Category Archives: beast

Prophecy is Always Moral: Mystery Babylon

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Prophecy is never a neutral entity, devoid of any relationship to life. Now Mystery Babylon the Great is first seen by John in a deserted place in Rev 17:4. Despite that, her operations come to be centered in a particular city, called “the great city,” Rev 16:19, etc.

Yes, Mystery Babylon is a false religion

She is evidently a “mystery religion,” a special type of religion that is either secret or semi-secret. See the earlier post on “Mystery Religions: An Overview.”

Yes, Mystery Babylon is very rich

So rich that she can make kings or other merchants rich, Rev 18:3, and she is dressed in the most expensive finery that can be imagined, Rev 17:4.

Yes, Mystery Babylon is very nasty

She drinks from a golden cup filled with the filthy fluids of fornication, Rev 17:4.

Yes, Mystery Babylon is drunk with the
blood of the saints, Rev 17:6

Yes, Mystery Babylon is ALSO a business entity

Such a success is she, that she can make others rich, as has been shown. I call her a religio-commercial entity. When she falls it says,

“11 The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more; 12 merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep, horses, chariots, bodies, and people’s souls.”
Rev 18:11-13 WEB

Yes, Mystery Babylon evidently was working
in the first century of our age

Yes, Babylon is in existence until near
the end of our present universe

Mystery Babylon and the beast work together to “overcome” Christianity near the end, Rev 13:7. Then the beast and ten kings work to destroy Mystery Babylon completely within history, Revelation chapters 17 and 18.

Then, the beast is personally destroyed by Jesus Second Coming and thrown alive into hell, Rev 19:20.

So Mystery Babylon exists and works and sells, all through the Christian Age, until very near the end of our present universe.

Yes, evidently many Christians evidently have worked
for Mystery Babylon, age long

Scripture does not seem to indicate that many Christians are part of the Satanic Mystery of Lawlessness. But it does indicate this of Mystery Babylon. I don’t think it is indicating necessarily that they are all part of the secret cult, but rather that they work for her businesses and do not realize of what they have become a part.

Christians are commanded to come out of
Mystery Babylon the Great

“4 heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you have no participation in her sins, and that you don’t receive of her plagues, 5 for her sins have reached to the sky, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
Rev 18:4-5 WEB

Scripture is here assuming that Mystery Babylon is recognizable, and that we can come out of her … unless we are in the dark!

These prophecies are pertinent to the ENTIRE Christian age

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Prophecy is Always Moral: The Man of Lawlessness

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Prophecy is never a neutral entity, devoid of any relationship to life.

A World Wide Revolt against ALL authority must happen
BEFORE the Second Coming

We should not be shook up as if the Second Coming has already happened, 2Thes 2:2. A great revolt against God must happen first, 2Thes 2:3. The Greek word is apostasia, and its main meaning is a defection, a revolt. Louw & Nida in their Greek-English Lexicon … 1989, UBS, NY, says it means “to rise up in open defiance of authority, with the presumed intention to overthrow it or to act in complete opposition to its demands …” (emphasis added). It is a much stronger word than the English word “apostasy,” or the KJV “falling away.” Translations that right on target in this instance include the English Standard Version (ESV) and the New English Translation Bible (NET), both of which translates it as a “rebellion.”

A special “man of lawlessness” will be worshipped

as the one and only “god,” 2Thes 2:4

He will be accompanied by “the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,” 2Thes 2:9 WEB. The whole world, all of the unsaved, will worship this man, and God Himself will help this man deceive the lost, 2Thes 2:10-11 WEB.

This man will be destroyed BY THE
SECOND COMING of Christ, 2Thes 2:8

So this is talking about things just before the end of our present universe.

Nothing this big has EVER happened.

No king, no revolutionary, no president, no religious leader, has ever been this big … so far! But Jesus says Scripture cannot be broken, Jn 10:35. This man is called “the beast” in Revelation. It says of when John is writing the book of Revelation, that this man,

“… was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into destruction. …”
Rev 17:8 WEB.

Then here is the Clincher:

There is a Mystery Religion that “already works”
in the first century of our age.

and which will work

until it seats this “god,” 2Thes 2:7

There have been, and there are, continual attempts throughout the Christian age to seat such a man as the “true” and one-and-only “god” of this world. You and I have read of such men in history, often without realizing the ultimate objectives.

Prophecy Principles describes some of the false christs of the Christian Age in the section called “Lab Work.”

Some of the men who have claimed the be current “savior” are reviewed in my book Prophecy Principles, in the section called “Lab Work, What does all of this mean to me?” The Christian age has been filled with false christs.

“For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will lead many astray.”
Mtt 24:5 WEB

If it will mean eternal destruction to worship this final false “god” in history, how much worse would it be to be sucked in by one of the many failures down through history, not realizing of what we have become a part.

There is even a competition among various occult groups world-wide, to see who will be able to produce the “real” “beast” of Revelation.

