Read Revelation 17:1-2, Revelation 17:15 and Revelation 18:1-4. How extensive is Babylon’s influence?
The fallen church system has an international reach influencing people around the world with her deceptions. Satan is enraged that the gospel will be proclaimed to every “nation, tribe, tongue, and people” and this “gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world,” so he employs every possible deception to captivate the minds of the “inhabitants of the earth” (Revelation 14:6, Matthew 24:14, Revelation 17:2, NKJV).
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Revelation 17:2 continues its explanation of the mystery of Babylon the great by declaring that she has “committed fornication” with the kings of the earth. What is fornication? It’s an illicit union. In the fallen church system, uniting with the state. In the true church system, the church is united with Jesus Christ. The fallen church looks to the political leaders of the earth for power and authority. It seeks the state to enforce its decrees. Rather than drawing her strength from Jesus as her true head, she looks to the state for support.
Revelation 17:2 continues its dramatic portrayal:
“And the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (NKJV). The symbolism of the pure juice of the grape is used throughout the New Testament to represent the untainted, pure blood of Christ poured out for our salvation on the cross (Matthew 26:27-29). In Luke 22:20 Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood” (NKJV). When the pure, new wine of the gospel is distorted, and the teachings of the Word of God are replaced with the teachings of human religious leaders, it becomes the “wine of Babylon.” (See Matthew 15:9.)
Notice, too, that God calls His people out of Babylon. In other words, no matter how corrupt and evil the system is, its reach is so wide that it encompasses, at least for a certain time, His faithful ones, or “my people,” (Revelation 18:4) as He calls them. Yet, the time is coming when God will call them out of that corrupt and evil system, which is about to fall because of its corrupt and evil nature, this “dwelling place of demons” and the “cage for every unclean and hated bird” (Revelation 18:2, NKJV).
| What role do those who proclaim the three angels’ messages have in being used by God to call “my people,” His people, out of Babylon? |
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