Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Revelation 17:6-10
Should Men Sin that Grace Should Abound?
v.6 read.
The Catholic inquisitions of the middle ages, 5th through the 15th century era up to the time of the Protestant Reformation, reigned terror all over Italy, Spain, France and all of Europe, and even England.
In 1588 the great Spanish Armada set sail northward to punish Protestant prone Great Britain and bring her back under the control of the Catholic Church and the oversight of the Pope. But on the way, not far from Lisbon, a port city of Portugal, a storm destroyed many of the Spanish ships and in their diminished ranks the British sent them fleeing. The Spanish fleet headed northward toward Scotland wherein a number of powerful storms destroyed the remaining Spanish armada. These events took place just 32 years before the Pilgrims from England set sail for America.
In many instances during the Roman Catholic Church’s reign of terror if folks were found guilty of any practice or doctrine which opposed the Church they were persecuted. If confession and penance was not soon forthcoming they would either have their goods confiscated, be tortured or imprisoned for undetermined periods of time, and in many cases they were burned alive at the stake.
This practice was renounced eventually, but when the tribulation period begins and the restrainer; the Holy Spirit is taken out of the world, II Thess.2:7, then this evil no doubt will resume. This religion will shed the blood of saints again and these martyrs all over the globe will cry out from under God’s alter for justice, Rev.7:9.
v.7
John was astonished at the vision he saw in verses 1-6 so the angel proceeds to explain it. I hope I can too. In John’s day the church was united and stood alone in her persecution, but this vision John receives takes his breath away. He sees those who should be helping the saints of God, actually murdering the saints of God in the name of Christianity. Paul renounced this kind of behavior in Rom.6:1-3, read.
Oh yes, it is not hard to imagine political power hungry men being cruel and murderous to the innocent masses, or for some fanatic religious zealots calling for the murder of all those opposed to their theology, but for the an organization that says it represents Jesus Christ to burn those opposed to it, this is what blew John’s mind. Obviously this counterfeit Christianity is inspired by someone other than the Savior who died for the sins of the whole world. Jesus Christ certainly did not call on men to sin in order to promote the salvation message. Jesus Christ came to provide salvation, not subjugation as some religions do. He came to provide eternal freedom, not earthly fear.
v. 8 Here the beast is identified first.
Beginning with verse eight the angel tells us the beast that John saw, was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and the unsaved of the earth will wonder or stand in amazement when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Here we see an overview of the rise to power of the Antichrist in the first half of the seven year tribulation period. As I said two weeks ago, chapters 17-18 are parenthetical as they take a look at this religious / commercial system of mankind.
The beast rises to power also, a power greater than any human can imagine.
As noted in Rev.13:1-3 the Antichrist is seen in his position of power over many nations, but he is struck by what one would believe is a mortal wound, Rev.13:3,14.
The dragon, Satan, according to Rev.13:2, 4 gives power to the beast so that the world stood in amazement. They will wonder at his alleged resurrection from the dead. Satan uses his demonic power to inspire the world to follow the beast, the Antichrist. Subsequently the Antichrist sets his image in the Temple and calls on everyone to worship him and Satan who supposedly raised him up from the dead.
This is why the Apostle Paul calls the Antichrist in II Thess.2:3 the “son of perdition.” He becomes the incarnation of Satan himself. This incarnation of Satan will turn on the religious harlot who used him for her own purposes in the first half of the seven year tribulation period.
During the tribulation period those that dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, they will marvel at the Antichrist.
The verb, not written is a [ Perfect, Passive Indicative verb of grapho] Their names were of certainty,[ indicative mood] not written in past time in the book of life, with the continued results that they will not be written in this book,[perfect tense]. They are not written in the book of life because God has always known those who will believe on his Son, Jesus Christ. God does not make a person believe, but he has always known who will believe and because his knowledge is perfect he has already written down who will be in the book of life. God knows the reasons the unbeliever refuses to believe, either in God’s existence or the Gospel message.
II Thess.2:10 says the unbeliever of the tribulation period, like all unbelievers, is in his unbelief not because God doesn’t want them saved, but because they do not want to be saved, “because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
I Cor.1:18 “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us who are saved it is the power of God.”
I read an article the other day in the local newspaper of a man who said he could care less about death and hell and heaven and sin. All he wanted was to enjoy life and be left alone.
He is one of millions who feels this way about the afterlife. When the Rapture of believers takes place these unbelievers will marvel in awe of the Antichrist, and they will do what he wants and if it is to submit to the Babylonian religious system for 3 1/2 years, then so be it.
The joining of church and state will be in its glory days for the first 3 1/2 years of the tribulation period until the Antichrist is indwelled by Satan, and then he will shed this unwanted religious rider. Many tribulation converts to Christ will suffer tremendously; even death will fall on these saints under the Antichrist church-state regime. John wondered how a religion could become so corrupt. The truth is that if religious intentions are not submitted to divine revelation each person becomes a law unto himself. Religious vigilantism, [people who take the law into their own hands in the name of God] started with Cain and it is alive and well today.
v.9 This religious harlot not only sits on many waters (people), and on the scarlet colored beast ( the Antichrist), but she also sits on the city of seven mountains, or hills as it can be translated.
This religious system in her persecution of Israel has reigned through six successive kingdoms.
They are Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and the revived Roman Empire which will be headed up by the Antichrist and he is yet to come. In the Apostle John’s day the sixth kingdom, Rome, was still in power.
The religious harlot Babylon has had many daughters of religion which prostitute the true worship of God and the true worship of God is one which comes by grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ. A religious deviation of this worship of God through grace postulates the need for secrecy and code and mysteries, and the mysteries of Babylon were always channeled through the woman and the child as we noted in lesson 51, Rev.14:8. This city of seven mountains more than portrays Israel seven persecuting empires; it also portrays the place of the last persecuting religious system.
v.10
The seven kings represent the seven kingdoms, and as of John’s writing, five are fallen, Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece, and one is, Rome, and the other, the revived Roman empire headed by the Antichrist, is not yet come; and when he does come, he will continue for a short space, that is, seven years.