SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/18/2015
8:26 AM
My Worship Time Focus: 2nd Angel:
Pronouncing Judgment
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
14:8
Message of the
verse: “8 And another angel, a
second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she
who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her
immorality."”
Let me begin with a brief statement that I had on my SD
on 08/30/2005 “In verse 8 we hear another angel speaking and this time he is
speaking about Babylon. Babylon has
different meanings to it from the Scriptures, as there is an actual city named
Babylon that still exists today. This
verse gives a prelude to chapter 18 where there will be much more said about
this subject, bur for now it is good to realize that this system that the
antichrist is setting up is a display of Babylon and one of its system. It is good to remember that it was at Babylon
or Babel that mankind rebelled against God and formed a system in which to do
this and that system is still around today and will also be around when
antichrist rules.”
With that said we will look at this section in perhaps
more detail to help us understand it better, for this verse not only speaks of
what will happen during the Tribulation period, but is relevant for today.
I am not sure as to
the timing of this second angel, but for sure his message is that of judgment
and perhaps because there were not many if any people listening to the first
angel’s message of salvation that the second angel then gives his message of
judgment. He first says “Fallen, fallen
is Babylon the great.” Saying this twice
causes us to believe the finality of his message, and the certainty of what he
is saying to the judgment of Babylon.
The angel’s message speaks as if it already happened, and we have looked
at this kind of thing before calling it to be in the prophetic tense for since
God says this will happen it is viewed as if it has already happened in His
mind. Babylon in this case is the empire
of the Antichrist and the angel’s message will be a shock to those who have
mistakenly put their trust in Antichrist by having been marked with his number,
666, as they have sold out completely to him.
Let us look again at Revelation 13:4 “they worshiped the dragon because
he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying,
"Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?"” This will be the most powerful empire in
human history, and I believe it is safe to say that this empire is the culmination
of when man rebelled against God back in the book of Genesis in a place called
Babel, where God confused the languages.
Let me say some more about what happened back then and how it has affected
the world since that time. At that time
there was only one language in the world and it was because of being able to communicate
with each other that mankind set out to set up a kingdom that was totally against
God. I have to say that mankind had
greater ability to think and do things back then as we could say that man was
smarter than they are today. You might
say that this cannot be true because of the things that we see man producing
today and that is a fair argument, but man has the ability to accumulate
knowledge and build upon what they have already learned. Scrambling the languages set man back to be
able to advance as rapidly as man was advancing when there was only one
language, and so because of this man was not able to build the things we have
today, but when one thinks of the invention of computers that has caused man to
be almost able to advance as fast as they could when there was only one
language. I write my Spiritual Diaries
in English, yet people around the world can look at them in their own language
because of the computer software that is available at this point. The following is a quote from “Industry Tap:” “Knowledge Doubling
Curve
Buckminster Fuller created the “Knowledge
Doubling Curve”; he noticed that until 1900 human knowledge doubled
approximately every century. By the end of World War II knowledge was doubling
every 25 years. Today things are not as simple as different types of knowledge
have different rates of growth. For example, nanotechnology knowledge is
doubling every two years and clinical knowledge every 18 months. But on average
human knowledge is doubling every 13 months. According to IBM, the build out of the
“internet of things” will lead to the doubling of knowledge every 12 hours.” The website for this info is: http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950
Now
as far as to where this empire will be headquartered at there are different
people who have different ideas. Some
have said it could be Rome, while others say it has to be in the ancient city
of Babylon. John MacArthur writes “But
Babylon in this passage refers not just to the city, but to Antichrist’s
worldwide political, economic, and religious empire.”
I mentioned that Babylon from the time first
mentioned was evil and rebellion against God as found in Genesis chapters
10-11. Nimrod was the one who founded
Babylon and he was a proud, powerful God-rejection ruler. This is the portion of Scripture where people
built a tower to reach into the heavens and I have mentioned what that tower
was in earlier SD,’s but to review it was called a ziggurat, and John MacArthur
writes of this “an edifice designed to facilitate idolatrous worship.” I have also read that this was the first time
that man began to chart the stars in what is called astrology, and this is a
false religion that is still around today.
MacArthur writes “As humanity was united in idolatrous
false religion at Babel, so will it again be united in the end times under the
aegis of the final Babylon. History will
thus come full circle. The final
Babylon, personified as a harlot (cf. 17:1-5), is described as ‘she who has
made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.’ The world will be intoxicated, deceived, and
seduced by the Babylonian false religion headed by Antichrist. Thumos
(passion) describes strong, consuming lusts and desires. As a result of their passion, sinners will
engage in an orgy of rebellion, idolatry, and hatred of God. While sexual sin will be rampant, the ‘immorality’
spoken of here is spiritual prostitution to Antichrist’s false religion; it
pictures unfaithfulness to God. Having
imbibed the wine of the seductive harlot, the nations of the world will
continue on their course of spiritual defection from God and end up drinking
the ‘wine of the wrath of God’ (vs. 10).
As the third angel reveals, this will prove disastrous. This judgment
will be detailed in the discussion of 16:17-19 and chapters 17 and 18.” This
was written in the early 1990’s and as we look at our country and the world we
can see how this is advancing. I site
the last democratic convention where they wanted to take belief in God out of
their platform as an example of how this is advancing. This would not have been heard of years
earlier.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: When the world
around me becomes darker and darker it is my responsibility and the
responsibility of all believer to shine brighter, for when a person is in a
dark room light is what is needed to be able to see.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To be a
bright and shining light in a dark world.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Isle of Patmos” (Rev. 1:9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Whose dream did Joseph
interpret while in prison?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/18/2015 9:16 AM
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