Prophecy
11
The Rise of Babylon –
Revelation 12:7 – 14:5
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[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
-5-
Dragon
Prepares for War on the Remnant of
the Woman
Revelation
12:17
And
the dragon was wroth with the woman,
and went to make war with the remnant
of her seed, which keep the
commandments of God, and have the
testimony of Jesus Christ.{17} When
the dragon saw the outcome of the
French Revolution and the downfall of
the Catholic Church in 1798, he knew
the Ancient of Days had issued a
restraining order against him.[72] The
devil was forced to cease and desist
in his war against the woman, but
this is not the end of the story. He
retreated from his assault on the
woman to lay plans for his final war
against the last of her offspring,
those who love and obey the Ten
Commandments and live by faith
according to the testimony of Jesus,
which His 144,000 prophets will
speak.
The devil
understands the story contained in
the book of Revelation. Like us, he
knows the outcome. For centuries, He
has known that during “the
appointed time of the end,” God
will permit him to make one final war
against the remnantof
the woman for 42 months. He knows
that he and his demons will be
permitted to physically appear during
the fifth trumpet. He also knows that
God will allow him to establish a
counterfeit theocracy during the
sixth trumpet. Knowing these facts in
advance, the devil has laid careful
plans to utterly destroy the
remnant of the woman. Keep
in mind, that even though the devil
and his angels understand that they
will be destroyed in hell at the end
of the thousand years, their hatred
for the Father and the Lamb knows no
bounds. Hatred motivates them to do
whatever they can to ruin God’s
endeavors to save mankind from sin.
Lucifer and his demons are relentless
predators. They were at Calvary and
witnessed the love that Jesus has for
sinners. They are full of hatred and
they plan to do everything possible
to lead people away from Christ and
His salvation so that as many people
as possible will be destroyed.
Lucifer and his demons are insatiable
predators who are without love or
sympathy. Lucifer and his demons are
like beasts that have rabies. They
are mad; there is no reasoning.
Lucifer’s
behavior will be studied throughout
eternity. His life is sin personified
and this explains why God has
permitted the devil to live for
several thousand years after his
initial rebellion. God wants everyone
to see the gruesome power and
consequences of sin. Lucifer’s
life and actions mirror the actions
of any sinner and given enough time
and power every sinner would follow
in Lucifer’s footsteps.The
drama that unfolds on Earth during
the Great Tribulation will prove this
fact. The sinful nature is everything
that the sinless nature is not. When
the sinful nature is opposed or its
demands are denied, hatred and
resentment erupt. This inevitable
process explains why sin and sinners
must be eliminated from the universe.
Hatred and loathing produces a
predator. Hatred often leads to
murder.[73] A
sinless nature is not capable of
hatred or predatory violence.
Individuals with a sanctified nature
understand good and evil and they are
capable of carrying out the demands
of justice, but they have no hatred,
meanness, or maliciousness within
their hearts.
As previously
stated, the Father restrained the
devil from making war on the woman in
1798. For more than two hundred
years, the devil has been preparing
for his final assault on the
remnant of the woman. The
devil is extremely intelligent and he
understands sinful nature very well.
Knowing that he would be permitted to
make war on the last of the saints,
the devil and his demons have
conducted four clever campaigns over
the past two centuries that will come
to fruition during the Great
Tribulation. These campaigns are
Bible illiteracy, sexual misconduct,
love for power, money, pleasure, and
materialism, and the use of addictive
substances. The devil and his demons
have been operating in stealth mode,
dumbing down each generation by
removing the importance of God and
His Word from society. Today, the
world is full of people who do not
know God or His will (Bible
illiteracy). The devil has glamorized
sex, money, power, pleasure, and
materialism. Consequently, billions
of people are sexually immoral. They
lie, cheat, and steal without
concern. We live in a world where
people are lovers of money and
pleasure and even more, billions are
hopelessly trapped in an addiction of
some kind. If you step back and study
the path to degeneration over the
past two hundred years, it becomes
obvious that Lucifer’s four
campaigns have been very successful.
Why Does God
Permit Suffering?
