Chapter 17
Introduction to religion
It is very important to understand
that religion is the greatest source of unhappiness that you will ever have to
face. It is a Satanic system and the only person who ever has any fun with
religion is Satan himself. The reason is because all religious organizations,
and this is not referring to Christianity, have devised a system whereby you
surrender the custodianship of your happiness and the control of your life to
human beings in some form of a hierarchy. Those human beings will exact from
you challenges of one type or another, whether they relate to asceticism on the
one hand or many of the world’s religions “self-sacrifice” on the other; but
the hue and cry in the sacrifice game, the asceticism game, is total unhappiness,
total lack of capacity for life, and total disorientation to life. On the other
hand Satan doesn’t intend to trap everyone through self-righteousness, through
asceticism, self-sacrifice or pseudo-morality, he intends to trap a lot of
people through lasciviousness. Therefore we are introducing religion in
Revelation chapter 17, religion in the Tribulation, by reviewing some of the
very pertinent principles related to Christianity since Christianity is not a
religion. Christianity is a relationship with God, a protocol system whereby
you are motivated by person love for God and whereby you have control of your
own life and you become the custodian of your own happiness.
Protocol and virtue demand that you
focus your individual responsibility to God and to mankind, that you organise
your life and your priorities. In fact you cannot organise your life unless
your priorities line up with the doctrine of the Word of God, and that you
study and apply doctrine, and that you do not become involved in everything
that is going on in the world around you. What is going on in the world is not
nearly as important as what you as a believer are doing in the protocol system
to manufacture virtue. The people that you contact every day are really
depending on you for blessing by association or any form of happiness that may
come their way. So you have to be motivated by God, you have to have control of
your own life, and you definitely should be the custodian of your own
happiness. Yet every day you are going to have challenges. Strangers can
suddenly be the custodians of your happiness; they take it away from you.
Not every one is Satan’s system is
religious but every one is Satan’s system has surrendered control of his life
to someone outside of himself and, therefore, no person, believer or
unbeliever, can live in the cosmic system and have control of his own life and
solve his own problems. It is impossible for a believer to resolve the problems
of his life — and we all have problems — if he is living in the cosmic system.
We were designed under the principle of protocol and virtue to be spiritually
self-sustaining, and you will have great impact on the world around you if you
concentrate on your own life inside the divine dynasphere rather than
concentrating on what is going on around you. So we have noticed a principle in
this introduction to Revelation chapter 17: the person who controls your life
controls your happiness. The very first thing in the Christian life is virtue
and until we have achieved virtue we aren’t even stabilised in our momentum. If
you are not stabilised in your momentum you are in trouble. So God has organised
His system of protocol and He demands, therefore, that you organise your life.
You cannot have virtue without living in His protocol system and you must
establish your priorities, then your daily routine around those priorities, so
that you are first of all organised. Until you organise your life it is
impossible to be a winner.
This
is only true of Christianity. Religion is just the opposite: religion or Satan
says he will organise your life, whichever way you want to go. You may not even
be religious but he still organises everything for you.
The protocol of heaven is a system
of divine order and precedence which guarantees happiness and blessing in time
and, obviously, maximum and eternal blessing in heaven. The whole structure of
heaven is protocol and it is a place of wonderful happiness and blessing.
We don’t start out by having virtue,
there is no such thing as instant virtue, so we start out with mandates first.
Mandates first brings us around to strict adherence to due order of precedence
and therefore we have to have mandates to obey or disobey. But how can you obey
mandates until you understand them. That is the key. You can throw a lot of
mandates at a believer but at first he doesn’t understand them, so one of the
biggest problems is to understand what is precisely meant by a mandate. For
example, how can you precisely execute loving everyone when there is no way
that any human being can do it if he is normal. The point is that we have to
understand how. Impersonal love means directed toward people if you have
virtue, it means you have virtue toward all. This means that you are in control
of your own life and are the custodian of your own happiness. Protocol is not
personal. Impersonal means that you have virtue directed toward people,
personal means that you have standards — that’s all. Personal love is directed
toward a few and means that you have standards by which rapport is established.
Impersonal love is gate six, and
when you have arrived there you have already learned two other things in
virtue. You have achieved them, you have developed them. You have developed
enforced and genuine humility, you have become motivated by God so that when
you see people who violate your standards, who are different from your
standards, you don’t react. Virtue never makes any racial distinctions, social
distinctions, or personal distinctions, only personal love does that. Whether
we have good standards or bad standards we all have flaws and we can’t solve
our personal relationships and our personal rapport with others — the
interrelationship, the interaction — unless we have virtue. So the protocol
system in the plan of God calls for virtue-first.
In order to get virtue we have to
start with humility, we don’t start by loving God. No believer, when he is
born-again, loves God. We are incapable of personal love for God because it is
the one category of personal love where you have to have the norms. You have to
know something about God. How can you love someone you don’t know? God the
Father is a stranger to us when we are born-again. We have just heard that God
the Son is our saviour, we believed, and that is all that we had to do. We
don’t know anything about the Lord, or very little. We know nothing about the
Holy Spirit, and “holy rollers” never find out anything, they’re blasphemous
about the Holy Spirit. Personal love means that you have you have norms and
standards to set up a rapport system. In order to set up norms and standards
you have to know God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit; and
before you can know them you have to be teachable — and that takes you right
back to humility. So gate three is where we become teachable; gate four is
where we get to know Him; gate five is where we have as the motivation for our
life personal love for God. Personal love is in the object and God only becomes
attractive to us when we learn to know Him.
So to get back to the believer and
all people out there. The only possible way to love all people out there as per
mandated in the Word of God is to have virtue, and virtue means impersonal love
toward people. The virtue in loving God means you have norms and standards that
reach out and have a rapport. God loves us because He has virtue, but we can’t
love Him unless we have virtue. The only personal love that has virtue in it is
love for God. So we must have virtue and virtue starts with being teachable. If
you are not teachable you will never love God and never love all people. So the
Christian way of life really has to start with orders — mandates. Mandates
demand obedience; mandates are the guidelines for obedience. Obedience is
necessary for the development of humility. Humility is the foundation for all
virtue because humility is teachability. The divine system of protocol demands
virtue-first. Virtue-first is impossible apart from residence, function, and
momentum, inside the divine dynasphere, God’s protocol system for the believer.
We are born-again to obey divine mandates. A little baby is born absolutely
stupid, not because there is no potential there, but because the baby is minus
vocabulary. You have to have vocabulary to think, so a baby has to start out
and learn words. Once vocabulary is learned, what comes next? Mandates! “No,”
or “Do it,” or “Wash behind your ears.” The Bible is filled with mandates.
There is another principle: Routine
demands motivation and the right scale of values. God’s priorities must become
our priorities. Acceptance of God’s priorities necessitates organising our
lives. Disorganised people are losers in life in general; disorganised
Christians are losers in life in general and spiritually. God has given us a
protocol system in which to organise our lives, the divine dynasphere. Virtue
in an organised life becomes the dynamic of the Christian way of life.
Consistent residence in the divine dynasphere means that we will fulfill the
priorities. All the priorities start with mandates: in God’s plan, mandates
first. You have to learn the orders and then you have to know how to execute
them mechanically. In God’s system: virtue-first. In God’s purpose: Christ
first. So notice: Christ first is the third priority. Christ can’t be first
until mandates are first, and until mandates are first virtue cannot be first,
and until virtue is first Christ cannot be first — gate five. In God’s policy:
grace first. Notice that grace is the number four priority. We are not ready
for grace when we start. Grace is not first in our lives until we have reached
gate five. The fifth priority in God’s objective: momentum first. Momentum
begins when you start taking in the Word. Momentum reaches a certain point so
that the third priority comes into focus: Christ first, so that the fourth
priority comes into focus: grace first. Grace has to be understood from the
start but grace is not first in our lives until it becomes number four
priority, then we understand it in full. Once we understand grace we must
continue momentum. A lot of people, when they finally understand grace, lose
their momentum because they use grace as an excuse, a problem-solving vehicle
when grace is the policy of God toward us and eventually our policy toward
people. But grace as a policy toward people is no good unless we have virtue,
and too many Christians are using grace in name only without having virtue.
We have been studying the subject of
protocol and virtue. Protocol and virtue demand that we as believers focus our
individual responsibility to God and to mankind on the protocol system which
God has provided. The purpose: that you organise your life and your priorities,
that you study and apply doctrine and not become involved in everything going
on in the world around you. What is going on in the world around you in this
world is not nearly as important as what you as a believer are doing with
regard to the protocol system, its priorities and it mandates. You will have
great impact on the world around you if you concentrate on your life inside the
protocol system.
We have learned from all this that
the person who controls your life controls your happiness. In personal love or
hatred the object of your love or hatred actually controls your life. For
example, in personal love the object of your love not only controls your life
but becomes the custodian of your happiness. In personal hatred the same thing
is true. So when you become upset with a stranger in traffic that person has
immediate custody of your happiness and control of your life. Therefore the
importance of the priorities and the mandate virtue-first. When you are jealous
or vindictive toward someone you surrender the control of your life to that
person. In other words, you turn your happiness and its control over to the
object of motivation evil in cosmic one, gate one. This is precisely what
happens in religion. So if you surrender the control of your happiness to
someone else you are going t blame them for your bad decisions, and if you
surrender the happiness which you now possess to someone else then you will
blame them every time you are in a state of unhappiness.
We have spent time on this in order
to set up a contrast with religion and to make it very clear that Christianity
and religion are antithetical. Christianity is not a religion. Religion is
Satan’s policy and Satan’s system for siphoning off worship to himself instead
of worship of God. Religion is the Satanic counterfeit for worship of God and a
major part of the angelic conflict in history. One of the greatest areas where
people surrender the control of their lives and the custodianship of their
happiness is through some form of religion. Religion, therefore, is the devil’s
major strategy; it is the devil’s ace trump in distracting mankind form truth
in its three categories: category #1, the laws of divine establishment.
Religion seeks to become the state. The union of religion and state is one of
the principles we will note. The union of religious and political activities is
a major attack against human freedom; category #2 truth, the gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Religion distorts salvation by grace into many diverse systems of
salvation by works; category #3 truth, Bible doctrine for the believer.
Religion sets up a system of distraction so that the believer never learns the
protocol system, never understands everything related to the concept of
virtue-first that we have been studying.
We are ready to study religion
because we have studied the concepts of divine judgment. We have seen how
divine judgment is a grace function from God and divine judgment toward the
unbeliever always has a dual connotation. If it is the first category, judgment
by pain, the objective of that judgment is crisis evangelism. It is to give the
unbeliever another opportunity to consider the gospel under more stringent
circumstances. Then there is judgment by physical death which is a grace
function in that it removes the cancer from human society — those who are
leading the way to self-destruction. God has perpetuated the human race and
will continue to do so under the concept of judgment by death. There is a third
category: judgment for eternity for those who continue negative as far as the
gospel is concerned. For those who reject Jesus Christ as saviour there is
eternal condemnation. Therefore we have noted the divine judgment factor, we
have noted the protocol factor, we have noted that divine judgment for those
who reject crisis evangelism are always those who are involved in some form of
religion. We have also studied the two categories of evangelism: normal
evangelism which is conducted under normal situations where objectivity exists;
crisis evangelism which is the concept of hearing the gospel under terrible
judgment. The reason for it is because their minds are blinded. Their minds are
blinded because they are living in the cosmic system. Because they are living
in the cosmic system they are totally distracted by religion from the truth of
the gospel and crisis evangelism uses judgment by pain. The pain becomes a
distraction from the subjectivity of the cosmic system and gives a temporary
objectivity to recall the gospel one more time.
Religion emphasises Satan’s policy
of evil. Christianity, therefore, is not a religion. In fact, Christianity and
religion are antithetical, they are mutually exclusive. Christianity is truth
from God; religion is the lie from Satan. Each has its own system. The protocol
system is for the development of the truth in our lives, and Satan’s cosmic
system is for the religious distractions to our lives. In religion man by man’s
efforts seeks an establishment with God or seeks to impress God, while in
Christianity God seeks and finds mankind through the work of Christ on the
cross. Christianity is a relationship with God which begins at regeneration,
while religion is a relationship with Satan that begins with cosmic
involvement.
It is necessary, therefore, to
understand that billions of years ago God knew all of these things and the
omniscience of God put into the computer of divine decrees every thought, every
decision, every action of every person. This is not all that is programmed into
the computer. Also put into the computer of divine decrees we have every person
in the history of the human race in connection with every sin they would ever
commit, so that all personal sins were put into the computer of divine decrees.
Long before any man committed any sin in the human race every one of them was
in the computer. These sins in the computer make it impossible for mankind,
outside of Adam, to be condemned by personal sin. When human life was first
imputed to Adam’s human soul, at the same time for us Adam’s original sin was
imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature and this is the basis of our
condemnation at birth. But all of our personal sins, along with the millions of
personal sins that have not yet been committed, were all entered in eternity
past by the omniscience of God into the computer of divine decrees. It was not
until Jesus Christ went to the cross that all of the personal sins of the human
race, including ones that had not been committed yet, were all brought out of
the computer and imputed to Christ on the cross, and God the Father then judged
those sins. It is the judgment of sin that is the basis of eternal salvation.
It is the judgment of sin in this Church Age that leads to Christianity. The
work was accomplished by God. In the first advent when God the Son, Jesus
Christ, was hanging on the cross as the God-Man, He alone accomplished
salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ did not say, “We have finished it,” He said,
“It is finished”; He finished it alone. And we will see in Revelation chapter
nineteen that when Jesus Christ returns He returns with three great armies —
Group A, the elect angels; Group B, all believers of the Church Age, royal
family in resurrection bodies; Group C, Old Testament saints and Tribulational
martyrs, all in resurrection bodies, He alone does all the fighting. The
principle, of course, is grace. The Lord accomplishes it all.
Religion on the other hand
represents the evil genius of Satan from the standpoint of its many
counterfeits. For example, there is a counterfeit gospel which is developed by
Satan and it is related to the cosmic system, as per 2 Corinthians 4:3,4, “If
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this
world [Satan] has blinded the minds of those who believe not.” Rejection of
Jesus Christ as saviour causes the unbeliever to enter into gate two of cosmic
one, and there he has blackout of the soul. If he continues to reject the
gospel he will enter gate two of cosmic two and there he will have scar tissue
of the soul. Only crisis evangelism will reach in at this stage and save the
brands from the burning. There is also a system of counterfeit ministry. Satan
has his counterfeit ministers who are described in very lucid detail in 2
Corinthians 11:13-15. There is also a counterfeit doctrine which relates to the
various gates of the cosmic system. There is a counterfeit communion table. It
is the counterfeit communion table which is the direct system of Satanic
religion. It is found in 2 Corinthians 10:19-21. There is a system of
counterfeit spirituality, which most fundamentalists are using today. True
spirituality cannot be understood apart from the protocol system. This
counterfeit spirituality is dramatised in Galatians 3:2,3. There is a
counterfeit system of righteousness, self-righteousness related to arrogance,
Matthew 19:16-28. There are counterfeit gods, a system of demonisation, 2
Corinthians 2:3,4. There are counterfeit dynamics, 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10. So
to understand religion one must understand Satan’s policy as administered
through his cosmic system. Later on the cosmic system will become very
pertinent in our context. The study of this chapter, then, is the study of
religion from the standpoint of Tribulational judgments administered in
relationship to the seventh bowl judgment.
There is another concept that we
should understand. The word Babylon occurs quite frequently in chapter
seventeen. The Biblical concept of Babylon is twofold: literal and figurative.
In the Bible Babylon is a literal city, and then it becomes a literal city
state. From this literal city state come many nations such as Babylonia-Chaldea.
It all began in Genesis chapter ten, verses eight through ten. Nimrod, who is
the founder of the original Babylon, means “we will revolt.” This anticipates
the mystery doctrine of Babylon in the New Testament. The first united nations organisation
was founded at Babylon and anticipates the use of this noun in context as Genesis
11:1-8 directly relates to it. The literal city and city state of Babylon is
the subject, then, of many Old Testament passages. However, reference to
Babylon in our context is not literal but is figurative. It refers to a
religious system, an international religious system of Satan in the
Tribulation. The figurative meaning of Babylon refers to international organisations,
both political and religious, sponsored by Satan throughout human history.
Previous reference to Babylon as Satan’s system of internationalism has already
been noted in Revelation 13:4-8, 11-17; 14:8-11: 16:19. Babylon in our passage
does not refer to the city or to a state or to an empire of the past, it refers
to ecumenical religion related to international politics, a system to distract
mankind from the truth of Bible doctrine.
The outline of our passage is
twofold. In the first six verses we study the vision of the “great whore,” as
the King James version calls it. The last half of the chapter, verses 7-18, is
simply the interpretation for the vision. Babylon, therefore, becomes a code
word for Satan’s system of internationalism, both political and religious.
Every time we see Babylon in our passage it will be referring to that
international system, the system of ecumenicalism.
We begin, then, with the study of
the vision of the great whore in verse 1-6. The seventh pur sui vant angel
becomes a teaching angel in this verse. We have the sequential use of the
conjunction kai,
“Then.” With this we have the nominative singular from the adjective numeral e(ij, and it refers to one of the execution squad. The
execution squad of the previous chapter is the way that we finally discovered
protocol as the major system on God’s plan. In the execution squad we saw the
protocol in heaven. “Then one,” we are referring to an angelic creature. We
know this from the prepositional phrase that follows, e)k plus the ablative of the indeclinable adjective
numeral e(pta, “seven.”
Then we have a)ggeloj, “angels,” one of the seven
in the execution squad.
Next is the articular present active
participle from the verb e)xw, which means to have. We
are going to understand that this one that is mentioned here is number seven in
the squad, the one who administered the seventh bowl judgment, “who had.” The
definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the seventh member
of the execution squad, the one who administered the seventh bowl judgment in
chapter sixteen, verse seventeen. The present tense is a perfective present
denoting what has come to be in the past and emphasised as a present reality.
The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant
messenger from the execution squad produces the action of the verb. The
participle is circumstantial.
Why do we have a member of the
execution squad suddenly becoming a teacher of Bible doctrine? That is exactly
what he is going to do. These seven members of the execution squad are under
the command of a pur sui vant
officer, as we noted from chapters fourteen and fifteen. The squad, made up of
seven pur sui vant messengers, went
into action in chapters sixteen. Number seven in the squad is the pur sui vant messenger who is now going
to become a teacher of Bible doctrine. The question arises: How does this one
out of a group of special aristocrats of the elect angels suddenly become a
teacher of doctrine? He is obviously very good in his job of judgment. How can
a judging angel suddenly become a teaching angel? The answer to that question
is found in our study of crisis evangelism. In reality every member of that squad,
when he administered his particular judgment, could take up the slack and
communicate doctrine. If doctrine had not been communicated to some pocket
where the judgment was administered then the angelic creatures did it. There is
a precedent for that which we studied in operation high noon.
Next we have the aorist active
indicative of e)rxomai, the verb to come, “Then
one of the seven angels who had the seven bowl judgments came.” The constative aorist
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. An angel used for
executing the human race also communicates to the human race. By profession
this angelic creature is an aristocrat in the elect angel army. There is a very
important point here. This angel has been responsible for the death of millions
of people. You can be responsible for death on the one hand as a professional
soldier, or as a law enforcement officer or judge on the bench on the one hand
and on the other hand being responsible for providing information leading to
eternal life for others. The two go together. There is no conflict between the
communication of the gospel and doctrine and killing people as a member of a
military organisation representing your country. This angel is going to teach
truth just as effectively as he was responsible for the administration of a
great judgment on the human race.
The one who is going to be learning
in this case is the apostle John, for his continuation in understanding of all
of these things and how they relate to each other regarding the subject of
religion it is necessary to understand what this angel teaches in chapters
seventeen and eighteen. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger from the execution squad produces the action
of the verb now as a teacher of truth. Before we saw him as an executioner; now
the executioner becomes a communicator of truth. The indicative mood is
declarative for the reality of the fact that having delivered his judgment bowl
he is now ready to explain the significance of judgment by death as it relates
to the human race.
Every day when we pick up the papers
someone is dying somewhere. Someone is the victim of violence, someone is dying
of starvation, people are dying for many reasons. Often when we look into the
areas where these people are dying we note that there is a tremendous area of
historical negative volition, and that if this negative volition which is
self-destructive spreads throughout the entire world there will then, of
course, be world destruction instead of local geographical destruction.
We are getting ready for this. We
are more influenced by compassion for the third world than we are for doctrine
found in the Word of God, and the influence of our lives comes from our
compassion for the tragedies that we see in other parts of the world. Why do
these tragedies exist? Because in those parts of the world there has been
strong negative volition at God-consciousness, there has been strong negative
volition at the point of gospel hearing. Many of these areas have had over a
century of very clear presentation of the gospel and they have rejected it time
and time again. Therefore they have gone into the vacuum of Satan’s cosmic
system and they have developed their whole system of culture from Satan’s
cosmic system. They have developed a religion. Where they heard the truth and
rejected it religion always sprouts and grows. When people reject the truth,
whether it is the laws of divine establishment, whether it is the gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ, whether it is the believer rejecting Bible doctrine, they go
into a system of slow death. They go into Satan’s cosmic system. Some of them
turn up as religious types and we have religion all over the world. Religion
has taken over all over the world in one form or another. Since there are many
categories of religion there are many different forms of distraction. There is
something that can be appealing to anyone and Satan’s counter-evangelism is
very appealing. He can come at you through the phallic cult, through the
mystique type of activity where you don’t think but everything seems to be very
mysterious and therefore impressive, or he can come at you with false doctrine.
He has many approaches to the human race. He has been very successful today,
especially among born-again believers, because they have failed to understand
that in the protocol system the concept of protocol becomes very important.
The angel has been an executioner;
now he becomes a communicator. No one ever has to be ashamed of killing people
in battle as a member of the armed forces. No one has to be ashamed of having
served. The indicative mood of e)rxomai is
declarative for the reality of the fact that having executed people through the
seventh bowl judgment this same pur sui vant
messenger will now teach John the information that he uses in chapters
seventeen and eighteen.
Then we have the connective use of
the conjunction kai followed by the aorist
active indicative of the verb lalew which
means to communicate. Here it means to teach eschatological doctrine. The aorist
tense of lalew is a constative aorist, it
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The killer angel now
becomes a teaching angel. There is no inconsistency because this is all
accomplished through the principles of protocol and virtue which destroy the
apparent inconsistencies in one’s life. There is no inconsistency in being a
member of the execution squad on the one hand and now being a communicator of
eschatology on the other hand. In one angelic creature both of these functions
exist without any complications of any kind. The content of the angel’s message
is chapters seventeen and eighteen. Notice that he got in touch with the
apostle John. He has been in touch with the human race as a killer, now he is
in touch with John as a teacher of doctrine. This is taught in the preposition meta plus the genitive from e)gw, “with me”; “he came and
spoke with me.” The apostle John is the object of the preposition. He is a
brilliant doctrinal teacher but this killer is going to teach him something
about eschatology.
This, therefore, is a transitional
verse which explains that the seventh pur
sui vant messenger of the execution squad is also a Bible teacher. In fact,
each one of the seven members of the execution squad is also a doctrinal
teacher and can give a detailed explanation as to why his specific judgment was
administered. The principle then: The members of the execution squad know what
they are doing. Executioners must have a complete sense of justice and total
freedom from arrogance. Only the highest aristocracy in heaven, therefore, are
involved in the administration of the seven judgments. This explains the
influence of the protocol of heaven on the grace policy of divine judgment on
planet earth and its human inhabitants. The highest form of angelic aristocracy
from the college of heralds is used for the execution of this judgment.
This brings up another principle.
Always historically you have an achieving aristocracy which is separate from
all those around it. An achieving aristocracy always knows what they are doing,
this is how aristocracy is formed. People emerge in history who know what they
are doing. Truth in the soul makes it possible for you to know what you are
doing. All divine judgment stems from the justice of God and has a very
definite grace function. Judgment on earth has two sources: the volition of
mankind and the justice of God. What we often assume is judgment from God is
really the failure to make good decisions. The major source of our unhappiness
in life is our own volition. We make the wrong decisions, we think the wrong
things, we therefore provide our own misery. Divine judgment comes when we
spend too much time in the cosmic system. It comes in the form of warning
judgment, followed by intensive judgment, and eventually by dying judgment. So
the volition of mankind is responsible for his own misery and is spread to
others. The check on man’s self-induced misery and destruction originates from
the justice of God. God has to keep us from destroying ourselves, and God has
promised that there will always be people on this earth and that there never
will be a time when the human race does not exist during human history. Nuclear
weapons cannot destroy humanity; neither can any other danger to mankind.
“Then one of the seven angels who
had the seventh bowl judgments came and spoke with me.” All of this review of
doctrine explains the genius of Satan in the invention of religion to distract
mankind from the grace of God and the plan of God for the human race. All of
this explains the invention of the two cosmic dynaspheres by Satan to control
mankind and to keep him from utilising the grace of God. All of this explains
the divine judgment on the religious system of the Tribulation as God’s answer
to Satanic devices and strategies to woo mankind away from the grace of God and
from the plan of God.
The next word in the Greek is the
present active participle of the verb legw which is one of the
communication verbs, “saying.” The aoristic present tense sets forth the event
as now occurring, therefore punctiliar action in present time. The active
voice: the seventh pur sui vant
messenger from the execution squad produces the action of the verb as the
doctrinal teacher of the apostle John. The content of his teaching is amplified
in the seventh bowl judgment mention in chapter 16, verses seventeen through
twenty-one, and what he teaches is now is chapters seventeen and eighteen. We
have a complimentary participle expressing the completion of an idea expressed
by two main verbs.
