Hello everyone and we want to welcome you once again to the podcast we are calling the Bible Prophecy Masterclass. In this third episode we are continuing our deep dive into all of the Bible's prophecies as they relate to the end times, beginning with a verse by verse dissection of the 18th of the Book of the Revelation.
Again this is and will always be a study rooted in a prophecy series written by Mr. Alvin Mitchell and I, Michael, along with Aria and or others of my colleagues on occasion, will be your affable host. By way of reiteration I'd like to remind you that our conviction here in the Bible Prophecy Masterclass is such that the road to Armageddon can be subdivided into at least three main broad categories.
For one the fall of Babylon the Great, which must and will occur first, per Revelation 18, the Kabir-Miriam 2, the rise and the global dominance of the Jews in Israel, which could occur concurrent with the collapse of Babylon or very quickly thereafter, per Ezekiel 38-39, and the Thurber 3, God's systemic destruction of the earth, which will without question and without fail begin sometime after the collapse of Babylon, the rise of the Jews,
in accord with God's plan to rub His presence in the face of a world in rebellion by elevating them to the level of global prominence and dominance over an unspecified period leading into the period of John's Apocalypse, per Revelation 6-19. Thus you might say that the thrust of our study will proceed according to three primary subcategories of this class titled as follows, all detailed in three books written by Mr. Mitchell available soon on Amazon.
Number 1 Judgment Day, Volume 1, Prelude to Armageddon, Part 1, The United States of America and Bible Prophecy. This volume will be the basis for the next 20 plus episodes of this podcast. Number 2 Judgment Day, Volume 2, Prelude to Armageddon, Part 2, Israel catapulted to global superpower and Thurber 3 Judgment Day, Volume 3, God vs. Gods of Earth.
As we said earlier, in this episode number 3 we will go directly into the 18th chapter of the book of the Revelation covering verses 1-4 which is a detailing of God's sore displeasure with and His holy animus toward Babylon the Great.
Also in this discussion we will quite establish the fact that Babylon the Great here in chapter 18 has nothing to do with Babylon the Great in chapter 17 and we will settle the fact that there is only one foot that can fill the bill here as well as give the reason why this is so. With that bit of introduction behind us, let us pray that God's will will be done and that He will bless this study in Jesus name, Amen. Babylon the Great is fallen! Babylon the Great is destroyed!
Here in chapter 18 we are greeted by a strong angel issuing a bold proclamation. That declaration is augmented by an invitation to jubilate in verse 20. Rejoice you heaven and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her account. Not surprisingly, that jubilation centers in heaven's ecstasy and joy over the desecrated sight of Babylon the Great.
But at the ends of chapters 16 and 17, the slate has been wiped clean of two spiritually odious entities in a world already reduced to shambles, well on its way to total uninhabitability. The great whore and the woman, with the inscription Babylon the Great on her forehead, that is, both Vatican City and her sole tenant, the great whore, I.E.E.I. The Roman Catholic Church, destroyed by the beast and company, and Rome, destroyed by the finger of God, are gone.
This begs the question, to whom then does this Babylon the Great refer, and why such jubilation and the ensuing expressions of vitriol lace throughout with supreme disgust and disdain? As with the whore and the woman, the chief instigator in her collapse is God, but clearly, the mode and the impact felt by the world at large is totally different.
This calamity absolutely must, and therefore it will actually transpire long before that of the destruction of either the whore or the woman who is the place of her abode. Why? For starters, one might do well to note that notwithstanding the name chosen to represent her and in spite of the reference by the end times merchants and politicians of the nations to her as that great city, the fact is that Babylon the Great here is not a city at all. She is not ancient Babylon rebuilt.
There is no reason why she should be. Furthermore, thinking and teaching to the contrary is patently antithetical to the clear teaching of scripture, per Isaiah 14. Like Jericho, Babylon, once destroyed is never to be rebuilt or inhabited again. See the sidebar, page 33 and the conclusion, page 36. Interestingly, she displays none of the psychosis common to the entity found in chapter 17 under the divinely inspired caption Babylon the Great, thoroughly anti-God and hated of God though she is.
There is no evident personality disorder or conflict. Her profile and her apparent standing and reception amongst the nations is markedly, if not remarkably different than the known historical relationship managed and maintained by the woman in either her ancient, purely secular role or in her religious role as it spans the gap between those ancient years of her beginning and the present.
Although the prophecy was written in the days when many lands and their peoples were known primarily by their chief city and thus the people tended to think in those terms, Babylon the Great here is a strictly end times entity, having no roots in antiquity, quite unlike her name Sache and the end times woman, so named on account of the great whore, whose roots stretch from the ancient days of the Roman Empire to the final days of history.
