The Punishment of
the Great Prostitute and the Battle of
Armageddon
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How the Beast Rises
Now
that we have considered several parts of
the story, let us take a moment and
review the sequence of prophetic events
that leads up to the establishment of
Lucifer’s one-world-church-state
(the image). Revelation 13:1 predicts
that a beast will rise from the sea
shortly after God’s judgments begin
to fall. Although Revelation 13:1 does
not say what causes the beast to rise
from the sea, the Bible does address the
identity, the timing and purpose of this
beast. The beast that rises from the sea
represents man’s organized response
to the overwhelming death and destruction
caused by the first four
trumpet-judgments. The first four
trumpet-judgments will destroy one-fourth
of the world’s population and
one-third of the world’s oceans,
land mass and rivers. As a result, the
inhabitants of this diverse planet will
quickly find a united way to
respond to God’s wrath.
The
Bible states that the beast from the sea
will have seven heads and ten horns, and
it will exercise its authority for
forty-two months. I call this a crisis
government, a union of diverse churches
and diverse states, that will form
shortly after the judgments of God begin
to fall. (Remember, the devil is not
allowed to physically appear on Earth for
approximately 890 days, so the
one-world-church-state will be a later
development.) At first, the crisis
government will be a coalition of the
world’s religious leaders who will
agree and unite in a common cause to
appease God. They will implore their
respective governments to implement laws
demanding repentance for sin and the
worship of God, and fearful legislators
will respond in unity. The seven heads
represent the seven religions of the
world: Atheism, Heathenism, Eastern
Mysticism, Judaism, Catholicism and
Protestantism. The problem with this
religious coalition is that each
religious group views God’s will in
a different way, resulting in a great
deal of confusion about repentance and
worship. This is why the beast is called
Babylon – because the word
“Babylon” means confusion.
The
head that received the deadly wound (in
1798) represents the papacy, and the
healing of this deadly wound indicates
the pope will lead the world as chief
spiritual advisor until the devil appears
masquerading as God. After Lucifer
appears, he will abolish all of the
religions on Earth as quickly as possible
because he will not tolerate diversity
when “God” lives on Earth.
After Lucifer convinces enough people
that he is God, he will demand that an the
image or likeness to the diverse sea
beast be established. In other words, the
devil will consolidate the religions and
governments of the world into a
one-world-church-state that does not have
to deal with the confusion caused by
man’s diversity. The book of
Revelation gives Lucifer’s
one-world-church-state three titles
because each title amplifies the
character and actions of his
one-world-church-state. These three
titles are: “the image to the
beast,” “the great
prostitute,” “the great city
that rules over the kings of the
Earth.”
We
know that God permits the devil to
physically appear to lead the world into
destruction. There are several reasons
why God permits the devil to abolish the
religions of the world, but this is the
one that I find most interesting.
Revelation 13 and 17 indicate the seven
heads (the seven religions of the world)
are blasphemous in nature (Revelation
13:1; 17:3), signifying that they have
usurped the prerogatives of God. The
religions of Earth are offensive to God
because all of them are false and
arrogant. When false ideas about God are
merged with man’s fallen nature,
religious organizations become arrogant
and unwilling to change. Somehow, most
clergy view religious change as a sign of
weakness when in reality, truth is ever
unfolding.
Even
worse, lay people typically exalt their
religion as though it were God!
Therefore, God permits the devil to
eliminate the religions of the world,
which will have the calculated effect of
putting millions of people in a great
predicament. If people cling to their old
religion, which will be outlawed, the
devil will kill them for rebellion. If
they join the devil’s new religion,
they will have to sell their soul to the
devil in order to survive, even though
they may disagree with the demands of the
new religion! This conflict will open the
minds of devoutly religious people, and
for the first time, they will
thoughtfully and intelligently consider
the annoying testimony of the 144,000. I
say, “annoying” because their
testimony of Jesus Christ will stand in
direct opposition to all the religions on
Earth including Lucifer’s
one-world-church-state!
Sixth Trumpet
When
the appointed hour, day, month and year
for the sixth trumpet-judgment arrives
(Revelation 9:15), the devil will declare
sovereign authority over all of Earth.
This declaration will force everyone
– on a single day – to take
sides. People standing in opposition to
his one-world-church-state will be
targeted for destruction. (Revelation
13:15) The challenge on that day will be
very simple. “Worship God or
die.” The problem, of course, is
that the being claiming to be God is the
devil. The Bible indicates Lucifer will
divide the population of Earth into
groups of one thousand and his angels
will kill one-third of mankind. The
survivors of this global purge will be
forced to wear one of two marks of
the beast. The non-government survivors
will wear a tattoo showing the number
“666” on their right hand. The
government workers will wear a tattoo on
their foreheads indicating the name that
the devil will use. (Revelation 13:16-18)
These tattoos will serve as a
non-transferable I.D. card and will be
placed on the two-thirds of mankind who
have joined Lucifer’s
one-world-church-state. Now you know why
the mark of the beast is a number: 666
are two-thirds of 1,000. Of course, the
devil’s angels will be unable to
locate and kill all of God’s saints,
but they will destroy several hundred
million of them during the fifth seal.
