Sainthood; and the Spanish Inquisition

RV213-01

We are studying "Ecclesiastical Babylon," number 10, in Revelation 17.

The Mystery of Babylon the Great

That's the secret when Babylon is called a mystery. Then the mystery secret of lawlessness that we looked at in the previous session, was the unrestrained expression of the vilest evils during the tribulation era, after the Holy Spirit is no longer present on earth to restrain evil: evil from the sin nature; evil from the world system; and, evil from the devil himself.

So, this is a combination of a religion of worshiping idols, and a climate of total lawlessness. When I say total lawlessness, I mean that it's probably going to be worse than it was before the flood. This combination is a deadly combination which Satan has in store for mankind in the tribulation. He'd like to do that now, but as we learned in the previous session, the great restrainer, the Holy Spirit, is holding the reins and pulling him back, and not allowing him to get this deadly combination together with people worshiping idols in an atmosphere of total unrestrained evil.

Today, God the Holy Spirit, who indwells the church-age believers on the earth, does His work of restraining lawlessness. But at the rapture of the church, He leaves in His presence with the believers, and then Satan will have a clear field in which to operate. Over against the mystery of lawlessness under Satan, of course, is one of the other mysteries we have studied recently – the mystery of godliness under Jesus Christ. The mystery of lawlessness is going to culminate in the description of Revelation 17:5: "Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and the Abominations of the Earth," the greatest expression of moral abominations. On the other hand, the mystery of godliness, which is equally available for people to pursue, is going to end up in the description of 1 Timothy 3:16, which says, "And by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness. He who was revealed in the flesh; was vindicated in the Spirit; beheld by the angels; proclaimed among the nations; believed on in the world; and, taken up in glory."

That little poem there is probably a verse from an early church hymn. It is describing the fact that under godliness, God provides us with the Word of God, and He provides us with the Holy Spirit to guide us. So, these are the two systems. Today, the secrets that God reveals are simply this: that a human being can live a life of great evil under Satan's power; or, human being who is born-again can live a life of great godliness under the Holy Spirit power. This is no small thing. Every day of your life all of us should be extremely concerned, whether we are living under the mystery of lawlessness or the mystery of godliness.

John Sees a Woman

John notices something when he looks more closely at her. It's like when you meet somebody, and you don't notice something about this person at first, and then something begins to alert you. I have been in the presence of people where I knew that the person sitting there was drunk. The other people around didn't at recognize this at first, and then I would see the light come on in the eyes of a person or two as they would look, and grasp, with some startled expression on their face, that this guy is soused.

The Woman is Drunk

So, John sees that something is causing the Babylon religious system, represented by this woman, to be reeling about uncontrollably. It is that, "She is drunk with," and the Greek word is the preposition "ek," which really means "from." So, very explicitly, it tells us what it is upon which she has become drunk. And what she become drunk upon is the "haima," the blood. This word refers to the life-sustaining fluid which is in the vein of all living creatures. This woman has been extending a cup to kings and peoples (we have seen in the verses before, up in verse 4) of the world – a cup from which they've been drinking, which is filled with moral illness and the abominations that the Word of God condemns. Here, however, she is doing the drinking. She has extended the cup to others, and they have drunk, and now she herself is doing the drinking, and the harlot has become intoxicated or what she has drunk, which is the blood that she has been drinking. This is heady stuff.

The Blood of the Saints

Saints

This is illustrated for us in 2 Thessalonians 1:10. Please take a look at this. You need to see this with your own eyes. Paul admonishes the Thessalonians Christians: "When He comes to be glorified (speaking about the Lord's return) in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed." When He comes to be glorified in His saints, who are the saints? All who have believed. Do you see the connection in that verse? "When He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day (the rapture), and to be marveled at by all who have believed, for our testimony to you was believed."

So, we have indicated here very clearly that sainthood is dependent upon something you believe. And what you believe here is the gospel; that is, trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation. So, when somebody tries to give you some confusing, non-Biblical definition of a saint, here's the verse that you need to keep in mind. It very clearly says, "A saint is a person that is believed in Christ." And when he has believed in Christ, he has being set apart to God by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which takes place at the point of faith in Christ as Savior. We call that, theologically, "positional sanctification" – being set apart to God is the condition of being a saint in your position. Got it? This is not in your attainment or something you achieve, but in your position, into which God sovereignly places you with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

I stress this to point out to you that a saint in the Bible is not one who is sinless, or a person of exceptional holiness. A saint is not somebody who has died, and left behind a mountain of good works performed in God's service. Whole congregations in the New Testament are addressed as saints, even though we may logically conclude that, ... there probably were people in this congregation who weren't up to par morally.

