The Destruction of The Final False Religion Part 5
The Book of Revelation • Sermon • Submitted
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And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Introduction:
Introduction:
II. The Explanation of the
II. The Explanation of the
I. The Exposure of the Harlot (vs. 1-6, 15)
I. The Exposure of the Harlot (vs. 1-6, 15)
II. The Explanation of the Harlot (vs. 7-14, 18)
II. The Explanation of the Harlot (vs. 7-14, 18)
1. The Perplexity (vs. 7)
1. The Perplexity (vs. 7)
Revelation 17:7
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
2. The Pit (vs. 8a)
2. The Pit (vs. 8a)
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
As the angel begins to describe to John what exactly he was appalled at, he begins by reminding John who it is exactly he is seeing.
The angel says that this beast is “the one that was and is not and shall ascend....”is, of course, a reference to the fake resurrection of the beast.
Remember our study back in Chapter 13.
And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live.
Remember, that you have two persons in operation here.
Slide of the two beasts
You have the first beast and then you have the second beast that comes into play at the beginning of Chapter 13 or what is believed to be the mid way of the tribulation, so about 3 1/2 years into the Tribulation.
The second beast that comes is the false prophet.
What is believed to take place around this time of the tribulation is that the AntiChrist (first beast) will be assassinated during this period.
We do not know by who or what will be the circumstances that surround his assassination, but is believed that he will be assassinated.
The text tells us that he was wounded by a sword and did live.
You say, “Well that does not mean that he died, he was just wounded and the wound did not kill him”.
Well, that could be true, but what would be the miracle in that?
The text tells us that he deceived those that dwell on the earth by the miracles that he performed.
There would be no miracle in just surviving a battle wound.
The miracle being dead and coming back to life.
And because the antichrist comes back to life, the false prophet (second beast) orders that a monument be erected to the antichrist.
Because remember, the job of the false prophet is to point all worship to the antichrist.
Now, I am trying to keep the time line fresh in your mind.
Remember, the tribulation ended at the end of chapter 16, with the seventh and final seal.
Chapters 17 and 18 are not sequential chapters, they are not the next sequence of events.
They could be viewed at a parenthesis.
What the Holy Spirit does in these two chapter is to go back and teach us in more detail the campaign of the antichrist; how he will really work.
The first 16 chapters he is mentioned and some of his work is given to us, but here is the more detailed description of how he will unite the world and, and thus received her worship.
And it will be through religion, as we have already.
That is why the angel here is Chapter 17, says the beast is about to rise.
The angel is giving John the origin of the beast.
Now, let me say that it is believed by most that this assassination will be faked and; therefore, the resurrection will be faked.
It was an elaborate demonstration by the false prophet and the antichrist for, what I believe, to be two reasons.
First, to get the unbelieving world to admire and worship the antichrist.
But there is a second reason that I want to share.
Let me remind you of a couple of verses.
John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
You see a similarity?
When the angel says, “and shall ascend” that is a similar way of saying “and shall be”.
The Devil does all that he can to try and mimic God.
Everything he does is a mimic of the Lord.
The antichrist trying to take the place of Christ.
Those are really the two reasons for the fake resurrection.
Then the angel further describes the beast as the one that has come out of the bottomless pit.
The antichrist will be indwelt by a demon from the bottomless pit.
Because remember, we told you several chapters ago that the antichrist will be human.
He will not be a supernatural being.
We told you several things about his personage from the book of Daniel and I will take the time to go over all those things except to say; that he will probably be from a European state, he will have plenty of money because he will buy himself an army and he will possibly be a homosexual; Daniel says that he will not desire women.
So the antichrist will be human, not supernatural.
But he will be indwelt by a supernatural being from the bottomless pit, the text says; thus the angel explains to John where the antichrist will get his power.
The idea of the bottomless pit is a very old concept.
It is the Greek word “ἄβυσσος” and speaks about a place of containment for evil spirits.
ἄβυσσος (= ἀ without, plus βυσσός or βυθός, depth, bottom), bottomless (pit or region), abyss.