Next we have an adverb of place
which is translated “Come here,” deurw.
The present tense, again, indicates that the adverb which follows will have the
connotation of an imperative. Note, therefore, from this adverb used in the
imperative sense, “Come here,” that John’s volition must be involved in wanting
to understand the explanation and the amplification of the seventh bowl
judgment. This, of course, deals with the divine punishment of ecumenical
religion as a system, and therefore everything related to international religion
of the Tribulation. While the teaching angel comes to the geographical location
of John, John must come to the presence of the angel from his own positive
volition. He must be motivated to want to learn, to desire the information. His
motivation is very strong because the information he receives is the next two
chapters of Revelation.
Out of this comes a principle.
Doctrinal teaching is mandated by God but the believer must be motivated to
receive it. Doctrinal teaching runs the gamut from the most sublime information
about the essence of God to the most shocking information about the modus
operandi of man. Some people are interested in parts of it but not necessarily
all of it. It takes a very strong motivation to want to know the whole realm of
doctrine. God provides the opportunity for all of us to learn Bible doctrine.
First of all, we learn doctrine and it becomes a motivation for momentum in the
plan of God. While God provides the doctrine and the protocol system in which
to learn it the believer must use his own volition with regard to learning
doctrine. You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make him drink. You can
bring people to church but that doesn’t imply that they are going to learn
anything or that they want to learn anything. The reasons why people come to
church are varied, but to come to church to want to learn doctrine is a rarity
in the time in which we live. And, of course, under the principle of freedom
God does not force us to learn doctrine as the key to His plan, but instead He
challenges our volition to go for it. The plan of God is optional to the
believer. The option is expressed in the mandate regarding the divine dynasphere,
the protocol system which we have been studying.
Now we have the subject of the
teaching ministry of this angel who up to this point has been a professional
soldier in the elect angel order of battle as well as the college of heralds
and is now going to become a teacher of doctrine. We have the verb first, the
future active indicative of deiknumi which means to make very
lucid or clear, to make perspicuous, to point out, to show, to teach, to make
known. We will translate it simply, “I will make known.” The future tense is
for a fact or performance which may be rightfully expected under normal conditions
in this context. The active voice: the seventh pur sui vant messenger of the execution squad who administered the
seventh bowl judgment in chapter 16:12 produces the action of the verb as a
teaching angel. The indicative mood is declarative for a statement of fact. The
dative singular of advantage follows and it is in the personal pronoun su. It is to your advantage to have the information.
While God makes it advantageous He does not force it upon you. You are not
forced ever to learn doctrine by divine mandate, the motivation must come from
your own soul. So it is translated, “I will make known to you.” It is a dative
singular indirect object as well as a dative of advantage. The indirect object
merely indicates that the object has the advantage of hearing it.
Next we have the accusative singular
direct object from the noun krima, and it means in this case
a judgment or punishment, “I will make known to you the judgment.” Then we have
the judgment described in terms of an analogy. The ecumenical religious system
of the Tribulation is described in terms of the objective genitive singular
from the noun pornh, and with it an adjective megaj which means “great” but has many similar meanings.
Probably, in this case, “infamous” would be better than the “great whore” as
translated by the King James version.
There are two things that we should
note in the analogy. Firstly, in the analogy with prostitute is that it is a
female word so we are talking about a woman. Secondly, she was not only a woman
but she is described by the Greek adjective megaj
which means a great woman. Why use prostitution as the analogy for religion?
First of all we notice that a prostitute makes her living from the lust of
others, and in this sense it becomes an excellent analogy to religion because
religion gains power and wealth from many categories of lust: lust for human
security, lust for blessing in life, lust for recognition in life, lust for
some assurance about the future after death. There are many categories of lust
in addition to lasciviousness. Under the principle of the phallic cult religion
does embrace the lust content of lasciviousness as well. Just as a prostitute
receives money for her services so religion, cults, make money off of the
superstition and false doctrines that people believe. So there is a great area
for analogy. Furthermore, the fact that a prostitute has customers indicates
that the fact that the customers do not have control of their lives, they are
not the custodians of their happiness, and they are disorganised. So three
things should be said about the customers: negative control, negative
happiness, and obviously disorganised.
We have discussed how believers who
reject Bible doctrine, who reject the protocol system, surrender the control of
their lives to others and their happiness to others, are disorganised people. Disorganised
people are losers in life. You have to be organised and you have to start with
your own mentality. You have to have the right system of priorities. All organisation
must come around truth and therefore the truth of Bible doctrine has to be your
number one priority. So the analogy between religion and the prostitute is a
very good one because the adherence to religion, as we will see in this chapter
and the next, are all disorganised people. They do not have control of their
lives and they are not the custodians of their own happiness. There are many
analogies that we could make but unhappy people always have to pay for their
pleasures, and religion attracts unhappy people. Religion caters to unhappy
people and charges them for their pleasures. Religion is international and
religious internationalism in the Tribulation is called a prostitute because it
seduces mankind into Satan’s cosmic system. But
there is another reason why the woman is used and why we have the feminine
gender. It goes back to the third chapter of Genesis where we have
distinguished between the original sin of the man and the original sin of the
woman. It was the woman who sinned first, and the reason that she sinned first
was that she was the point of contact. Satan attacked the woman first because
if he had attacked the man — the man was the authority at that time — the man
could have simply ordered the woman to partake of the forbidden fruit and she
would have done so but she would have had a legitimate excuse. She was under
the authority of the man and therefore her volition was not her own. Satan
always works this way, he always works toward the one who has no authority. All
revolutions in human history were started by people who had neither authority
nor power, and they lusted for it. Religions do the same thing. The woman was
not the authority, all of the authority resided in the man. Therefore Satan
attacked the woman. He always goes for the one who does not have the authority
or the power in order to overthrow the system of establishment which God has
ordained.
There is another reason. People who
do not have power or authority are susceptible to a different type of arrogance
than people who do. The most arrogant people in life are the scum; the most
arrogant people in life can be found in the areas of poverty. Poverty has the
most vicious arrogance of all. Poverty is not caused by the failure of
government or the irresponsibility of others, poverty is caused by the people
who have it. The source of poverty is the volition of the poor. Jesus discussed
the poor and poverty and He made it very clear that no matter what you do to
alleviate poverty, no matter how great that you are in trying to help the poor,
you cannot stop poverty. Poverty is a disease of human volition, not a status
quo of “have not.” Neither a government nor independent organisations can stem
the tide of poverty ever: “The poor you will have with you always.” And the
reason we will always have the poor is because people make decisions to be
poor. There is nothing wrong with being poor in any given time. Decisions can
be made to change that status. Poverty is the status of negative volition in
life. That means that just as Satan appealed to the have not — the woman who
had not but was very happy with her have not — and the temptation was channeled
through her, so Satan is constantly in the business of destroying establishment
authority, and he does it through the have-nots. Socialism is such an attack,
as is communism. Guilty conscience is another attack. Sometimes wealthy people
are made to feel ashamed because they have wealth, as if they should be ashamed
of it, the very fact that people are made to feel ashamed and therefore trying
to do something about helping people. Helping the helpless is one thing but
once the government starts giving out money to the alleged poor and the real
poor, the lazy and the scum, they destroy all motivation in life and they
create a great evil. These very people are the very people out of whom
revolution is manufactured. They are the malcontent, they have lost all
motivation for life. They are not motivated to scrub floors because they are
not hungry enough to accept any job, and they lose out completely.
Who captures these if revolution
does not? Religion. The Satanic system does. And how does Satan convert these
people to whatever religion is going in a geographical area? He does it very
simply: an appeal to arrogance. Always the same thing. What did Satan say to
the woman? he said, “Do you know why God forbids you to eat from this tree? It
is the tree of knowledge. God is afraid that if you eat from that tree you will
be as smart as He is, and he wouldn’t like that.” And that is all it took to
set the woman off. The woman had a great curiosity and she wanted to see if she
would be as smart as God. When she took from the forbidden tree she discovered
not how smart she was but how smart God was and how she could never attain
divine wisdom. She was on the wrong track. Then she came to the man on the
basis of their marvelous relationship in order to undermine his authority and
the man did not even have to walk to the tree to partake of the forbidden
fruit, it was there offered to him. Consequently, the analogy: Religion always
offers you what appears to be a perfect package, the solution to all of your
problems. Therefore religion becomes very popular.
So it is not without reason that the
female prostitute is used for the analogy to religion and, of course, the prostitute
is doing something else: attacking establishment, for fornication is an attack
on establishment order, upon marriage and the home. Religion is an attack upon
establishment and religion always attacks establishment by seeking to become
the state, the combination of religion with the political. Religion likes to be
the state and wherever in the last several centuries religion has been the
state there has been nothing but disaster. The people in those states cannot
distinguish between establishment separated from the state and therefore they
inevitably go for communism because to them the church is the state. They are
antiestablishment and anti-state and the only anti is communism, therefore they
are revolutionaries in their approach.
Next we find a verb, the articular
present active participle of kaqhmai which means to sit, but it
means more than sitting, it means domination, just as a horse rider dominates
the horse. The woman is said to be sitting and because she is sitting she
dominates. “I will make known to you the judgment of the infamous call girl.”
This is a real slick religion, “who sits.” It is used as a relative pronoun
referring to the infamous prostitute and/or ecumenical religion of the
Tribulation. The present tense is a pictorial present tense. The active voice:
the prostitute or ecumenical religion of the Tribulation produces the action.
It is a circumstantial participle implying religion dominating people. Later on
we will see religion dominating the state. But how do you get to the state?
Through people. So religion works through people. It gets a mass of people and
then religion will sit on the state. So sitting here means domination.
Ecumenical religion has three sittings or domination in this context in the
first nine verses. Each one is presented by the same preposition, e)pi, and each time it is different. We have e)pi plus the genitive, e)pi plus the locative, e)pi
plus the accusative. For example, at the end of verse 1 we have the preposition
e)pi plus the locative plural
from the adjective poluj plus
u(dor,
“many waters.” E)pi plus
the locative emphasises position. If religion is going to dominate it must have
good position, it must have good position over the waters. Waters represent the
multitude of the peoples throughout the world who are converts to ecumenical
religion. In verse 3 we are going to see e)pi once more, this time plus
the accusative. This time we will see it with an adjective and a noun called
“the scarlet beast dictator.” E)pi plus the accusative emphasises
motion or direction, and that scarlet beast of verse 3 is the revived Roman
empire. The revived Roman empire of the Tribulation is going places, so the
woman starts with people but from the people gains control of a great political
system, the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. That is brought out by the
accusative case. Then, finally, in verse 9 we have the preposition e)pi plus the genitive from a)utoj. The genitive case emphasises contact. The religion
has contact with the seven mountains of verse 9 and the seven mountains refer
to the great empires of the past. So the fact that in the Tribulation the woman
gains control of the great empire, the revived Roman empire, emphasises the
fact that in the past it has been traditional, and it always happens, that
great empires of the past have been subverted by religion. They have lost their
power and their ability, they have been destroyed. When religion controls the
state freedom is lost. Freedom must have system of authority and the state is
the authority — Romans chapter 13. Freedom and authority go together. Freedom
without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny. They must
go together and that is the principle involved here.
Corrected translation of verse 1:
“Then one of the seven angels [the seventh pur
sui vant messenger of the execution squad] who had the seven bowl
judgments, came and spoke with me [the apostle John], saying, Come here; I will
make known to you the judgment of the infamous prostitute [the famous system of
ecumenical religion in the Tribulation] who sits on many waters [the people of
the world who are converts to the ecumenical religious system].”
The base for success of
international religion, of course, is Satan’s cosmic system. The subject of
this chapter, then, is the amplification of the seventh bowl judgment which was
stated in chapter 16:19, “Furthermore, Babylon the great [international religion
at the end of the Tribulation] was remembered before God, to give her the cup
of wine full of the wrath of his anger.”
In verse 2 we have “With whom the kings of the earth
have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made
drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Fornication is mentioned twice.
Neither time is it a literal reference but in the analogy you have to
understand something about literal fornication to understand the figurative use
of it in this passage which is the spiritual fornication of kings.
We begin with the preposition meta plus the genitive singular of the relative pronoun o(j, “With whom.” The relative pronoun refers to the
prostitute or the international religion of the Tribulation. Then comes our
subject, the nominative plural subject from basileuj. It does refer to world rulers at that time but that doesn’t means
they are kings. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was
written and in the time of writing the book of Revelation most of the rulers of
the world were classified as kings. But they can be dictators, they can be
presidents, they can have all kinds of names. The point is that there will be a
very strong political influence on the part of this international religious
system. There will be a union of religion and state which, of course, is very
destructive to human freedom and a great evil. The descriptive genitive from
the noun gh refers to planet earth, so
this is a general trend.
Then comes the verb, the aorist
active indicative of the verb porneuw.
It is used two ways in the Bible: for literal fornication, which is a sexual
sin, and for spiritual fornication, which is a system of apostasy. So we have,
“with whom the kings of the earth have fornicated.” The culminative aorist
tense means the conversion to ecumenical religion or, at least a superficial
adherence to ecumenical religion, in its entirety but regards it from the
viewpoint of its existing results such as the last world war in history, such
as the destruction of freedom by the union of religion and state. The active
voice: various rulers of the earth produce the action of the verb by joining
the international religious organisation sponsored by Satan and led by the
beast dictator of the revived Roman empire. The indicative mood is a potential
indicative of impulse, it emphasises the fact that these world rulers use their
own free will to enter into the system of international religion.
Hence, we have with the verb porneuw the concept, therefore, of
conversion. How are these people converted? In the same way that people become
interested in fornicating. First of all there is the thought, secondly there is
a lust, then there is the action. This pretty well describes the pattern of
spiritual fornication. The Bible describes spiritual fornication or apostasy
not only in the book of Hosea but extensively in Ezekiel chapters 16 and 23. In
all these cases we have spiritual fornication between client nation Israel and
the religions of Satan at that time.
The spiritual fornication of the
people follows. We have the connective kai
translated “furthermore.” It adds to the concept. Then we have the nominative
plural subject which is a present active participle of the verb katoikew, “the inhabitants.” The
participle is often used as a substantive and this is the case here. The
inhabitants of the earth here are said to be intoxicated, the aorist passive
indicative of the verb mequw, which means to become
intoxicated. The constative aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in
its entirety. The passive voice: those who are brought under the sphere of
Satan’s ecumenical religion receive the action of the verb, therefore this
indicates a tremendous amount of emotionalism. Intoxication is often used for
sheer emotionalism without thought. When emotionalism takes over the control of
the soul you have the degeneracy of the human soul leading to the degenerate
modus operandi of the individual. The converts to Satan’s system receive the
action of the verb. This is spiritual intoxication going with spiritual
fornication. The indicative mood is declarative for the future reality of the
success of Satan’s international religious system. They are said to be
intoxicated with the wine of her fornication. This means the conversion of
these people and involvement in the system of activity which is primarily
emotionalism like the tongues movement today.
The question arises: How does this
work out from the standpoint of the actual function. How can we explain all of
this mechanically? Here we have the effectiveness of Satanic religion in the
last half of the Tribulation. Mechanically it has to do with two things. First
of all, the entrance into Satan’s cosmic system. The conversion takes place in
cosmic one where these people are said to be grieving the Holy Spirit of God.
Function inside of cosmic two is the development of the religion which is
comparable to quenching the Holy Spirit with regard to believers. In other
words, the whole conversion system is a matter of being preoccupied with self.
When a maximum number of people in the human race have inordinate preoccupation
with self that is where religion gets its start, that is where emotionalism
gets cranked up, that is where every false system has its beginning. Just as
Satan, who is the greatest creature genius who ever lived, actually sinned for
the first time through preoccupation with self in inordinate fashion known as
arrogance, so the same pattern is found in the human race. It all begins with
motivational evil, gate one, cosmic one. This is how these first two verses of
chapter seventeen are fulfilled at the end of the Tribulation.
It all starts with motivational
evil. Motivational evil is arrogance. Arrogance has many sides and many facets.
For example, jealousy is arrogance or preoccupation with self. To the extent
that people are jealous to that extent they become vulnerable to this type of
activity. it doesn’t mean that every jealous person is going to be a convert to
Satanic religion but it means that that is a start, and there is, by the way,
psychologically a very close relationship between jealousy and emotionalism.
Jealousy and emotionalism stifle thinking. Jealous people are never able to
think rationally and once you lose the ability to think rationally then you
fall back on emotion, and emotion has a very bad twist. So we have jealousy,
and from the jealousy there is always the frustration and the frustration
factor further destroys the ability to think and therefore there is bitterness.
Once you are trapped in cosmic one you lose the ability to think in terms of
doctrine, in terms of virtue, in terms of things that are rational as far as
the Word of God is concerned. Various types of flaws or motivational evil bring
this about, such as jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability,
hatred, self-pity, the guilt syndrome, operation over-think, revenge
motivation, whatever it happens to be. And these same thoughts, many of them
antithetical but all under the category of motivational evil, also makes the
individual an instant convert into Satan’s system. These are the ways in which
religion expresses itself. Religion expresses itself in violence, in hatred, in
all of the various facets of arrogance and jealousy. All of these things are a
part of religion. Therefore, once you lose the ability to think rationally you
now have the ability to over extend your emotions beyond your thoughts. At this
particular point you destroy something, one of the greatest principles in your
life and something you have been storing up: your inventory of doctrinal ideas.
Once your inventory of ideas is destroyed you are now open for new thoughts,
and these thoughts come in many forms in the second cosmic system. There are
many different gates there, many ways in which Satan keeps people because they
have different personalities, different IQs, different standards.
Arrogant persons inevitably have to
be satisfied with themselves. They must find, as it were, a new identity. They
get into cosmic one in the first place because they have lost their identity,
as it were, through arrogance, through motivational evil. Jealousy becomes the
preoccupation of the life, or bitterness, or vindictiveness or hatred or
antagonism, etc. One of the big systems for evangelisation into religion is
self-pity. Our culture is now lending itself to self-pity. You are encouraged
to feel sorry for yourself, you are encouraged to be preoccupied with yourself.
This is one of the major steps, by the way, of degeneracy. This is what happens
in the Tribulation and it is an old old story which goes a way back into
history, but in the meantime it is a story that exists for believers as well as
unbelievers and no matter how many times in the past that people have failed
this way and how cognisant one is of the situation it doesn’t keep you from
getting into self-pity, getting into jealousy or bitterness or frustration or
hatred, or one of these things which become so destructive. This is how rulers
become converted to this Satanic system, and this is how the “many waters,”
different people from different areas of life, also become involved. And from
this immediately the establishing of the new identity in cosmic one and in
cosmic two means that you are now a convert of Satan. You may go the religion
round, you may go the rationalism round, you may go the philosophical way, but
if your arrogance is academic and if you are preoccupied with your high IQ then you will take one road, whereas if you are kind of stupid and
emotional you will wind up in the tongues movement. But there is always
something for everyone, even the phallic cult for those who want to turn
spiritual fornication into literal fornication. That is why Proverbs 16:18
says, “Pride precedes destruction,” because in discovering your new identity it
is a relationship. All identities that you discover in your own life always
have a relationship, and to establish your identity, as it were, you are going
to discover that the new identity relates to Satan’s system in which you are
trapped. Once you discover that new identity you eventually get down to two
identities, and we call that a psychosis. From then on you are identityless and
this is the normal function of those who get involved in cosmic one.
“Pride precedes destruction, and
before a fall there is arrogance of life.” No one ever becomes involved in the
Satanic trap until he becomes preoccupied with himself. Psalm 25:8-9, “Good and
honourable is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way.” God has a
plan for each one of us, He has a system of doctrine which protects us from
this. He doesn’t always instruct about sin but in the way they should go and in
the protection against the Satanic system: “In justice [divine integrity] he
guides the humble, consequently he teaches the humble his way.”
Once you establish your identity in
the Satanic system through some form of arrogance and motivational evil you
then become the enemy of God, even as a born-again believer. Being an enemy of
God as a believer doesn’t mean that you have lost your salvation, it just means
that you are now going to make your decisions from a position of weakness, you
are going to lose control of your life, and you are going to be miserable until
either you recover or the Lord takes you home through the sin unto death.
In 1 Peter 5:5, “In the same way
comparative novices under the command and authority of the pastor; all of you
in the congregation, fasten yourselves to each other with grace thinking.” One
of the great distractions in any congregation is the reaction to others for
real or alleged offences against yourself, the interaction of hatred,
antagonism, bitterness, frustration, inordinate ambition, all of the things
that bring about arrogance. That is why it says, “fasten yourselves to each
other with grace thinking, because God makes war against the arrogant, but he
gives grace to the humble. Therefore become grace oriented under the authority
of the ruling hand of God, that he may promote you at the proper time.” From
that we understand that if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. This
does not imply that you cannot succeed in the cosmic system but your success is
a dead end.
Hence, the problem of arrogance in
achievement. Arrogance belongs, of course, to the Satanic system; achievement
belongs to God. Happiness belongs to the believer under that principle, but the
principle is only true when we are living in the protocol system. Therefore,
the concept here in this particular passage in Revelation chapter seventeen,
mechanically, is that motivational evil is the basis for becoming religious or
something else related to Satan’s system. When the believer makes decisions in
the cosmic system he takes on arrogance from gate one of cosmic one. He becomes
preoccupied with some achievement or success and consequently he is often
bitten by a bug called inordinate ambition. Instead of occupation with Christ
from the divine dynasphere, the protocol system, he is much more concerned
about the opinions of his contemporaries and often becomes very susceptible to
the flattery of others. Arrogance, therefore, becomes motivation. This is the
tragic flaw; this is the destructive drama of life. Arrogance motivates the
individual to strive, to compete, to excel, to surpass under the wrong
motivation. The new creature who has emerged is therefore ripe for, among other
things, religion. That is why in the Tribulation the kings, the rulers of
nations, successful people, are going to adopt this ecumenical religious
system. The Biblical concept of daily happiness based on a personal sense of
destiny from life in the protocol system is gone. The provision of logistical
grace becomes meaningless to believers. Believers are supported and sustained
by logistical grace, the faithfulness of God. The believer’s arrogant lust for
ascendancy and his desire for success destroys the right priorities. This is
why believers become religious and how some believers become psychotic, and why
some believers become involved in the tongues movement or some other emotional
activities, and why believers get into very strange things. The believer is
extremely vulnerable to these things. While we are studying them from the
standpoint of eschatology they also have a direct relationship to our own lives
today. In effect we are going to make application and learn something from the
future.
So the desire to outdo one’s
contemporaries always destroys a personal sense of destiny. When you are in the
business of trying to show people, or show up people, or upstage people, gain
attention to yourself by some form of success, you actually wipe out any
possibility of that personal sense of destiny that belongs to the protocol
system. The arrogant desire to achieve and attain greater success than one’s
contemporaries becomes a disastrous road. There is such a thing as normal
ambition, of course, but when arrogance is introduced and arrogance is in the
saddle and in control of your life, then of course all of your priorities and
the tremendous accumulation of doctrine that you have is lost, it has no
advantage to you, either by application or by momentum in your life. Arrogant
ambition means not only neglect of the protocol system but the very destruction
of virtue. With virtue ambition is normal; without virtue ambition becomes
evil. With virtue achievement is normal; without virtue achievement becomes a
system of evil. So there is the struggle always between humility of the
protocol system and arrogance in the cosmic system.
Proverbs 11:2, “When arrogance
comes, then comes dishonour, but with the humble is wisdom.” Wisdom means the
application of doctrine. One of the great problems that believers often face is
the inability to apply what they have learned. Of course, when you are starting
out in your spiritual life it is impossible to apply, but gradually you learn
to apply doctrine. You learn to think in terms of doctrinal concepts and
doctrinal categories but you have to put it together in your soul and that
requires a lot of listening, a lot of hearing. It often requires making a lot
of mistakes and a lot of failures, but we can also learn from our failures,
especially when doctrine is prevalent in the soul. Why is it that people cannot
apply doctrine? Because of arrogance, because of prejudice, because of
jealousy. First of all, too many people get the doctrine, they understand it
academically as gnwsij in the left lobe, but they
never understand it and cannot apply it until it becomes e)pignwsij in the right lobe. To
understand it academically and never have it in the right lobe, you can’t apply
it. You cannot convert it if you have arrogance. So the same thing that
converts all of these people in the future to ecumenical religion is the very
thing that keeps us from on the one hand learning doctrine and on the other
hand applying doctrine.
Proverbs 29:23, “A person’s
arrogance will bring him low, but a spirit of humility will attain honour.” All
believers, Old Testament and New, are all called to honour and integrity. Honour
and integrity is not where you start, however, it starts with basic virtue,
humility. Humility is not only teachability but humility gives the ability to
apply, so you learn and apply by the same system, humility. Humility means you
do not make an issue of yourself. Humility gives you sensitivity. The believer
in the cosmic system is both hypersensitive and insensitive; the believer in
the protocol system is sensitive, which is another way of saying thoughtfulness
for others, understanding others, not doing anything to offend or hurt other
people deliberately. Hypersensitivity is where you make an issue out of self.
In being insensitive you are still making an issue out of self. Insensitive
people are so preoccupied with themselves that they aren’t even aware of others
around them, except to be offensive. Sensitivity is a part of virtue;
insensitivity and hypersensitivity are part of evil.
