Revelation Series #26 1976 Revelation Series

This is tape number RH 266 of the Ways and Prays Tape Library by Rick Howard.

Beautifully identified the symbols in the symbols of the grape leaves and the symbols of the anchor. The anchor was one of the most precious symbols to them. And, uh, just filled with glory, here they came, they buried their dead, and then they went on down into the deeper recesses, and they would worship.

And, of course, these were just caves. They were limestone caves, as you know; there are 900 miles of these caves under Rome. 900 miles under the streets of Rome. These caves would come like, if you’ve ever been in any kind of cave, you know how there would be different channels. And then down in here would be a lower section where the minister would speak, and the people would back up along these caves when they would worship.

Um, because, of course, they had to meet in that kind of a sense, in that kind of significance. So all I’m saying again is, I think it’s a fearful thing because I find many believers saying, “Oh, it’s going to be terrible. We’re going to be in persecution. I hope I’m able to stand and so forth and so on.”

And I think that’s nonsense. I think you have only one thing to be concerned about, and that is that you know how to keep your eyes on Jesus now. And, as I’ve already told you, I am absolutely convinced the greatest persecution the church ever suffers is prosperity. It’s far more devastating than other kinds of persecution.

As far as, uh, robbing the Church of Victory, Jesus said it. He said it’s the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. That’s what’s going to trap the disciple. The cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. And when things get tough, believers tend to stand tall, stand strong.

But along with that, I find so many believers whose whole focus is on the Antichrist and the coming terrible things. I don’t have time to look for the Antichrist. My expectation is so much in Jesus and in what he’s doing and in occupying until he comes. And I mean occupying. If I knew Jesus Christ was going to come in 1978, I’d still say, “Let’s build a building.”

In fact, let’s build it two times bigger if he’s coming in ’78. Let’s work three times harder in the year that remains before. And, uh, looking for Jesus and being on key in that regard is, I think, what needs to motivate our hearts. But here we go again, then notice the fourth thing that’s said here, the fourth punishment in verse eight, and notice this because it’s a very interesting thing.

Every scientist is now talking about this. He poured out his bowl upon the earth, and it was given under the sun, I’m sorry. Poured his bowl upon the sun. It was given to him to scorch men with fire. Men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, who had the power over these plagues.

And they repented not to give him glory. But now read that with the next verse. And the fifth one poured out his bowl upon the throne, the beast, and his kingdom was darkened, and they gnawed their tongues for pain, and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains, their sores, and they repented not of their works.

Now I think those two are tied in. Because I think what you see here is the sun blazing out. And you see what happens,

The phenomenon that has already been described to us by astronomers is that when the suns burn out at the end of their life cycle, they burn out very hot. And then they go completely dark. In other words, in the very final moment of a star’s burning, there is this, in fact, they have been known to burn to the third or fourth magnitude in their last days of their life.

They just go, poof! And there you get the picture of the… Men being scorched, and then, they burn out. Some of you have watched fireworks. No, that’s exactly a firework. You light a firework, and it burns and burns. And just before it goes out, it goes, and then, you know, that’s it. And that’s exactly the kind of picture that you get here.

The sun burning itself out. Now, why specifically? Because you see, the sun is the one biggest source of satanic occult worship. The whole Babylonian thing starts with the sun. And starts with the worship of the sun. And of course, all the astrology and everything that’s born out of it comes into that, that whole kind of birth experience and that whole kind of thing.

And so, you have the scorching followed by the phenomena of utter darkness. Notice, please, also, that this verse tells us in verse 10 that the first judgment is still upon them. That tells you how fast these judgments are occurring. In other words, they still have the sores, which was the first judgment, while they are now being burned and then plunged into darkness.

These events are happening so quickly. The sixth angel poured out his bowl upon the great river, the river Euphrates, and its waters dried up. Remember the Euphrates; it is the northeastern boundary of Israel as far as God’s concerned. That’s the land God gave to Abraham; it has always been the boundary.

And it is dried up so that the way may be ready for what? The kings who come from where? From the sunrise, from the east. And I saw three unclean spirits coming out of the mouth of the dragon, the mouth of the beast, and the mouth of the false prophet, resembling frogs.

These are spirits of demons, performing signs that go forth to the kings of what? The whole world, to do what? To gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. Behold, I come as a thief; blessed is he who watches and keeps his garments, lest he walks naked, and they see his shame.

That’s a parenthesis. And they gathered them together in the place called Har Megiddo, or Mount of Megiddo. The seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and there came forth a great voice out of the temple, saying, “It is done. It is finished.” And there were lightnings, voices, thunders, a great earthquake, such as has not occurred since there were men upon the earth.

Such a great earthquake, so mighty. The great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and Babylon the great was remembered in the sight of God to be given up to the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. And every island fled away. You wouldn’t want to be in Hawaii for that, would you?

And the mountains were not found, and great hail, every stone coming the weight of a talent, fell from heaven upon men. And men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague was exceedingly great. Wow. What a wrap-up. What a horrible series of events to be talking about indeed.

The Euphrates River, by the way, is about 300 yards wide at its narrowest, and it can reach up to 1200 yards wide. It is 10 feet deep at its shallowest and 30 feet deep in its widest sections. It is most often deep and wide. It is 1,800 miles long. It’s a huge river. I don’t know my geography well, but I think it’s maybe second in size only to the Amazon. It’s huge anyway in terms of its importance.

