Transcript

Last time, I had adequate time, much to my surprise, to establish from the Old Testament prophets the parallels between the harlot Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18, and Jerusalem in the Old Testament.

Because over and over again the prophets that God sent singled out Jerusalem, characterizing it, and really it alone, as the harlot, the prostitute, the great whore.

In Isaiah, the early chapters, this is very clear.

In Jeremiah, it's also very striking.

But in Ezekiel most of all, in chapter 16 and 23, we have a very elaborate and intense description of Jerusalem's sin as this idolatry characterized as harlotry, as prostitution.

We might go back to that to look at some details as we consider some aspects of, of these two chapters, Revelation 17 and 18.

But I'm not going to rehearse the parallels.

I'm not going to, uh, to restate the arguments this evening because I think it was very strong and we made them last week.

At the same time, I might add that there is one place, but only one, where a Gentile power is characterized for its harlotry.

Ezekiel does this of the city of Tire.

We're not gonna look at this until later this evening.

But, uh, Tire is a city characterized by the Prophet Ezekiel in passing, uh, for its harlotry.

Anyway, let's look at Revelation 17 and, uh, begin in verse, uh, 6.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

We compare that, you recall, to Matthew 23, verses 34 through 37, where Jesus says of Jerusalem that, All the righteous bloodshed on earth shall come upon this generation.

When I saw her, I marveled greatly, but the angel said to me, 'Why marvel?

I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with seven heads and 10 horns that carries her.' That would be Rome.

The imperial authority of Rome is what carried Jerusalem, especially in its opposition against the Christians.

You recall how the Jews were the ones who incited Rome, and Nero particularly, to launch the persecution against the Christians in the first place.

Verse 8.

The beast that, that you saw was, and is not, and is to ascend from the bottomless pit and go to perdition.

And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to behold the beast because it was and is not and is to come.

This characterizes, I think, the, uh, the fact that we are not to marvel at the way in which this harlot church has teamed up with this, with this satanic political power to persecute God's people.

Instead, we'll see later in these chapters how we're to marvel at how God brings judgment and destruction upon them, and with their defeat comes our deliverance and our triumph.

That's what we're to marvel at, the judgment of God for our deliverance.

But I think in these verses we also see how the power of evil is able to join together false religion and this religion of power politics in a way that is not exclusively identified with what's going on between 30 and 70 AD.

This is something that was, and is, and is to come.

It's going to be something constantly recurring, but at the same time, you can also say that it, it was and is not and is to ascend.

That, that language, I must admit, is baffling, but it suggests to me that this is a false power.

This is not really the power that is worth marveling at.

Verse 9.

This calls for a mind then with wisdom.

The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated.

We've already likened these to the Herodian dynasty and the Roman Empire.

There are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen.

One is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain only a little while.

As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth, but it belongs to the seventh, and it goes to perdition.

And the 10 horns that you saw are 10 kings who have not yet received royal power, but they're to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.

So this one hour corresponds to the time of great tribulation and great, uh, great cataclysm, especially for the city of Jerusalem.

These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast.

They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and those with Him are called and chosen and faithful.

By the way, I'm gonna be moving through these verses a little quicker tonight because I'm eager, in fact, I'm anxious to get to chapter 20 just to, to see if we can make a little more progress to, to really focus on what I think we're gonna need to spend more than one week, more than next week dealing with.

Verse 15.

And He said to me, 'The waters that you saw where the harlot is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.' Most likely, this of course, I think would correspond to the Roman Empire, which has spread to encompass, as it says, Peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.

And the 10 horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot.

They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put it into their hearts to carry out His purpose by being of one mind and giving over the royal power to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

This is striking and ironic because on the one hand, we see in verses, uh, verses 6 through 14 how the beast and the harlot are in this unholy alliance, and how they combine to make war on the Lamb in verse 14.

And the Lord will The, the Lamb will conquer them, for He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.

Then all of a sudden, there's this ironic shift where suddenly-They and the beast hate the harlot, turn on her, make her desolate and naked, devour her flesh and burn her up with fire.

Well, this fits with the circumstances that we've described between 30 and 70 AD.

How?

Because on the one hand, we have this unholy alliance between the Jerusalem, uh, establishment, the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities, mediated by the Herodians, huh?

And how this league is what launched the first persecution against the Christians, beginning, in fact, with Jesus the lamb himself.

But then, after a three and a half year persecution against the Christians, Rome simply stopped it, and instead reversed that same power and unleashed it upon the Jews for three and a half years, culminating in the siege on Jerusalem between 68 and 70 AD, which brought about the destruction of almost one million Jews, and the end of the old covenant as they knew it.

And so, this is what I think verses 15 through 17 describe, and here again in verse 18, The woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth.

Two points worth making.

First, that language, that phrase, The great city.

We've already seen that language, you recall, in Revelation 11.

In fact, the first time, The great city, is spoken of is 11:8, Their bo- dead bodies will lie on the s- the street of that gr- of the great city, which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

So once again, we have another piece of supporting evidence to suggest that this great city is not Rome as many interpreters, uh, as, as many scholars interpret Babylon.

Instead, Babylon is most likely a symbol of Jerusalem, the great city that we see in Revelation 11:8.

But what about this language?

And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth.

It sounds like that fits Rome because after all, Rome has dominion over all the kings of the earth.

And yet, it isn't quite true because if you develop- a covenant historical perspective on this verse, what you'll discover is that going all the way back to the time of David, God's purpose for elevating Jerusalem was to establish this as the center of the kingdom of God in the earth.

Back around 1003 BC, David conquered Jerusalem, established it as his political capital, brought the Arc of the Covenant up as it's described in 2 Samuel 6, and made it also the sacred and spiritual center of the world, at which point God sealed a covenant with David through his son, by which the temple would be built as the center of worldwide pilgrimage, so that all nations might make these annual pilgrimages to Jerusalem to see Solomon and to hear his wisdom, and also learn from the law of God.

In fact, when the covenant is made between God and David in 2 Samuel 7, David's response is this exclami- exclamation of gratitude in 2 Samuel 7:19, where he declares his shock on the one hand, and he says, Who am I?

Who am I, Lord, that you would show me the future, that you would elevate your servant's house to such, to such worldwide, uh, heights?

And then he also says in the second half of 2 Samuel 7:19, And you have shown me the Torah for Adam.

Now, there are various, you know, translations of this in many versions, but most scholars agree now that what David is saying is that in this covenant you've made with me, you have revealed the Torah, the law, or better yet, the constitution or the political charter for, what?

Israel?

Normally, Torah and Israel go together, because God gave his Torah, his law to Israel through Moses.

But this isn't Moses anymore.

This is David.

Moses was the mediator between God and Israel, but David becomes the mediator between God and all the nations.

So the Torah, in the covenant of David, is a law that is not just for Israel, but for all the nations, the Gentiles as well as Israel.

And so David sees, with this inspired wisdom, that through his son who will be the next king, the son of David, the king of Israel, God is going to establish a governmental order, a divine administration that, for all practical purposes, is meant to rule the world.

You can see this especially in Psalm 89.

In Psalm 89, we have a description of the ideal order associated with the Davidic, the, uh, Davidic covenant.

There, verse one, I will sing of Your steadfast love, O Lord, forever.

With my mouth I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations.

For Your steadfast love was established forever, Your faithfulness is firm as the heavens.

For You have said, 'I have made a covenant with my chosen one.

I have sworn to David, my servant.

I will establish your descendants forever and build your throne for all generations.' And then drop down to verse 26 where we find a description of the son of David, the king of Israel.

He shall cry to me, 'You are my Father, my God, and the rock of my salvation.' And I, that's the Lord speaking, And I will make him the firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.

And so it is.

You can see also in Psalm 2, the same worldwide governmental blueprint.

In Psalm 2:1-6, all the nations are plotting rebellion, a mutiny against God and His law and His government.

Verse four, He who sits in the heavens though hears it, he's, he's kind of horning in, and He laughs.

The Lord has them in derision.

Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, 'I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.'I will tell of the decree of the Lord.

