WBTHTGP

Revelation 17 & 18     Eric Boberg

In 1978 Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a book titled When Bad Things Happen to Good People. WBTHTGP.  As the title implies, it  dealt with the question of why God allows evil in the universe. Or to put it more personally : Why me? The book quickly became a New York Times best seller and stayed on the list for many months. Here in the last part of Revelation we are presented with the judgement of God and a scene that might be titled WBTHTBP: When Bad Things Happen To Bad People. God makes His case against people caught up in a system that is Evil at it's core. The woman or Lady, is called the great prostitute and she is the head of this whole system. She is drunk with the blood of the saints and in Rev 18:3 we learn:

"For all the nations have drunk
    the maddening wine of her adulteries.
The kings of the earth committed adultery with her,
    and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”

As we read the description it becomes apparent that this lady is not a single person but a whole economic and political system that is tied to all the people of the earth. The people might correctly say, with apologies to Rodney Dangerfield, "That's no lady, that's my life." Just as the body of Christ has many members, so too this body of evil has many members who have dedicated their lives to her service.

If from our vantage point in scripture it becomes easy to see the folly of these sinful acts in Revelation, it is because of the grace of God. And also because we operate from a fixed and steady point. That point is the goodness and righteousness of God. It is obvious that the people in Revelation who have taken the mark of the Beast and are under the thrall of the Lady have no such clarity. They are so totally invested in the system that they are hardened to the specifics of their sins. You can almost hear the rationalization song.

I'm just doing my job, and the money is good.
If I didn't do it, someone else would.
I've got a family to feed, I had to take the mark.
It's not just me, we all play a part.

There are bits of truth in every lie to make it believable. But one of the reasons these lies are more easily swallowed is that they began with the false assumption: the really big lie of Harold Kushner's book. Yes, Yes, Yes we are all good people. It sounds so nice, so reasonable, so kind. Except that that is in direct conflict with scripture. You know the verses: for all have sinned…. There is none righteous, no not one.… Your own righteousness is like filthy rags…. More importantly and more clearly,  Jesus - the defining character of all of history - had to die exactly because we were not good people.

Yes, it is true we are made in the image of God, and because of that each of us carries a certain nobility. We have some good attributes that we inherited from our Father, even if we did not acknowledge the gift. But we, at our very core, are deeply flawed and fallen, sinful, in need of a Savior. God doesn't require us to suffer for our sins instantly. So we are allowed to go on thinking that the everyday blessings we experience are a reward for good behavior and not simply the patience and mercy of  a good God. A better title for a book might be WGTHTBP: When Good Things Happen To Bad People. The book would be about Patience and Grace. This is a far more realistic assessment of what goes on in the universe and our day-to-day existence. It's the Grace of God that keeps us alive, in the hope we might eventually stumble into the Truth.

The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9

It is only this patience that has delayed judgement for so long. So are the people at the end of Revelation more wicked than all those who have gone before? I'm not sure. The system they are part of is clearly very, very, wicked and requires the judgement of God. But do you remember that story about a tower in Siloam that fell and killed 18 people in the time of Jesus? Jesus says, "Don't think those that died were more wicked, but unless you repent, you too will also perish." Luke  13:4

It's a very simple message: repent. That's it; repent! Forget about WBTHTGP: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. You know in your heart of hearts you are not good; so repent. Repent and receive the love of God.

I didn't intend for my last line to rhyme but it did, so consider it a poem.

For all it's popularity,
Kushner's book was  deeply flawed
because it began with the goodness of man
and not the goodness of God.

Come Out of Her, My People

Revelation 17 & 18     Karen Downing 

Pre-trib, mid-trib, post trib. I have heard compelling teaching on all three of these concepts dealing with the rapture and when the church will be "caught up" with Jesus. Honestly, I tend to think we will be expected to endure to the end, becoming a sweet sacrifice to the Lord as we give our lives to share salvation with those last ones on the earth. I know, there are many of you who beg to differ; this is just what is in my heart when I ponder it.

What I personally believe is important in these "tribulation chapters" is the great wrath brought on the earth by The Almighty and the call of the voice in 18:4 to, "Come out of her, My people..." before the fall of Babylon. They are being called out before judgement comes and that's how it ties to what I believe about the tribulation. I can see myself compelling others to "come out!" of Babylon. What becomes obvious then, at least to me, is that this is what I need to be doing today. 

Rise up, End Time People! Set a standard! Lead the others out of Babylon!

