Hallelujah to God's Salvation, Glory, and Power

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Biblical Predictions

The Bible predicted that the nations of the world would move into a world government. I need not remind you that every thrust of the nations and the diplomats and the leaders of nations today is toward world unity under a world government. This is being done with little increments of unity, such as the recent NAFTA agreement, where a few nations get together. These in time will be brought together into a complete world organization. It's on the way and, it is inevitable, and national sovereignty must be put aside, or, as one leader on the Council of Foreign Relations, promoting world government, said, "We must do an end run around national sovereignty, because nations still want to be independent, and they must come into the world government whether they want to or not."

The Word of God tells us that personal business activities will one day be controlled by one man worldwide. Who could have believed such a thing? Well, with the age of the computer, it's entirely possible, and that's exactly what will happen under the antichrist.

The Word of God tells us that mankind would be able to exterminate itself with a super weapon. Who could have believed that such a weapon was possible? Well, by the end of World War II (in fact, what ended World War II) was the super weapon of an atomic bomb. Indeed, with that one weapon alone, if nations turned loose on one another, the whole world of humanity would be exterminated.

The Bible predicted that the nations of the world would be in conflict over a little insignificant nation like Israel. What is the focus of world conflict today? The Jewish people.

So, there are just a few examples of the fact the Bible has made statements about the future, and when you first read them, it seems that this could not happen. Yet, when the Bible makes predictions, it does happen, because God (who makes the prediction) causes it to happen.

One of the still unfulfilled prophecies is that of a world dictator, the antichrist, governing all of mankind in a world government from the capital city of Babylon on the Euphrates River. This, in part, is no doubt why the United States did not move in and remove Saddam Hussein entirely from power, because Hussein is rebuilding the city of Babylon. He is taking great pride in reconstructing this which was the mistress of all the world, and one of the ancient empires. And he would like to see it restored to its former glory. That is exactly what the Bible says is going to happen.

All nations of the world will be in subjection to the antichrist, who will rule them with an iron fist. All human beings will be denied personal freedom by the supreme government of the antichrist. The question that comes to us is: how could nations, including the United States, fall into such enslavement? This is one of those prophecies that, on first reading, we shake our head, and we are inclined to think that that could never happen, especially to the United States.

Equality vs. Liberty

If you want equality in a society, then you must have a coercive, dominating government as was had under communism, in order to level everybody. You have to have a force to make people equal.

Liberty requires, on the other hand, a restrained and limited government, as we have devised under the United States Constitution. Every system of social organization which seeks to make people equal is from Satan, and it brings about world government. It lends itself to that objective.

Representative Democracy

Here's what happens: You elect men to a ruling body, and nobody has no control over them all. All they have to get is get 51%, and they can pass any law they want. Then come the laws, and the government says, "You can do this; you can do this; and, you can do this. That's why, in Russia, the individual citizen was told, "You can't go farther than a certain distance from your home without reporting to the police, and getting a permit to do it." The government tells you what freedom and what movement you can make. It was in Russia that you could go so many days away from home, and if you go more than that, you must report in to the local authorities to tell them where you are, and how long you're going to be there. Where did that come from? That comes from government, because Russia was a democracy. The Russian Duma (the governing body), made the rules, and dispensed what rights the citizens had. Eventually, a democracy goes tighter and tighter to keep the controls for equality until it ends up in one powerful dictator.

Do you see how this works for the tribulation? This is exactly the system that the antichrist needs, and this is where most of the nations of the world are now going. That's why Satan promotes democracy. Representative democracy is his invention, and he loves it dearly. But it is not God's way. This system always degenerates into chaos, requiring increasing government coercion, and then ends in a dictatorship. Representative democracy lends itself to achieving Satan's goal of world government under the antichrist in the tribulation.

A Constitutional Republic

You will notice that here is the reverse of the previous one. Here we begin with law, and then comes government. It's just the opposite. First, we begin with the law (the Constitution), which in our case is based upon the laws of God, and that is the supreme authority which then limits what government can do. The result of this is freedom. That's the whole point of this. The result of the other one was equality. A constitutional republic has as its goal to preserve the personal freedom given each citizen by God. That's the difference. Your freedoms to go where you wish; to do what you wish; to travel as you please; and, to do what you want with your life – that doesn't come from government; that comes from God. And it is the duty of government to protect that freedom.

