Let's Study Revelation (Chapter 18) by E. G. Cook

CHAPTER 18     In chapter 17 we saw the destruction of the false churches, or maybe we should say the false church, because when this time comes the Catholic Church represented by the church at Thyatira will have the protestant churches represented by the church at Sardis and the apostate Baptist churches represented by the church at Laodicea under her filthy wings. When our Lord's saints are caught up to ever be with Him, there won't be a true Baptist church left in the whole world. Then the Thyatira churches, the Sardis churches and the Laodicean churches will be merged into one world church.
    In this great world church under the wings of the pope the doctrine of the creation will have been supplanted altogether by the teaching of evolution. The Bible will be called nothing but paper with ink on it. Great doctrines such as the Trinity, the Blood Atonement, the sacrificial death of Christ and His resurrection will not so much as be mentioned among them. In fact, these doctrines are already anathema in the eyes of even the apostate Baptists of today (1969). In just eleven short years after the death of the beloved pastor who loved the Bible, preached the Bible and contended for it, one convention church I know of has a pastor who holds up a Bible before the young people in his church and says, "This you see is paper and this you see on this paper is ink." When one of his Sunday School teachers tried to prove by him that when God said let us make man He was talking about the Trinity, he retorted, "I don't know, I wasn't there." His daughter said in class, I know about the death of Jesus, and I know about His burial, but I don't know anything about His resurrection. This should give us some idea of what this great world church will preach and teach.
    In verse 1 John saw another angel come down from heaven.
    Some commentators hold this angel to be our Lord, but I contend that He is not just another angel. This angel cries in verse 2 with a loud voice, or strong voice as he announces the fall of Babylon. In Isaiah 21:9 we read, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." In Jeremiah 51:8 it is "Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed." In Revelation 14:8 it is "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." And in Revelation 18:2 it is "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen."
    Now, when the Holy Spirit who is the author of the Bible says something that He has already said in another place it is not because He has forgotten that He had already said it. Neither does He do it in order to fill up space just to make His book larger. But He does it for emphasis. He does it to show us the great importance attached to the thing that is being repeated. With that in mind, let us examine the expression "Babylon is fallen." In the first place, it is found in four different places in the Scriptures, and in three of them it is said twice. That makes seven times that God says in His Word that Babylon is fallen.
    In Scripture the number seven is the number of completion. God completed His creative work in seven days. He completed His prophecy concerning this church age in His seven letters to the seven churches in Asia. 1 am aware that the liberalistic, modernistic atheists, and some God fearing and Bible loving Christians refuse to see any prophecy connected with these letters. But God is the one who called the book of Revelation a book of prophecy. In Revelation 1:3 He says, "Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy." Then in Revelation 22:7 He says, "Blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book." He says this book is a book of prophecy the second time for emphasis, if you please.
    God saying Babylon is fallen seven times, and seven being the number of completion brings two things to my mind. First, it means that God's great hatred, His utter distrust and His total abhorrence of this thing called Babylon is complete. He completely hates and abhors it. Then it also means that the fall and destruction of this thing will be complete.
    Now, let us consider what this thing is that God hates and abhors so completely and whose destruction is to be so complete. First, let us take a look at the beginning of this thing called Babylon. I would say to begin with, it is not the ancient city of Babylon, nor is it the Babylonian Empire that is given so much space in God's precious Book. Neither this ancient city, nor this empire was ever drunk on the blood of the saints who were martyred hundreds of years later, Revelation 17:6. Neither did this city nor this empire ever rule over the kings of the earth, Revelation 17:18. This thing that God is talking about is called. "Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth," Revelation 17:5. And God is the one who called her that.
    In Genesis 10: 8-10 we learn that Nimrod began to be a mighty man in the earth. And, that he was a mighty hunter before the Lord. In Genesis 25:27 Esau is spoken of as a cunning hunter; a man of the field. But he is not said to be a hunter before the Lord. No doubt, Esau hunted wild game in the fields, but I am convinced that Nimrod hunted for the souls of men before the very eyes of the Lord. His name means "The Rebel" and this is practically the same expression as "That wicked" in II Thessalonians 2:8.
