have the comparative particle o(j indicating the manner in which divine justice should be exercised, “as.” This is a prayer for the destruction of ecumenical religion, since sins are piled “as high as heaven.” Then we have the nominative singular object of a)utoj, “as she,” ecumenical religion.

Now we go to the first aorist, the first aorist indicative of a)podidomi. Only in the Koine Greek do we have this first and second aorist. Sometimes the morphology of the first aorist simply will not do and therefore a second aorist is added. Many verbs in the Koine Greek have two forms of the aorist tense: one which is irregular and one which is regular. The first aorist simply indicates the one that is regular. When in the same passage in the Word of God you have a first and second aorist of the same verb it has great significance. The second aorist is used for a very definite reason. Those who are praying are asking that God administer judgment, a privilege that does not belong to the believer ordinarily. For example, we do not have the right to pray and imprecatory prayer, but in the Tribulation the imprecatory prayer is acceptable under certain conditions where one understands the entire function of the historical trends.

So we have the first aorist indicative of a)podidomi. In the first aorist we have a culminative aorist and it views the action of the verb in its entirety, the persecution and slaughter of believers in the Tribulation from religion, but it regards it from the viewpoint of existing results: judgment by pain, judgment by death. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. Translation: “Give back to her [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] as she has given [persecution and execution of believers].” The word “you” in the King James version does not occur in the original. Under the law of divine retribution God gives back to the evil organisation what the evil organisation gave to believers. This is the form of a prayer which becomes a summary of the seven bowl judgments of Revelation chapter sixteen. Note the faith-rest function in this prayer which takes personal vengeance out of the hands of the Tribulational believers and places the matter in the court of heaven under the laws of retribution, exactly what we are to do today. It fulfills the principle of Romans 12:19, “Stop avenging yourselves beloved,” you and I have no right to personal vengeance. The moment we do we have entered into a state of evil, “instead give place to punishment from the justice of God.” Stay out of God’s way, let the justice of God with all the facts handle the situation. Then the quotation from Deuteronomy 32:35, “for it stands written, ‘Punishment belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord’.” Punishment is the monopoly of the justice of God and that is the basis for the law of retribution.

Next we have the law of double punishment. First of all there is double punishment for evil deeds: judgment by pain; judgment by death. Secondly, there is double punishment for bad decisions: judgment by death; finesse judgment.

We start, then, with the first category which is double punishment for evil deeds under the divine law of retribution. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “in fact,” with the aorist active imperative of the verb diplow plus a cognate accusative with the verb, the noun diplowj, and when the two are put together it is translated, “Pay back double.” The constative aorist contemplates double judgment for evil deeds, or evil function. There is evil motivation and evil function. The active voice: Christ produces the action since God the Father has given to Him the function of judgment. The imperative of entreaty is a prayer of Tribulational believers. Notice that in this prayer they ask that divine justice function according to the principle of divine justice, they are not praying as stupid emotional people whose prayers never get any higher than the ceiling.

We have the preposition kata plus the accusative plural of e)rgon, and with it the usual possessive genitive of a)utoj, “according to her deeds,” functional evil. Note that they are not seeking vengeance, they are going to the court of heaven and making a plea before the highest court of the universe. Ecumenical religion has persecuted believers; this merits judgment by pain. Ecumenical religion has killed believers; this merits judgment by death. Now it can be seen why these two judgments are redefined. It is because both of them have a grace principle. In praying for double according to her deeds they are recognising the fact that some of the people in ecumenical religion, when they have the opportunity, will believe in Christ. So they pray for double: judgment by pain, crisis evangelism. The other part of double is judgment by death which is radical surgery to eliminate from the human race the cancer so that the next generation will have the same chance that all generations have to believe in Christ. This judgment must be executed by the justice of God. The double punishment for evil function: the first five bowl judgments of Revelation 16:1-11, judgment by pain. The seventh bowl judgment, judgment by death, Revelation 16:7-21. So it was answered in Revelation chapter 16.

Then there is double retribution for bad decisions. We are responsible individually for every decision we ever make. We are also responsible as a nation for our decisions. All nations are responsible for their own decisions. So this is described in a different way, a different analogy is used in order that we might begin to understand and appreciate how these judgments work. The preposition e)n plus the locative singular of pothrion, a drinking goblet, plus “which” the locative singular of the relative pronoun o(j. So we translate: “In fact pay back double for her deeds in the drinking cup which.” Then we have our verb the aorist active imperative of kerannumi which means to mix a drink, “to her,” dative singular indirect object of a)utoj. The constative aorist is recognising this punishment when it comes. The active voice: the justice of God will produce the action at the right time. Again, it is the imperative of entreaty, indicating that this is a prayer request for the law of retribution. This is a plea before the court of heaven offered in prayer. Again, we have that accusative singular direct from diplowj, meaning double.

Translation: Verse 5: “Because her sins have piled up as high as heaven, therefore God has remembered her crime.

Verse 6, “Give back to her [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] as she has given [the law of retribution], in fact pay back double according to her deeds [judgment by pain plus judgment by death]: in the drinking cup which she has mixed mix for her a double portion.”

Note that prior to the administration of these two punishments that the grace of God extended a last call to salvation through judgment by pain or crisis evangelism in the administration of the first five judgments.

We come now in verse 7 to the degree of punishment related to the degree of evil. We start out with the nominative plural from the correlative relative pronoun of degrees o(soj, “To the degree,” not “How much” as in the KJV. Next we have the aorist active indicative of the verb docazw which means to glorify. Then for once we have an intensive pronoun used as an intensive pronoun instead of a personal pronoun. A)utoj is in the accusative singular direct object, and it is used as the intensive pronoun. This is one of those rare cases where it is translated as such. it is the predicate use of the intensive pronoun and therefore it is translated, “To the degree that she has glorified herself.” The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes life in the cosmic system and gathers it up into a single whole. Life in the cosmic system is self-glorification and this is one reason why evil falls out with evil and why two evil entities cannot tolerate each other and one will inevitably destroy the other. This is also one of the ways in which Jesus Christ controls history. The active voice: ecumenical religion locked in the cosmic system produces the action of the verb in the Tribulation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the relationship between ecumenical religion and Satan’s cosmic system. “To the degree that she has glorified herself.”

Now who will not appreciate the fact that ecumenical religion has glorified itself? Her political sponsorer, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. The beast dictator is the one who sponsored ecumenical religion and, as a matter of fact, ecumenical religion made him the titular head of this international system of evil in the future. So, of course, when she starts glorifying herself the political aspect does not appreciate the religious aspect. Therefore there is finesse judgment: the evil agent destroys the evil entity.

We have a connective conjunction kai and the aorist active indicative from strhniaw. It does not means to “live deliciously” as in the King James version, it means to live sensually. This is a constative aorist tense contemplating the function of the phallic cult in its entirety, not only its concupiscence but its play upon the emotions of others. The active voice: ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative of the function of the phallic cult as a part of ecumenical religion.

“To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensually.” We have two things mentioned: the glorification of self, arrogance which is motivational evil; living sensually which is functional evil. So we have a double situation in this entity of evil. We have motivational evil which is always some form of arrogance, and then living sensually has to do with the functional evil in cosmic one. Therefore we have, once again, the accusative singular direct object from the correlative pronoun used to connote a comparative degree, tosoutoj, and it should be translated “to the same degree.”