Volition

The representatives, then, in Congress do not have absolute power in passing laws, which preserves the system from degenerating into chaos. A constitutional republic form of government, however, does not lend itself to Satan's goal of world government, and so it is opposed by him and his world system. Satan does not like constitutional republic forms of government because people want to keep their sovereignty. People want to keep their independence. People want to keep their freedom. People want to keep their foot on the neck of government.

For this reason, when we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States, we pledge allegiance to our republic, not to a democracy. We pledge allegiance to liberty for all, not equality for all. That is so explicit and so clear. The American constitutional republic system is a grief and a frustration to Satan in his goal of world government, which is why he is undermining this kind of government today.

It is sad to say that our courts have allowed our government and our nation to degenerate to the point where the Constitution is practically ignored. Where the Constitution forbad the government to do certain things, the government is rushing headlong into it. Where, in your acquaintance with the American Constitution, for example, as just one illustration, do you find any justification for a national health care program? The founding fathers would become outraged at this – one-seventh of the American economy to be socialized and put under government authority so that government makes the rules to tell us what to do relative to our health needs? The American people sit there like ninnies because no one is telling them. No one is teaching them. No one has pointed out to them that this is working toward tearing down the United States as a constitutional republic, and changing it into a representative democracy, so that Satan can bring this nation down, and into his system of world government under the antichrist.

In our study of Revelation 17, we found described the future destruction by God of ecclesiastical Babylon with its religion of idolatry and its human godhood concepts. This religion, which was begun by Nimrod at the Tower of Babel, and which is epitomized today in Hinduism, and which (in its modern form) is called the New Age Movement. We found that Revelation 18 describes the future divine destruction of political Babylon and its economic system of socialism. This also was a device of Nimrod, where government would dominate and dispense favors to the people (government first, and then the laws). God is going to destroy this aspect of Babylon because its system always requires socialism to function.

So, here's the scene. We have concluded Revelation 17 – ecclesiastical Babylon's destruction; and, Revelation 18 – political and economic Babylon's destruction. Here is the scene. We are now on the verge, with chapter 19, of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. You understand that when I say the Second Coming of Christ, that is different from the rapture. The Second Coming of Christ takes place at the end of the seven-year tribulation. The rapture takes place at the beginning of the seven-year tribulation. At the rapture of the church, Jesus Christ does not come to the earth, but as Paul points out in one of the books to the Thessalonians, Christ meets us in the air, and He takes us to heaven. But at the Second Coming, He actually comes back down to earth, and His feet touch down on the Mount of Olives from whence He went to heaven. So, we're talking about the actual return of Christ to this earth.

The scene is this: The centuries-old, angelic conflict between the kingdom of God and of Satan is almost over. Babylon, the center of the kingdom of Satan, is gone forever. The gentile nations of the world are gathering for the final battle at Armageddon. The antichrist has rallied his forces against these nations which have risen in rebellion against his world government. They're all gravitating toward the battlefield of Armageddon. The demonic spirits themselves are goading national leaders to move toward Armageddon, because Satan wants there to confront Jesus Christ in what the Bible calls the Great Day of God Almighty.

In heaven, there are the angels. In heaven, there are also we church-age saints who have gone to heaven, either through the rapture alive, or through having died first and been resurrected. The Old Testament believers are also all in heaven. All of these heavenly saints are preparing at this point in time to return to the earth with Jesus Christ at His Second Coming as the army of God.

John Hears the Voice of a Multitude

"Hallelujah"

Well, John here's this multitude saying, "Hallelujah." It just rises and rises in its intensity. This comes from two Hebrew words, and from that, we get the meaning. "Hallelujah" comes from the Hebrew word "halal," and that means "praise;" and, from the word "Yhvh," and that means "Lord." So, from the Hebrew, "Hallelujah" means "praise the Lord." It's a good word, and it's a legitimate word for Christians to use. Some Christians become a little fake with it, and the charismatics go bananas with "hallelujah" until it becomes a meaningless term. But it is a word of great dignity and legitimacy, and it is quite right for you sometimes, as God graces you out, to say, "Hallelujah." What are you saying? You're saying in Hebrew, "Praise the Lord."