These prophecies are pertinent to the ENTIRE Christian age

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Why Types Can Confuse: So much is Missing.

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Exaggerated language, hyperbole, overstatements, are all over in prophecy. Quite often these things indicate that the immediate subject is a type of more distant fulfillments.

Take some of the kings of all the earth.

First let us take Nebuchadnezzar. God told him.

“37 You, O king, are king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory; 38 and wherever the children of men dwell, the animals of the field and the birds of the sky has he given into your hand, and has made you to rule over them all: you are the head of gold.”
Dan 2:37-38 WEB

This heading does qualify the rule give to Nebuchadnezzar as being to all of the inhabited world. Even so that is open to question (not meaning to question God you understand, but to try to understand what He meant). For there were many lands that were inhabited which Nebuchadnezzar did not rule. That included India and China, and what we now call Russia. Nor did he rule Rome or Greece, which soon come up.

Then it says of the Medo-Persian Empire that it “shall bear rule over ALL the earth.” Dan 2:39 WEB. Once again, not so, at least literally and completely, even though to those of the Mid-East it did seem as if he ruled over everything. You can almost hear the discussions in Bible classes. How can the Bible say that. Really that is not true!

And going on to other rulers.

There is a vision of four empires as four beasts in Daniel 7. The first, ancient Babylon, was like lion with the wings of an eagle, Dan 7:4. The second was like a bear, evidently indicating Medo-Persia, Dan 7:5. The third was like a leopard with four wings on its back, and in context clearly indicates Greece. Fourth was a beast with iron teeth, indicating Rome. I cannot pretend to say that I know all of the inferences that are involved but some observations can be made.

Clearly ancient Babylon is symbolic of Mystery Babylon
the Great of Revelation.

Clearly Mystery Babylon will have a world-wide commercial empire and she is one who “reigns over the kings of the earth.” Rev 17:18.

It says of the “beast” and his empire,

“The beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. …”
Rev 13:2 WEB

Is this saying Satan’s final empire is like Greece, and Medo-Persia and Babylon … all rolled into one?

Jesus assures us,

“… not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished. ”
Mtt 5:18 WEB

The “contradictions,” the exaggerated language, the things which just don’t fit,

… those things would be the key to whether the immediate subject is symbolic of some distant fulfillment. The we start thinking and searching. Where does the symbolic fit into what is clear?

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

Mystery Babylon the Great, Her Allies and Competitors

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Mystery Babylon the Great sits far off in desert, a wilderness, Rev 17:3. An unpopulated place. No doubt it should be pointed out that Rome sits in a city, is a city. Another variance between Rome, ancient or modern, and Mystery Babylon?

On the other hand,

“The woman whom you saw IS the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
Rev 17:18 emphasis added

Contradictions in the same chapter? Or two different entities, one symbolic of the other?

Mystery Babylon is very rich

She is dressed and decorated with the most expensive of clothing and jewelry. She drinks from a gold cup that filled with the nasty fluids of fornication, Rev 17:4.

It does not seem that she gets rich off of kings and other merchants. Instead, she makes kings and other merchants rich. Mystery Babylon brings others great luxury and all sort of wild sex.

“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
Rev 18:3 WEB

Among the immediate allies then would be the kings and merchants of the earth.

She is source of everything disgusting and stupid

She is the mother even all “of the abominations of the earth.” Rev 17:5 WEB

She sits on a scarlet “beast,” an animal.

This animal is monstrous. It is full of blasphemous names and has seven heads and ten horns, Rev 17:3.

Of course that is the way Satan/the dragon is described in Rev 12:3, 9. Then Satan is described as coming out of the sea in Rev 13:1-2. It seems as if this “dragon” spawns a human organization that also has seven heads and ten horns. The heads are clearly the heads of the organization. It appears that this is what is called “the mystery of lawlessness” which was already at work in the first century in 2Thes 2:7. This organizations and leaders are said to be,

“ … the working of Satan with all power signs and lying wonders.” 2Thes 2:9 WEB.

And the dragon and this organization has ten horns. Horns in Scripture are often symbolic of power, even particular nations or kings in passages like Dan 7:24, and Dan 8:20.

So this Satanic organization is ruled by a council of seven men, and is supported by ten kings/nations.

The beast is both an ally and a competitor

Now Mystery Babylon rides this monster to victory. “the beast that carries her,” Rev 17:7 WEB. And the beast and the horns also hate her, Rev 17:7.

Think of them as like rival mafia clans which may work together at times, but may also bitterly fight at other times. Both work to “overcome” the saints, Rev 13:7. Babylon is “drunken with the blood of the saints,” Rev 17:5 WEB.

Will Mystery Babylon ascend to the heavens?

“Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, … yet from me shall destroyers come to her, says Yahweh. ”
Jer 51:53 WEB

“and you shall say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; …”
Jer 51:64 WEB.

WEB is the World English Bible, a copyright free revision
of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901