    We notice that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babel. In that day the word Babel meant "The gate of God." So, in reality, when Nimrod and his followers said, "Let us make us a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, or into the heavens," they were really saying, "Let us make us a way to heaven." In John 14:6 Jesus said "I am the way," but these people, like most church people today, were not satisfied with that way. So, they were saying "Let us make us a way to heaven." This tower, as you know, was not completed by Nimrod because God came down and confounded their tongues. That is, He caused some of them to speak one language and others to speak another. We do not know how languages were introduced here, but we can rest assured that this was one of the truly great miracles of all times. But Nimrod and his followers planned and started this tower of Babel which, according to Herodotus, was later completed. According to him this tower consisted of eight towers each 75 feet high, one on top of the other. Then on top of this 600 foot structure was their chapel, or sanctuary which was 60 feet high. According to Herodotus this was the most elaborately furnished place of worship ever devised by man. They had a solid gold image of their chief god Bel that was 45 feet high and valued at 17 1/2 million dollars. The complete furnishings of this chapel were valued at 200 million dollars. The worship connected with this tower was the beginning of the vast religious empire that God hates and abhors so completely and whose destruction is to be so complete in God's own good time.
    Their religion was built around Nimrod's wife Semeramis who became the first queen of heaven. According to their tradition, Semeramis had a son named Tammuz who was slain by a wild boar, and after 40 days came back to life. This is where this great religious empire got her Lenten season when her poor members have to leave off a bottle of beer a day, or a pack of cigarettes a week, or something else in honor of their god Tammuz. Of course they do not call him Tammuz now. That would give them away. The worship of this queen of heaven and her son spread to the uttermost parts of the earth in a short time. In Jeremiah's time the worship of this queen of heaven had already spread to Jerusalem. In Jeremiah 7:17- 18 we read, "Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger."
    When Babylon fell to the Medes and Persians in 538 B.C. this religious empire moved her headquarters from Babylon to Pergamos. The priests who ruled over this vast empire were called pontifex. Their chief priest, or top man was called Pontifex Maximus. Please keep this title "pontifex maximus" in mind as we shall see later who wears that title today. Upon the death of Attallus III in 183 B.C. Pergamos fell to Rome. The religious capital of the world was then moved to Rome where it will remain until this whole religious empire is destroyed, Revelation 17:16. When the Roman Empire came into being, the Roman Emperor took the title "Pontifex Maximus." He was thus the ruler over the political empire and also over the religious empire. This continued for some 500 years until Theodosius came to the throne in 379 A.D. Theodosius refused to accept the title "Pontifex Maximus." So, this title was then bestowed upon the top religious leader who was the Bishop of Rome. Sometime later the Bishop of Rome was declared to be the universal head of this empire by one of the cut throat Emperors of Rome. This was the beginning of the popes of Rome. So today Pope Paul's official title for all formal occasions is "Pontifex Maximus' which means that be is ruler over the Catholic Church, or the ancient Babylonian Mysticism whichever way you wish to say it. They are one and the same.
    The Catholic Church has done a lot of face lifting in this age in which we live. She does not want people to know that she is more than 4,000 years old. That would prove her to be entirely too old for her to be the church that Christ established while here on earth. She wants to fool people into believing that she is that church. So her queen of heaven is no longer called Semeramis. She has assumed an alias, and that alias is the beautiful name "Mary." Her god Tammuz is no longer called Tammuz. He too has assumed an alias, and that alias is the precious name "Jesus." But if you care to lift the mask and look closely you can see that they are the same old Semeramis and Tammuz.