(Revelation 6:9-11; 16:4-7; 17:6)
The
seventh trumpet-judgment in Revelation
11:15-19 occurs on Sunday, the 1,264th
day of the Great Tribulation. At that
point, the inhabitants of Earth will have
either the mark of the beast or the seal
of God. Jesus’ final offer of
salvation will have been terminated, and
He will begin to avenge the suffering of
His innocent saints by forcing the wicked
to drink the bitter dregs of His wrath
poured out of seven bowls – the
seven last plagues. I believe the seven
bowls will last about seventy days with
each plague averaging ten days. These
seven bowl-judgments, unlike the seven
trumpet judgments, will fall upon the
wicked without any mixture of mercy. The
first four bowls will fall on people
having the mark of the beast, and the
last three bowls will include Lucifer and
his angels.
The Fifth Bowl
“The
fifth angel poured out his bowl on the
throne of the beast, and his kingdom was
plunged into darkness. Men gnawed their
tongues in agony and cursed the God of
heaven because of their pains and their
sores, but they refused to repent of what
they had done.” (Revelation
16:10,11)
The
fifth-bowl judgment will turn everything
upside down for the wicked. This plague
falls upon the throne of the devil, and
his administration of his
one-world-church-state will be plunged
into a dense darkness and a painful
experience. Keep in mind there will be no
electricity in those days. This darkness
will be similar to the darkness that
plagued Pharaoh. (Exodus 10:22,23) A
plague of painful sores will also befall
the devil, his kings and priests. This
series of events turn everything upside
down for the wicked because this plague
unmasks the devil. The wicked will
understand that the glorious being
sitting on the throne is not Almighty God
as he claimed. Too late, the wicked
realize that they have been worshiping
and obeying the devil because no one but
a higher authority could impose this
painful suffering and darkness on the
devil’s throne and kingdom. The
fifth bowl unmasks the devil by proving
there is a higher power that is a
sovereign power. (I find it ironic that
the wicked discover this light while
sitting in the dark.)
When
the realization occurs, the
one-world-church-state will immediately
break down and implode because people who
have the mark of the beast will learn
that their God is no god after all. This
is when the punishment of the great
prostitute (the one-world-church-state)
begins. The huge administration and one
world government that Lucifer assembled
will be filled with people loathing the
one-world-church-state they built. The
devil’s deception will be exposed
and the wicked will be totally
demoralized and disgusted. Every wicked
person will remember how he sold his soul
to the devil to survive. Every wicked
person will recall what the 144,000 had
said. The fifth plague will provide
unmistakable evidence to the wicked that
their doom is near. They will hate the
one-world-church-state, they will loathe
themselves, and the devil’s great
government will implode.
Sixth Bowl – Twenty
Days to Go
“The
sixth angel poured out his bowl on the
great river Euphrates, and its water
dried up to prepare the way for the kings
of the East.” (Revelation 16:12)
The kings (plural) from the East are the
Father and Son. They will appear together
in clouds of glory at the Second Coming.
(See Matthew 26:64 and Revelation 6:
16,17) they will come from the East
because anything approaching our planet
from space appears to come from the East
because of our planet’s clockwise
rotation.
The
drying up of the river Euphrates takes a
little explanation. God established the
great river Euphrates as Israel’s
northernmost boundary when He gave the
land of Canaan to
Abraham.
(Genesis 15:18) This great river
served as a natural barrier against
invading forces from the North.
Because the great river Euphrates is fed
by snowmelt from several mountains, the
river overflows its banks from time to
time, and the destruction left in the
wake of this unstoppable flooding
“in the north” became
legendary.
God
sometimes paralleled His wrath against
Israel with the flooding of this great
river Euphrates. (See Isaiah 8: 7,8 and
Jeremiah 47:2). God also paralleled His
wrath against Israel as coming out of the
north. (Ezekiel 1:4; Jeremiah 1:14) To
the ancient nation of Israel, “the
flooding of the Euphrates” meant one
thing: Oncoming and unstoppable
destruction from the north. Once this
ancient figure of speech is understood,
the release of the four angels at the
river Euphrates in the sixth trumpet
becomes easier to understand. When the
sixth trumpet-judgment occurs, an
oncoming and unstoppable destruction will
befall the whole world. In fact, the
devil’s angels will kill one-third
of mankind! (Revelation 9:15) It is
interesting to notice that the sixth
trumpet-judgment concerns the great river
Euphrates and so does the sixth
bowl-judgment. The drying up of the great
river, to prepare the way for the kings
from the East, means this: No barrier
protecting mankind from God wrath is
left. The kings from the East will cross
“the river” without resistance.