Many
Christians believe that it is
inconsistent to say that a God of
love will permit His saints to be
tortured and killed during the Great
Tribulation. However, a quick review
of Scripture and church history
reveals that God does permit His
saints to be tortured and killed,
even His own Son! We know that God
permitted the little horn to chase
the woman into the desert for 1,260
years and we know that He will permit
the remnant of the woman to be
persecuted during the Great
Tribulation![74] Thankfully,
no matter how grievous the situation
may be, God always gives
sufficient grace and peace to His
children. He will never abandon them
under any circumstances.
We may not
want to admit it, but persecution
benefits God’s people in several
ways. Persecution enables the saints
to see and depend on God’s
gracious providence (which is
obscured during prosperity).
Persecution causes the saints to
exalt the value and importance of
God’s Word (which is neglected
during prosperity). Persecution
requires the saints to be vigilant,
constantly sorting through
Lucifer’s efforts to make wrong
appear right (which is not detected
during prosperity). Finally,
suffering brings the saints into
close communion with Jesus (which is
barely negligible during prosperity).[75] Suffering
for Christ’s sake causes a saint
to endure each day according to the
strength that Jesus gives him each
day. Total dependency on God creates
perfect peace and happiness!
Persecution reveals a God who is
intimately acquainted with the needs
of each soul. Those who suffer for
Christ would not have it any other
way. This is so ironic. Nominal
Christians are annoyed by persecution
while genuine Christians are refined.
Genuine Christians realize that in
Christ, persecution brings out the
best of times, when it is the worst
of times, all at the same time.[76]
The Beast
from the Sea
Revelation
13:1
And
I stood upon the sand of the sea, and
saw a beast rise up out of the sea,
having seven heads and ten horns, and
upon his horns ten crowns, and upon
his heads the name of blasphemy.{13:1}
I saw the great red dragon standing
on the shore of the sea, waiting for
the day to arrive when he could once
again, make war upon the remnant of
the woman. As I watched, I saw a
strange beast come up out of the sea.
This beast looked similar to the
great red dragon because it had the
same seven heads and ten horns, but
this beast had different body parts.
This beast was a composite beast made
up of three predators: A leopard, a
bear, and a lion.
John does not
attempt to explain how or why this
beast appears. It just appears.
John’s silence is not a problem
because valid rules of interpretation
reveal the purpose, origin, and
identity of this beast. This beast
represents a one-world-government
that will form during the first four
trumpets. Of course, today such a
government is unthinkable, not even
possible, but a crisis of apocalyptic
proportion is coming upon the whole
world and this crisis has no
comparison since Noah’s flood.
God’s coming judgments will
catch the world by complete surprise.
When the censer is cast down and the
first four trumpets sound, God’s
judgments will reduce the whole world
and its infrastructures to shambles.
Twenty five percent of the world will
perish and the ruins of thousands of
cities will force world leaders to
respond to a new reality. There is an
Almighty God and He is very angry
with the behavior of all mankind.
Rising out of a “sea of
humanity,” this composite beast
represents mankind’s unified
response to God’s wrath. The
religious and political leaders of
the world will unite out of fear and
together they will create this
monster-beast as the best possible
solution to stop God’s wrath.
The first
four trumpets will turn life on Earth
upside down. Every nation will be
overwhelmed with shock and awe.
Political leaders will be filled with
panic, and fearing more judgments
will soon fall, they will turn to
their clergy for a solution to
appease God’s wrath. Religious
leaders will conclude that given the
universal scope of God’s anger,
the best possible option will be to
form one worldwide authority that can
dictate to the nations what is
“acceptable and unacceptable
behavior” in God’s sight.
Because the world is religiously
diverse, solutions will be determined
on a nation-by-nation basis. The
religious leaders of the world will
reason that if sinful behavior caused
God’s wrath to occur, then
corrective behavior should appease
God and cause His wrath to cease.
Martial Law
Will Terminate Individual Rights
The first
four trumpets will devastate the
infrastructures of all nations and
political leaders will be forced to
implement martial law in their
respective nations. The
constitutional rights of citizens
will have to be suspended “until
the crisis is over.”