And prayerfully, with great reverence, I ask You Lord, to show me what this means.

My Life is an Arrow

Revelation 17 & 18     Chris Kray

[Good Morning All!  Today, we have a guest contributor: Chris Kray.  Chris is part of Communitas, and you might know him from his tasty lead guitar he adds to our Worship Teams from time to time.  Chris approached Bob with this piece of writing; he wrote it while listening to Bob's last message on the Book of Revelation.  Chris is a deep thinker, and I always appreciate conversations with him.  Enjoy!  JK]

My life is an arrow. My life is a weapon. My design is that of warfare. Who I am is your undoing. World, king of T'yre, lucifer, satan, you had better come at me. I am coming for your head. I am poised, aimed for your heart. Through repentance, compassion, love, and persecution is the shaft that holds up the head, the blade that is Christ's work. When you hurt my family, my friends, you sharpen my resolve. The arrow is drawn back even farther. When you come to claim what God has redeemed, you launch the arrow sending it deeper into your chest, cutting your flesh, slicing your corrupted tendons, puncturing your lung. My life will be your destruction at the hand of my Creator. His victory is your demise. Keep coming. Keep sharpening me, as I mourn, wail in agony because of my transgressions, my shortcomings. As The Lord fashions me as He sees fit, know that even though I am afraid, He will comfort me. He will meet my needs. You are undone. You have no hope. You are defeated.

Visions

Revelation 17 & 18     Peter Nordell

Once again John is in the spirit and led to a place, the desert, where he is given the visions.  This time it is of the woman, the harlot, maybe represented by a city, Babylon.  All of the evils of the city are described, the kings who have been adulterous with the woman, along with the beast.  Yet, Rev 17:14 states that the Lamb will overcome them because, He is the Lord of lords and King of Kings and with him will be the called, chosen and faithful followers.  That is the promise we must hang onto as we read of the pain and punishment taking place on this earth.

  

The readers of these texts thought of Rome, with its 7 hills and the sins of the city. They and we, however, must remember the beast has power only until God's words are fulfilled.

One more thought: the text talks about the great Babylon.  It was great and ceretainly filled with sin of every sort including the murder of God's people until the blood flowed in the streets.  However, today we can not find Babylon; it has been utterly destroyed and God's city Jerusalem, stands strong and well, after many centuries.  God will take care of His own - and wins in the end.  

Good Wrath

Revelation 17 & 18     George Badeaux

There are differences of opinion about the woman sitting on the beast in Revelation chapters 17 and 18.  Verse 8 of chapter 17 tells us, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth."  Some believe the city is Rome and that this section of Revelation has already been fulfilled.  Whether this is true or not, there is a great foretelling here of justice, judgment, and the outpouring of God’s wrath.  This blog entry looks a little deeper at God’s wrath.

Before we do that, I think it is important to answer a very fundamental, yet deep question.  Why does God allow evil to exist?  A short answer is that He has decided that it is more important for us to have freedom of choice than it is for there to be a complete absence of evil.  In the mysterious mix of God’s sovereignty and our free will, He has given us the freedom to love Him or not, to choose to follow Him or not, to open our hearts to His love or to do evil.

But He must respond to evil.  And we too have a universal response when we see something evil perpetrated on another.  We desire justice.  So does God.  What if God never responded to evil?  That is unthinkable.

Because He is so good and all-knowing, He perceives things as horribly evil that we don’t even notice.  This is part of why we sometimes think His judgment is too harsh.  We are tempted to think that God is not completely good.  This is a lie, one that was first told on earth in the Garden of Eden.  Let us use the truth of God’s Word to utterly destroy this lie in our hearts and minds.  God’s wrath is completely good and completely righteous.  It is an expression of His perfect love.

Scripture tells us that the outpouring of God’s wrath has occurred in the past, that it is an ongoing part of His interaction with mankind, and that it will result in the absolute removal of all evil from our presence in the future. 

Thanks be to God that we are safe from His wrath.  Romans 5 tells us, “Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! … Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”

Those who trust in Jesus should trust that they are safe from God’s wrath.  But for those who do not trust Him, Hebrews 10 tells us there is “only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God.”  And … "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

God’s wrath is …

            To be feared

            Coming

            Sure

Good

Let us know this.  Let us be moved in our hearts for those who don’t.  And let us speak.  Let us speak the very words of God in love, shining the light of truth on what is otherwise a very dark and fearful expectation of judgment.

