A Tale of Two Cities Part 2 (Revelation 17:1-7; 16-17)

History can feel like a pile of unrelated headlines, but Revelation frames it as a storyline with a destination. We follow the thread from Babel’s first push for a unified world system to Revelation 17’s shocking picture of “Mystery Babylon,” a global religious power that intoxicates nations, partners with kings, and sells spiritual confusion as unity. Along the way, we connect Daniel’s panorama of empires to the idea of one last human-ruled kingdom before Christ’s reign, so the prophetic pieces fit together instead of floating as disconnected symbols.

We also slow down and read Revelation the way John presents it: like a rewind that pauses the action to show the hidden mechanics behind the end times. Why does Babylon get so much attention, even more than the new heaven? We talk about what Babylon represents, why false worship is described as spiritual adultery, and how “religion without the gospel” could surge if the church’s salt and light influence is removed. That leads straight into the uncomfortable topic of ecumenism and how unity can be manufactured by draining doctrine until almost anything counts as faith.

Then we outline the major traits of religious Babylon in Revelation 17: worldwide influence, political partnership with the beast, stunning wealth, deep perversion, open hostility toward God’s people, and a brutal downfall when the Antichrist turns on the very system that helped him rise. We close with the anchor under all of it: God’s purpose is fulfilled, and the conflict ends with Babylon falling and Christ taking his rightful throne.

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Transcript

From Babel To The Final Empire

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Human history can be viewed as the attempt by Satan to bring men back to a new Babylon after he failed in Genesis chapter 11 to create a global political order of mankind where every empire answers to one being, with this one-world religion serving as the glue in this political empire that defies creator God. And is the world ever set for that now? People ever look to the stars, any God but the God. He takes the finest of the citizens, brings them back to be raised in Babylon, and one of those young men was Daniel. It will be in the kingdom of Babylon that Daniel will prophesy of the ultimate victory of Jerusalem. Daniel will prophesy from within the city walls of Babylon that Babylon will be defeated by the Medo-Persians, and they were. The Persians will be defeated by Greece, and they were. And Greece will be defeated by Rome, and they were. And then he will also prophesy that there is coming then a final world empire, these ten toes of this image, ten king coalition that we've been studying in Revelation, and ruled by the Antichrist in this revived Roman Empire. So, in other words, what I'm saying is this the conflict that began in Genesis will reach its climax in Revelation. Human history can be viewed as the attempt by Satan to bring men back to a new Babylon after he failed in Genesis chapter 11 to create a global political order of mankind where every empire answers to one being. Once again in effect, with this one world religion serving as the glue in this political empire that defies creator God, then is the world ever set for that now? Do people ever look to the universe more than ever to the stars? Any God but the God. It's prepped and ready for the final kingdom. In between Genesis and Revelation, it frankly seems like Satan is winning. As Nimrod appeared on the scene in the first book of the Bible, and the Antichrist appears in the last book of the Bible, just like Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar, the Antichrist builds a statue in his honor. Just like Nimrod and Nebuchadnezzar of old Babylon, the king of New Babylon, will demand that everybody worship before the image of his own greatness and the glory of his own empire. And like both of them, all three will ultimately be defeated in battle. In fact, the last time a conflict occurs between Babylon and Jerusalem, it's called the Battle of Armageddon, and Jerusalem wins. In case you were wondering. Now, in our past studies, we've unpacked the truth of that battle as the forces of the kings who marched against God were defeated. And the blood, you remember, that flowed from the defeated armies ran like a river through the valley of Jezreel. The bowls of God's judgment are finally emptied, and Christ in his glory comes to sit upon the throne of Jerusalem. Alright, enough of an introduction. Let's go to Revelation chapter 17. Quickly, okay? Revelation chapter 17. It's all wrapping up here. John has been watching the bulls poured out. He's been stupefied, no doubt, at all the sights and sounds of God's judgment. Christ is coming back. Just prior to that, something interesting happens. It's as if an angel pulls John aside and says, Hey, let me show you some things. Look at verse 1. Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, Come here.