For example, Colossians 1:1-2: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae. Grace to you and peace from God our Father. It is inconceivable that all the Christians in the city of Colossae were without broken fellowship, and that they were all really godly people walking with the Lord. So, here is a congregation, addressed as saints, even though everybody is not perfect.

A more specific indication of this is 1 Corinthians 1:2. I will not go into detail about the Corinthian church. We have talked about it before, but just to remind you: when you talk about Corinth, it was the good-time city of the ancient world. And it was very hard for the Christians of Corinth to wean themselves away from all the lust patterns of the sin nature which they were in the habit of engaging in their life at Corinth. The result was that the congregations in Corinth got real on such things as speaking in foreign languages. Instead of speaking in tongues, they got off into doing what the priests and the priestesses were doing at the local temples in Corinth (the babble). They were doing the babble and gibberish like the charismatic do today. They were speaking Satan's language, and not God's language. They were not speaking by movement of the Holy Spirit, but by a movement of the devil.

Paul had taken this church to task severely for its carnality, and for how far it had drifted off from godly conduct. Yet, notice how he addresses them in 1 Corinthians 1:2: "To the church of God which is at Corinth (the local churches), to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours." Here, he addresses this whole congregation, which is filled with sinful, carnal believers, and he calls them saints. Every one of them is sanctified by Christ Jesus, and every one of them is a saint by his calling. God called into eternal life, and he placed them in Christ at the point of their salvation, so they are separated from this world unto Satan. The word "saint" implies separation. That's the word "hagios" – separation. They are separated from Satan, and separated unto God.

Sainthood is a Position

The word "saint" in the New Testament is usually used of believers as a whole. You find that in Acts 9:13, Act 9:32, and Romans 12:13. Here, it speaks about a group of believers as a whole. Only One time is it used of an individual believer. Philippians 4:21 has that one at one time when it is not speaking about a group of people, but an individual. Paul says, "Greet every saint in Christ Jesus." As he posed the letter, he said, "Greet every single individual saint there in the city of Philippi. Greet them as individual saints in Christ Jesus.

There are a few times when the word "saint" is used connoting a personal moral condition or a personal moral choice, I need to think that out to. Romans 16:2 is one point like that. I've been stressing to you that sainthood has nothing to do with your behavior. It has to do with your position in Christ. But here are a couple of times when the word is used, and it is attached to the concept of moral behavior. Romans 16:2 is one of them.

Paul says that you receive her (referring to Phoebe) in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints: "Receive this lady as befits people who have been separated onto God." There is a certain way that you should treat these people who are passing through, who need your Christian fellowship, and need your hospitality: "You should treat phoebe in a way which is worthy of a person who is a saint, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of from you, for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well." Paul says, "This lady has been an enormous help to me in the ministry. She is passing through, and she needs your hospitality and your care. Please take care of her accordingly as befits people who are saints. There is proper godliness associated with her sainthood.

This happens one other time, in Ephesians 5:3: "But do not let immorality or any impunity or greed even be named among you, as is proper among people who are saints." People who are saints should be godly. We're not that as a saint you can be ungodly. Here is one of those places where sainthood is attached to your contact. You should not be immoral. You should not be impure. You should not be greedy. That should not be the conduct of a saint. That's improper. It's incompatible.

Sainthood in the Roman Catholic Church

Super Arrogation

This kind of an arrangement results in much more prayer to the saints than to God. God Himself forbids praying, which is an act of worship, to anyone but himself. It is easy to begin worshiping saints; to begin burning candles to them; and, to begin giving special offerings in their name, because they're the ones who have control of the works of super arrogation that they can dispense to you.

Danny Thomas, the entertainer, was the father of Marlo Thomas, the wife of Phil Donahue. Danny Thomas was a very devoted Catholic all his life, and he was a devotee of St. Jude. All of his life, he was performing works of one kind and another in behalf of St. Jude. He built a Children's Hospital as a special gift to St. Jude. Why was he doing that? He was doing that so that St. Jude which shovel out some of the works of super arrogation that were in excess of what Jude needed to get to heaven. So, they were being placed to the account of Danny Thomas.