And by the way, isn’t it interesting that the Russians have just constructed a dam right at the headwaters of the Euphrates? And, of course, the Chinese – and this is documented fact – the Chinese have already begun a massive road. In fact, it is said to be six lanes wide, coming through Tibet from China, through Tibet into northern India, and toward the Mediterranean.

Interesting things are happening. In fact, the great dam that has been built by the Russians for the Egyptians on the Nile has had a complete reverse effect. It’s becoming a tragedy for Egypt. And one of the descriptions of God’s judgment upon Egypt, given in the book of Ezekiel, reads like an actual description of what is already happening in the Nile Valley.

You know, God is at work; He doesn’t need any of that. He can do it any way He wants to. But it’s incredibly interesting that when man is blasphemous against God, in most instances, it’s an irony that God uses him as a tool for His own purposes.

And when man is walking uprightly with God, then he walks with a sense of knowledge and identity of God’s purposes. That’s the privilege of being a kingdom person today: knowing what God is doing in the world and making those legitimate decisions that put us on the right side and make the right investments for eternity.

What a beautiful thing that is. Now, I want to read a couple of verses, and then we’re going to take a break because I think this is a good place to pause. Again, what have we seen in chapters 15 and 16? We have seen a parenthesis of all the events that we’re going to witness from now on.

Now, starting with 17, we’re going to look at them in slow motion. It’s like the camera that shows you the whole battle and then backs up to show you the young man preparing to go to war, telling you what happened behind the scenes. Now we’re going to look at Babylon the Great. First of all, as a religious system.

Secondly, as a commercial system. Thirdly, as an expression of political power. And fourthly, as it is involved with Satan himself. We’re going to see the distinct judgments of God, beginning in verse, uh, in chapter 17. Let me just give you that introduction, and then we will break. And, uh, come back for another session.

We’ll try to limit ourselves, and I’ll ask you to watch the time so we can get back. Let’s try not to take more than ten or twelve minutes for our break tonight, since we are going to break it at this point. One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come hither, and I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon the many waters.”

So you see, that judgment has already taken place in 15 and 16. It’s a part of the total seven judgments. But now the angel is saying, “I want to show you how this specifically happens.” Because you see, we’ve already had the phrase, haven’t we? Let’s see, it was in verse 19 of chapter 16 that said, “Babylon the great has been remembered, and God has given her the wine of his judgment and iniquity.” So, you see, what we’re seeing now is a stop-action view of that. Now, listen to this one. This great harlot, sitting upon waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and they that dwell on the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication. And he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness, and I saw the woman sitting upon a scarlet-covered beast full of names of blasphemy.

And what did the beast have? Seven heads, ten horns. What beast are we talking about? That political kingdom, you see. That Antichrist power. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of fornication.

And upon her forehead was this name written, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth.” And I saw the woman, drunken with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder. And the angel said unto me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carried her, which hath seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou saw’st was, and is not, and is about to go into the abyss. For to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition. They that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was and is not and shall come.

Here is the mind that hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. They are seven kings, five are fallen, one is, the other has not yet come. And when he cometh, he must continue a little while. And the beast that was and is not is himself an eighth, and is of the seventh, and goeth into perdition.

And the ten horns that thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one mind, they give their power and authority unto the beast. They shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings.

And they also shall overcome that are with Him, called and chosen and faithful. And He saith unto me, “The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked.

And they shall eat her flesh, and burn her utterly with fire. For God did put it in their minds to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom unto the beast, until the word of God should be accomplished. And the woman whom thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

We’ll come back to that description. It’s a very important one, so let’s just take a break now and come back in about 10 or 12 minutes. It’s an interesting day. I sure don’t know what’s happening, but a lot of things are.

All right, let’s move on, shall we, to Chapter 17, huh? And, uh, again, I’m just going to try to give you some big symbols since we have very little time, and this is our last session this evening. First of all, obviously, your first thing in your mind is to contrast this woman to the woman of Chapter 12.

They are both mothers. They both bring a son to birth. Um. Both of them are splendidly dressed. Both of them are influential. Both of them end up as sufferers, eventually. Um, obvious things, of course, that are here in the book, the contrast between reality and the counterfeits. Antichrist versus Christ, the woman here versus the woman of the 12th chapter, the, uh, satanic world versus the spiritual world.

Those that follow Antichrist versus those who follow Christ and so forth, she sets upon. Many waters, and she is introduced in the latter portion of this passage as being with her name, Mystery of Iniquity, Babylon the Great. Now, we need to take some time with this because, again, there are some folks who are less not of just the Mystery of Babylon. Some folks who try to combine all of these into one thing in what we’re going to see in the next three chapters, and they are separated, but they are united. They are united in a concept. You remember that in the New Testament, the whole, uh, you of godliness. He speaks about the mystery of godliness.

Or the secret of godliness. Here we have that other system that the Word of God says a little bit about. Um, it is a system of error. It is much like Christianity. It is, uh, similar to spiritual truth, but it is counterfeit. It is a godless system. It is called, in John Chapter 15, Jesus called it the world.

The second Psalm deals with the judgment of God upon this. It is basically known in these four Es. Uh, uh, the system is basically divided into these four parts. One is Ecclesiastes or the false religion, and that’s what we will look at first. And false religion is symbolized specifically by the whore, the great whore that we see in this 17th chapter.