Job 33:16-17, a message to Job from Elihu:
“Then he opens the ears of men, and he seals their instruction.” People listen
to doctrine and they learn the doctrine, so that is called the “sealing of
instruction,” gnwsij converted to e)pignwsij through positive faith perception, “that he may
turn aside from his discipline, and protect us from arrogance.” We must be
protected from arrogance. Arrogance is the greatest enemy we have, it is the
original sin of man.
Isaiah 13:11, “I will punish the
world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will put an end to the
arrogance of the proud,” everything stems from the arrogance of the proud. Who
are the proud? Anyone involved in the cosmic system, believer or unbeliever, “I
will humble the pride of the tyrant.” The tyrants in our passage, Revelation
17:2, the rulers of planet earth, are involved.
1 Timothy 6:3,4, “If anyone teaches
a different doctrine [religion does that], and does not concur with sound
doctrine [religion does that], those doctrines from our Lord Jesus Christ, even
doctrine pertaining to godliness [residence, function, momentum in the protocol
system], he has received arrogance.” Who has received arrogance? Believers with
a high IQ, believers who have learned some doctrine,
believers who have learned a lot of doctrine, believers who possess doctrine as
gnwsij in the left lobe, some who
possess e)pignwsij in the right lobe. And what
are the next two words? They are so important because once arrogance becomes a
part of our lives, even for a short time, we are, “understanding nothing.” Why
is it that believers can be under Bible teaching for a long time and appear to
make no progress? Because arrogance means they understand nothing, and if you
understand nothing you cannot apply nothing to something and have something.
The application of nothing is nothing.
It has to be understood that none of
us are free from these aberrations into cosmic one but the more doctrine you
learn the sooner you recognise the problem and the sooner you get out. While we
may have learned a great deal of doctrine, that doctrine in any situation
doesn’t come up and can’t be applied because arrogance neutralises all the
doctrine we have learned for its application to a given situation.
— “furthermore he has a morbid
obsession about controversies [operation over-think].” We are constantly
finding little hobby horses to ride and if people don’t agree with your hobby
horse then you become very insulted. Your hobby horse doesn’t have one thing in
the world to do with the teaching of the Word of God, “and verbal conflicts
from which originate conflicts.” What really counts is what you think about
doctrine.
We begin verse 3 with the sequential
use of the conjunction kai, “Then,” plus the aorist
active indicative of the verb a)poferw which means to bring
someone from one place to another place. That is exactly what the teaching
angel did to the apostle John, “Then he brought me.” The constative aorist is
for a momentary action, what we might call a prophetic aorist. The active
voice: the seventh pur sui vant
messenger of the execution squad who is now the teaching angel produces the
action. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the
viewpoint of reality. This was accomplished by means of God the Holy Spirit,
the preposition e)n plus the locative of pneuma, a reference to the third person of the Trinity.
The absence of the definite article emphasises the qualitative aspect of the
noun and that means. of course, in English we have to put in the definite
article, “in the Spirit.” Then there is one more prepositional phrase which
means “to a desolate place,” e)ij plus the accusative of e)remoj. E)remoj means a place of desolation. A desolate place could be a desert or a
forest or a mountain or any place. The stage for religion is, of course, a
desolate place. Religion is desolate and that is exactly what is meant by this
passage, “Then he [the seventh pur sui vant
messenger] brought me in the Spirit to a desolate place.” Religion is desolate
and this is brought out by Isaiah 21: 1,2,9, “The prophecy concerning a
desolate place of the sea [of people]. As wind storms in the south country
[Arabian] sweep on, it comes from a desolate place, from a terrifying land. A
harsh victim has been shown to me; the treacherous one still deals
treacherously, and the destroyer still destroys … behold, here comes a troop of
riders, horsemen in column of two. Then one answered and said, “Fallen, fallen
is Babylon; in fact all the images of her gods are shattered to the ground.”
In other words, Isaiah actually
describes the same passage we are studying under the title of Babylon. Babylon
is used for the international religious system of Satan in the Tribulation. The
city of Babylon was once the centre of idolatry and religion, now in the
Tribulation Babylon is used for the last system of Satanic ecumenical religion.
Therefore, the subject of the vision is the fall of ecumenical religion in the
Tribulation and all the evil produced by it. Religion produces evil.
The prostitute is now brought into
the picture once again. In this passage we have the union of religion and
state. We find the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire being
controlled by religion which is the worst thing that can happen to any government
at any time. To be influenced by Christianity and still retain your freedom is
one thing, but to be controlled by religion is a great disaster.
“Then I saw a woman,” the accusative
singular direct object of the verb o(raw, which means to see, and
what John saw, gunh, a woman. The woman
represents religion because of the role of the woman in the fall of mankind.
When the woman faced the issue of the garden the first thing she did in talking
to Satan was to reject the authority of God, and that is the first thing that
religion does. Secondly, religion twists God and uses God to its own
convenience. Satan asked the woman in the garden, “Are you allowed to eat of
the tree of good and evil?” And she said, “No.” She said, “Well God says that
if you eat it or touch it you will die.” Now, God said nothing about touching
it and that is because religion cannot really be spiritual. Religion thinks of
death lying in the property of the tree rather than in the act of disobedience.
So religion, like the woman in the original sin was negative toward the
authority of God (and also her husband). She misinterpreted the fact that God
said that the wages of sin is death. That would, again, be negative volition
toward God’s mandate but she thought that you could reach out, go up to the
tree and touch it and you would die which, of course, is a distortion. Religion
distorts truth. The major reason that religion is compared to the woman is
because in the course of a conversation with Satan, Satan implied that God was
unfair to the woman, that she didn’t have equal rights, and that because God
was unfair to her and didn’t give her equal rights with Adam that he was trying
to deliberately suppress her. Religion follows this exact same pattern.
It is always the same situation.
When the woman ate of the forbidden fruit the first thing that she discovered
was not that she was like God but she discovered what God was like. The
equality thing was ridiculous. People always think of happiness in terms of
equality until they have it and the most miserable people are those who
suddenly realise they are equal with everything else — the most boring
situation in the world. Happiness doesn’t depend upon your relationship to
other people as far as equality, inferiority, or superiority. None of those are
factors in any type of a relationship or interaction between people, or
relationship with God, but religion always picks out someone and says, “You are
being pushed around, you are the downtrodden, you are not getting your rights,
you are unequal.” This is religion and this is what religion has always done,
this is Satan’s way of distracting believers from the truth of the Word of God.
A prostitute always wants money for
her services and, of course, religion demands money for its services. The
begging for money is one of the big things in religion. Religion is always out
to get your money, your property, or whatever it is. That is the concept of
religion in the analogy to the prostitute, in the analogy to fornication as
apostasy, and all of the other reasons for this.
But it always goes back to the
beginning. Religion is always the upsetter of people. People are going along fine
and then along comes some religion and upsets them. Religion comes along and
says you are not getting what you should. Religion, therefore, spawns
revolution and just as the woman who was, by the way, the first revolutionist,
revolted against God and her husband’s authority in the original sin; so
religion has always spawned revolution. Religion has always come to people and
made them dissatisfied. Therefore, religion is antiestablishment and
anti-authority. Religion is always running around talking about how they are
going to stop wars; it is anti-military, antipolice; it is everything that is
disastrous to society. All of these things are brought in by the analogy
because in the original sin the woman was truly deceived. She was deceived by
the very concepts of religion that Satan later developed in his system. The man
in his sin knew exactly what he was doing. First of all he didn’t go to the
tree and take the fruit. He didn’t have to, the woman was standing there
offering it to him. Religion always offers to people the concept of
disobedience to government, disobedience to anything that God provides in God’s
plan. Therefore, when you find born-again believers who become involved in
civil disobedience and social action and all of the things that are an attack
upon government and establishment they have become involved in religion.
But our passage is not talking about
the attacks of religion today, it is talking about religion as it will exist in
the future. So the woman represents religion because of the role of the woman
in the fall of mankind. We find religion dominating, the present middle
participle of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit. The
word here means to dominate. Therefore, it is a descriptive present, a deponent
verb, middle in form, active in meaning. The ecumenical religious system of the
Tribulation represented by the woman in the vision produces the action, and it
is circumstantial. So we have the word “sitting” and whatever the woman is
sitting on she is dominating, the preposition e)pi plus the accusative of an
adjective and a noun. Kokkinoj is the adjective and it
means “scarlet,” and it is that colour of the Romans when they became
conquerors. They wore scarlet tunics called Kokkinoj. Scarlet was the colour of the Roman army in the past just as red is
often adopted by conquering or successful armies. Here she is mounted on a
scarlet beast and, therefore, the woman representing ecumenical religion is
actually controlling the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Note that the
woman is not the beast dictator but at the moment is in control of the beast
dictator. The woman as religion and the beast as political government of the
revived Roman empire are two separate entities, but for the moment they are
united to use their power together and the religion is in control. That gives
us a very clear picture, then, as to how the revived Roman empire will run. It
will be a slave state; everyone will be a slave to the government, and that is
because of the union of religion and state. You must have a separation of
church and state today, a separation of religion and state, if there is to be
freedom.
The last world war of history is not
going to be an industrial revolution type of war, an economic war, a racial
war, it is going to be the worst kind: a religious war. One of the most
devastating wars of all history was the thirty years war in central Europe. It
started in 1618 and ended in 1648. It destroyed Germany for 100 years. So
religion is fanatical and it is cruel and whenever it is expressed in any form
of violence it is the worst kind.
Here we have a case of the union of
religion and state which destroys the freedom of the people while giving great
power to those who rule. At this moment the beast carries the religious
internationalism of the Tribulation. Later on, of course, the political will
turn against the religious; God will punish in that way. So to gain absolute
and dictatorial power the beast dictator must supplement his political power
with the religious power of the woman, the prostitute of the ecumenical
religious system. Generally the rider controls the horse but eventually in this
case the horse will control the rider. Freedom and authority must coexist under
the laws of divine establishment. That is why when you have freedom without
authority you have anarchy, and anarchy means great violence. Authority without
freedom is tyranny, and tyranny means great violence. So there must be a
balance between freedom and authority and the only way to have this is to have
it in the political form. Therefore, one thing that must always exist is a
total separation of church and state, and the church must not influence the
state. The only influence that the church has is when the citizens of the state
are converted and grow in grace in the protocol system. The influence must come
from the protocol system so that churches do not cause violence and oppression
and loss of freedom in the state.
The job of the state is to get criminals behind bars because
criminals have no civil rights. The purpose of the state is to protect your
personal privacy or property. The criminal comes along and says, “I want you
property and I will therefore violate your privacy to get it.” That is
stealing. So we have to have a government, we have to have local government, we
have to have national government, to protect our privacy. Without our privacy
we have no freedom. Therefore, government protects freedom; government protects
us from criminals; government prosecutes criminals. Then there are criminals in
other countries who want everyone’s property, so we have military
establishment.
Religion, then, is both anti-God and
anti-Bible doctrine. Therefore, religion has many false doctrines, it is well organised
philosophically to attract the unbeliever and to distract the believer from
making Bible doctrine his number one priority. Religion also leads to
self-righteousness. Religious people are not only self-righteous but
self-righteousness becomes the basis for their terrible legalism, their evil,
their fanaticism. Self-righteous arrogance, of course, becomes motivation for
crusader arrogance. Crusader arrogance leads to activism, civil disobedience,
and religion controlling political leadership.
Next we have the historical
influence of religion. This is given in a phrase we have seen before, “having
seven heads and ten horns”. The seven heads are seven empires of the past where
religion has become fanatical and not only controlled its own state but has
been disastrous in its relationship to Israel. They have administered either
the fifth or the fourth cycle of discipline to the Jews. The seven empires
whose religion distracted or dominated Israel include Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia-Chaldea,
Media-Persia, Graeco-Macedonia, the historical Roman empire, and the revived
Roman empire of the Tribulation. So those are the seven heads. Later on we will
see that five are gone, one is [the historical Roman empire at the time of
John], and one is yet to come [the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation].
The ten horns are the ten nations that will be a part of the revived Roman
empire. Each one of those nations are under the beast dictator.
Corrected translation: “Then he [the
seventh pur sui vant messenger of the
execution squad now acting as a teaching angel] brought me in the Spirit [God
the Holy Spirit] to a desolate place [religion is a desolate place]; and I saw
a woman [ecumenical religion of the Tribulation] sitting on a scarlet beast [the
revived Roman empire of the Tribulation], full of blasphemous categories [false
doctrines of cosmic two], having seven heads [seven empires whose religion
influenced Israel] and ten horns [the ten nation confederation of the revived
Roman empire].”
Satan’s last religious system is the
most glamorous of all. The superficial glamour of ecumenical religion of the
Tribulation is the subject of verse 4.
We begin with the connective kai and translate it “Now” because we are going from
part to the whole. Then the nominative singular subject of gunh, “woman,” “Now the woman.
The woman represents religious internationalism as a part of Satan’s system in
the Tribulation. The headquarters for this ecumenical religious system is Rome,
the capital of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation, and it will be the
capital for the greatest religious system ever devised by Satan. This religious
system will at first be controlling the ten-nation confederation. However, we
are going to discover that you have to be careful what you control. Today you
control it; tomorrow it might destroy you, and that is exactly what is going to
happen to this beautiful woman. This religious system is a very glamorous
class-type analogy and the woman is so described here.
We have a periphrastic to describe
here clothing, the pluperfect periphrastic indicative made up of the imperfect
active indicative of the verb e)imi, the verb to be. The rest
of any periphrastic is the participle, the perfect passive participle of periballw which means to clothe. When you put the two
together we simply translate it “was clothed. It must be understood that the
periphrastic is a very strong statement indicating the pluperfect periphrastic
has the force of an intensive perfect and it indicates that there never was a
time when this prostitute was low class. This is no street prostitute, this is
a very high class prostitute and it must be remembered that a prostitute with
class is the analogy to religion. This is a high class operation and at that
time in history it will attract low class people as well as high class people.
It is the most successful religion ever developed by Satan. He is the greatest
creature genius of all time but it has taken him several thousands of years to
come up with something that will catch everyone. Low class religions are for
low class people and that is generally why the tongues movement attracts the
proletariat. And, by the way, tongues is a religion; it is an apostasy; it is
an evil, not Christianity any more. Of course, any time that you have a low
class deal where everyone starts to emote together “holy roller disco style”
then you are only going to attract holy roller disco types; but when you get
something that is really high class then it is going to attract everyone, the
high class and the low class. Whenever you attract everyone throughout the
world then you have a great ecumenical religious system, and the strongest
religious system of all time will exist in the Tribulation. This is absolutely
unique.
Note that the periphrastic is very
strong. This prostitute didn’t start out as a prostitute. “Now the woman was
clothed, and this is the way she was always clothed, says the periphrastic. She
didn’t start out low down and work up. We are talking about religion here,
spiritual fornication.
Two colours are mentioned and they
are very significant. First we have the accusative singular direct object from porfura, “purple, the royal colour. It refers to political
hierarchy. Next we have the accusative singular direct object from kokkinoj, “scarlet, the colour of rulership in the political
realm. Purple is the colour in the ecclesiastical realm. So we have purple for
the religious leadership and scarlet for the political hierarchy; and the fact
that both are mentioned after a periphrastic indicates the union of religion
and state. This religion is so high class, so impressive, that the state comes
under its control. Purple and scarlet in the dress code of this woman indicates
once again that just as she is riding the scarlet beast, so she [religion] is
controlling the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. Eventually in
the Tribulation the state will turn against religion but before that happens
there is the union of religion and the state and the destruction of freedom in
the revived Roman empire.
Next we have the perfect passive
participle of the verb xrusow, and it means to be gilded
with gold, to be plated with gold, to be adorned with gold. Obviously, if you
are wearing a lot of gold and the light strikes you it glitters. So the
translation: “The woman was clothed with purple and scarlet, and was glittering
[which means glamorous].” The intensive perfect tense with completed action and
intensified results emphasises in the Greek the status quo of this religion
from start to finish. She always glittered with gold, she always wore a lot of
gold. There is no exact equivalent in the English for the intensive perfect.
The closest approximation is the English present tense. This is why we
translate it “was glittering.” The passive voice: the woman as the
personification of international religion in the Tribulation receives the
action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. So we have a translation
of the beginning of this verse: “Now the woman was clothed with purple and
scarlet [the union of religion and state] and was glittering with gold.” “With
gold” is the instrumental singular of xrusion. Glittering with gold is simply a way of describing wealth. This is a
very wealthy organisation. Great wealth from religion means that they have a
tremendous system for marketing their product which is religion.
Next we have a connective kai plus the instrumental singular, used in a
collective sense, of two words: an adjective timioj,
and a noun liqoj. Both are in the singular
but the collective concept here would be a strong plural in the English. Timioj means precious, costly, valuable; liqoj means stone. We translate it, “and precious
stones.” This refers to the fact that this religion has a culture and a system
of artifacts with the religion. While gold represents the wealth of this
international religious system the precious stones represent both the culture
and the artifacts related to the religion. A religion has to have a culture as
a substitute for doctrine and, of course, culture is a way of thinking. So it
has a culture and it has a system of artifacts, and that follows the ancient
religions at the time that John wrote, and ancient religions also which existed
before Moses. Satan’s premise from artifacts is this: Satan contends that
idolatry is older than either Judaism or Christianity, so in his international
religious system he is going to go back to the principle of chronology. He is
going to say that idolatry existed before Judaism, idolatry existed before
Christianity, therefore it is the only true religion. There will be a system of
artifacts that will be worshipped under the principle of idolatry. Of course,
we know that the true connotation of idolatry is contact with demons, it is the
devil’s communion table. So this rejects the eternity of God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and substitutes creature worship which is
always the objective of Satan.
Then there is the instrumental
plural of margarithj which means pearls. The
pearls represent the glamour of Satan’s eclectic religious system of the
Tribulation. Pearls are very apt because pearls represent style in dress, and
the point is: this religion has class. The pearls represent not only class but
glamour in the eclectic religious system. Glamour always attracts the
superficial person but class attracts all kinds of people. The glamour of this
religion will attract many adherents, many converts, to it.
Then we have the present active
participle of the verb e)xw which
indicates another of her possessions. E)xw means to have, to possess, to have and to hold.
With this we have an accusative singular direct object from an adjective and a
noun: the adjective xruseoj, meaning golden; the noun pothrion means a drinking goblet,“ a golden drinking cup.”
Our Lord’s cup was a cup of judgment for it contained all the sins of the
world. The cup is often used to portray the saving work of our Lord Jesus
Christ. The drinking of that cup is actually the analogy to the imputation of
every sin committed by every person in the entire history of the human race,
including millions of sins not yet committed. But there is a false cup and the
false cup is called “the cup of demons.” It is a part of the devil’s communion
table, 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. This passage actually refers to the cup of
demons which is the function of religion as the devil’s system of distraction
from Bible doctrine. Demonism is a part of the devil’s communion table. Two
cups, then, are in total contrast: the cup of our Lord in which He was judged
for the sins of the world; the cup of the devil’s communion table which is a
system of religion and a system of antichrist in the function of cosmic two.
The golden cup, therefore, is the pseudo holy grail and with it we have the
fact that it was in the hand of the woman. Religion uses the system. We have e)n plus the locative of xeir, “hand, “in the hand. It is the hand of the woman
as the ecumenical religious system of the future, so we have the possessive
genitive of a)utoj,” in her hand.” It is said
to be a filled cup. The cup of our Lord was filled with our sins, only this
time we have the present active participle of the accusative singular of the
verb gemw, “full,” and it is used
this time as a substantive. With it we have the content of the cup, bdelugma, which means abomination, something detestable. It
refers to the entire function of the phallic cult.
Next we have the explanation of this
in the connective kai plus the accusative plural
direct object of akaqartoj which means unclean
activities, impurity, the general connotation is lasciviousness. With this is a
descriptive genitive plural, the impurities of fornication, porneia, “her fornication,” the possessive genitive
singular from a)utoj. Translation: “having a
golden cup in her hand filled with the abominations and impurities of her
fornication.” Once again we have a reference to fornication, once again it is a
reference to religion by analogy, and here we get into the literal fornication
on the part of the phallic cult.
The cup of evil in the phallic cult
as the devil’s communion table is mentioned first in Habakkuk 2:15,16. Habakkuk
actually develops the entire concept of the devil’s communion table and how it
operated in Israel long before it was mentioned in 1 Corinthians chapter ten.
“Woe to him,” the individual who is
looking for happiness by combining religion with pleasure. This, of course, is
what the phallic cult does: a frantic search for happiness in sex and religion
combined, “who causes his lover to drink the cup [of fornication in religion],
Woe to the one pouring from sexual desire and passion to make her drunk, so that
he can look with sexual pleasure on her nakedness!” This is a reference to the
priestess in the temple, and the Jews had become operational in the phallic
cult. “You have become saturated with shame instead of virtue. Drink also from
the cup and expose your foreskin [the religious procedure]. The cup in the
Lord’s right hand [judgment] will get around to you, and the vomiting of shame
will destroy your integrity.”
Psalm 11:6 also has something to say
about the devil’s communion table: “He shall cause live coals to rain on the
wicked ones; fire and brimstone and burning wind is the portion of their cup.”
So from God’s viewpoint this cup of
lasciviousness, this cup of fornication in the name of religion, is a cup of
burning coals, burning wind, a cup of fire and brimstone. In other words, it is
a cup of judgment. While religion emphasises the drinking of it God emphasises
the hangover from it. Religion combines the cup of demons of 1 Corinthians
10:21 with the doctrine of demons in 1 Timothy 4:1, and that is exactly why we
have it all put together in these analogies in verse four. The content of this
cup, then, is religion combined with idolatry in the phallic cult, and it
results in drinking the cup of divine judgment.
This religion of the Tribulation is an
international religion and it has four factors. Power is the first factor. It
has great international power with the combination of purple and scarlet
clothing. It controls nations. It is a religion not only being the nation but
controlling nations. Secondly, it has great wealth and glamour. Thirdly, it is
a system of lascivious pleasure, literal fornication combined with idolatry
forming demonism, human sacrifice, everything involved in the devil’s communion
table of 1 Corinthians 10:20,21. Fourthly, it is a very high class type of
religion. All of these things seem to be contradictory but they are combined in
a very clever package which represents the great genius of Satan.
The identification of ecumenical
religion in the Tribulation is now given in verse 5. Why is the title on her
forehead? This is in keeping with the analogies we have previously noted.
Prostitutes in the time of the Roman empire had to have a label pasted on their
forehead, and it had a name on it which identified the individual as a Roman
whore. First of all it had the fact that she was a prostitute and then it had
her name, and it was always pasted on the forehead. This was the way in which
they were identified. This is why in the analogy we have the name on the
forehead. It was quite in keeping with the custom of the time. You really can’t
interpret the Bible unless you know about the time in which it was written.
“And upon her forehead was a name
written.” The connective conjunction kai is used to provide more
information, therefore we translate it “Furthermore.” Then we have the
prepositional phrase, e)pi plus the accusative of metwpon, and with it the genitive of a)utoj, “her” forehead. This is in keeping, then, with the
label pasted on the forehead of the Roman prostitutes. The Bible must be
interpreted in the time in which it was written. One other thing they often had
on the label was the part of the world from which they had come.
The word “has been written” is the
perfect passive participle from grafw which
means to write. It means written in the past with the result that it stands
written forever. The next word is a part of the label. The label begins with
the Greek word in the nominative of apposition, musthrion.
Musthrion is used in a technical sense
in the New Testament. “Furthermore, a name [label] has been written on her
forehead.” The word musthrion was originally used in
Attic Greek and Ionic Greek to denote the secrets and the doctrines of the
Greek fraternities in the ancient world. The noun is derived from the Ionic
noun musthj, not found in the New
Testament. When a person had been initiated into one of these fraternities he
also was also said to be instructed in the secrets of that fraternity. The verb
that was used was u)eom. He was learning the
doctrines and the secrets of that fraternity and in doing so it was never to be
known to outsiders. They actually worshipped the god Dionysus and went through
a system of worship, demon worship actually. That was called musthrion and was the original meaning: the secrets by which
the various fraternities were religions worshipping the gods of Mount Olympus,
and how they actually managed to become demon-possessed. They were secret
systems for demon contact.
In the New Testament it is not used
in this sense, only in this passage. It is used in other passages to indicate a
whole system of Bible doctrine that was never known to the Old Testament people
and never known to Israel as a client nation. They were never known in the Old
Testament scriptures but now, in the New Testament scriptures, they are
revealed. They are revealed to the royal family of God, the Church Age
believers. That is the technical meaning of the word “mystery” as used in the
New Testament, except for our passage in Revelation chapter seventeen. Generally
speaking the word “mystery” refers to Church Age doctrine.
Satan’s ecumenical religion of the
Tribulation is part of mystery doctrine but not Church Age mystery doctrine. In
this case it is the mystery of an international religious system, an ecumenical
system of religion that has never yet existed. There have been religious
systems that have been semi-ecumenical historically but they have never
penetrated into every part of the world and there never has been a totally
ecumenical religious system, one that completely controlled the people of the
world. Therefore, a true ecumenical system of international religion as Satan’s
system is still a future doctrine at this time to be fulfilled in the
Tribulation itself.
The next words in our study are the
words “Babylon the Great.” This is not the city of Babylon, not the empire, but
the religious system of Satan in the Tribulation. This system of international
religion was sponsored by the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation, and the
description of this religion as the devil’s communion table follows in the next
phrase which is the explanation of the prostitute label. It begins with the
nominative of apposition from the noun mhthr,
the word for mother in the Greek. With this is the genitive plural of relationship
from the noun pornh, the Greek word for
prostitute, plus the connective kai and the genitive plural of
relationship from bdelugma which means generally
“abomination”, and the possessive genitive referring to planet earth.