These works of super arrogation from the pope's treasury of merit were the basis for the sale of indulgences in the Middle Ages, which precipitated the Protestant Reformation. The pope wasn't just (on his own), saying, "If you pay so much, I'll arrange for your sins to be forgiven, and that you will not have to suffer for them." He was doing it on the basis that he has an unlimited depository of merit that will never run out, that he can dispense – which he does to this very day. The reason he never runs out is because it not only contains the merits of the saints, but it also contains the unlimited merits of Christ.

The saints, therefore, of Revelation 17:6 are all the ordinary born-again believers in Jesus Christ who have, in fact, been persecuted to their death by the harlot religion of Babylon. She, in doing this, is drinking their blood, and when she drinks their blood, she goes on a high. Furthermore, some of these saints are also described as the "martus" of God. This is the word for "witnesses:" I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. This is where (from the word "martus") we get our English word "martyr." That's what is behind this concept of witness. It is a saint who has paid for his witness and his trust in Jesus Christ with his life – faithful unto death. The word here refers to saints which have died in such a way.

This is illustrated in Acts 22:20, where Paul is describing his experience at the stoning of Stephen. When the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I also was standing by, approving, and watching out for the cloaks of those who were slaying him: "When the blood of your martyr, Stephen." The word "witness" is the word "martus" ("Stephen, the martyr"). Revelation 2:13 also gives us that use of the word "witness" as the concept of "martyr:" "I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is; and you hold firmly to My name, and did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness ('My martyr'), My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells." Here was the harlot religion who killed Antipas, one of the early Christian witnesses.

So, these saints are identified as martyrs of Jesus. The harlot religion of Babylon has through the centuries been the enemy of spiritual freedom, and has eagerly killed all who resist her heresies. You have, therefore, a group of martyrs who are crying out to God in Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:12, Revelation 19:10, and Revelation 20:4. These are martyrs (saints who have been martyred), and they're calling out to God for vengeance. This murder of the saints of God by the harlot daughters of Babylon is what makes her drunk on their blood. But John 8:44 reveals to us that Satan has always been a murderer from the very beginning, and he readily sheds the blood of believers. A multitude of martyrs are created by this harlot church. We found that already in Revelation 13:15: "And there was getting to him (to the false prophet) to give breath to the image of the beast (the antichrist), that the image of the beast might even speak and cause as many as do not worship the image of the beast to be killed." The blood is going to be flowing in martyrdom as never before during the tribulation era. It'll be the worst slaughter of saints (creating martyrs on this earth) that there has ever been. The martyrs in heaven cry out for God for His vengeance (Revelation 610, Revelation 7:9, Revelation 7:14).

So, Satan over the centuries has, had a particular animosity toward fundamentalist believers, and he has marked for death, and has mounted persecutions regularly against them. History consistently demonstrates that hatred of people for the gospel of free grace salvation with total security. They resist and they condemn the concept that God will give you salvation by simply accepting the work of Christ on the cross. This is a hated concept – that man does not do anything to earn salvation, and he does not do anything to keep salvation.

We have a lovely little girl who will not be in Berean Christian Academy this year because her mother cannot stand the concept that this child is sitting in a religious context (that is contrary to her Seventh Day Adventism) which teaches that we go to heaven without the efforts of the works of the Law, but entirely by the grace of God, and that we cannot lose that salvation. That poor child is taken out of the gem school of the Metroplex area because a mother has believed a doctrine from Babylon. Babylonianism has always taken a fiendish delight in hounding godly believers to their death.

The Spanish Inquisition

Torquemada

The mission of Torquemada model from the sovereigns of Spain was to clear Spain of all Biblical Christians who refused the authority of the harlot church, the church of Babylon in its Roman Catholic expression. There were many forerunners of the Protestant Reformation, and they were the kind of people that Torquemada was after that he wanted to destroy. We have only to think about various groups of believers. I do have to remind you that there were groups like the Albigenses in southern France, northern Spain, and northern Italy. There were the Waldenses in southern France and northern Italy. These were people who had gotten hold of Scripture. They had come to the same conclusion that later Martin Luther and the reformers were going to come to about how to go to heaven. They saw that the Roman Catholic Church was taking them into hell, not in the heaven.

