Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #4 of Revelation, chapter 17, and we are going to be reading Revelation 17:4-5:

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

We had discussed the woman and the scarlet coloured beast and the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones.  We saw that the woman is Babylon and Babylon is the kingdom of Satan which he ruled over, consisting of unsaved mankind throughout history from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden.

At this point, we are going to look at the last part of verse 4, which says of the woman, in Revelation 17:4:

… having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

God mentions this cup in the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 51.  It says in Jeremiah 51:7:

Babylon hath been a golden cup in JEHOVAH’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

Revelation 17:4 told us what was in the cup, but in Jeremiah 51:7 God tells us that Babylon has been this cup in JEHOVAH’S hand.  This means it was the Lord’s will because the “hand” in the Bible represents the “will.”  Since Babylon has been a golden cup in His hand, it means it has been God’s will that the earth be drunken from her wine or that which was in the cup and  Revelation 17:4 tells us that the cup was “full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.”  It is all the evil deeds, the wickedness, the idolatry and all the ugly sin we see multiplied in the world today.  For instance, when God loosed Satan He allowed wickedness to increase in the world by removing His hand of restraint from the hearts of man.  Remember what we read when we went through 2Thessalonians, chapter 2?  It is the chapter where the Lord tells us there must be “a falling away first,” before the coming of Christ and that is the apostasy in the churches at the time of the end during the Great Tribulation when Satan took his seat in the temple as the man of sin showing himself that he is God.  In that context, God said in 2Thessalonians 2:6-7:

And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

The Greek word translated as “letteth” has the idea of “holding back” something; that is, the Holy Spirit is He that held back iniquity until He be taken out of the way.  This is the “mystery of iniquity.”  It is a mystery because mankind is desperately wicked and, yet, throughout most of the history of the world, even though mankind was evil the degree and amount of evil was greatly restrained by the Spirit of God as He held back the natural wickedness of mankind all over the earth.  God restrained sin, for His own purpose, because the world had to continue through its times and seasons.  In just the last few decades, as God has lifted His hand of restraint more and more, we have seen a tremendous increase in evil all over the earth.  We wonder, “How much longer can this go on?  How much more evil can things get?  At what point have we plumbed the depths of wickedness?  It just does not seem that we have reached it because we just keep hearing of uglier and uglier sin that people are involved in and we just cannot imagine that the world could continue this way for any length of time.  That is why God had to restrain the natural evil within man’s heart which Jeremiah 17:9 tells us is “deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked.”  God kept a lid on the true nature of man and his evil heart of unbelief until the time of the end to coincide with the loosing of Satan.  Satan, as the beast, took his seat in the temple and began to rule in the churches as the “abomination of desolation.”  In the world, God, as it were, took a step back and people began to do what comes naturally to them. 

You know, the sin we see today is a more accurate and true portrayal of the heart of man than of past generations.  Those of us that are older long for the times of the previous generations when people were so much warmer and so much nicer; there was decency and morality, to a greater degree, but that was the Spirit of God restraining their natural tendencies.  But now God is not restraining what comes naturally to man in his fallen condition, so when we read the paper today and read of all the evil things men do, it is truer to the nature of man.  Do we have to even read the papers?  I say that because God wrote about it nearly 2,000 years ago, in Romans 1:24-28:

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

Now God is going to list the sins that are so prevalent everywhere today and He is going to list 23 sins.  The number “23” identifies with the Great Tribulation and the Great Tribulation was actually 23 years in length, from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011. 

He goes on to say in Romans 1:29:-32:

…Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

God did this, as we read in Jeremiah 51:7, with Babylon, the kingdom of Satan.  The more freedom men have to express the evil within them serves Satan all the more and Satan became greater and his rule over the nations was exalted in this horrible way during the “little season” of the Great Tribulation.  During that time it says in Jeremiah 51:7:

Babylon hath been a golden cup in JEHOVAH'S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.

The word “mad” can also be translated as “boasting” or “foolish.”  In the previous chapter, it used the word “mad” in Jeremiah 50:38:

A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols.