    Why should God not hate this old Babylonian Mystic religion alias the Catholic Church? She is the one who put leaven in His meal, Matthew 13:33. She is that woman Jezebel in the Thyatira Church who calleth herself a prophetess and seduces His servants, Revelation 2:20. She is the one who has beheaded, burned at the stake, thrown to hungry lions and buried alive untold thousands of His saints. And she is still ready and anxious to do the same thing today Wherever and whenever she can do it and get by with it. She has tried through the centuries to destroy our Lord's churches, His Bride to be. She has filled the world to overflowing with idol gods and false doctrines. She has even seduced our Lord's own church to accept many of her idols, her days, months, seasons and years, and all too many of her false doctrines.
    Then this old whore the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth who is drunk on the blood of the saints, parades herself up and down the land today as the Bride of Christ. To be sure, His ways are not our ways. No decent, upright man could stand by while some old drunken prostitute paraded herself on the streets as his bride. But praise His dear name, the time is coming, and may it be soon, when she shall be utterly destroyed. In Revelation 17:16-18 we read, "And the ten horns (kings) which thou sawest upon (and) the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." The great city here is used interchangeably with the religious system that has its headquarters there. Who rules over the kings, or rulers of the earth today but the Catholic Church? When this great religious empire has been destroyed we see the world in Revelation 18:19 casting dust upon their heads, weeping, wailing and lamenting their great loss. But in Revelation 18:20 God tells His people to rejoice because He has avenged us on her.
    You may say, do Catholics know that their Jesus is not the Jesus we know and serve? I am convinced that many Catholics sincerely believe we have the same Jesus. But the hierarchy knows better. That is why they are afraid for their people to read the Bible. I am told that Pope Leo X admitted privately that the Catholic religion was a farce. Then the three Bishops who wrote Pope Julius III advising him as to what to do when many were leaving the Catholic Church said, "To sum it all up, that book (the Bible) is the one, more than any other, that has raised against us these whirlwinds and tempests where by we were almost swept away; and in fact if anyone examines it diligently, and then contrasts therewith the practice of our church, he will perceive the great discordance, and that our doctrine is utterly different from, and often very contrary to it; which if the people understand, they will not cease their clamor against us till all be divulged, and then we shall become an object of universal scorn and hatred," (pages 22-23 Death of the Pope by John R. Gilpin).
    Will you cast dust upon your head, weep, wail and lament when this old whore is destroyed, or will you be one of those whom the Lord tells to rejoice?
    We are told that when Babylon has fallen the place becomes the dwelling place of demons (not devils) and of every foul or evil spirit, and the cage or haunt of every unclean bird. In Matthew 13:4 we see the fowls devouring the seed that the sower had sown. In verse 19 we see that these fowls represent the wicked one. And in verse 32 we see the birds lodging, or being at home in the branches of the mustard tree which represents the false churches. So here in the verse before us fallen Babylon (Rome) becomes the haunt of old Satan himself.
    In verse 3 all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. There is not a nation under heaven today that has not been affected to some extent by her fornication, that is, by her idol worship. So, when the day of reckoning comes, all the nations will be affected by it also. Even the kings, or rulers of the nations have committed fornication with her, that is, they have joined in with her in the worship of her idol gods.
    We also see that the merchants of the earth have become rich through means of the abundance of her delicacies. The amount of trade that is connected with this Mystery Babylon would stagger the imagination of a Rockefeller or a Ford. I understand that Pope Paul is the richest man in the world today. And one only has to observe the splendor and the magnificence of all that goes with Catholicism to see to some extent the great wealth that comes to the merchants who traffic in all the gorgeous array that goes with the Catholic Church.
    And not only is this fabulous trade carried on with the Catholic Church today, it has spilled over into her harlot daughters, including her foster daughter, the apostate Baptists. H. A. Ironside once said "There is many a Babylonish garment today hidden in Protestant tents." These Babylonish garments are no longer hidden. They are in plain view of every one. A Methodist friend of mine said to me that if I were to go into the First Methodist Church of Birmingham I would not be able to tell it from a Catholic Church. And I say unto you, many Baptist churches of today are no better. No wonder the merchants of the earth are growing rich from the delicacies of this old whore.