Then we have the aorist active imperative of the verb didomi which means to give. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the administration of divine punishment in its entirety. We have here a case of nuclear attack in the Tribulation. The active voice: the justice of God produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the imperative of request used in prayer, not the imperative of command. The imperative does not convey the finality of a command here but has the force of urgency or request. With this is the dative singular indirect object a)utoj again, “to her.” This is a reference to ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. It is followed by the accusative singular direct object, basimismoj, “torture.” Then we have a nominative of explanation with it, penqoj, used for misery. It should be translated, since it is used of stress of thought and also torture or grief: “to that same degree give her torture and grief.” There are two factors there: torture and grief. Double, in other words. This follows the concept of the imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational saints but it also states the concept of divine punishment. The law of retribution must be administered by the justice of God in keeping with His perfect of the case and in keeping with His immutable virtue. When the believer takes matters into his own hands the law of retribution becomes the law of revenge and the believer sins. There is no prayer here for revenge, this is an appeal to the highest court in the universe, the court of heaven where God sits to administer justice. Believers who become involved in revenge in evil. To take matters into one’s own hands is arrogance, and that arrogance is motivational evil. Then, to go into some form of revenge is functional evil, and when believers get involved in this they are in the cosmic system and they are under demonisation [demon influence]. Hence, you have to be careful that you do not use a prayer for revenge and that is exactly how these believers handle it. They know the doctrine of prayer, the understand the law of divine retribution, and they know how to avoid turning it into personal revenge. Hence, this prayer leaves the matter of divine justice where it belongs, in the hands of God Himself. This prayer for the law of retribution is a legitimate function of the faith-rest drill.

Next we have the viewpoint of ecumenical religion in the second sentence. What is ecumenical religion thinking? The causal conjunction o(ti, “because”; the present active indicative of legw. Legw in this case does not mean to think, it means to speak what you think, “because she said.” The progressive present tense is for an action in the state of persistence. As a result of her arrogance this is her constant thought and brag. The active voice: the ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. This is what she really thinks, this is what she really says, this is an expression of her arrogance. First of all it is a thought because of the prepositional phrase that follows, e)n plus the locative of kardia. Kardia is the organ of thought in the soul, not the organ that pumps blood. And we have the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “in her right lobe.” The content of her thought manifests both the arrogance of religion and disorientation to reality. We have a false rationale which is actually divorcement from reality, and being divorced from reality results in fantasising. The more fantasising, the less reality. The less reality the greater the subjectivity. The greater the subjectivity the greater the arrogance. It all adds up to a real disaster.

Religion becomes more and more arrogant as it gains power. Religion always starts out humble but gains power, and as it gains power it becomes arrogant. As evil arrogance it goes into competition with other forms of evil and eventually they come into conflict. Her disorientation to reality, then, intensifies the distortion and the disorientation increases with fantasising. All of this means that religion finally becomes a pain in the neck to the political power that sponsors it, the revived Roman empire, and one day finally brings on its own destruction.

Next we have o(ti and for the first time in this chapter o(ti is not a causative conjunction. In fact o(ti will not even be translated. Here the conjunction introduces direct discourse. it is equivalent to a quotation mark in the English and we simply do not translate it, “because she think in her right lobe.” The we have what she thinks, we do not translate o(ti. This is what she thinks: the present active indicative of the verb kaqhmai, and it means “I am enthroned.” the descriptive present tense for arrogance coming from power. This religious system has gained great power in the world therefore with it there is an increase of arrogance. The active voice: ecumenical religion produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified assertion or allegation.

“I am enthroned a queen and I am not a widow.” The predicate nominative xhra for widow is rather interesting. When “widow” is explained in the times in which it was written. It meant, as Isaiah says in Isaiah 47:8, “Now then, here this you sensual one, who dwells securely, who says in your right lobe, I am, and there is no one like [beside] me. I will not sit as a widow,” a widow means simply loss of power in biblical times. You must interpret it in terms of the time in which it was written, “nor shall I know loss of children [converts].” Not being a widow means not running out of converts or running out of power or adherents, never lacking attention, never being alone. By analogy, the queen is the one getting all the attention, therefore the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation is getting all of the attention from the general public, and being ignored by the general public is being a widow in the analogy in both this context and in Isaiah 47:8.

Then comes the prayer: “therefore” is the consecutive conjunction kai which is used with the concept of coming to a conclusion. The aorist active subjunctive of o(raw means to see or to observe, then a double negative o)u mh, “therefore I will never see grief.” This is the way she thinks: the administration of divine judgment will never come to her. Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation has fantasised power into a system of false security and it is something that people often do, people who suddenly become successful or prominent or famous in some way. They fantasise the publicity, they fantasise the attention, into a system of disorientation to reality. Disorientation to reality is one of the characteristics of life in the cosmic system. This disorientation to reality results in a false sense of security, false confidence, which comes from popularity or power or admiration, or a combination of these things. The result is lots of arrogance and lots of fantasising. Just as the plan of God can only glorify God, so religion can only glorify man or Satan as the author of religion.

Translation: “To the degree that she glorifies herself, and lived sensually, to that same degree give her torture and grief: because she thinks in her right lobe, I am enthroned a queen, I am not a widow, consequently I will never see divine judgment [grief].”

Ecumenical religion of the Tribulation will be blinded by approbation lust. The fulfillment of power lust plus approbation lust will disorient ecumenical religion to the realities of divine judgment. Ecumenical religion will have a false sense of security which will be destroyed by the administration of the seventh bowl judgment and by the tactical nuclear attack on headquarters at “Babylon”, the code name for the headquarters in Rome. There is no future in motivational evil; there is no security in motivational evil. Motivational evil, of course, is any form of arrogance.

In verse 8 we have finesse judgment from God, the inevitable punishment of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation, and the inevitable discipline of believers who follow this same pattern of motivational and functional evil.

We note first the suddenness of divine judgment. The reason it is always sudden is because we have a buildup here of a false sense of security. Anyone who builds his security ion anything in this life has a false sense of security. Our security must be built upon the structure of Bible doctrine in the soul. Without the structure of doctrine in the soul, the edification complex that comes from gate eight, there is no way that we are going to have a true sense of security and a true orientation to reality. Our reality must be the grace of God. W must be oriented to the grace of God, to the essence of God, His divine attributes and how they function, His policies, His system, all that He has provided for us. As we have noted, God has a plan for each one of us and this is where our orientation must be. Our orientation cannot be in success or approbation or fame.

This discipline comes as a shock. It means simply that the whole system of fantasising, the whole system of putting arrogance into action in one’s life, the whole false system of security and subjectivity, is a house of cards and it comes tumbling down.

We start with the preposition dia with the accusative singular from the demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, literally, “because of this” but it is an idiom and never translated that way. It is an inferential idiom meaning “therefore,” “therefore in one day her plagues [judgments] will come,” the future active indicative of h(kw. It means to arrive on the scene, to come suddenly over the horizon. It is a little different from the usual verb which is e)rxomai. That means to come but it is not used here because this means to show up at your front door, to arrive on the scene. The predictive future, the active voice: finesse judgment from God produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the law of divine retribution in action. The law of divine retribution in action means judgment by death and finesse judgment.

Finesse judgments always come unexpectedly and anything that is unexpected is, of course, sudden and always from a shocking source under the principle that God uses evil to judge evil. This is His finesse judgment. Evil because of arrogance and jealousy, power lust, or because of self-righteousness and crusader arrogance. Evil makes a willing agent of God to destroy another form of evil or another entity of evil. Competition for power makes it possible for evil to function as the agent of God in destroying another form of evil. We call this finesse judgment.

Note again the phrase “in one day” which emphasises the suddenness of divine judgment to the recipient of divine judgment. Even if it had been building up for a long time it is sudden simply because subjectivity never expects any form of disaster like this. By application, this is a reminder to us of how quickly the pivot shrinks, how rapidly the disorganised evil of degeneracy comes into function and is judged by organised evil. Our only protection against finesse judgment from God is the expansion of the pivot of mature believers or believers who have virtue advancing to maturity. Furthermore, in order for the pivot to be enlarged the believer must have the right priorities.

Note that in finesse judgment God does not violate the volition of man. Therefore, finesse judgment dramatises the fact that man is always the product of his own volition. Finesse judgment is the same principle as found in self-induced misery, man is the product of his own bad decisions. Finesse judgment is related to the consequences of man’s evil decisions.

Finesse Judgment

1. In finesse judgment God does not coerce or violate the volition of man. No volition is ever coerced or violated in a finesse judgment. God uses the motivational and functional evil as His agent to punish evil.

2. The finesse is found in the principle that God neutralises evil by means of evil. Zero cancels zero.

3. Finesse judgment dramatises the fact that both man individually and nations collectively are the products of their own evil motivation and evil decisions.

