Good morning, friends, and welcome to Sabbath School Study Hour here at the Granite Bay Seventh-day Adventist Church. Very warm welcome, as always, to those who are joining us online, our extended Sabbath school class, and also those watching on the various television networks. Thank you for joining us again as we study this very important lesson entitled, it's lesson number 12, "Babylon and armageddon". I also like to welcome those who are right here in our congregation this morning. We have a number of visitors who are with us today as well as our regular church members, very warm welcome to all of you.
I'm glad you joined us as we study. We knew in the end of this lesson quarterly, it's been a very important study entitled, "preparation for the end times". Today we find ourselves on lesson number 12, dealing with the subject of armageddon. Babylon and armageddon, that's lesson number 12. Now we do have a free offer that, I think, ties in just beautifully with our study for today.
It is a book written by Joe Crews entitled, "armageddon". And this is our free offer for those who are joining us online or watching on the various networks. If you'd like to receive a free copy of our book, armageddon, please call 866-788-3966, and you can ask for offer number 168. For those who are watching online, if you'd like to order this book in a digital format, you'll be able to download it to your phone or whatever electrical device you might have there. In order to get that, all you'll have to do is text the following number, "40544", and you want to text the code "sh012", and we'll be able to give you a link as to where you can download the book armageddon, and you can read it right there on your device.
Well, before we get to our lesson study time today, instead of having our regular congregational singing, we have something special today. We have erwin and genelle nanashi who will be bringing us our special musical item at this time. Holy words long preserved for our walk in this world they resound with God's own heart oh, let the ancient words impart Words of life, words of hope give us strength, help us cope in this world, where ever we roam ancient words will guide us home Ancient words ever true changing me, and changing you we have come with open hearts oh, let the ancient words impart Holy words of our faith handed down to this age came to us through sacrifice oh, heed the faithful words of Christ Holy words long preserved for our walk in this world they resound with God's own heart oh, let the ancient words impart Ancient words ever true changing me, and changing you we have come with open hearts oh, let the ancient words impart Ancient words ever true changing me, and changing you we have come with open hearts oh, let the ancient words impart We have come with open hearts oh, let the ancient words impart Dear Father, once again we're grateful for the opportunity to be able to gather together and open up Your Word and study this prophetic subject talking about armageddon and Babylon in Bible prophecy, what does that mean, how does that relate to us today. Father, we ask for your Holy Spirit in a special way to guide us, this is a very important study and important subject. So be with Pastor Doug as he opens the word, in Jesus Name, amen.
It's my privilege to invite Pastor Doug to come forward, and he'll be sharing with us our study today. Thank you, Pastor Ross, and good morning, everybody. We've been gone a couple weeks, I don't know if anyone noticed, but it's good to be home, want to welcome our friends that are watching on satellite or live stream or one of the other mechanisms. We have a number of people who are members of the Granite Bay church, some of them are digital members or online members, that's folks all around the world. We met some when we were on our recent trip to the middle east.
They have no local church where they can attend, and so they become online members of Granite Bay. And if you're in that category, you'd like to know how to do that, you can just go to the Granite Bay website, granitebaysda.org, and they'll share more information there with you about what that process is. Maybe I should just say we're... As I mentioned, we've been gone for a couple of weeks to a very interesting part of the planet at a very interesting time. Pastor Ross, and i, and Karen, and Ruth, along with a number of Amazing Facts friends, I think we had about 85 or 90, a few from the church here, went to the holy land.
There's a couple of speaking appointments there, so there was some evangelism we were doing while we were there. I was able to preach in Jerusalem twice as well as various holy sites along the way. And a matter of fact, we may have a few pictures, oh, they got it up there on the screen, yeah. Trinity broadcasting network has some studios where we are able to preach at beautiful outdoor auditorium, overlooks the holy mountain in the old city of Jerusalem, just beautiful spot. And while we were there, it was very exciting because we met people who were baptized in Israel from watching Amazing Facts programs.
And that's what it's all about. You know, we've been on several channels there, daystar tv and middle eastern television for years, and so I've seen the fruit of it. And the Bible comes alive, also. If you've not been on one of these trips, some time in your life, I think it's great if you can go. If you wait for a time when there's no problems in the middle east, you'll never go.
So people said, "aren't you afraid there's fighting in the gaza strip?" I said, "no, that's probably very safe." You know sometimes people say, you go to, you know, other parts of the world and they say, "do you feel safe in America? I hear that they're all killing each other in chicago." I said, "well, that may be, but we're long way from chicago. And where we went, most of the holy sites are a long way from the gaza strip, so don't be afraid by some of those things you hear. But it is clear that they've got very strong security. As we drove along, we went into the golan heights, we went into the west bank, we had to pass through some very interesting security points. We saw signs in red that said, "if you are Israeli, do not cross this line, your life could be at risk, you could be killed.