Historically, governments have
enacted martial law to control chaos.
Martial law is a tool that suspends
individual rights, concentrates
executive power, expedites decisions,
and implements whatever laws are
thought to be necessary to preserve
government. Anarchy erupts (gangs
rule) when there is no government and
martial law is often justified as a
necessity to maintain some semblance
of order. The composite beast will
not dissolve the governments of the
world, instead, each nation will
implement martial law and the leaders
of each nation will submit to the
dictates of the composite beast.
Throughout the world, political
leaders and civil authorities in each
nation will carry out the
beast’s demands. Survivors will
be very motivated to appease Almighty
God so that His judgments will stop.
Man will
create the composite beast (the
global crisis authority overseeing
man’s attempt to appease God).
The political and religious leaders
of the world will have good
intentions, but unwittingly, the
composite beast will quickly become a
tool of the devil. The Bible says
that Lucifer will give the composite
beast its extraordinary power,
throne, and great authority. The
behavior and power of the composite
beast will be stunning. Working
through carnal-minded political and
religious leaders (who are more
concerned with expediency than
morality), Lucifer will insert his
hand into this puppet government so
that he can use it to persecute and
destroy the remnant of the woman.
When it comes
to controlling conduct that is
offensive to God, the only
tool which religious and
political leaders have is
legislation. After observing the
overwhelming destruction caused by
the first four trumpets, the
religious and political leaders will
reason that God’s judgments
might end if everyone repents and
ceases behavior that offends God.
Therefore, the composite beast will
create “sin-less” laws
which political leaders (wielding
martial law) will implement and
enforce. Civil authorities in every
nation will arrest and impose severe
penalties on anyone who breaks the
laws of the composite beast. The
composite beast will gain control of
the world without firing a single
bullet because the civil powers of
Earth will humbly submit (out of fear
for God’s wrath) to the demands
of the world’s religious leaders
hoping to end God’s judgments.
Incidently, the book of Revelation
calls the composite beast Babylon
(which means confusion) because
Babylon’s laws will create an
enormous amount of confusion,
hostility, and persecution.
{13:1
– Continued} The
composite beast had ten horns and
seven heads. Each of the seven heads
had a blasphemous name written on it
and there were ten crowns on the ten
horns.
For reasons
presented in our study on Revelation
17,[77] the
seven heads on the composite beast
represent the seven religious systems
of the world: Atheism, Heathenism,
Judaism, Eastern Mysticism, Islam,
Catholicism, and Protestantism.[78] The
blasphemous name associated with each
head indicates that each head (each
religious system) is anti-Christ.
This means that each religious system
is opposed to the sovereign authority
and demands of Jesus Christ. This
opposition will be demonstrated
during the 1,260 days allotted to the
Two Witnesses. The 144,000 will
proclaim the gospel of Jesus (the
demands of Jesus Christ) and each
religious system on Earth will oppose
it. The problem is that each head of
Babylon claims to know God and speak
His truth, but the seven religions of
the world are in fact, an insult to
Almighty God. They do not know Him,
speak for Him, obey Him, or represent
His interests. In fact, if the seven
religious systems of the world knew
Jesus and had some understanding of
the Bible, they would listen to His
servants, the 144,000. The seven
religious systems of the world will
fiercely oppose the efforts and
testimony of the 144,000 and they
will also persecute those who embrace
and obey the gospel of Jesus.
You may
recall in Revelation
12:3 that seven
diadems (crowns of authority) rested
on the seven heads, but in this
prophecy the diadems rest on the ten
horns. This transition means there is
a change in persecuting authority.
For 1,260 years, religious authorities persecuted
the woman. During the Great
Tribulation, civil authorities will
persecute the remnant of the woman.
Babylon will operate as a church
state. The seven heads represent the
church side of Babylon and the ten
horns represent the state side of
Babylon. When Babylon is created, the
composite beast will function as a
global church state. The religious
leaders of Babylon will make demands
and the civil authorities in
each nation will carry them out.
