Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #21 of Revelation chapter 21 and we are going to read Revelation 21:8:

But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Again, we are focusing on two of the eight sins that are listed here.  We already discussed the sin of fearfulness and in this study we are going to look at the word “abominable.”

We should note that at the conclusion of this verse, it says that all which do such sins “have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”  We looked at that language before in chapters 19 and 20 of Revelation, where God spoke of Judgment Day, spiritually, as the pouring out of “fire and brimstone.”  The wrath of God has begun and we have talked about this many times.  Judgment Day began on May 21, 2011 and spiritual fire and brimstone began at that point and continues throughout this prolonged period of judgment.  The wrath of God has been falling upon the unsaved inhabitants of the earth.  Therefore, anyone who is abominable, an unbeliever, a murderer, a whoremonger, and so on, is currently experiencing their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

The “second death” is not yet completed because God’s wrath is not yet finished.  We also know from the Bible that on the very last day of this prolonged period of Judgment Day (which we expect to be October 7, 2015) God will destroy the world and destroy all the sinners that are committing these sins.  It will be a complete and utter destruction which we identify as annihilation.  That is the completion of the “second death” and they will remain dead for evermore.  They will cease to exist and be no more, according to the language of the Bible.

A child of God may do any of the sins listed here.  A believer could be “fearful” in a sinful way.  For example, he could fear reproach or reviling or he could have a moment of unbelief and, yet, his sins have been paid for and forgiven and God does not see those sins.  Therefore, God does not consider the believers as “fearful” or “unbelieving” because the sins they have committed have already been paid for and they have been washed of their sins.

Let us look at this word “abominable.”  I wanted to look at this word because it is a fairly common word in the Bible.  The word Greek word that is found in this verse is Strong’s #948 and it is only found two times in the New Testament.  It is found here translated as “abominable” and it is also found in Romans 2:22:

Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege?

The word “ahborrest” is a translation of the same Greek word translated as “abominable” in our verse.  Basically, it is asking if those that consider idols abominable commit sacrilege by also worshipping an idol. 

There is a related word, Strong’s #947 and it is also translated as “abominable” in Titus, chapter 1.  This word is only found in this place.  It says in Titus 1:15-16: 

Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.

We can see it is not a good thing at all to be considered “abominable.”  When we look at this word carefully in the New Testament, we find that is related to the word “abomination,” which is used a couple of times.  It is a different Greek word, Strong’s #946, but it is a related word.  It says in Matthew 24:15-16:

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:

This is one of the reasons I wanted to look at this word because we have mentioned this verse numerous times over the last few years.  This was the reason we got out of the churches.  The “abomination of desolation” was in the churches and congregations of the world and we know this is referring to Satan – he is the “abomination of desolation.”  At the end of the church age, on May 21, 1988, God loosed Satan and he entered into the churches and took his seat as the “man of sin,” according to 2Thessalonians, chapter 2, which is the same thing as saying that he is the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place where he should not be.  Yet, he was there.  It was why God opened up the Scriptures to show us that we were to come out of the churches because that “holy place” had been defiled by the presence of Satan ruling in the congregations.  God’s people were commanded to come out, for their own good and benefit, and to flee to the mountains or flee to the Word of God. 

Why does God use this word “abomination” here?  When we do look carefully at the Bible when we see this word used in the New Testament, we are assisted by the reference in Matthew 24:15, which referred to the Book of Daniel.  We find in the Book of Daniel that God uses the same English word “abomination” a couple of times.  For instance, it says 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.

Also, it says 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.

The taking away of the “daily” is a reference to the removal of the Holy Spirit.  When the Holy Spirit came out of the midst, there was a simultaneous occurrence when the “abomination of desolation” was set up in His place.  When God’s Spirit left, Satan entered in and became the ruler of the congregations.

