Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #16 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are continuing to look at Revelation14:8:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

I will mention this again because we learn from the Bible by going over something again and again.  When we read that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” God is indicating that it has fallen into condemnation and it is the time of the (final) judgment upon this world.  Isaiah 13 confirms this and Jeremiah 51:49 verifies that fact.  The historical type and figure of the seventy-year period of tribulation for Judea, from 609 BC to 539 BC, pictures the actual twenty three-year Great Tribulation period we recently came through. 

Babylon did not fall at any time during the seventy years, but at the end of the seventy year-period, Babylon fell.  So that historical type verifies what we have understood recently: Babylon is a picture of the judgment of God’s wrath upon this world.  When God says, at this point, that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” it is a signpost indicating that the Great Tribulation period has ended and the Day of Judgment has begun.  When the Lord says, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” He is giving the reason for Babylon’s judgment. 

In our last study we saw that Babylon was a cup in the Lord’s hand and she made the peoples to drink from that cup, and then God said, “In the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  God used Satan and his forces, spiritually pictured by the king of Babylon and the Babylonians, to come against the New Testament churches and congregations of the world to destroy them; that was the judgment on the “third part,” but now the cup is “doubled” and instead of judgment on the “third part.”  But it is judgment on the “two thirds,” represented by the number “666,” which represents all unsaved people that are part of the kingdom of Satan or “Babylon.”  They will now experience God’s wrath because they made all nations to drink of “the wine of wrath of her fornication.”

We wanted to look at that language because it is unusual.  I mentioned in our last study that we normally read of “the wine of the wrath of God.”  It says in Revelation 14:10:

The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God…

It does not say the “wine of the wrath of her fornication,” but the “wrath of God.”  It says in Revelation 16:19:

And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.

Again, this is saying something different than “wine of the wrath of her fornication,” and in order to understand this, we are going to think about this word “fornication.”  God actually has a great deal to say about “fornication” in the Bible.  In the Old Testament, the English word “fornication” is only found a few times.  One of the times is in 2Chronicles 21:9-11:

Then Jehoram went forth with his princes, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him in, and the captains of the chariots. So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken JEHOVAH God of his fathers. Moreover he made high places in the mountains of Judah, and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.

Here, God is speaking of an evil king that did wrong in His sight.  This king made high places which “caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit fornication, and compelled Judah thereto.”  It is clear from this verse alone that the “fornication” in view has nothing to do with sexual fornication; it is not talking about fornication between people.  It is a spiritual fornication, as this king led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to worship other Gods and to commit fornication, in that sense, rather than encouraging and charging the people to be faithful to JEHOVAH.  Instead, King Jehoram directed them to go astray from JEHOVAH and to “play the harlot” in a spiritual sense.

Another place the word “fornication” is found is in Ezekiel, chapter 16.  The Hebrew word is Strong’s #2181 and, again, it is only translated a handful of times as the English word “fornication.”  It says in Ezekiel 16:26-29:

Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied. Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.

Here, God is addressing the apostasy and sins of Judah and Israel.  He is using the language of “fornication,” and, more than that, when we read in verse 28, “Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians,” the English word “whore” is a translation of that same Hebrew word for “fornication,” Strong’s #2181.  Also, in verse 28, it says, “yea, thou hast played the harlot with them,” and the word “harlot” is also a translation of Strong’s #2181.  This Hebrew word is translated as “fornication” a handful of times, but it is translated many times as “whore,” or “whoredom” or “harlot.”  It is a common word used in the Old Testament that we find again, and again.  It helps me when I find the English word “whore” or “harlot” to substitute the word “fornication,” or vice versa, and we can often get a fuller sense of what God has in view.

This word is found many times in Ezekiel, chapter 16.  Let us go back to Ezekiel 16:15-17:

But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was. And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so. Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,

Again, the word “whoredom” is a translation of that same word.  It is found in verse 33, verse 34, and verse 41.  It is used several times in this chapter to describe the spiritual harlotry or spiritual fornication of the people of God in the Old Testament, which we knows identifies with the New Testament churches and congregations that were also charged with fornication.  As Christ is addressing the church in Pergamos, Christ says in Revelation 2:13-14:

I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.

We can see the relationship here with “eating things sacrificed to idols,” which is idolatry (other gods) and results in “fornication,” just as Israel of old was involved in acts of spiritual fornication with their high places and in going after the gods of the Assyrians and other nations.  Likewise, God is addressing the New Testament church during the church age and He says He has a few things against them because they are doing the same thing, spiritually. 

In verse 20, Christ speaks to the church of Thyatira, but we have to remember that after each address to the seven churches, the Lord says that it is what He says unto the “churches” (plural), so it has to do with all the congregations.  It says in Revelation 2:20:

Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.

Again, we see the churches were not immune to committing this particular sin of spiritual “fornication.”  They were involved in it early on, as Revelation, chapter 2, was written in the first century AD and already the first churches initiated and established by God had fallen into spiritual fornication, just as Israel had fallen into spiritual fornication.  God put up with Israel’s fornication for many centuries because He had a plan to bring forth the Lord Jesus Christ, so He patiently waited and endured these things until the proper time.  Then He came in judgment and cut off Israel; they no longer would represent His people. 

