An indepth Study into Relvelation 17. What do the symbols mean and how can we apply the information to us today?

<p>An indepth Study into Relvelation 17. What do the symbols mean and how can we apply the information to us today?</p>

<p>Free sharing permitted under the Creative Commons <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/">BY-NC-ND 3.0 (US)</a> license.</p>

Granite Bay SDA Church

Aron Crews

Revisiting Revelation 17

This was recorded at the Granite Bay Hilltop SDA Church, located in Granite Bay, California.

Hope you are blessed by the message and that it draws you closer to God.

What I'm going to share with you, this is something I've studied, and this is my best understanding of the passage.

However, I'm just going to tell you, I'm not trying to be dogmatic.

There are other good biblical scholars out there who have arrived at slightly different understandings and that's okay.

So this will serve as my best understanding at this point and more so than anything, an encouragement for you to grapple with the text for yourself.

Because ultimately, that's what we're all called to do.

Not just take your favorite pastor's view.

Look, ultimately, we have to study for ourselves.

We're not accountable to our pastors above God, and we need to study these things deep for ourselves.

Okay, 1 last preliminary before we get started, and that is another reason why I wanted to go through this study with you on Revelation 17, because I'm getting ordained this evening, I invited 1 of my favorite college professors, who I probably learned the most from during my time in undergrad at Southern Adventist University.

Edwin Reynolds, and he was my Revelation professor.

He's actually presenting next month on Revelation 17.

And so in honor of him, in a sense, I'm also sharing this study.

And him and I see quite closely on this passage.

All right, now with all those out of the way, let's now begin going through the study.

In Revelation chapter 17, we see a judgment of the harlot woman, Babylon the Great, and the beast, the scarlet beast, of which she is seated upon.

But before we dive into 17, we're just gonna back up a little bit to set the context to introduce the passage.

Here we have in Revelation 12, the heart of the book of Revelation, you have this red dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns and he seeks to attack the woman, or more specifically the offspring of the woman, the child.

The child is whisked away, whisked away and the dragon, Satan, his focus is on persecuting the woman and her offspring.

At the end of chapter 13, he's enraged with the woman and he goes to make war with the remnant of her offspring.

Anyone who goes to war needs a little bit of help, and so we see in chapter 13 the dragon call forth the sea beast, who we understand to be the Antichrist power, and the earth beast, later called the false prophet.

And he raises up these 2 powers to help him in his agenda of deception, of setting up a false system of counterfeit worship in the world.

So here you have in chapter 13 a bleak, dark chapter, but God does not let his people, he does not leave them defenseless.

And so we have a response to the deception of Satan and the Antichrist and the false prophet in chapter 14 with the 144, 000 who are following the lamb wherever he goes.

And in context, it seems that they are the ones who symbolically represent these 3 angels flying over all the world, preaching, having the everlasting gospel to share to everyone, right?

So these 3 angels' messages is a response to the deceptive activity of the dragon, Satan, and the Antichrist power.

Then we have the second angel's message of the 3 where we read, another angel followed saying Babylon is fallen is fallen that great city because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." So here we have introduced for the first time explicitly by name Babylon.

And here we're told that Babylon is fallen, is fallen.

This is part of our message as Christians, as Seventh-day Adventists proclaiming the everlasting gospel that Babylon is fallen and we are not to be intoxicated with her wine, which leads us to religious confusion, etc.

It would then be quite appropriate, wouldn't it, For us to identify who Babylon is so that we can stay away from it, if you will.

Next up, we have, before we get to chapter 17, we, I'm going to jump ahead to chapter 18, where we see the same statement of Babylon is fallen repeated.

So here you have in chapter 18, another angel cried mightily with a loud voice saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen.

So here you have twice repeated that Babylon is fallen.

And has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird.

You guys want to hang out in Babylon with demons and unclean birds?

For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.

And I heard another voice coming from heaven saying, come out of her, who?

So this implies obviously that God has people who are in Babylon.

And it's part of our job to call people, God's people even, who are in Babylon, whatever that is, out of it.

Lest you share in her sins and lest you receive of her plagues.

For her sins have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.

Because just like ancient Babylon that fell, if you were in the city of Babylon when it fell, you would have suffered the consequences that befell Babylon.

And so too, at the end of time, this spiritual Babylon entity, if you continue to be in Babylon at the time of her judgment, which is during the last plagues, particularly the seventh last plague, where her iniquities are remembered before God, then you are going to partake in the same punishment of Babylon.

So obviously we don't want to partake in that.

So now let's focus in a little bit more into when is the timing of the judgment of Babylon.

Here we're told her sins have reached heaven and God has remembered her iniquities, right, to judge.

Chapter 18 of Revelation really is the judgment of Babylon, the further explanation of, or the further consequences of what's determined in chapter 17.

Chapter 16, which is the bowl plagues, beginning with chapter 15 and 16, we have the 7 last plagues.

And the final plague, in verse 17 says, then the seventh angel poured out his bowl.

Then in verse 19 we read, and great Babylon was remembered before God to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

So here you have very clearly that the judgment of Babylon, the remembering of Babylon before God to punish her, to pour out the fierceness of his wrath, to remember her iniquities, is found when?

According to this verse, when is the judgment of Babylon?

Verse 17, during the seventh bowl plague, right?

The judgment of Babylon happens during the seventh bowl plague.

Now, let's go to the beginning of chapter 17.

We read, then 1 of the 7 angels who had the 7 bowls came and talked with me saying to me, come I will show you the judgment of the great harlot." Again, we just established When does this judgment take place?

Literally a few verses earlier we're told that during the seventh bowl plague, that is when great Babylon is remembered before God to pour out his wrath upon her.

This is the judgment of the great harlot.

So this is the first building block in our understanding of Revelation 17 and my understanding would be that the judgment of Babylon, the eschatological, that means end time vision that we see in chapter 17 of the judgment of Babylon takes place after the close of probation, beginning with the seventh bowl plague, right?

That's from the perspective that I'm gonna be presenting this morning.

Then 1 of the 7 angels who had the 7 bowls came and talked with me, particularly the seventh angel who had the seventh bowl plague saying, "'Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot "'who sits on many waters, "'with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, "'and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy having 7 heads and 10 horns.

So first the angel comes and he tells him, I will show you this judgment of the great harlot and she's fornicating with the kings of the earth, made drunk with the wine, etc.

And then The angel takes him by the Spirit into the wilderness and that's where he sees this judgment taking place during the seventh bowl plague.

The scarlet beast, the woman, the harlot woman sitting upon it, 7 heads, 10 horns.

Verse 4, The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

And on her forehead a name was written, mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.

I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and when I saw her I marveled with great amazement." So John is told by the angel, I'm going to show you the judgment, then he's taken in the Spirit to the wilderness where he's shown the woman, right?

And then John sees this and he marvels with great amazement.

But the angel said to me, why did you marvel?

We don't always have to be completely stumped.

God sends his angelic interpreter, God sends us his Holy Spirit to revealed us the meaning.

And so here the angel comes to John and says, hey, I want to tell you the meaning of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the 7 heads and the 10 horns.

Then the remainder of the chapter, the angel begins to interpret and explain the meaning and the symbols of the vision to John.

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Revisiting Revelation 17

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