So we have the title which has been
written on her forehead: “Mystery, Babylon the Great [ecumenical religion of
the Tribulation], the mother of prostitutes [the origin of all world religions
since Satan became the ruler of this world] and the abominations of planet
earth [the various evils of the phallic cult: demonism, idolatry, fornication,
human sacrifice].”
The evil of religion comes from the
motivation of arrogance. Satan is the father of religion; he is also the father
of arrogance. The roots of the Babylonian religion lie far back in prehistoric
time. All Babylonian religion was related to idolatry which is the basis of
demon contact. In fact, idolatry is the devil’s communion table. The reason why
the title is called “Babylon the Great” is because every form of idolatry,
every form of religion, has its origin in the pantheon at Babylon. We are not
referring here to the city of Babylon or to any of the Babylonian empires, we
are actually referring here to the origin of idolatry as a system of demon
contact. For example, the chief god of the Babylonians was Marduk, sometimes
called Bel. Marduk or Bel is the chief god comparable to the Greek Zeus, or the
Phoenician Baal, or the Roman Jupiter, or the Jewish Merodach. But the origin
of all of these pantheons with their chief god all started with Marduk or Bel.
Even though the names are changed the concept is the same. The worship of Zeus
was the same as the worship of Marduk; the worship of Baal in Israel and in
Phoenicia, the same. The Greeks and the Romans had a comparable deity with a
comparable system of religious worship. The god of the sky was called Anu and
all of the ancients had some system for worshipping the sky. One of the worst
was when Anu, the god of the sky, was converted into Molech for the sacrifice
of children in burning. There is also the sun god of Babylon, called Nergal.
Probably the most famous of all was the Babylonian Ishtar, the goddess of love,
the goddess of fertility, and so on. This became the Phoenician goddess Ashtarte,
the Greek goddess Aphrodite, the Roman goddess Venus, and all were comparable
in the function of the phallic cult and the idolatrous worship. So the roots of
Babylonian religion lie a way back in the prehistorical past but nevertheless
were reflected in the pantheons of most of the ancient people.
The analogy to the prostitute we
have noted should also be covered in some detail since obviously when the Bible
makes an analogy we are to learn something from it. The prostitute is never
emotionally involved with her customer and religion has neither virtue nor
interest in its adherents. The mass poisoning of the Jones cult is a good
illustration of why religion has as its analogy prostitution. The prostitute
arouses lust in her customer; religion appeals to natural lusts related to both
arrogance and sensualism. The prostitute makes money from the use of her body;
religion makes money though its system of worship, demanding money for
blessing. The prostitute represents an evil system — a pimp, a gangster
syndicate; religion represents the greatest evil system of all, Satan and his
demon organisation. The prostitute lures mankind into sin for fornication. In
the same manner religion lures the believer away from Bible doctrine into the evilness
and the sinfulness of the cosmic system. Fornication is both literal in the
Bible and is used as an analogy to the modus operandi of religion. Fornication
or spiritual adultery is also used to describe cosmic involvement,
reversionism, and apostasy. Fornication is used as an analogy to religion
extensively in this context.
Fornication is a sexual sin. It is
sexual activity outside of the divine institution of marriage. Sex was designed
to be an expression of love between a man and a woman in marriage. As an
expression of category #2 love sex is not only legitimate and beautiful but it
expresses the coalescence of body and soul of the two involved. Fornication, on
the other hand, is categorised as seduction of a member of the opposite sex, or
incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, the molestation of children,
indecent exposure, etc. A married woman is the property of one man. Fornication
or adultery is simply stealing someone else’s property, which is criminal
activity. So under the laws given by Moses, the laws of divine establishment,
fornication or adultery is forbidden. The prohibition is not confined to the
Old Testament: 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee fornication.”
Adultery and fornication are often
used in the spiritual sense to describe religion, reversion, apostasy, cosmic
involvement. In Revelation chapters 17,18 and 19 we have references to
fornication, none of which are literal, all have to do with religion. So we are
dealing here with the analogy, not literal fornication.
We are now ready to note the policy
of ecumenical religion toward the believers of the Tribulation, verse 6: “And I
saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints.” Just as fornication leads to
criminality and degeneration so religion also leads to criminality and
degeneration, “and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her,
I wondered with great admiration.”
The passage is not entirely
correctly translated in the King James version. We begin with the sequential
use of the conjunction kai which is translated “Then,”
followed by the accusative singular direct object of the word gunh, “woman.” Sometimes she is also called pornh which simply means
prostitute. Remember that we are talking about religion, not Bible
Christianity. Bible Christianity is not a religion. We have the aorist active
indicative of o(raw, “Then I saw,” and then the
accusative singular, “the woman.” This time she is said to be inebriated, the
accusative singular, present active participle from the verb mequw. Why is drunkenness or inebriation used as an
analogy? Because drunkenness also represents certain concepts. To drink is not
sinful in itself; drunkenness is definitely a sin. But here we are dealing with
the analogy which is to religion. What is there in drunkenness that is
analogous to religion? Well, we can approach it from any standpoint. First of
all, in drinking too much the blood stream is saturated and the ability to
think is gone. Religion destroys the believer’s ability to think in terms of
Bible doctrine and unless you can think in terms of Bible doctrine you cannot
apply doctrine to your experience. Anyone with a legalistic background cannot
apply doctrine. The legalism has to go. Secondly, inebriation means you’re
close to death because when you breathe and cannot get oxygen into the blood
stream the potential for death is there. But inebriation has other ideas here
and the concept is that inebriation removes your restraints. Furthermore, it emphasises
what you feel rather than what you think, therefore emotion comes into play.
And so because religious people are worked up emotionally they are often,
therefore, inspired by a religious leader to kill those who have the truth.
Inebriation is an illustration of being emotionally worked up and losing the
ability to think or apply, and that means moving toward criminality. When religion
begins to have an effect upon people then immediately you move toward
criminality.
So the woman becomes inebriated, and
then there is a new kind of lust, blood lust. The phallic cult always starts
out with all kinds of sexual activity. Any kind of sexual activity is approved
and this is a form of lust that eventually leads to another lust, and that is
the killer lust. That is why at the end of all phallic cult activity in
religion they always have human sacrifice. Human sacrifice is a part of this
ecumenical religious system and the victims are believers in the Lord Jesus
Christ, those who will not renounce Christ as saviour, “inebriated with the
blood of the saints” is an idiom for the destruction of believers in the
Tribulation.
Next it says, “and the blood of the
witnesses for Jesus.” Of all of the systems in the world which lack virtue and
are motivated by evil to demonstrate cruelty the worst form is religion.
Religion has great great cruelty, evil and criminality related to it and the
worst religion of all is one in the future, the truly international religious
system which Satan will devise and will utilise the revived Roman empire to
develop. Religion is always evil; religion is always cruel. Any sign of
humanitarianism in religion is merely a superficial facade to create the
impression rather than to express doctrine or truth from the Word of God.
Religion persecutes the truth for religion is Satan’s lie seeking to supersede
the truth, seeking to destroy doctrine. This explains the Tribulational martyrs
which we have studied in chapter 6:9-11; 7:13,14; 8:1-4; 14:13. By very nature,
by very definition religion demands the destruction of believers who adhere to
Bible doctrine and fulfill God’s plan for their lives.
Religion has been invented by Satan
to counterfeit the plan of God and to fulfill the objective of Satan to be like
the Most High God. Christianity and religion are not the same. In Christianity
man seeks and finds God through personal faith in Jesus Christ, which is
tantamount, of course, to God seeking man. In religion man seeks to gain the
approbation of God or some higher power through his own works and activity.
Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God through faith in
Christ. In religion man seeks the approbation of God through his works, his
human merit, and his systems. Religion emphasises the evil genius of Satan
while Christianity represents the perfect integrity of God. In Christianity
counterfeits are not there. Counterfeits are only in Satan’s system of
religion.
The ecumenical religious system in
the Tribulation will have its own false teachers and its own system of cosmic
evangelism. These teachers always practice hypocrisy and they often have a
phony facade of piety, Romans 16:18. False teachers function under human public
relations modus operandi and often use their legalism to court victims, such as
in Galatians 4:17,18. False teachers appeal to human arrogance and pride and
they suck their victims into gate one of cosmic one, 2 Corinthians 10:12. They
promote idolatry, as per Habakkuk 2:18,19, and they also promote arrogant
self-righteousness and all forms of legalism, according to 1 Timothy 1:6,7.
False teachers not only exist in every generation of the Church Age but they
will dominate in the Tribulation.
Idolatry is one of the areas in
which religion functions, especially the ecumenical religion we are studying
related to the Tribulation. Idolatry is the subject of the first two
commandments of the decalogue. The first commandment prohibits mental or soulish
idolatry, according to Deuteronomy 5:6,7, whereas the second commandment
prohibits overt idolatry, Deuteronomy 5:8-10. Obviously, then, idolatry begins
in the soul and proceeds to an overt system of practice. Mental idolatry always
precedes overt idolatry and this is found as a principle in Ezekiel 14:7.
Scar-tissue of the soul in cosmic involvement always precedes the modus
operandi of idolatry. Idolatry is simply a manifestation of being in the cosmic
system, according to Romans 1:18-25. For this reason idolatry is often called
spiritual fornication because it involves unfaithfulness to the Lord. Idolatry
is also the basis for contacting demons, demon possession, and demon influence,
Deuteronomy 32:17; Psalm 106:36.37. The believer can only be under demon
influence through false doctrine while the unbeliever can experience actual
demon possession. So when the believer is involved in the cosmic system he is
under demon influence. The unbeliever is under demon possession as well as
demon influence.
Another reason for the references to
fornication in our passage is that the phallic cult includes literal
fornication, although that is not the kind of fornication we find in our
passage. The phallic cult includes all kinds of immorality, Leviticus 18, demonism
and demon influence, Leviticus 20:6, and human sacrifice, Leviticus 20:1-5.
We now move into the apostolic
astonishment in Revelation 17:6. By this time very few things seem to astonish
John and he has been in areas of life of degeneracy of the Claudio Julian Caesars.
He has seen plenty of that which would be shocking. He is now inured to that
type of thing. Nevertheless, seeing religion in the future causes him great
shock. We begin with the connective use of the conjunction kai, “and,” followed by the aorist active participle of
the verb o(raw which is simply referring
to the vision of the great prostitute. This is a temporal participle,
Furthermore, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the
main verb. It is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in
its entirety. The apostle John as the human author produces the action. So we
translate it, “and when I saw.”
Then we have the aorist active
indicative of the verb qaumazw which
means amazement or shock, “and when I saw her I was shocked.” The culminative aorist
contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it regards what John has
just seen with regard to religion and he is astonished at the cruelty of
religion and the depravity of man in this function of the religion. The active
voice: John produces the action. The indicative mood indicates the main verb
plus the fact that it indicates John’s true feelings in seeing the vision of
religion as we have seen it in the first five verses. John was shocked by the
fact that religion can have such a beautiful front and have such a tremendous
system of concentrated evil. With this we have the accusative feminine singular
of the intensive pronoun a)utoj used
as a personal pronoun, and it is translated, “I was shocked at her.” Then, to
make sure that we understand it, we have what is called the cognate accusative
made up of an adjective and a noun. The adjective is megaj and the noun is qauma,
“great amazement [greatly shocked].” The shock came from all of the vileness
and all of the degeneracy and the front which is so beautiful and attractive.
The contrast between the two causes John to be shocked.
Translation of verse 6: “Then I saw
the woman intoxicated with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the
witnesses for Jesus: now when I saw her I was greatly shocked.”
The
reason for all of this is twofold. He is shocked that religion could exist
under the greatest system of evangelism the world has ever known. The stronger
the field of evangelism in any given generation the stronger the religious
counterattack. Strong religious activity always accompanies great evangelism.
What is always shocking is that the stronger the presentation of truth the
stronger the reaction to truth. Reaction always causes a strong system not
simply of antagonism but of false doctrine as well. So whenever truth is
presented with strength there is always a great reaction to it. The principle:
The evil of religion comes from the motivational arrogance and from the
rejection of the truth.
In the Tribulation there is a
tremendous concentration of normal followed by crisis evangelism. This is true
of the first half of the Tribulation, it is true of the last half of the
Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation the crisis evangelism is
found in the seals; in the last half of the Tribulation it will be found in the
bowl judgments. In between we have some tremendous crisis evangelism in that
transition from the first to the last half. In this crisis evangelism we have
divine judgment which distracts those who are in the cosmic system from the
cosmic system so that they can have objectivity long enough to make a decision.
All of this brings about a tremendous counterattack from Satan. Satan
concentrates and focuses all of his genius in order to counterattack this
system.
In the first six verses of this
chapter we have now completed the vision and now we have an interpretation of
the vision in verses 7-18 by the seventh pur
sui vant messenger.
In verse 7 we start out with an
interrogative introduction. The angelic Bible teacher here starts with a
question: Why are you so shocked? What is the source of amazement here? These
things are always going on, the total depravity of man is just as true as the
magnificent virtue that is produced in the protocol system. You have man at his
best in God’s plan, man at his worst in Satan’s plan. What is so shocking about
that? The contrasts of life are always there. The only time you do not see the
contrasts in life is when no one is thinking the truth, speaking the truth, or
presenting the truth to the public. Then, of course, there is no contrast and
therefore no basis for shock.
We have the sequential use of the
conjunction kai, translated “Then.” The
subject is the nominative singular from a)ggeloj, “Then the angel,” and the aorist
active indicative from legw, “Then the angel said,”
followed by the dative singular indirect object , “to me,” e)gw.
The question comes in a
prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative
singular of the interrogative pronoun tij,
“because why” is the literal translation. When a prepositional phrase is used
to introduce a question it means either pretended shock at the reaction or
genuine shock. Here it is merely used as a means of introducing a new subject.
Used in a direct question you do not translate the preposition, merely the
object of the preposition. You do not say, “because why”, the literal
translation, but the idiom is simply “Why?”
Then the aorist active indicative of
the verb qaumazw follows. It means to be shocked,
“Why are you shocked?” The dramatic aorist tense states a present reality with
the certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis, hence a
dramatic aorist used to state what has just been realised. All of this from the
vision finally comes into focus for John.
A principle must be developed at
this point. You cannot ever learn beyond the point at which you are shocked,
and when people become shocked at hearing the truth, no matter what form the
truth may take, at that point they cease to learn because by being shocked they
go into arrogant subjectivity. John went into a state of shock and before he
can learn all of the details he must first get back into a state of
objectivity. The active voice represents the state expressed by the verbal
idea, the fact that the apostle went into shock. This is an interrogative
indicative tense assuming that there is an actual fact that may be stated in
answer to the question. There is a viewpoint which will be rapidly changed from
subjectivity to objectivity.
Principle: If you are going to learn
the whole realm of Bible doctrine you must never allow your subjectivity to
hang out. Subjectivity must be changed instantly into objectivity. The only way
that you can function under GAP at gate four of the divine dynasphere
is to remain in a state of objectivity, and one of the great attacks on
objectivity is to be shocked at the true language of the Word of God. When you
find yourself being shocked at anything that happens in life you have
immediately gone to subjectivity. You have to be very careful because
subjectivity provides predilection for arrogance and before you know it you
have entered gate one of cosmic one and therefore have intensified any possible
negative volition that comes from preoccupation with self.
“Why are you shocked?” Religion
tends to be “holy,” it always has a facade of pseudo-spirituality. It is a very
superficial thing, it often includes some forms of self-righteousness and it
always includes a demand for self-sacrifice. When people are entering into
self-sacrifice it becomes one of the most subtle forms of potential arrogance.
Most people involved in any type of sacrificial living usually have a very
subtle and very evil form of arrogance. And it is always a shock to see religion,
behind its facade of self-righteousness and its facade of holiness, producing
so much evil and degeneracy. The facade of religion is not the true nature of
religion and the believer must be able to discern and to penetrate the
hypocrisy of religion to avoid any shock as the reaction to its evil deeds.
Evil is the system that Satan has instilled and inculcated into his religious
system. The evil of religion originates from motivational arrogance. Satan is
the father of religion; he is also the originator, the author, the father, of
arrogance as the motivation of evil.
“Then the angel said to me, Why are
you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman.” When he
says, “I will communicate to you” he combines the present tense of legw with the future of another verb which comes out the
aorist e)ipon,
which means he is going to bring it all into one neat package, the rest of the
chapter. Sometimes there is a slightly different part used here and since this
is all in the future he uses something that comes very close, e)irw, and that makes it future active indicative. It is
a progressive future, he is going to explain the interpretation in the context.
The active voice: the pur sui vant messenger
will explain it and then will give way to even a greater teacher, the king of
arms. The declarative indicative represents the verbal action from the
viewpoint of reality. He will now make a detailed explanation giving John a
chance to recover his poise and to get it all down.
“I will communicate to you,” the
dative singular indirect object as well as the dative of advantage from the
pronoun su. And he doesn’t call it
simply “the woman,” it is “the mystery of the woman.” We have already seen that
this is not a literal woman but this is an analogy between the woman in the
garden and the development of the system of religion. So we have a descriptive
genitive singular of gunh,
the accusative singular direct object of musthrion, and it is translated “the
mystery of the woman.” Therefore, he is going to explain in a little more
detail international religion of the Tribulation.
With this also we have a connective kai. He is going to explain the religious system and
then he is going to explain the seven heads. So he says, “I will communicate to
you the mystery of the woman, the one who has the seven heads.” That means he
is going to teach the whole thing and he is also going to teach about the beast
dictator, “and the beast dictator who carries her.” The beast dictator, of
course, refers to the revived Roman empire.
Translation: “Then the angel said to
me, Why are you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman,
and the beast dictator who carries her, and the one who has the seven heads and
the ten horns.”
This means he is going to explain
the woman as the religious system, the revived Roman empire, the seven heads,
the ten horns, and he is going to throw in the waters of verse one. The outline
for the rest of the chapter is: The interpretation of the beast, verse 8; the
interpretation of the seven heads, verses 9-10; the interpretation of the beast
concluded, verse 11; the interpretation of the ten horns, verses 12,13; the
interpretation of the waters, verse 15; the interpretation of the ten horns is
continued and concluded, verses 16,17; the interpretation of the woman herself,
verse 18. Notice that he begins the explanation of an interpretation and then
must insert some information and then go back to it.
In verse 7 we noticed that the
seventh pur sui vant messenger
continued his dissertation on the vision: “Then the angel said to me, Why are
you so shocked? I will communicate to you the mystery of the woman, and the
beast who carries her, the one who has the seven heads and the ten horns.” Then
the rest of the chapter becomes interpretation.
In verse 8 we have the beginning of
the interpretation of the beast; in verses 9-10 we have the interpretation of
the seven heads; in verse 11 the interpretation of the beast is continued and
concluded; in verses 12-13 is the interpretation of the ten horns; in verse 15
is the interpretation of the waters; in verses 16-17 the interpretation of the
ten horns is continued and concluded; in verse 18 is the interpretation of the
woman.
We begin by noting in verse 8 that
the subject is in the nominative singular. It is the noun qhrion, translated “beast dictator” inasmuch as it refers
to the dictator of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Immediately
following we have a qualifying phrase introduced with the nominative neuter
singular of the relative pronoun o(j, translated “that.” Then we
have the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw
inasmuch as John is looking at this picture through a vision. John has seen the
vision; now this angel is interpreting the vision, he records the interpretation
in order that we might understand the eschatological implication of this
passage and the next chapter dealing with religion in future. This is followed
by the imperfect active indicative of the verb e)imi,
the verb to be, “The beast that you saw was.”
“That you saw” is a reference to
John’s vision in chapter 13:1-10. The verb “was” is in the imperfect tense and
is linear aktionsart in past time. This is a reference to the Roman empire at
the time that John wrote in AD 96 when the empire was
about to take a turn for the better. The active voice: the historical Roman
empire in the year AD 96 produces the action. The
declarative indicative is for the historical reality of the existence of the
Roman empire at the time that John wrote.
Next we have a connective
conjunction kai and the negative o)uk plus the present active
indicative of e)imi. E)imi this time in the present tense with o)uk, the negative which goes with the indicative mood,
added. It is translated correctly, “and is not.” This is a pictorial present
tense, it brings to mind a picture of the Roman empire in AD 476 when the Roman empire was terminated officially. The active voice:
the Roman empire produces the action of the verb by ceasing to exist. The
indicative mood is declarative for a statement of historical fulfillment and
the future as far as John is concerned, therefore eschatological to John,
historical to us. “The beast that you saw,” the vision of Revelation 13:1-10,
“was,” the empire at the time of John AD 96, “and is not,” the Roman
empire in 476 AD, the year it ceased to
exist.
Then we have another connective
conjunction kai, and we have two verbs to
describe the next phrase. We have the present active indicative of the verb mellw which means about to be, and
is generally translated “about to.” With this is the present active infinitive
of the verb a)nabainw which means to ascend, to
go up, to come up. We are going to translate it, “and is about to come up”. It
is a reference to the dictatorship of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation.
Then we have a prepositional phrase, e)k plus the ablative of a)bussoj, transliterated “the abyss,” referring to the fourth
compartment of Hades where Abaddon and the first demon assault army were
quartered. The abyss indicates that Satan gives the power to the revived Roman
empire. There would be no revived Roman empire apart from Satanic power. It is
about to come up from the abyss and that is the rise of the dictator of the
revived Roman empire, and it refers to the last half of the Tribulation.
We have connective conjunction kai once more plus the present active indicative of u(pagw, one of the words which means to go, “and he will
go.” The present tense is a futuristic present denoting an event which has not
yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated
as already coming to pass. The active voice: the dictator of the revived Roman
empire will produce the action in his judgment, a judgment we are now in the
process of studying. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the
judgment of the revived Roman empire in the Tribulation plus the judgment of
the ecumenical system which came into power through it.
We have one more prepositional
phrase, the prepositional e)ij plus
the accusative singular of a)poleia, “to destruction.” In this
case “destruction” or a)poleia refers
to the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20.
The next sentence indicates that as
far as unbelievers are concerned, and probably a lot of believers too, this
Roman empire is going to have good press. The admiration of unbelievers is
mentioned next. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, translated “in fact.” It is followed by the articular
present active participle of the verb katoikew, but this is the participle not used as a verb but used as a
substantive. It means simply “inhabitants,” “in fact the inhabitants of the
earth,” the prepositional e)pi plus the genitive of gh. It refers to those who live on planet earth during
the Tribulation but they must be qualified and the category of mankind is given
after the verb. The future passive indicative of qaumazw means, this time, not to be shocked but to be amazed. It refers her to
admiration. It has the connotation of shock and admiration, and it can be
translated” in fact the inhabitants of the earth will marvel,” but perhaps a
better translation would be “stand in admiration.” The gnomic future tense is
for a statement of fact that may be expected with the rise of the beast
dictator and the manifestation of Satan’s power through him. Man apart from the
knowledge of truth and the knowledge of doctrine is always amazed and in
admiration of Satanic power. The passive voice: this is a deponent verb,
passive in form, active in meaning. The unbelievers of the Tribulation,
especially the press, will give great admiration to this empire. The indicative
mood is declarative for the reality of the admiration of the fourth estate and
the people of the world at that time.
The category of admirers is given in
a relative clause. The relative clause begins with a relative pronoun in the
genitive case, o(j, this time translated
“who.” We have a nominative singular subject in the noun o)noma which has numerous meanings. It can mean anything
from names to personality but in this case “name” is a very good translation,
and we translate it “whose name.” The relative pronoun now comes into focus and
then the negative o)u plus the verb grafw, and the verb is in the perfect passive indicative,
“whose names have not been written in the book of life.” The book of life has
been noted before, it is the book in which the names of all the people of the
world are written. However, when people die not having accepted Christ as saviour
their name is blotted out of the book of life so that by the time we reach
eternity the book of life has the names of believers only plus the titles of
royal family that have been earned during life in phase two of the Church Age.
But here in our passage we have people who are not in the book of life as it
will be finalised.
It says that this book of life is
“from the foundation of the world,” a)po plus
the ablative of katabolh, “from the foundation,” plus
the descriptive genitive of kosmoj,
“in fact the inhabitants of the earth whose name had not been written in the
book of life from the foundation of the world.” These are the ones who will
marvel or stand in admiration.
Translation: “The beast [the
dictator of the revived Roman empire] that you saw [John’s vision] was [the
Roman empire at the time of John], and is not [the fall of the Roman empire in
476 AD], and is about to come up out from the abyss
[the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation], and then he will go to
destruction [the lake of fire, the judgment of the beast]: in fact, the
inhabitants of the earth whose name [the singular for the fact that each one
has a chance] has not been written in the book of life [unbelievers of the
Tribulation] from the foundation of the world, will stand in admiration when
they see the beast dictator that was, and is not, and yet he will exist [the
rise of the Roman empire in the future].”
Then we note that because of Satan’s
sponsorship the existence of this revived Roman empire of the Tribulation as
the vehicle for the expression of the dictator’s power becomes a source of
admiration to the unbelievers of the Tribulation.