" I mean, I took pictures of it, it's pretty strong. So there is very definite tension that's there, and I've never gone through such thorough security getting into or leaving an airport as in Israel. They pulled our car off the road before we got to the airport, Karen's here, she's chuckling. They asked us questions separately, made her get out of the car, took our passports, questioned our driver, wanted to see our bags, I mean, it was very... Yeah, they stopped the van, made us drive over a mere, check for explosives, and this is just our taxi to the airport.
I haven't even gotten to the airport yet, then there's another raft of security there. So it's clear that they do have security issues there. It does strengthen your faith though when you get oriented what the Bible lands are, and where things happened, it's really neat to go to places like ein gedi, and you say, this waterfall here out in the middle of the desert is a place where David hid from Saul, and he found Saul in the cave, and to see where the dead sea scrolls were discovered, and to see the eastern gate of Jerusalem that is all walled up. And then you read in the prophecy of Ezekiel 44. It says, "that gate will be closed because the Lord has passed through it.
" That's the gate Jesus went through during the triumphal entry, and later the muslims walled it up to try to prevent the Messiah from coming, and they put a cemetery in front of it. You read it then in the prophecy. And you read where Jesus says, "there will not be one stone upon another that will not be cast out from the temple." And then we took a tour that went underneath the western wall, and you see the great pile of massive stones that were pushed off by the Romans, and there is a sign that tells you about it, not written by Christians, but written by the nation of Israel. And so you see the fulfillment of prophecy everywhere. So it was very inspiring.
But just one reason, I wanted to tell you about it, just as sort of a little mission report, is all along the way, first of all one of our guides was baptized, a Jewish guy baptized by a Seventh-day Adventist minister. Now he was just baptized in the Jordan to accept Jesus, which is a big deal if you're an Israeli and you're a jew, to say I am accepting Jesus. He had not yet joined the adventist church, but we gave him our book. And I took some testimony books with us, and so he, and i, and Karen, we ate together and hope we'll pray for him. I'll not say his name, don't want to put him on the spot.
And it was fun going around because as we were there with our group doing the inspiration instructional tour, I would break away every now and then with our crew to videotape things, were doing kind of an amazing fact thing on the holy land. And people would stop me that were with other tour groups and they'd say, "oh, we've been watching your program for years." Well, one gentleman came up and he said, "can I get a picture with you?" And he said, "I was in chicago. And I was at a really bad place in my life, struggling with drugs, my life was falling apart. I saw your programs, and I began to watch every week, gave my heart to the Lord," he said, "now I'm a pastor." He's a baptist pastor but he's a pastor, you know, he came to the Lord. So he's very happy.
And then we're coming down the mount of olives, and this indian gentleman, who was leading a group of indian Christians, and he had his suit on, he was just dressed very nicely, and I'm wearing a t-shirt because we were out all day that day and it's 100 degrees. And he said, "can I get a picture?" And I'm surprised he recognized me because I've got a baseball cap and sunglasses on. And he said, "oh, yeah, we watch your programs in india." Another pastor from detroit stopped us. We were in ein gedi, another couple of messianic, Sabbath keeping Christians not adventist, stopped us and got a picture. And so it's just wonderful to see the impact of the ministry all over the world.
So just wanted to give you a little update, and maybe some time if you've never been there, it does really... You never look at the Bible quite the same as when you kind of get the orientation of where the things were happening. So it was an inspiring time. Anyway, going to get to our lesson, very important lesson, don't want to gobble up all of our time, talking about Babylon and armageddon. We have a memory verse.
It's from Revelation 17:5, we'll be reading part of Revelation 17 in just a moment. Give you a chance to find that, and I hope you'll say it with me, Revelation 17:5 and this comes from the new king James version, here in your lesson. Are you ready? "On her forehead a name was written, mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth." Now whenever you hear the word "mystery", the Bible talks about the mystery of iniquity, it talks about the mystery of Godliness. There are not that many mysteries in the Bible, but Babylon is a mystery. Babylon is a word, a term that you find in the Bible all the way from Genesis where you may first hear it called babel to Revelation.
Not only do you find it in the first book of the old testament, you find it in the first book of the new testament. Have you ever noticed in the genealogy of Jesus that Matthew gives, he does it in the context of Babylon. Look in Matthew chapter... This is the section under the wine of the wrath. Matthew 1:17, "so all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, from the captivity in Babylon until the time of Christ are fourteen generations.