Here's Yahweh's decree.

He said to me, this is the son of David, the king of Israel speaking, You are my son today, I have begotten you.

Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession.

You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

We've already seen this language used in Revelation 2 and 3, in Revelation 12 and elsewhere, because the covenant of David is one of the most important interpretive principles for a proper understanding of Revelation, especially with the whole motif of the New Jerusalem being ushered in at the end of the book.

Psalm 2:10 continues, Now therefore, oh kings, be wise, be warned oh rulers of the earth.

Serve the Lord with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.

So you see here, and other places too, for instance, in Psalm 72, we see a very similar pattern.

Give the king your justice, oh God, and let your righteousness to the royal son.

Verse eight, May he have dominion from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth.

Verse 11, May all kings fall down before him, all nations serve him.

This was the divine purpose for establishing the covenant with David and the city of Jerusalem and the kingdom there of the Davidic dynasty.

So, no wonder then we read in Revelation 17:18, The woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth, because that was the purpose for elevating this metropolis, this mater polis.

That's what the word metropolis means, literally mater polis, mother city.

You often see how Jerusalem is spoken of as being Daughter Zion, a woman who's supposed to be espoused to Yahweh as a faithful bride.

But like Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel show over and over again, Yahweh's spouse has become a whore.

The city where God's kingdom was supposed to be established, the city from which God's law was to go out into all the earth.

And so for its harlotry, it's burned with fire.

Let's continue in Revelation 18.

Does anybody have a watch I could borrow?

Okay, you nee- anybody else have a watch I could borrow?

Thanks.

I just, uh, forgot mine, and I want to keep track of the time here.

Revelation 18:1, After this, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his splendor, and he called out with a mighty voice, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.' This is taken right from Jeremiah 50, the taunt against Babylon.

It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird.

I would suggest that a possible background text to illuminate Revelation 18:1-2 would be Matthew 12:43-45.

There, Jesus is on a tirade against the Jerusalem establishment, because earlier in Matthew 12, the leaders of Jerusalem, the scribes, and the Pharisees in verses 24 and following, when the Pharisees heard Jesus being described as the son of David, they said, It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.

So they're saying not that he's a false teacher, not that he's misleading the people, but that he is filled with Satan himself.

A greater blasphemy you can hardly imagine.

At this point, we have a decisive turn in Jesus' ministry.

Up until Matthew 12, it had always been a public ministry where he was proclaiming his, his wisdom openly.

But after Matthew 12, with this rejection and slander from the Pharisees in Jerusalem, Jesus goes private.

He only shares the secrets of the kingdom privately with the disciples.

When he's pu- when he's speaking publicly, from Matthew 13 on, he's usually speaking to the people in parables because of all the conflict that he sees coming.

He goes on to describe this conflict in verses 38 through 45.

He speaks of this generation as evil and adulterous in verse 39, and he speaks of how the men of Nineveh will arise the judgment and condemn this generation, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and something greater than Jonah is here.

He goes on to describe how the queen of the south, the queen of Sheba, will arise the judgment and condemn this generation because she came to hear the wisdom of Solomon.

And you people in Jerusalem are hearing me, and I'm greater than Solomon, and the wisdom that I have is greater than his.

Then all of a sudden, he speaks in a rather cryptic parable.

When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he passes through waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none.

Then he says, 'I will return to my house.' He describes this man's body as a house.

That was typical because the rabbi saw a human body as a miniature temple, much like St. Paul does in First Corinthians.

'I'll return to my house from which I came,' and when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.

It's nice and orderly, but it's empty.

It should be filled with angels and all kinds of good liturgical decorum.

So he goes and brings with him seven other spirits, more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there.

And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first because he, his body, this house, this temple has become a haunt of seven demons brought back by the first that was ori- originally cast out.

In effect, Jesus comes to Jerusalem in the triumphal entry to cleanse the temple, to, to purge it of Satan, and to give the leaders there one last chance.

But instead of cooperating with this last and ultimate grace, instead they spurn it and ends up, they end up bringing greater demonic evil upon themselves within the next generation or so.

So shall it be also with this evil generation.

So here we find Babylon, this whorish city, becoming a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit.

Verse three, For all the nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion.

This again is language from Ezekiel.

And the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.

For her sins are heaped as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds.

Mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed.

In other words, the persecution that she launched against the people of God, twice the persecution will be launched against her.

As she glorified herself and played the wanton, so give her a like measure of torment and mourning.

Since in her heart she says, 'A queen I sit.

I'm no widow.

Mourning I shall never see,' so shall her plagues come in a single day, pestilence, mourning, and famine, and she shall be burned with fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.

It's interesting that her punishment consists of being burned with fire, because that punishment is not given for anybody.

I mean, sometimes you're to be stoned.

Other times you might be hung on a tree.

But to be burned with fire was a punishment reserved exclusively, in Leviticus 21:9, for the daughter of a priest who played the whore.

The daughter of the high priest, caught in harlotry, was alone to be burned with fire.

So here's the high priest of the old covenant, and the daughter Jerusalem, daughter Zion, entrusted the high priest.

The daughter of the high priest is Jerusalem, and it is to be burned with fire.

But this language in verse four, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, is found elsewhere in the New Testament.

Turn to II Corinthians 6.

II Corinthians 6 climaxes a long exposition by St. Paul on the superiority of the new covenant over and against the old covenant.

In II Corinthians 3, he shows how the old covenant is what he calls a dispensation of death carved in letters on stone, connected with the tablets of stone where you find the Ten Commandments.

And he goes on to describe Moses' face shining with brightness that the Jews could not look upon.

Not only could they not behold the glory of God, they could not even look upon the reflected glory of God on Moses' face because of the sin which the old covenant did not deal with.

In contrast, II Corinthians 3:6 describes a new covenant, not in a written code, but in the spirit.

The written code kills, but the spirit gives life, so the new covenant is life-giving.

In II Corinthians 4, Paul describes this ministry of his, this new covenant ministry, comparing it to Moses, showing that he has access to the very glory of God, unlike all the Israelites in the old covenant.

But then he goes on, rather ironically, to describe how he fulfills a new covenant ministry.

In II Corinthians 4:8, we read, We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed.

Perplexed, but not driven to despair.

Persecuted, but not forsaken.

Struck down, but not destroyed, always carrying in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.

II Corinthians 4:10 is one of the most profound summaries in scripture of what it means to live as a believer in the new covenant.

Living like Jesus, suffering like Jesus, so that we might reign in glory like Jesus.

For while we live, we are always being given up to the, to death for Jesus' sake so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.

Last week, we saw how in the Old Testament, the Jews saw martyrdom as obeying the law no matter what comes, but they were often bewildered and mystified by suffering in literal martyrdom.

In contrast, the new covenant ushered in this martyrological fancy where the early martyrs rejoiced for the privilege of suffering like Christ.

Why?

Because they understand the new covenant established in Christ is a call to leave this Earth, beginning with the old covenant in the old Jerusalem.

Leave behind whatever wealth and whatever treasure and whatever truth God revealed in the old covenant, because as good as it was, as holy as it was, it's nothing compared to the best and the holiest now revealed in the new covenant.

So the old covenant for its time was good and holy, but if the good and the holy keeps you from the best and the holiest, it becomes the archenemy of God's purpose and of God's people.

So in II Corinthians 5, Paul contrasts this earthly body with a heavenly temple.

At the end of II Corinthians 4, we have And, and by the way, here in II Corinthians 4 and 5, I think we have Paul's deepest and most profound insights into the nature of the old covenant which represents an earthly order that doesn't just simply It's not simply equivalent to the law of Moses and the Old Testament ending with the coming of Jesus.

The old covenant in one sense, in a mysterious sense, corresponds to the whole age of this Earth.

In a sense, it ended with the coming of Jesus.

It ended even more with the death and resurrection of Jesus.

It ended even more in 70 AD with the destruction of Jerusalem, the temple, and the priests and the sacrifices of the old covenant, but ultimately it doesn't end until what?