We have noted three things about
what religion really lacks. First of all we have noted from John chapter three
that religion needs regeneration. Jesus explained what religion needed when He
dealt with the religion of Judaism which must be distinguished from those who
are believers in Israel in the Old Testament. He said, “You must be born
again.” Religion could not cope with this doctrine of regeneration. In Matthew
chapter 23 we learned what religion lacks. It lacks the function of virtue and
the wonderful principles of grace and it has, therefore, the self-righteous
arrogance which always goes with religion. In Revelation chapters 17 & 18
we learn how religion peaks out in the Tribulation and is destroyed. We also should
note the system of punishment involved here. In Revelation chapter 17 religion
made its own bad decisions, bad decisions from a position of weakness when it
lusted for political power. The ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation
will have phenomenal political power, more than any religious system that has
ever existed. This bad decision results in the eventual downfall of ecumenical
religion in the Tribulation from its own policy, but we are going to see in the
first eight verses of chapter eighteen more of the administration of divine
judgment by death. We are going to learn from this passage that before the
administration of this judgment from God religion had destroyed itself by
becoming a political power. When we get to the next chapter we are going to see
a great principle: Neither religion nor Christianity should ever lust for
political power. The impact and dynamics of Christianity are always within the
function of the client nation and believers must advance to maturity in the
protocol system rather than become involved in social action or in any form of
civil disobedience. Reform of any kind is not the answer. What is the position
of the believer with regard to the state? It is to support its establishment
principles, law enforcement: the judge on the bench; the military
establishment; a free enterprise economy. Beyond that our responsibility is to
have everything to do with the protocol system. It is our advance to maturity
that turns things around in the client nation. We cannot change anything by
social action, we only make it worse. We can have dynamic influence spiritually
through momentum inside the divine dynasphere. This will be a major thrust in
the first part of the next chapter.
The one phrase we must look at is
the prepositional phrase in verse 8, “from the foundation of the world.” We
have been talking about prophecy but we are not talking about prophecy that is
predicted in time, we are talking about prophecy that was predicted in eternity
past before man existed. But it is a little more than that. It is the concept
that perfect God is the source of divine good. Perfect God is never responsible
for bad decisions; we are responsible for our own bad decisions and we make our
own misery by bad decisions. Perfect God is not responsible for sin, for human
good, for the evil of the cosmic system; all of that is the responsibility of
the individual. Of course, sin, human good, and evil originates from the free
will of man, the self-determination motivated by the cosmic system on the one
hand or the old sin nature on the other hand, or both. Because the omniscience
of God knew how free will would operate in every situation He fed all of these
facts into the computer of divine decrees. God is therefore responsible for
election, for ordination, but man is responsible for reprobation, for the total
depravity which exists. To God belongs the glory of salvation of believers but
to mankind belongs the responsibility for the ruin that we find in this world.
This is the devil’s world but we make decisions that contribute to its ruin.
Man’s responsibility meets God’s glory in the doctrine of divine decrees. It is
the doctrine of divine decrees that explains the phrase “from the foundation of
the world.” Essentially, the omniscience of God feeds the facts into the
computer of divine decrees and the computer prints out the facts about
believers, unbelievers, about every person who ever lived or ever will live.
Therefore, “from the foundation of the world” demands that we examine the
significance of this phrase in the light of the doctrine of divine decrees.
The best theological definition of
the divine decrees is that the decree of God is His eternal, holy, wise, and
sovereign purpose comprehending at once all things that ever were or will be in
their causes, conditions, successions and relations, and determining their
certain futurition. That is theological, and every part of that definition is
technical and important. The several contents of this one eternal purpose of
God are, because of the limitations of our faculties, necessarily conceived by
us in partial aspects and logical relations. Therefore, we call it decrees; we
can’t take it all in at once. The decrees of God are His eternal and immutable
will regarding the future existence of events which will happen in time and the
precise manner by which they will occur. Furthermore, the order of their
occurrence is in the decrees, so that we might say that the decrees of God are
His eternal and sovereign will related to time, and the events of time will happen
in a precise manner and order of their occurrence. By the decree, then, is
meant the eternal plan by which God has rendered certain all events. That is
what the decrees actually means. God has rendered certain all the events of the
universe: the events of the past, the present, and the future. How He has done
this we will have to note because there is no conflict between the sovereignty
of God and the free will of man, except in the function of man’s negative
volition. The decrees of God are the chosen and the adopted plan of all His
works; they are His eternal purpose, according to the counsels of His own will
whereby for His own glory he has foreordained whatever comes to pass. The
decrees of God, then, are pictured as a giant computer. The omniscience of God
feeds facts into the computer. In fact, fed facts in eternity past “before the
foundation of the world.” The omniscience of God feeds the computer of divine
decrees.
The omniscience of God is one of
three categories of divine knowledge. The computer of divine decrees, of
course, prints out facts about everything that has ever been thought, every
motive that has ever existed, every free will decision ever made. So God knew
billions and billions of years ago everything that everyone would ever think long
before it happened. The decrees of God, then, are the sum total of God’s plan
designed in eternity past before the foundation of the world, in our passage:
“from the foundation of the world,” and relating to all events of every
classification collected into one single all-comprehensive whole through the
omniscience of God. The omniscience of God is the key.
The first of the three categories of
divine knowledge is the divine knowledge of self. God the Father knows Himself
perfectly in all of His attributes and how they function. He knows the coequal
attributes, the eternal and infinite attributes of the Son and the Spirit and,
of course, vice versa. God’s knowledge of self deals with God and therefore is
not the subject of divine decrees. We are going to see that there is a third
category of divine knowledge called foreknowledge but it is not in the picture
as yet because, foreknowledge cannot occur until the decrees are set. So
foreknowledge is a technical way of explaining the mechanics of all prophecy.
Foreknowledge is not synonymous with omniscience; omniscience is not synonymous
with God’s knowledge of self. Billions of years ago God knew Himself perfectly,
there never was a time when the members of the Godhead did not know themselves
and the other members perfectly. Omniscience has to do with creatures and
history and time. Entered into the divine decrees is every thought, every
motive, every decision, every action of every person in history, and how they
all relate at any given point at any given time. God didn’t coerce in any way
man’s volition but God knew from His omniscience every decision that man would
ever make. Omniscience also knows the probables, the things that didn’t happen
but could have happened, but they are not entered into the computer. Only in
the computer of divine decrees is what did happen, what was thought, what
decisions were made, and what actions took place. The probables were never
entered, the person you could have married and didn’t, the school you could
have attended and didn’t, the decision to live somewhere else but you did not;
and the results of that down to the last generation of the Millennium are known
to the omniscience of God but they are never decreed. They are probables,
therefore they are not decreed.
So we have to start with the
omniscience of God since that is the key, then we will get to the computer. God
knows perfectly and simultaneously all that is knowable. Note the word
“simultaneously”. This is in eternity past but He knows the actual; He knows
the possible; He knows the real; He knows the probable. Such perception and
sagacity is totally compatible with His divine essence. God is eternal; His
knowledge is eternal. God is sovereign; His knowledge is superior, not related
to any angelic or human limitations. His knowledge is infinitely superior to
creature knowledge or to creature intellect. Every minute detail of both the
angelic and human creation is completely and perfectly in His mind at all
times, there never was a time when it wasn’t in His mind. Therefore,
omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together
with all their causes, conditions and relations, as one indivisible system of
things, every link of which is essential to the integrity of the whole, the
integrity of the whole we will call the divine decrees.
Illustration: the doctrine of
unlimited atonement. When Jesus Christ went to the cross all the personal sins
in the history of the human race were collected in the computer, they were not
imputed to individuals. When it says “the wages of sin is death” it means we
are born spiritually dead. Adam’s original sin is imputed to the
genetically-formed old sin nature. Our personal sins are never imputed to us
for judgment, they are in the divine decrees. The omniscience of God before the
foundation of the world knew every person who would ever exist, every sin they
would ever commit. So programmed into the computer is one area called sin — the
sins of the entire world, even sins that haven’t been committed yet. People
have often asked: How could Jesus Christ hanging on the cross die for sins that
hadn’t been committed yet. The answer is in the doctrine of divine decrees,
they were in the computer of divine decrees and there was simply a printout at
the cross. All the sins that had ever been committed were programmed into the
computer before man existed.
Time has nothing to do with God’s
knowledge, the future is as perspicuous as the past. The omniscience of God
also knows the alternatives to history, the probables as well as the actual.
God knows all that would have been involved in every case where man’s decisions
might have been different from what it was. Notice that God in knowing these
things did not coerce man’s volition in eternity past before the foundation of
the world, and He doesn’t do it now. God is a gentleman, He does not interfere
with the function of our volition.
With three categories of divine
knowledge only one is pertinent to programming the computer. Self-knowledge
includes divine essence, the Trinity, and all things. Omniscience: all things
in creation, actual or possible. Foreknowledge: knowledge of what is in the
computer related to believers only, hence it is a printout for believers only.
The omniscience of God knows every thought, every action, every decision of
history and how they relate at any given time at any given point in history,
who was there, how they react, what the relationships are, the whole thing plus
what the alternatives would have been. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing
certain, it merely acknowledges what it certain, what is in the decrees
regarding the believer. So when we go back to the computer again the
foreknowledge of God is simply a printout, therefore definitely not the same as
omniscience of God. The omniscience of God programs the computer; foreknowledge
is a printout of the computer. In other words, foreknowledge means that as far
as believers are concerned there are numerous printouts from the computer of
divine decrees — three that have very special interest to us: foreknowledge,
election, and predestination. Foreknowledge: nothing can be known unless it is
first decreed, therefore God foreknows all events as certainly future because
He has decreed them. This includes every free will decision. God’s
foreknowledge and God’s omniscience has nothing whatever to do with the
function of your free will. God knows how you are going to function and He does
not coerce your free will in eternity past any more than He does in time. God
allows you to be the result of your own decisions. Man is the result of his own
thoughts. God’s decrees relate equally to all future events of every kind, to
the free actions of moral agents as well as the actions of necessary agents, to
sin to evil, to human good, as well as to moral, divine good, honour and even
virtue developed and achieved inside the protocol system. Foreordination or
predestination alone establishes certainty because foreordination or
predestination is the printout of the decrees. Hence, foreordination is an act
of the infinitely intelligent and wise God in determining the certain futurition
of all events. The omniscience of God decreed everything simultaneously, not by
stages.
The omniscience of God fed only
facts to the computer of divine decrees. This was accomplished in eternity past
before the universe existed. The omniscience of God decreed everything
simultaneously. The decrees have become the complete and consummated right of
the sovereignty of God determining the certain futurition of all events,
including human history. No event, however, is directly effected or caused by
the decrees. The fact that information is fed into the computer doesn’t mean
that the computer causes these things but the decree itself provides in every
case that the event shall be effected by causes acting in a manner consistent
with the nature of the events in question. Therefore, in the case of every free
will act of a moral agent the decree itself provides at the same time the
following things: a. that the agent shall be a free agent, the computer isn’t
the cause of anything; b. that his antecedents and all the antecedents of every
act in question shall be what they shall be. In other words, the chain of
events started by a bad decision is started by a bad decision and not by the
computer; c. that all present conditions of the act shall be what they are.
Again, they are what they are not because of the computer and not because of
the sovereignty of God, but because the omniscience of God knew these things;
d. that the act shall be perfectly spontaneous and free on the part of the
agent; e. that it shall be certainly future. That is why we have in our phrase,
“whose name has not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the
world”. Hence, the decrees vested solely with the will of God what His creation
should be because God cannot contradict His own nature, His own being, His own
essence and His own attributes. Therefore the attributes of God necessitated
His willing the highest and best for mankind.
It is the omniscience of God that
feeds the computer of divine decrees. The sovereignty of God wants the best for
you but the sovereignty of God cannot go against your volition. God put into
the computer how your volition would function. It is not the way that your
volition functions when you make a bad decision and that becomes a printout of
history. That is not the fault of the decrees, it is not the fault of the
omniscience of God, nor is it the sovereignty of God. God only wills the best
for you. When you make a bad decision you will for yourself the worst for
yourself.
God is not willing that any should
perish but that all should come to a change of attitude toward Christ. If God’s
sovereign will was universally accepted on this earth every person would be a
believer. The sovereignty of God would make everyone a believer. But He doesn’t
do that. A creature with a free will, called a free moral agent technically, is
simply the way in which the angelic conflict is being resolved. So this becomes
a very important principle in the concept of divine decrees.
The decrees express the eternal plan
and will of God by which God has rendered certain all events in history.
Therefore, the decrees are the eternal and simultaneous knowledge of the
omniscience of God expressing the will of God, sometimes His permissive will,
sometimes (when good decisions are made) His sovereign will, His absolute will,
but they are all in the computer and they all result in His glory. No matter
how many times wrong decisions are made and become the printout of human
history God in His glory will triumph no matter how far man goes in the wrong
direction, no matter how far angelic creatures have gone in the wrong
direction. This is a part of the principle that Jesus Christ controls history.
What are the characteristics, then,
of the decrees? The decrees include all the facts fed into the computer. There
is one all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or
will be, and in that all-inclusive purpose he allows for man to reject Christ
as saviour, even though it is His will that no man should perish; He allows for
man to go negative; He allows for man to reject the truth; he allows man to
take the consequences for his own decisions, all as a part in the decrees,
everything that actually happens, not the probable, not the possible. The will
and purpose originates wholly within Himself, therefore God alone has designed
it all for His own satisfaction and is compatible with His own essence, and it
is related to His eternal glory. God will inevitably be glorified through it
all, the worst decisions and the best decisions. Time and space are a
battlefield and the details reach all the way down to the minutia, the minor
details of the falling of a sparrow.
How the members of the Trinity
function in the decrees, like the Father sending the Son, the Father and the
Son sending the Spirit, is imminent, intrinsic and known to them from eternity
past. How the Godhead supports and sustains the believer is extrinsic,
transient, and very objective as stated in the principles of Bible doctrine.
The decrees, therefore, are efficacious in that they certainly determine all
that ever was or ever will be. The decrees guarantee certainty; the decrees
guarantee reality. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, it merely
perceives what is already certain in the decrees. Remember that the omniscience
of God feeds the facts into the computer of divine decrees while the
foreknowledge of God is simply the printout, the reading. The decrees of God
are all comprehensive, not the slightest uncertainty could exist in one of the
smallest events without confusion to all events. Therefore, all events are
interwoven and interdependent. The decrees of God are also eternal. God is not
gaining in knowledge, God always knew that there never was a time when He
didn’t know. What God has known at any time He has always known. This means
that the decrees are decreed simultaneously in eternity past, resulting
sometimes in phrases like in Ephesians, “from before the foundation of the
world”, resulting here in our passage, “from the foundation of the world.” The
decrees of God are perfect where God’s plan is in operation. God is perfect,
therefore God’s plan is perfect. God’s plan includes all imperfect persons but
maintains its perfection and its integrity through the protocol system, through
the policy of grace, through the priorities of the plan of God. The decrees of
God are unchangeable and certain, nothing can arise to necessitate change.
Everything was known, decreed, made certain, entered into the computer in
eternity past. God is not bound to follow a necessary pattern or a course by
having decreed, God is bound by His infinite faithfulness and His incorruptible
integrity plus His immutable truth to complete what He has begun. God has decreed
ends as well as means, causes as well as effects, conditions and instrumentalities
as well as events that depend upon them. All of them went into the divine
decrees, the computer is loaded with this information.
Some things God has decreed to do
Himself, creation, salvation, control history. Other things God accomplishes
through the action of secondary causes. Other things God has decreed to promote
or to permit free agents to do in the exercise of their own volition, free from
their own personal self-determination. However, one category of events decreed
is rendered by the decree of God just as certainly future as any of the other
categories. In other words, all of it is in the computer. So there is one
all-inclusive will and purpose of God concerning all that ever was or ever will
be from the beginning of human history until its termination in the last days
of the Millennium. This will and purpose of God which we call the computer of
divine decrees originates from within Himself, His own omniscience, long before
any creature or creation existed. This means that the will of God and the
purpose of God related to the decrees is designed for His glory, His pleasure,
and His satisfaction. Ultimately, everything is going to be for His glory. All
creatures have been placed in space and in time. Furthermore, all events
related to space and time were simultaneously decreed resulting in divine
action within two categories, within the Godhead, the action of the members of
the Trinity being imminent, intrinsic, and subjective (in a good sense);
related to creation the actions of God are extrinsic demanding cognisance,
transient demanding chronological function in human history, and objective. The
objectivity comes from the perception of doctrine in the protocol system. God
did not decree Himself to exist. God eternally existed before and outside the
computer of divine decrees so that the divine decrees do not act upon God, God
acts upon the decrees. God’s decrees are efficacious, they determine everything
that ever was or ever will be, including directive, permissive, and the
overruling will of God. All things depend on what God has put into the decrees
because all things that ever occurred were pre known by His omniscience.
Nothing is certain apart from the omniscience of God. Remember that God’s
decrees originate from His omniscience in eternity past, separating fact from
fiction. Therefore distinction must be made between the omniscience of God and
the foreknowledge of God.
God desires His perfect will and
sovereignty but both angelic and human creatures use their God-given free will
and self-determination to violate the will and sovereignty of God. God does not
desire to cast creatures into the lake of fire forever but it is so decreed
under the printout of retribution for all who express negative volition toward
the salvation God has provided. God does not desire discipline of the believer
but it is decreed for involvement in the cosmic system. Distinction should be
made between the decrees of God in eternity past and God’s actions in time. The
actions of God in time is the execution of the decrees of eternity past. The
execution is not the decree but logically follows the decree. Distinction
should be made between God’s decrees and God’s laws. Decrees are the plan and
action entering into the computer all that is historical, while the laws
regulate human function and human action. The laws of God are completely
revealed in the scriptures; the decrees of God are partially revealed.
In verses 9 and 10 we have the interpretation
of the seven heads. In verse 9 we have the historical and prophetical
continuity of empires and religion. We do not have the word “and” in the
context of the Greek. We actually begin with an adverb of place, w(de, which means in the Greek that we are having a
change completely. With this we have an ellipsis, “Here is,” and then the
predicate nominative of the noun nouj, which has many related
meanings from mind to the faculty of thinking. We will translate it simply,
“Here is the mind,” or “Here is the faculty of thinking.” Then the faculty of
thinking is described. We have the articular present active participle of the
verb e)xw, which means to have, and
with it is the accusative direct object from sofia which is wisdom. So it
begins: “Here is the mind which has wisdom.” Wisdom is the application of
doctrine. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun. The progressive
present tense is for an action in a state of persistence. And the believer who can
apply doctrine produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The
faculty of thinking is designed for wisdom.
Prophecy has interpretation and the
interpretation begins immediately after the word “wisdom,” for there must be
interpretation before there can be application. We have the phrase, “The seven
heads are seven mountains.” The present active indicative of e)imi is the verb to be here, it is a static present
taken for granted as a historical and eschatological principle of doctrine. The
active voice: the seven empires of the past controlled by religion produce the
action, and the indicative mood is declarative for an accurate statement of
eschatological interpretation. The seven heads are said to be seven mountains.
The only trouble is, what does the word o)roj mean? Obviously mountains
are set up as an analogy. Mountains are sometimes used for nations or empires
in the scripture. In anticipation of the rest of the passage the seven
mountains are used to designate seven empires in the past where religion had dominated
the state and at the same time had a deleterious effect upon the nation of
Israel. These nations are Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia-Chaldea, Media-Persia, Graeco-Mecedonia,
the historical Roman empire at the time that John writes. Number seven is the prophetical
Roman empire of the Tribulation. Mountains used for nations is not unusual
since Mount Zion is often used to represent the nation Israel.
Then we have the rest of it. “The
seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits.” The woman, again, is
the nominative singular from gunh, and where the woman sits
is the present active indicative of the verb kaqhmai which means to sit in the sense of dominate. The static present means
that she continues to control. The active voice: religion dominates these
empires. The indicative mood is declarative for a clarification of the
interpretation. The interpretation is this: whenever religion dominates an
empire or a nation that empire or nation degenerates because of the religious
control.
“Here is the faculty of thinking
which has wisdom [the application of doctrine]. The seven heads are seven
mountains, on which the woman sits.” The woman is Satanic, a form of a Satanic
religious system which becomes the ruler of the political.
Verse 10, the next phrase belongs
with verse 9 rather than verse 10. We have, “Furthermore they are seven kings.”
Now we know exactly what they are. Again we have the Greek verb e)imi, and with it a predicate nominative of basileuj, and with it the indeclinable e(pta, the adjective numeral, “seven kings.” The
mountains represent kings or dictators, or dictator-type empires actually. The perfective
present tense of e)imi denotes the continuation of
existing results. The active voice: the seven heads produce the action. The
indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of eschatological interpretation.
“Furthermore they are seven kings [or dictatorships].” They are seven empires
run by dictators.
Several erroneous interpretations
are rather intriguing with regard to this particular passage. The reason is
because they emphasise the numeral adjective e(pta
[seven] rather than basileuj [kings]. For example, one
of the interpretations assumes that the seven mountains called o)roj, which could also be seven hills, are the seven
hills on which Rome was founded. It is a fascinating interpretation. The
trouble is it emphasises seven, the adjective, rather than the noun. Others
take the view that the seven Roman rulers are in view here. In Roman history
they had seven forms of rulers. That is intriguing except all of these deal
strictly with Rome and they always emphasise the adjective rather than the
noun. The problem is that the last phrase of these interpretations says that
they are seven kings. You can’t stop at the seven mountains.
It is quite obvious that each
mountain is a separate empire, dictatorship type. It is a separate empire with
separate rulers. These are seven individual type kings or dictators, they are
not one empire with one emporator.
The woman, who is religion, rides on these empires. It means that the woman is
on the roll, she’s been on the roll ever since Egypt was dominated by a
religion. These empires come into view sequentially and the woman as religion
dominates each one of them. This means that she influences them in the same way
that the fornicating female has influence in the ancient world. Often the
ancient prostitute was related to the religion and the phallic cult in the
practice of her profession. The Bible must again be interpreted in the time in
which it was written and temple prostitution and the priestess of the phallic
cult had tremendous influence in the ancient world. Therefore the reason for
the analogy.
The seven mountains, then, are seven
empires. The intriguing explanation emphasises the seven kings as Roman
emperors in the time of John. John was fulfilling his ministry from Ephesus
from which he wrote the gospel of John, 1,2, and 3 John, and also Revelation on
Patmos, all between 90 and 96 AD. While John was carrying on
his ministry in Ephesus there were actually seven Roman emperors. The first one
was Galba, 69 AD. When Nero was assassinated
Galba immediately marched from Spain to Rome, backed by the “Spanish” legions,
the Roman legions stationed in Spain. He was proclaimed emperor but Otho in the
same year bribed the Praetorian Guard. So they set aside Galba and Otho became
number two in that same year, backed by the Praetorian Guard. In the meantime Vitellius
had marched with the army of the Rhine to Rome and by the time he had arrived
there he outnumbered everyone so he became the third emperor. Then, in the
meantime Vespasian, backed by the Syrian legions, including the three legions
that were besieging Jerusalem, became the fourth emperor in AD 70. When Vespasian died in 79 he was replaced by Titus, his son, who
ruled from 79-81 when he died. Then the younger brother, Domitian, was the
emperor from 81-96. It was Domitian, the son of Vespasian who actually sent
John to the Isle of Patmos. When he was assassinated in 96 Nerva, the brilliant
old man, became the first of the Antonine Caesars from 96-98. What makes this
fascinating is the fact that in verse 10 John says, “five are fallen, one is,
and one is to come.” Well, five had fallen in John’s time, Galba, Otho, Vitellius,
Vespasian, Titus. Then, “one is,” and that was Domitian. He was soon to go and
then there will come another, Nerva. So it just works out perfectly. The only
trouble is that the actual exegesis will not really stand it. It is just one of
those nice interpretations that fits but doesn’t work. It violates the contents
of the exegesis because in the exegesis you will notice even from the
translation that “the seven heads are seven mountains
who are seven kings.” In other words, they are separate empires, not just
one empire.
So we have the status quo of the
seven heads in verse 10. We start out with the indeclinable numeral pente, “five,” are fallen. These are five empires and
instead of referring to those emperors they refer to five mountain empires. The
first is Egypt, then Assyria, Babylonia, the Medes and the Persians, Graeco-Macedonia.
Rome becomes the one that is, the historical empire at the time of John in AD 96. AD 96 is one of the most
important dates in Roman history for this reason: it brought an end to the Flavian
emperors represented by the evil Domitian. And just as the Julio-Claudians by
the evil Nero, so the evil Domitian ended what was otherwise a very good line
of emperors. He was the one that sent John to the Island of Patmos and when he
died one of the things that Nerva did was to bring John back to Ephesus. By
going back to Ephesus John again set up face-to-face in Ephesus and in the
other six churches in what we now call Turkey John’s ministry was where the
major pivot of the Roman empire was. Once the pivot switched from Syria where
it had been , then into Europe and then to Turkey, the pivot which developed in
Turkey became the basis for the greatest one hundred years of history, the
period of the Antonine Caesars. This period also ended with Commodus. There
were three emperors who ended a line: Nero, who died by violence; Domitian,
died by violence; Commodus, died by violence.
It is always darkest before the dawn
and when John was sent to the Island of Patmos that was the darkest moment for
Christianity. But the dawn came with the death of Domitian and bringing to the
throne Nerva, a very old and wise man, and John was about to have his greatest
ministry though at this time he must have been in his late sixties or early
seventies.
Then we have the prophetical status
of the seventh head, “and the other,” and this is a)lloj
meaning the same category. In other words, if you are still talking about the
same category and you use the word “other,” you use a)lloj.
If you are talking about a different one and you change the category you use e(teroj, meaning another of a different kind. We have a)lloj so we are still talking about the same subject, and
this is a reference to the prophetical Roman empire of the Tribulation which we
refer to as the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Notice that it says,
“it is not yet come,” and John uses from now on a negative adverb of time, o)upw. It is not just a straight negative, it is stronger
and it always relates to time, so it is translated “not yet.” With this is the aorist
active indicative of the verb e)rxomai, “has not yet come.” The aorist
tense is a gnomic aorist for a fact of Bible doctrine regarded as so certain as
to be axiomatic in character. Therefore it is described by the aorist tense as
though it were an actual occurrence. The active voice: the Tribulational
revived Roman empire of the future produces this negative action. It hasn’t
come as yet. The indicative mood is declarative for the eschatological reality
of this future empire although it has not yet come.
