Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
This automated analysis scores the text on the likely presence of emotional, language, and social tones. There are no right or wrong scores; this is just an indication of tones readers or listeners may pick up from the text.
A score of 0.5 or higher indicates the tone is likely present.
Emotion Tone
Anger
0.52LIKELY
Disgust
0.51LIKELY
Fear
0.12UNLIKELY
Joy
0.58LIKELY
Sadness
0.46UNLIKELY
Language Tone
Analytical
0.69LIKELY
Confident
0.37UNLIKELY
Tentative
0UNLIKELY
Social Tone
Openness
0.96LIKELY
Conscientiousness
0.66LIKELY
Extraversion
0.29UNLIKELY
Agreeableness
0.31UNLIKELY
Emotional Range
0.72LIKELY
Tone of specific sentences
Tones
Emotion
Language
Social Tendencies
Anger
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9
Introduction
In chapter 16 we witnessed the final judgment of God against this world.
We saw God destroy this world through a series of powerful plagues.
We also witnessed the defiance of fallen man.
Even in the face of judgment, man refused to repent.
Of course, this shouldn’t surprise us; man refused to repent in the face of Law and man has refused to repent in this age of grace.
Man is an hardened sinner, and apart, from the grace of God, mankind is hopelessly lost!
The last plague in Rev. 16:17–21 brought about a great earthquake that destroyed the cities of the world.
This final, great quake devastated all the places that man had created.
This earthquake destroyed everything that represented the greatest accomplishments of humanity.
All of mankind’s centers of pleasure and profit are wiped out.
Since the dawn of time man has been in the business of trying to get by without God.
Man rests on his power, his accomplishments, his ability to produce and his ability to enjoy pleasure.
In that last great judgment, everything man trusts is taken away.
We are also told that “great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath,” Rev. 16:19.
Babylon is an actual city, but it is also a system.
Babylon represents everything mankind has accomplished apart from God.
This system is judged in the seventh bowl judgment.
What we have in chapters 17 and 18 is another parenthetical passage.
These two chapters give us the details of the destruction of the Babylonian system.
In chapter 17 we will see the destruction of religious Babylon.
In chapter 18 we will see the destruction of economic Babylon.
Tonight, I feel like I need to give you a foundation before going through Revelation 17…So let’s first look at:
The Origin of Babylon
In order to understand the significance of Babylon’s rise and fall in the last book of the Bible, we have to go back to its origin in the first book of the Bible.
- See, what I mentioned this morning about the books of Genesis and Revelation are coming into play tonight...
The cult of Babylon began in Genesis 11 as a state religion to serve political ends.
Though it has taken on new forms from one century to the next, its essential character, doctrine, and purpose have remained the same.
The founder of Babylon was Nimrod.
We meet him in Gen. 10:8-10.
Realize, this is after the flood.
Nimrod was a mighty hunter who defied God’s decree to Noah and his family to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
(9:1)
Notice in Gen. 11:4
– They were building a city and a tower so that they would not have to be spread out over the earth.
The decree from God through Noah, following the universal flood, was to disperse throughout the whole earth.
But along came the great-grandson of Noah, the world’s first tyrant, a man named Nimrod.
Nimrod defied God’s command and attempted to build a one-world federation of nations.
The city was the political and economic structure.
The tower was the religious structure.
They wanted the tower to be in the heavens.
In other words, the top of this tower was dedicated to the universe.
The first system of worship worshiped the heavens.
The God of creation was denied and the creation became god.
This is still happening in our day…People believe they can harness the power of the universe to give them what they want.
The universe has become god.
Sun, moon, and stars are believed to give life and determine destiny.
Millions of people today are religiously devoted Babylonians– they believe their sign and the movements of the stars have something to do with their purpose and destiny on Earth.
– This was the first worship system of Babylon.
– So Nimrod would be the founder, along with his wife Semiramis and their child Tammuz in creating a blasphemous, idolatrous, one-world religion.
– Nimrod set himself “before the Lord” as a rival.
Remember happened next?
Look at:
This is very serious and very important for the whole story of redemption in the Bible and the setting up of the kingdom of the antichrist.
God judged them and confounded their languages so they were forced to spread out according to people groups.
– So the first federation – the first United Nations – was a society built to bring the human race together to exalt man and exclude God.
Nimrod became the prototype for all false state religions after him leading up all the way to the future kingdom of the antichrist.
– The legend grew that Semiramis had a son, conceived miraculously by a sunbeam.
He was the promised deliverer of earth and named Tammuz.
Tammuz was in effect a false fulfillment of the promise made to Eve of a deliverer born from the seed of woman – in other words, conceived without the involvement of man.
We can see how Satan, early in human history – in fact, in the very first religious and political rebellion – sowed the seeds of lies by wrapping them around kernels of truth.–
Let me tell you just how deep this goes.
Every other false religion that has raised its ugly head through the centuries has a mother and son at the head.
The roots of the Roman Catholic Church are steeped in the Babylonian mystery religion...
In Phoenicia, for example, the mother was Astarte and the son was Baal.
Israel would actually fall for Baal several times.
In Egypt, the mother was called Isis and her son was Osiris.
In Greece, she was Aphrodite and her son was Eros.
In Assyria, the son’s name remained Tammuz, but the mother’s name was Ishtar.
– In fact, Ezekiel would record God’s judgment on Israel as they were sitting at the gate of the Temple weeping for Tammuz, the son of Semiramis.
– If you caught all of that, and I know it’s a lot to take in at once...just combine that with the fact that history repeats itself.
Nimrod built a statue, Nebuchadnezzar built a statue, the antichrist will build a statue.
That’s what is being discussed in Revelation 17.
The Description of Babylon
Now, we find ourselves in our text tonight…Revelation 17…In these verses, we are given some characteristics of this false religion called spiritual Babylon.
Her Influence
There is world-wide influence here.
This religious system will have the ear of the world!
It already does by the way!
When you reject the truth, it’s easy to get sucked into a lie!
The religion sits upon “many water”...
There will be a growth of a false religious unity that will influence most of the world…We are already seeing more and more emphasis on the ecumenical church movement.
Her Partnerships
I don’t have the time to go through all of these phrases, but look at verse 3, 9, and 10...
– When we study world history, we learn that five western world empires have come and gone – Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece.
What empire is? Think about when John was living.
It was during the reign of the Roman Empire.
Guess what – there is only one more empire to come that will rule the world – the antichrist’s, and it’ll be the last one there is!
Her Wealth
Purple and scarlet clothing was the most expensive that could be owned.
The false religions of our day and the kingdom of the antichrist will be rich and luxurious.
It will be elaborate and awe-inspiring.
I find it interesting that this woman is decked out in things that heaven will have in abundance – gold, precious stones, and pearls.
It made me realize allover again that compared to heaven, the religions of the world will look like trinkets.–
I also find it ironic that while her golden cup is full of abomination and filthiness of fornication, God also has a cup that is full – full of His wrath.
Her Perversion
She is called a whore and here in verse 5 the mother of harlots.
She proudly has this name displayed on her forehead.
The common temple prostitute in the first century – and it was a flourishing legal profession at the time – wore her name on a scarf on her head or on a colorful headband.
This was the way she advertised; this was her attempt to be remembered and called for again by name.–
In other words, it all started with Babylon!
< .5
.5 - .6
.6 - .7
.7 - .8
.8 - .9
> .9