    Then in verse 4 we see that which should startle every born again person in any of these apostate churches. Here our Lord says, "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." But still there are those whom we have reason to believe are blood- bought saints who remain in these churches when they know their pastor does not believe the Bible to be the inspired Word of God, and when they know he has no love for the great Bible doctrines. They seem to have more fear of the persecution that goes with separation from all this than they have of meeting their Lord with all that stain and filth upon them.
    In verse 5 we see that the sins of these apostate churches have reached to heaven. These people who remain in all this mess for the sake of popularity and for fear of persecution seem to think that God is overlooking all the terrible things that go on in what they are calling their church, but in the coming day they will find that these sins of which they are part and parcel to have reached unto heaven itself. God will remember every one of her iniquities. The happiest years of my life have been the nine years since I obeyed God's precious Word and came out of her. What a real joy it is to be a part of a church that has no social program nor any athletic program. What a blessing it is to be a part of a church that is not concerned in any way about making this a better world, but rather in helping people to be ready for a better world. How comforting to know that one is not supporting in any the modernism, neo-orthodoxism and other infidelisms, that prevails in the religious system of today. When I hear, or read of Baptists who deny the record of creation in Genesis, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, the Blood Atonement, the resurrection and the second coming of our Lord, I rejoice with exceeding great joy because neither my church nor I are lending any support, either moral or financial to these infidels. No matter how sincere the Convention Baptist is, he is lending both moral and financial support to them, and, whether he likes it or not, he is guilty of, and partaker of their evil deeds. I say this out of a heart of love for them.
    In verse 6 God says reward her double. And in verse 7 He tells us why. He says "She hath glorified herself and lived deliciously." How she has glorified herself by assuming the name "Church." She even calls herself the bride of Christ. And how she does live in luxury, and that tax free. She drives expensive automobiles, but pays no tax on them. She teaches in public school and draws her salary as the other teachers do, but she still pays no income tax. She saith in her heart, "I sit a queen. and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow." She rides high in this world, but how hot she burns in the next one.
    In verse 8 her plagues are to come in one day. And they are real plagues, not only do they include death, mourning and famine, but they also include utter burning with fire. This is not the lake of fire in the future but it will, I believe, be here in this world. In II Peter 3:7 Wuest's translation says, "But the present heavens and the earth by the same word have been stored with fire, being kept so guarded with a view to the day of judgment and eternal misery of men destitute of reverential awe toward God." And what men are more destitute of reverential awe toward God than the terrible religious system in the world today? And the reason these plagues are so severe and so sure is because "strong is the Lord God who judgeth her." This is not the God you hear about in ninety-nine percent of the Baptist pulpits today. He is not the God that has been dethroned in order that man may be enthroned. This is the God who "doeth as He will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth." He is the one Job was talking about when he said, "I know that thou canst do every thing."
    In verse 9 the rulers of the world who have committed fornication with this old whore and who have lived luxuriously with her, or in her favor, will wail and mourn over her as if they had lost their very dearest friend. We have seen our ruler bowing and scraping and kissing the toe of the pope. And not only that but encouraging members of his family to become Catholic apparently to court the favor of Catholics.
    And in verse 10 we see these rulers keeping their distance as they weep and wail, and as they say Alas, Alas (Woe, Woe), that great city Babylon. There are those, or maybe I should say, there were those in past generations who held to the idea that this great city will be the ancient city of Babylon over on the Euphrates River which will have been rebuilt. One highly respected writer on this subject says that the time lapse between the rapture and the coming down to the earth could be as long as thirty years, or even longer in order to give time for rebuilding the ancient city of Babylon. I respect his zeal, hut not his wisdom in this matter.