Then we have the brevity of that
future revived Roman empire: the connective conjunction kai introduces a noteworthy and is translated
“nevertheless.” With it we have another conjunction. This one introduces an
indefinite temporal clause. This is o(tan. And we have the aorist
active subjunctive, this time of erxomai. The subjunctive mood is
potential, it implies a future reference. It is the mood used for the
indefinite temporal clause which has, of course, an eschatological connotation.
Then with this we have the accusative of general reference which becomes the subject
of the infinitive because we have the aorist active infinitive coming up, the aorist
active infinitive of menw. It means he must remain,
“nevertheless when it comes [the revived Roman empire] it must remain for a
short time.” The constative aorist takes the existence of the revived Roman
empire of the Tribulation, regards it in its historical duration, and gathers
it into a single whole to look at it for a moment. We have to have a support
for the infinitive and we have the impersonal verb of necessity, dei, it is translated “must remain.” The active voice:
the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation produces the action and this is the
infinitive of time, an infinitive of intended result also, blending God’s purpose
with this historical result. Then we have the accusative of extent of time from
the noun o)ligoj, “for a short time.”
So having interpreted the seven
heads number seven pur sui vant
messenger of the execution squad is about to give way to a higher authority.
That means that we are going back to the rise of the beast dictator and we are
going to finish up with the interpretation of that dictator.
The interpretation of he beast is
continued and concluded in verse 11. This is the final profile of the beast
which began in chapter 13:1. The conjunction kai
introduces a result from what precedes and therefore it is translated “And so.”
The nominative singular subject once more is the beast dictator, and in the
Greek it is qhrion, for our subject is once
again the beast dictator, “And so the beast dictator.”
Then, once again, we have that
phrase introduced as part of a relative clause. The relative pronoun o(j means “who” and it refers to the revived Roman
empire. Then we begin a series of the use of the verb e)imi: the imperfect active indicative of e)imi plus the present active indicative of e)imi with some conjunctions in
between. “Who was” is the imperfect use of e)imi,
linear aktionsart in past time. The active voice: the historical Roman empire
producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the
historical Roman empire at the time of John, “the beast dictator who was,”
referring to the Roman empire, “and is not.” The negative o)uk is used with the present of e)imi, it brings to mind the fall of the Roman empire.
Again the active voice refers to the historical Roman empire, and the
indicative mood is for the reality of the fall of the historical Roman empire.
The rise of the beast dictator, “and he is the eighth.” He comes, of course,
from the seventh but he is a unique dictator from a confederation of nations.
The conjunction kai is translated “even” with
the nominative singular subject a)utoj, referring to the beast
dictator. A)utoj is used in the Koine Greek
for the third person personal pronoun, “and he is,” the present active
indicative of e)imi again,
this time a static present representing a fact of eschatological doctrine. The
active voice: the beast dictator produces the action in the future. The
indicative mood is declarative for the point of eschatological doctrine.
With this we the predicate
nominative singular from the adjective numeral o)gdooj, used as a substantive here
rather than an adjective, “even he is the eighth.” This means the empire of the
beast is an empire built from the seventh. He is the one who in the last half
of the Tribulation is the final dictator of the revived Roman empire. The
eighth empire is distinct from the seventh in that the beast dictator will
conquer and subdue or control the ten nations in the confederation of the
revived Roman empire, and the difference is between the first and the second
halves of the Tribulation. In the first half of the Tribulation the beast is
only one of many rulers; in the last half of the Tribulation he is the dictator
of the entire Roman empire revived.
The source of the beast is then
given, “and he is from the seventh.” That means he emerges from the revived
Roman empire of the Tribulation. In other words, he emerges from the seventh
head that we studied in verse nine. Apparently, the inefficiency and the
bureaucracy of the revived Roman empire acts as a catalytic agency for the
emergence of leadership. The leadership takes the form of organised evil and
out of this organised evil comes this great dictator.
Then we have the conjunction kai again and this time it means “and finally,”
“finally he will go into destruction,” which anticipates chapter 19:20, “Then
the beast dictator [the ruler of the revived Roman empire] was seized, and with
him the false prophet [the ruler of the state of Israel in the Tribulation] who
performed miracles in his presence, by which he had deceived those who had
received the mark of the beast, even those who worshipped his idol. These two
[the Gentile and Jewish dictators], though still alive, were thrown into the
lake of fire burning with sulphur.”
Translation of verse 11: “And so the
beast that was [the historical Roman empire at the time of John], and is not
[fall of the historical Roman empire in 476 AD], even he is the eighth [the
dictator of the revived Roman empire], and is from the seventh [the revived
Roman empire of the first half of the Tribulation], and finally he will go to
destruction [the lake of fire, Revelation 19:20].”
This beast dictator has the ability to communicate. He has a
tremendous imagination and 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, when studied with Daniel
chapter 7 and Revelation chapter 13, makes a great package on how to take evil
ideas, wrong ideas, and make them interesting. He is, of course, a religious
genius as well. A person who is a genius works from the base of a genius IQ. Most people who work from the base of a genius IQ are the dullest people in the world and no one would know that they
were a genius if it weren’t for an achievement test. But there are people who
emerge historically who emerge as truly great who are genius. Most great people
in history are not great geniuses, are not even close to it; in fact a lot of
them have a very low IQ but they were just stubborn
and stupid and arrogant enough to stick with some point that made them famous.
When you work from a base of genius the expression of that genius really is the
area in which you are interested. If a genius is only interested, for example,
in some science then he is said to be a genius in that science. Moses was the
most unusual genius that ever lived because Moses was interested in music, he
was a genius in the field of writing, he was a military genius, a genius in the
field of construction and architecture, and he became the great genius that God
used in the spiritual realm. He was also a genius in the field of leadership.
Moses was a man of many interests but all the interests had the same base:
genius. This dictator is also a genius. As Moses was an honourable, great,
believer genius this man is an evil genius and his major interest is evil,
where evil is exploited into political expression, into religious expression,
into military expression, and the ability to take his ideas, not matter how
evil they are, and find a big market for them during the Tribulation. With all
of this Satan gives him some extra-natural power and this is the power of
miracles which is part of the subject of 2 Thessalonians chapter two. And, of
course, miracles always appeal to the emotionalism of the masses. This also
demands worship of power, the idolising of evil because of involvement in the
Satanic cosmic system. Those who worship power idolise evil and they will never
appreciate freedom or have any real capacity for happiness. When people do not
have truth and doctrine they’re always impressed with the wrong things. So here
is one of the great men of genius of history and he is always impressed with
the wrong things. He has a dynamic in the field of verbal communication and to
do so with imagination. This is brought out in Revelation 13:5. Satan gives
this dictator a supernatural power of communication, a tremendous eloquence for
the purpose of the presentation of his ideas. In other words, he markets his
ideas.
The time limitation on him is very
important. He has greater human power than perhaps anyone in the history of
planet earth. This appears to be an influence outside of the revived Roman
empire which is carried on mainly through religion; religion being, of course,
Satanic. But there is a time limitation on his power. We noted it first in
Revelation 13:5, “there was given to him authority to function forty-two
months,” the last half of the Tribulation. At that point he will be terminated
by being cast alive into the lake of fire, Revelation 17:11. Finally, he will
go to destruction, Revelation 19:20. So the greatest genius for evil and the
greatest dynamic for evil, including extra-natural and supernatural modus
operandi, is still under time limitation. No matter how great power is power is
limited by time, and once any system of power is limited by time it is merely
another finite activity which makes a splurge for the moment and disappears
into the mists of history.
Evil power always has other
frustrations beside time. One of them is a sense of humour. A sense of humour
is a great protector of the individual. It not only protects the individual
from many of the insults and problems of interaction with human beings but at
the same time it has other protections as well. It becomes a safeguard against taking
one’s self too seriously and building up to this kind of power lust and power
madness. A sense of humour also becomes a frustration to those who aspire to
dictatorship, especially when you have a country where you have a large number
of people who at least have the freedom to develop a sense of humour. Whether
they do or not is another thing. But with all of the great power of the beast
dictator he cannot laugh at himself.
The reason that people cannot laugh
at themselves is because generally they are bright and they are concentrators.
People who are bright in life generally develop one subject magnificently or
have success in one area magnificently. They are such concentrators that they
do not have the ability to laugh at themselves, they lack a sense of humour.
Therefore the sense of humour acts as a safeguard for keeping one’s feet on the
ground with regard to reality. Whenever a person does not have a sense of humour
it is inevitable that he will get lost in the field of arrogance and the only
protection he has is to be a believer and have the recourse to rebound and to
live inside the protocol system. People who have much power generally have no
sense of humour although there are some great exceptions to this. The beast
dictator cannot laugh at himself, all he can do is slander those who are beyond
his power, and this is one of his weaknesses and probably why he did not go
beyond the political control of the revived Roman empire, though through
ecumenical religion he controlled great portions of the world.
The believer with maximum doctrine
in his soul is beyond the power of any dictator because he cherishes doctrine
in his soul and he will not compromise that doctrine even on the threat of
losing his life. Even by killing the believer the beast dictator of the
Tribulation puts the martyred believer beyond his own power. Whenever a person
has to use violence, as all of the terrorist groups do, in order to try to
control someone he has immediately put that person beyond his control and it is
an admission that he has no leadership ability.
The beast dictator is a miserable
person in his frustration while the martyred believers are very happy in
heaven. The beast dictator cannot see humour in any situation, especially any
situation whereby he has killed people because they disagree with him and
therefore put them beyond his influence or beyond his power. His best chance
was to be persuasive. But it is amazing that people never use their best
weapons when they need them the most, and this man has a persuasive ability in
the field of communication. If you have great ability and you use it properly
you are going to bring people under your control without any type of threat.
Once you threaten a person or put some kind of pressure on a person then your
persuasiveness has gone, you are not marketing your ideas at all. The mature
believer, of course, was beyond the control of this great dictator and that was
one of his great weaknesses, one of his great limitations. What is even more
humorous is the fact that Satan who gave him this great power had already been
driven out of heaven permanently, yet he still had great power to communicate
and to disseminate on earth, and Satan offers this man the kingdoms of the
world after he has been kicked out of heaven.
We need to be aware of the doctrine
of organised versus disorganised evil which is a very important doctrine to
apply. This beast dictator became the ultimate dictator of the ten-nation
confederation of the revived Roman empire. What is really interesting is that
many times in history degeneracy combines with self-righteousness to form a
revolution. Then self-righteousness and degeneracy fight it out and eventually
self-righteousness, being organised evil, always wins and they have to
eliminate the degeneracy. There is a very definite brief for the fact that
there is a constant fight between organised and disorganised evil, between
self-righteous and immoral people, the ones involved in degeneracy. This goes
on in life all the time, it is a constant struggle in life, and what is even
more tragic is that in most churches today the immoral crowd are always thrown
out. It doesn’t matter whether they are positive toward any doctrine or not,
they are removed, and the self-righteous crowd always take over and therefore
the church becomes a system of organised evil. This is no brief for immorality,
far from it, but the point is the true principle of the local church is privacy
so that the self-righteous will have a chance to grow and the immoral, amoral,
group who are positive may grow, often rapidly up to a point and then they
become critical of the self-righteous so that the self-righteous always become
a trap. There is rapid growth on the part of the immoral, amoral, group until
the discover one day the self-righteous people and they become critical of
them. At that point they cease to grow. There is a constant fight wherever you
find people over this matter: the self-righteous versus the amoral. The point
is that the only way to protect a church organisation, for example, is through
the doctrine of privacy and strong authority from the pulpit. Strong authority
from the pulpit doesn’t throw the prostitute out of church; strong authority
from the pulpit throws the gossip out of church because the prostitute is not
the catalytic agent that causes the conflict, it is the gossip, the maligner,
the troublemaker. This is not only true in churches but this is true in
business, military organisations, police organisations. There is no such thing
in an organisation made up of more than 50 people that doesn’t have all of
these things, and the real key is to give everyone their privacy and therefore
opportunity for everyone to grow in grace, to respect privacy and positive
volition.
The thing that destroys privacy is
gossip, maligning, running down other people, inordinate ambition and
inordinate competition. The most important thing in life is to have privacy so
that you can actually through your own self-determination either succeed or
fail in your own life. Legalism is the great hindrance to this. All the people
who are maligning and critical and looking down their nose at other Christians
in any given church are simply people who trying to make everyone like
themselves rather than growing in grace. No one ever grows in grace by being
maligned, although they may pass the test and grow that way, they grow by
learning doctrine. Gossiping about people is not teaching them doctrine. This
is the struggle between organised and disorganised evil and the answers are
found in the communication of doctrine, positive volition toward Bible
doctrine, plus respect for the privacy of others as a major concept in freedom.
Privacy and property and life are
sacred and must cycle together for people to grow in grace, for people to live
with people under any form of government that is virtuous and honourable, and
to fulfill all of the things that keep Satan at bay. In other words, the
function of the client nation to God. When you have a choice of the two worlds,
self-righteous or degenerate, you take neither. That is why we have client
nations to God; that is why we have truth — “You shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free,” not organised evil or disorganised evil. When you
have the struggle between organised and disorganised it bodes evil for
everyone, and the only way to avoid it is for the truth to prevail and the
truth must prevail through the establishment of a pivot. There was no pivot,
there was no client nation when this dictator came to power so he came to power
at exactly the right time as far as making it easy. It was a matter of disorganised
evil being overcome by organised evil and wherever the truth reared its head
then immediately it was removed.
One other factor that must be
remembered with this principle is the fact that there is no power in public
opinion. Public opinion caters to the viewpoint of the majority and the
majority have no power or control in history. It is actually the minority who
takes control or influences history. Sometimes it is a good minority, like the
pivot of mature believers in a client nation, but all to frequently it is a bad
minority made up of either disorganised or organised evil, and sometimes both.
Public opinion always reacts to any type of truth because public opinion has no
concept of truth, unless it is taught in the schools through establishment
truth. Establishment truth is no longer taught in public schools, only in a few
private schools. So public opinion is generally news today and gone tomorrow.
Public opinion, then, is only a bully of the weak; it is a flatterer of the
successful. Public opinion has no power with communists, for example, who
ignore it all the time. Public opinion is all too often a system of arrogance,
self-righteousness, mass hysteria which assumes that their condemnation is
going to change the world. It is a false premise that public opinion has
influence over evil when in reality evil uses public opinion for its own
purposes, and generally organised evil gets into power in this way.
In verses 12-13 we have the interpretation of he ten
horns. In verse 12 we have the structure of the revived Roman empire of the
Tribulation. The connective conjunction kai
is correctly translated “And.” The nominative plural subject is made up of
three different words, the definite article ta,
translated “the,” the indeclinable adjective numeral deka, meaning ten, and the noun keraj, “horns,” “And the ten
horns.”
The horn in scripture is often a
symbol of power and the ten horns are ten nations which were once a part of the
historical Roman empire. Horns often represent nations, as in the case of the
ram with two horns in Daniel 8:20-21. The ram is the Persian empire, the two
horns represent each segment of the old Persian empire: one horn for the Medes
and one for the Persians. In Amos 6:13 arrogant Israel boasts about her
conquests of Gentile nations whom they call horns.
“And the ten horns [ten-nation
confederation of the revived Roman empire] which you saw.” This has to do with
John’s vision of the ten horns. From Jeremiah 4:25 the nation of Moab is called
the horn of Moab, and that is because of the power of the nation at that time.
In Daniel 7:7ff we have the same ten horns. They are the ten nations of the
confederation of the revived Roman empire. The seven horns of Zechariah 1:18,19
are actually a part of four empires who have administered the fourth cycle of
discipline to Israel at one time or another.
Well, the question is, who are the
ten horns? It would be a matter of speculation to determine which nations of
the old historical empire will be included in this ten-nation confederation in
the future Tribulation.
“which you saw” is a relative
clause. The aorist active indicative of the verb to see is o(raw which in the constative aorist contemplates the
action of the verb in its entirety. The active voice: the apostle John as the
human author produces the action. The declarative mood represents verbal action
from the viewpoint of eschatological reality.
They are said to be ten kings. This
is the predicate nominative plural, deka is indeclinable. Then we
have the word “kings,” basileuj, referring to the ten kings
who are going to rule these ten nations in the Tribulation. The ten kings are
said to have no power in the first half of the Tribulation. We have the
beginning of a relative clause, but we have the nominative masculine plural from
what is known as the qualitative relative pronoun o(stij. The qualitative relative
pronoun used to be translated in classical Greek, “such a category as.” We will
simply translate it “who.” The negative adverb follows, o(upw, “not yet.” They “have not
yet received,” the aorist active indicative of the verb lambanw, “received.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist
referring to a future time. The active voice: the ten potential rulers do not
rule the ten nations of the revived Roman empire until they are brought into
power by the beast. This is a potential indicative depending on a future event.
With this we have the accusative singular direct object from the noun basileia, “kingdoms.”
We now have the adversative
conjunction a)lla which
means that that condition will not be an indefinite condition but will be
improved as far as they are concerned. A)lla
sets up a contrast. The contrast is based on the fact that the ten nations
which were a part of the Roman empire will become a part of the revived Roman
empire in the Tribulation. They will come into power with the beast dictator.
Whatever the form of government in these ten nations prior to one empire they
will be ruled by ten proconsuls in the last half of the Tribulation. “But they
will received,” we have the present active indicative of lambanw again and the present tense is a futuristic present
for an event which has not yet occurred. The ten nations under proconsuls have
not yet come into existence but they are regarded as so certain in thought that
they are contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the ten
proconsuls or kings produce the action and we have a declarative mood for
eschatological reality. They are said to have authority, the accusative
singular direct object of the verb e)cousia. Their authority and their
power will be a very short one, it will be in the last half of the Tribulation.
In effect, these are future Roman provinces in the revived Roman empire.
Next we have the accusative of the
extent of time, the accusative feminine singular of e(ij
which is a numeral meaning “one,” plus the word for hour, o(ra. One hour here does not mean one 60-minute hour, it
means the last half of the Tribulation, “with the beast dictator,” the beast
dictator being the ruler of the revived Roman empire.
The formation of the revived Roman
empire at the end of the Tribulation is then mentioned in verse 13. “These have
one mind, and they shall give their power and their strength to the beast.” We
have the nominative plural subject of the immediate demonstrative pronoun,
referring once more to the ten kings or the ten proconsuls, o(toj, correctly translated
“These.” The immediate demonstrative pronoun includes both the beast dictator
and these ten kings, and the demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on a
designated object in the context. With this we have a subject, therefore, the
present active indicative of e)xw, the verb to have. It is a
customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs and may be reasonably
expected to occur during the course of the Tribulation. The reason some of
these things are being noted is because the interpretation is now given with very
concise exegetical, grammatical Greek. Everything is extremely precise and it
brings up a very important principle: everything related to Bible doctrine,
categorically and by way of application, is precise.
The active voice: the beast dictator
and his ten proconsuls produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is
declarative giving us a precise eschatological interpretation. With this we
have the accusative singular direct object in which we have e(ij again but we have a different word with it, gnwmh, and with it, e(ij,
“one mind” is the way it is translated. However, gnwmh
means will, resolve, decision, or purpose. It actually does not means “mind.”
We will translate it: “These [ten dictators] have one ideology.” They have a
common theory and a common cause, they are united under a system of false
doctrine, the ecumenical religious system of Satan. They even reside in the
same cosmic system and they make maximum use of that cosmic system. Therefore
they are thoroughly inculcated with the Satanic system and the religious
development of it in the Tribulation.
The empire is then mentioned, “and
so.” The connective conjunction kai introduces a result from
what precedes, “and so they give,” the present active indicative of the verb didomi. The present tense is a futuristic present, it
denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that
in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: the
ten proconsuls produce the action. The indicative declarative is for the
eschatological reality. The point is this: When you have a man such as the
beast dictator who has that kind of ability and he has ten very arrogant, very
successful, people in charge of nations, and they give their power to him, this
adds to what we have already seen. This man has an unusual personality and from
the negative standpoint he is one of the great leaders of all time. He is not
our kind of leader, of course.
“These have one ideology, and so
they give their power and authority, dunamij for power, and dunamij indicates they are all under the same system. It
refers to the cosmic system. E)cuosia for authority, “and their
authority to the beast dictator.” In other words, this is how the revived Roman
empire of the Tribulation is formed from the standpoint of ideology. From the
standpoint of military conquest the beast dictator conquers three of the ten
nations in war. The rest of them fall in line because they have the same
ideology. From this ideology there are four proconsuls appointed.
This leads to a little dissertation
in verse 14 which is really parenthetical. It deals with the final conspiracy
of the Tribulation. This is only the first reference to it and it will be
studied in more detail in chapter 19. Here are ten great men who have great
power and they are willing to surrender their power and their authority to this
most unusual dictator. Why all of this surrendering of power to power? Why a
unified ideology? Why is there an attempt to set up a one-world system? The
reason for it: One worldism means anti-Christ, “These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is the Lord of lords, and King
of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.”
This verse is parenthetical. Why it
comes up at this time is simply to show that once a world wide organisation is
established, once the political power is firmed up under the beast dictator,
once all of these things are put together properly, then through the use of
international religion and through the use of the power of the revived Roman
empire there will be a welding together of one worldism under Satan. This is
Satan’s last bid to control the world which he rules. Satan rules in name only
but because man has free will and because he has never been able to quite bring
together a system of power under internationalism to weld together the organisation
to take over the world he has never succeeded.
What can we deduce from this
historically? Even though at this
time and very shortly thereafter the Armageddon world war will already be under
way, this will be a part of it. With warfare, with disease, with physical
disaster, with international religion reaching the peak of its power, with the
great political strength of the revived Roman empire, with the two other great
empires competing with it, the king of the north and the kings of the east, and
being fused and welded under Satan, one wonders about several historical
principles. The first deduction is the fact that people will survive all of
these things, they will live through them. In some parts of the world people
will still be living very normal lives, and at the end of all of this activity
which is the wildest and most destructive in history people will still be alive
at the second advent.
The first conspiracy of Revelation
16:12-16 which began the last world war of history was directed toward the
destruction of the Jew as the super holocaust. The last conspiracy mentioned in
17:14 and 19:19 occurs at the end of that war and is directed toward the
frustrating of the second advent of Christ, the destruction of Christ, elect
angels, resurrected believers. Of course, it will not succeed. We call it,
then, the anti-Christ conspiracy.
It begins with the nominative plural
subject of the immediate demonstrative pronoun o(utoj.
It refers to the beast dictator and the ten proconsuls. It refers, therefore,
to the revived Roman empire, and like Revelation 19:19 it includes other kings,
but in this context it emphasises the part of the revived Roman empire of the
Tribulation as the chief Satanic agent in the conspiracy. The immediate
demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on the object called “these.”
Then we have the future active indicative of polemew, “These shall make war.” The future tense is predictive anticipating
an event which is expected to occur in future time, second advent. Their
conspiracy comes just before the second advent and at the second advent. The
active voice: the beast dictator and the ten proconsuls of the revived Roman
empire produce the action. The indicative mood is for the reality of this
eschatological doctrine, the greatest conspiracy of all time. History is filled
with conspiracies in the past and there are many conspiracies in the present.
If you get two arrogant people together, jealous of someone else, you have conspiracy.
Arrogance is the source of all conspiracies and this is the biggest of all. So
the greatest outbreak of arrogance of all time, the greatest period of cosmic
involvement, is at the end of the Tribulation. The greatest manifestation of
this arrogance will be in the international religious system sponsored by the
dictator of the revived Roman empire.
The conspiracy has an object: the
preposition meta plus the genitive of a)rnion, “against the Lamb.” Our Lord Jesus Christ is
identified as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. It first
began by the identification made by John, John 1:29; Revelation 7:17. The Lamb
refers to the cross which was the battlefield for the strategic victory of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When our Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross He received a
printout from the computer of divine decrees. The omniscience of God had
entered into the computer every sin in history. All the sins of all the people
in the world were programmed into the computer before the world began. The
omniscience of God knew all of the sins that would be committed in human
history and they were programmed in. He also knew the times at which people
would resist sin and they became probables, and therefore were not programmed
in. Omniscience knows the reality and the probable. The probables were the
times that you resisted temptation. But all of the sins that any of us have
ever committed in all of our life time, everyone down to the last sin at the
end of the Millennium, were all entered into the computer of divine decrees.
And the justice of God the Father then took the printout and all of the sins of
the world were imputed to Christ by God the Father and there they were judged,
so that no sin was left out. The cross is the greatest battlefield in history.
It is interesting to note that the
greatest battlefield in history was a spiritual battle and it was won by one
person, our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone was judged for our sins; He alone is
the Lamb of God. That is why when Christ comes back, even though He is followed
by the elect angels, all believers of the Church Age, the Old Testament saints
and Tribulational martyrs, the Lord is going to do all of the fighting. He is
going to fight alone and He is going to destroy all of the armies of
Armageddon. He was the victor alone at the cross. That was a strategic victory.
He is the only saviour. He is the tactical victor at the second advent. He does
it alone. This, of course, emphasises the principle of grace. God has provided
for us in eternity past. He has provided everything that we will ever need. He
has provided not only blessing and that which sustains us in life but He has
provided, when necessary, discipline. He has provided all of it alone. He alone
delivers; He alone provides. In the whole concept of grace, God does it.