Until the whole creation, the macro temple of the universe, is burned up with fire and recreated as the new heavens and the new Earth.

This is the language, for instance, we find in II Peter 3.

Hold your fingers there in II Corinthians 4 and 5, and just take a look real quickly at II Peter 3:5.

They deliberately ignore this fact, that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago, and the earth formed out of water and by means of water, through which the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished.

But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist have been stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

So verse 10, The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up.

So the fate of Jerusalem in 70 AD is a miniature version of the fate of the cosmos at the end of time .

and the Lord came in 70 AD, and the Lord will come at the end of time.

But in between 70 AD and the end of the ages, we have the Lord coming in judgment to each of our temples when our bodies perish, and that's what Paul sees in 2 Corinthians 4:5, verse 16.

2 Corinthians 4:16, So we don't lose heart.

Though our outer nature, that is our bodies wasting away, our inner nature, our regenerated soul and spirit, is being renewed every day.

For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

So similar to Romans 8.

Because we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen, for the things that are seen are transient.

Our bodies and all the Earth, But the things that are unseen are eternal.

For we know that if the earthy tent we live in is destroyed, what are they talking about?

Our bodies.

They're like the tabernacle back in Israel's history, a tent wherein God's spirit dwelt.

If the earthy tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens.

There's a sense in which the Old Testament can be divided up into two parts.

From the time of Moses until the time of David, God dwelt in an earthy tent, but from the time of David until the end of the old covenant, God dwelt in a glorious building called the Jerusalem Temple.

In a sense, the tabernacle, the tent, corresponds to our earthy body.

The Jerusalem Temple was a prototype of our heavenly bodies.

All right?

So for a thousand years, the Jerusalem Temple prefigured and foreshadowed the new covenant that would be ushered in.

But once the new covenant is ushered in, then what purpose is served by the earthy Jerusalem?

No longer any purpose, so it too becomes something of the old covenant, which is outmoded.

So in 2 Corinthians 5:2, we say, Here indeed we groan and long to put on our heavenly dwelling so that by putting it on we may not be found naked.

For while we are still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety, not that we would be unclothed, that is, not that we would just give up our bodies as disembodied souls after death, but that we would be further clothed with resurrection bodies, so that what is mortal may be swollen up by life.

He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee.

So we are always of good courage.

We know that while we are at home in the body, we are away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not by sight.

And it goes on describing how we regard everything from this point of view.

Verse 16, From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view, which is a very poor translation.

Literally, Paul says we regard no one according to flesh, ʋɛtəsəkā.

Even though we once regarded Christ ʋɛtəsəkā, according to the flesh, Saul, the Pharisee, regarded Christ according to the flesh, said, Hey, look, this man suffered.

He even hung on a cross.

That means he was accursed of God.

That's a fleshly, a carnal perspective.

We regard him thus no longer.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, for Christ is the beginning of the new heavens and the new earth, the new covenant.

The old has passed away.

Behold, the new has come.

All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.

So this explains why the new covenant ministers like Paul undergo earthy affliction in order to inherit heavenly glory.

Now we come to 2 Corinthians 6, where he's saying to the Corinthians, Don't be scandalized by my sufferings, because Paul was being pers- Paul was being slandered and opposed within Corinth by these super-apostles, as he calls them elsewhere, these hyperapostoloi, which he ends up calling pseudopostoloi, false apostles.

Because the false apostles were saying, Hey, look, we're strong.

We're healthy.

We radiate God's glory, whereas Paul's poor, he's suffering, and he's afflicted.

Paul says, That's right.

That proves I'm Christ-like.

That proves I'm conforming myself to what you need to enter into the glory of the new covenant in the heavens, whereas these pseudo-apostles are deceiving you into thinking that we get all the glory and all the health and all, and all these good things on Earth.

So he's saying that's the way it was in the old covenant.

They couldn't comprehend God's plan for suffering.

But now we're in the new covenant, so don't go back to these unfaithful, to these infidels, to those who don't understand God's purpose.

2 Corinthians 14, Don't be mismated with unbelievers.

Now, that could refer to the pagans, but the Greek term ʋapostoi literally means the unfaithful.

Who now in Paul's day stands as unfaithful?

Those who are unfaithful to all the things that God has done in fulfillment to His promises.

For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity, or what fellowship has light with darkness?

What has he been talking about?

Christianity versus paganism?

No, the new covenant versus the old covenant.

Verse 16, What agreement has the temple of God with idols?

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, 'I will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Therefore, come out from them and be separate from them,' says the Lord.

Who are them?

Who are they?

Those who are attached to the old covenant.

'Be separate from them,' says the Lord, 'and touch nothing unclean.

Then I will welcome you and I will be a father to you, and you shall be my sons and daughters,' says the Lord Almighty.' That's straight from 2 Samuel 7.

I will be your father.

You will be my son.

To enter into the fullness of the Davidic covenant means entering into the new covenant.

Similar language is found at the end of the book of Hebrews.

In Hebrews 13, the writer says this.

Epaphras describes Jesus in verse 12.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate, that is the gate of Jerusalem, in order to sanctify the people through His blood.

Therefore, let us go forth to Him outside the camp and bear the abuse He endured.

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.We have to go out the gate like Jesus went out the gate.

We have to suffer like Jesus suffered because here we have no city.

Jerusalem is no longer our city.

It's become a haunt of demons.

The son of the old covenant is collapsing along with the rest of the old covenant.

Just like we saw in Hebrews 12:22, You have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem.

All of this illuminates the imagery and language of Revelation, especially in chapters 18 and following.

So, in Revelation 18:4, Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, we have a very profound parallel with 2 Corinthians 6:17, which culminates this discussion of how the new covenant in every way surpasses the old.

Let's drop down to verse 9.

And the kings of the earth who committed fornication and were wanton with her will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.

What irony.

The very people who burn her up will mourn because they no longer can enjoy all of the things they lusted after.

That's the way idolatrous sexual pleasure is.

Whenever, just at the human level, whenever you indulge yourself in illicit sexual pleasure, you end up holding yourself in contempt as well as the partner that you enjoyed this illicit pleasure with.

That's what's being described here.

As you, as you indulge in this, this earthly lust, you hold the partner in contempt, even as you still mourn for the fact that she's no longer there to satiate your desires.

They will stand off, they will stand far off in fear of her torment and say, Alas, alas, thou great city, thou mighty city, Babylon, in one hour has they judgment come?

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her since no one buys their cargo anymore.

Cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple silk, scarlet, all kinds of scented wood, all articles of ivory, all articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, marble, cinnamon, spice, and everything nice, no.

Incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots and slaves that is human souls.

It's interesting because when you study the book, when you study the city of Jerusalem back in the time of Jesus, you discover that indeed it was the commercial center of the world, in some ways surpassing even Rome.

Edersheim describes this, In these streets and lanes, everything might be purchased.

The production of Palestine or imported from foreign lands, the rarest articles from the remotest parts of the earth, exquisitely shaped, curiously designed in jeweled cups, rings and other workmanship of precious metals, glass, silks, fine linen, woolen stuffs, purple and costly hangings, essences, ointments, perfumes as precious as gold, articles of food and drink from foreign lands.

In short, whatever India, Persia, Arabia, Media, Egypt, Italy, Greece, and even the far-off lands of the Gentiles yielded, all of this might be had in their bazaars.

Ancient Jewish writings enable us to identify no fewer than 118 different articles that are precious and import from foreign lands covering even, uh, covering more than even modern luxury has devised.

So, Jerusalem was this luxurious commercial center, and that's how it's identified here.

Verse 14, The fruit for which thy soul longed has gone from thee and all thy gainings and thy splendor are lost to thee, never to be found again.

The merchants of these wares who gained wealth from her will stand far off in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud.

Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, bedecked with gold, with jewels and with pearls.

And again, you go back to Ezekiel 16:11-14, this is how God adorned Jerusalem.

God betrothed Himself to Jerusalem and dressed Jerusalem up with, with all these fineries, and then she used them to seduce and entice all these Gentile and pagan cities.