" Then go to Matthew 1:11, "josiah begot jeconiah and his brothers about the time they were carried away to Babylon. And after that they were brought to Babylon, jeconiah begot shealtiel, and shealtiel begot zerubbabel." Who was of the King's seed. And then you go to Matthew 1:17, "so all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, from David to the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generations, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generations." So it's interesting that Matthew begins the Gospel by listing three groups of seven. Seven's interesting number. And you find Babylon mentioned one, two, three, four, five, six, seven times in the first chapter.
It's a very interesting grouping. You see Babylon is the polar opposite of Jerusalem biblically. God's people are being called out of Babylon, and our ultimate goal is the new Jerusalem. When we are going away from Jerusalem, and this was all very real, having just come from the old city and listening to all the stories, were heading the wrong direction. When the man fell among thieves, he had his back to Jerusalem and he was going down to Jericho.
When the children of Israel disobeyed and they turned to idols, God punished them by sending the pagan king to carry them out, they were carried away from the promised land to Babylon. When he blessed them, they came out of Babylon, they went back to rebuild Jerusalem. We're trying to get to the new Jerusalem. When God curse the languages of the world, where did that happen? They wanted to make a name for themselves. And this is Genesis 11, so they were going to build a tower to heaven to save themselves.
God said, "go scatter, be fruitful." They didn't want to. They wanted to congregate in one spot. So he cursed it. The name of that place they called babel, later known as Babylon. And it's a symbolic of confusion of tongues, and God confounded their languages there and this is where we get the word "babbling" from.
And that's why you may not know that a baby is called a baby in english because it comes from the word babble. Baby is babble. Now the original name for Babylon meant babel, was a gate of God. It's come to mean babbling because of what happened there, but it meant gate to God or gate of the Gods, and they were trying to find a gate to heaven for themselves. And so you get these two things in the Bible.
There are two women. You've got God's bride, and then you have an unfaithful bride. Now one of the great prophetic books in the Bible is Daniel. Right after Daniel, what book? You got to look, don't you? What's after Genesis? So you know that. What's after Daniel? Hosea.
So if you go to the book of Hosea, the whole book of Hosea is about God's people playing the harlot. And let me just say, God asks his prophet to do something, I hope he never asked me to do. He says, "go take a wife of harlotry," that'd be kind of tough on a pastor. If you get a message from the Lord and say, "go marry a prostitute." But sometimes God ask these old testament prophets to do things to illustrate things. I mean he ask Isaiah to take off his clothes, we hope he wasn't totally naked to illustrate the children of Israel were going to be carried off naked.
You'd probably fire your pastor if he did that. He asked Ezekiel to cook his food on dung to illustrate that the children of Israel were going to be going through a time of famine. He also asked Ezekiel to cut off his beard and separate the beard hairs to illustrate how they were going to be divided up. I mean, he asked the prophets to do some strange things to give three dimensional parables to help them remember the lessons. Told Jeremiah to go, make a scroll, put it in a jar, take it up to Euphrates, and bury it there, and come and get it.
That was a piece of a rag, and he buried the rags, and it was a ruined garment. I mean, he asked them to do some strange things. Well, Hosea 1:2 "then the Lord began to speak by Hosea, and the Lord said to him, 'go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry departing from the Lord.'" Not always, but typically in the Bible when God talked to Israel and judah about harlotry, what were they talking about? Idolatry. It meant they were now turning to other Gods. He often referred to it as idolatry.
Now with that in mind, we start reading about Babylon. And turn in 1 Peter 5:13. Peter is writing a letter. And ostensibly, he is in rome when he writes this letter and he says, "she who is in Babylon, elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son." Why does Peter say, she who is in Babylon. This has been much contested.
As far as we know, there wasn't much happening with Christianity in iraq at the time. Very few jews were still in Babylon at this point. During the days of alexander the great, you remember the jews were captive under cyrus in Babylon, some stayed behind. God said, "great plagues would fall on those who stayed behind, come out of Babylon, Babylon is fallen." And when alexander conquered the persians, he tried to move his capital to Babylon, he died, Babylon was burned, it fell into disarray. By the time of Peter, Babylon had fallen under the curse of Isaiah 13, where he says, "it will not be built, it will not be inhabited.
" Or the arabian won't even pitch his tent there. It will be a place of doleful creatures. God had cursed Babylon saying, "it would never rise again." So when Peter says, "the church in Babylon," who's he talking about? Rome. Now let me give you further emphasis of that. God had people in rome, rome was given over to idolatry.
They had all the idols from the Greeks, and all the idols from the roman religions. And even as the church was in its infancy in rome, they were surrounded by idolatry, they called symbolically rome Babylon among the jews. Why? Another reason. Why is Peter calling rome Babylon? Did the Babylonians oppressed Israel and overcome them? Yeah. Were the Romans oppressing and had they overcome the jews again? So they saw it as just another Babylon.
