Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #21 of Revelation, chapter 18, and we are going to be reading Revelation 18:8-10:

Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

I will stop reading there.  We were discussing the first part of verse 8, where it says, “Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine.”  We saw that God brought this to pass beginning on May 21, 2011 when He brought the world into the condition of “death” or “hell,” into a desolate condition.  Also, a spiritual famine began at that time.

Actually, we would expect there to be “famine,” because when we review God’s program of “times and seasons” over the course of history, we find that there was always a fruitful season that was followed by famine.  There was a fruitful season of the “early righteous rain” that produced the crop or harvest of the Lord Jesus Christ.  During Christ’s three and one half year ministry, there was, for all intents and purposes, a famine.  He preached faithfully, but very few people became saved.  Then following that famine, there was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost and the evangelization of the world during the church age began and it was a fruitful season for the 1,955 years of the church age.

This was followed by the end of the church age in 1988 and the beginning of the Great Tribulation.  During that first 2,300 “evening mornings” virtually no one was being saved and it was a time of famine for both the churches and the world.  Then following the 2,300 days, the second part of the Great Tribulation came and there was the time of Latter Rain, in which God saved a great multitude, the final fruits. 

So the pattern is one of “rain” followed by “fruit,” followed by “famine.”  Therefore, we would expect that following the period of rain during the Latter Rain and the fruit of the great multitude, the next step in God’s progression of times and seasons would be “famine.”  And that is what happened on May 21, 2011, the beginning of Judgment Day.  There is a final famine that was brought to pass because there is no more “rain” and no more “fruit.”  Judgment Day itself is likened to a period of famine.

Then it goes on to say at the end of Revelation 18:8:

… and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Of course, God is strong.  He is almighty and omnipotent, an all powerful God.  He can speak a Word and create a universe or He can speak a Word and save a sinner through His Word, the Bible.  God is powerful and His Word is powerful.  All God has to do is speak the Word and the door of heaven shuts and that is what He has done.  He spoke a Word and the Gospel light that had enlightened the world is put out and that is what He has done.  He can “roll up the scroll” of His Word (as it were) and close His Book, the Bible, so that none can be illuminated and the light of His Word will no longer create a new heart.  This is what He did when He began Judgment Day.  He is a strong God, capable of bringing to pass a spiritual judgment, first of all, on the churches and congregations of the world and doing away with their service so that they were no longer His people.  He saved no one within the corporate churches for the 23 years of the Great Tribulation.

Then God is strong and powerful enough to end His salvation program upon the whole world.  It is all done through His will, His purpose and according to His power.

But, what about the first part of this verse, where it says, “And she shall be utterly burned with fire”?  The words “utterly burned” are a translation of a Greek word, Strong’s #2618, and it is found in some significant places.  For instance, it is found in Matthew 13:30:

Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

The word “burn” is the same word, so it could be understood as “utterly burn” them.

When Jesus explains this parable, He says in Matthew 13:40:

As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world.

Also, the same Greek word is used in Luke 3:16-17:

John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.

So, it could be said that the chaff is “utterly burned.”  Notice that in Matthew 13 and in Luke 3 the context is “harvest time” and the end of the world is likened to a harvest and the tares or chaff (both represent the unsaved) is “utterly burned.”  We do not have to understand this to be a literal burning at this time, because a spiritual fire was kindled in God’s anger at the beginning of Judgment Day on May 21, 2011.  It was a spiritual fire that began to burn and has continued to burn up until this time and it will burn throughout the entire time; at the very last day of the prolonged period of Judgment Day, there will be a literal fire and God will burn the world and all the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  He will completely and utterly destroy them in annihilation.  He will destroy them with fire for evermore.

We have read 1Corinthians, chapter 3, many times where God speaks of the Day of Judgment trying the works of those that have heard the Gospel to see if they are truly saved, or not.  It says in 1Corinthians 3:13-15:

Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

The word “burned” is the same word used in our verse in Revelation 18.  If we are correct and October 7, 2015 is the last day, then that day will be the final day of that spiritual fire that has been burning and it will be the day of the literal fire that will burn up this creation and all the unsaved. 