This city, like the concepts of the book itself throughout, in the mind of its creator, was something totally foreign to the minds of the likes of John in that day. They did not know her kind in their times. There had never been anything like her. There have not been for centuries, there are not now and there will be no such city-states when she is finally knocked down in these last days, leveled to the ground, never to rise again.
So knowing then that she is not Babylon, Iraq rebuilt, as will be discussed briefly shortly, and if she is not the obvious in terms of the only known shoe that either can or could ever have fit the imprint perfectly to a tee, who then is she? The description of Babylon the Great is quite graphic and revealing.
What do the particulars and themes surrounding that description reveal for us about her, and how do they square with the particulars and themes surrounding the two Babylon's discussed previously? A specific set of qualifiers are given, which set this Babylon the Great apart from the great whore and the woman on the scarlet beast. Profile 1. She is cosmopolitan.
She figures prominently in the global political arena and in international affairs for the most part without the usual pressure of military occupation and domination in the strict sense of that phrase. 2. She has and she maintains a godless charisma that is manifestly Babylonian in nature and in spirit. 3. She has a peaceful impact, relatively speaking, on global economics and being a pillar is heavily involved in international trade.
4. Being highly religious, she leads the world into fornication, service to false gods in the name of the Living God, AEE, she spreads a false Christianity. She deceives the nations with sorcery, heavy drug or narcotics trafficking, 23. 5.
She is enormously wealthy through free trade with the nations, as opposed to forceful occupation and exploitation of multiples of other nations, the kind known to and dreaded throughout the ancient world, in contrast to ancient Rome, the British Empire, Napoleon's objective, or that of Hitler and the Japanese. 6. The nations are enormously wealthy by trading freely with her. She is the envy of other nations. 7. She is haughty, extremely arrogant, cocky and self-reliant, overly self-satisfied.
8. Being a pillar in the equation of international economics, her swift, thorough and complete destruction from which she will never recover will spark an irreversible, crushing, world-spanning recession, a fiscal death toll which will plunge all the nations into an economic spiral of unparalleled proportions. 9. Her existence is primarily eschatological, that is, she exists only in the last days, with no other manifest ties to antiquity.
Up to this point, life on earth will have gone on, business as usual, per Luke 17. Men will eat and drink like always, they will be marrying and giving in marriage, as usual, while at the same time being arrogant, anti-God, unconcerned about the well-being of others, etc. 2 Timothy 3.1.6 Then Paul says, All hell will break loose.
1 Thessalonians 5.1.5 The moment the nations shall say peace and safety, or think that they have at long last eliminated any possibility of further conflict amongst the nations, at that moment sudden destruction will overtake them, like a woman overcome of her labor pains.
Knowing what we know today in terms of how life progresses and proceeds from one trying time to the next, interspersed with bouts or spans of peace as it were, only to be replaced eventually by yet another, be it political, social, economic or military, followed by a few more valleys and smooth rides up to the moment of the assertion, peace and safety. Mankind will honestly think that they have arrived. They have achieved a genuine lasting solution to all of the troubles that plague mankind.
God would have us know, however, that they will be wrong. At some point in the near future, all of humanity's hopes and dreams will be traumatically upended and shattered, as the world around them is ripped apart by a new outbreak of strife, followed by global wars, accompanied by a high death toll well in excess of one billion, whatever the physical roles played by groups like the Taliban. God wants all men to understand that His will be the hand that drives them on.
As with Humpty Dumpty, having had a great fall after he sat on that wall, all the king's men and all the king's horses couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again. So likewise, they will not recover. See the sidebar below. Vulnerability. P 31. This is the beginning of the Day of the Lord. It is, albeit, not the second coming of Jesus Christ at Armageddon. This day will come unannounced, without warning or fanfare like a thief who comes in the night.
His appearance at Armageddon will be a spectacular, highly visible affair. Matthew 24, 27, 35. International Ties. Strong and lucrative. Uncoerced. Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God! What's happening? The woman cried in horror and disbelief as she witnessed the collapse of the first of two of the towers hit on 9-11-2001. She had been videoing for roughly 12 minutes.
As she continued to record, she caught the horror of people desperate to escape the suffering they must have known was sure to come, jumping to their deaths only moments before the second tower collapsed about 19 minutes into her video. Oh my God! All these people! She exclaimed again, terrified by the sight of the second tower speeding downward. Oh, the people are running away! They're running away! What are they going to do? Oh my God! There's no more World Trade Center!