And they cry out, In one hour, all this wealth has been laid waste.

And once again, many people, in fact, the majority of interpreters associate Babylon with Rome.

But in this case, you know, Rome never experienced this kind of absolute destruction.

I mean, sure, it was burned with fire a little bit back in the '60s, the first century.

Sure, around 410 and other times, Alaric and others sacked the city and burned it, but never was its destruction so complete as this description here.

This description corresponds to total destruction, to an absolute conflagration like you find in 70 AD that burned Jerusalem beyond description, so that Josephus even comments on how people would walk, walk by and wonder if anybody ever dwelt there, so total was the Roman siege and destruction.

In one hour, all this wealth has been laid waste, and all ship masters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, 'What city was like the great city?' And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, 'Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth.

Once again, in one hour she's been laid waste.' So, all these people are mourning, but what do the angels and saints do?

Verse 20, 'Rejoice over her, oh, heaven, oh, saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her.' Look to Luke 21.

We see similar language here, this divine vengeance.

Luke 21 is the parallel to Matthew 24.

Here, we find the Olivet Discourse, Jesus' prophecy against Jerusalem.

But in Luke 21, it's much more explicit than it is in Matthew or in Mark 13.

You recall in Matthew 23, I'm sorry, Matthew 24, we, uh, uh, in Matthew 24:28, we read, Wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together.

And it goes, uh, also in verse, uh, Matthew 24:15, So when you see the desolating sacrilege spoken by the Prophet Daniel, but in Luke 21, that language is changed in verse 20, But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.

You see, Luke is writing for Gentiles.

Matthew for Jewish Christians.

Matthew could easily refer back to the Prophet Daniel, but Luke had to explicate that.

Whereas Matthew says, The desolating sacrilege,- Luke says, When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know its desolation has come near.

Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it, for these are days of vengeance to fulfill all that is written.

These are days of vengeance.

These are days of divine vengeance.

They will fall by the edge of the sword and be led captive among all nations, and Jerusalem will be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

There will be no temple, no priesthood, no sacrifices in her ever again, no matter what we hear of the boastings from the Middle East.

God will not allow it.

It's interesting that if you go back to the fourth century, one of the emperors in the line of Constantine the Great, Julian, at first a Christian, became Julian the Apostate, launched a persecution against the Christians after the imperial toleration had been passed years before.

He attacked the Christians and favored the Jews and taxed the Christians to rebuild the temple, urged the Jews to rebuild the temple.

But every time they made their attempts by lifting up these stones, hundreds of Jewish builders were burned with fire that would come belching out from underground.

You go back too, you see this.

Other historians, they describe this phenomenon, that whenever they attempted to, to dislodge the stones and rebuild the foundations, once they dislodged the stones, the builders were burned up.

Julian the Apostate became frustrated because the builders stopped their work.

Well, they said, come on down and try it yourself.

God wouldn't permit, nor will He in the future.

So, Rejoice over her, oh, Heaven, oh, saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her.

This is important, I really believe, because here in Revelation 18, we are hearing that the judgment on the harlot is spoken of as your judgment, the church's judgment.

It was just and righteous retribution brought upon Israel of the old covenant for her oppression and persecution of the saints, the apostles, the prophets, and of our Lord Himself.

And it culminates now in these last days when divine judgment comes and divine vengeance is rendered.

If the church in our age is going to succeed, if the church is going to march from victory to victory as the early fathers and the early martyrs experienced, we're gonna have to recover this triumphant perspective.

We're gonna have to pray for deliverance from our enemies.

Deliverance comes either by conversion or by destruction, and we should stop being too timid to pray for destruction of people who refuse to convert, because therein lies our triumph.

Certainly, we prefer triumph through conversion.

But if they refuse conversion, they'll only become more evil and slander our Lord's name more.

They'll only become more wicked and tear up pictures of the Pope on television.

They're gonna slander and blaspheme our, uh, the blessed Virgin Mary, you know, and put out albums called The Immaculate Collection and call themselves Madonna.

If they won't convert, then God will triumph through destruction, and we should stop this false righteousness, this false piety, this committee which says, Oh, we wouldn't want that now, would we?

No, we wouldn't prefer it.

We would prefer conversion.

But if not conversion, then for God's holy name, destruction, so that these people stop deceiving other people into thinking that there is nothing to be lost when we blaspheme God.

There is nothing to be gained by confessing Christ as Lord.

That's a lie, and the God of truth reveals that to be a lie, and that's the answer to our prayers.

We've got to wake up and toughen up our own hearts and recognize that.

That's why we rejoice, oh, saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her.

That's what we pray for, and that's what we get, so long as that's what we want.

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, 'So shall Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence and shall be no more, and shall be found no more, and the sound of harpers and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters shall be heard in thee no more, and the craftsman of any craft shall be found in thee no more, and the sound of the millstone shall be heard in thee no more, and the light of a lamp shall shine in thee no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard in thee no more.

For thy merchants were the great men of the Earth, and all nations were deceived by thy sorcery, and in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on Earth Once again, Matthew 23:34-37.

All the righteous blood shed on Earth shall come upon this generation.

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem.

It's interesting.

I, I have here an, uh, from a book written by, uh, Anglican Archbishop Philip Carrington, The Early Christian Church, Cambridge University Press, back in 1957.

On page 228, he describes from Josephus how this prophet arose.

The record of Josephus is full of prophecies and oracles.

As early as 62, the year in which James the Just was murdered, this, this, this righteous Christian leader that even the Jews respected and revered.

James the Just was murdered.

A peasant named Jesus ben Ananus appeared at the Feast of Tabernacles, repeating in a melancholy sing-song.

He went around singing and crying out, A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem, the Holy House, a voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, a voice against the whole people.

He maintained his witness for a period of seven years in spite of torture and punishment inflicted upon him by the authorities, and he happened to die in the last year of the war.

So, he says, A voice against the bridegrooms and the brides, and here we, we read, The voice of bridegroom and bride shall be heard in thee no more .

in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints.

I find it increasingly difficult to believe that this harlot city, this Babylon, this Sodom, this Egypt, this great city where the Lord was crucified, can be interpreted as anything else than the center of the Old Covenant, Jerusalem.

And a growing number of scholars, Protestant and Catholic, are seeing it.

Chapter 19:1, After this I heard what seemed to be a loud, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven s- crying, 'Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God!' We're gonna hear hallelujah here in verse 6, Hallelujah for the Lord God, the Almighty reigns.

We're gonna hear it altogether, I think, four times: verse 3, verse 4, and verse 6.

And I thought there was one more time, but I might be wrong.

Four or five times we hear hallelujah here.

Now, we're so used to hearing hallelujah, we would How many times is hallelujah mentioned in the Bible, in the New Testament, for starters?

Here alone, nowhere else.

Where is it found in the Old Testament?

Psalm 8- 118 alone, and nowhere else.

It means, Praised be the Lord.

Hallel, praise to Jah, the shortened form of Yahweh.

Psalm 118 is one of the most important of Israel's sacred psalms because it was sung in the Passover and at the Feast of Tabernacles.

I might have mentioned in the past that it also was the climax of the Passover meal, after drinking the third cup of blessing, while you proceed, as you prepare to proceed to the fourth cup.

So, Psalm 118 was sung in between the third cup and the fourth cup, preparing for the climax of the Passover.

Psalm 118, you may recall, has some very significant verses that have some Messianic meaning here.

I want to just touch on 'em.

Verse 22, The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.

This is the Lord's doing.

It is marvelous in our eyes.

This is the day which the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

What day is that?

The day when the Lord is rejected by the Old Covenant.

He is cast out of the old creation, and then He becomes the cornerstone, the head of the corner, the cornerstone of a new temple, of a New Covenant, a new Jerusalem.

That's what climaxes the Passover; passing out of Egypt, passing out of the Old Covenant, out of the old creation into the New Covenant, the new creation.

This insight is what led this Protestant scholar, Massey Sheppard, to write a book, The Paschal Liturgy and the Apocalypse.