This word is used in the New Testament only four times, and they're all used right here in Revelation 19, within the first 6 verses. When God the Holy Spirit takes a word and gives it such exclusive use, we might suspect that that is a special word that He is using in a very special way. It indicates indeed that this is a very special time in human history, and it's a time that merits great praise to God by His saints. And, indeed it is. The dark era of the seven-year tribulation is over. The glorious era of the 1,000-year Millennial Kingdom on this earth of Jesus Christ is about to be ushered in by His return to this earth at His Second Coming.

These believers in heaven are the ones who are shouting, "Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Hallelujah." And they do it for three reasons. It is very explicit here.

Salvation

You may be here right now, and that sticks in your throat. There may be a little hitch and a little emotional hesitancy for you to say, "Yes, I'm going to heaven." If that is true for you, then, in all likelihood, you're not. And that's a very serious thing. When a person says, "I hope so," in response to the question as to whether they're going to heaven, because what does that tell you? That should tell you that they don't understand what God has provided to get you into heaven, because if you understand that, it's a sure thing. And you know it's a sure thing because God's plan does not involve the human being. God's plan does not require anything on your part. You don't have to do anything.

All you have to do is say, "God is not a liar. He has told me that Christ has died on the cross. He has born all my moral guilt. He paid the penalty of death, which is the penalty for sin. And now the sin problem is no issue between me and God anymore. It's only my willingness to accept the gift of eternal life, upon which no monetary value can be placed. (And it is a gift.) I believe that God is telling me the truth when He says, "Christ died for my sins." The issue is settled. Get your mind off your sins. That's not the issue between you and God.

So, these people in heaven understand that they're there by the magnificent work of God in salvation – deliverance from eternal separation from God in the lake of fire, and all of that terrible suffering. That's what we deserve, but that's not what you're going to get. God's grace has made it possible, and He has preserved His own integrity in the process. God's justice demands payment for sin. That payment is death, and that's what Christ did on the cross for all mankind.

Furthermore, because salvation is entirely a work of God, and man has no part in it, the salvation is eternally secure. That's why you can't lose it. That's why, in John 10:28-29, Jesus says, "Nobody can be taken out of His hand. Nobody can be removed from the Father's hand once you're there. God does it all.

The Glory of God

The Power of God

Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God. There's no salvation apart from God's grace plan, so no one deserves the glory for it – for saving us. And no one has the omnipotent power to execute the plan. Only God has done that.

You might sit here and say, "That's true," because you know this, and you have experienced this. But I remind you that people are sitting in churches all over this metroplex, and they're being told to behave themselves or they're going to lose their salvation. They sit there without peace. They sit there without certainty. If they were asked if they're going to heaven, they'd said, "Well, I sure hope so." Do you know when it's the most terrible time to hear that? Some of you have told me that you have relatives who are terminally ill. They're dying, and you're there visiting them. And you ask them, "Sam, are you going to heaven?" And they say, "Oh, I surely hope so."

Now, Sam is a church attender. He goes all the time. He's part of a huge denomination. He's been told to get his water baptism, and he has gotten it. He's been told to take the Lord's Supper, and he has gotten it, because that's supposedly going to forgive him his sins. But down in his heart, he doesn't know for sure, because maybe he realizes that water baptism is a human work. Therefore, it can't count for salvation because we're saved without works. He may realize that taking the Lord's Supper is a human ceremony. It's a human work. Therefore, that can't be included because no works can be included. Then he tries to see: "Well, how good am I?" Well, he has to find somebody who's worse than himself so that he feels good, but he's not good enough.