    The Babylon that God hates so much left the banks of the Euphrates River twenty-five hundred years ago. On her flight to Rome she stopped over in Pergamos for three or four hundred years. Now for more than two thousand years she has nested on the banks of the Tiber River. She has become a great city there, and has glorified herself by calling herself "the eternal city" which is nothing less than blasphemy. She has provoked Almighty God to anger, even to great wrath. So in one hour is her judgment come.
    In verse 1 we learn that the rulers of the world are not the only mourners at this ghastly funeral. Here we see the merchants of the earth joining in with the rulers in their weeping and wailing. I am not saying that all merchants wallow in the slime and filth of Catholicism in order to receive her favors, but I am saying that I am convinced that many of them do. In former years I had a friend whose parents were Catholics. After I had attended his mother's Catholic funeral he said to me that he knew there was nothing to the Catholic Church. But a few years later his father died and left a large grocery store to him. This made a world of difference in this friend of mine. He tried to justify this change by saying that most of the wholesale businesses were owned and operated by Catholics, and that most of their salesmen were Catholics. He then capped it off by saying that Catholic merchants got the best deals. Yes, the merchants live luxuriously with the whore today, but what about tomorrow? No one buys their merchandise any more.
    In verses 12 and 13 we are given a long list of the things that the Catholic Church and her harlot daughters have caused to be profitable items in the merchant's business. And, if you notice, this list includes even the bodies and souls of people. Martin Luther who was a Catholic priest until he became the Lutheran papa once said, "In Rome they sell everything. They would sell the Father, and sell the Son, and sell the Holy Ghost," and he ought to know.
    Verse 14 appears to be one of the portions of Scripture which seems to baffle the translators. None of them seem to be able to make it clear enough for us common folk to under stand it. The New English version seems to make it more clear to me than any of the others I have seen. This version says, "The fruit you longed for, they will say, is gone from you; all the glitter and glamour are lost, never to be yours again." It seems that the merchants are saying that the things that Catholicism and Protestantism lusted after - robes, garments, idols and countless other things are gone from them and therefore, the glitter and glamour of these things are lost.
    In verses 15-19 we see a repetition somewhat of the great grief on the part of the merchants over their loss due to their having in stock so much merchandise that has suddenly become worthless. We also see the ship owners and the sailors, and no doubt this also includes freight lines on land as well as on the sea, as they join in with the merchants in this great lament.
    But what a change of scene do we see in verse 20. Here God tells His people to rejoice over all this. And they are to do this rejoicing because God has avenged them on her, that is, He has sent all this terrible judgment upon this wicked religious system as a compensation to His people because of the way she has treated them. He says "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." So when our enemies persecute us we should leave the vengeance to our Lord, and our time for rejoicing will come in due time.
    In verse 21 a mighty angel takes a stone like a great mill stone which he casts into the sea in order to stress the violent manner in which this great city, Rome which is here called Babylon is to be utterly destroyed. Due to the fact that Rome has been the home base for the old whore now for more than two thousand years, the last twelve or fifteen hundred years of it under the guise of a church, she is called Babylon.
    Verses 22-23 show how complete this destruction is to be. Even throughout the thousand year reign of our Lord here on the earth He will not permit any rejoicing or any business house of any kind to be established here where Rome boasts of her being the eternal city. God will show her just how eternal she is. We are given two reasons for this. In the latter part of verse 23 He says "For by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." And certainly all the nations of the earth today are deceived by the enchantments of the Catholic Church. And in verse 24 we are told that the other reason is because the blood of His saints is found in her. Through the centuries this old whore has been the deadly enemy of the Lord's people. She says herself in her official encyclopedia that she killed so many heretics during the Spanish Inquisition that they could not be counted. Our Lord's saints are today, and always have been heretics in her eyes. In her heart she desires to kill every one of us today. Therefore, in the eyes of our Lord she is just as guilty of our death as if she had the opportunity to do that which she desires so much to do.