Then secondly, commercialism. And we’ll see it personalized as the city in the 18th chapter. And then the politics or government as a whole, which we see personalized in the Battle of Armageddon against the Lord. And finally, the Satanic Trinity itself. So what I’m saying to you is that Babylon is an eclectic thing.

It is a combination thing. It is not a single thing. And I think this is where many scholars and many teachers make a mistake in not seeing that this is a system opposed to God. The Mystery Babylon is a system opposed to God, just as we have the Mystery of Godliness, which was the system involving God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the Church, its gifts, its ministries, its age, etc.

So on the other side, we have false religion, false political power, false commercialism, commercialism being as an anti-spiritual element, and certainly the Satanic Trinity itself. So that’s what this word mystery means, secret, the opposite of the kingdom of God. Um, interestingly enough, and I’ll just mention this in passing, because I’ll have to at least deal with the fact, is this going to be a literal Babylon? And is Babylon literally going to be rebuilt and so forth? These are all great questions that are being raised. But let me just tell you the source, just for a moment.

Now you remember that Babylon comes from Babel. And it comes from the story in Genesis 10, the Tower of Babel, which was built by Nimrod. Nimrod was the grandson of Ham. Ham, in turn, was the unworthy son of Noah, as you remember.

Bab bel means Bab means the gate. El is God. The gate of God. That’s what Bab bel means. And when they built this tower, um, it does not say, as it’s translated in the King James, that it will reach to the heavens. It says that its top, the literal Hebrew says, we will build a tower whose top is the heavens.

And the whole concept of this, of course, was a study and a worship of the creation. And this is what Paul says in Romans one, that when man becomes foolish and will not walk by spiritual truth, he begins to worship and serve the creation rather than the creator. Now, the interesting thing is, and this is such a whole study, I almost hate to open this.

It’s a can of worms, in a sense. But tradition tells us that Babylon, or rather Nimrod, had a woman whose name was Semiraces I. Now, any of you who’ve had a good course in Western civilization, immediately your ears perk up when you hear the name Semiraces or Semiraces I. Supposedly born to Nimrod in Semiraces I was a miraculously conceived child named Tammuz, T-A-M-M-U-Z.

Now, this Tammuz concept is repeated. The little story I’ve just told you is repeated in the basis of all the mythology of the occult world. In Egypt, it is, um, Ashtoreth, and, uh, in Babylon, it’s Ashtoreth and Tammuz. In Greece, it’s Aphrodite and Eros. In Italy, it’s Venus and Cupid. But it’s the identical story that is repeated from the beginning. And again, what do you have here? You have a satanic predilection towards the birth of Christ, you see, the virgin birth of Christ. And the whole worship of the occult becomes based on this. In fact, you have seen…

You’ve seen the rebirth in our generation of this symbol.

And this symbol with this on the top that looks like that is the symbol of Tammuz.

Now that symbol is the almost worldwide occult symbol of the counterfeit Christ of the counterfeit birth. Now, that whole story, I’m only mentioning it to you to say that Babylon, as Isaiah 47 says, has labored with sorceries and astrologies from her youth. And when you read the book of Daniel, you will discover that when Daniel was in the king’s court, he was surrounded by magicians, conjurers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans.

So, here is this false world church. Now, fundamentalists for many years have taught that this world church was the Roman Catholic Church. That she is the mother of the harlots who has drunk the blood of the prophets and so forth. And of course, uh, as you well know, there was certainly a time of great persecution in reference to the political Catholic Church. The Catholic Church as a political entity persecuted those in various cultures who were not a part of its system. And you can imagine how all that teaching came to be. But it is obviously not the Catholic Church we’re talking about here. But it is a church born in the occult. And your generation is the first generation which has had an opportunity to see that.

What is the primary religion today? Do you know that astrology columns appear in 1,400 of the 1,600 daily newspapers in the United States?

Fourteen of the sixteen hundred daily newspapers in the United States carry a daily astrology column. Every major magazine that I can see, I mean, other than the news magazines like Time, but all the women’s magazines, for example, and all the men’s magazines, all the specialty magazines, carry monthly astrology information.

The jewelry market. It is almost impossible to buy a piece of jewelry today that does not have some occult, especially if it’s hand-done. Um, I brought my wife back a beautiful, um, unmounted Italian cameo when I was in Israel. It’s interesting; Israel is probably the gem capital of the world. And, uh, gems flow into Israel from all over the world and are put by Israeli artisans into jewelry. And it’s, boy, talk about a place to buy jewelry. That’s the way, a place to go if you’ve got millions, especially, and you need it. But, uh, I was going through a factory and I saw this unset piece. And it was so beautiful, so unusual.

So I asked if they’d let me buy it. They had purchased it with the idea of setting it. And, and I haggled and… with the man and finally bought it. And when I came back, I wanted to find someone to set it. And, uh, so I was referred to a jeweler in San Francisco who is a very skilled and very fine young man. He and his wife who do the work. Every setting he had had one or more of the Egyptian or Babylonian, um, occult markings on it. Every single one. I, um… I was so amazed. Finally, I said, I just said right out frankly, I said, I don’t want anything, um, with any of these animal forms, with any of these ancient forms on it. I want it just to be simple. And I basically gave him a description, and he did a very good job. I was in a restaurant the other day down in Santa Cruz. I took the kids with me. In fact, the kids had a Friday off, so they went down to school with me. It was a big thrill for Sherry to sit in the college classes, and Chip and his boyfriend just kind of roamed the hills.