4. The rise of organised and disorganised evil in a country results in the historical possibility of it losing its pivot of mature believers and becoming so evil that God uses the evil of some communist entity to destroy the client nation.

5. The counterpart of finesse judgment from God is the believer’s self-induced misery from his own bad decisions outside the protocol system of the plan of God.

6. God uses the believer’s bad decisions as an agent to punish the believer, which emphasises the doctrine that every believer is responsible for his own decisions.

7. Unhappiness and misery which results from believers’ evil motivation and bad decisions is another case of God using evil to punish evil.

8. Likewise evil policy and bad decisions on the part of a national government result in finesse judgment.

In the last half of this verse we have the three judgments all brought into focus. The first one is given in one word, the nominative of exclamation from the noun qanatoj, “death.” It refers to physical death or, more technically, judgment by death. Remember that judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race. Some generations simply hit a saturation of sin that is totally self-destructive. The cancer becomes too great and therefore God brings about the elimination of the cancer through judgment by death so that the next generation will have the same opportunity for salvation, and the next, and the next, and that the angelic conflict will continue to roll throughout human history.

Through natural generation the old sin nature is perpetuated and total depravity which follows results in the self-destructive tendencies. Man left to his own devices and without the restraint of establishment and of a pivot and a client nation somewhere on planet earth would destroy himself. Therefore the self-destructive tendency is corrected through judgment by death. Motivational arrogance and lust for power is a potential bomb in any given generation, a bomb by which man fulfills his own self-destructive tendencies. In this tendency man is in competition with other things for destruction, e.g. the flea, the virus, weapons, terrorism, etc. God has a system to protect us from these things: radical surgery whereby He separates the infected parts of the human race from the non-contaminated parts of the human race. It is called judgment by death.

“Therefore in one day her plagues will come.” Then the nominative of exclamation, qanatoj, “death.” The Dead Sea is a memorial to the grace of God. What was one of the most advanced civilisations of history is now simply the Dead Sea in a very desert area. In the judgment of Sodom and Gomorra the contamination of the human race was destroyed by death to protect the progeny of Abraham and to guarantee the perpetuation of Israel on the earth during the entire course of history. A similar judgment was leveled against Canaan. If it were not for judgment by death in the previous generations of history we, the human race, would not be alive on earth during this 20th century. Therefore, we can all be thankful for judgment by death. It is God’s grace function to guarantee the continuation of mankind through human history. Of the three judgments mentioned in our passage judgment by death is mentioned first.

The next judgment is given the phrase of judgment by pain. Judgment by pain we first noted in chapter 16, verses 1-11. Here in verse 8 we have four words: the conjunction kai repeated twice, nearly always translated “both and,” and then two nominatives of exclamation. The first is penqoj which means grief or tragedy or disaster and it actually refers here to self-induced misery, disaster that comes about because of one’s own bad decisions. With it we have a second word limoj and it refers to economic depression, economic disaster, “both grief and famine” is the way it would be translated. These nominatives of exclamation, rare in the Koine Greek, simply emphasise a thought. The nominative case is used not as the subject, in fact they are used without the verb, it is used to identify a situation. Standing alone without a verb the noun in the nominative case receives a great deal of emphasis in an identifying way.

Next we have the principle that mankind, both believer and unbeliever, is the product of his own motives, his own thoughts, and his own decisions. When a person is a believer or an unbeliever he falls into this particular law. Bad decisions, then, from a position of weakness, i.e. inside the cosmic system, is the source of man’s grief, sorrow and disaster. In other words, without anyone’s help we manufacture our own misery from our own thinking, from our own decisions, and from our motivations before we make those decisions. In addition to this God adds to our misery. Inasmuch as we have already manufactured a good batch of misery God adds a concentrate to it called judgment by pain. Judgment by pain is used to the unbeliever. It is called warning and intensive discipline as far as the believer is concerned. Judgment by pain has a purpose: the extension of God’s grace to the unbeliever in crisis evangelism.

The nominative of exclamation, penqoj, is a general term for judgment by pain. It includes all of the personal disasters except economic. The second word, limoj, means famine or economic depression and it refers to bad decisions in business or some bad decisions in government that bring about a bad economic situation. Discipline by pain, then, is the counterpart of the divine judgment for the believer under the category of warning discipline or intensive discipline. Believers living in the cosmic system are classified as carnal believers.

The next category is finesse judgment and we start this with a different use of the conjunction kai. This time it introduces a result from what precedes in negative volition toward the gospel as presented by judgment by pain. Those who did not respond were removed by finesse judgment which will be the case in the nuclear attack on the headquarters of ecumenical religion. So we are translating the conjunction this time, “furthermore.” Then we have the future passive indicative of the verb katakaiw which means to consume by fire, to be burned. It is correctly translated, “she will be consumed.” This is a predictive future, it anticipates the nuclear attack on ecumenical religion’s headquarters, code named Babylon. The passive voice: the headquarters in Rome receives the action of the verb through tactical nuclear destruction. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the nuclear destruction of the headquarters for ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. This is followed by a prepositional phrase: e)n plus the instrumental from purwsij, “by fire.”

Next we have a causal conjunction o(ti, “because,” and the nominative singular subject from kurioj and qeoj, “Lord God.” Then the articular aorist active participle from the verb krinw, “because the Lord God has judged.”

Notice that the Lord didn’t reach out and do anything Himself, He merely used an evil agent to destroy an evil entity. This is evil canceling evil. The definite article in the participle is used as a relative pronoun and refers to our Lord Jesus Christ to whom God the Father has delegated all judgment, as per John 5:22,23. With this we have the accusative singular direct object in the feminine, a)utoj, “judged her.” It refers to ecumenical religion as Satan’s international religious system in the Tribulation. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the nuclear attack on headquarters. It also emphasises the existing results, the total destruction of that headquarters. And who destroyed it? The former sponsorer of ecumenical religion, the beast dictator, the political power of the revived Roman empire. The ellipsis demands the verb e)imi, the verb to be.

Then we have a predicate nominative from the noun isxuroj — omnipotent. It means strong ordinarily but here it should be translated, “because the Lord God who judged her is omnipotent.”

Translation: “Therefore in one day her plagues [the three judgments against ecumenical religion] will come, death, both grief and famine; furthermore she will be consumed by fire [finesse judgment]: because the Lord God who judged her is omnipotent.”

In verses 9-19 we have the public reaction to the nuclear destruction of headquarters of ecumenical religion under the code name Babylon the great. In this paragraph we have three wails of public opinion. Public opinion is always whining about something. The first lamentation is the wail of the political rulers who had so much to gain because of ecumenical religion. We have the first category of mourners in verse 9.

We meet the compromising rulers with a sequential use of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,” followed by the nominative plural subject of basileuj, “kings,” with the genitive of place gh, “the kings of the earth.” These kings must be distinguished from the beast dictator and his ten proconsuls who were formerly rulers of the ten nations in the united states of western union and/or the revived Roman empire. These are a different set of kings; these are the mourners. The beast dictator became hostile when the kings of this context remained friendly. This is a part of that great world war we have already studied. With this we have the articular aorist active participle from porneuw which means to literally fornicate but it also means to spiritually fornicate. To spiritually fornicate is simply a way of expressing apostasy. So we translate it, “who fornicated.” Then the second aorist participle streniaw, “and live sensually with her.” The morphology of both participles is the same. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety: their spiritual fornication in being involved in ecumenical religion and, with that, they live sensually with her, meaning they shared her luxury in this case. The active voice: world rulers who either compromised or became adherents to the ecumenical religious system produce the action of the verb in the Tribulation. The participle is circumstantial. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is their weeping and wailing, their lamentation.

Next comes two verbs of lamentation used in connection with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The kings are standing by, they are not too far away but are a little out of the contamination area, and they are mourning the loss of this system. The first of the two verbs of mourning is the future active indicative of klaiw which means to weep or to cry. The second one is the future middle indicative of the verb koptw, used for the form of lamentation and mourning in the ancient world, the beating of the breast. The ancients would stand at the grave of a loved one, in this case it would be the grave of an entity, and they would bang their chests.