But now we have an Old Testament word that is translated as “abomination,” and which the New Testament quotes from, so we have an equivalency and we can understand it to mean the same thing.  When we go back to the Old Testament, we find it is Strong’s #8251 and it is found in many places, including Deuteronomy 29:16-18:

(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:) Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from JEHOVAH our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Here, God links together the idols of the nations and “abomination.”  We are going to see that this is a common linkage in the Old Testament.  Normally, when we find the word “abomination,” we will find reference to idols, high places or false gods right along with it.  For instance 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.

Here, the word “abomination” is used three times in connection with the false gods of other nations.  Solomon did sin grievously when he built these high places.  He was involved in the “abomination” of these false gods and it was not a light thing at all.  It was a terrible, terrible sin for him to be involved in because these were places that all could see and he gave occasion to the enemies of God to blaspheme and for those involved in these abominations, he gave them a place where they could worship that was contrary to God’s command.

Let us also look at 2Chronicles 15:8:

And when Asa heard these words, and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and put away the abominable idols out of all the land of Judah and Benjamin, and out of the cities which he had taken from mount Ephraim, and renewed the altar of JEHOVAH, that was before the porch of JEHOVAH.

King Asa was doing “good” by putting away the abominable idols and that is what a good king would do, as we find other instances where other kings did the same thing.  Not many of them did this, but a few did; they put away these abominations and God was well pleased when a king would remove the high places or destroy these idols. 

We also read in Jeremiah 7:30:

For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith JEHOVAH: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it.

We have mentioned before about high places in the Bible and how God likens the Old Testament (physical) “high places” and as a type or figure of the doctrines that the New Testament church developed out of their own minds and placed in their confessions and creeds.  They taught for commandments the doctrines of men rather than the doctrines of God.  That was the sin of the corporate church throughout the church age and God put up with it for centuries.  But at the time of the end, God came to “visit” to see if it was altogether as He had heard (and it was) and He then brought judgment upon the house of God.  As it says in Jeremiah 7:30, “they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it,” and that is why judgment began at the house of God.  Therefore, their sin is the sin of setting up the abominations in His house (the “high places”) and the punishment of God was to loose Satan, the essence of “abomination” and he would be established in the corporate churches as a form of punishment.  In other words, they were getting exactly what they had desired over their entire history, except it was even more terrible. 

Further on in the Book of Jeremiah, we read in Jeremiah 32:32-35:

Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.

Again, we see it is consistent and continuous evil that Judah was involved in all through its history.  It is what the New Testament churches have been involved in all through its history in their practice of erroneous gospels and doctrines and God condemns it and, therefore, they are “abomination” to Him.

The Hebrew word “abomination” is also translated as “detestable thing” in Ezekiel 5:11:

Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord JEHOVAH; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things…

The reason it was translated as “detestable things” is because in the same verse there is another word translated as “abominations” and they did not want to repeat themselves.  Again, it says in Ezekiel 5:11:

…because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.

There is no more pity or no more mercy.  That is the judgment of God when He comes to visit for these things.  He removes the “daily” and the light of the gospel and when the Holy Spirit is gone there is no more pity.  No more salvation is possible.  That is why salvation came to an end within the churches from May 21, 1988 through May 21, 2011, the entire 23 years in which the “abomination of desolation” was set up.  There was no more water of the Gospel to save and once it was set up, there was no pity shown by God to anyone in the churches of the world.

Let us also go to Ezekiel, chapter 11, where this word is translated as “detestable things.”  It says in Ezekiel 11:18-21:

And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence. And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

There are those God delivered from their “abominations” and their “detestable things” and there are those whose hearts continued to follow their idols, the false doctrines and the false gospels, which is a hateful and detestable thing in God’s sight.  This is the reason why we find in Revelation 21:8 that it refers to the people that are “the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable.”  They are the individuals that go after their idols – idols of stone, idols of wood decked with gold and silver, or idols like a Buddha or statutes of Mary or pictures of Jesus.  Or, they can be idols that people develop out of their own minds, like false doctrines like “accepting Christ” or the belief that water baptism can save souls, and other lies.  These are all abomination in the sight of God and those that walk after them become “abominable.”  There was no salvation in these things and they remain outside the holy city or the kingdom of heaven and they “shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone.”