Was her bewildered outcry, looking across, safe and secure, this time from her apartment high above the ground, on a level comparable to about where the two planes struck the two towers. The terrified reaction of these witnesses and others to the tragedy of 9-11 prefigures the cries of agony and disbelief God has in store for men and women the world over as He pulls Babylon the Great down from her lofty perch to her deathbed, leveling her to the ground.
There will be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Chapter 18 verse 1 And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was lightened with his glory.
Having witnessed God's unraveling of the riddle of the mystery concerning the great whore and the woman, the mother of harlots, the identity of the beast relative to his nationality and origin, and the demise of the harlot, John's attention is here drawn to the person of another high-ranking powerful angel as he comes down out of heaven. This angel shone with such brightness that the whole earth was illuminated by his presence. His mission is to deliver a proclamation.
Verse 2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Babylon the Great has fallen, has fallen, the angel spoke loudly with great strength, and has become a place inhabitable only by demons, a prison to house unclean spirits, and a cage for all unclean and despised birds.
Verse 3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. Having been an entity which herself has been unfaithful, she has been instrumental in leading other nations and their leadership down that same path, away from God, down a road that can only lead to confrontation with the Almighty.
In fact, the kings of the earth have preferred and sought an illicit relationship with her over God. On account of her great wealth and exceptional, exceeding abundance, the merchants of the earth have been made wealthy and rich. As she prospered, so the world around her prospered. See Sidebar, Fault Line of Collapse, p. 32.
In today's terms and lingo, the angelic summons to rejoice might be rendered to read like an invitation to witness the aftermath of an illustrious, elaborate, three-ringed circus gone sour, or a freak show in God's eyes finally destroyed. Hurry, hurry, step right up, folks. You'll never see another show quite like this. A self-proclaimed godly circus of folk, self-righteous in their own eyes, wealthy, arrogant, lost and damned, to be banished to the eternal flames of the lake, without mercy.
No sir, re- There has never been, nor will there ever be, another like her. No matter what the endeavor, no matter the level of success and achievement, all good things have this unique way of ending. Winning streaks grind to a halt, leaving in their wake consequences marked by devastation. Wreaths of victory having faded to crowns of catastrophe. Pinnacles and pedestals trade like dirt mounds comprised of only the dust of jaded glory.
GM and other such investment portfolios, once worth as much as $70,000 or maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars in other cases, now worth only a mere $100. Or so in the early days of the U. S. Housing and banking collapses. Worthy of note, GM and other large institutions that were fortunate enough to cash in on President Barack Obama's taxpayer-funded welfare bailout are now said to have returned to profitability as of this day, 8-6-2013.
Remember and witness the O. J. Simpson's, the James Watsons, Enron, MCI WorldCom or the Big Three automakers, Lehman Brothers and the recent banking Jew. S. Housing bubble burst and its far-reaching, globe-spanning messes of financial ramifications, etc. etc. The brightest, most distinguished and celebrated of men flash winsome and winning smiles of victory one day that fizzle so as to leave behind skeletons of only the damnedest of fools.
No great nation has ever maintained its spotlight on power forever, so likewise, similarly, Babylon the Great is guaranteed its place amid the ruins of dust and ashes. The foundational groundwork for this monumental event has been and is being laid even as we speak. All of heaven and the Almighty will be thrilled at the annihilation and fall of this Babylon
the Great. Her fall, like that of ancient Babylon, will be final. She will never rise from the ashes of her calamity, nor will she ever be inhabited again before the millennial reign. On this basis then, if on no other, we may safely conclude that, to the degree that ancient Babylon is located within the confines of a region controlled by modern-day troubled and war-torn Islamic Shia-dominated Iraq, to the same degree it is highly unlikely that Babylon the Great could ever be linked thereto.
No coalition of cash-strapped European nations could ever unite to pull off reconstruction of an entity more powerful than they, having an independence, a stability and prosperity far greater than any they have ever known individually. Their adherence to the Kissinger doctrine will likely preclude any possibility that they will ever coalesce to form another like the one they will destroy. Their existence, even now under the EU banner, is burdened and strained by near-constant,
virtually insurmountable differences. A young German visitor to the US in the summer of 2012 affirms the prevailing, worrisome discord that exists amongst EU nations, even as Brexit several years later, affirms the readiness of certain to break off relations altogether, where their demands are not agreed upon by the majority. One could argue that it is questionable whether the Muslims of Iraq and Persia combined have
the incentive, ingenuity or the initiative to do so, left to their own devices. Moreover, as we view the imminent return of Jesus Christ for His Church against the backdrop of the Bible's fulfilled prophecy, one might well argue that there is simply not enough time for such a risky venture to blossom to the level of stability, prosperity and influence, needful to fill the extra oversized shoes of Babylon the Great.