This theme of the bottomless is something that runs throughout Jewish literature, and I want to give you as much understanding as I can about what this place is.
Show media showing the Ancient Hebrew conception of the Earth
I want you to see the Hebrew conception of the universe.
Talk about the different levels on the media
I show you this because I wanted you to be aware of the Hebrew mindset on the universe.
Sheol is the Hebrew for the Greek word Hades, they were synonymous in Jewish thought.
Remember now, that the Hebrew that was used for lake of fire was gehenna, was also a description of a trash heap outside of Jerusalem; where trash and dead bodies were many times dumped.
Sheol or Hades had two different compartments, you remember from your studies of the rich man and Lazarus.
They would see each other talk to each, but one was comforted and the other was tormented.
So in the Jewish mindset, hades or sheol was down in the earth.
Now, is there any Scriptural evidence of this.
Well, you have , but you also have another passage.
, the account were King Saul and the witch of Endor conjure the spirit of Samuel to see how they should deal with the Philistines.
Samuel, and we are not going to get into whether or not this was really Samuel here that is for another debate, but he says something interesting that hives this Hebrew thought some veracity.
1 Samuel 28:
And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up? And Saul answered, I am sore distressed; for the Philistines make war against me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me no more, neither by prophets, nor by dreams: therefore I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto me what I shall do.
So, assuming you believe that this was really Samuel, he was down in the earth, not up; but came up from the heart of the earth.
Which gives credence to the Hebrew thought of the universe; especially the thinking about sheol or hades being a two sided compartment.
Because Samuel would not have been in torment in Hell, but he was in comfort in hades.
The question has many times arisen as to whether or not Saul was a saved person.
And there are good people on both sides of the fence on this issue.
I think the primary verse that is used to “prove” that Saul was saved is verse 19.
Moreover the LORD will also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Philistines: and to morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with me: the LORD also shall deliver the host of Israel into the hand of the Philistines.
And people have concluded that since Samuel said that then Saul must be saved.
Not necessarily.
In the Jewish mindset, they made no distinction of the name of the place; it was called sheol or hades in the Greek.
And since they made no distinction of the name of the place and since, according to , they could see each other and talk with each other, it would be considered the same place, but no word is given about which side of the same place Saul was going to go.
So that verse does not dogmatically say that Saul was saved.
I explain all that to you because I want you to understand that sheol or hades is not the bottomless pit.
The bottomless pit that is described here by the angel is a place or confinement and torture for demons.
There is much that could be said about, what the OT saints called, “the place of the dead” or “the underworld”.
But I want to weave through all of that and give help you get an understanding of this bottomless pit so that we know the kind of supernatural being that is going to indwell the antichrist.
What do we know about the bottomless pit?
First, we know that demons are in the bottomless pit.
And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.
And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.
And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.
Second, we know that demons do not want to go to this pit.
And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.
The word “deep” there being “ἄβυσσος” the same Greek word that is in .
Third, we are fairly sure that the “sons of God” is are, in fact, demons that co-habitated with woman and those women gave birth to demon possessed children and God had to drown them in the flood, but the demons he commanded to go to this pit.
And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
2 Peter 2:4
We know that the three days that Jesus’ body was in the grave that we preached victory to these demons in prison.
By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
The text tells us that this demon that is going to be released from his prison that he has been held, possibly since , and he is going to indwell this human and give him his power.
But the text also tells us that he is coming up “to destruction”.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
He is coming, thinking that he has reached the apex of his sovereignty, but he is really coming up to go into his final crushing destruction; eternal damnation in the lake of fire.
And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
2. The People (vs. 8b)
2. The People (vs. 8b)
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Our text here is abundantly clear that the names of the elect have been written in the lambs book of life from before the foundation of the earth.
Names were not added as people responded in faith, they were there sometime in eternity past.
And who does it say will be filled with amazement at the beast?
Those people whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the earth.
Their amazement will be the seeming supernatural resurrection of the Antichrist, only the elect will not be deceived.
For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.