And so, we went down to the beach after it was over to, um, get a sandwich. We walked into a little place. Immediately when I walked in the door, and of course, if you work with spiritual things, you have antennas that are out. I can walk by people in the street, and my insides just go into convulsion almost.

I began looking around, and the store was surrounded by a young couple, young men. I hate to use the word “hippie,” but that’ll identify the caliber of young counterculture men who were running the store. It was kind of a sandwich delicatessen, but it was surrounded by Egyptian artifacts, most of which were in the form of the beetle. You know, the beetle is the big Egyptian… what’s it called?

Um, Scarab, right. It was surrounded by images of the scarab in all kinds of forms, in woodwork and paintings, and so forth and so on. So you and I have lived in this era, and we have seen almost from the sand, the religious Babylon has been rebuilt. It’s been rebuilt before our eyes. There are more people now who are worshipping the religion of Babylon than there ever were when Babylon was an actual city.

Not only are they worshipping it, but, as you know, almost every movie star we have, many of them have full-time astrologers. Many people in politics consort, at a cost of hundreds of dollars a month, with professional astrologers who plan their systems for them. Where they should go, whether they should run for a certain race, whether they should marry, and whether they should do this or that or the other thing.

So you see here, this is the vision that we have of this woman. And remember that harlotry in the Bible is always the standing symbol in the word of God for a debauched worship, for an idolatry that ends in a false devotion. When people worship God and give their hearts to idols and will not worship the true and living God, and they give their hearts to rites, doctrines, administrations, and all kinds of things that take the place of God, then this is what happens. And this is the suggestion that’s made here. She gives of her fornications.

Remember that the word “fornication” in Greek is a broad term. People who study the language of fornication have called it an umbrella term. Adultery is a specific word that means sexual intercourse between people who are not married. But fornication is a translation of the Greek word “porneia,” from which we get “pornography.”

So what is being said is this woman makes the world drunk on pornography. That’s a literal translation of what is said here in Greek. Now, right now, something very interesting is happening in America. The liberals, who for years have fought any effort to limit pornography, are even now becoming sick themselves. There is a little temporary backlash, and it’s coming over the fact that juveniles, children, are being used in these pornographic films.

Let me tell you, my friend, that is nothing new, and these liberals know it. Why they have chosen now to make this an issue is interesting to me. I’m not sure what that means, actually. But the pornography market today in the United States has reached the point where there are now circulating on the black market of pornography many films in which people are literally killed in the process of the films.

In other words, it’s in the sadomasochistic area. The films literally end, and most of these are controlled by mafia sources. By the way, mafia sources control most of the pornography in this state. So the mafia, with their contacts, actually have people killed in the process of various forms of sexual sadism and masochism.

Now that’s not on Main Street. It’s not what’s being shown in theaters in San Francisco, or why talk about San Francisco, El Camino, and Redwood City. But it’s black market stuff, and it’s available. You just ask the right person; they’ll put you in touch with it and how to get it. Now, the pornography field has always been filled with emphasis upon children. It’s not only nothing new, but it’s also, just as I’ve always said, very interesting to me why it’s suddenly become an issue. What, of course, is being said here is that all of her abominations and all of her fornications and all of these things, she has given to the people until they are literally drunken.

She has allowed them to become drunken with this whole thing. Now, the connection between sexuality and spirituality is a very important biblical concept. And I’m not, I don’t want to belabor this concept, although I just, I must tell you that you must come to grips with it when you study the Word of God.

God’s people always were tempted in the sexual area. They always went to the gods of the lands that had to do with this, such as Baal and Ashtaroth, and so forth. And of course, the scripture over and over is filled. You’ll see that every time a prophet came up, or every time a godly king came to the throne, the first thing he’d do is tear down the groves.

Well, you know what the groves were, of course. They were just hostels of priests and priestesses that were available. In every Canaanite, this is why people say to me, oftentimes I hear people say, “Well, uh, you know, we’re worse than any culture that’s ever lived. And God can’t spare us long. We’re, there’s never been a culture this perverse.”

Well, that’s a lot of baloney. We haven’t come anywhere near to the percentage involvements, for example, that were occurring during the era of the Judges, as a case in point. But every, whether it was Baal and Ashtoreth, whether it was Moloch or Chemosh or any of the other gods, they always had a double sense of, there was always a male and a female god.

And there were always groves on either side, and the groves were associated. The priestesses, of course, were available for sexual intercourse, and the priests and young men were available for sodomy and, as catamites. And this was a regular part of the worship. This was, in fact, God one time rebukes his people because he says, “You have given your sons to become sodomites.”

So here is that line of connection, and it’s as though what’s being said is that satanic power or religion in the name of Satan, Satan knowing that need of man, that his religion, his false religion will always be based on an unabated sexual connection. And so it is.

Every occult religion I know of has immediate sexual overtones. Immediate or either directly or indirect involvements in, in various sexual perversions and so forth. So this is the kind of picture that we have here. What a mystery. And of course, it ends with an interesting description because what you see happening at the end of this. By the way, it is said that she gives to drink, that’s mentioned a couple of times here, and drinks are always involved in the occult thing, and always mixtures of certain things, and there’s a description in here of what’s mixed in, the horribles and the abominations of this cup that are mentioned.