The kings from the East will be
unstoppable and their global destruction
will be swift and complete. (See Job
37:22.)
Three Frogs
“Then
I saw three evil spirits that looked like
grogs; they came out of the mouth of the
dragon, out of the mouth of the beast and
out of the mouth of the false prophet.
They are spirits of demons performing
miraculous signs, and they go out to the
kings of the whole world, to gather them
for the battle on the great day of God
Almighty.” (Revelation 16:
13,14) John saw three miracle working
demons that looked like frogs come out of
the mouth of the dragon (Lucifer), the
beast (the sea beast with seven heads and
ten horns, also called Babylon) and the
false prophet (the devil’s
personation of God). This language
requires some explanation.
When
Lucifer is permitted to appear before the
people of Earth during the fifth
trumpet-judgment, the devil will present
himself as a glorious being of light.
(2 Corinthians 11:14) The devil and
200,000,000 of his angels (Revelation
9:16) will take on physical forms that
humans will be able to touch and see.
This concept can be difficult to
understand at first because the devil and
his angels will not be human beings.
Perhaps the easiest way to understand
this is through the use of a hand puppet.
When a capable artist puts his hand
inside a hand puppet, the artist can make
the hand puppet appear to be alive
even though everyone knows that it is the
hand inside the hand puppet that
is alive. When the fifth trumpet-judgment
occurs, the glorious body masquerading,
as God will be the hand puppet. This is
important to know because Jesus will
destroy the glorious bodies that Lucifer
and his angels inhabit at the Second
Coming. The devil and his angels will be
returned to the spirit realm for 1,000
years. (Revelation 20:1-3)
Lucifer’s
apparition is called a “false
prophet” three times in the book of
Revelation because Lucifer is a lair and
he will lead the whole world astray with
his lies. (Revelation 12:9) The devil
will be able to deceive billions of
people because they never loved the
truth. Thus, the devil will earn
the title, “false prophet.”
Notice how the world will be tested
during the Great Tribulation. Everyone
will hear a call to obey God and exalt
His truth. God’s true prophets will
proclaim God’s Word. The wicked will
hear God’s servants, but they will
accept Lucifer’s lies, and
unfortunately, most of the world’s
clergy will unite with the false prophet!
Surely, the whole world will stand in the
valley of decision! “Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision! For
the day of the Lord is near in the valley
of decision. The sun and moon will be
darkened, and the stars no longer shine.
The Lord will roar from Zion and thunder
from Jerusalem; and the earth and the sky
will tremble. But the Lord will be a
refuge for his people, a stronghold for
the people of Israel.” (Joel
3:14-16)
We
have already discussed how God will
unmask the devil during the fifth bowl-
judgment. Finally, the wicked will
understand their great deception. The
wicked will realize their stupidity as
well as their impending doom because
their protection (the
one-world-church-state) turns out to be a
great deception. The implosion of the
great prostitute is represented as the
drying up of the great river Euphrates.
Now, that you understand this setting,
consider the following: When the
sixth-bowl judgment is poured out, the
devil will acknowledge his clever
deception and inform the wicked that his
and their destruction is imminent. The
wicked will have no place to turn.
Everything they trusted in was either a
lie or a calculated deception.
At
that time, the devil will set out to
achieve one last deception. (The devil
does not give up.) He will send three
miracle working demons throughout the
world with the news that Jesus Christ is
about to appear and that Jesus intends to
destroy every wicked person. The devil
will tell the wicked that they have no
other option but to join with him in
destroying Jesus as He nears Earth. The
devil’s demons will work great
miracles before the kings and rulers of
Earth to convince them that they have a
ghost of a chance at saving themselves.
Perhaps
one of the reasons that John describes
these three demons as frogs is found in
Psalm 78:45: “He [God] sent
swarms of flies that devoured them, and
frogs that devastated them.” Remember
that Pharaoh’s magicians were able
to convince Pharaoh that his God was as
great as the God of the Hebrews because
they could also call up frogs from the
Nile River. (Exodus 8:7) However, this
was the last deception that
Pharaoh’s magicians were able to
reproduce before their rebellious king.