“Then the rulers of the world, who have fornicated [cosmic involvement] and lived sensually with her [functional arrogance of cosmic one], will weep and mourn.”

We have in each case a progressive future tense, linear aktionsart in future time. The active voice: the rulers of the world again produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for a point of prophetic doctrine. The only difference is in koptw where we have the middle voice, a direct middle which refers the results of the action to the agent thus relating the action more intimately with its subject.

The reason for this is now given in a temporal clause. For the third time in chapters 17 & 18 we have a reference to the tactical nuclear attack. It all begins with the word o(tan, “when.” With the present active subjunctive of blepw we will translate it, “when they see.” The progressive present signifies action in progress. They will be watching it, either on television or being there personally. The active voice: the rulers of the kings of the earth who compromised with ecumenical religion will produce this action. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive but it is used for a future reference. Therefore this makes the clause an indefinite temporal clause. In other words, it hasn’t happened yet and it is only going to happen once in history, in the future.

Then we have the accusative singular direct object from kapnoj, “smoke.” The reason we know this is because of the ablative of source singular from purwsij which refers to burning conflagration and is a technical word used for nuclear attack.

The fascinating thing about this whole passage is that we actually have a case of where the individual who is under some kind of a misconception that we are going to be destroyed by nuclear weapons is wrong. Nuclear attacks will come and go. They will come like plagues, like the flea in the middle ages which caused an estimated 25,000,000 casualties in a short time. There is no system of weaponry, no system of disease, no concept of evil, that will ever destroy the human race.

So when they see the smoke from the conflagration ((porwsij refers to this nuclear attack), and all over the world people will be watching on television — people will visit the sight of this nuclear attack and not be harmed in any way. In spite of this and the great world war that occurs in the Tribulation there will still be millions and even billions of people alive on earth at the second advent. No matter how bad life may be in some area people in some area are living normal lives.

These kings all have great power. People assume that if you have great power that you are happy. That is why people who do not have great power do not know what it is like to have great power. There is no happiness in the possession of power. Only a certain kind of people can possess power and use it properly. That, of course, requires virtue with the personality and the leadership. Then there are those who lust for power and who have no business even being near power. When they manage to get that power then there is an immediate disaster in their area. This is true in business, in politics, and especially in social life. So when these kings see the smoke of the conflagration they are immediately unhappy, even though they have great power and even though they are surrounded by approbation. Lonely people often look for approbation.

It appears as though the city of Rome is involved here but this is no reference to any alleged religion of the moment. We have all kinds of religions claiming to be ecumenical, e.g. the National Council of Churches as a part of the World Council of Churches, and certainly they have produced enough evil to make claim to it; but they are in the wrong dispensation. Probably the record for all time for oppression is held by the Moslems. Islamic countries are inevitably the most cruel countries in the world. They have never developed even a culture of tolerance for anything else. The point is that religion is always cruel. But the fact remains that when we are talking about the two cities of Rome in the Tribulation we are not making any allegations with regard to any of the religions of the present time. Should there be any kind of an elapse of time before the Rapture several things are going to happen. The USA is going back to a pristine form of life and the civilisation will shift to other places. The religions as we know them to day will probably change their names and nations will change their names. If there is any delay then there will be other religious groups emerge and they will do the same thing that religions always do. Religion solves all of its problems by violence. It is intolerant because religion is a system of arrogance.

Translation: “Then the rulers of the world who fornicated [spiritual fornication: apostasy] and lived sensually with her, shall weep and mourn, when they observe the smoke of her conflagration.”

This is the nuclear destruction of the religious Rome as the capital and headquarters of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. As we have noted, it is destroyed by finesse judgment. The agent in finesse judgment is the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation who sponsored ecumenical religion in its infancy. Needless to say, the agent is evil. An evil agent from its own volition and policy destroys the evil entity, ecumenical religion or Satan’s international religious system of the future. Apparently the attacks of political evil against religious evil include this tactical nuclear destruction of Rome as the headquarters of ecumenical religion. Just as there are two cities of Rome today, the city of Rome and the Vatican, so in the future there will be two cities in one geographical area. Without interfering with anyone’s volition or policy God uses evil to neutralise evil. Finesse judgment dramatises the doctrine that everyone is the product of his own decisions. In this case ecumenical religion went too far and antagonised the beast dictator, the political sponsorer, and ecumenical religion was not prepared for what happened. Evil always comes into existence through man’s own decisions and man’s residence in the cosmic system.

Judgment by pain destroys temporarily the influence of the cosmic system and makes it possible for the unbeliever to have temporary objectivity. In temporary objectivity he is in crisis evangelism and he can hear the gospel again and then respond to or recall what he has already heard. In that way God gives a last chance to everyone. Normal evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in relatively normal times; crisis evangelism is the presentation of the gospel in times of individual or collective catastrophe or disaster. Under normal evangelism the unbeliever has the opportunity of objectively considering the issue of Christ, as in John 3:36. When the unbeliever rejects the gospel under normal evangelism he locates permanently in the cosmic system. His status quo is described by 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, “And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are lost, in whose case the god of this world [Satan] has blinded the minds of the unbelieving [those who are negative at the point of normal evangelism], so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Through cosmic involvement the unbeliever becomes disoriented to reality and is subjective. Therefore it is impossible for him to respond to the gospel.

The second principle is judgment by death, physical death. Judgment by death is the function of God’s grace in the perpetuation of the human race in any generation. When a printout hits a generation from the divine decrees, when the computer suddenly prints out saturation of sin, then that means that there is a large cancer of human beings who are about to destroy the human race. In order to protect the human race God performs radical surgery on that cancer and removes it by death. That is what happened to the people of Sodom and Gomorra and to thousands of people throughout the world through history.

We start out in this verse with a perfect active participle of i(stemi . They are standing, They were not destroyed in the destruction. Nuclear warfare does not destroy the world any more than any other warfare. They stood — the perfect of existing state in which the past completed action is dropped from the thought and attention is focused on the existing state. They are alive and unhappy. They have just seen the basis of all their fun destroyed. The active voice: the subjects are kings, rulers, aristocrats. The participle is circumstantial which is best rendered into the English by the conjunction “and” with the finite construction. They are. however, not getting up too close. Even though they are miserable they don’t want to die. How do we know that they don’t want to die? Because of the prepositional phrase that follows, and it is a very strange prepositional phrase because it is a)po plus and adverb makroqen. A)po takes the ablative case in a noun or an adjective used as a substantive, but a)po does not take an adverb, but it does here because this is Koine Greek. In the Attic Greek you’d never find it. It should be translated literally, “from afar off” or from “far away.” But you don’t translate it that way, it is an idiom. You don’t translate an idiom literally, you translate an idiom in the sense that the idiom is used. It can be translated one of two ways: “some distance away” or “at a distance.” So we translate it, “And they stood at a distance.” That is because they do not want nuclear contamination. But from where they stand they can still see the whole mess. They are standing at a distance because they are still alive and because they experience fear, dia plus the accusative of the noun foboj, “because of fear.” But what kind of fear? They are afraid in themselves but that isn’t what causing all of this wailing, it is caused by the objective genitive from basanismoj which means torture and the possessive genitive of a)utoj, “her torture.” So we translate, “and because of the fear of her torment [fear of nuclear contamination from the blast] they stood at a distance.” And what did they say? “saying.” Legontej is the present active participle of legw. This is present linear aktionsart, they kept saying it over and over again. Then we have the onomatopoetic interjection of pain, o)uai. It is also a nominative of exclamation in which the nominative is used without the verb.

The attack on ecumenical religion in the Tribulation brings into focus the whole subject of nuclear development. Nuclear development moves in two directions. The thing that always makes it worthwhile is first of all the fact that it is used in warfare. It is used under the principle of violence and neutralising the enemy. We have nuclear power and nuclear medicine much of which has been rejected through public opinion. Bureaucracy alone guarantees that the peaceful use of nuclear activity will never be fulfilled.