How good do you have to be to go to heaven? If the thought ever occurs to him, "You have to be as good as Jesus Christ," he's through, because you must have absolute righteousness to go to heaven. The only way you get that is by accepting Christ as Savior, and in that moment, God imputes it to you (to your credit), and you are forever absolutely righteous in God's sight.

Can you sin? Oh yes. You can be a prodigal son. You can end up with the pigs, and you can be elbowing them aside for their food. But you're still a son. When you get through being a pig and come back to God, if you do, He will pick you right back up; put a new suit of clothes on; put a ring on your finger; and, throw a party to celebrate your return – when you come and confess how wrong you were, and you're back in fellowship. Were you ever out of the family? Never. You're always a son. Yes, you can sin as a Christian, but that doesn't take you out of your family relationship.

So, don't just say, "Yeah, that's nice. I know that." This is a great truth. This is why these people who are up there and seeing the magnificence of heaven are saying, "All this, because God's grace gave it to me. Hallelujah." It sometimes does seem like God has abandoned the earth, and those of us who are loyal to Him, because we look about us, and the wicked are prospering; injustice is triumphing; believers are suffering want; evil men rule; and, lowlife people set the patterns for society's beliefs and activities. They are the pacesetters.

However, the fall of Babylon is going to demonstrate the integrity of God as He forever elevates His Saints and casts down the followers of Satan. The empire of Satan is collapsing at the end of the tribulation in a humiliating defeat, and the saints of God are praising Him for it. Please don't forget that.

In Revelation 18:20, the saints in heaven were told to rejoice over Babylon's destruction. You cheer when the enemies of God are brought down. You are glad to see justice done, because it shows that God is true to Himself.

So, the saints are praising. They're their rejoicing. What a great contrast to the weeping and mourning of the kings and the merchants and the seafarers whose world of materialism has collapsed with the fall of Babylon. The punishment of evil is a matter of praise to God on the part of the believers. Babylon, the harlot, has had her evil day, and now she descends into an eternal night with never a star of hope to be seen again. God's ways are right, and His judgments are just.

The Vengeance of God

The Veracity of God

Truth

Psalm 31:5 also describes this attribute: "Into Your hand I commit My Spirit. You have ransomed Me, O Lord God of truth." Who quoted that Scripture? Here is the Scripture that Christ quoted just before He died. He goes to Psalm 31:5, and he says, "Into Your hand I commit My Spirit." He is about now to give up His physical life and make the final payment for the sins of the world: "You have ransom Me, O Lord God of truth." Are you wondering what Christ was thinking about on the cross? What was carrying Him through that trauma? It was doctrine. He knew the Word of God. He knew the principles of truth. Here, as He goes out, the last thing on His mind is: "My Heavenly Father is not a liar." He has said that, "I'm going to be raised again to life. I'm going to check out now, but I'm coming back in three days' time." Why? Because the God of truth has so spoken.

Isaiah 65:16: "Because he who is blessed in the earth shall be blessed by the God of truth. And he who swears in the earth shall swear by the God of truth. The former troubles are forgotten because they are hidden from My sight." Who blesses you? Who keeps His promises to you? The God of truth. By whom will you swear that you are truthful? By the God of truth? That is the great characteristic of God.

In the New Testament, John 3:33 says, "He who has received His witness has such his seal to this: that God is true."

Titus 1:2 summarizes it all for us: "In the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ago." God cannot lie.

So, first of all, God's judgments are in keeping with truth. God's judgments are not some frivolous things that He does. They are not false actions. God's veracity, furthermore, I remind you, provides mankind with the truth that enables us to make it day-by-day – the doctrines of the Word of God. Christ in His humanity did not operate on His omnipotence as God. He went through life exactly the way you and I must go through life, knowing the rules from God's Word, and the Spirit of God in fellowship with us (because all known sins are confessed), enabling us to apply those rules. Anytime you get offtrack, it's because you're out of fellowship with the Spirit of God, or you're ignorant of a doctrinal principle.

So, Hebrews 4:12 makes the great statement: "The Word of God is living and active, and sharper than and two-edged sword, piercing as far as a division of the soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."

