SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2015
9:11 AM
My Worship Time Focus: Introduction
to Rev. 17
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
chapter 17
Message of the
verses: Perhaps as we begin to look
at what we are going to find in the 17th chapter of Revelation it
may be best to look at verse five, as this verse seems to be the key verse in
this chapter to tell us what the chapter is about. “This title was written on her forehead:
MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH (NIV).”
I have mentioned in earlier SD’s that many of the things
that began in the book of Genesis are completed in the book of Revelation, and
what we find in chapter seventeen, which is the false religion of the world
began in the book of Genesis, and will be completed in this chapter of the book
of Revelation as God will destroy this false religion. A few days ago I was talking to my neighbor
who lives behind me and I was explaining to him that there is a difference
between “religion” and Christianity and what I told him has to do with this
chapter in Revelation. Religion is
trying to do something for God so that God will allow you to get to
heaven. Christianity is saying that you
cannot do anything on your own to be accepted by God, and that God has done it
all through the death, burial, and resurrection of His Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. As we go back into the book of
Genesis chapter eleven we will find that the ancient “religion” of Babylon
began there and all false religions came from this religion. Chapter eleven of Genesis takes place after
the flood and as the world begins to repopulate we find a group of people going
to live in what is now called Babylon which is modern day Iraq. We will have to take a look at parts of this
chapter to best understand how this religion began.
“1 Now the whole earth used the same language and the same words. 2 It
came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of
Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to one another, "Come, let us make
bricks and burn them thoroughly." And they used brick for stone, and they
used tar for mortar. 4 They said,
"Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach
into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be
scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."
“5 The LORD came down to see the city and
the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 The LORD said, "Behold, they
are one people, and they
all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now
nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. 7 “Come, let Us go down and there
confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s
speech." 8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from there over the face of
the whole earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the
LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD
scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
When I was a small boy going to a certain church where I
grew up I remember seeing in a Sunday school booklet a picture of what is
described in this passage from the book of Genesis, which is called “The Tower
of Babel.” It looked to me like a very
high orange silo, but that was not an accurate picture of what these people
were building. I believe it looked more
like a pyramid and on the top of it was something that charted the stars. The structure is called a ziggurat and they
became popular in the Middle East and when the city of Babylon was recently
rebuilt there was one there too. When we
look at the passage in Genesis and then look at verse five of Revelation
chapter 17 we see what we can call this ancient religion as it surely was the
Mother of Harlots. A harlot is what the
Bible calls a person who worships idols, for God created man to worship
Himself, but because of sin man does not want to worship God. Paul writes in the first chapter of Romans
that “no mans seeks after God.” What he
is saying is that it is impossible for a person who is not a true born-again
believer to seek after God. The only way
that man can be saved is to have God seek after Him, which He did on the
cross.
Satan stepped into the spiritual vacuum that man had, for
man was made to worship and he led man to bring about this false religion. Satan’s desire has always been to be
worshiped, for he desires to be like god, actually be god. Satan is the “father of lies” (John 8:44),
and John MacArthur writes “and his demon hosts, disguised as angels of light (2
Cor. 11:14-15) and purveying ‘doctrines of demons’ (1 Tim. 4:1). Playing on people’s religious bent, they
energize religious deception. False
religion’s powerful appeal comes from its promise to satisfy man’s longing for
the spiritual realm without bringing him under God’s authority. In their rebellion against the true God, and
because of their love of sin, fallen men willingly turn to these damning
satanic religions. But wonderfully,
graciously, mercifully, though man no longer seeks God, God still seeks
man. Indeed, it was to ‘seek and to save
that which was lost’ (Luke 19:10 that Jesus came into the world.”
I have to tell a little story from a movie that is one of
my favorite movies of all times “The Hunt for Red October.” There are several lines in that move that I
remember and have meaning for me, but in one of the scenes there is a man
aboard an American submarine who is tracking the Russian sub “The Red October,”
and he is about to track it using sonar.
He explains that the sonar equipment was designed after a whale and when
it can’t figure out what it is tracking “it goes back to mama.” As we look at the false religion of the world
Revelation says that it comes from “the mother of harlots” which is what will
happen during the Tribulation period as all false religions will “go back to
mama,” the false religion founded by Satan in Babel.
One more thing about
that false religion and how man was able to advance so fast, for the man who
began this religion was named Nimrod and he was the great grand-son of Noah, so
it did not take long for man to go back into sinfulness. Because there was only one language in the
world man could advance very rapidly and so God just confused the languages so that
there were many different languages. Can
you imagine waking up one morning speaking a different language than when you
went to bed and you had to begin looking around to find those who were speaking
the same language as you. Well that is
what happened and if it weren’t for that confusing of the languages mankind
would have advanced so fast, and when mankind advances so fast bad things
happen. I put something on one of my
earlier Spiritual Diaries to show how fast the knowledge of the world doubled
and it took a very long time for it to do it the first time, and then it
continues to get shorter and shorter until today it is about every thirteen
months as this article from “industry tap” explains. “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 article goes on to talk about how much
memory or actually data that the brain can handle and it is also very
interesting. http://www.industrytap.com/knowledge-doubling-every-12-months-soon-to-be-every-12-hours/3950
There is more that we will look at in our next SD on this
introduction of chapter seventeen in our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I am thankful
that Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, for that surely was me
and I certainly was not seeking after God when He saved me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: To love the
Lord with all of my heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “Fifty.”
Today’s Bible
question: “How did God first appear to
Moses?”
Answer in our next SD.
8/17/2015 10:06 AM
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