On page 78 he says, The clue that led us to our theory about the structure of Revelation was provided by the use of the Hallel Psalms, 113 through 118 in chapter 19, immediately preceding the marriage supper of the Lamb.

The association of these Hallel Psalms with the Jewish festivals, and in particular with Passover, suggested at first that this chapter reflected the Paschal Eucharist of the early Church.

By working backwards through the book from this point, we became convinced that an entire paschal liturgy could be reconstructed, and this in turn fits with the seer's statement that his vision was experienced on the Lord's Day.

Because the Lord's Day is not only the day of the Lord, but it's also Sunday, the day of the Eucharistic liturgy.

He describes for us on pages 82 and 83 how this insight led him to reconstruct an outline for all Revelation, which shows that the book Revelation is actually patterned after the Eucharistic liturgy of the early Church, which in turn was based upon the Old Testament Passover.

You can hear many elements of the Passover prayers in the Eucharistic prayer and in other parts of our liturgy.

He says, From the blood, from the victory of Christ on the cross flows the stream of water and blood, the paschal sacraments by which the Christian appropriates to himself participation in that victory.

The realized eschatology of the fourth gospel is at one with the eschatology of the Apocalypse.

Uh, it goes on, The Gospel employs the commemorative narrative of the Passover.

The Revelation relates the theme in the apocalyptic symbolism of the Parousia.

And then he actually gives us this outline structure on page 83.

I won't review all of this, just too elaborate.

It might be emphasized once again that, uh, i- uh, we, we might be, it might conceivably be viewed as a commentary upon that liturgy from the vantage point of prophecy.

So anyway, these hallelujahs highlight the Hallel Psalms sung at Passover, and how now at last we are coming to the climax of the new Passover.

We're moving from the cup of blessing to the cup of consummation.

Re- recall, uh, I, I think I've shared with many of you, uh, the contents of a talk that I have given called The Fourth Cup.

It's a tape.

It's also an article in First Things back in, I think September or October of '91, where Christ interrupted the Passover liturgy.

After drinking the third cup, he says, I'm not gonna taste of the fruit of the vine until my kingdom comes.

Sounds like the end of time, but it isn't.

It's the cross.

He refuses the wine on the way up to Calvary, but on Calvary when they lift up the wine in the sponge on a hyssop branch, he drinks it and he says, It is consummated.

What is it?

The Passover which He's fulfilled.

The Passover of the Old Covenant, which He's now transforming into the New Covenant Passover.

In between the third cup and the fourth cup, He sang a hymn, which would be the Hallel Psalms, but He did not drink the fourth cup until He fulfills those hymns and He fulfills the whole Passover upon the cross.

So, Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, there's a very interesting connection, incidentally, between what Jesus experiences in Jerusalem and what the church experiences in Jerusalem.

There, He bears witness, and then He's rejected, then He is persecuted, and then He is ultimately led out of the city where He is executed and then finally devi- delivered by God.

So likewise, the Christians bear witness in Jerusalem, in turn they're rejected.

They have to leave the city amidst all kind of derision, and there they're rejected and persecuted even to the death.But eventually, God delivers them and brings judgment upon Jerusalem.

And recall the earthquake and the darkness that came upon Jerusalem back in 33 AD, prefiguring the earthquake and the darkness that came upon Jerusalem in 70 AD.

There's a very close connection to what happens to the individual body of Christ in 30 and the mystical body of Christ in 70, and it's not a coincidence.

It's a providential allegory.

So, the language in Revelation 19 corresponds to both the deliverance of Jesus and the deliverance of His mystical body from this center of persecution.

Salvation and glory belong to our Salvation, glory, and power belong to our God, for His judgments are true and just.

He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication.

He's avenged on her the blood of His servants.

Once more they cried, 'Hallelujah!

The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.' And the 24 elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne, saying, 'Amen.

Hallelujah.' And from the throne came a voice crying, 'Praise our God, all you His servants, you who fear Him, small and great.' Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the sound of many waters, and like the sound of a mighty thunder peal, crying, 'Hallelujah!

For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.

Let us rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.' That's the first instance of this image of a bride.

It isn't until the harlot is burned and destroyed that the bride is revealed and glorified.

It was granted her to be clothed with fine linen, bright and pure, for the la- fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints, that is, the New Jerusalem.

You can see in the Gospels how frequently Jesus uses this marriage feast imagery.

We won't look at these, but just to refer you to Matthew 22, verses 1 and 2 and following, and likewise, Matthew 25, verse 10.

We have other marital symbolisms applied.

For instance, in 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2, we have Paul describing the church as the New Eve and a bride.

2 Corinthians 11, verse 2.

Likewise, Ephesians 5, verse 32, where the relationship between Adam and Eve is compared to the relationship between Christ and His Church.

Verse 9, And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.' And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.' What is he talking about here in these chap- in the, in these verses?

I want to make two or three I want to draw two or three insights.

First of all, the language that we just heard, the words which we've just read in verses, well, 11:15 through 11:19, should have sounded familiar to you, because many of those same terms are found earlier I'm sorry, I'm saying it wrong.

In verses 19:1 through 19:6, many of those verses are paralleled in an earlier section, chapter 11, verses 15 through 19.

Go back to Revelation 11 and listen to the same language being used.

Chapter 11, verses 15 through 19.

There we see, right after the city where the Lord was crucified experiencing a great earthquake, it falls, all these thousands of people are c- are killed.

Then with the blowing of the seventh angel's trumpet, we hear, The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever.

And once again, The 24 elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, 'We give thanks, uh, that You have taken Your great power and You've begun to reign.

The nations raged, but Your wrath has come, the time for the dead to be judged, for rewarding Your servants the prophets and saints and those who fear Your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.' And then God's heavenly temple is opened.

And what do we see?

As soon as God's heavenly temple is opened, we see the woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars.

Likewise, in Revelation 19, we hear the same language being used, of judgment and vindication, of glory, of God's kingdom.

Rejoice and exalt and give Him the glory.

And now, as soon as all these words are used once again, what happened at the end of Revelation 11?

We see a beautiful woman clothed with the sun.

And what happens at the end of Revelation 19, verses 1 through 6?

We see a beautiful woman, a bride.

Who is the woman in Revelation 12?

It was the church, but it was also the Blessed Virgin Mary, the virgin, bride, and fruitful mother, the symbol of the New Covenant Church.

So who is the bride in Revelation 19?

It's the church, to be sure, as prefigured, foreshadowed, and embodied in the Blessed Virgin Mary.

We are her children, and so we dress up like her in fine linen, by performing the righteous deeds of the saints.

So what then is the marriage supper of the Lamb?

Let me quote from a Protestant author, one of my favorites, David Chilton in The Days of Vengeance.

In his commentary on Revelation 19, verse 9, Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb, he says this.

God's people have been saved from the whoredoms of the world to become the bride of His only begotten Son, and the constant token of this fact is the church's weekly celebration of her sacred feast, the Holy Eucharist.

It should go without saying, but unfortunately it can't, that the Eucharist is the center of Christian worship.

Notice how he relates the marriage supper of the Lamb to the Eucharist, just like the early fathers.

The Eucharist is what we are commanded to do when we come together on the Lord's Day.

He goes on to say that everything else is important but secondary: teaching, instruction, and preaching.

Instruction in the faith is therefore an indispensable part of Christian worship, but it isn't the heart of Christian worship.

The heart of Christian worship is the sacrament of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is assumed by Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 16 and 17, and 11, verses 20 through 34.

We see it reflected in Luke's simple statement in Acts 20, verse 7.

And on the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread It is also described in the Didache, this document from the early From the first century of the early church, where we read, But every Lord's day, do ye gather together yourselves and break bread and give thanksgiving, Eucharisto, after having confessed your thank transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.

Interestingly that, that in the Didache, the Eucharist is associated with sacrifice.

Justin Martyr reports the same pattern as the standard for all Christian assemblies.

Quote, On the day called Sunday, again, the Lord's day, the resurrection day, all who live in cities or in the country gather together to one place, and the memoirs of the apostles or the writings of the prophets are read, as long as time permits.