And so that shouldn't surprise you that he said that. You look in Revelation 17. I'm going to back up to verse 1. Revelation 17 is where you find this harlot, and it talks about this woman. Go to the last verse of Revelation 17, that's Revelation 17:18.
"And the woman that you saw is that great city that reigns over the Kings of the earth." What great city was reigning over the Kings of the earth when John had the vision of Revelation? Rome. And so, the early church saw rome as a type of Babylon way back then. So, when we talk about Babylon, we're talking about ancient rome, was a type of babel... First of all, you get babel, back in the days a city built by nimrod, way back in the book of Genesis, okay. So you get babel, Babylon, they built a tower.
Then you got the Babylonians who sent ambassadors to hezekiah. And God told hezekiah because you didn't show them the Lord, and you showed them your stuff, they're going to come back later, they're going to take your sons and make them eunuch in their palace. That's what happened with Daniel, hananiah, mishael, azariah, they were children of judah, royal seed, descendants of hezekiah carried to Babylon and made eunuchs, the very thing he said happened. All the treasures hezekiah bragged about were carried to Babylon. The Nebuchadnezzar, they were basically imprisoned because of the captivity in Babylon.
He destroys Jerusalem, they held captive there under the time of Nebuchadnezzar and for several years after him. Finally, with the fall of Babylon during the time of belshazzar, in the handwriting on the wall, persians come into power, a joint kingdom, the medo-persians, darius the mede, when he died, cyrus, his nephew, became the King. He was a persian. And he told them they could go home. But the problem was, they'd been in Babylon for so long, they'd gotten comfortable.
I mean, if you live somewhere 70 years, how deeply would you put your roots down? They spoke the language, you know, jews in America, my mom doesn't speak Hebrew. Jews in America spoke American, something like english, a little different. And our guide in Israel was from england, he was a jew born in england. And I said i... I you can tell from your accent.
He said, "I don't have an accent," he said, "you do." You got to be careful about it when you're in another country telling an englishman if you have an accent. But... So they've gotten comfortable in Babylon. And God said, "come out." Well, you know, of all the jews in Babylon, very few came back with Ezra and Nehemiah. A lot of them stayed there.
Some of them struggled under plagues that later came on those kingdoms. God blessed the ones who came back. They had some struggles but he protected, and blessed them, and prospered them during the time of Ezra, Nehemiah, and zerubbabel. But then you got the Babylonians, in the time of the early church, representing rome was a type of Babylon, that's pagan Babylon, then you have papal Babylon. Let's talk about that for just a minute.
Go to Revelation 17. Now what I'm about to share with you, most of you know, some are watching and they may not know. There are several kinds of Babylon that you find. There is a Babylon that rules for 1260 years and persecutes God's people. And to identify who that is, you just look at some of the earmarks.
Protestants typically identified spiritual Babylon of the dark ages with the roman catholic church. Don't get mad at me for saying that, I'm stating a fact of history. Martin luther, calvin wesley, spurgeon, huldrych, melanchthon, wycliffe, take your pick, John knox, all looked at this prophecy in Revelation 17 and said, "no questions, slam dunk, without a doubt this is talking about the roman catholic church." Let me give you a few examples. First of all, she's called the mother, mother of harlots. Harlots because a woman represents what? She's got daughters who came out of her.
Many, many branches of Christianity say they broke away and came out of catholicism or at least what we would call the western church. The word, it's supposed to be universal church, that's where you get the word catholic, it means universal. It is around the world, it's the largest Christian denomination in the world today. It says that it's one with whom the Kings of the earth who committed... Well, let me read this to you.
You go to Revelation 17:1, "then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying, 'come, and I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits on many waters…" waters represent peoples, multitudes, language, and tongues. You read that in the same chapter. "With whom the Kings of the earth committed fornication." It is a religious, political power. Only church in the world that has a seat at the united nations that has ambassadors that go out to the world is the roman catholic church. You tell me another pastor that's had a general assembly of the united nations and I'll retract, there's only one. "With whom the Kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
" It says the wine in her cup is fermented. During the mass, catholic church uses fermented wine. That wine is also a symbol of doctrine. Jesus said that his teaching is new wine in a new bottle. He talks about the Gospel is a doctrine of teachings.
People have been intoxicated by the false teachings of Babylon. The idea that you die and go right to heaven and hell before a judgment is wine of Babylon. The idea that a man can change the law of God, and change the times and laws, and say the seventh day is the first day, and freely admit it, and people follow it, to say that you can bow down to statues when God's Word says you cannot. To say that you can call a religious leader, "father" when Jesus had called no man father. To say that you can ask a man for forgiveness, when only God can forgive your sins.