“saying, Woe, Woe to that great city Babylon [Rome, 1 Peter 5:13]. To make a distinction between political and religious Rome, Babylon is used as the code name. It is also called, “that powerful city.” The reason that Rome is called Babylon is because Babylon was the original of the pantheon related to the phallic cult, the devil’s communion table, and all the semi-ecumenical religions of the ancient world.

Now for the reaction to the shock. It begins with the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” With this is the locative of time from two words, the adjective numeral e(ij and the noun o(ra, “in one hour.” This emphasises the suddenness of nuclear attack and the quickness of its destruction. And with this we have the recognition on the part of those who survived that this was a judgment for they said, “your judgment,” and we have the nominative singular subject from krisij which means judgment. With it is the possessive genitive from the pronoun su, “your judgment has come,” the aorist active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, meaning to come. The culminative aorist tense views the nuclear attack in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of the headquarters of ecumenical religion. The active voice: finesse judgment produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of this future event.

We should notice, then, the human motivation in finesse judgment. In using evil as the agent for punishing evil finesse judgment always takes cognisance of human motivation as well as human volition. No human volition is ever coerced. Arrogance is the motivational evil which inspires the modus operandi of functional evil, and the point is that arrogance has no loyalty. That is why the political power destroyed the religious power it had originally sponsored in the Tribulation. This nuclear attack represents the principle that arrogance has no loyalty, arrogance has no virtue. Arrogance is the motivational evil which inspires the modus operandi of functional evil. Arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance, therefore arrogance seeks to destroy the arrogant. The most vicious destruction of an arrogant entity comes from another arrogant group. An arrogant agent is the most vicious destroyer of an arrogant entity and therefore Satan cannot control the civil wars that develop in his system because of arrogance. The arrogant motivation of the dictator of the revived Roman empire, a political power, had no qualms in destroying the arrogance of ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. Even though the political power of the beast dictator originally sponsored that ecumenical religious system under the principle of arrogance there was no loyalty. The absence of loyalty meant that the political made a nuclear attack upon the religious. Therefore arrogance has no loyalty to arrogance and when that becomes very strong motivation arrogance seeks to destroy arrogance. This is the principle of finesses judgment.

Verses 11-16, the second lamentation: the wail of the merchants.

Verse 11, We have the doubling of the conjunction kai, and that means “Both and.” We have the nominative plural subject e)mporoj. These are the merchant class. They are called “the merchants of the earth,” the genitive of gh. Again we see two words. First of all the present active indicative of klaiw, “weep.” What makes the merchants weep? Loss of profits, going into the red. With that we have the present active indicative of the verb penqew which means to agonise over something. It doesn’t mean simply to mourn. “The merchants of the earth both weep and mourn over her [ecumenical religion].” The motive of their grief is given with the conjunction o(ti, “because.” Then with this we have an adjective o)udeij, “no one,” meaning no customers, no market. It simply refers here to the loss of market, “no one buys,” the present active indicative of the verb a)gorazw, taken from the word market and market place. A)gora is a market, and from that we have the verb a)gorazw which means to buy in the market, “no one buys their,” and the accusative singular direct object from the noun gomoj which, in this case means cargo. It also means merchandise in general or their product. With it is the adverb of time o)uketi, translated “because no one purchases [or buys] their cargo any more.” The motivation for their grief is loss of profit, indicating that they are very heavily involved in marketing their products to ecumenical religion. The merchants no longer have a market for their products, their chief customer was ecumenical religion which is now destroyed.

The destruction of ecumenical religion is the simultaneous destruction of world markets and cargoes. Therefore there will be a depression. It is the destruction of a wealthy economy and a demand for luxury items related to this power system. No ecumenical religion means no world markets for luxury items.

Translation: “The merchants of the earth both weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargo any more.”

Verse 12, the prosperity and luxury of religion. Religion created a false economy, a demand for luxury items.

“Cargoes of gold, silver, precious gems and pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet cloth, and every sort of citron wood, the articles of every category of ivory, expensive wood, bronze, iron, and marble.”

Verse 13, “Cargoes of cinnamon, and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, and fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and carriages, both bodies and souls of men.”

“Horses and carriages” reminds us that the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Cinnamon and spice were luxury items. Myrrh and frankincense refer to the perfumes of the ancient world. Olive oil was the base for fine foods as well as fine flour and wheat. Cattle and sheep in abundance and horses and carriages simply mean luxury ways of transportation.

Note that ecumenical religion encourages luxury and slavery for the last line of verse 13, “the bodies and souls of men,” refers to slavery. Always, when there is a rise in luxury items and when there is economic prosperity. That economic prosperity guarantees that certain people will be enslaved one way or the other. Luxury is a matter of personal taste, so notice the personal taste of those who are religious. Luxury not only is a matter of personal taste but it is a matter of the ability to afford those luxuries and religion has both at that time. Slavery is another item though. Slavery is a matter of freedom, therefore luxury should never include slavery without destroying the source of luxury. That is the principle. The source of luxury is economic prosperity. Slavery turns economic prosperity, sooner or later, into a form of degeneracy. Religion has no capacity for life, therefore religion is characterised by lust and greed which causes religion’s great demand and the great demand for luxury items. To us the message is very simple. It is given in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13 — “You cannot serve God and mammon.”

Verse 14, the destruction of the religious market. The “bodies and souls of men” definitely indicates another form of their degeneracy. It doesn’t mean enslavement as we understand it, it can simply be crime. Where there is luxury there is crime, and where there is crime there is slavery.

This destruction of lust emphasises two things. First of all we have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “In fact.” Then our subject in the nominative singular is o)pora which refers to the time beginning with the rising of the star Sirius in July. It corresponds to the late summer or early fall when fruit ripens. Metaphorically then, it refers to the summer of life, the time of ripeness, the peak of vigour in life. Hence, we do not translate it “fruit” as in the King James version, that isn’t what it means at all. It means the peak or the zenith. So we translate it, “In fact the peak of your soul’s desire.” The soul’s desire or soul’s lust refers to the great demand for luxury, “has departed,” the aorist active indicative of the verb a)perxomai, which means to depart, to disappear. The culminative aorist views the destruction of lust in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, the destruction of the religious market in the Tribulation. The active voice: the lust and desire for luxury items departs with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The market is gone, the merchandise no longer can be sold. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the disappearance of the market for luxury items with the destruction of ecumenical religion. The principle: economic prosperity of the last half of the Tribulation depends upon the computer tyranny called the mark of the beast. With the destruction of computer tyranny there is no demand, the world markets are closed, and the merchants are now bankrupt. “In fact the peak of your soul’s desire has departed from you.” Note that these people are still alive and they have switched from lust for luxury to desire for survival. But these merchants aren’t going to survive because there is simply no way to make money and to keep going. Therefore we have as one of the judgments of that time the destruction of luxury.

Translation: “In fact, the peak of your soul’s desire [for luxury items] has departed from you [lust has been replaced for desire for survival], all things, both riches and glamorous things, have vanished,” the aorist middle indicative from a)pollumi.

The principle is a very simple one: Wealth without capacity eventually destroys the effectiveness and the meaning of wealth. Wealth demands the consideration of the entire economy but it demands a sense of responsibility. Wealth without capacity destroys the effectiveness of wealth. People who are rich without the capacity for wealth are miserable. In this case there was no capacity, this was a religious market. Glamorous things without capacity invite self-destruction. Glamour without meaning becomes evil. Capacity, of course, means class, good taste, virtue, happiness, the ability to possess, the ability to be wealthy without arrogance. It means leadership without tyranny, “consequently they will no longer find these things.” The future active indicative of e(uriskw, to find, means that this economy is shut down permanently, plus the double negative: they will not ever find these things again. The destruction of ecumenical religion with its monopoly, including computer tyranny, will remove forever the wealth, the luxury, the glamour of its adherents. For those still alive the law of supply and demand is replaced by a scramble for survival. The market is closed and the demand has vanished. The question is asked: What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?”

This verse emphasises the punishment of ecumenical religion as an evil entity. Finesse punishment is defined, then, as God using an evil agent to punish an evil entity. This punishment is accomplished without divine coercion of human free will. The motivational evil of the punishing agent destroys the functional evil of the guilty entity being punished.