John Wycliffe, the morning star of the Reformation saw this, and he proclaimed it. John Huss, 100 years before Luther, in Bohemia, saw this, and the pope burned him at the stake. Savonarola, in Florence Italy, preached a gospel of grace salvation. And on down the line were people who were forerunners who believed the true gospel. It was these people who Torquemada was after. So, his mission was very clear.

On the day that Torquemada was appointed inquisitor general, he celebrated his appointment to this holy office by burning 2,000 evangelical prisoners that were being held for their refusal to recant their faith in Christ, and to pledge their loyalty to Mother Church. People in Spain, at this time, of all social levels, became suspect under the eye of Torquemada, and many indeed were hounded to their deaths. You must remember the picture that we have in Scripture is this woman (the harlot church) portrayed in her garments, and interestingly enough, scarlet and purple. And what does the hierarchy of the Roman Church specialize in in colors but scarlet and purple? Is that an accident? This woman is portrayed as royalty, with her jewels, her gold, and her smile. Now John looks at this woman, and she's drooling out of the corners of her mouth with the blood dripping down her chin of the believers that she has slaughtered. What are we talking? We're talking about this Babylon system slaughtering believers, and thus drinking their blood.

Multiplied thousands of born again Christians who rejected Roman Catholicism far before the Reformation were hounded to their deaths by Torquemada and the Inquisitors. Up to 200,000 believers suffered various lesser punishments in the sophisticated torture chambers of the Inquisition. Do you remember what Jesus said? He said that the time is going to come when people who kill you will do so in the name of God, and believe that they are serving God – you who are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus was talking about what the Babylon religion is going to do. Time does not permit me to tell you the horrendous things that the Roman Catholic Inquisition in Spain devised in the way of human tortures. Maybe I can read a few of those to you.

You and I know that today, in countries where Roman Catholicism is in dominant control, brutal persecution of genuine believers constantly takes place. We have been reading recently of evangelical pastors murdered by Roman bands of Roman Catholic hoods in these countries because they are serving God to silence these evangelical pastors.

From a book called Pocket Bible Handbook by H. H. Haley, let me read you a few of his descriptions of the Inquisition from page 686:

"The institution called the Holy Office was instituted by Innocent III, and perfected under the second following Pope Gregory IX. It was a church court for the detection and punishment of heretics. Under it, everyone was required to inform against heretics. Anyone suspect was liable to torture without knowing the man his accuser. The proceedings were secret. The Inquisitors pronounced sentence, and the victim was turned over to civil authorities to be imprisoned for life or to be burned. The victim's property was confiscated and divided between the church and the state.

"In the period immediately following Innocent III, the Inquisition did its most deadly work in southern France, but claimed vast multitudes of victims in Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Later on, the Inquisition was the main agency in the papacy's effort to crush the Reformation. It is stated that in the 30 years between 1540 and 1570, no fewer than 900,000 Protestants were put to death in the pope's war for the extermination of the Waldenses (one of the pre-reformation biblical groups). Think of monks and priests directed with heartless cruelty and inhuman brutality of torturing and burning alive innocent men and women, indeed, in the name of Christ, by the direct orders of the Vicar of Christ. The Inquisition is the most infamous thing in history. It was devised by the popes and used by for 500 years to maintain their power. For its record, none of the subsequent line of holy and infallible popes has ever apologized." This was 500 years of the Babylon religion, with her mouth dripping with the blood of the saints.

Here's how it went in the Netherlands: The Reformation was received early in the Netherlands. Lutheranism and then Calvinism and Anabaptists were already numerous. Between 1513 and 1531, there were issued 25 different translations of the Bible in Dutch, Flemish, and French. The Netherlands were a part of the dominion of Charles V. Charles V was the emperor that was on the throne at the time of (and supervised) the trial of Martin Luther King at the Diet of Worms.

"In 1522, Charles V established the Inquisition, and ordered all Lutheran writings to be burned. In 1525, he prohibited religious meetings in which Bibles would be read. In 1546, he prohibited the printing or the possession of the Bible in Vulgate or translation. In 1536, he decreed death by fire for Anabaptists. Philip II, successor to Charles V, reissued the edict of his father, and with Jesuit help, carried on the persecution with still greater fury. By one sentence of the Inquisition, the whole population was condemned to death, and under Charles V and Philip II, more than 100,000 were massacred with unbelievable brutality. Some were chained to a stake near the fire, and slowly roasted to death. Some were thrown into dungeons, scourged, and tortured on the rack before being burned. Women were buried alive; pressed into coffins too small; and, trampled down the feet of the executioner. Those who tried to flee to other countries were intercepted by soldiers, and massacred.