Remember, this Babylon is justifiably proud and haughty to the bone due to her ability to subsist, ostensibly, completely independent of anyone else, on a par unmatched by any other economic power past or present. See sidebar below Great Babylon PR 33. She is a pillar of stability for the nations out of whom she was bred, and who are purposed and prepped by God to deliver her imminent, inevitable plunge into everlasting oblivion. Verse 3a The chief offensive preoccupation of Babylon
the Great lies in how she relates to the nations. She has fornicated with them in what by implication should have been a self-assigned right relationship with God, insofar as the term fornication in this type of a biblical context always implies or signifies spiritual infidelity to God. It is this Babylon whose downfall is celebrated in Chapter 148. The descriptive terminology is the same for each.
By all outward appearances, by most accounts and measures, from the point of view of the nations, particularly those who do a brisk business with her, she is an infallible winner, blessed and having favor with God. In fact, as viewed by the nations, she herself
virtually sits in the place of God. Thus, she represents a people of great influence, able to affect, impact and shape the thoughts, attitudes and opinions of all with whom she has or will have contact in general without the sword, or seeking resolution in direct military force. As such she, by her great influence and the sway she holds over the hearts and minds of the political, industrial and business leaders
of the nations, leads them away from the true and living God rather than to Him. She practically sits in the place of God with the world virtually worshipping at her feet. To a degree they harbor a trust and confidence in her that only He is worthy of, worthy of note. At one point it has been said she was able to convince the world to base its currency on the US dollar as opposed to the usual standard of gold and silver. The dealer, opiate of the masses.
Verses 3 and 4. Verse 3. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. A key ingredient in the grip, by means of which Babylon the Great exerts herself and her influence holding the nations spellbound, is her sorceries, from the Greek word pharmakeia, which means drug
or medicine. It is used in contradistinction to the Greek words magou, magou and magos, verb and noun forms signifying respectively to practice magic and the practitioner of magic or a magician, sorcerer, wizard, professor of the arts of witchcraft, one who pretends to have magic powers. In their professions dealing with divination, necromancy, casting of spells, etc. the magicians, sorcerers and wizards might make use of drugs and poisons,
compounded by the pharmacous. However, theirs is not the idea that is envisioned here. Rather, the focus here is on application of drugs in the end times, for reasons other than forecasting the future or communication with the dead, although in fact there could conceivably be a great deal of this going on as well. Men during these horrible last days will have done anything but become more righteous. See sidebar below. Drug capital of the world,
432. This term pharmakeia is a derivative of the Greek word pharmacous, which was a general reference to that person who actually made drugs and or poisons. From this Greek term is derived the English word pharmacy. Thus, Babylon the Great, at the government level will be actively, heavily involved in the international growth, manufacture, trafficking
and widespread distribution and sale of hallucinogenic drugs and narcotics. A number of nations are known at this hour to so engage, however, some to a much, much greater degree and level of profitability than others, as we shall see. A known leader and key player is, no less, the most powerful nation of all time, although she is not a grower, as will be shown. The drug of choice is, has been, and no doubt will be opium and its derivatives, as well
as marijuana. Other key players like the Golden Triangle, the Colombians, the Mexican mud dealers etc. having apparently been supplanted if not shut down altogether, most of the world's illegally traded opium is said to now come out of Afghanistan. Opium is used in the manufacture of the highly addictive painkiller morphine and of heroin. Afghan farmers in Helmand province are said to be the world's largest growers of the poppy plants from which opium comes.