Then when the reader has ceased, the president verbally instructs and exhorts to the imitation of these good things.

Then we all rise and pray, and as we before said, when our prayers ended, bread and wine and water are brought, and the president in like manner offers prayers and thanksgivings according to his ability and the people ascend saying, 'Amen,' and there's distribution to each and the participation of that over which thanks have been given.

And to those who are absent, a portion is sent by the deacons.

Unquote.

Now, Chilton says, The greatest privilege of the church is your weekly participation in the Eucharistic meal, the marriage supper of the Lamb.

It is a tragedy that so many churches in our day neglect the Lord's supper, observing it only on rare occasions.

Some so-called churches have even abandoned communion altogether.

What we must realize is that the official worship service of the church on the Lord's day is not merely a Bible study or some informal get-together of like-minded souls.

To the contrary, it is the formal wedding feast of the Lamb o- of the bride with her bridegroom.

This is beautiful.

I mean, I wish this were read by every Bible Christian, because they would see Revelation 19, the pattern for the worship of the church, the bride of the Lamb.

And what is that pattern?

It's a marriage feast.

It's a supper.

It's the Lord's supper, even as we saw in Revelation 3.

So many Catholics have left the church to hear good preaching or to be embraced by a warm fellowship of believers.

But what have they given up in exchange for these warm, fuzzy feelings, as nice as they are, for these good sermons, as stirring as they are?

They've given up the body and blood of Christ.

They say, There I'm being fed.

No, here you are fed.

That is why, Chilton says, we meet together on the first day of the week.

In fact, one of the primary issues in the controversy of the Protestant Reformation was the fact that the Roman Church admitted its members to the Eucharist only once a year.

That is a distortion.

That is based on total misunderstanding.

He has misinterpreted the Easter obligation, which is what?

That every believer must receive communion a minimum of once a year.

Preferably during Easter.

He says that the Roman Church admitted its members to the Eucharist only once a year.

What a tragic misunderstanding.

Then he goes on to say something.

Ironically, the practice of the Roman Church now excels that of most Protestant churches.

On the issue of frequent communion, at least, it is Rome which has reformed.

Well, I'm glad he sees that we've reformed so much, but we haven't really reformed from any earlier bad practice.

Then he goes on to quote an Orthodox theologian, one of the greatest of the century, Alexander Schmemann, who wrote a wonderful book called For the Life of the World, available through St. Vladimir's Seminary Press in New York.

Schmemann says this, quote, With this statement, 'Man is what he eats,' quoting Lou- uh, Ludwig Feuerbach.

Feuerbach thought he'd put an end to all idealistic speculation about human nature.

In fact, he thought he was putting an end to religion through this form of materialism.

In fact, however, he was expressing without knowing it the most religious idea of man.

He goes on to say, 'Man must live Ma- Man must eat in order to live.

He must take the world into his body and transform it into himself, into flesh and blood.' He is indeed that which he eats, and the whole world is presented as one all-embracing banquet table for man.

And this image of the banquet remains throughout the whole Bible, the central image of life.

It is the image of life at its creation and also the image of life at its end and fulfillment, 'That you may eat and drink at my table in the kingdom.' The Eucharist is at the center of our life, and all of life flows out of this central liturgy.

He goes on.

I'm not gonna quote this whole s- uh, statement here, but suffice to say that Feuerbach was far more insightful than he realized, because in a true sense, we are what we eat.

We are the mystical body precisely because we eat the mystical body.

Corpus Mysticum is language now referred to Uh, I should say Corpus Mysticum is now language applied to the church, but the earliest In the earliest ages, the church fathers applied Corpus Mysticum, the mystical body, to the Eucharist.

We are the mystical body, the Corpus Mysticum, because we commune upon the mystical body.

Let's go on to Revelation 19 and read some more.

Chilton has another insight I want to share real, real quickly.

Verse 10.

Verse 9 and 10.

And he said to me, 'These are true words of God.' Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, 'You must not do that.

I am a fellow servant with you and your brethren, who hold the testimony of Jesus.

Worship God, for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Now, that language sounds like a rebuke.

The angel's saying, You must not worship any creature.

The problem with it is that the Greek term for worship, proskuneo, does not mean adoration in the sense of sacrificing to God and God alone.

In scripture, this term proskuneo is frequently used for homage paid not only to God, but also for homage paid to superiors, for reverence that is properly given to superiors.

For instance, in Genesis 2 I'm sorry, in Psalm 2, we see how the kings are to kiss the feet of this Davidic king.

Other places, likewise, in Genesis 18:2 and Genesis 19:1 and Genesis 23:7, verse 12, Genesis 27:29, Genesis 33:3, 6, and 7, Genesis 37:7, 9, and 10, Genesis 42:6, Genesis 43:26 and 28, Genesis 49:8.

Throughout the Bible, we hear proskuneo, literally to prostrate oneself at the feet of .

is the proper bodily expression of homage paid by subjects to authorities.

So, the angel is not saying, Don't worship me.

He's saying, Don't pay homage to me.

I am no longer your superior.

Chilton sees this in a very interesting way.

On page 479, he says, Assuming, therefore, that Saint John was not offering divine worship to the angel, but rather reverence to a superior, the angel's reply can be more clearly understood.

A common theme throughout the book of Revelation is that all the Lord's people are prophets, like in Numbers 11:29.

All have ascended into the Lord's presence, taking their places at the heavenly council around the throne in the glory cloud.

Before Pentecost, it was appropriate for mere men to bow down before angels, but no longer.

'Don't do that,' the angel cries.

'I am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of Jesus.' The angel is now on an equal level with Saint John and the rest of the Christian community.

Thus, he urges Saint John to worship God, to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.

Hebrews 4:16.

The fact that Saint John's brethren hold the testimony to Jesus demonstrates that they are members of the council.

They are like the prophets who used to be admitted into the heavenly council, indwelt by the Spirit.

With Now Chilton says something which is most interesting.

With perfect justice, therefore, does Bossuet remark.

He's quoting Farrar, who quotes Jacques Bossuet, one of the greatest Catholic preachers of all time, back in 18th century France.

Bossuet says, The angel rejects the worship in order to place the apostolic and prophetic ministry on the same footing with that of the angels.

The dissuasion is not based on the consideration that the worship trenches on God's glory, but on the consideration that it trenches on John's honor.

John doesn't see his own honor as an apostle and prophet of Christ in the new covenant.

The angel says, Hey, look, don't do that.

I'm a fellow servant of Christ.

In other words, We are now at the same level.

The apostles and the prophets are now at the same level of the angels.

Chilton says, But what is it about the angel's proclamation that induced Saint John to bow at his feet in the first place?

Now he quotes Farrar, It is the Eucharistic reference which it contains.

The primitive church consecrated the Eucharist by the great thanksgiving prayer which names the rite.

The exaltation of victory has passed into Eucharistic prayer in chapter 19, verses 1 through 8, but it is the angel's beatitude which first makes explicit the allusion to that blessed feast eaten in the Kingdom of God and anticipated in the church.

Let me just sum up this perspective.

The angel says, Hey, look, new covenant people, brothers of Christ, apostles and prophets.

Through the Eucharist, through the new covenant, through the paschal feast of Christ, you have now passed from subservience to me to equality with me.

Because like me, you now are prophets.

You now are messengers.

You now participate in the heavenly council, and you now share the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy.

Then all of a sudden, John is once again welcomed into what was previously privileged to the, to the angels.

He is given privy access to what only the angels once enjoyed.

Verse 11, Then I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse.

He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True.

This is an image of Christ.

And in righteousness, He judges and makes war.

His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He has a name inscribed which no one knows but Himself.

He is clad in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which He is called is the Word of God.

The Logos of God.

And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure Notice now, the saints and the angels ride side by side in the same army of God.

They followed Him on white horses.

From His mouth issues a sharp sword with which to smite the nations.

This is, of course, the Word of God that we see in Ephesians 6.

And He will rule them with a rod of iron, for He is the Son of David that we read about in Psalm 2:9 and Revelation 12, uh, also.