Psalm 119:89 is a verse that you should now remember because we have immortalized it on our Lord's Supper table. On one side, we are taking these words: "Forever, O Lord, Your Word is settled in heaven." The word "settled" means "stands firm." So, when God has spoken, it is the truth upon which heaven itself must operate.

Notice Psalm 119:160: "The sum of Your Word is truth. Every one of You righteous ordinances is everlasting."

In the New Testament, in John 17:17, the apostle John said, "Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth." If you want to know truth, where are you going to look?

"The Means of Grace"

Well, the "means of grace" is an oxymoron. They don't go together. If it's a means of grace, then you have worked for it. Grace means not working for it. I said to him, "Isn't that contradictory? How could it be grace if you have to read the Bible to get it? How can it be grace if you have to do something, like water baptism, or the Lord's Supper?" He said, "Well, that's what we believe." And for him, that settled it. I wanted to talk about the Bible, because he's stuck here sitting next to me. And instead of saying, "Well, here's what the Scripture says," his church told him. And that, to him, was truth. No. This is what the reformers discovered: that truth is in the Word of God.

I spoke to a friend on one occasion – a Christian schoolteacher. She and her husband were talking about baptizing infants. And I said, "What is the scriptural basis for your baptizing infants?" And she said, the Bible says, "Suffer the little children to come unto Me, and forbid them not." And I said, "Well, you're assuming that that's referring to baptism, aren't you?" And her response was, "Well, that's just where we disagree with you." And that was the end of the argument.

However, her husband was a little smarter. He said, "Well, we'll have to check that with the theologians." That told me that the theologians weren't telling him anything in church like he should have been told, so that he could have said, "Yes, there is justification for baptizing an infant." In fact, they don't even baptize. They just sprinkle water at them, because there's always a water shortage, and you don't want to waste too much water on what Shakespeare called, "These mewling and puking" infants just to get them into heaven.

At least the Greek Orthodox, who understand the meaning of the word "baptizo," do it right. They take that infant, and they shove him underwater, in the name of the Father, and in the name of the Son, and in the name of the Holy Spirit. And the kid comes up out of there yelling and shouting, as if to say, "What's going on here?" That they know that the word "baptism" means to go down under.

So, this is what is so important. Don't just pass this off when the Word of God says, "Truth: where is it?" Jesus says, "Your Word is truth." You're not going to find it anyplace else.

In Romans 3:4 Paul talks about whether the unbelief is going to nullify the faithfulness of God. He says, "May it never be. Rather, let God be found true, though every man be found a liar. As is written, 'That You might be justified in Your words, and might prevail when you are judged.'" God is truth, and His truth is recorded in Scripture. If you know the Word of God (the Bible), then you know truth. Don't get caught up with what people tell you is truth. When Martin Luther was called to the Diet of Worms to defend his attitude that the Bible is the source of truth, the question was put to him: who are you, an insignificant German monk, that you should be right, and all the teachers of the church for 1,000 years have been wrong?" Yep. They gave one error to the other, and they passed it on, and they gobbled it up, until one guy came along and said, "Hey, that's not what's in the Bible, wherever that stuff came from." And I don't know whether Luther ever made the connection that it came from Babylon and Nimrod's religion. That's what the whole Roman Catholic system is. But he said, "It didn't come from the Bible."

God's Judgments are Righteous

This is expressed, for example, in Psalm 145:17: "The Lord is righteous in all His ways, and kind in His deeds." God is "dikaios" in everything He does. God is always true to His own character, and His character is the standard for what is right and for what is wrong. We live in a society that is completely wrong when it says, "You can make your own rules for what's right for you." No, you can't do that. Standards of what is right and wrong are objective, and they're based upon what God says is right and what God says is wrong. God is therefore absolute righteousness. And the absolute righteousness of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, was clearly visible to all those who were associated with Him.

In John 8:46, Jesus says, "Which if you convict Me of sin. If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?" That was a very tough question. Jesus said, "You've seen Me. You've listened to Me. You've watched Me. You've observed My life. I want one of you to come forward and tell me where I've been guilty of a sin," and none could. And His point was, "Therefore, why would you think that I would sin by telling you a lie. If I speak the truth, why do you not believe Me? You have no ground for suggesting that I am not righteous."