I've been going down a long litany of doctrines to say that you are to worship mary, and other dead apostles, and pray to them. This is just a long list of doctrines that would qualify as the intoxicating wine of Babylon, so that's one thing. Has a golden cup in her hand or the central vessel in the roman catholic worship is the golden cup the priest holds. Says that she's adorned with the colors of purple and scarlet. Scarlet is the color of the cardinals' leadership, purple is the color of the bishops.
You've probably seen these assemblies where they are in their beautifully, brilliant scarlet and purple, and a golden cup. Says that she's got many precious stones and pearls. Oh, you've got to do is take a trip to the vatican. You'll see things that are ornate everywhere, gold and pearls. And she's called the "mother church".
Do you know that the pope is not only the head of the catholic church, he is a pastor of the lateran church in rome. And on the door of the lateran church, you'll see an engraving that says the lateran church is the mother of all churches in the world. And just right there, I wish I'd brought my slides, I could show you all this, you'd probably find it in my presentation on Babylon, but I've still got to talk about armageddon, I haven't even gotten there yet. Matter of fact, I see someone texting in the question, "is armageddon a physical or a spiritual war?" Someone's texted in. Quick answer, a spiritual war.
Most of the terms and the names that you find in Revelation have their spiritual names, and armageddon, which we're going to get to in a moment, that is also an example of that. So it tells us where she is or it says, it's a persecuting power. "I saw this woman," this unfaithful church, "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." All the catholic church freely admits they're responsible for persecuting pope John Paul ii, freely admitted that, 2000 at a special ceremony where he said, we're asking for forgiveness for what some in the church, he didn't say, "I did it." He says some in the church did it, where they persecuted. And if you go on tours in europe, many of the churches I've been there and seen it, they'll take you to the dungeons under the churches where they conducted the inquisitions and they tortured Christians and jews, and so millions suffered. Look at those who were burned at the stake like hus, and jerome, and others.
So is no question about what this prophecy is describing, it tells you where it is. "Here is the mind that has wisdom," the seven heads on the creature on which the woman is sitting. "There's seven mountains on which the woman sits." Very few cities are known as the city of seven hills, but if you just wikipedia, Google rome, you'll find one of its names is the city of seven hills. And again, it says "this woman is the great city that rules over the Kings of the earth." Now this is very interesting because… I'm getting, I got so much yet to cover, I'm looking at the clock here, this is a fascinating study. Look here.
Someone's going to read for me, in just a second, Isaiah 13:1. You'll have that, hoftis. Before you get to that, I'm going to read a troubling passage. You read in Revelation 14:8, "another angel followed, saying, 'Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she…" not a church, it's a city. "Has made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
" The teachings have become global and it tells us that there is forced worship involved that happened especially during the dark ages. The church forced people to believe, if not their goods could be confiscated, they could be imprisoned and killed. Babylon forced worship on God's people in the old testament. What happened with shadrach, meshach, and abednego? Then the King say, you need to fall down and worship the way I tell you to worship or you'll be killed. But they stood up and that's what God's people want.
.. Let me read you, psalm 137. This is a troubling psalm, it's somewhat prophetic. Children of Israel are carried off to Babylon. "By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps upon the willows in the midst of it. For those who carried us away captive asked of us a song, and those who plundered us requested of us mirth, saying, 'sing one of The Songs of Zion!' How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" By the way, this is one of the, this very thing happened to many jews who were imprisoned by nazis in concentration camps. They say, "we hear you, jews, are very talented musicians, play for us, sing for us, sing us a Jewish song." And the jews would remember, how can we do that in this place. "Those who requested mirth of us, saying, 'sing us a song of Zion!' How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, o Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! If I do not remember you, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. If I do not exalt Jerusalem above my chief joy.
" Notice, Babylon, Jerusalem, same song. "Remember, o Lord, against The Sons of edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, 'raze it, raze it, to its foundation!'" To lay one stone upon another. "O daughter of Babylon, who are to be destroyed, happy is the one who repays you as you have served us! Happy is the one who takes and dashes your little ones against the rock!" Now that is a verse that really troubles people. How can someone sing a song as happy as he who dashes your little ones against the rock. Before I answer that question, I want to read to you a prophecy of Isaiah, help you understand.
"Behold, I will stir up the medes against them," speaking of Babylon, "who will not regard," it was a medo-persians that destroyed Babylon. "I will stir up the medes," they were going to fulfill the prophecy about overthrowing Babylon. "Who will not regard silver, and as for gold, they will not delight in it." You won't be able to bribe them. "Also their bows will dash young men to pieces, and they will have no pity on the fruit of the womb, their eyes will not spare children. And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew sodom and gomorrah.