They boast because of their idols or their idolatry and that is significant because of the word “abomination.”  We are used to reading of the “abomination of desolation.”  Remember what it says in Matthew 24?   It is the same Greek word used in our verse in Revelation 17:4, where is said the golden cup in her hand was full of “abominations,” and God said in Revelation 17:5:

And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Babylon is also the mother of “abominations” and abominations have come forth from Babylon from the very beginning in the Garden of Eden.  In Matthew, chapter 24, we find that God speaks of “abomination” in the context of the Lord Jesus answering the disciples’ question: “What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”  As part of that answer, Christ says in Matthew 24:14-16:

And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:

We are familiar with these verses and we have discussed them before, but we really have not looked into the word “abominations.”  What does God mean when He says, “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation”?  We understand that when we see it, we are to flee Judaea and go into the mountains and this is language that commands the people of God to come out of the churches because it says that when we see “the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place,” we know that the “holy place” is where the holy Bible is found and the Bible has been housed in the churches during the church age for almost 2,000 years.  That was the only “holy place” in the New Testament era. 

So God when says, “When you see the abomination of desolation,” He does not mean to “see” with your physical eyes.  This is a good example of letting the Bible define its own terms and when we look up this word “see,” we find it actually means to “understand” or to “see through faith” or when you come to “know” something, spiritually.  That is why God says in Ecclesiastes 8:5: “and a wise man's heart discerneth both time and judgment,” and that means they come to know it.  Let us also read Daniel 12:10 and what comes after it.  It says in Daniel 12:10:

Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

This is because the wise, the true believers, discern time and judgment.  The elect possess “wisdom,” which is Christ, the Spirit of God which indwells them and illuminates the Scriptures, like the five wise virgins that had oil in their lamps and they could “see.” 

Here in Daniel, chapter 12, it goes on to say in Daniel 12:11:

And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away, and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.

So, in the very place where God says “the wise shall understand,” He also mentions the “abomination of desolation.”  It is the same “abomination” because Jesus told us in Matthew 24:14:

When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…

The Words are closed up and sealed til the time of the end, and that implies that at the time of the end they will be unsealed and then the wise will understand.  And what will they “see” or understand?  First of all, they will see the “abomination of desolation” stand in the holy place.  It is also mentioned in Daniel 11:31:

And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

God also speaks of “abomination” in Daniel, chapter 9, so we see it three times in the Book of Daniel.  Since our word in the New Testament is a Greek word for “abomination,” we see that it is “taken from” or referenced to the use of the Hebrew word for “abomination” in Daniel, so we have the equivalent word.  The Hebrew word, Strong’s #8251, is equivalent to the Greek word, Strong’s #946, which is found in our verse in Revelation 17, verses 4 and 5 and in Matthew 24, verse 15.

In the Old Testament this Hebrew word is also translated as “detestable.”  It is something that is “detestable” or “abominable.”  It is the “abomination that maketh desolate.”  When it says the “daily” is taken away, it refers to the Holy Spirit coming out of the midst of the churches and the “abomination that maketh desolate,” (Satan) is set up and takes his seat in the temple to rule in the congregations. 

But there is something that this word “abomination” involves that we should all be aware of, so let us turn to 1Kings, chapter 11.  When we look at this word “abomination,” which is Strong’s #8251, we find it is often associated with idols or idolatry.  It says in 1Kings 11:4-8:

For it came to pass, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods: and his heart was not perfect with JEHOVAH his God, as was the heart of David his father. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. And Solomon did evil in the sight of JEHOVAH, and went not fully after JEHOVAH, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build an high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, in the hill that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrificed unto their gods.

This word “abomination” is used here to refer to false gods, the gods that receive worship but are not the true God.  That is “abomination” and a “detestable” thing to God.  It is abhorrent and that which He despises.  We also find it says in Deuteronomy 29:16-17:

(For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

Here, God joins “abominations” with “idols” and that is the idea.  Of course, we have realized this, but maybe we had not fully realized it when we read verses like 2Thessalonians 2:3-4:

… except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

God left the churches and Satan entered in to be worshipped as God and that is an abomination.  It is the “abomination of desolation” because there is no “life” in it; there is no “living water” and there is no “fruit.”  It is a barren wilderness.  So it was an “abomination” that Satan was in every church in all the world – Catholic, Protestant, independent or house church.  He entered into all the churches and took his seat to rule and to receive the worship and when people went to the churches, God was not there; the Holy Spirit had removed and abandoned them and turned the churches over to Satan.  That is why it was such a terrible and awful thing and that is why God commanded His people to come out and “flee to the mountains,” or flee to the Word of God and worship God through His Word, in spirit and in truth, in an individual way.

But in the churches there is worship taking place.  Now when people go to church they are not worshipping the true God of the Bible.  They are not offering worship to God and they have not been since God left the congregation and the “abomination” was established there.  It is an awful thing, especially today when people ought to know better.  They have heard and they were warned, but some are going back to the churches, back to those places that have been made an “abomination” in the sight of God.