In 1 John 2:1, we read, "My Little Children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous." 1 John 2:1 tells us that we Christians are not sinless. We will be sinning, and John wrote this book to explain that when you sin, you use 1 John 1:9. You confess your sins to God the Father; He forgives you; and, you're back in fellowship. You are never out of sonship. But furthermore, he says, "The reason you're never out of the family is because we have a lawyer in heaven. We have an advocate with God the Father who always defends you when you sin, and Satan wants to accuse you of being guilty and being sent to hell. Jesus Christ holds up His hands, and displays the wounds in His side, and says, "Not guilty. I paid the price. Here is the penalty paid," and His blood has covered you. So, that is a tremendous defense.

Now, people have only sin natures, and so we only have relative righteousness. We compare ourselves to other sinners when we want to talk about how good we are. None of us is going to stand up in a testimony meeting, at our next Lord's Supper time, and say, like poor Jed of Oklahoma, "I'm a low-down, stinking skunk," and describe what makes you a low-down, stinking skunk like poor old Jed was. You don't think you're perfect, but you know what a low-down, stinking skunk is like. You see several of them in your acquaintance, and you don't match up to them. You may be a modest, great skunk, but you're not a low-down, stinking type. So, the whole point is one worm matching itself up against another worm. That's the kind of righteousness that we have.

This is what Paul was referring to in Romans 3:10-11. Paul says. "As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become useless. There is none who does good. There's not even one. Their throat is an open grave. With their tongues, they keep deceiving. The poison of an asp is under their lips." So, Paul says here, "They're all bad, just in varying degrees." People compare themselves to one another, and they have relative righteousness. Yes, you're better than someone else. Just take a look at the person sitting next to you, and you'll realize immediately how much better you are than that dude, and therefore, you have a relative righteousness.

However, unfortunately, here again comes doctrine. Isaiah 64:6 says, "All of our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag in the sight of God."

So, what God does to Babylon is the point here. As severe as it is, it is a judgment which is true and righteous. God's judgment on Babylon may seem heartless in its severity, but He cannot be untrue to His character of veracity and of absolute righteousness.

Revelation 15:3 has already told us that God is righteous and true in what He does: And they sang the song of Moses, the bond servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, "Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God the Almighty, righteous and true are Your ways, You King of the Nations. So, whatever God does is compatible with truth, and its righteous.

Revelation 16:7 has pointed out to us that God's judgments are also true and righteous: "I heard the altar saying, "Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty, true and righteous are Your judgments."

I stress this to you because there are people who like to make fun of Christians and of the Bible as describing a very vindictive, mean-spirited God because of the wrath of the judgment that He brings down upon those who violate his moral precepts, and who violate the principles of the divine institutions. It is very important for us to understand that that is human-viewpoint people marching themselves against one another on how they would act, and they do not match themselves against one who is absolute truth and one who is absolute righteousness. All of God's dealings with His creatures, whether in blessing or in judgment, is governed by truth and absolute righteousness. In blessing, you may count on getting what you deserve for doing right. You do right, and God's truthfulness and God's absolute righteousness is going to force Him to prosper you. It's inevitable. But if you do evil (you break His rules), then His same truthfulness and His same absolute righteousness force Him to bring judgment upon you.

What has Babylon been doing? Babylon has been perverting for centuries the truth of God's word, and has promoted moral corruption and violating God's righteousness, and for that reason, she is obliterated. That is a true and a righteous judgment of God. Man wants to deal with evil doers by ignoring the truth of what they have done and the violation of God's standard of righteousness.

We have seen the travesty on the West Coast during one of the riots. A poor, innocent truck driver happened to be caught in the melee, and one of the rioters, with some friends, pulled him out of the truck, and one of them beats him on the head with a brick. The jury had to decide whether a brick is a lethal weapon. They decided that it was not a lethal weapon. They must have been watching some of these Roadrunner cartoons to come to that conclusion, where people get bounced off the head with boulders, and their eyes roll, and they go right on, so a brick is not a lethal weapon. Why is that? In itself, yes, it is. But this man was carried up in the euphoria of the moment, and in the enthusiasm of the riot, and he just was beside himself. So, in his hand at that moment, the brick was not a lethal weapon. That was not his intent.