Verse 15, The ecumenical religious system was the best market for the merchants’ items and all of this was lost. Destruction of ecumenical religion, then, is the destruction of the markets and the resultant loss of profit.

In verse 16 we should note again that when this lamentation over the headquarters of ecumenical religion is given all of the glamour is gone.

In verses 17-19 we see the second lamentation, the wail of the shipping industry. The reaction of the shipping industry is brought in in verse 17. “Because in one hour such great wealth has been devastated.” That much of the verse should have been included in verse 16, and in the Greek verse 17 begins with the next word, “Furthermore.” “Furthermore every ship captain, and all who travel by ship, and all sailors, as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance.”

Verse 18, “When they see the smoke of her conflagration,” a reference to the nuclear attack; the word is purwsij in the Greek, “they keep screaming and saying, What city is like this great city?”

Verse 19, “And they threw dust on their heads, and they were screaming, both weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, is the great city, in which all who had ships at sea were made rich by her extravagance! and because in one hour she has been ruined.” This refers to a literal hour in which there was concentrated nuclear attack.

We learn from the three wails [the three categories] the first lesson: with finesse judgment, wherever it is found, there is always a question. It isn’t worth it in the end. The first great lesson of this finesse judgment is in Mark 8:36,37. Only those segments of the human race that were destructive to the perpetuation of the human race were wiped out. These are unbelievers who were destroyed in these nuclear attacks. There is no answer to this question. The soul of man is valuable, our Lord purchased it on the cross when he was judged for our sins. And for a man to gain the whole world as these kings gained political power, as these merchants became very wealthy and therefore had wealth and influence, and as those in the shipping industry were so successful and so profitable from these things, what did it profit them to gain the whole world and yet lose their own souls? What a tragic thing it is to live in this life, to come into this world, to have all of the opportunities of personally believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving Him as your own saviour, and to go through life as a vapour trail. There are so many people who reject Christ, they are just vapour trails.

Verse 20, begins the response in heaven. In heaven we have a different picture. On earth we see all those people who are vapour trails, and all of those people who have power and have succeeded in some special way, and they are all weeping and wailing. They are all losers. Achievement hasn’t brought them a thing. But there is happiness on earth for those who keep their priorities straight, and to keep priorities straight you have to go right back to the protocol system.

The first command here, and these are imperatives, is a mandate for a celebration. “Rejoice” is not a good translation. We have the present middle imperative of the verb e)uphrainw. E)uphrainw is the mood of joy, it means to celebrate. It has the concept of celebration over the effectiveness of what God has wrought. “Celebrate over her.” The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of future events in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is direct middle in which the subject participates in the results of the action. There is celebration in heaven, and celebration where evil destroys evil. The imperative mood is the imperative of command, a mandate for celebration. “Celebrate over her [the ecumenical religious system],” and then that vocative “O heaven.” The wailing on earth is drowned out by the celebration in heaven. The imprecatory prayers of the Tribulational martyrs have been answered.

The recipients of this mandate are now described. Three categories are mentioned: all believers in heaven, Old Testament believers , royal family, and Tribulational martyrs. There is a second category, the New Testament leadership called apostles. The third category is the Old Testament leadership called prophets. We start with believers. We have the conjunction kai translated “even.” We have the nominative plural of exclamation from a(gioj, “saints.” The word saint means simply set apart to God. The moment you believed in Jesus Christ you became a saint, you were set apart to God. it is a reference then to the family of God. Three categories are involved under the title “the saints.” First of all, the Old Testament believers whom we call “family of God.” Then the New Testament believers whom we call “royal family of God” or “Church Age believers.” Then there are the Tribulational martyrs, the ones who offer the imprecatory prayers in Revelation chapter eight.

Next we have the New Testament leadership under the nominative plural of exclamation, a)postoloj which does not mean one sent. A)postoloj is taken from the Attic Greek. When Athens developed its great fleet it always had two or three admirals waiting to see who would be sent out to command the fleet. The selected one was called a)postoloj. So a)postoloj doesn’t mean one sent, and doesn’t refer to missionaries, it refers to the highest ranking officer in the fleet. When it came over into the Koine Greek it simply meant the highest ranking officer and it refers to the New Testament leadership before the canon of scripture was completed. It is a reference to the gift of apostleship.

Then there is the Old Testament leadership under the title proqhthj, another nominative plural of exclamation. It is referring to the prophets of the Old Testament. These three categories are not taking personal revenge, that is forbidden, instead they are rejoicing over something that God has done. God is preserving the human race and keeping it going until the end of history through this radical surgery.

We have the causal use of the conjunction o(ti, “because.” This is the reason for the rejoicing or the celebration. Then the nominative singular of qeoj, “because God has judged, ” the aorist active indicative of the verb krinw. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the three judgments of ecumenical religion, gathers them into a single entity and becomes the basis for the celebration — judgment by pain, judgment by death, and finesse judgment. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb under the law of divine retribution. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the function of the justice of God in the execution of the law of divine retribution.

With this we have the cognate accusative krima which means judgment, “because God has judged judgment.” That is a literal translation and not the correct translation because it is an idiom. With the cognate this becomes “God has pronounced judgment [God has executed judgment] on your behalf.”

Here is the proper use of the faith-rest drill during the Tribulation. Here is the faith-rest drill regarding evil in any dispensation. It is the application of the essence of God rationale with emphasis on divine justice. It is an application of the law of retribution. The law of retribution is found in Romans 12:19. Punishment is the monopoly of God. For the believer this becomes a very important law because this keeps us from getting involved in revenge tactics.

Verse 21, a proclamation of the king of arms and a lesson for all of us to learn from history. We begin with the sequential use of the conjunction kai, “Then.” With this we have a subject in the nominative singular made up of three words: e(ij, meaning one or unique; the adjective isxuroj, meaning having attained high rank and therefore having great power; the noun a)ggeloj, “one strong angel.” This is the king of arms of the angelic college of heralds, the highest-ranking of all of the elect angels.

He does something significant and teaches us a lesson from history, the aorist active indicative of a)irw which means to pick up or to lift up. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The king of arms produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. What is picked up is said to be a stone but it is a great stone. The word for stone is liqoj, but in apposition to this we have some other words. We have a comparative conjunction o(j, an appositional accusative from the adjective megaj, and then the noun which tells us we are talking about a stone, mulinoj, a millstone. This stone is then cast into the sea. We have a connective kai, “and,” the aorist active indicative of ballw, he threw it. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the king of arms does it, he throws it into the sea.

Translation: Then the unique powerful angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and tossed it into the sea.”

This is a sign of judgment. This is a warning from the king of arms before the headquarters of ecumenical religion went under nuclear attack, before it was destroyed by finesse judgment. Remember that God always destroys a client nation by an evil entity. Finesse judgment is the means of administering the fifth cycle of discipline. This is not only a warning but it is a prophecy as to the outcome of the nuclear attack made by the beast dictator as the evil agent in finesse judgment. The sea represents the people throughout the world who adhere to international religion. The Greek word is qalassa, and when that boulder hits the sea of people that means divine judgment. Waves go out from the point of impact, they move all the way out from the epicentre to the very edges. This means that ecumenical religion which is worldwide will be destroyed by the administration of the seventh bowl judgment. Just as the falling millstone drops suddenly and destroys so the religious headquarters will be the recipient of falling missiles which will destroy it and the entire system.

This analogy of destruction has been compared to Jeremiah 51:60-64 — “So Jeremiah wrote in a single book all the disasters which would come to Babylon, all these words [verses 1-59] which have been written concerning Babylon.”

