Sunday: Two Contrasting Systems

Read Revelation 12:17 and Revelation 17:14. How is God’s church described, and what is Satan’s reaction to it?

Down through the centuries, God has always had a people who have been faithful to Him. Revelation 12:17 describes their faithfulness as those who “keep the commandments of God,” and also who are elsewhere depicted as “called, chosen, and faithful” (Revelation 17:14, NKJV).

Read Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 17:1-2. What solemn announcement does the angel make, and what did Babylon do to warrant such an announcement?

John wrote the book of Revelation at the end of the first century. By this time, the ancient city of Babylon was a dust heap. When John wrote down the messages in the book of Revelation, the literal city of Babylon had been destroyed for more than several centuries.

In Revelation the ancient city of Babylon is taken to be a type, or symbol, of the end-time Babylon. In the prophecies of Revelation, Babylon represents a false religious system that will have similar characteristics to Old Testament Babylon. The principles that guided ancient Babylon will be the undergirding structure of modern, spiritual Babylon.

In Revelation 17:1-6, a woman dressed in purple and scarlet strides across the landscape of time. This woman rides upon a scarlet-colored beast. The Bible calls her a harlot. She has left her true lover, Jesus Christ. Here the apostle John gives us a graphic portrayal of an apostate system of religion that has powerful influence in the world. Look at the wording: this power was one with “whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2, NKJV). Drunk? Always a negative in the Bible. And fornication? Symbolic of the false teachings, false doctrine, and practice.

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