Man wants to deal with evil-doers by ignoring the truth. The truth is that that brick is not a lethal weapon. And man wants to ignore what is done in violation of God's standards, and to abuse the physical body of another human being, which God has set aside to be His temple. That is a violation of an absolute righteous principle of God, and you have no right to do that.

God is not a do-gooder at the expense of the victimized. That's where our society has come, because we have abandoned the rules of the road as Scripture has laid them out for us.

The reasons why God judges Babylon are: "Because His judgments are righteous and true, for He has judged the great harlot who is corrupting the earth with her immorality. Anyone who morally corrupts another person, in effect, destroys that individual spiritually, physically, and mentally. Babylon, with her moral corruption of mankind, has been destroying God's good creation.

Do you ever wonder what it must be like for the Supreme Court judges who voted for Roe vs, Wade to approve abortion? Several of those guys are on the other side now, facing God for every baby which is murdered (every unborn child whose blood is shed so that the land of America cries out for justice)? The same thing is going to happen with those millions upon multiplied millions of children we have slaughtered, and their blood cries out for vengeance. Historically, nations that have destroyed their young, and people who have shed the blood of innocent people – God has destroyed that nation. When those men passed that rule, they sealed the doom of the United States, for that alone, from coming down to be brought down from superpower status. That in itself will explain why the United States is not a figure in prophetic Scripture at all. It is a goner.

We are seeing this kind of immorality being instigated at the highest levels of our government. The Bible says that homosexuality is an abomination. It causes God to want to throw up (that's what that word means in the Bible). But we must now come to an enlightened era where it must be accepted in the military service. It is a great hindrance and a great problem. Why? Because it will undermine that institution upon which our freedoms depend. Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, and our military forces are the vigilance that makes that possible.

So, God has brought this terrible judgment because this harlot religion and political system of Babylon has permeated the earth with her immorality. Consequently, God comes in to avenge those that Babylon has murdered – the blood of her bond servants. She's brought down for promoting immorality (the breaking of the moral code). She is brought down because of all the innocent blood she has shed. Babylon, in her religious and political aspects, has been a murderer of God's people throughout the centuries. Religious systems spawned by Babylon have murdered biblical Christians. Political systems spawned by Babylon have murdered biblical Christians. Believers in the tribulation, who will not take the mark of the beast; believers who are guided in the tribulation by their understanding of doctrine; and, believers who sound forth publicly and condemn what people are doing and what the political leaders are doing – these are people which will be martyred. Why? Because they spoke a lie? No, because they spoke a truth, and Babylon's agents will murder those who speak God's truth, and who proclaim His righteousness. When you strike at a believer made in the image of God, you strike at God Himself.

So, finally, God destroys the destroyer of His people, and He does it in a way which is compatible with truth and righteousness. His judgments are true. His judgments are righteous. This great harlot system of Babylon, begun by Nimrod at the Tower of Babel, with its expressions religiously and politically, now is brought down because she has brought immorality into the human race, and she has brought murder upon the people of God. The kingdom of man will be epitomized by Babylon. It must be removed from the earth in order to make room for the Kingdom of God in the Millennium.

Remember that, for three years, Babylon will have been corrupting mankind with her monopoly on world trade and her blasphemous idolatry. God's saints have been thwarting Babylon's influence with the truth of doctrine, and so they have been maligned. Now God vindicates His people, and He obliterates the harlot of Babylon. And what should the people of God do? Clap and cheer. That's exactly what the Bible says. You might think, "Well, that's terrible, cheering for these people going down to such a disaster." No, it isn't. God's justice is being vindicated, and we, who are true to His word, are being vindicated as well. Cheer to your heart's desire when those who are evil secure their just desserts. That's right; that's true; and, that is righteous.

Dr. John E. Danish, 1993

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