DFO 1192 14/5/81

—Materialism!—The Religion of the World!

—Part 24 of "The Garden of Eden!"—Revelation Chapter 17

1. REVELATION 17: "AND THERE CAME ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHICH HAD THE SEVEN VIALS"—these angels of judgment and wrath—"and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the Great Whore that sitteth upon many waters!"—This great old Witch who hath bewitched the world, the false religion of the world!—"With whom the kings of the Earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."—All governments cooperate with their religious system and the religious system helps them rule, and the major religious system of the world is MATERIALISM!—Mammon!—Babylon!—Confusion!

2. "SO HE CARRIED ME AWAY IN THE SPIRIT INTO THE WILDERNESS: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast"—a great Red Monster—"full of names of blasphemy‚ having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication."—Because she lives in luxury and fornication with the System. She's THE religious system, not just one particular religion, but that which MOST men worship, which is Mammon, wealth, riches, money, the commercial system!

3. "AND UPON HER FOREHEAD WAS A NAME WRITTEN, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." God here is using a term for this great wealthy materialistic commercial system of the modern world, taking a term from ancient history—Babylon, a great, idolatrous, wicked, wealthy capital of the world at one time. But this is talking about the FINAL Babylon, the final manifestation of the god Mammon or wealth or riches or materialism, which ALL men worship except those who love the Lord! Both capitalists and communists worship materialism! The capitalists worship that which they've already GOT; the communists worship that which they hope to HAVE!

4. "AND I SAW THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS, AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS: and when I saw her‚ I wondered with great admiration!" He doesn't mean he admired her in the sense we do today, but with great astonishment, with great wonder! And she was drunk‚ notice, with the blood of the saints—she had martyred the people of Jesus! All false religions always martyr the followers of the TRUE religion! All false religions have always crucified the Christs and slaughtered His followers!

5. "AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO ME, WHEREFORE DIDST THOU MARVEL? I will tell thee the mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast that carrieth her‚ which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The Beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition." He comes out of Hell and he goes back into Hell! In other words‚ he is demonic, he is Devil-inspired! "And they that dwell on the Earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the Beast that was, and is not‚ and yet is.

6. "AND HERE IS THE MIND WHICH HATH WISDOM: THE SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS, ON WHICH THE WOMAN SITTETH." Now right away somebody's going to say, "Aha! That means the seven mountains of the Palatine, the seven hills of Rome upon which sitteth the Catholic Church!" Many Protestants have long called this Woman‚ Babylon‚ the Catholic Church; however, it goes far beyond the Catholic Church! If the Catholic Church fits the picture, well, all right, include her, but it literally means seven great kingdoms or world empires, world powers‚ the same as the seven heads of this great red Monster or red Dragon, this Beast. Seven great world empires, most of whom have already passed across the stage of history by the time this occurs, and at this time there is one last final great seventh world power of the Antichrist.

7. "AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS: FIVE ARE FALLEN, AND ONE IS, AND THE OTHER IS NOT YET COME; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space." The angel says there are seven kings, seven world powers since the beginning of the first great world power of man, Egypt, and he says five are already fallen. Now to whom was he speaking? He was speaking to John the Apostle who was getting this revelation on the Isle of Patmos about the year 107 A.D. during the empire of Rome.

8. SO THE ANGEL SAYS FIVE OF THESE KINGS OR THESE KINGDOMS OR THESE WORLD POWERS OR EMPIRES ARE ALREADY FALLEN. Is this true according to history? EGYPT—gone; ASSYRIA—fallen; BABYLON—fallen; MEDO-PERSIA—fallen; GREECE—fallen. Five already fallen, and he said, one IS—which was ROME at that time of John—and the OTHER is not yet come—that's the ANTICHRIST!

9. THERE'S NOT BEEN A GREAT COMPLETELY WORLDWIDE EMPIRE SINCE THE DAYS OF ROME. There's been no world empire that has ruled nearly all of the known civilized world since Rome. There have been great Chinese empires, there have been the Arabian empire and the Turkish empire and the Spanish empire and the Portuguese empire and the British empire and today we have the American empire and the Russian empire, but not one of them has ruled the whole world like the former empires.