He will rule them with a rod of iron.

He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty.

On His robe and on His thigh, He has a name inscribed King of Kings and Lord of Lords, just like in Daniel 2.

Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and with a loud voice, he called to all the birds that fly in midheaven, 'Come, gather for the great supper of God.' In other words, they get to share in the marriage supper of the Lamb as well.

'To eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and slave, both small and great.' This is the negative sacrament.

The marriage supper of the Lamb con- consists of the flesh and blood of the Son of Man, who has assumed our humanity, and if we abide in Him and we abi- if- and He abides in us through communion on His flesh and blood, as John 6:52 and following describes, then our, our dish consists of the Eucharist.

But those who are not united to Christ through His mystical body, those who do not comprise His bride, but survive the great destruction of the whore of Babylon, they likewise get to eat this marriage supper of the Lamb, which consists also of flesh and blood, flesh and blood of human beings with their old creation bodies.

But just as Jesus partook of human nature, born as a Jew, so likewise, human flesh and Jewish blood becomes the stuff of the, of the supper that these birds of prey enjoy.

They eat the carrion of Jerusalem, just like we read in Matthew 24, and also in Mark's Gospel.

In Mat- in Matthew 24, as the destruction is described.

We read in 28, Wherever the body is Some translators render that carcass.

There the eagles Literally, it could be translated, Vultures will be gathered together.

So, whoever the body is, there the vultures will be gathered together.

Vultures and eagles are birds of prey.

They feast on carrion, on corpses, dead bodies.

Terrifying imagery here.

Verse 19, And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against Him who sits upon the horse and against His army, and the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who in his presence had worshipped the sign- who worked the signs by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast, and those who worshipped its image.

These two were thrown alive into the lake of fire that burns with sulfur, and the rest were slain by the word of Him who sits upon the horse, the sword that issues from His mouth and all the birds were gorged with their flesh.

In other words, the phenomena that occur at the end of the old covenant are appropriately applied to what the end of the ages will look like.

You see this multiple fulfillment, this polyvalence, this double meaning, because the old age, the end of the old covenant is truly the end of the age, the end of the ages.

But there's a true sense in which there are still more ages yet to come.

The reason I mention this, i- it might seem rather irrelevant to you, but the reason I mention it is because many non-Catholic believers in the '80s and '90s have been deceived by some very profound false teachings, very insightful deceit.

There's one scholar who lives up near us in j- in Youngstown, uh, right outside of Youngstown in Warren.

A, a scholar by the name of Max King, a brilliant Church of Christ biblical scholar who's written a book called The Spirit of Prophecy, and another very huge book on the on, on the resurrection, uh, dealing with the Parousia.

He argues that each and every passage predicting the end of the world is fulfilled in 70 AD and exclusively in 70 AD.

And he has gathered for himself many followers.

And his work is anticipated last century by, uh, a scholar by the name of James Stuart Russell, not to be confused with the founder of Jehovah's Witnesses.

James Stuart Russell wrote a book called The Parousia.

This British scholar published it anonymously in the first edition because he knew it'd be controversial.

He argued in his book, The Parousia, which was recently reprinted by Baker Books out of Grand Rapids, that every single prophecy concerning the end of the world can be properly interpreted as applying to 70 AD.

And I tell you, when I read this book, it shook me down to my boots.

I mean, it was persuasive.

And I know of other people, uh, a Presbyterian elder was almost excommunicated because for several months, he was persuaded by Russell's book.

He even wrote a book himself, which then he later refused to publish because he changed his mind.

But many people are being taken in by the teachings of Max King, just like Russell took some in last century in Great Britain.

The second edition of Russell's book came out with his own name on it because the book in the first edition was widely praised by many scholars.

Even a Protestant preacher as prestigious as, uh, Charles Haddon Spurgeon praised this book to the sky saying it was filled with insight and wisdom.

But how do we get away from this idea that, okay, look, if we can in some manner apply all of these prophecies to 70 AD because there we find the end of the ages, and now we find the new age, the final age being ushered in, what biblical basis do we have for arguing that there are still ages yet to come at the end of which you'll have fulfillments like the fulfillment we had in 70 AD?

A good friend of mine named Richard White wrote his MA thesis at Trinity Divinity School trying to find a good reason to reject King's arguments because he was really being influenced by King and by Russell and others like him.

We worked together and found in Ephesians 2 a very important passage.

In Ephesians 2:7 In Ephesians 2:6 we read about how we've been raised up with Christ and we've been made to seats, uh, as He's made us to sit with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Now, usually the Bible speaks in this way.

The Old Testament has many ages, and at the end of it we have the end of the ages.

And the age to come, the new age is ushered in by Jesus.

And this has led King and Russell and other scholars to say then the ages and the end of the ages corresponds to 70 AD.

The new age, the age to come is the last age.

There are no ages within the new age.

The last age, the age to come is it.

It's the age, singular, except that in Ephesians 2:7 we discover that the age to come has within itself ages.

Because in the coming ages we will see the immeasurable riches of His grace.

This was, in effect, the fulcrum.

This was the Archimedean point.

This was the Achilles' heel that Rich White found that others have seen like, like him to show that Russell and King cannot sustain his argument that 70 AD represents an exhaustive fulfillment of Revelation and all the other prophecies in the New Testament concerning the end of the ages.

In 70 AD the destruction of the old covenant temple, priesthood and sacrifices all prefigure and foreshadow the end of the macro temple we call the cosmos.

That, I think, fits best with the Jewish and Rabbinic, uh, thought modes that we find reflected in the Book of Revelation especially.

Now, we come to the Book of Revelation chapter 20.Oh, I tell you, this chapter is so important.

All we can really do tonight is introduce to you what is, for many starters, the most baffling, bewildering, and mysterious element of the most baffling and bewildering and mysterious book, the Millennium.

If Revelation is the toughest book of the Bible to translate and interpret, then chapter 20 and the Millennium, the first six verses is the most difficult part of the most difficult book to interpret properly.

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain, and he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were ended.

After that, he might be loosed- after that, he must be loosed for a little while.

Let's read the next three verses.

Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.

Also, I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God and would not worship the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands.

They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection.

Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection.

Over such, the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle.

Their number is like the sand of the sea.

And they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them.

And the devil, who had deceived them, was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where their beast- where the beast and the false prophet were, and they were tormented day and night forever and ever.

We'll skip over the great white throne of judgment and come to that later on, 'cause we probably won't get to that until next week.

We won't even do judgment.

We won't even do justice to the verses we've read this week.

Let me just share with you a little bit of background on this topic of the Millennium.

Catholics don't get involved in the Millennium debate very much.

This is largely a Protestant controversy.

And when I s- when I say it's a controversy, believe you me, it's a controversy.

Few issues divide Protestants as divisively and as violently as the Millennium.

What are the positions?

Well, generally speaking, there are three positions, but careful analysis shows four.

The Millennium refers to the thousand-year reign of Christ.

And the question is, when is the Millennium?

Is this- is a thousand years before Christ's second coming, or is the Millennium after Christ's second coming?

And that divides up pre-Millennialists and post-Millennialists.

And there's a third school of thought which says there is no Millennium.

They're known as amillennialists.

Now, what do these positions mean?

The pre-Millennialist believes generally that Christ will come again before the Millennium and that His coming will usher in the Millennium.

The post-Millennialist believes that Christ will come after the Millennium and that the church age in general is this Millennial period.

Or some post-Millennialists believe that the church age, which has now lasted 2,000 years, may last thousands more, but there may be, and there, and, and many post-Millennialists have believed that there will be a literal thousand-year period at the end of this glorious church age where Satan is bound, the nation's not deceived, and the tr- and, and the gospel triumphs.

So post-Mils, post-Millennialists are divided into two groups, those who take the Millennium symbolically and those who take the Millennium literally.

But in both cases, post-Mils believe that Christ will come at the end, after the Millennium.

Post-Millennialists are optimists.

Pre-Millennialists are pessimists.

Because pre-Mils generally hold that things will get worse and worse and worse, and then Christ will come again, and then things will get better and better, and the Millennium will be ushered in.