Here is a conspiracy against the
really important thing in life. What is important in life? The fact that Jesus
Christ was judged for the sins of the world on the cross, the fact that we have
personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal salvation, the
fact that God has a plan for each one of us after salvation and that plan
starts by entrance of gate one at the moment of salvation into the protocol
system. That plan for phase two eventually terminates, either by physical death
or the Rapture, whichever occurs first, and that the plan then goes on forever,
and the plan calls even for us to come back with the Lord and watch what the
Lord will do. So the concept that the Lord did it alone is a very basic and
important concept in grace. Grace is the work of God on our behalf.
Here we find the great conspiracy
against grace. “These will make war against the Lamb.” In so doing there is
going to be immediately a tactical victory, and from that tactical victory we
will then derive the reason for this passage beginning in verse 12. What is the
doctrinal application? Why do we have this recorded in such detail in this one
verse?
As at the cross, so at the second
advent, deliverance is accomplished entirely by the Lord Jesus Christ without
help from anyone. This is the principle of grace. Under the concept of grace
God does it all. Therefore deliverance is a matter of grace. The deliverance at
the cross at the first advent was a matter of grace: “For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works,
lest any man should boast.” Since Christ did all of the work we can only
respond by faith for eternal salvation, and since Christ will do all of the
work at the second advent we can only respond by observing His great victory.
So both the strategic victory of the first advent and the tactical victory of
the second advent are the work of Christ alone.
This dramatises the grace of God and
is a reminder to us that in the protocol system there is no place for works as
far as advancing in the plan of God. In God’s protocol system, the divine dynasphere
at gate one, we are filled with the Spirit totally apart from any human works.
Even rebound is a grace modus operandi. When we get to the second gate and we
are dealing with basic Christian modus operandi no works are involved, no
production is involved. We do not advance in the spiritual life by even
legitimate production, such as witnessing or fulfilling the function of your
particular spiritual gift. There is no spiritual connotation to momentum apart
from the function inside the protocol system. When we get to gate three which
is basic virtue directed toward authority and forced and genuine humility,
again, no works. The very definition of humility separates the believer from
any function of legalism, from any system of works.
And what is momentum in the
spiritual life? It is the function of the perception of doctrine at gate four:
the perception of doctrine, the function of the royal priesthood, the
application of doctrine, the function of the royal ambassadorship. And, again,
no works are involved. Then, after the first four gates we begin to see the
results of momentum. At gate five we have motivational virtue directed toward God,
no works involved. At gate six we have functional virtue toward man and
circumstances — no works at all. At gate seven we have testing: the eight
momentum tests that every believer must pass to reach maturity. Again, no works
are involved. And so the achievement of spiritual maturity, the glorification
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the very purpose for which we are supported by
logistical grace, is totally apart from works. It is only when we get to gates
five, six, and seven, that we have any production that is meaningful. New
believers can witness for Jesus Christ. One believer can be inside of the
divine dynasphere and in his whole lifetime lead five people to the Lord as a
result of his faithful witness, but that believer, when he stands at the
judgment seat of Christ, will receive rewards and decorations for those five
people he led to the Lord. His production will be gold, silver, and precious
stones. But a believer can win thousands of people to the Lord by his
testimony, live in the cosmic system, and his production is wood, hay, and
stubble, and therefore it has no connotation except to be burned at the
judgment seat of Christ. It all depends on where you are, not what you do.
Where you are is the thing that counts.
Continuing in verse 14 we have the victory
of the two advents mentioned by our Lord’s royal title. Here it is given a
little different than we are accustomed to seeing it. First of all we have
“Lord of lords” and then “King of kings,” just the opposite of the way the
title is given in chapter nineteen. We begin with the causal use of the
conjunction o(ti, “because.” The strategic
victory of the first advent is the basis for the tactical victory of the second
advent. Our Lord accomplished the victory alone at the first advent when He was
on the cross; our Lord accomplishes the victory alone at the second advent when
He is mounted on that magnificent white horse. With this we have the present
active indicative of the verb e)imi, “because he is.” The
present tense is a static present for a condition which always exists. The
active voice: Jesus Christ as the winner in the first advent produces the
action of the verb. Christ is the winner because of impeccability as He
functioned in the prototype divine dynasphere. Our Lord Jesus Christ from the
time of the virgin birth to the time that He went to the cross and was judged
for our sins functioned inside of the prototype of the protocol system. It is a
reminder, once again, that God has a plan for your life as a believer and that
plan can never be divorced from the operational system. Now that we live in the
Church Age we have the operational divine dynasphere. There is no fulfillment
of the plan of God until you understand and you function inside of the divine dynasphere.
Until then, of course, no plan of God exists for your life and whatever you do
it is wood, hay, and stubble; it is energy of the flesh, it is legalism, and it
does not glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. So our Lord Jesus Christ made it to the
cross because He lived inside the prototype divine dynasphere. His deity, of
course, was absolutely incorruptible, it was impossible for Jesus Christ as God
to sin. But as true humanity He was tempted in many points like as we are, yet
without sin. His humanity went to the cross without sin and He was therefore
qualified to bear the sins of the world.
“because he is,” the active voice:
Jesus Christ produces the action as the winner. The indicative mood is
declarative for our Lord’s third royal warrant as a result of His strategic
victory on the cross. Note the reverse order of our Lord’s third royal title
here. It is reversed because of its relationship to His two advents. “Lord of
lords” emphasises the victory of the first advent, “King of kings” emphasises
the victory of the second advent. So at the second advent He will be called
“King of kings and Lord of Lords” but at the first advent He is “Lord of lords
and King of kings.” This is a matter, therefore, of emphasis. “Lord of lords”
goes right back to that strategic victory. We have the predicate nominative
from kurioj which means “Lord” in the
sense of God. The absence of the definite article emphasises the quality of the
noun, therefore rendered properly in the English by the translation, “the
Lord.” Then the ablative plural of comparison from kurioj
again, separating our Lord from all other lords in history. At the time of
writing the Roman empire was ruled by the Caesars, called emporator (emperor)
and one of his titles was “lord,” he was to be addressed as kurioj, the deification of the
rulers of the Roman empire. And so He is the Lord of all lords. Written at the
time of the Roman empire it gives us once again the time when our Lord won the
strategic victory on the cross. He is the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ, of
course, is God. He is also the God-Man, we have noted the hypostatic union.
This becomes the basis of winners during the Church Age and the manufacture of
winners depends upon the function of the protocol system of the divine dynasphere.
All this is brought together under the title “Lord of lords.”
Then, in His tactical victory we
have “King of kings,” and again we have the predicate nominative from basileuj. It is in the singular, He
is the King. And then the ablative of separation of all kings. Our Lord is
separated from all rulers of all time but in this context rulers of the
Millennium specifically. Here, then, is the tactical victory of our Lord Jesus
Christ mentioned in His title and Jesus Christ rules the entire world,
superseding Satan, at the second advent. That is a part of His great victory.
As the ruler of the world our Lord is the King over all kings of the world; He
is the ruler over all rulers; He is supreme during the Millennium because He is
the Lord of lords and he is the King of kings.
The title of our Lord Jesus Christ
as the God of Israel is given in Deuteronomy 10:17, “For the Lord your God is
the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome
God who does not show partiality, nor does he take a bribe.” Nebuchadnezzar’s
expression of respect is similar. Daniel 2:47, “The king answered Daniel and
said, ‘Emphatically your God is the God of gods, he is the Lord of kings, also
a revealer of mysteries, since you have been able to reveal this mystery to
me.” Paul’s recognition of the title comes in first Timothy 6:15, “He will
demonstrate in his own time — He who is the blessed and only sovereign, the
King of kings and Lord of Lords.” John’s recognition of the title is found here
and again in Revelation 19:16 with the reversal emphasising the second advent.
“These will make war against the
Lamb [the final conspiracy of history] but the Lamb will conquer them because
he is the Lord of lords, and King of kings.”
We have a threefold classification
of the royal family which follows. It begins with the connective kai which introduces an additional piece of doctrine
and is translated “furthermore.” Next we have the nominative plural from the
definite article o(i used as an immediate
demonstrative pronoun, “furthermore they.” This is a reference to the Church
Age believers, the members of the royal family of God who return with our Lord
Jesus Christ. Then we have the preposition meta
plus the genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, “with him,” “furthermore, those with him.”
Now we have the first classification
of the royal family and it refers to salvation. It is the adjective in the
predicate nominative masculine plural, klhtoi , which means called or
invited. This means that all members of the human race are included in this
adjective for it means to be invited to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Jesus Christ was hanging on the
cross He was judged for every sin which existed in the human race. There never
was a sin that will be committed in the history of the human race that was not
judged at the cross and because of the judgment of the cross and because all
sins were judged by God the Father when Jesus Christ was bearing them you are
invited. Once you are invited because of unlimited atonement you have a choice
to make. You can either be positive and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or you
can be negative and say no to the gospel. All in the human race are invited.
Not all accept the invitation, only those who believe in Christ accept the
invitation. For those who reject the invitation they are still in a state of
condemnation. This brings up the first of the issues here, for klhtoj, the adjective in the predicate nominative plural,
refers to the fact that there is no one in the history of the human race for
whom Christ did not die. We call it simply the doctrine of unlimited atonement.
When we get to the next word we will see that those who believe are said to be
elected, but those who reject Christ are not in the computer and since they are
outside of the computer they cannot be construed as elected. All are invited;
only believers are elected.
The atonement in the Old Testament
refers to the animal sacrifices which portray the saving work of Christ on the
cross. Atonement in the New Testament refers to the actual saving work of Jesus
Christ on the cross, including redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. In
the Old Testament the word for atonement was kafar
which means to pass over or to cover. The animal sacrifices and their blood was
used to cover sin in that concept. And the communication of the saving work of
Christ on the cross was used by these animal sacrifices. Atonement, therefore,
is the means of reconciliation between God and man. It is the basis for divine
propitiation and the portrayal of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross being
judged for our sins. While animal blood was said to be the shadow in the book
of Hebrews, the shadow which illustrates the judgment of our Lord for our sins
in His saving work, it is the historical reality which fulfilled it. So wherever
we look at the word “atonement” we are looking at the work of our Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross.
The question arises, for whom did
Christ die on the cross? If Christ didn’t die for everyone then everyone isn’t
invited to have eternal salvation.
Romans 3:23-26, “For all have sinned
and fallen short of the glory of God, receiving justification without payment
by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God [the
Father] has publicly displayed by his blood at the mercy seat through faith in
Christ. For a demonstration of his integrity because of the passing over of
previously committed sins, because of the clemency [delay in judgment] from
God”
In other words, verse 25 tells us
that the kafar [atonement] means that all
of the sins of the human race were entered into the computer of divine decrees.
Before the cross all of these sins were passed over when a person believed in
Christ and the blood covering a sacrifice was the principle of atonement. So
when Christ came to the cross historically all the sins of the past were taken
out of the computer and they were imputed to Christ on the cross. The justice
of God the Father judged those sins. All the sins of the future, including all
the sins that we will ever commit, up to the end of time were also a part of
that printout and were imputed to Christ on the cross, and the justice of God
actually judged them. So all of the sins of the world were gathered up together
under the principle of atonement. That means that there is an invitation to the
entire human race. It is given to all, and that is what the meaning of klhtoi in this passage. All of the human race are invited
to have eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
So Romans 3:26 adds: “For the
demonstration of his integrity at the present time of crisis in order that he
might be just and justify anyone who has faith in Christ.”
Atonement, then, is just another way
of describing the saving work of Christ on the cross. The fact that Christ was
judged for everyone’s sins is found in 2 Corinthians 5:14,15,19, “For the love
of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one [Jesus Christ alone]
died for all, therefore all died; so he died for all that they who live should
no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their
behalf … God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself [not just believers
but the world], not counting their trespasses against them, and he has
committed to us this message of reconciliation.”
1 Timothy 2:6, “who having given himself
a redemptive ransom on behalf of all.”
1 Timothy 4:10, “For because of this
we [pastors] work hard to the point of exhaustion, because we have confidence
in the living God, who is the saviour of all men, especially of believers.” The
invitation is given to all.
Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God
bringing salvation to all has appeared.” Not to some, but to all.
The entire human race was invited to
salvation because Christ was judged for the entire human race on the cross. In
Revelation 20:12-15 we look at unlimited atonement as far as the last judgment
is concerned: “I saw the dead, small and great, standing before the throne; and
the books were opened: and another of a different kind of a book was opened,
which is the book of life: and the dead were judged from the things which were
written in the books, according to their works,” a reference to sin at the last
judgment, sin was all judged at the cross. Sin is not an issue in salvation, it
is “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Sin is not an
issue at the last judgment. God doesn’t make an issue of your sins; God makes
an issue of the work of Christ on the cross. The invitation is open to all.
When it says in verse 15, “And whosoever was not found written in the book of
life was thrown into the lake of fire,” that simply means they rejected the
invitation. They had many chances and they simply refused to believe.
Unlimited atonement means that
Christ was judged on the cross for the entire human race. There are no
exceptions and therefore the sins of the entire world — sins of believers, sins
of unbelievers — were imputed to Christ and judged by God the Father. Sin
therefore is never an issue in salvation, the issue is “What think ye of
Christ?” Only unbelievers will stand at the judgment bar of God and they are
tried, convicted, and sentenced to the lake of fire because they have rejected
the invitation. John 3:18, “He who believes in him [Christ] is not judged; he
who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in
the name of the unique Son of God.”
So we have the first of three words
and the first is addressed to the entire human race, “furthermore those with
him are [classified as] invited.” Obviously all believers were invited to
accept Christ and they accepted the invitation, they believed in Christ, and
that is the predicate nominative masculine plural from the adjective klhtoj. This means that all members
of the human race were invited and the response to the invitation is
non-meritorious, it is faith in Christ. It means that one of the printouts of
the computer of divine decrees for believers is the next word, “election.”
Salvation election means that the believer is in the purpose of God. Election
at salvation means that you are a member of the human race. You are invited
through God-consciousness, normal evangelism, or crisis evangelism, and then
you have the opportunity of deciding. If you say yes to the invitation you
believe in Christ; if you say no to the invitation you do nothing more or less
than reject Christ as saviour. Those who respond to the invitation and believe
are then said to be elected to privilege, and those who do not believe are
said, of course, to be unbelievers and they are under the concept of spiritual
death which leads to the second death. The second classification, then, recognises
the believer in time. Many words could have been used but we have the predicate
nominative plural from e)klektoj which is one of the words
for election. We will translate it “selected.”
We move now to our second word which
is the predicate nominate plural from e)klektoj and means chosen or selected. It is a reference to believers in phase
two. The believer is chosen or selected for the protocol system, for residence,
function and momentum inside the divine dynasphere. That brings us, then, to
the five printouts which describe those who are qualified for the protocol
system.
Again, we look at it from the
standpoint of the omniscience of God. God knew in eternity past every thought,
every decision, every action, of every person and how they would all
interrelate at a given time and given place in history. The omniscience of God
is one of three categories of God’s knowledge and in the omniscience of God we
have Him entering into the computer of divine decrees every person who ever
would accept Jesus Christ as saviour. From this computer, for those who
believe, there are five printouts. These five are all mentioned in one passage,
in Romans 8:28-32, and in that particular passage they come in a certain order.
The first one is called foreknowledge, the second one is called predestination,
the third one is election, the fourth is justification, and the fifth is
glorification. Each one of these printouts has a relationship to the royal
family of God. Foreknowledge, for example, means that every one of us who is a
believer was in the mind of God in eternity past and there never was a time
when we were not in the mind of God as a believer. God not only has a plan for
our life, it is a plan which existed from eternity past. Predestination means
that every believer is in the plan of God, and election means that every
believer is in the purpose of God. Justification means that every believer is
under the grace policy of God and glorification is simply God’s recognition of
those members of the royal family of God who live in the protocol system and
wind up their lives in this earth as winners. So we are all in the mind of God,
we are all in the plan of God, we are all under the grace of God, but not all
are winners. This does recognise the fact that decisions are made by believers
whereby they are winners or losers in life. But specifically now our passage is
dealing with election and to understand election there are a number of
principles that must be developed.
We have to start with the
omniscience of God. Just as in the doctrine of divine decrees omniscience is
one of three categories of divine knowledge, the other two being God’s
self-knowledge and God’s foreknowledge. God’s self-knowledge has to do with the
fact that God is eternal; His knowledge is eternal. God is Himself and He knows
Himself to be beyond comparison with any other creature or being, and because
God is infinite His knowledge is beyond boundaries and beyond any of the
limitations that we experience as members of the human race. Because God is
immutable His knowledge cannot change; God cannot be ignorant about anything.
God’s knowledge precedes time, it precedes space, and therefore God’s knowledge
is not subject to time or to space. God knows Himself, He knows His attributes,
He knows His plans, He knows His policies, He knows everything which relates to
Himself. God’s self-knowledge is related to other members of the Trinity as
well. Hence, God has eternally known Himself and God has eternally known the
other members of the Godhead. Each member of the Trinity has perfect subjective
knowledge of Himself and perfect objective knowledge of the other members of
the Godhead. The omniscience of God is the second phase of His knowledge and
while God’s self-knowledge always relates to the Trinity as they have always
existed His omniscience relates to all creatures, both angelic and human.
Omniscience is defined as God knowing perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously
all that is knowable about people, the actual which goes into the decrees and
the possible or the probable which does not go into the decrees but is still
known to God. The actual is fed into the computer of divine decrees and becomes
history, while the possible or the probable are the decisions or actions which
could have occurred but did not occur. Every minute detail of both the angelic
and human history is completely in God’s mind at all times. Therefore,
omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together
with all their causes, conditions, relations, as one individual system of
things. And this individual system is also indivisible and is therefore the
reality of life. There is also the third category which is the foreknowledge of
God, and just as God has eternally had knowledge of self the omniscience of God
has knowledge of all thoughts, decisions, actions of all people in history, and
that is programmed into the computer of divine decrees. He has knowledge of all
the probables and what would have happened.
Election is one of the two things
that we should note. We have to note that one of the printouts is
foreknowledge. In Romans 8:28-32 foreknowledge is the first printout,
predestination is the second printout, election is the third printout,
justification the fourth, and glorification the fifth. The foreknowledge of God
is not the same as the omniscience of God, they are separated by the computer
of divine decrees. Foreknowledge and omniscience, therefore, must be
distinguished under the principle of rightly dividing the Word of truth.
Omniscience programs the computer of human history. It programs in the motives,
the thoughts, decisions, the actions of every person throughout all of history,
and while foreknowledge is a printout of the decree regarding believers only,
nothing therefore is foreknown until it is first decreed. Foreknowledge is not
synonymous with omniscience, they are different aspects of divine knowledge.
Only the computer of divine decrees establishes reality, which means that
foreknowledge follows as a printout of the divine decrees. Foreknowledge makes
nothing certain but acknowledges what is certain: the printout of the divine
decrees. God foreknows all things as certainly future because He first decreed
them from His omniscience. Not only did He decree them but He decreed their
interrelationship with all other people. The foreknowledge of God, like
election, is a printout of the divine decrees. The omniscience of God feeds the
facts into the computer resulting in five categorical printouts.
Our subject is election, and to
appreciate and understand election there is Psalm 139:1-6.
Verse
1, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me [in eternity past].”
Verse
2, “You know me when I sit down and when I get up; you understand my thoughts
from eternity past.”
Verse
3, “You have computed my journey [through life] and my lying down [the manner
of my death], in fact you are intimately acquainted with all of my ways.”
Verse
4, “Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you have known
it.”
Verse
5, “You have encircled me [surrounded me with a wall of fire] behind and in
front [we are protected from all sides by logistical grace], obviously you have
laid your hand on me.”
Verse
6, “Such knowledge [the omniscience of God] is too wonderful for me; it is too
high, I cannot attain it.” None of us ever have the ability to know everything
that ever happens simultaneously. God has in His mind at all times every
action, every thought, every decision of every person and how it relates to
everyone else in the periphery in any point of time, in any geographical
location in any situation or circumstance. That is omniscience.
What is election? Election is the
doctrine of the divine control of human history. Predestination is the doctrine
of the divine plan for the believer in history and election relates to the
purpose of that plan. Justification is how the plan is administered to
believers. The imputation of divine righteousness provides the basis for divine
support and blessing of all believers, winners and losers, carnal and
spiritual, immature and mature. Glorification is the result of all of this when
the believer is a winner in the system. Election is the divine control of
history and there are three elections in the Bible.
a. The election of Jesus Christ.
That has to do with His hypostatic union, His first advent, His incarnation.
Jesus Christ was elected to provide strategical and tactical victory for the
human race during the time when Satan is the ruler of this world.
b. Israel — only the believers in
Israel.
c. The Church — believers in this
dispensation.
Election is, therefore, the purpose
of God the Father for Jesus Christ in the incarnation. Election is the purpose
of believers in Israel when Israel was a client nation. Election is the purpose
of believers during the Church Age. So we are talking about election to
privilege which relates us as believers in this Church Age to the function of
client nations to God. Election means that the believer is in the purpose of
God as a part of the historical phase of the angelic conflict. Israel
illustrates the principle for us. Israel as the first and last client nation in
history is classified as the first election to privilege. The first election to
privilege was Israel. The order in which they occur is: a. The election of
Israel; b. The election of Christ; c. The Church in the sense of the body of
Christ, born-again believers. Perhaps election is easier to understand if we
start with Israel. Israel is as a nation the first and last client nation in
history. It is classified, therefore, as the first election to privilege.
Believers in Israel determined the status quo of Israel at any given time. In BC 1441 Israel began as a client nation. Except for 70 years along the
way that continued until AD 70. So for almost 1500
years Israel was a client nation to God, and how that client nation went was
determined by the believers. So born-again believers in Israel are the first
category in history who are said to be elected. Sometimes it was a small pivot
and therefore they went down. Sometimes it was a large pivot and therefore they
had great blessing. All of the believers from Moses’ generation on are said to
be elected. Not the unbelievers. Election says only believers are in the
purpose of God. And it relates to history: as goes the believer so goes
history. That is splitting the coin and looking at the other side of the
doctrine of election. Only believers in Israel were elected to privilege and
had the potential of becoming a part of the pivot as it then existed, the pivot
of mature believers around which the client nation functions in freedom,
evangelism, missionary effort, and spiritual momentum through the perception of
Bible doctrine.
As goes the pivot so goes the
nation. Those believers who are are spinning off of the pivot are elected to
privilege. What is election? It is the privilege of contributing to the
blessing of a Gentile nation by advancing to maturity, not by carrying signs,
not by social action, not by any form of getting involved with conspiracy or
revolution, but by advancing to maturity in the protocol system. Only the
believer in the Church Age is elected to privilege even as only the believer
starting with Moses was elected to privilege in Israel.
There are many passages which deal
with the subject. For example, 1 Peter 1:1,2, “ … who are elected to privilege
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.” So Peter mentions two of the
printouts. Election means that God has a purpose for our lives; foreknowledge
means we were in the mind of God billions of years ago. These are both
printouts from the computer and so Peter relates the two of them showing that
election to privilege has to do with believers only.
Election is also related to the
printout of predestination, one of Paul’s favourite subjects. Ephesians 1:4,5,
“Just as he has elected us in him before the foundation of the world.” The
omniscience of God programmed into the computer the information and election is
one of the printouts. So before the foundation of the world we were invited. He
knew that we would be invited, that we would accept Christ as saviour;
therefore we are not only foreknown, we are also elected. We have therefore a
purpose, “so he predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus.”
Election to be understood must be related to key concepts such as client nation
and privilege. The Jews in the Old Testament had four different client nations
and it was the privilege of the Jewish believer living under the laws of divine
establishment, advancing to maturity through basically the faith-rest drill,
who turned the tide. We have even a greater opportunity because we are royal
family of God, we live in the Church Age, and we have the protocol system, the
divine dynasphere used by Jesus Christ. So the first election is the election
of Israel. That is now past. Jews are still elected by believing in Christ.
They are entered into union with Christ.
There is no longer a Jewish client
nation and there will not be again until the second advent of Christ. In the
meantime we live in the times of the Gentiles and we have another doctrine of
election based upon the royal family of God and upon the fact that between the
election of the Church and the election of Israel Jesus Christ came into the
world and His humanity entered into the prototype divine dynasphere. Because
His humanity was perfect inside of the divine dynasphere He went to the cross
and was judged for the sins of the world, another printout from the computer of
divine decrees. Therefore, the invitation has always existed to all since
[unlimited atonement] He was judged for all.
Now, here we are with the third
election. It deals with us in the Church Age because we have the operational
divine dynasphere. We have a purpose and no matter how humble our circumstances,
no matter how great, no matter how discouraging, no matter how prosperous, God
has a purpose for our life as believers. That purpose is called election to
privilege.
Notice, for example, Isaiah 42:1
where we have the second election, “Behold, my servant, whom I sustain [through
the prototype divine dynasphere]; my elected one [Jesus Christ historically is
the second election] in whom my soul delights. I have put my Spirit upon him
[the prototype divine dynasphere].”
Acts 2:23, “This one [Jesus Christ],
delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you have
nailed to the cross.” Notice that Jesus Christ in hypostatic union was also
under the principle of the five printouts. At the moment of the virgin birth
Jesus Christ was predestined. The humanity of Christ was in the mind of the
Father, the mind of the Spirit, in eternity past. He was also not only elected
but He was predestined, He was in the plan of God the Father — the plan of the
incarnation. Election: Jesus Christ was in the purpose of God the Father.