Verse 61, “Then Jeremiah said to Seraiah [was a prince of Judah who would go into captivity with king Zedekiah], ‘As soon as you come to Babylon, make sure that you read all these words aloud,

Verse 62, “and say, ‘Thou, O Lord, hast spoken concerning this place [Babylon as the political capital of Chaldea] to cut it off so that there be nothing living in it, from man even to beast, it will be a perpetual desolation’.” (This confirms the fact that the Babylon of Revelation is a code name for ecumenical religion whose headquarters is in Rome and not a literal Babylon)

Verse 63, “And it will come to pass as soon as you finish reading this book [the part dealing with the fall of the Chaldean empire] that you will tie a stone to this chapter and throw it in the middle of the Euphrates,”

Verse 64, “and say, ‘Just as Babylon will sink down and not rise again, because of the disaster I am going to bring about’.”

So a stone thrown in the water, making waves, is not unusual. Daniel tells us how the finesse judgment was administered. Jeremiah prophesied concerning the fall of the literal Babylon whereas in our passage we have the fall of the spiritual Babylon. The literal Babylon was destroyed in BC 539. In the case of the literal Babylon a stone was thrown into the middle of the Euphrates, in the case of the spiritual Babylon of the Tribulation, ecumenical religion, a giant millstone was thrown into the sea.

Next we have “saying,” the present active participle of the verb legw. This is what the king of arms announced. “In this manner Babylon the great city [the headquarters of ecumenical religion] will be thrown down with violence.” It will be thrown down, the future passive indicative of the same verb, ballw. This time it is in the future tense, this is a warning before it happens. The passive voice: Babylon the great, headquarters of ecumenical religion, will be destroyed. The indicative mood is declarative for the statement of reality in eschatological doctrine. It is said to be done with violence, and that would be the tremendous repercussions of that nuclear attack, “will be thrown down with violence, and never be found again.” That means that with the fall of ecumenical religion there is a judgment of peripheral categories, found in verses 22-23. Once the boulder hits a point in the sea, that would be Babylon, headquarters of ecumenical religion, there would be a great waves, and there would be other waves. Now we are down to the peripheral judgments which follow. In this paragraph the destructive path of the waves or the peripheral judgments related to the judgment of ecumenical religion is given. There are five categories of peripheral judgment mentioned in verses 22 & 23.

First of all, musicians, the entertainment industry. Then there is skilled labour. The third is industry, the fourth is utilities, and the fifth is the social and sexual life of the people. These are the peripheral categories that are destroyed throughout the world. This paragraph then continues the proclamation of the king of arms. Three categories are mentioned in verse 22 and two of the categories are mentioned in verse 23.

Note the pattern, then. In verse 21 we have the centre of impact of the millstone: divine judgment of ecumenical religious headquarters under the code name Babylon the great. Then in verse 22 judgment waves from the centre of the impact move out to engulf musicians, skilled labour and industry. In verse 23 judgment waves from the epicentre move out to engulf utilities and the social-sexual life of the adherents to ecumenical religion. In verse 22, without skilled labour industry cannot function. In verse 23 without utilities, like gas and electricity, there is no social life.

In verse 22 the judgments waves move from the centre of impact to engulf musicians, skilled labour and industry. In verse 23 the judgments waves continue and destroy the social-sexual life of the people. Verse 22 in corrected translation: “Furthermore the sound of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpets, will never be heard again in you.”

Sound has a very strange result in human life. Sound apart from words becomes a direct attack — or sometimes stimulation of — on the emotional system. Remember that the soul has the two frontal lobes which depend on words and vocabulary and how you put them together. Subordinate to them is the emotion of the soul and music apart from lyrics [the sound of music] often makes a direct assault upon the soul. Music therefore becomes a reflection of the status quo of the people in any given geographical area. For example, over the last several thousand years in Africa, India, China, and Japan, the sound without the lyrics produces a strange effect and indicates the condition of the people. The sound in Africa is the beat, and with it very primitive sounds indicating a very primitive status quo of those people. The sound, for example, in India is the terrible screeching noise of strings. The sound in Japan is very mournful and sad and causes the occidental to hear it and be under some form of being depressed. What this is saying is that the sound produced by instruments or by drums reflects the culture of the people. In the case of primitive cultures they have primitive music. Degeneracy in a nation often goes back to that primitive culture.

In the case of ecumenical religion we find the destruction of the life of many peoples through the influence of music. Notice that the music, which includes entertainment, includes many instruments. So it was not a primitive sound, it was not a beat, it was a very excellent form of music — the music of the harpists, the musicians including the flute players, the trumpeters. Generally speaking, music is entertainment. It was more than this as far as the people were concerned in the Tribulation who were related to this system. Entertainment, of course, requires skill. The skills are gone as illustrated by the fact that the musicians are destroyed. The judgment of ecumenical religion destroys the entertainment industry. The entertainment industry as represented by music was undoubtedly very similar the to the tremendous development of music back in the 5th century BC.

Next we notice the category of skilled labour, “in fact no workman of any skill will ever be found in you again.” The principle” Without technical skills industries are shut down. Industry cannot survive the loss of a skilled labour force. In a degenerate society or nation skilled labour disappears, industry declines. The decline of industry means terrible self-destruction to the nation.

The third category in verse 22 is industry itself, industry which depends on the ability of skilled labour, “also the sound of the mill will never be heard in you again.”

Verse 23, two more categories are given: utilities, and there is a relationship between that and social life. Without the utility industry mankind cannot function in population centres like large cities. Utility and energy industries are essential to the function of life in large cities.

The final category is social life (including sexual life), “in fact the voice of the groom and the bride will never be heard in you again.” The two principles of direct discourse follow. Each principle of direct discourse is introduced by the conjunction o(ti, when o(ti is used in direct discourse it is not translated. It is comparable to our modern quotation marks. This introduces the direct discourse of the king of arms, therefore an application from the passage:

1. Economic prosperity did not deliver the ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation.

2. The power of deception, demonism, and drugs did not deliver her. The application to us is obvious: economic prosperity will not deliver this nation. The power of deception, demonism, drugs, will not deliver us either.

In the direct discourse we have two principles coming up in verse 23. The first is: economic prosperity did not deliver ecumenical religion: “your merchants,” we have the nominative subject of e)mporoj. With this phrase we have the fact that in ecumenical religion the merchants “were great,” the imperfect active indicative of e)imi, they were always great during the course of the function of ecumenical religion. When it says they were great it says they were actually successful men, the predicate nominative plural from megistan, which means successful, “your merchants were successful.” It means the economy of the ecumenical religious system was very strong. A strong economy does not guarantee the deliverance of the nation in times of disaster. Economic prosperity did not deliver the ecumenical system of the Tribulation. There is not enough wealth or influence in the world to hold back the tide of divine judgment. Divine judgment, therefore, has greater power than any system of influence the world has ever known. The justice of God cannot be bribed by the influence of man. The key to the first principle then is influence; the key to the second principle is power. Influence and power are the two things in the world that generally deliver people, but neither influence nor power in man can stand up against divine judgment. So the power and the influence of the ecumenical religious system will not deliver them from judgment.

The second principle in verse 23 is very simple. It is the principle that the power of demonism, the power of deception, the power of drugs, does not deliver ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. We begin with the prepositional phrase e)n plus the instrumental of farmakeia which has three meanings. First it means sorcery, the use of magical arts related to idolatry and demonism. So it has the connotation of demonism. Secondly, it has to do with the use of drugs which in this context has an evil rather than a medicinal connotation. Hence, drug pushers, drug users, adding up to drug abuse. Thirdly, it is related to poisoning. Here is would be the poisoning of the mind of mankind with false doctrine from the cosmic system. We translate it, “by means of your farmakeia.” The reason that we are transliterating farmakeia is because it refers to demonism related to idolatry, it also refers to drug abuse, and to cosmic poisoning of the mind. All three were involved.

With this we have the phrase, “all the nations of the world were deceived.” So we have the power of demonism, the power of deception, demonism, drug abuse, which did not deliver these people. The word for “deceive” is the aorist passive indicative of the verb planaw. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. What were the results? False doctrine deceives the mind, so there was deception; the Satanic system produced demonism and, thirdly, the Satanic system produced drug abuse. This influenced the nations of the world: deception, demonism, and drug abuse of the nations of the world influenced by Satan’s international religious system. The passive voice: the nations of the world in the Tribulation received the action of the verb, they were deceived, influenced by demonism, influenced by drug addiction, influenced by farmakeia in the sense of mind-poisoning from the cosmic system. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality.