A Slow Motion Look At Babylon

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I want to show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters. Now, what's happening here? As it's already happened several times in the book of Revelation, you'll see events racing across the monitor as you're watching it. It's happening so quickly. What just happened? And then it's like somebody pushes a button and everything stops. And then it's rewound and started over again in slow motion. That's what happens in chapters 17 and 18. Chapter 17 and 18 are a slow motion, in fact, a rewind where we're shown the details of Babylon, New Babylon. Chapter 17 will show us the religious system of New Babylon and its ultimate demise. Chapter 18 will show us the city, the capital of this empire, New Babylon, and its ultimate destruction. By the way, before we dive in, there is more said about Babylon in the book of Revelation than any other topic or event. There

Why Revelation Fixates On Babylon

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are 404 verses in the book of Revelation. We're covering 10 a year. Out of the 404, 44 of them have to do with Babylon, which means, if you're a mathematician and I had to use my calculator because I'm not, that's 11%. 11% of the book of Revelation deals with Babylon. In fact, more, there is more attention given to Babylon than the new heaven. And wouldn't you like more information about the new heaven? I would. Why so much information on Babylon as opposed to the new heaven? There's no answer provided. I can only speculate, but I it came to my mind that perhaps it's because we can't understand much about heaven. But we better understand much about Babylon. Because we're in a battle in our own generation against the kingdoms of this world with their philosophies and their religions and their false worship. We're in that battle today. Now, very quickly, I want to give you six characteristics of the system of religious Babylon. System of spiritual false worship. The first thing I want you to notice is her influence, her being this religious system referred to as the harlot. Verse 1 tells us she sits on many waters, right there at the end of verse 1. Now look across at verse 15, where we're told exactly what that meant. And he said to me, The waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations

A World Without Salt And Light

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and tongues. In other words, there will be the growth of this religious system which will affect the world. Now go back to verse one. I will show you the latter part, the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters that is affecting nations and tongues and peoples. With whom, verse 2, the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality. Now just imagine for a moment the world without any true Christians in it. And I mean true, genuine Christian. Not everybody who calls themselves a Christian. We live in a city filled with people who would say, I'm a Christian. I mean genuine Christians who've come to faith, and under the mastery of this one we call our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, just imagine the world without any true Christians. The rapture's taken place, and the Christians are gone. Sin will be unleashed throughout the world like never before, because the restraining influences of salt and light are gone. Now we don't know how much time elapses between the rapture and the beginning of the tribulation, which begins with the peace treaty of the Antichrist with Israel. But in that lapse of time, there's no gospel. After the tribulation begins, the witnesses will traverse planet Earth, 144,000 of them, declaring the gospel, and many will come to faith in Christ. But you have this period of time where the church is gone, no gospel, no salt, no light. Imagine that kind of world. Sin will just come on court. It will go unleashed around the world. And religion, what will happen to it? It will flourish like never before. In fact, the references to Babylon's religious system is pictured with sexually freighted words because God has always considered idolatry and false religion to be spiritual adultery. That is, you're giving your love to somebody else where it truly belongs with God. And the world, we're told, is going to be drunk with both sin and idolatry. Now think about it. How many religious systems of worship do you think will carry on after the rapture without missing a beat? The world is a religious place. And the rapture won't slow them down at all. In fact, I think they'll only increase. There will be Protestant churches who will carry on as if nothing happened. There's staff still on planet Earth, as well as most of the church members. Catholic churches will have their Mass as usual. The Mormon church won't miss a service. Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Teoism, Judaism will all continue uninterrupted. Why? The only missing element is the salt of the earth. The genuine believer in Christ who will have been raptured. And the only religious people who, by the way, are caring about the Bible. All of a sudden, the people are gone within the religious systems of the world who care about God's word. And the only people left are people that really never cared. So the people that are gone are the ones who, in our generation, are going to denominational meetings saying, we can't do that. The Bible says this. The gospel means that. They're gone. The missing people are the missionaries, both vocational and for and informal, who are testifying. They're the ones saying, hey, wait a second. There aren't many paths to God. There's only one. Jesus Christ is the only way there. They're gone. Now all you have is religion without any gospel. And it will coalesce rapidly with great joy. Those people are gone, but we're so glad. Now let's get on with what we want to do. When the World Council of Churches, which is just one of many expressions of this desire to coalesce apart from the true revelation of God's Word, when the World Council of Churches was organized in Amsterdam in 1948, one of its aims, it said was to, and I quote, bring all branches of Christianity, and I use that term loosely, to bring all branches of Christianity together, including Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox churches under one organization. Well, their dreams will come true. The current Pope today who desires unity with Islam and Judaism, his wish will come true. The religions of our world will unite with great joy into one massive, confused tower of Babel. One author, evangelical author, said he expects, if we are indeed moving more and more toward this era, expects to see more and more mergers between denominations and more emphasis on ecumenism. Ecumenism is a word that simply refers to the effort to merge all the world's religions into one giant world religion. So what do you have to do to do that? Get rid of doctrine, get rid of any theology, and basically say, well, we'll all unite around this, whatever that may be. Well, here it comes. All it takes is for the bride of Christ to disappear, and the world will, in a very brief period of time, without the salt and light of the gospel, run together. Say, finally, we are one at last. I want you to notice, secondly, her partnerships. Look at verse 3. He carried me away in the spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast full of blasphemous names. This woman, of course, is the harlot, this false religious system, sitting on this beast full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. Now we've already learned that the empire of the Antichrist will be the seventh world empire, the revived Roman Empire. It'll be made up of a coalition of ten kings. These are the ten toes of Daniel's vision, that image, the last world empire. And we're