But notice what happens at the end of chapter 17. The beast upon which she is riding turns and rends her and literally eats her alive.

In other words, and the chapter ends by saying God put it in the mind of the beast to do this. What is said there?

What does that describe?

Anyone? What does that describe? What is the beast?

Excuse me? All right, the Antichrist system, the political system. And she’s riding on this. In other words, there is an allegiance between perverted religion and perverted political power. But the beast eventually throws the religious off and devours it. Now why does he do that?

Because he’s going to demand that he be worshipped. Do you remember? So you see what happens. Remember now, this is a long drawn-out view of what we’ve already seen in the last two chapters. So that when he sets himself up to be worshipped and the false prophet comes out pronouncing miracles and setting up the image in the temple to be worshipped, what must he do in order for that to happen?

He must destroy all other forms of religion. Now this has happened time and time again. This happened in Rome, it’s happened in Greece, it’s happened in Egypt, and a number of times. But when an emperor made himself to be God, or when a new form of religion was established, then they had to wipe out all the others.

So even though it was ungodly as far as God was concerned, yet it still was another form of religion, and the priests and priestesses who were involved in the occult and in astrology and all these other things were devoted to those things. So it was necessary in order that the average man would worship the beast now as God, as Daniel said, he would put himself in the holy place to be worshipped as God in that he was God.

In order for that to happen, he had to completely destroy even this occult world system. So, he literally destroys her. He eats her up, uh, eats her flesh, and burns her utterly with fire. Which, of course, suggests a total destruction of all the kinds of books and, and, uh, metals, and all the rest that’s been a part of the occult world.

And, you know, this is kind of a neat thing because what God does, He gets one to destroy the other, so He only has to take care of one, see? At least all of this one is taken care of because they very nicely eliminate all of these things. Now, in chapter 18, I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority, and the earth was lightened with his glory.

And he crieth, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornications, the nations are fallen. Kings of the earth committed fornication with her.

Merchants on earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come forth, my people, out of her. That you have no fellowship with her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

Render unto her, even as she hath rendered, double unto her, the double according to her works, and the cup which she hath mingled, mingle unto her double. How much soever she glorifieth herself, and waxed wanton so much, give her her torment and mourning, for she hath said in her heart, I sit a queen. I’m a widow, widow.

And shall a no wise see mourning, therefore, in one day shall her plagues come death and mourning and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire for strong as the Lord God who judged her and the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived wantonly with her shall weep and wail over her when they look upon the smoke of her burning.

Please turn your tape over at this point for the remainder of the message.

Side two starts here. And the kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived wantonly with her shall weep and wail over her when they look upon the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city Babylon, the strong city, for in one hour is thy judgment come.

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more. Merchandise of gold and silver and precious stone and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet and thine wood. And every vessel of ivory and every vessel made of most precious wood and brass and iron and marble.

And cinnamon and spice and incense and ointment and fragrances and wine and oil and fine flour and weed and cattle and sheep. And merchandise of horses and chariots and slaves and the souls of men. And the fruit which thy soul lusted after are gone from thee, and all things that were dainty and sumptuous.

I love that expression. All things that were dainty and sumptuous are perished from thee, and men shall find them no more at all. The merchants of these things who were made rich by her shall stand afar off, for fear of her torment, weeping, and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, that great city, she which was arrayed in fine linen, purple scarlet, and decked with gold, precious stone, and pearl, in one hour so great riches is made desolate.

And every ship master, and every one that saileth any thither, and mariners, and as many as gained their living by the sea, stood far off and cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city? And they cast dust in their heads, and cried weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, wherein all that hath their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her costliness, for in one hour she is made desolate.

Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye saints and apostles and prophets, for God hath judged your judgment on her. And a strong angel took a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying thus, With a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.

And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee. And no craftsman of whatever craft shall be found anymore at all in thee. And the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee.

And the voice of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee. For thy merchants were the princes of the earth. For with thy sorcery, all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints. And all who have been slain upon the earth. After these things, I heard a great voice of a multitude in heaven saying, “Hallelujah.”

Now, obviously, there are some similarities between these two chapters, aren’t there? Number one, both of these are under the rule of Antichrist at the same time. You can see that. Secondly, they both rule like queens. And they’re both filled with blasphemy. Thirdly, they both hate the saints. They shed their blood.

Fourthly, they’re both associated with the kings of the earth in what is called fornication. And they both come under the definite judgment of God. So in those six ways, five ways, they’re similar. But look how they’re different. Religious Babylon is called Mystery Babylon, uh, the Great Mother of Harlots and Abominations of Earth.

That’s chapter 17, verse 5. But this Babylon is called Great Babylon, not Mystery Babylon, but Babylon the Great. The one is described as a harlot woman seated on the beast of government. The other is presented in the analogy of a mighty city. The seventeenth chapter presents ecclesiastical Babylon as a woman, a whore, a mother.

But the eighteenth chapter presents commercial Babylon as a habitation, a great city, a mighty city, a marketplace, a burning city. The seventh contrast is that one is compared to having been seated on the seven hills. Where the other is a port city, which is immediately seeable from the sea. Also, the woman is described as being guilty of religious abominations.