Slavery

Revelation 17 & 18     Joel Keller

We're now getting down to the nitty gritty of the Book of Revelation.  I am not going to attempt (once again!) to attack the numbers & symbolism in this chapter.  I'll leave that for Bob & those much more learned than I.   As I came to Rev 17:2, I thought about how the enemy of our souls uses sexual immorality and drunkenness (chemical use of various kinds) to destroy the lives of millions.   I work in the area of mental health, so I see through the filter or grid of the things that affect individuals' daily lives. I look at commercials on TV, advertising in magazines, online advertising; sex & alcohol figure heavily into this world of marketing products.  It is blatant.

I continued & was stopped (stunned, actually) at the end of 18:13.  At the end of a long list of wares of the merchants of Babylon - including gold, silver, silk, scented wood, articles of ivory, marble, sheep, cattle [all are items of great value] - comes the kicker: slaves, that is human souls.  Human trafficking.  This is a picture in the natural of what the enemy of our souls is doing in the spirt realm.  Selling an individual as a sex slave is as blatant as it gets.  The enemy's job description is to steal, kill & destroy (John 10:10) ... and he is using this despicable act as a means to that end.  We are in a battle for people's souls.  Look around you.  Ask God to give you eyes to see the source of things in your midst.  We as the Body of Christ, must be aware of the battle raging around us.  Even here in sleepy Central Minnesota, the enemy is at work ... in our families, our workplace, our schools, our government, etc.  Now, I'm not suggesting that we walk around with our eyebrows wrinkled, a serious look on our face, scanning left & right, looking for evil at every turn.  We don't have to be fruitcakes who cause people to run away as they see us coming.  But ... we have the opportunity to be light in this world of darkness.  Jesus, the Light of the world, is in you.  Live your life, moment by moment, looking for the agenda of the Father (John 5:19).  Be real; be honest.  The Holy Spirit in you will have an impact on the darkness around you.  And slaves will be set free - both in this world and the next.

A Double Portion

Revelation 17 & 18     Kathy Carlson

Give back to her as she has given;
    pay her back double for what she has done.
    Pour her a double portion from her own cup.
Give her as much torment and grief
    as the glory and luxury she gave herself.                Rev 17:6-7

Instead of your shame
    you will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
    you will rejoice in your inheritance.
And so you will inherit a double portion in your land,
    and everlasting joy will be yours.                              Isaiah 61:7

After spending years studying and pouring over Scripture, consuming it as if my very life depended on it (it does), I still find myself slack-jawed in amazement at the intricacy of detail and symmetry of the Old and New Testament writings.  Early on I learned to study the Word by using the Word itself – digging into the cross reference notations as if mining precious jewels, weaving in and out of different books of the Bible, Old and New Testaments, delighting in the discovery of agreement and clarification at every turn.  Immediately after reading chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation I thought of the scripture that has been my touch point since I was but a baby in my faith - Isaiah 61.  I clung to the promise early on that I would be receiving a double portion that would cover the shame that dogged my heels over the 34 years I spent grappling with sin and guilt that burdened me.  I marveled that I would also receive an inheritance of JOY in double portion as well after years of grief and anger that weighed heavily on my soul. Who but God could promise such an extravagant inheritance to a beggar covered in ashes like myself?  I was deeply aware of what I deserved (along the lines of the punishment we see detailed in Rev 17-18) and to receive Christ and put my faith in Him was to receive a blessing (and double at that!) instead of cursing and joy instead of mourning.

The enemy of our souls masquerades as a garish imitation of the true richness of our God. The woman described in Revelation mocks God with her cheap perfume, faux luxury.  The city where she dwells is stripped naked of all it’s pretense and tinny jewels.  She is brought to ruin by her own self-centered pursuit of fame and her attempt to steal the glory due to God.  In contrast to the double portion of blessing the children of God experience, she is severely punished for every deed of wrongdoing in a double portion.  It’s a fearsome punishment for the crime of all crimes.

Are you still blind to the true riches of our God?  Are you foolishly running after an imitation of His perfect and extravagant future for you?  Dear one, turn around and head for home.  His arms are open wide.  He awaits you and longs to lavish upon you a double blessing, a homecoming celebration, a wedding feast to end all wedding feasts.  He is your double blessing.  His love, His grace, His righteousness and justice and His ability to bless and bless and bless again at His choosing.  Joy instead of mourning - the decision is yours - choose Christ today and live.