Today marks the beginning of our last full week of study together, and our ship is heading for home!  I truly hope you are enjoying the adventure.

 

We have explored a bit about Israel’s past, present, and future through the lens of Scripture, and have built a Biblical framework on which to understand current events.  We are living in the end times and it is important to be ready for Jesus’s coming!

 

We’ll spend much of our last week in the book of Revelation, perhaps the most recognized book of prophecy in the Bible.  But before we go there, stop to consider that 25-30% of the Bible is prophecy.  Major and minor prophets make up a large chunk of the Old Testament, and Revelation, several chapters of the Gospels, and some of Paul’s writings make prophecy a major New Testament topic as well.  In fact, there is prophetic reference in almost every book of the Bible!  God must think it is important for us to know!

 

The book of Revelation is a prophecy roadmap. In fact, when the Revelation was given to the Apostle John, God provided an outline for the book!  That outline is found in Revelation 1:19, which says:

Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.

 

Following that outline of Revelation, we discover things past, present (in John’s day) and future (today, and into further future):

• The “things which you have seen.”  In chapter 1 of Revelation, John writes of the things which he had seen (in the past).
• The “things which are.”  Revelation 2-3 includes letters to 7 churches of John’s day (which also correlate to 7 ages in church history, and 7 different types of churches).  This was “present” in John’s day.
• The “things which will take place after these things.”  These are prophetic, future events, most of which are yet to be fulfilled.  These prophetic events are detailed in Revelation 4-22.

 

Many events in Revelation are described in other places in Scripture, and we’ve studied many of them.  However, we’ll take a look at mystery Babylon during our final week of study.  Babylon is also known as Babel.  Following the Great Flood of Noah’s day, people settled there and desired to “make a name for themselves” by building a tower reaching into heaven.  This became a monument to Satan’s diabolical ways, and serves as a launching point from which he lied to humanity about God.  Thus, false religions and false teachings have their roots there.

 

Babylon is also the place from which God called Abraham, then promised descendants and a land to the Jewish people.  However, Israel failed to remain true to the God of Abraham and began worshipping false gods.  Idolatry became rampant and God allowed Babylon to take His people captive for 70 years.

 

Babylon was an incredible city of wealth, power, influence and beauty, making it the most influential city on the planet at the time.  They seemed invincible, but were conquered by the Medo-Persians.  (Recall our study of Daniel 7.)  About 200 years after Christ, Babylon was abandoned.

 

Babylon (modern-day Iraq) remained a barren wasteland.  Revelation 17-18 describes the Great Tribulation, when Babylon will be destroyed once again.  In order to be destroyed, though, it must be re-built!  We’ll study that this week as we look at ideas such as “one world religion,” “new world order,” “one world government,” and “one world currency.”   We’ve heard those terms in modern day…did you know they refer to Babylon during the Great Tribulation?

 

Babylon will become the seat of influence for the antichrist, and Babylon will be on display, blatantly supplanting God and mocking Him.  Scripture also tells us that Jerusalem will become the center of worship during the reign of the antichrist.  Thus, the antichrist will rule over government, economy, commerce, currency and worship….but only for a little while!

 

Oh, what a journey we’re on and I am so proud of you for pressing on!  We have sailed many waters together, and I’m sure you’ve probably realized, as I have, that the more you sail a great ocean, the more you see there is to discover!  Our study is obviously not an exhaustive one, but my prayer is that you are highly motivated to explore many other prophetic destinations on your own, and that you are gathering enough resources to do so.

 

Dozens of other prophecies could have been chosen to include in this section, but we will narrow our focus this week to two key chapters of Revelation that have the marks of imminent fulfillment all over them! 

 

Though prophetically predicted to occur during The Great Tribulation, Revelation 17 and 18 are closer to fulfillment than many might think.  We’ll study the chapters and will then look at examples of today’s news to get a feel for just how close we are to the fulfillment of these events.  Keep in mind that Great Tribulation events will not happen for at least 3 ½ years after we (believers) are raptured!

 

Following our tour of Revelation 17 and 18, we’ll take a look at a relatively common position of many believers regarding the timing of The Rapture then we will finish the week by looking at another prophetic passage from 2 Timothy.  You can decide for yourself how close we are to the Lord’s coming!

 

So, cinch up your life jackets, we’re going for a ride!