The Beast And The Seven Kingdoms

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not going to take time, because we already have, to go through these descriptive phrases in chapter 17 regarding the Antichrist's kingdom. However, there is one key verse that we haven't addressed in our studies that I want to show you. It's verse 9. Look at verse 9 of chapter 17. Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. Now, this is a reference to seven hills, and this particular reference to seven hills causes some to believe that this woman, this system of false religion, is the Roman Catholic Church, since Rome sits on what? Seven hills. Well, not only is that viewpoint in my mind wrong, it's far too restricted for all of the world to come under the banner of Roman Catholicism in this one world church. What makes me even more convinced that that isn't true is that the Bible goes on to say even more about this. In fact, there's not a comma or a period at the end of that phrase I read, but a comma. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. He continues on by saying, and they, these seven hills, are what? Seven kings. You can render that seven kingdoms. In other words, these seven hills are seven kings or kingdoms. Well, who are they? John gives us the answer. Five have fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come. And you say, Thanks, John, that's so helpful. I know exactly now what you mean. Well, you understand it if you understand this metaphor is one of hills being empires. Five have come and gone. Who are they? Well, study world history. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece have come and gone. John says, one of those empires is present tense. When was John writing? During the reign of what? The Roman Empire. And he says, one has yet to come. There's one beyond Rome. We know it to be this final world empire, the revival of the Roman Empire, this ten toes of the image Daniel prophesied of. But guess what that means? Now here we are in the 21st century. You know what this means? There is only one more empire to come. We have seen six come and go. There's only one left. The revived Roman Empire ruled by the Antichrist. We're closer than ever before, aren't we? We're living in that moment in human history when the next world empire ruled by a man will be the last to be ruled by a man. The one following that is the one ruled by the God man, our King, Jesus Christ. Now, the fact that this harlot is seen riding on the beast is John's way of saying that she's partnering with it, the Antichrist. In fact, there are some that believe that there's an implication here that she's actually controlling the beast. And I believe that's true. And the Antichrist isn't going to put up with it for very long, as we'll see in a moment. Thirdly, I want you to notice her wealth. Notice her wealth, the wealth of this unified religion. Verse 4. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality. All this is to say she's just extremely wealthy. Purple and scarlet clothing, by the way, were the most expensive clothing you could wear in John's day. Millions of certain small sea snails that emitted a purple dye would have to be harvested in

The Wealth That Mimics Heaven

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the Mediterranean region to make enough dye to dye cloth purple. In John's day, one ounce of purple dye was worth more than one pound of gold. So all that to say, this religion that captures the attention of the world will be immensely elaborate. The buildings will be stunning. It will be incredibly wealthy. And I find it interesting if you look back at that verse that this woman is decked out in things that heaven will have in abundance, right? Gold, precious stones, pearls. She's got a few of them, maybe a string of pearls, maybe some gold rings on her fingers, some precious stones, perhaps. She's decked out in that, which, by the way, when compared to heaven, will make her look like she just has a few trinkets. I remember playing with my youngest daughter Charity when she was a little girl, most often time in the evening, that little game, Pretty Pretty Princess. How many of you have played that game? Look at the hands everywhere. You probably don't want to admit you did. I'm doing it publicly. But that's where you pushed a little board piece ahead, and if you got to a certain place, you'd be able to pull out of this box a big plastic earring, a clip-on earring. It looked dazzling. If you go a little further along, you get another earring, and you put that one on, and then you get the necklace, and then you even get a little crown. And if you win, and I I won oftentimes, I was I was completely decked out. My wife took pictures of me, completely decked out in this jewelry, which is a scary picture now that I look at it, and you'll never see it ever, ever, I hope. But you know, to a little kid, that that stuff, that plastic, I was dazzling. Wow! And she'd look at me and say, Pretty pretty princess. And if she won, I'd say to her, pretty pretty princess. But you know, to them it's just amazing. Listen, heaven is gonna make the jewelry of this false religion look like plastic junk, trinkets. When we see the glory of heaven. Notice fourthly, her perversion. Verse 5, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, now unfolded. Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, and of the abominations of the earth. In other words, it all started with Mother Babylon. It all began with her, the source of organized rebellion and creature worship and universe adoration and astral devotion and demon-inspired idolatry, and on and on. It goes back to