God did the identical thing with the churches.  In Revelation 2:20, He said he had a few things against them because of “Jezebel.”  By the way, we can read of Jezebel in 2Kings, chapter 9.  It says in 2Kings 9:22:

And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?

Here is that word “whoredoms” again.  It is “fornication.”  It is “harlotry,” and not in a physical sense, but in a spiritual sense.  Jezebel was involved in spiritual fornication; she was leading her husband, King Ahab, and Israel astray in going after her gods.  She supported the prophets of Baal.  Remember when the prophets of Baal were slain, she was extremely upset with the true prophet, Elijah, and she sought to slay him.  God uses that figure of “Jezebel,” in Revelation 2:20, as He says, “Thou sufferest that woman Jezebel…to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed to idols.”  This means that the churches were allowing people to come into their congregations and to rise to positions of authority and to develop other types of doctrines and gospels that were not true and faithful to the Word of God.  They were following these things and just as Israel had developed literal, physical “high places” where people went to worship, the New Testament “high places” were not idols in a grove or under a tree, but the New Testament “high places” were doctrines developed out of the wicked and evil minds of men; then men would establish their false doctrines in the churches and others would seek after it and follow those doctrines.  It was just like when Israel of old built their “high places” long ago and soon people would go to those hills under the trees and bow down to the idols.  It is the same thing, spiritually, in the New Testament, but it was just worked out differently by theologians with their commentaries, and in confessions and creeds, or denominational stances.  These spiritual “high places” would be formed, settled and established and people would bow down to them, even to our present day hundreds of years later because they are so entrenched.  For example, if you go into a Presbyterian congregation, they so elevate the Westminster Confession that they dare not make correction to what it says about “marriage and divorce.”  In the other churches, there are also confessions and creeds that are not to be changed: “Oh, we do not touch them.  We do not change them or alter them.”  That is because their creeds are a “high place.”  It is a spiritual idol that has been set up by the people and now it is bowed down to and they dare not root it out or tear it down. 

That is why King Josiah was such a wonderful king.  He was moved by God, as God’s Spirit worked within him, to destroy the high places.  Kings did not dare to do such a thing, but he was a faithful man of God.  After reading the Word of God, he knew he had to get rid of those things.

The churches were warned about this.  Notice what God says in Revelation 2:21:

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not.

God warned the New Testament churches: “Be not high-minded, but fear.  Take warning.  Look what happened to national Israel, the natural branches; they were broken off and cast away for their fornication and their involvement in spiritual harlotry and whoredom.”  These are all saying the same things.  It was their unfaithfulness to the commandments of God.  God is a Jealous God who demands complete and total worship.  He will not share His glory and honor or the fact that He is God alone with another.  Israel would not submit and humble themselves before that truth and God finally was through with them and cut them off.  The veil of the temple was rent in twain; they were put away and divorced by God.  They were no longer His people.  They still think they are His people, but it does not matter what they think.  The fact is that the Bible says they are just like any other nation of the world and they needed a Saviour, like any other nation.  God does not look at them in a lower sense than other nations, but they stand on the same ground; they are not the holy people of God any longer.  They no longer represent God and His kingdom and that has been true for almost 2,000 years.

The churches were to take warning, God says in Romans, chapter 11.  God is saying, “Look what I did to the ‘natural branches’ and you are not the natural branches; you were grafted in.  You are the Gentiles, the people of the nations of the world.  I made you my people and I took you from your heathen worship.  So do not be arrogant and high-minded and think that I would not do to you what I did to Israel who were my original people.  If I did it to them, do not think I will not do it to you.”

Yet, the Bible says the New Testament churches have done the identical sin of fornication and God gave space for the churches to repent and she repented not; that “space” was almost 2,000 years of the church age, or exactly 1,955 years, from 33 AD (on the day of Pentecost) until May 21, 1988 (the day before Pentecost and, in a sense, the day before the renewal of the commitment to establish churches in the world), and then God ended the church age.  He did so because He came to “visit” to see if they had repented.  And what did He find?  He found the churches did not hold up the authority of God as supreme and place everything else in subjection to it, but they held up their “high places,” the idols of their confessions, creeds, renowned theologians and doctrinal ideas.  These were placed above the Bible and the churches, therefore, had committed the same fornication.  Therefore, God said, in Revelation 2:22:

Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

That is exactly what God did.  Judgment began at the house of God and with it came the Great Tribulation which continued for twenty three years.  It was all a result of the fornication that the New Testament churches were involved in and would not repent of and, therefore, God loosed Satan as the beast and he ascended out of the bottomless pit and came against the churches because they were involved in spiritual fornication. 

And what is spiritual fornication but a lie?  It is a lie to bow down to other Gods, as there is no other God.  It is a lie to believe “another gospel,” because there is no other gospel but the true Gospel.  Satan was behind all this, so God gave the churches what they had desired and what they had been going after since the very beginning, when they became spiritual fornicators and when they were “suffering that woman Jezebel to teach.”  They were looking after the things of Satan, the father of lies.  They were more interested in falsehoods and deceitful things than the true things of God.  They lifted up these lies and entrenched them in their creeds and confessions and they bowed down to them.  So God gave them Satan to rule over them, along with Satan’s emissaries, and they would go further and further into fornication.  It would be the judgment of God upon them to “drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” Babylon’s fornication, the kingdom of Satan.