The city is abominable because of its system of commerce. And the manner of destruction is different. The woman is destroyed by the political power through which she has come to reign. But the city is destroyed by a definite act of God. They are not the same. Now I’ve taken the time to just say with you very clearly, these are not the same.

And it’s important that you understand something tonight. Even though we don’t have time, this is a two-hour discussion. It’s one of the most important discussions, and I’m sorry that we… Just in the process of time, I’ve had to cut this short because this is without question of far more significance in terms of its subtle destructive force to the body of Christ than is the sorcery of the religious system.

For this is the representation of all commercialism, of the very concepts Jesus spoke, the deceitfulness of riches, the awful sense in which power and might over money have been a destructive element to the souls of man. In fact, some of the phrases I read, I’m sure you were as horrified as I was.

As I read the description, when he describes all the good things that are sold there and ends up by saying and slaves and the very souls of men. That’s the commerce of this city. It’s a tremendous description. You can compare, for example, portions of it with James chapter 5, verses 1 through 6.

Woe, woe, go to thou rich man, etc. And it goes on and discusses how, how, um, how easily capitalism, um, becomes an enemy for God and an enemy of the cause of Christ. There’s a seven-fold call in this chapter for the saints to come out of Babylon.

And this call in verse 4. Come out from among her, my people. Have no fellowship with her sins, and do not receive her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. This is a universal call. It’s a call that is as applicable tonight as it is specifically applicable in this moment.

You remember in Zacharias’ prophecy. When it had come time for the rebuilding of the temple, and they had slowed up, and God gave six or, actually, eight visions to Zechariah. You remember one of the visions that God gave to Zechariah was a vision of a great epoch, um, which is like a bushel. It was a large bushel, and in that bushel was a, was a harlot woman.

And she was borne by two swift birds and slept on the Euphrates. Now, there are very interesting analogies and pictures here. I, somehow, in my personal faith, I believe Babylon’s going to be rebuilt. I think there’s going to be a literal Babylon. But that’s supposition. It doesn’t matter. The center of commerce, it could be New York City, it could be anywhere.

Where you’re talking about this, um, this whole sense of what they have done. But notice the connection. Um, ships, et cetera, are involved. Commerce is involved. This is how we’ve been rich. And notice… When it talks about the things that they will not have anymore, beginning in verse 9, you can look at the list, and you’ll discover that every one of them is a luxury.

What is being said here is that there are no necessities named in this. It’s talking about the superfluousness and the luxury that is involved in this world system. But I would like to just take a moment and go through with you the seven-fold call in the Word of God to flee from Zion or from Babylon. In Isaiah chapter 48, it says, “Go ye forth out of Babylon, free from the Chaldeans, with the voice of singing, declare ye this, tell it utterly, even unto the end of the world, say ye the Lord hath redeemed his servant Jehovah.”

In Isaiah 52, “depart, depart, go ye out from thence.” In Jeremiah 58:9, “remove out of the midst of Babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans.” Jeremiah 51, “flee out of the midst of Babylon, deliver every man his own soul. Be not cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance.”

He will render unto her a recompense. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed. Zechariah 2, verses 6 and 7, “Ho, ho, come forth, flee from the land of the north, saith the Lord, for I spread you abroad on the four winds of the heavens, saith the Lord, deliver thyself, O Zion, thou that dwellest with the daughters of Babylon.”

The sixth is in 2 Corinthians 6, “come out from among you and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.” And this seventh passage: “I heard another voice from heaven saying come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sin.”

Now, there is a clear call of God involved in this. And I think that this will be the message very strongly in the last day.

The message is that the judgment of God rests upon the economic system of the world. And that the believer is going to have to separate himself from that emphasis, from that place. I remember, and some of these stories are, of course, I have to be very mindful and watchful about telling them, but in this particular case:

A man was spoken to by the Holy Spirit, a very strong one, to give $25,000 to the church. It was a great need. And the man had only $10,000. He was a Christian, a wonderful Christian. But raising all the cash he had, he had $10,000. That was all he could make available. And the only thing he could have done was to get the rest of the $15,000, to make up $25,000, was to sell a section of stock which he owned. And the smallest section he owned had to be sold in some kind of a package deal. I don’t understand all that was involved in the story. But it involved selling about $250,000 worth of stock in order to get an extra $15,000. And it seemed very foolish to him.

But the spirit kept urging it upon him. It was not a light thing at all. And he wrestled with it and finally just deliberately set it aside and said, “It’s foolish, it doesn’t make sense according to the systems of the world. At this point, I’ll wait for some more likely time and do it.” And ten days from the time God dealt with him, the absolute bottom fell out of that particular stock.

That stock, which was worth something like, um, I’ve forgotten the exact figures when the gentleman told me this story, but the stock, which was worth a very high rate, suddenly became just almost paper, and was really worth less than the $15,000 that would have made the difference. Had he sold it, two things would have happened: Not only would the $25,000 have gone to the church, but this man, who was a Christian, would have liberated that money which was lost, and it was a stock that never came back. In fact, uh, the man’s still holding it, hoping it will, I guess, but it never came back and never will, probably. The case is very, I’ve, and I’ve told this story a couple of times and had men come to me and tell me exactly the same thing.