Mother Babylon And Spiritual Adultery

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Babylon. She is the mother of spiritual prostitution, worship that ought to belong to God, but is given to another. And it says here that her name is on her forehead. It's interesting to me to learn in John's day that the common prostitute in the first century, and it was a legal flourishing trade, wore her name on a scarf on her head or on a colorful headband. This was how she advertised what profession she was in. The other way she advertised was by braiding her hair and exposing her back. That's why Paul would come along later and tell the women in the New Testament church, don't braid your hair. In other words, don't look like a prostitute. The principle is timeless, though braiding hair certainly is all right in this culture. Her name is on her forehead. That's how she advertised. This was her effort to be remembered so that she could be called upon again by name. So the spiritual harlot here seeks to be remembered and desired. But it won't work after all. Let me quickly show you fifth, her agenda, verse six. And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. You boil it all down, and basically you got this she hates God and she hates the people of God. That's why when the world talks about tolerance, it can speak of tolerance with every religion, but it cannot be tolerant with us as Christians. They hate us. There's something about us because of whom we represent, isn't it? True? Well, by the time of the tribulation here, the woman is actually portrayed as drunk. She's drunk. She is totally inebriated.

Drunk On Persecution

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She's saturated with the blood of the believer. Horrific expression. And it will reach horrific stages, as we've already seen in our study of the tribulation days, where she will put to death millions of believers. Finally, number six, I want you to notice her ultimate destruction, verse 16. Go to verse 16. And the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these will hate the harlot, this false religion, and will make her desolate and naked, will eat her flesh, and will burn her up with fire. Put simply, the Ten Kingdom Federation and the Antichrist will reach a point where they will have no need of her anymore. She served her purpose. Antichrist now unveils his image, desecrates the holy place. The one world church will be replaced. Many believe around the latter part of the tribulation

The Antichrist Destroys The Harlot

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period, well, the Antichrist will claim to be God and set himself up to be worshipped alone. He will not allow anybody to worship one more star. He won't stand for anybody worshiping the moon. They will not be allowed to worship the sun. They will not be allowed to worship anything, a stump or an animal. They will be forced to worship him. So he's got to get rid of this help, this helper. And so John tells us, we could spend a sermon unpacking this, but very quickly he basically says that what the Antichrist is going to do is he's going to rob her. He's going to take all of her assets, her wealth. He's going to disgrace her. Maybe expose her hypocrisy. He's going to devour her and destroy her. More than likely, the straw that breaks the camel's back will be some claim by her to rule. The church will rule the state, and he will say, No. I will rule both the church and the state. And everyone will worship me. Where's God in these wretched days of blasphemy? Are things out of hand? Let me close by reading verse 17 and just a comment or two. Don't miss this. For God put it in their hearts to execute his purpose by having a common purpose and by giving their kingdom to the beast until the words of God will be fulfilled. Listen, the return of mankind to Babylon and to the religion of Babel, confusion is part of the plan of God. In this final showdown, this final conflict between the city of man and the city

God’s Purpose In The Chaos

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of God. The kingdom of Babylon and the kingdom of Christ. You can bank on it. You can depend upon it. He is the author of it all. For those of us who believe in him, even our lives now, no matter what the struggle, no matter the suffering, chaos, the conflict, God's purposes for you will be fulfilled perfectly, on time, and ultimately. We will be part of this final scene as the city of Jerusalem defeats once and for all the city of Babylon. And our king takes his rightful place on the throne of David.