Translation of verse 23, “Furthermore the light of the lamp will never shine on you again [the destruction of the utility system]; in fact the voice of the groom and the bride will never be heard in you again: your merchants were great men, successful men of the earth; by means of your farmakeia [demonism related to idolatry, drug abuse, cosmic poisoning of the mind] all the nations of the world were deceived.”

Verse 24, the inherent criminality of religion. Religion is a criminal activity. Remember that Christianity is not a religion. The emphatic use of the conjunction kai, “In fact.” Then, “in her” is the prepositional phrase that follows, e)n plus a)utoj, ecumenical religion being in view. Then the aorist passive indicative of the verb e(uriskw, “in her was discovered.” Next we have a nominative singular subject, “the blood.” Blood refers to martyrdom. There are two categories of martyrdom mentioned: the prophets, referring to the communicators of doctrine in the Tribulation, and the saints, the general run of believers in the Tribulation. This is criminality, the murdering of believers. Religion becomes criminal at this point. When anyone tries to control, to gain power through a religious system and they use any form of terrorism or murder they become criminal. The criminality even of the National Council of Churches can be demonstrated in giving money to terrorist groups or supporting terrorist groups. So people might start out with true doctrine but once they sponsor any form of violence or indicate that violence is a solution to any problem or seek to gain converts through violence, they become religious and at the same time they become evil. This becomes a criminal activity.

The criminality of ecumenical religion is given in the last phrase when it says, “all who have been slain on the earth.” Not only did they murder believers in the Tribulation but they also were terrorists killing others. This is taken from a genitive absolute at the end of this verse. It isn’t usual for John to use a genitive absolute. The genitive absolute is made up of the genitive plural of the adjective used as a substantive, paj, and it is in the genitive case. The subject is usually in the nominative case but this is a genitive absolute.

Then we have a genitive perfect passive participle from the verb sfazw, used here for the use of great violence, the use of terrorism and violence, “and all who have been slain on the earth.” The ecumenical religion is guilty of terrorist activities, therefore criminal behaviour. Frustrated by their attempt to seize more power, frustrated by the power of God, religion as a Satanic organisation resorts to violence and murder to accomplish its objective, to gain influence and power through terrorism. Criminality is always a sign of failure in life. There is no system of criminality that has ever existed but what it has written across it, “loser.” Losers are criminals. There never was a criminal who was a winner. They are always losers, they have failed in life, they are frustrated in life, they try to compensate for their failure and their frustration by using some form of terrorism, some form of violence in order to compensate for their failure. Criminals are losers in life, the products of their own lust, their own arrogance, and their own bad decisions.

Translation: “In fact the blood of the prophets [the ministers of the Tribulation], and saints [believers of the Tribulation], was discovered in her [the ecumenical religious system] and all who have been slain on the earth [the general public was also the product of this disastrous situation].”

We have, therefore, in all of this a challenge and an application to us as believers today, because we are going the same way. Everywhere you turn you find what was previously Christianity is now becoming very religious. Everywhere you turn believers are becoming religious by living in cosmic one and cosmic two.

What is a client nation? It is a nation where there is enough freedom for evangelism. Once you accept Christ as saviour then the plan of God is before you. You are free to execute the plan of God. Not all believers execute the plan of God and this is why we have a spin off and why the pivot is shrinking. Cosmic believers become potential revolutionists through civil disobedience and through fanatical crusades, disrupting the freedom and rights of others through social action.

The general characteristics of a client nation are:

1. A civil government and policy based on the laws of divine establishment.

2. The function of evangelism under the principle of freedom: where there is no coercion on the part of government or on the part of the evangelist.

3. The establishment of local churches which are autonomous, neither connected with other churches to form denominations or spheres of influence or involved in any movement which seeks to unite church and state.

4. The function of vigorous and dynamic Bible teaching to believers which emphasises the protocol system of the plan of God.

5. Missionary activity to other nations under the indigenous principle of not interfering with foreign governments, regardless of what type of government they have, but providing both the gospel and Bible teaching for the people of other countries.

How client nation Israel went down: Hosea 4:1-6

Verse 1, “Hear the doctrine of the Lord,” doctrine is for believers in a client nation, so this is not addressed to unbelievers, it is addressed to believers. Believers determine whether a nation goes up or down. With a large pivot the nation goes up to blessing; with a small pivot the nation fails, “O people of Israel, because the Lord has a court case against the citizens of the nation, because there is nothing of doctrine being taught, nothing of grace being applied,” without doctrine you can’t use grace properly, “or knowledge of God in the nation.”

Verse 2, “Instead there is lying and deceiving,” lack of virtue. Once you remove virtue from the nation there is no way to be a client nation. There can be neither establishment nor the functions of the spiritual life, “both murder and stealing and rape.” One of the first signs of degeneracy is lack of restraint of criminality. Murder fails to recognise the sacredness of human life; stealing fails to recognise the sacredness of property; rape fails to recognise the volition of the individual, therefore the sacredness of human freedom, “plus unrestrained violence.”

Verse 3, “For this cause the land shall mourn, consequently everyone who lives in it shall lose strength along with the animals of the field (cruelty to animals is also a sign of degeneracy), both the birds of the sky and the fish of the lakes are taken away.”

Verse 4, “Yet let no one contend [blame others because the nation is being judged], and let no one impugn [don’t blame it on the leaders or some group in the nation]; for you people are like those who contend with the priest,” the priest in Israel was a communicator of Bible doctrine. They are contending with the priest which means they are resisting the doctrine.

Verse 5, “Therefore you have stumbled by day [application of doctrine in daily life], furthermore the prophet also will stumble with you,” those who were supposed to be teaching doctrine have become religious and are now teaching the apostasies of the cosmic system, “by night [apostate teaching in Bible class]; then I will destroy your mother [nation],” a reference to the fifth cycle of discipline.

Verse 6, “My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge of doctrine.” As goes the believer, so goes the nation. “Because you have rejected knowledge of doctrine I also will reject you from being my priest nation [the client nation is a priest nation to God]. Since you have neglected the doctrine of your God, I will neglect your next generation.” The client nation will be destroyed.

What is the answer to all of this? James 4:6ff.

“But he gives greater grace [God’s daily provision to believers in the client nation. He gives them the opportunity, the protocol system, protected life, security, so that they can form a pivot in the client nation]. Therefore it says, ‘God makes war on the arrogant’,” when the pivot becomes so small you can’t see it the spin off always goes into the cosmic system and the cosmic system then has the bulk of believers. Once the bulk of believers are in the cosmic system then “God makes war against the arrogant”. How does God make war against arrogant believers? The destruction of the client nation, “ ‘but he gives grace to the humble [the believers who have discovered virtue in the protocol system]’.”

Verse 7, “Therefore submit to God [life in the protocol system, the divine dynasphere]. Resist the devil [stay out of the cosmic system or, if you get in, get out in a hurry] and he will flee from you.”

Verse 8, “Draw near to God [the function of the protocol system] and he will draw near to you [the blessings of motivational virtue, but more than that, blessing by association with the client nation]. Cleanse your hands [rebound], you sinning ones [believers in the cosmic system]; purify your right lobes [momentum at gate four], you double-minded [a believer under the influence of the cosmic system].”

What happens when you are in the cosmic system?

Verse 9, “Be miserable [self-induced misery], both mourn and weep [believers are the products of their own bad decisions]; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your happiness be turned into gloom [the results of living in the cosmic system].”

Verse 10, “Humble yourselves [the beginning of virtue at gate three] under the mighty hand of God [the protocol system, the divine dynasphere], and he will exalt you [the believer becomes a winner in the protocol system].”

1 Peter 5:6ff

Verse 6, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God [function in the divine dynasphere], that he may exalt you at the proper time,

Verse 7, “casting all your worries on him because he cares for you.”

Verse 8, “Be vigilant, be on the alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour [the devil taking a believer into his cosmic system].”

Verse 9, “But resist him [life in the divine dynasphere], be stabilised in doctrine ...”