If we believe what we do about being a people of another kingdom, then God is going to have to be given very solid kingship rights in our life about some of these decisions. And I believe the day is coming very quickly, and of course, you know the call of Babylon in Zechariah was that most of the refugees of the Jews that had gone into captivity had gotten so comfortable in Babylon that when the call came for them to go back home and rebuild the temple, they were too happy. They were bankers, they were living well, and that’s why in that vision that God gave Zechariah, and that he declared to the people, he said, “You better come out of Babylon because the judgment of God is upon the Babylon system, and you come here, it may look like this is the burned-out resources on the other side of the 40 acres, but this is where the blessing of God is, and the vengeance of God is upon that.”

So you better get, you better decide now where you’re gonna be. And this seven-fold, clear-cut pattern. I’m convinced that for every eight Christians, for every eight Christians who can stand suffering, only three can stand prosperity. You know, I said it again, for every eight Christians that can endure suffering, there are only three that can endure or two that can endure, um, prosperity.

It is a very unusual person that God can trust. A man took me out the other day to lunch and, um, told me the story which I told Sunday a couple of weeks ago, and he encouraged me to tell it, so I did, um, about tithing, about saying, “Lord, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, I’m going to tithe,” and how God opened up the windows of heaven, and the business began prospering and blessing, and suddenly he had forgotten completely about it.

It was easy not to tithe. And then the bottom dropped out, again. And, uh, brought him back to a place. So God’s merciful and loving with the Christian. But there is a direct sense in this last day in which, and I don’t know how quickly it’s coming, I know Dave Wilkerson and others who feel very strongly about this, and I know there are, I heard some things back east that really caused a shudder to go up and down my spine, but let me just say it this way, that this judgment which God has pronounced upon Babylon means that the Christian must be very cautious about where his priorities are, what he’s doing. I remember a story. I’ve told this a couple of times before, and I don’t mean to be superfluous by telling the same story over and over again, but it’s such a heartbreaking story.

And it’s told by Willard Cantlin, who has just written the new book, “When the Day the Dollar Died.” How many of you have read the book, “The Day the Dollar Died”? Get a hold of it. In fact, my wife is taking an economics course, and, uh, she was surprised to find out that the professor, who’s an agnostic, has read the book and is amazed by some of the things that are being said in it, even though he doesn’t agree with them.

Of course, Willard Cantlin has spent many, many years in Europe, in Brussels, and is very personally acquainted with many of the men in the world monetary system. And, uh, he’s also has a new companion book on the same subject. But Willard told this story after World War II. Willard has always had the burden of Germany on his heart as an evangelist, even though he’s an American, an Irish Canadian, and he was in Germany raising funds for a Bible college to be built in Erzhausen, Germany.

And he was pleading with the people to see the vision of doing this work for God, what was going to be required, and to liberate capital that belonged to God to do it, to do the job. And he said the Spirit of the Lord dealt so heavily with the people, and people were coming and bringing amounts of money.

And he said, I was very aware that God was dealing with one lady in that service. He said, I was there for a period of about a month. He said, toward the end of the month, this little lady came to me with, with her life savings in her hands, which was 10,000 German marks. And he said, with tears in her eyes, she said after much praying and so forth, she had decided to release this money.

And Willard said, I didn’t have the guts to tell her that that day, the German mark had been depreciated to such a degree that what she was handing me wasn’t worth putting up as wallpaper on my wall. That the 10,000 German marks that she thought was such a precious possession, and it would have been 10 days prior, was now not worth papering a wall with it.

And as you know, the German mark was so depreciated, you took a wheelbarrow full of German marks to buy a loaf of bread. You see, we live in a world where the Christian is either a victim or the Christian, by being in touch with God, is given one step ahead of what the world system is doing. And this is why we have to walk very sensitively in this last day, to the Holy Spirit.

Now, I don’t believe, I believe that God intends for his believers to enjoy the things that he makes possible for them to have. Livingston used to say it this way. Livingston used to say, “I will give away, or I will keep, only as in the giving or the keeping, Christ shall be glorified.” You see. In other words, whether I keep my house or I give it away, whether I keep my car or I give it away, whether I keep a few dollars in the bank or I give it away, I will give them or keep them with the same attitude that they belong to God entirely.

And that he will be glorified whether I give it or keep it. Now it’s obvious we don’t believe that. It’s obvious when we have a need in the church, for example, for someone to be housed. It’s obvious that our people don’t believe their houses belong to God. There’s never to be a problem with housing someone if this is God’s house.

And I’m simply the steward of it. And there’s a need for someone to be housed, it ought to be an automatic thing. It ought to just be as simple as anything, if indeed that is God’s place. And the same with meeting other needs. I agree with Campbell McAlpine. I don’t believe the church should ever have to borrow money from its people to build.

If there were a release from God’s people, the money would be there to do what needs to be done. But in this hour of walking so sensitively before the Lord, just be aware of this one warning that God gives us. Know this, friend, that the mill will be silent, that the luxuries will be gone, that the comp that God’s hand is already against that system.

And that system is absolutely marked for death. Now, the believer lives in the world, so he’s using that system, he’s involved with that system in order to survive, but he must always be aware that that system never gets an inroad into his life. In fact, I think the old Stoics had it pretty straight when they talked about just giving things up on occasion just to know you could do it.

One reason I think this is… I think the neatest thing that can happen to America right now is if the energy crisis becomes ten times as intense as it is, and the drought becomes ten times as intense as it is. Probably, the neatest thing that would ever happen to us right now is for us to learn what it is to get by with an awful lot less than what we have now, in terms of a lot of things.