It is possible for someone to identify themselves with the true Gospel at this time, just as some people did prior to May 21, 2011.  Many of them were not saved and they were “shaken loose” after May 21, 2011 came and God did bring to pass an unseen spiritual judgment.  Many went back at that point and others stayed until October 21, 2011.  They waited that long, but when nothing happened then, there was further “shaking” and they went back.  So we have continued on into these years of Judgment Day and I do not think any of us continuing to follow the Bible’s teaching and continuing to give mental consent to it should think that this, in  and of itself, means we are enduring the fire.  It may be evidence toward enduring the fire and it may be evidence that we are “gold, silver, precious stones.”  But, ultimately, to endure the fire we must endure that last day when God literally burns up the world and all the unsaved.  Finally, it will only be the elect that will come shining through as “gold, silver, precious stones” and that will have endured to the end.  That is absolutely necessary and God is the only one that can bring His people to that point.

Let us just look at one other place where this word is used, in 2Peter, chapter 3.  We mentioned that God will utterly burn the world and this is the passage that describes this.  It says in 2Peter 3:10:

But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

It could also be said to be “utterly burned” and this is speaking of the annihilation of the fallen creation and fallen man when God will utterly destroy unsaved mankind.  This language of being “utterly burned” fits in very well with the idea of annihilation, where it says in our verse in Revelation 18:8:

… and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Let us go on to Revelation 18:9:

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her…

Remember what we learned back in Revelation, chapter 17, where a similar statement was made regarding Babylon, in Revelation 17:2:

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

We saw there that God was making a distinction between the “kings of the earth” and the other inhabitants of the earth.  The “kings of the earth” were those that identified with those that profess to be Christians and the “inhabitants of the earth” would be the unsaved outside of the churches in the world.   So, in Revelation 18, the “kings of the earth” have relationship with the corporate churches, but God also speaks of the merchants of the earth and the mariners and He says they are all witnessing the destruction of Babylon and lamenting and weeping over it, crying out, “Alas, alas,” and this is a translation of the same word that is translated as “woe” in Revelation 13:8, where it says, “Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth!”  The “three woes” identify with the last three trumpets.  Here, in Revelation 18, we find it says, “Alas, alas” and it is repeated three times.  It is in verse 10, verse 16 and verse 19, so it is a doubling of “three woes,” just as it said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  The doubled “three woes” total six woes and they identify with the “three woes” of the final three trumpets and the judgment on the world.  The first four trumpets in Revelation, chapter 8, identified with the judgment on the churches, but in describing the fall of Babylon, God is describing His awful wrath that is falling upon Satan and his kingdom, the nations of the world, which also includes the churches. 

Just keep in mind, for instance, that when a king would conquer a land like the king of Babylon conquered Judah, then Judah became a province of Babylon, one of many provinces. The Babylonians had conquered many lands, so Judah became a part of the great kingdom of Babylon, historically.  Satan ruled the nations because it was given to him by right of conquest in the Garden of Eden.  He ruled the unsaved of the world in the nations and when God turned over the corporate churches to Satan at the end of the church age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation, Satan took his seat as the man of sin seated in the temple.  Then the churches became a part of Babylon – just another province of Babylon.  Satan still ruled in the nations and now He ruled in the churches, too.  The churches and congregations are a part of Babylon because Satan defeated them, just as when any king would defeat a land and take the land for his kingdom. 

So our verse in Revelation 18:9 says, “And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her.”  This is saying that the churches and the congregations have been involved in spiritual fornication with Babylon.  That is the only way to describe what happened to the churches, when we look at the church’s doctrines.  We see that they have fallen for lies, falsehoods and deceit and these are things the world is involved with, as Satan is the father of lies.  The churches committed fornication with the world. 

