SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/20/2015
10:19 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-2
of The Alliances of the Harlot
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
17:2-3
Message of the
verses: “2 With her the kings of the
earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with
the wine of her adulteries." 3 Then the angel carried me away in the
Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was
covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.”
We did not get too far into this second sub-point from
the main point “The Exposure of the Harlot,” and so we want to compete this
section in our Spiritual Diary for today.
It would be good to make mention that John MacArthur entitles this
chapter in his commentary, which covers the entire 17th chapter of
Revelation “The Destruction of the Final World Religion.” We will see as we study this chapter that
this is exactly what will happen to this final world religious system,
something else that began in the book of Genesis and will end in the book of
Revelation.
Remember when we were looking at the 16th
chapter of Revelation and in the sixth bowl judgment we saw that it was demons
who caused the kings of the earth to come to the battle of Armageddon as they
deceived them into coming there where we saw that they all would die
there. Well it is easy to believe that
it is also demons who deceive the kings of the earth to become obsessed with
the Babylonian harlot as the false prophet is also involved in this
deception. In Revelation 13:8 we read “All
who dwell on the earth will worship [Antichrist], everyone whose name has not
been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb
who has been slain.” MacArthur writes “But
having joined themselves to the harlot, economically, socially, militarily,
politically, and religiously, they will share her disastrous fate.”
When we read that the harlot will not just be allied with
the rules of the earth, but also “those who dwell on the earth,” we must
remember that that statement is seen in other places in the book of Revelation
and it speaks of unbelievers. Paul tells
us that believer are in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 2:6 “and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly
places in Christ Jesus.” You get the
picture that if we believers are seated with Christ in the heavenly places we
are not those who dwell on the earth.
John MacArthur writes on this verse from his Study Bible: “The tense of ‘raised’ and ‘seated’ indicates
that these are immediate and direct results of salvation. Not only is the believer dead to sin and
alive to righteousness through Christ’s resurrection, but he also enjoy his
Lord’s exaltation and shares in His preeminent glory.” So this, to me, is something that helps me to
understand why the phrase “those who dwell on the earth” speaks of those who
are not believers.
Those who dwell on the earth “were made drunk with the
wind of her immorality.” They will be
caught up into this false religion as they will give their hearts and souls to
what the Word of God calls the abominable “Babylonian harlot.” This is not a drunkenness that comes from
drinking alcohol, although that may be a part of it, instead “he is talking
about those who are passionately intoxicated with Antichrist’s illicit false
world religion. The imagery derives from Jeremiah 51:7, which says of ancient
Babylon, ‘Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord, intoxicating
all the earth. The nations have drunk of
her wine; therefore the nations are going mad.’”
John is now transformed once again carried away in the
spirit and this time it is to the wilderness which MacArthur writes “translates
eremos, which describes a deserted,
desolate wasteland like the region where modern Babylon is located. In that place John ‘saw a woman’—the Babylonian
harlot whom the angel had just described (vs. 1-2).” Now comes the kind of weird part as John sees
her sitting on a scarlet beast, whose description identifies him as the
Antichrist. Let’s look at some verses we
have already studied to confirm this identify as being the Antichrist. MacArthur writes “That the woman was sitting
on the scarlet beast signifies that he was supporting her. The initial unifying and controlling factor of
Antichrist’s kingdom will be religion.
With the heavens and earth being ravaged by God’s judgments, and the
world’s political, economic, and military might crumbling, people will turn in
desperation to the supernatural. The beast
and the woman will coexist for a while; that is, the religion will be separate
from the kingdom of Antichrist at first.
But eventually ‘the beast…will hate the harlot and will make her
desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire (v.
16). It will be at that point that the
false prophet will make the whole world worship Antichrist (Rev. 13:11-14), and
everything will be one in the beast’s universal and comprehensive rule.” It seems to me that the Antichrist needs the
harlot (the false religious system) to get himself firmly into power and then
once he is in power my thoughts are that he will be possessed by a strong
demon, (we have looked at this earlier) and it is then that he will desire to
be worshiped and the harlot will no longer be any use to him.
We see the word “scarlet” and this is the color that
according to 2 Samuel 1:24 “"O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, Who
clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, Who put ornaments of gold on your apparel,”
speaks with luxury. There is a lot of
scarlet used in certain “religions” of the world today, perhaps a sneak preview. Next we see that there are many “blasphemous
names” on this beast, and I think this indicates the kind of things that the
Antichrist will be speaking about concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel says that he will speak out against
the “Most High” in Dan. 7:25; 11:36.
Now we will quote once again what John MacArthur says
about “having seven heads and ten horns which is “showing the extent of his
alliances. As will be seen in the
discussion of verses 9 and 10 below, the ‘seven heads’ are seven mountains on
which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the
other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while’ (vv.
9-10). They represent seven mountains,
seven past, present, and future governments.
The ‘ten horns’ represent ten kings (v. 12), who will rule as
subordinates to Antichrist (v. 13).”
These help to identify the harlots alliances, but as mentioned once
firmly in power the Antichrist will destroy this false religious system and
demand worship. MacArthur concludes “Far
from being separated, church and state will be united as never before in human
history.”
We still have three more sub-points under this first main
point “The Exposure of the Harlot,” and we will look at perhaps two of them in
our next SD.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: John had to eat
the “little book” which was what we are studying in Revelation and it made him
sick to his stomach. I can understand
this as I wade through these judgments and have the privilege of better
understand what the future holds, and also having a desire to share what I am
learning with others.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Be faithful in spreading the truth of God’s
Word.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: I want to quote the verse that
has the answer in it for our question from yesterday and then explain what I
have learned about it. By the way the
answer is “Like a dove” and it comes from Luke 3:22 “and the Holy Spirit
descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove, and a voice came out of heaven,
"You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased."” The word “like” is a simile and we have seen
John use this word in Revelation many times.
When a dove lands it is softly and slowly and that is how the Holy
Spirit landed upon Jesus, and one more thing and that is that the entire
trinity is involved in the baptism of Jesus.
Today’s Bible
question: “Who said, ‘I have meat to eat
that you know nothing of?’”
Answer in our next SD.
8/20/2015 11:29 AM
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