But the believer must constantly do that, even if all these things were cured tomorrow. The believer must constantly walk with an awareness that God’s judgment is on materialistic Babylon, just as His judgment is on the occult world and spiritual Babylon. It’s on both of those, and both of those systems will die.

They’ll be absolutely destroyed. And every time I think of that, I think of Peter’s words, and I’ll close with this. When Peter wrote in that third chapter of his second epistle, when he said, “The heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the earth also, and the works therein shall be burned up, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat.”

And he said, “Seeing then that you look for such things, what manner of person ought you to be? In all holiness and godly conversation.” What kind of people are we to be when we look for these things? They’re not going to come upon us by surprise. We’re in an era in which these things are becoming so real.

This whole occult thing and the revival of this kind of thinking and so forth. This thing is so real to us that we ought to be, you know, shouting up and down. The signs are so obvious and so heavy in the world. How much more ought we to be walking with care in our choices, in our decisions?

Especially where we put our heart. And we are all so feeble. We are all so… You know, we can all get so quickly into that system of what we want and what we have to have. It just gets to be a moment till we cross that line and we’ve got to have this and we’ve got to have that, and the whole system, like it, becomes with children today.

When I was a kid, if we got one toy at Christmas time, that was a wonderful thing, and today you know if the gifts aren’t piled so high they say, “Oh boy, how come I didn’t get more Christmas presents,” you know, you want to slap them. That’s the day we’re in, isn’t it? It’s a day of things. Lots of everything, whatever it is, from ice cream on down.

I remember the greatest treat in the world in our home was once a week my dad would get vanilla ice cream. It used to come in a brick. Do you remember how he used to make it in a little block? One quart would come just like a brick. And they’d cut that ice cream up into pieces, and of course, my dad and mom always had guests after church.

I always counted them because I knew if there were more guests than me, I didn’t get it. And, uh, And then they’d get Mom and Dad would get that Hershey’s chocolate, you know, and the mother would warm it over the stove, and it would have peanuts. That vanilla ice cream and Hershey’s chocolate and peanuts.

That was such a marvelous thing! Once, maybe a week, or maybe once every two weeks or so. That was such a marvelous thing. But you know, ice cream is like everything else. If you get a lot of it and get it every time you want it, it loses its value, doesn’t it? It’s not as exciting to me now to get ice cream and chocolate or whatever.

And so it is with the believer’s life. Learning to kind of slap your hand. This is one thing God’s been doing with me the last three months. And as I said to Him, Paul, there’s another legalism thing, there’s another thing of saying, you know, you must give this up, or you must not do this again, or you must not do that.

But just the voice of the Spirit saying, you know, do you really have to have that all the time? Do you really have to do that all the time? Isn’t it possible that maybe that thing’s more important to you than it ought to be? And just backing up into that place where you begin walking in a sense of saying, I have the freedom not to, as well as the freedom to.

“It’s a pretty important thing to learn. So, in the sense of, uh, in the sense of just walking before the Lord, and letting your own values and desires get conformed more into His purposes for your life. So, watch it, friends. Commercial Babylon and religious Babylon are destroyed. In other chapters, of course, we find the Battle of Armageddon, where political Babylon is destroyed, and the book ends by throwing the Antichrist, the false prophet, and the dragon, Satan himself, into the pit of fire, which burneth forever and ever.

And the great white throne judgment of God, which is the last event of the book, in which the unbelieving dead of the world are raised and judged before God. Hell is open to receive those who have rejected Christ and rejected spiritual truth. But we’ve come to that already by getting into this 8th chapter.

We’ve come to that place where we’ve seen the hand of God upon this whole system. And it ought to say something to us as believers. That’s my concern for you tonight. Let’s pray together, shall we, before we go. Father, we do thank you that as we’ve studied and had these discussions from this book,

we’ve gotten pictures. Lord, it’s been different for some of us. We’ve had different opinions, doctrinal viewpoints, or interpretations. But we’ve all come to this book and gotten inspired by the pictures we’ve seen of your sovereignty, your almighty God, Pantocrator, the God who’s in control. And we know our confession.

You know what’s going on, Lord. And that if things are exactly on schedule with you, and then, Lord, we’ve gotten a picture of the world, what it’s like, what people are really like, what Satan’s deception is really like, and how he sucks men into his various schemes, and, Lord, how important it is that we walk by faith and by sight based on the Word of God and not based on the deceptions of the enemy.

Dear Lord, we certainly see that the end-time battle is going to be an awful time. We want to be ready for it, Father. We want to be in your command, in your control, on your side, being your people. And we anticipate being with the Lord and in the Lord. In the moments in which the judgment comes upon the earth.

We thank you for this time. We pray that you make it especially real and valid to each person for the glory of Christ’s name. Amen. Amen. God bless you, friends. This concludes the message for tape number RH 266 of the Ways and Prays Tape Library by Rick Howard. This also concludes the teaching from the book of Revelation. In this series, the teaching only went through chapter 18. However, from a previous series, other chapters are available. If you would like one of those, please write to us at 12950 Alta Tierra Road, Los Altos Hills, California, 94022.

And let us know which chapter you’d like. Now, please run this cassette and fast forward to the end so we’ll be ready for the next user.