"After years of non-resistance under unheard-of cruelty, the Protestants of the Netherlands, united under the leadership of William of Orange, in 1572, began the great revenge after incredible suffering, and in 1609, they won their independence. Holland on the north became Protestant; and, Belgium on the south, Roman Catholic. It was Holland, the Protestant country, which was the first to adopt public schools supported by taxation, and to legalize the principles of religious toleration and freedom of the press.

"In Scandinavia, Lutheranism was early introduced and made the state religion; in Denmark, 1536; Sweden, 1539; Norway, 1540. 100 years later, Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, rendered signal service in defeating Rome's effort to crush Protestant Germany."

The Roman Catholic Church, the harlot religion, was not going to stand by to let the results of the Protestant Revolution take root. It is hard to believe that France, so overwhelmingly Catholic, came within a hair's breadth of becoming totally Protestant, and the Pope could not appear to let France get out of his grip. So, all the effort was pressed by 1520. I'm still quoting from The Pocket Bible Handbook by H. H. Haley:

"By 1520, Luther's teaching had penetrated France. Calvinism soon followed. By 1559, there were about 400 Protestants called Huguenots. Their earnest piety and pure lives were in striking contrast to the scandalous of the Roman clergy. In 1557, Pope Pious urged their extermination. The king issued a decree for their massacre, and ordered all loyal subjects to help in hunting them out. The Jesuits went through France persuading the faithful to bear arms for their destruction. Thus, hunted by papal agents, as in the day of Diocletian, they met secretly, often in cellars at night. Catherine de' Medici, mother of the king and ardent Romanist, and William II of the Pope gave the order, and on the night of August 24th, 1572, 70,000 Huguenots, including most of their leaders, were massacred.

"There was great rejoicing in Rome. The Pope and his College of Cardinals went, in solemn procession, to the church at San Marco, and ordered the Te Deum to be sung in Thanksgiving. The pope struck a medal in commemoration of the massacre, and sent a cardinal to Paris to bear the King and Queen Mother the congratulations of Pope and cardinals."

France with within a hair-breath of actually becoming Protestant. But France massacred Protestantism on the night of Saint Bartholomew, 1572.

In 1792, there came to France the protest of another time:

"Following Saint Bartholomew's massacre, the Huguenots united and armed for resistance; till finally, in 1598, by the Edict of Nantes, they were granted the right to freedom of conscience and worship."

However, in the meantime, some 200,000 had perished as martyrs.

"Pope Clement VIII called the Toleration Edict of Nantes a cursed thing, and after years of underground work by the Jesuits, the edict was revoked, 1685, and 500,000 Huguenots fled to Protestant countries." And France lost again a backbone part of its population.

So it went on. The French Revolution, of course, was a mad frenzy striking out at the Roman Catholic Church. It was not stopped until Napoleon restored order. In Bohemia, a population of four million, 80% were Protestant. By the time the ... Jesuits had done their work, 800,000 people were all that were left in Bohemia, and they were all Catholic. We're talking about big numbers.

Is it any wonder that John sees the woman drunk on the wine of the saints?

In Spain, the Reformation never made much headway because the Inquisition was already there and in place? Every effort for freedom or independent thinking was crushed with a ruthless hand. Torquemada, the Dominican monk, the arch-inquisitor, in 18 years, burned 10,200, and condemned to perpetual imprisonment 97,000. Victims were usually burned alive in the public square, and made the occasion of religious festivities. From 1801 to 1808, there were at least 100,000 martyrs and 1,500,000 banished from Spain. In the 16th and 17th century, the Inquisition extinguished the literary life of Spain, and put the nation almost outside the circle of European civilization. When the Reformation began, Spain was the most powerful country in the world. Its present negligible standing among the nations shows what the papacy can do for a century.