India was once the world leader and key supplier to the British, who tried with measurable success to force it down the throats of the Chinese. This illegal smuggling was the basis for the so-called Opium Wars. India has in recent times been converted to a clean supplier to the world's pharmaceutical industry. Opium production and trading today is hailed as the largest, most lucrative industry on earth, an integral part of a criminally run,
growing drug smuggling industry worth in excess of $1 trillion globally. The biggest profiteers are said to be those who convert opium to morphine and heroin. That trillion dollars is half the value of all criminal smuggling activity worldwide, valued at $2.1 trillion, which is 3.5% of world GDP in 2009 and 7% of global merchandise exports according to MSN Money, 10 Nasher 25, 2013. To deaden their sensitivity to the pain and suffering, God
will force upon unregenerate men in those days. This is the stuff to which men will resort for relief, rather than yield in repentance. This relationship between this Babylon the Great and the nations of the earth, while religious in its fervor, perhaps, and in its execution will, on the other hand, not be one of religion, as rather it is largely commercial and political. In addition, one might say that this relationship is largely cordial,
more or less based upon consensual free trade and economics. This was a relationship totally unheard of 2,000 years ago under Roman rule. There, domination, subjugation, and heavy taxation through brute force was the name of the game. It was preferable to free trade. Even the recent UK, Napoleon, Hitler, and the imperialist Japanese of World War II knew nothing of, nor could they have cared less for trade on other than these terms, the costliness
and bloodshed of war being much more desirable. The world then was accustomed to this kind of international thuggery. Until the inevitable crash of Babylon the Great, industrialists, manufacturers, growers, and producers all around the world, as well as government leaders and politicians, will all be made rich by this free exchange in goods and services with
her, including drugs and narcotics. And yet, with Hellman province and its farmers prospering under the watchful eyes of Hamid Karzai and the Yu, military, where it would not, had the Taliban been left in power, one cannot but wonder how much different America is than imperialist, warmongering kingdoms and powers of the past. War is good for the economy,
a certain of her political pundits intoned enthusiastically in the summer of 2006. The foolishness of Islamic Jihad is like slitting its own throat easy to be exploited, is it not? It is an open invitation to this current kind of military engagement as of war to one, one, Ewa one, 2010. As such, does it not make a fine cover for intervention or beneficent
intrusion by a power harboring ulterior motive? It provides a splendid pretext for war, where otherwise there may have been no justification for one, work behind the scenes under wraps and out of sight, to promote a state of ongoing instability and political upheaval, keeping them in a perpetual religious funk, and you justify your reason for occupation and you
potentially lower the costs. You don't have to bear the burden of actually starting the war yourself, encouraging perhaps far greater opposition, as well as the risk of justifying that opposition. You just go in and you set up camp in the middle of the unrest, wherever it was instigated by you, suffer the loss of some equipment, lose a little blood, bury a few sons, some daughters, shed a few tears and otherwise reap the benefits, because now
you are in business. The question is then, what percentage of the highly profitable Afghan drug pie winds up in Babylon's coffers? To what extent do she and her leadership profit behind the scenes? Does anybody smell any form of Kissinger's creative diplomacy here?
See Sidebar, The New World Order under Phase 1, P or 30. While indeed there was a church founded in Rome during the Bible days of the formation of the New Testament, and whereas the modern Roman Catholic Church has roots deep in the apostate, spiritual perversion of that institution, secular Rome itself, unlike Jerusalem, has never had, nor has it
ever been expected to have maintained any kind of a meaningful dialogue with God. In some cases, the Caesars were the self-proclaimed, self-appointed gods over their Roman subjects. Moreover, the RC Church, the Vatican, is not known for maintainance of any sort of meaningful free trade ties with other nations, as it is generally a producer of nothing of any value or significance, certainly nothing on any scale equivalent to that alluded to here
in this chapter of the Revelation. Although, in truth, she does fare luxuriantly to the disgust of the Almighty, she does so not through trade, as rather she prospers only at the expense of those under her religious sway, routed and governed by her spiritless religious tentacles, as well as by corruption, including money laundering for fees of 5% via the Vatican
bank. Her philosophy of life and the acquisition of wealth from her inception was, Always get everything you can, whatever way you can, by force, if need be, at the expense of whomever you can dominate through subjection to your will, while making certain that no one else has this freedom except as you say so. Tolerate no competition.
Although Jerusalem is spoken of here in the Apocalypse as being, metaphorically, a spiritual representation of Sodom and Egypt, in which case Babylon could also be a type of her condition as well, the fact is, this is not Jerusalem, if for no other reason than that Jerusalem is not on God's radar screen for this type of destruction. Jerusalem does not in any
way fit the mold here. The fact is, if all of Israel fell at this moment, the impact on global economics and international politics would be absolutely minimal at best, but for rejoicing, especially among the world's 1.2 billion or so Muslims, her loss would hardly be noticed. Who cried or cared when she was sacked by the Romans in AD 70 and finally
felled irretrievably in AD 135? Who would bat an eye today and why? That said then, in the graphic absence of any other city on this planet which could ever fit the description set forth here in chapter 18, on whom, once again, are we to pin this most unfortunate, most undesirable tale? Who is Babylon the Great? So, with that, ladies and gentlemen,
we conclude another edition of the Bible Prophecy Masterclass. We sincerely hope that you have been blessed by this study and that you will encourage others to join us for future podcasts. As we depart, please smash that like button and make plans to join us next time for episode number 4 of Judgment Day, volume 1, Prelude to Armageddon, Part 1, The United States of America in Bible Prophecy. Until next time, may God bless you.