Foreknowledge: He was in the mind of God the Father. And His justification was
His resurrection and ascension, different from our justification. His
glorification took place at the session, when he was seated at the right hand
of the Father. So the five printouts for us under the principle of election
also applied to the humanity of Christ during the first advent.
1 Peter 2:4,6, “And coming to him
[Christ] as a living stone, rejected by men, but elect and precious in the
sight of God … But contained in the scripture [Isaiah 28:16]: ‘Behold I lay in
Zion a chief corner stone, elected, in fact he who believes in him will not be
put to shame’.” The believers of Israel were the elect, they were elected to
privilege. As goes the believer in Israel so goes the client nation to God.
That is what election means. We are elected to privilege. In the times of the
Gentiles, the Church Age, as goes the believer in the client nation so goes
that client nation. That is election. Jesus Christ brings them both together.
He is the chief corner stone; He is the second election. Historically, the
first election: Israel; historically, the second election: our Lord Jesus
Christ; historically, the third election: the Church. Cf. Isaiah 45:4; Romans
9:6,7; 11:1-7.
The election of the Church is also
an election to privilege. After the first 40 years, in AD 70, no client nation Israel could exist. There will be Jewish states
throughout history but none of them can be client nations. It is now the Church
all the way to the Rapture. 1 Thessalonians 1:4, “Knowing, brethren loved of
God, His election for you,” it is the believer alone who is elected. Election
is the motivation for the royal family of God. 2 Timothy 1:9, “The one who has
saved us, and elected us to a holy station [in life], not according to our
works, but according to his own predetermined plan which has been given to us
in Christ before human history.” Under election to privilege the Church Age
believer is responsible to our Lord Jesus Christ for the fulfillment of the
privilege. And what is the privilege? To have momentum in the system, the
protocol system, the divine dynasphere, to live in the system, to advance in
the system from gate four to gate eight; and as a result to join the pivot and
to enlarge the pivot so that the client nation may be delivered. Titus 1:1,
“Paul, a slave of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the
doctrine of God’s elected ones,” Paul had a special message with regard to
election, and as such he was the slave of God, he was the apostle of Jesus
Christ. The doctrine has to do with election, “the full knowledge of the
doctrine according to the norms of godliness” is what he goes on to speak
about. Ephesians 4:1, “Therefore, I the prisoner of the Lord, continue to
encourage you to walk in a manner worthy of your station in life.” He means to
get back into the divine dynasphere. You not only construct and edification
complex of the soul but you become a part of the pivot of mature believers,
“into which station you have been elected.” Cf. Ephesians 1:3-6. Jesus Christ
is pursuing us in grace right now so that we can fulfill the principle.
After e)klektoj in our verse the third classification of the royal family is kai pistoi, the last word in verse 14. It is the predicate
nominative plural pistoi which
means faithful, and meaning faithful it also has a different connotation. All
people who accept Christ as saviour were invited, that is the gospel. Then they
are elected to privilege. The final word “faithful” means that some believers
in time are winners and some are losers. Attitude toward Bible doctrine,
attitude toward the protocol system makes the difference. It is the winners who
form the pivot and have the impact on history; it is the losers that bring
trouble, because they are a spin-off and therefore have an effect on history.
Where do we find this word pistoj? Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful
servant; you have been faithful in a few things, I will make you ruler over
many things.” Notice that God doesn’t require a high IQ, a great personality, success, prosperity, He requires faithfulness.
Faithfulness in the little things leads to faithfulness in greater things which
result becoming a winner. Luke 16:10, “He who is faithful in a very little
thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little
thing is also unrighteous in much.” 1 Corinthians 4:1,2, “Let a man regard us
[the ministry] in this manner, a servant of Christ, and stewards of the
mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required in a steward that he
be found faithful.” 1 Timothy 1:12, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has
strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, putting me in his service.”
Revelation 2:10, “Keep on becoming faithful until death,” the word “faithful”
is talking about a winner, someone who is a plugger, not someone who sky
rockets and is very scintillating for a moment and then fades out into the
darkness, “and I will give you a crown of life.”
Verse 14, “These will make war
against the Lamb, but the Lamb will conquer them because he is the Lord of
lords, and King of kings: furthermore those with him are classified as invited
[to believe in Christ], and selected [election to privilege], and faithful
[winners in time].”
In verse 15 we have the
interpretation of the waters. We have three sittings of the woman in this
passage. In verse 1 we saw the woman sitting on many waters. In verse 3 we saw
the woman sitting on the scarlet beast. In verse 9 we saw that the seven heads
are seven mountains “on which the woman sitteth.” This is a reference to the
woman sitting on the many waters in verse 1. It begins with the sequential use
of the conjunction kai, translated “Then,”
followed by the present active indicative of the verb legw, communication, usually translated “said,” and the
dative singular indirect object plus dative of advantage from the personal
pronoun e)gw, “Then he said to me.” The
subject is the nominative plural from u(dor,
“waters.” Then the aorist active indicative of the verb o(raw, “the waters which you have seen [or saw].”
Next we note that the dominating
influence of the great prostitute which is religion. We have an objective
genitive from the relative pronoun o(j,
“on which,” and the nominative singular subject pornh
, “whore,” a reference to the great ecumenical religious system at the end of
the Tribulation, ecumenical religion which performs for money and power in the
same manner as the prostitute, therefore the analogy. The analogy to the
prostitute is an apt view of the fact that prostitutes are a distraction to
establishment truth in the same way that religion is a distraction to all
truth.
The prostitute here is in the
feminine gender which takes us back to the garden of Eden and the original sin
of our parents. In the garden of Eden man was the authority both over the world
as well as over the woman. Satan began his attack on the original parents by
attacking the woman instead of the man. Religion always sides with those who
have no authority for a purpose: to attack establishment authority. Religion is
revolutionary; Christianity is constitutionary. Religion teaches freedom
without responsibility but the power of freedom is really in virtue. Freedom
demands a sense of responsibility or virtue for its perpetuation. Religion is
anti-freedom, antiestablishment, and irresponsible because it has no virtue.
Just as Satan rejected the authority established by God in the garden, so Satan
rejects divine establishment authority in life. Therefore religion is portrayed
as a woman because the woman was the first revolutionary in history. Since Adam
was the ruling authority on earth his fall would have removed the issue of
volition for the woman but the woman would simply have obeyed her husband in
that case. However, that is not the way Satan works, he attacks the one with no
authority and then destroys authority through the one who has no authority. So
just as Satan used the woman to undermine the authority of Adam so Satan uses
religion to undermine the authority of establishment and doctrine in life.
Establishment recognises the importance of privacy, freedom, the sacredness of
property and life, under the protection of the authority of government.
Religion undermines all these principles by either trying to be the state or
dictating to the state religious policies rather than political policies. So
what the prostitute and religion have in common is they are both malcontent.
Eve as a rebellious woman in perfect
environment is the perfect analogy, then, to religion. Religion distorts truth
just as the woman in the garden distorted the divine mandate when she added
with regard to the question: Satan said to her, speaking through the serpent,
“You mean that God won’t let you eat from the tree?” And her answer was, “He
will not let us eat nor touch it.” God said nothing about touching the tree.
Actually, the woman assumed erroneously that if you eat from the tree you die.
She also assumed that if you touch the tree you would die. In other words, she
assumed that death lay in the property of the tree, when in fact, death lay in
the act of disobedience. Therefore she either deliberately or inadvertently
distorted the truth. The truth always deals with the issue of authority but she
made it mysterious, the mystique syndrome, and she thought that if you touched
the tree you would die, or if you ate from the fruit of the tree. So death did
not lie in the property of the tree but in the act of disobedience, negative
volition toward the divine mandate. Religion always denies the truth as
illustrated by the fact that Satan, the father of religion, immediately told
the woman: “Dying, you will not die.” He was denying that the wages of
disobedience is death. This results in religion ascribing to God false
motivation and the maligning of divine essence. As with Satan so with the woman
in the garden, her fall was related to arrogance.
Using the whore as the analogy here
implies that all religion is arrogant. Satan suggested to the woman that of she
ate from the tree she would be equal with God, knowing good and evil. That was
the implication of Genesis 3:5. Satan’s appeal to the arrogance of the woman is
the transfer of Satan’s own weakness to the soul of the woman. Therefore
religion is a woman receiving the inculcation of Satanic doctrine to itself.
The woman was designed by God to be feminine, and to be feminine she has to be
subordinate to authority. She rejected the authority of Adam. When she partook
of the fruit and sinned Adam was still ruling the world, but not for long. He discovered
that he couldn’t rule the world without the woman’s cooperation, and she had to
cooperate by behaving. When women don’t behave and don’t cooperate it always
means that the ruler is discredited. The woman discovered in her fall that she
was not like God and that is when she learned what God was like. That is what
happens in this chapter. Religion is a woman and as a woman is not equal to God
in power but the recipient of divine power in judgment.
So we have, “Then he said to me, The
waters which you saw, on which the prostitute sits,” the domination and control
of ecumenical religion during the Tribulation. We have the word “sits,” the
present active indicative of kaqhmai meaning domination. The
prostitute rules a system and this is analogous to ecumenical religion in its
dominating role in the Tribulation. The pictorial present tense depicts the
ecumenical religious system dominating people and nations throughout the world
in the time of the devil’s desperation. The active voice: the prostitute or
ecumenical religion produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for
a point of eschatological doctrine.
We have four categories which are
dominated by the prostitute. The first category are the cultures of the world.
Cultures always appear to be strong, many cultures are strong, and people cling
to their cultures. Culture, by the way, has nothing to do with race. When you
think of culture, think of thought. Culture is the thought of mankind in a
specific geographical area. It can be related to race, to history, to a nation,
but culture expresses itself in the singing and the dancing, the thinking, the
general philosophical concepts, the paintings, the artistry, the talent.
Culture expresses itself in thought and talent, and the first category to be
dominated is culture. The present active indicative of e)imi comes first, the verb to be. With this we have the
predicate nominative plural from the noun laoj,
“people.” It refers to man under the classification of culture or what people
think. We have a progressive present tense, action in progress during the
Tribulation. The active voice: waters are interpreted as producing the action.
These people are being dominated. The indicative mood is declarative for the
reality of the correct interpretation of waters. The predicate nominative laoj, translated correctly “people” refers to the
cultural classification of people. It refers, therefore, to mankind under the
classification of what he thinks in terms of culture. The cosmic dynasphere
number two is a special trap for the cultures of the world. The noun laoj also means people gathered
in crowds. People in crowds come to accept a system of thought, to consider a
system of thought, and people in crowds are not there to think for themselves
but to learn. Hence, their culture is no defense against this Satanic religion
in the field of cosmic evangelism. Religion draws crowds where thinking is neutralised
by emotion. Remember that most cultures of the world also express the emotion
of people and this ecumenical religious system is not designed to appeal to the
people who can think but to appeal to the people through emotion.
In the second category we have the
adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also,” and the predicate
nominative plural from o)xloj which means multitudes.
This classification looks at people from the standpoint of the racial
classification of mankind, “also multitudes.” There is no race in the world
which is not vulnerable to this false system of doctrine.
The third category is called “nations,”
kai this time is translated
“both.” This is a predicate nominative plural from e)qnoj,
referring to the nations of the world at that time. No nation is exempt from
Satanic evangelism. Religion seeks to control and dominate nations. The phallic
cult dominated Canaan, Phoenicia, and Carthage. In the middle ages the Roman
Catholic church dominated most of the European nations. The union of religion
and state destroys human freedom and establishes dictatorships.
The fourth category is language, glwssa, also in the predicate
nominative plural. It refers to the linguistic classification of mankind, and
language is no barrier to the rapid advance of this religion in the
Tribulation.
“Then he said to me, The waters
which you saw, no which the prostitute sits, are peoples, and multitudes, both
nations, and languages.”
In verses 16 & 17 we have the
interpretation of the ten horns now continued and concluded. In verse 16 we see
the great civil war. We see the political finally getting tired of religion and
rising up to destroy it.
Verse 16, We translate the beginning
of the verse, “Both the beast dictator and the ten horns.” We translate it with
two kais together, “Both and.”
“Both the beast dictator and the ten horns which you saw,” this is the
political leadership of the revived Roman empire of the Tribulation. Now
finally they come to disgust and this is translated by the nominative plural
subject of the immediate demonstrative o(utoj,
translated “these,” followed by the future active indicative of the verb misew. They don’t start out despising, they come to
despise. At first the nations of the world accept the religious system, later
on they detest and abhor it. It connotes aversion leading to hostility. The
progressive future denotes the concept of perpetual hostility in future time.
The active voice: the political side of the revived Roman empire of the
Tribulation dominated all too long now turns and antagonism toward the
ecumenical religious system leads to hostility. The indicative mood is
declarative. The accusative singular direct object is directed again toward the
great prostitute, pornh.
“Both
the beast dictator and the ten horns which you saw will despise the
prostitute.” This hostility arises over the matter of power and control plus
the fact that if there is any establishment in any of these governments they
can begin to see that religion is antiestablishment and attack upon their own
authority, and they try to do something about it. Needless to say the
antagonism results in civil war inside of the revived Roman empire. The result
of this civil war is the fall of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation. God
uses agents in the administration of personal and historical judgment. In this
case the agent is the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. As evil
as the political system is it turns against another evil. Most civil wars are
not good versus evil, they are always evil versus evil with a little good on
both sides. But this is strictly evil versus evil without any good on either side.
Notice that God uses an evil agent to destroy an evil agent. The union of
religion and state not only produces tyranny but revolution and civil war as
well. In this civil war ecumenical religion, however, is destroyed.
Next we have the sequential use of
the conjunction kai, translated “then.” After
the development of hatred and hostility toward religion the political
leadership will act to destroy religious power. Then we have a perfect passive
participle of the verb e)rhmow which
means to lay waste, to depopulate, to devastate, to bring to ruin, “having been
devastated.” However, the participle is in the accusative case and is therefore
used here as a noun . It is part of a double accusative and we translate it “a
devastation.”
Next we have the future active
indicative of poiew which
will be used as an idiom. It means to do or to make but it will not be
translated that way here. The predictive future anticipates the judgment of a
future religious system, Satan’s greatest system. The active voice: the beast
dictator and his ten proconsuls will produce the action of the verb, that is
the political leadership of the empire will become hostile to ecumenical
religion as a system. It is interesting to note that sometimes religion will
develop an army that will nearly conquer the world. The one that almost has is
the Muslims. The only thing that stopped them was good establishment organisation,
the establishment armies of the Francs. So we have the phrase, “they will make
her,” the double accusative “her” and then the impersonal object of the perfect
passive participle, “they will ruin her and cause her to be naked [to have her
power stripped from her].” The word for naked is gumnoj
and it refers to all of the glamour that we studied in the first part of this
chapter.
“they will both devour her flesh
[converts],” even though these people are rabid. Religion always has its own
army and goes in for terrorism. The army always gets very zealous. Zeal becomes
a part of arrogance and that leads to terrorism on the one hand, the use of
force on the other hand. Force is the one thing that you must never use in
evangelism. It isn’t a genuine conversion unless it comes from their own free
will. Almost every religion in the world has finally developed an army and has
tried to solve its problems by violence. So this religion had an army. The army
uses violence, it is not an establishment army. The armies of the middle ages
were often religious armies, not establishment armies. The tried to convert
people by violence. When they do sooner or later they are destroyed by an
establishment army because establishment is God’s way of checking the rise of
religion so that people are destroyed. One reason why the establishment army
will eventually defeat a religious army is because violence leads to
degeneracy.
So we note here then that religion
is finally naked. Notice that nakedness means stripped of all glamour, stripped
of wealth, and stripped of power. So the next point is that when religion gets
degenerate, as inevitably it will because religion always seeks to convert
people by intimidation and violence, establishment comes along and strips it.
Religion will eventually be defeated by an establishment army, and that is what
happened here. The establishment army of the revived Roman empire representing
political power will eventually become stronger than religious power because
political power has an organised army which is relatively free from degeneracy.
The word “flesh” is in the singular here because it is still talking about the
prostitute. Her body is destroyed, the body being analogous to her converts.
Her converts are destroyed because the converts are depending on the wrong
thing, the worst form of evil. The worst form of evil is the weakest form of
evil and the weakest form of evil is the most destructive form. Religion has no
security because religion is evil, “they will both devour her and burn her with
fire.” The burning with fire means total destruction.
Translation: “Both the beast
dictator, and the ten horns which you saw, will despise the prostitute, they
will ruin her and cause her to be naked, they will both devour her converts,
and consume her with fire.”
There are four attacks on this ecumenical
religious system by the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire. This
is a great civil war in the midst of world war. First there is antagonism in
which the whore is despised. This is followed by ruin or destruction which
means loss of power and control of the political, and/or the severance of
religion and the state. Where the religion dominates the state eventually the
state will throw it off. Nakedness is a part of the second step in that it
connotes being stripped of all power and attraction. The third step is the
devouring of the converts, the flesh. This means persecution and martyrdom of
religion and apostate types. Finally, to be burned by fire refers to legal
punishment, which means they were destroyed legally by the establishment system
and its system of jurisprudence. This is taught as a principle is Leviticus
20:14; 21:9 where the whore is burned in Israel.
In verse 17 we have the fact that
Jesus Christ controls history. We begin this verse with the explanatory use of
the post positive conjunctive particle gar,
“For.” Gar explains the hostility of
the beast dictator and the ten horns toward ecumenical religion. They
previously sponsored it, now they are antagonistic. The subject is the
nominative singular from qeoj,
“For God.” Then the aorist active indicative of didomi which means here to give,
“For God has given.” ”The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the
event in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results:
hostility toward ecumenical religion of the Tribulation. The active voice: God
produces the action of the verb under the principle that Jesus Christ controls
history. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the divine
decrees. Nations where religion controls always have a tremendous amount of
violence. In the 19th century colonialism saved the lives of millions of people
and was also the basis for great evangelism. It suppressed religions from
following their trend of destruction. For example, in India the Moslems and the
Hindus were always killing each other. The British came along and put a stop to
it. The very day that they left a million Indians died. Where religion controls
there is violence, evil, injustice.
Next we have e)ij plus the accusative plural from the noun kardia, “through their right lobes.” It can also be
translated “because of their right lobes,” “For because of their right lobes
God has permitted [didomi],” is the way it should be
translated. In other words, because of the power lust of their right lobes God
permitted them to execute His will and purpose, the judgment of international
religion. Finally the political group in the revived Roman empire wanted the
power, they were tired of all this nonsense. Because of what they were thinking
in their hearts God used them to execute His will and purpose on ecumenical
religion. Hence, there is a principle that comes out of this: Jesus Christ
controls history but He often controls history by using the wrath of man to
praise Him, as per Psalm 76:10. The verb didomi
ordinarily means to give but here it means to permit, just as next we have an aorist
active infinitive of poiew which ordinarily means to
do but here means to execute, “For because of their right lobes God has
permitted them to execute his purpose.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist,
it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, that is, the entire
action of the last half of the Tribulation. The active voice: the beast
dictator of the revived Roman empire produces the action. This is an infinitive
of purpose.
God used the hostility of the
political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire to judge and destroy the
ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation. In controlling history our Lord
Jesus Christ often uses finesse punishment. Finesse punishment is to punish
someone by using someone who is mad at them. Our Lord Jesus Christ uses an evil
nation to punish a nation, or in this case He uses an evil political system to
punish an evil religious system. Because of the omniscience of God and the
doctrine of divine decrees God uses the wrath of man to praise Him, to execute
His will, to fulfill His purpose. The purpose of God is fulfilled in many ways
during the course of human history: directly, from this who do the will of God;
indirectly, from those who are evil — finesse punishment — following the
natural inclination of their arrogance in the cosmic system; sovereignly,
through the overruling will of God, the divine protection of believers under
logistical grace and divine restraint of evil under the principle of the
perpetuation of the human race throughout history; the conversion of bad or
evil motivation into a divine purpose.
God’s purpose in the formation of
the revived Roman empire is therefore given in the next phrase, “therefore.” We
have the coupling of the conjunction kai, “therefore to give her
kingdom to the beast dictator.” God has permitted the execution of His purpose.
In other words, the beast dictator will take over the religious organization,
“until the doctrines from God shall be fulfilled.” In other words, Jesus Christ
controls history.
So far in verse 17, “For because of
their right lobes God has permitted them to execute his purpose,” he has
permitted the political revived Roman empire to punish the religious, “both to
execute one purpose and to give their kingdom to the beast dictator.” When the
ten rulers of the ten nations of the revived Roman empire gave their power and
authority to the beast dictator of the empire God had a purpose in it. God
permitted the formation of this great empire. He was going to use them for a
finesse judgment. The formation and the consolidation of the ten nations into
one great empire fulfills the purpose of God. It would be the whip by which He
would take an evil whip and punish an evil religious system. The destruction of
ecumenical religion, then, is both the purpose of God and the fulfillment of
the seventh bowl judgment. Whether the judgment from God is administered
directly or indirectly or through finesse the one principle that stands out is
the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. The formation of the revived Roman
empire in the Tribulation is the forging of an instrument of judgment. God
often permits the rise of an evil empire to fulfill His will and purpose in
history without violating the volition or freedom of any individual in history.
All prophecy of judgment will be fulfilled, says the last phrase of verse 17,
“until the doctrines from God shall be fulfilled.”
Translation of verse 17: “For
because of their right lobes [the organ of thinking] God has permitted them to execute his purpose
[God used the hostility of the political hierarchy of the revived Roman empire
to judge and destroy the ecumenical religious system], therefore to give their
kingdom to the beast dictator, until the doctrines from God shall be
completed.”
Principle: Eschatology — “the doctrines from God shall
be fulfilled” — anticipates finesse
judgment
1. In finesse judgment God does not
coerce or violate the volition, the free will, of any human being involved.
2. Actually, God uses the
motivational evil of man as His agent to punish evil; the motivational evil of
one group to punish the evil of another group.
3. Here, then, is finesse. Evil is
used to punish evil. One system of evil becomes the agent, the other system of
evil becomes the target.
4. Finesse judgment dramatises the
fact that man is the product of his own evil motivation and evil decisions.
5. In fact, finesse judgment is the
counterpart to the believer’s self-induced misery from his own bad decisions.
This is the other side of the coin from self-induced misery of the individual
believer.
6. In application, God uses our bad
decisions to punish us and He does this under the principle that every person
is responsible for his own decisions. When we produce through evil motivation
evil decisions we become the agent of our own punishment, and God isn’t
violating our free will.
7. Much of man’s misery is simply
the consequence of his own bad decisions.
8. The misery produced by bad
motivation followed by bad decisions becomes God’s agent for our punishment.
9. In a similar manner finesse
judgment functions. Bad policy and evil decisions nationally become the basis
of national judgment. Evil decisions bring both the individual and the nation
in contact with evil so that evil punishes evil. This is the pattern of finesse
judgment.
Verse 18, the interpretation of the
woman. The connective conjunction kai advances
the interpretation and so it is translated “Furthermore.” Next we have the
nominative singular subject gunh,
“woman,” “Furthermore the woman [the religious entity] whom you saw is that
great city.” While the woman is called Babylon as a title for the perpetuation
of religion from the epicentre of religion, the ancient city of Babylon, it is
actually a reference to the city of Rome where we have Rome [the revived Roman
empire] sponsoring this organisation. The revived Roman empire is the capital
of international religion in the Tribulation as well as the capital of the
revived Roman empire. Therefore we have the phrase, “Furthermore the woman
which you saw is that great city. Then we have the kingdom of ecumenical
religion, “who has a kingdom.” We have the articular present active participle
of the verb e)xw which is translated as a
relative clause. The pictorial present tense presents to the mind a picture of
the eschatological event in the process of occurrence in the Tribulation. The
woman here, as the personification of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation,
produces the action of the verb: the possession of a religious system of evil,
and evil kingdom which rules many of the kingdoms of the world. The participle
is circumstantial.
Translation: “The woman which you
saw is that great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”
What is this system?
1. Religion with its power and
influence in the Tribulation is the kingdom over the kings of the earth. This emphasises
the international system Satan devised to influence the nations of the
Tribulation.
2. Many religions have covered great
continents and areas of the earth becoming semi-international but there never
has been a totally international religion with the great influence of Satan’s
ecumenical religious system in the world. Never, until the Tribulation, will
there be a truly international religion. This future international religion
will reflect the great genius of Satan in controlling people by giving people
what they want. By calling the system Babylon the Great we have the combination
of idolatry and the phallic cult, including human sacrifice. All of this is
reflected in the religious worship of the ancient world.
The religious system is called
Babylon the great prostitute, or what we might call the high class call girl.
This analogy is based on several principles. For example, the prostitute is
never emotionally involved with her customer and this religion in the
Tribulation fulfills that principle. The religious system of internationalism
never becomes emotionally involved with its converts. For example, the
prostitute arouses the lust of her customer and this religion of the future
arouses the lust of its converts. For example, the prostitute takes money for
her services; this religious system of the future will take money as never
before. The great prostitute is described as glamorous and attractive in verse
four, so this religion of the future is very glamorous and attractive to its
converts. The religion is associated with high classes. Since fornication is a
sin the spiritual fornication mentioned in this context is analogous to
distraction from the truth or rejection of Bible doctrine. Hence, the religious
prostitute of the Tribulation lures even believers away from doctrine.
Fornication is mentioned in our passage, verses 2,4, and in 18:3,9; 19:2 but in
every case it is not literal fornication but the spiritual fornication of
apostate involvement in this Satanic system. Fornication or spiritual adultery,
then, is used to describe the reversionism and the apostasy of this great
system in the Tribulation.