Amils, amillennialists, believe that there is no literal Millennium.

They don't believe in a Millennium.

Amils generally say this.

Either the Millennium spoken of here corresponds to the glorious reign of the saints in heaven, or it's a symbol describing the spiritual authority enjoyed by the saints in the church on Earth.

And some amillennialists hold that it's both, the heavenly glory of the resurrected saints as well as the authority that we enjoy now as believers on Earth because we can bind evil in the name of Jesus.

Now, what am I?

Well, when I first converted, I was a pre-Millennialist.

Most new converts are, because most radio preachers and tele-evangelists and most preachers are pre-Millennialists, like Charles Stanley, like Pat Robertson, like Billy Graham and Luis Palau, and many, many others.

Charles Swindoll, I me- I mentioned him.

Chuck Smith.

All right, now, in the pre-Mil camp, though, there are different options.

When I first converted, I read a book which is really the bestseller over the last 30 years in religious literature, The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey.

Sold millions of copies.

Hal Lindsey takes what is known as a pre-trib, pre-Mil view.

That is, there's a tribulation of seven years that will come before Jesus' second coming.

The tribulation will be an awful time for earth-dwellers for seven years.

At the end of it, Christ will come and establish a Millennium in Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple, and reestablishing the priests and the sacrifices .

he's known as a pre-trib premill because he argues we Christians will be raptured up to heaven pre-trib before the tribulation and before the millennium, all right?

Now, after reading that, I was greatly relieved that I would be raptured up to the clouds before the tribulation and before the millennium.

Then I read some writings that convinced me of the mid-trib premill position.

The mid-trib premill position argues that after three and a half years of suffering, believers then will be raptured up into the clouds.

And then after they're raptured up in the clouds, their persecutors will go through three and a half years of tribulation and torment.

And actually in the Book of Revelation, that is the motif.

We go through a short season of suffering, and then they go through a short season of suffering.

And so the mid-trib premill school of thought seemed convincing.

And then I read the post-trib premill authors, and I was for a while a post-trib premill believer.

They argue that Christians will go through the entire tribulation, and only then will we be raptured up into the clouds, and then Christ will establish a thousand-year kingdom.

That has been the majority of premills' belief in the history of the church.

You'll actually find many church fathers in the early centuries holding what you could call a kind of literalistic premill view that would be post-trib.

That is, Christians will go through the tribulation and then Christ will establish the millennium.

But in any case, the early church fathers did not hold the heresy held by many premills today.

That is, the millennium will be a thousand-year Jewish kingdom state.

That's what Pat Robertson and many others hold.

That's why they're so Zionistic.

That's why they send their money and give almost unconditional support to the Israelis, no matter what they do in the Intifada against the Palestinians, and they commit some horrible injustices.

Now, after passing through these three positions, I then became an amill, an amillennialist.

I read the writings of many amill scholars who argued that the premills are taking these verses far too literalistically.

They should be interpreted with spiritual principles of interpretation.

And I was convinced by the spiritual interpretation, that the millennium described here really corresponds to the glorious reign of the saints in heaven, and also the spiritual authority that we enjoy on Earth in the new covenant age.

And then I ca- came across the writings of Loraine Boettner and B.

B.

Warfield and R.

J.

Rushdoony- and Gary North and David Chilton.

Chilton is the author of this Days of Vengeance, and all of those people are stalwart postmills.

The postmillennialists argue for this militant triumphant position that the, that the gospel will triumph and the church will emerge victorious in the New Testament age prior to Christ coming, and that the millennium is the present age when the gospel's going out farther and farther and spreading and covering the earth.

Now, I was a postmill up to the time when I began considering the Catholic faith.

Because in many ways, the postmill viewpoint fits nicely with the Catholic faith.

Because let's face it, even though we are in some really tough times, the last two or three decades, the last century or two, nevertheless, from 12 disciples who abandoned Jesus to a church that is, uh, now worldwide, age old, filled with the most unbelievably holy saints in heaven and on earth right now.

I mean, there's a lot of good reason to be optimistic and triumphant.

Postmillennial optimism fits in many ways with the Catholic viewpoint.

But I must confess that I underwent a still additional conversion when I began reading the writings of James Stuart Russell, The Parousia, Max King, The Spirit of Prophecy, and other authors who argued that the New Testament predictions of the second coming are fulfilled exhaustively in 70 AD.

I went through a crisis right around about the time I was giving up my pastorate and beginning to study Catholic writing, writers.

I began really experiencing crisis of faith on this issue.

How is it that all these prophecies do have a literal, though seemingly partial fulfillment in 70 AD?

Is there multiple fulfillments?

Is there a- future fulfillment at the end of time?

I wondered.

Then I held fast to the Apostles' Creed and the teaching of the church.

I believe that He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

But it was only faith in this creedil statement at that point.

Around that time, I began delving into the Jewish theology of the temple for the first time.

I've shared with you in the past some of the ideas concerning the Jerusalem temple.

This book by Jon D.

Levenson, a great Jewish scholar who teaches at Harvard, Sinai and Zion, describes how the temple was understood by all the ancient Jews as a miniature cosmos, a microcosm.

So that what happens to the temple will eventually happen to the universe.

Likewise, a Protestant scholar by the name of McKelvey, R.

J.

McKelvey wrote The New Temple, The Church in the New Testament.

He has said the same information about the temple in ancient Judaism.

Likewise, Father Yves Congar, one of the greatest theologians in the, uh, Second Vatican Council, wrote a book called The Mystery of the Temple, which he acknowledges- wherein he acknowledges that the ancient Jews saw the temple as a microcosm, the world in miniature.

Well, once you get that principle firmly in place, you see that a fulfillment in 70 AD does not preclude a fulfillment at the end of time.

In fact, it establishes it, because what happens to the temple, a microcosm, is going to happen to the macrocosm, the universe, which is a macro temple .

1000 years.

All right, so once I saw that, I began going to work, and I began to see that in 70 AD we have the fulfillment on a provisional level of what is going to occur at the end of time.

Before I go on, I want to make mention just of a few books that you can look at to consult just how divergent and controversial this issue is among Protestants.

This book edited by Robert Klaus, The Meaning of the Millennium: four Views.

You have a pre-mil, pre-trib; a pre-mil, post-trib; an amil; and a post-mil position being argued by four authors who all interact with each other.

Very interesting.

Another book, Arthur Lewis, The Dark Side of the Millennium: The Problem of Evil in Revelation 20.

Here's a brand new, uh, dissertation, J.W.

Mealie, After the Thousand Years Resurrection and Judgment in Revelation 20, published by, uh, the Journal of Study of the New Testament.

Uh, contemporary o- options in eschatology, A Study of the Millennium, M.J.

Erickson.

And then finally Loraine Boettner's book, The Millennium.

And this cracks the surface.

There are many articles and pamphlets dealing with the millennium as well.

I've read through all those books in dealing with the millennium.

Let me just suggest my working hypothesis that I'll develop next week.

My working hypothesis is that the millennium corresponds to the 1,000 years before the coming of Christ.

The 1,000 years in which Jerusalem, the earth of Jerusalem, served as a prototype of the new Jerusalem.

I discovered this when I discovered that David conquered Jerusalem 1003 BC, 1,000 years before Christ was born.

So for, for a millennium, just coincidentally enough, we have God identifying himself with a kingdom in an earthly city, Jerusalem, a prototype and a blueprint of the new covenant kingdom yet to come.

I will share my reasons for that working hypothesis next week, but I tell you it's exciting.

I believe if I have one contribution to make to the study of Revelation, it's an interpretation of the millennium which is going to be validated and verified by many scholars.

Not because I'm bright, but because God's gracious.

I'm a donkey, but Christ can ride donkeys.

And I have a c- I, I am convinced that if you come back next week, you will be excited along with me at all of the data which supports this view.

And by the way, it is a view which has general support by a Catholic scholar.

Corsini argues in his book, The Apocalypse, that the millennium corresponds to a symbol of the Old Testament period.

We'll take a look at that next time-