At the heart of this bloodletting, we want to remind you of one other thing. Satan always has his counter agents to do his work. Pope Leo X was the Pope from 1513 through 1521, when Martin Luther came on the scene at the start of the Protestant Reformation:

"This pope was the son of Lorenzo De' Medici, one of the most vile, corrupt families of Europe. He was made an archbishop at eight years of age. This is the pope that Luther faced off with. He was made an archbishop at eight, and made a cardinal at 13. He was appointed to 27 different church offices, which meant a vast income before he was 13. He was to regard ecclesiastical office purely as a source of revenue. He bargained for the papal chair, and he sold church honors. All ecclesiastical offices were for sale, and many new ones created. He appointed cardinals as young as seven, and was in endless negotiation with kings and princes, jockeying for secular power, utterly indifferent to the religious welfare of the church. He maintained the most luxurious and licentious court in Europe. His cardinals vied with kings and princesses in gorgeous palaces and voluptuous entertainment. He was attended by trains of servants, yet this voluptuary reaffirmed the Unam Sanctam, in which it is declared that every human being must be subject to the Roman Pontiff for salvation; issued indulgences, or stipulated fees; or, declared the burning of heretics a divine appointment."

"Is it any wonder that when Luther faced this man, knowing this, he was so outraged? This was the harlot woman, and Luther made the connection. But Satan's agents that were brought on the scene were the Jesuits. The Jesuits, to this day, are the shock troops. They're the Marine Corps of the Roman Catholic Church? The Pocket Bible Handbook" says, on page 689, "Rome's answer to the Lutheran secession, the Inquisition, under the leadership of the Jesuits, an order founded by Ignatius Loyola in (1491-1556), a Spaniard, on the principle of absolute and unconditional obedience to the pope, having for its object the recovery of territory lost to Protestants and Mohammedans, and the conquest of the entire heathen world for the Roman Catholic Church.

"Their supreme aim was the destruction of heresy (thinking anything different from what the pope said to think) for the accomplishment of which anything was justifiable: deception; immorality; vice; and, even murder. Their motto (the motto of the Jesuits) was for the greater glory of God. Their methods were schools, especially seeking the children of the ruling classes, aiming in all schools to gain absolute mastery over the pupils; the confessional, especially with kings, princes, and civil rulers, indulging them in all kinds of vice and crimes, for the sake of gaining their favor; and, force persuading rulers to execute the sentences of the Inquisition.

"In France, they were responsible for the St. Bartholomew Massacre; religious wars; persecution of the Huguenots; the revocation of the toleration edict of Nantes; and, the French Revolution. In Spain, the Netherlands, south Germany, Bohemia, Austria, Poland, and other countries, they led the massacre of untold multitudes. By these methods, they stopped the Reformation in southern France, and virtually saved the papacy from ruin."

It is hard for us to grasp that these people were claiming to represent the living God, and that the Jesuits (whose famous school is here in the city of Irving and the city of Dallas and an elitist school for elitist Roman Catholic children) operated on the principle: "the end justifies the means:" "If I have to murder to gain what the Roman Church needs, then I'll murder you." I kid you not?

At the end of verse 6, John says, "When I saw her (this woman, represented by the Roman Catholic Church and others with this kind of bestiality toward believers), I wondered greatly." The thing that John is actually saying is that he saw this woman, and he was staggered by what he saw. She's reeling like a drunk. She's wearing all of her royal robes; her jewels; her scarlet; and, her purple. And John said that he "wondered," which means he was amazed at what he saw in this woman representing God. And He said that he wondered greatly. Actually, the Greek Bible says, "I was amazed at her with great amazement." When the Greek uses a duplication of words – "I was amazed at her with a great amazement," it is a way of making a great impact. John is saying, "It blew my mind. I couldn't believe that the church of which I'm a part now, here is New Testament times, is going to degenerate into this brutal beast that I see here, devouring true believers, drunk on the wine of those believers, reeling about, and there's nothing so disgusting like seeing a drunk reeling about in his drunkenness. And here is the one who claims to speak for the living God.

Well, the church of the tribulation will have grandeur, power, and status, but it's going to be the most wicked thing on the face of the earth with its idolatry, its cruelty, and its abomination. Remember that even as John recorded this scene, he was sitting on Patmos as a victim of the religion of Babylon that dominated the Roman Empire. So, he knew what a bad scene that was, and yet, to him, it was incomprehensible what he was seeing in that vision by what he knew the Babylon religion was in his day. Babylon is morally corrupting. It's a religion that is fiercely intolerant of any true biblical faith in God and His grace. Aren't you glad that you weren't left to be part of the Babylonian system, which is all about us in a multiplicity of religious systems. Count yourself indeed chosen of God.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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