We can look at the methods the churches are using today to get people into their congregations.  They are using business formats and imitating the way the world motivates people through commercialism to “buy” the merchandise that the church is trying to sell.  They are becoming just like the world.  Actually, they are just like the world because they are a part of Babylon.  Look at the music that the churches have gone after.  They use rock-n-roll and even heavy metal.  If you did not hear the lyrics (and often you cannot), you would think it was a radio station just like any other station because it sounds just like the world’s music and that is not accidental.  God’s kingdom has always had music that was “set apart” and excellent for meditation and contemplation of the greatness and grandeur of God and His Word, but now there is the music of the world.  This is because the churches have committed spiritual fornication with the world.  Well, we do not need to get into all that. 

God is focused on judgment on the world, including the churches and congregations of the world.  The judgment is upon all the unsaved, even though some people want to consistently focus on judgment on the churches; every verse they see they believe that God is speaking of judgment on the churches.  It is true that in many verses God does focus on the judgment of the corporate church, but when people go to Scriptures that identify with the end of the world and judgment upon mankind and they try to turn them around and relate them to judgment upon the churches, they are trying to do exactly what the churches did.  When information was brought from the Bible that indicated that God would, indeed, give up the churches and turn them over to Satan, they tried to avoid that truth and escape the condemnation of the Word of God.  That is exactly what some are doing today, as they try to avoid the fact that there is judgment upon the world because they are out in the world.  They are outside of the churches and it is far easier for them to point the finger at the churches and say that there is where the fire is burning, but the fire is burning in the “isles.”  Remember that statement in Isaiah 24, a terrible and awesome chapter in which God goes into tremendous detail to describe the final judgment of the world.  He says in Isaiah 24:15:

Wherefore glorify ye JEHOVAH in the fires, even the name of JEHOVAH God of Israel in the isles of the sea.

The “isles” are islands and that is what the continents are – very large islands.  When God says, “Wherefore glorify ye JEHOVAH in the fires,” and in Hebrew parallelism we would expect God to restate it in the second part, but with different words.  And that is what He does when He says, “even the name of JEHOVAH God of Israel in the isles of the sea.”  That is where the fires are and the continents are where people are and, therefore, it is talking about the entire world.  The whole world is “utterly burning.”  Babylon is burning and God’s people are in the fires in the world because we are still on the earth and going through these days of judgment.  Therefore, we are called upon to glorify JEHOVAH during these very trying and difficult times. 

Again, some may refuse that and they think the judgment is not where they are.  Why would they direct it elsewhere?  Well, maybe it is because of their family and friends.  Actually, what it comes down to is they do not have eyes to see; God has to give us spiritual eyes to see the truth of His Word.

Again, it says in Revelation 18:9:

And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

Babylon is the judgment of the world.  The “kings of the earth” can point to the professed Christians, but it is the same language when we come to the “merchants of the earth” in verse 11; they also weep and mourn over her and they also cry, “Woe, woe, that great city,” as though they are witnessing the burning and destruction of Babylon.  Likewise, it is the same with the mariners and the shipmen, as they, too, are weeping and mourning as though they can see it.  What is going on here?  We know because we have gone this far into the period of judgment that many people are not even aware that judgment is taking place and they are not bewailing and crying out, “Woe, woe!”  We just do not see that kind of activity, so we have to wonder how this fits.  In what way can it be said that the “kings of the earth” and the “merchants of the earth” and the shipmasters are witnessing the destruction of the world (Babylon) and weeping over it, when we do not see that happening at all?  We are not seeing that taking place in the world and we are not seeing it in the churches either.  The professed Christians are not crying that God has brought judgment on the world.  We do not see any of that. 

Well, what are our options?   The first option is that it is spiritual language in which God has something else in view; that is, it is not that the people of the world will actually “see” these things, but this language points to a Biblical truth.  The second option is that maybe at the very end, perhaps on October 7, 2015, the world will realize what is happening and they will be crying and weeping.  But the second option is not going to happen and we are going to take a closer look at the first option when we get together in our next Bible study.