In other words, the imagery of demons as
frogs in Revelation 16 parallels the last
deception of Satan, and the
devastation that follows for the kings
and armies of Earth parallels the
destruction of the king of Egypt and his
soldiers. Because the three frogs (three
demons) come out of the mouths of the
dragon, beast and prophet, these
demonically controlled entities are in
perfect agreement with each other. They
know their only remaining option is to
destroy Jesus as He arrives. How low can
evil minds sink? Who could think of
actually entering into combat against
Almighty God? Truly, the carnal heart is
hostile toward God and His laws: The
carnal heart would rather die than
surrender to God’s authority and
given half a chance, it would kill God.
“Behold,
I come like a thief! Blessed is he who
stays awake and keeps his clothes with
him, so that he may not go naked and be
shamefully exposed.’ Then they
gathered the kings together to the place
that in Hebrew is called
Armageddon.” (Revelation
16:15,16)
Remember,
the seven bowls will last for a period of
seventy days; each plague will last for
ten days. This means the 1,290th
day (the date for the universal slaughter
of the saints – Daniel 12:11) occurs
during the third bowl-judgment. The devil
will rally the wicked to kill every saint
they can find. The good news surrounding
this event is that (a) God responds to
this evil tactic with a horrible plague
for the wicked, and (b) the wicked will
not be able to find or kill a single
saint. (Daniel 12:1) Notice what happens
to the wicked at this time: “The
third angel poured out his bowl on the
rivers and springs of water, and they
became blood. Then I heard the angel in
charge of the waters say: ‘You are
just in these judgments, you who are and
who were, the Holy One, because you have
so judged; for they have shed the blood
of your saints and prophets [during
the time of the seven trumpets], and
you have given them blood to drink as
they deserve.’ And I heard the alter
respond: ‘Yes, Lord God Almighty,
true and just are your
judgments.’” (Revelation
16:4-7)
The
sixth bowl-judgment (demonic deception)
begins twenty-five days after the 1,290th
day. At that time, the saints will be
hiding in remote places, desperate for
the appearing of Jesus, and they will be
clinging to life through faith in Him.
This is why Jesus speaks to the saints
saying, ‘Behold, I come like a
thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and
keeps his clothes with him, so that he
may not go naked and be shamefully
exposed.’
Armageddon
John
concludes the ten days of the sixth
bowl-judgment saying, “Then they [the
demons] gathered the kings together to
the place that is in Hebrew is called
Armageddon.” (Revelation 16:16,
insertion mine) This text puzzled Bible
students for almost 2,000 years, but I
think the meaning is quite simple. The
word har-meggiddon is mentioned once in
the Bible, so a word study on
“Armageddon” is not practical.
To be accurate, har-megiddon is not a
Hebrew word! However, in Old Testament
times it is well known that the Hebrews
would join words together to create names
as circumstances warranted. For example,
when God called Abraham to offer his son
Isaac on Mount Moriah, the Lord
intervened. The Lord cancelled the
sacrifice of Isaac because He provided a
ram that was caught in the thicket.
Abraham named that place
“Jehovahjireh” by putting two
Hebrew words together. Jehovahjireh means
“Jehovah will provide {the
sacrifice]” or “Jehovah will
see to it [that the sacrifice will be
provided].” (Genesis 22:14)
The
word Armageddon appears to be a
combination of two Greek words: har and
Megiddon. The Greek word har means
mountain. The word Megiddon refers to a
battlefield where kings Ahaziah ands
Josiah died. (2 Kings 9:27; 23:30) The
interesting thing about Josiah’s
death is that he foolishly went against
God’s command. He foolishly made war
with Pharaoh Neco who was passing through
the land, and Josiah was killed. (2 Kings
23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:21,22) In other
words, the association with Megiddo is
that of a battlefield where kings die.
The kings of the Earth will foolishly
make war with Almighty God at the
mountain of God and they will be
destroyed. At the end of the battle,
“the King of the mountain” will
be Almighty God. The kings of Earth will
perish. The wicked will be killed; the
glorious but evil apparition of the devil
and his angels will be consumed with fire
and returned to their spirit realm. The
battle of Armageddon occurs the last en
days of Earth’s history.
“The
seventh angel poured out his bowl into
the air, and out of the temple came a
loud voice from the throne, saying,
‘It is done!’ Then there came
flashes of lightening, rumblings, peals
of thunder and a severe earthquake. No
earthquake like it has ever occurred
since man has been on earth, so
tremendous was the quake. The great city [the
throne, the buildings and offices of
Lucifer’s one-world-church-state] split
into three parts, and the cities of the
nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon
the Great and gave her the cup filled
with the wine of the fury of his wrath.
Every island fled away and the mountains
could not be found. From the sky
huge hailstones of about a hundred pounds
each fell upon men. And they cursed God
on account of the plague of hail, because
the plague was so terrible.” (Revelation
16:17-21)
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