SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 241BSeptember 20, 2005
Armageddon – Not in the Far Distant Future – Part 7
An Exposition of Revelation 16:13 to 18:24
Ezekiel 33:3-6 – If when he seeth the sword come upon the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people; [4] Then whosoever heareth the sound of the trumpet, and taketh not warning; if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. [5] He heard the sound of the trumpet, and took not warning; his blood shall be upon him. But he that taketh warning shall deliver his soul. [6] But if the watchman see the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.
The primary Scripture, among those on which I will be expositing in this series, specifically warns those setting under false teachings to break away from the religious “her” that is teaching them today.
Revelation 18:4 – And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
This Scripture lets me know there are saved men and women who are in the “her” of this verse, because it calls them “my people.” The primary purpose of this series is to specifically identify the “her” and to implore those “in her” to come “out of her,” and to warn those not in “her” to stay “out of her.”
Now, I shall continue expositing from where we left off in Part 6.
REVELATION 18:3 – For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Paul, when writing to the Church at Corinth, indicated that he was concerned about the way some of the things were being done in the church, one of which involved one of the ordinances of the church, namely the way the Lord’s Supper or communion was being observed. Of all the churches to whom Paul wrote epistles, none was rebuked like the Church at Corinth. Not only did the Catholic Church turn the ordinance of baptism into a sacrament necessary for salvation, but they also did the same with the ordinance of communion. In the last Update, Part 6, I listed her many heretical departures from “the” faith that was one once delivered to the first New Testament saints from the first century through the eleventh. The Catholic Church has committed what amounts to spiritual fornication toward Christ.
Paul reminded the Church at Corinth that she was only espoused to one husband, the Lord Christ Jesus, and she should remain a chaste virgin by obeying him until he came for her.
II Corinthians 11:2,3 – For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. [3] But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Churches that remain faithful in obeying the one for which they are waiting, according to the instructions in the New Testament, represent chaste virgins, but the Catholic Church represents an apostate whore for they have changed, manipulated, and mutilated “the” faith once delivered to the saints. Those irregular churches that existed in history before 313 AD, merged together in a marriage of church and state under the Emperor Constantine, and few churches have had their minds more corrupted by the devil from the simplicity that is Christ. The consciences of most of their teachers have been sealed over with a hot iron.
The union of church and state when irregular churches merged together as a body united with Constantine was her beginning. The nations and kings of this earth that have united with her will experience wrath because of it. She has become the richest religious body on this earth, even though her treasury has been somewhat affected by withdrawals from lawsuits for homosexuality. The sale of Catholic statues, jewelry, artifacts, relics, and a bevy of other associated money making practices, have made a ready market for the merchants of this world down through the ages.
Revelation 18:4 – And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
The message is very simple – If you are a part of the Catholic Church, come out of her – If you are not, stay out of her.
I had already exposited up to Revelation 18:8 in Update six, so I will now pick up at 18:8 in Update seven.
Revelation 18:8 – 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.
The Catholic Church believes it is represented as the wife of God, the bride of Christ. She believes she is the apple of God’s eye. She is completely unaware that her great departure from “the” faith caused God to declare her a widow from the faith that died in her. She is also totally unaware of the great sorrow that is to come on her for adding to, manipulating, and mutating the truth of the New Testament.
Revevlation 18:8 – 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.
The “plagues” consist of the judgments of God by the fire of the tribulation period. These judgments will be sudden and abrupt, and will continue in surges for some three and one-half years. I will discuss the “burned with fire” phrase in a later Update.
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,
The Tiber River flows through the midst of the city of Rome, separating it from Vatican City. Vatican City sits on the northwest bank and Rome proper on the southeast bank. The Tiber River flows southwest from Rome a few miles before it empties into the sea. The world’s ships of commerce will stand afar off in the Mediterranean Sea and watch Rome burn. The kings of countries dominated by Catholicism will weep and wail as they see the smoke of destruction rise from her. No other church in history has ever influenced the kings and governments of this earth more than the Catholic Church.
Revelation 18:10 – 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.
God’s judgment on Rome will be sudden and abrupt on a certain day at a certain hour. The destruction of the city and its false church headquarters will be such that the land on which it stands will never again be able to support a human population. It will be destroyed much like Sodom and Gomorrah.
Luke 17:28-30 – Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; [29] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. [30] Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.