It will not be inhabited." Now why does it say that about dashing the little ones, I mean, that's very troubling, that would be in there. That was a signal that you would wipeout a people when you not only conquered their soldiers, but you destroyed the wives. They would not even reproduce with anyone else, and you destroyed the baby. So there was no name, no seed, no people left. This is what's going to happen to spiritual Babylon, the wicked, what's going to happen to them? They are going to meet an end.
And so think of this... Not about human earthly wars, think about this in a spiritual sense that those who have tried to persecute God's people, it's going to backfire, and their name will be forever abolished. It will be eternally destroyed. That's what this is really is talking about. All right, go ahead read for us, verse 13:1.
Isaiah 13:1, "the burden against Babylon which Isaiah The Son of amoz saw." When you go to Revelation, you're going to see that Revelation is composed of prophecies throughout the old testament, some even from the new. And so the fall of Babylon is foretold by Jeremiah, by Isaiah. You get to Revelation 18. Look in Revelation 18:2, "and he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, and a prison of every hateful bird! For nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." We read that in 17, talks about the luxury. Now when you talk about the fall of Babylon, it seems to fall in degrees.
Notice something here. Revelation 16:19, "now the great city was divided in three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." Ever sung that song, glory! Glory! Hallelujah? Takes about the grapes of wrath. It's talking about some of these judgments that come on Babylon. Look in Revelation 18, "Babylon has fallen.
" It says, "it's become the prison of every foul." And this is in verse 2, "the prison of every foul spirit in the cage of every unclean and hateful bird!" the Spiritualism that's happened here. Someone's going to read for me Revelation 18:10 in just a moment. One of you got those, okay? I'm going to read 2 Thessalonians 2:9. "The coming of the lawless one according to the working of satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive a love of the truth, that they might be saved." It talks about power, signs, lying wonders, there's spiritualism in Babylon. And then it describes in Revelation 18, the fall of Babylon seems to happen in degrees, it talks about three parts.
You notice when we said Babylon is divided, when God... Now we're getting into the armageddon part. Armageddon is the battle that takes place in a valley in front of megiddo. We were in megiddo two weeks ago, stood there overlooking the valley of jezreel. And a lot of biblical battles took place in that valley.
Among them, the battle of gideon, that would be a little bit to the east. You had a battle with king josiah. There was a battle with deborah and barak. It's the crossroads of three continents, that valley of jezreel. Even tectonic plates that go through there, and so it sort of symbolic of just a very important crossroads that needed to be conquered.
Whoever own that owned everything. It was a place of showdowns. Now when gideon fought his battle, so these names of these battles, you've got to go back in the Bible. How did he divide his army? He had how many men finally? Three hundred. He divided them in three parts, 100 each.
And he went against an enemy of three, the amalekites, the midianites, and the people of the east. So he had his forces divided in three, and they went against three, and if you read about the three ways that Babylon falls, and it talks about three several times in these place that come. Go ahead, read for us Revelation 18:10. Revelation 18:10, "standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come." Right here it says, "in one hour your judgment has come." I'm going to read Revelation 18:17. "For in one hour such riches have came to nothing.
" Now I'm going to read Revelation 18:19. "For in one hour she is being made desolate." Now, when you read in Revelation a day. What is a day equal in prophecy? Do we sometimes, as we interpret... Like when it says for about the space of half an hour, do we look at that prophetically? Yes, silence in heaven about the space of half an hour because if one hour is 1/24 of a day, and if there are 360 days in a Jewish year, being on a lunar calendar, that means 1 hour is 15 days, about half an hour is seven. We believe that this is talking about that seven day journey when God comes and we go back to glory.
When you read the prophecy in Revelation 9:15, "so the four angels, who had been prepared for an hour, a day, a month and a year, were released." Our expositors, they add up those times and they come with a figure including the hour. So if Babylon falls in three hours, three different ways, and you got one hour, it seems that it falls politically, you've got the second hour it seems to fall economically, in third hour, there's a physical implosion or fall. So if a day equals a year in prophecy, then one hour is 1/24th of the day, that's a year with 360 days, you can check my math, that means 1 hour is 15 days so the fall of Babylon, it seems like it's happening over a period of 15, 15, 15 is how much? Forty five, very good. Now here's a question, I'm going to stir things up. I'm just sharing with you what some people believe.
Just so you'll know. I'm not endorsing this. Do you find a 45 day period in Daniel 12? What's the difference between 1290 and 1335? Forty five, it's a rhetorical question. So I'm not going to take that very far because I believe... Personally, I believe the historic fulfillment of prophecy.
But some have thought, maybe some of these prophecies have a dual application. I don't want you to think about that too much. I want to get you back to our study here, talk about armageddon. And if you look in Revelation 16, let's read this again, it's interesting, I just preached on armageddon a few weeks ago. Revelation 16:12, "the sixth angel," this is the plagues that are falling.
"The sixth angel pours out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water is dried up, so the way of the Kings from the east might be prepared." Now, you have to know something from extra biblical history for this to make sense. Babylon was surrounded by a moat. Belshazzar, the King, was having a great feast when Daniel read the handwriting on the wall. At the same time, the medo-persians had been encamped outside of Babylon. Babylonians were not afraid, they thought they'll never breach the wall with.
.. They'll never breach the moat, but cyrus did something they had not anticipated. Way upstream, he diverted the river where it ran down the Babylon, he diverted it, he dug a canal, there was a dry lake bed, they broke the dam, they drained the river, the water level in the river almost instantly went down. His soldiers, a few of them, were able to go under the wall, there were two walls, the inner gates had been left open, as Isaiah prophesied, 'cause they were drinking, they didn't think there would be any threat. Needs to go through the inner gate to access the river, and they left them open.
The soldiers have been drinking because of the feast. They open the outer gates, they let all of their soldiers in, and Babylon almost instantly fell in one night, Daniel 5 tells us. So it talks about the way for the Kings of the east might be prepared. Darius and cyrus were considered good Kings for God's people. Kings of the east, kind of like wise men came from the east with good tidings.
These two Kings let God's people go home. They believed in one God, whereas the Babylonians were polytheistic, the persians were monotheistic. And so there's a type there, cyrus is even called my anointed, cyrus the general, which is a title reserved for God. "That the way of the Kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs," this final battle that transpires.
"Coming out of the mouth of the dragon." Frogs are unclean, their power's in their tongue. It's a message, just like you've got God's angels in heaven with a message, the devil's got his frogs on earth. "Out of the mouth of the beast," messages come out of the mouth. "Mouth of the false prophet, mouth of the dragon, they are the Spirits of demons performing signs that go out to the Kings of the earth." There... Now Jesus said, "look, if you don't believe my message, believe me because of the miracles.
" The devil's going to do the same things. He'll say, "I got a message, and I got miracles to back it." We're going to have to really go by the word in the last days. "To gather them to the battle of the great day of God almighty. 'Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.
' And they gathered them together to the place called in Hebrew, armageddon." Arma means hill of megiddo, armageddon. I told you that this is a mysterious word, it's not found anywhere else, they've not found it yet, maybe they'll discover an ancient document, not founded anywhere else in Greek or in Hebrew, just like this. It does sound similar to a phrase you find in Hebrew were God speaks to gideon, said, God spoke to gideon, that sounds like harmagedon. And so they're wondering if they're talking about when gideon that was on the mountain and down in the valley where the enemy, the million, it looked like they were outnumbered, and with a very small force God fought against the enemy. And gideon's weapons were all symbols of the Word of God.
You had, it says, the sword of the Lord and gideon, and they broke the pitchers, and the lamps shined, and the trumpets blew. God's Word is a lamp, the sword is a word, and the trumpet is a word. So the lamp is a word, the sword is a word, the trumpet is a word, they overcame the enemy with the symbols of the Word of God there in that valley. And so, some have thought, "is this the battle of the megiddo?" Doesn't matter whether you think it's deborah and barak it's harkening back to. It's talking about God fighting for his people.
Now the battle of armageddon, it's not a battle between russia and china, and even while I was there I heard tour guides there at megiddo, I was listening to another tour group while we were meeting with our tour group and they're talking about, "yeah, the russians, and the chinese, and the Americans going to gather in this valley, and there could be 400 million soldiers." And I'm going, "oh, brother." You can't fit 400 million soldiers in that valley, and that's not the way we fight today. We don't all just March off against each other like napoleon, and waterloo, and they don't do it that way anymore, they just, they fire drones. And so the battle of armageddon is a battle between those who serve God. It tells us the dragon made war with the woman, who keeps the commandments of God. Her descendants that keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus.
Christ is seen coming out of the heavens, riding on the horse. He's got a sword coming out of his mouth. Is that a symbol? It's a Word of God. It says on his thigh, the Word of God. And so it's talking about a battle between the truth and the counterfeit in the last days for the souls of people.
It will end up in a great physical conflict. And the final battle in the battle of armageddon, it starts before Jesus come, it ends after the millennium when fire comes down and devours the adversaries. So just like any war, you may have several battles, the last battle of armageddon is at the end of the 1,000 years. All right, I see another question on the screen. "Is it likely that there will be a 3rd world war as it relates to Babylon and armageddon, the us and Israel, in the last days? I don't know.
I don't know if there's going to be. I mean, you know, we hear everyone's always struggling, man typically has not made a weapon. He did not use, and we're so concerned right now that it could be... Let me back up and say it this way. Something I think is going to be a catalyst to make the world suddenly very religious and to catapult certain religious leaders into prominence.
People do it typically by fear. The catalyst could be an economic disaster, a global economic disaster. It could be a major terrorist event. It could be a major natural disaster. It could be something that looks like a 3rd world war that drives people to religion through fear, where they are ready to listen to a totalitarian leader that has happened historically.
Hitler came into power on the heels of an economic disaster. Napoleon came into power on the heels of an economic disaster. Those disasters often came because of war. The economic disaster in germany came from world war i. And kaiser wilhelm, hitler was able to use that disaster for them to welcome a despot, a dictator.
Napoleon did the same thing, and louis xiv, and you look through history, so I think there's going to be some event, whether that disaster will be brought by a 3rd world war or natural disaster, I mean. We had economic problems after 9/11 because of wall street what happened. So I don't know. And, then last question. What does the Bible say, someone's texting in, what is the "wine" of her wrath referring to Babylon? That's referring to some old testament prophecies that talks about drinking the dregs, the wine of the wrath of God, referred to again in Babylon.
It means, it's unmixed with mercy. Got off and mitigates his punishment by showing some degree of mercy. But when the wrath finally falls on Babylon, it is going to be full force, no mercy. And anyway, hopefully, you learned something. I want to remind our friends, we have a free offer about armageddon.
You'll enjoy this. If you like to get a copy of the book armageddon, then just ask for, or call the number 866-788-3966, that's 866-study-more, and you can also download this for free from aftv.org. Thank you so much for studying with us. We'll study His Word together again next week. Can't get enough Amazing Facts Bible study? You don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth filled programming.
Visit the Amazing Facts media library at aftv.org. At aftv.org, you can enjoy video and audio presentations as well as printed material all free of charge, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, right from your computer or mobile device, visit aftv.org. For over 60 years, jeepneys have been the virtual king of the road here in the Philippines. These unique vehicles that are festive with colorful stickers, lights, and chrome have grown into the chief source of transportation in the country. Let's go.
These iconic four-wheel-drive military vehicles made by the willys company were known as jeeps because it stood for general purpose. And it also came from a character in a popeye cartoon that was known as eugene the jeep. He was an imaginary dog that could crawl across the ceilings and the walls, and these jeeps could go anywhere. When the Americans left the Philippines following world war ii, it was just cheaper for them to leave these thousands of military vehicles behind rather than to transport them back to the states. The creative filipino people modified these military vehicles by extending the frame about six feet.
They added a couple of cozy inventions that are designed to carry about 18 people. They put a cab over it to prevent the water from coming in, but I've seen what looks like 20 to 25 people hanging on every possible edge and ledge of a jeepney. They're jumping off, they're jumping on as it goes through congested manila traffic. Every jeepney is little bit different. Some are just held together with patches of daily wire and bubblegum, a little bit of duck tape.
Some are little more ornate and modern, they've got chrome and stainless steel. And there's good reason that the ceilings are padded. When one of the local filipinos wants to ride on a jeepney, they just flag them down, they shout, they tap on the hood, and then they jump on board. They may not even slowdown when they do this. Then they pay about 8 pesos which is equivalent of 16 cents for us.
It's by far the most economical way to get around in the country. Some jeepneys are even equipped with an old emergency privy. One little downside to the jeepneys is because the cabs are open like this, they're not air-conditioned, it gets very hot in summertime and all the fumes from the street coming in which can make it an exhausting experience. One of the downside of the jeepney is they don't have all of the modern safety features, no seatbelts. You have to take advantage of the padding if you hit a hard bump.
And if there is a serious accident, there is no airbags other than the friends that might be sitting around you. And that's the upside of the jeepney because you're up close and personal with everybody, you make some new friends. Riding on a jeepney requires teamwork. If you buy something from one of the vendors, you all sort of pass it back to each other. And when passengers get on board, you just pass your money upfront.
Thanks a lot. Friends, it's safe to say there are no two jeepneys that are exactly the same. They're all unique and distinct and so are you. Have you ever felt that you get lost in a massive humanity and God doesn't notice you? The Bible tells us that he knows your name, the very hairs of your head are numbered and he hears your prayers. More than that, the Lord wants to take you to his kingdom, you just have to get on board.
Let's face it, it's not always easy to understand everything you read in the Bible. With over 700,000 words contained in 66 books, the Bible can generate a lot of questions. To get biblical straightforward answers, call into Bible answers live, a live nationwide call-in radio program where you can talk to Pastor Doug Batchelor and ask him your most difficult Bible questions. For times and stations in your area or to listen to answers online, visit bal.amazingfacts.org.