10. BUT HE'S COMING; HE'S CALLED THE ANTICHRIST, THE SUPERMAN, the Super-Duper-Man, the Devil-man‚ Satan incarnate, the son of the Devil who is going to rule the whole world in a one-world government by a one-world dictatorship and proclaim himself to be God and insist that the whole world worship him! So HE'S "not yet come." 10th verse: "And when he cometh, he must continue a short space." He only rules the world for a very short time, only seven years, the last half of which is the Great Tribulation or hell on earth!

11. "AND THE BEAST THAT WAS‚ AND IS NOT, EVEN HE IS THE EIGHTH‚ AND IS ONE OF THE SEVEN‚ AND GOETH INTO PERDITION." Very strange statement here, because you notice there's only one Beast, but there are seven heads of this Beast. So these seven world powers or world governments or world empires are nothing more than simply seven manifestations of the same Beast from which these heads sprout out.—In other words, the Devil, the Antichrist.

12. ALL THE WORLD'S EMPIRES ARE OF THE DEVIL AND HAVE COME OUT OF HIS BEAST, God picturing him as a Beast. And he says, the Beast himself‚ 11th verse, "was and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven"—he's OF the seven—"and goeth into perdition." In other words, they're all one and the same. Only under the seventh head, that last revival of the Roman empire, the Antichrist kingdom, the Beast himself rules and reigns‚ therefore really making himself the eighth‚ both the seventh and the eighth Beast, in a sense.

13. HE WAS, AND IS NOT—HE DISAPPEARS—BUT THEN HE REVIVES AGAIN. It says that he has a deadly wound unto death and that he's healed. Very deep mystery, I hope you can understand what we're talking about. He is both the seventh and the eighth, in other words. He is the seventh, and it looks like he gets killed, but then he seems to be resurrected or brought back to life. Therefore in that sense also he's the eighth, and he's one of the seven, the seventh in fact, and he goeth into perdition—he goes to Hell where he deserves to be, because he's the son of the Devil, Satan himself.

14. VERSE 12: "AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST ARE TEN KINGS, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the Beast." Now, when we were first talking about this Beast with seven heads, we said he had ten horns. He was pictured earlier here in this book. And as we pointed out then, the ten horns are completely and totally and utterly on the last head alone, on the seventh head.

15. THE ANTICHRIST KINGDOM IS MADE UP OF THESE TEN GREAT WORLD POWERS, ten kings or kingdoms, powers or whatever you want to call them—presidents, premiers, heads of parties‚ governments. They are the ten great leaders of the ten leading world powers in the last days of history in the time of the Antichrist, and he gets them to cooperate with him, to help put him in power. "They have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings ONE HOUR with the Beast."

16. IN OTHER WORDS, THESE KINGS ARE NOT YET KINGS. Their KINGDOMS may already be in existence, but the world leaders who surrender to this Antichrist Beast—this great Red Beast or Dragon—these world leaders who will surrender to him and make him the world Emperor, the world dictator, and his one-world government the world government, are not yet come. In fact, they will eventually proclaim him as God! They haven't yet actually appeared upon the scene, but they will come on the scene for the last hour of world history along with the Antichrist, this Beast.

17. VERSE 13: "THESE HAVE ONE MIND, AND SHALL GIVE THEIR POWER and STRENGTH UNTO THE BEAST." These ten great world powers or kings or kingdoms or world leaders will GIVE their power to the Beast, they will SURRENDER their power voluntarily to the Beast, or the Antichrist, to proclaim him the king of the world, the ruler of all empires, the world dictator of the one-world government! They will yield or give—he doesn't have to fight'm, he doesn't have to conquer'm—they recognize him as the Superman, the Devil-man, Satan incarnate in the flesh, and they will voluntarily surrender their power and their kingdoms unto him and cooperate with him in order that he might control the whole world and become its great world dictator, the Antichrist. So they have one mind and give their power and strength unto the Beast, 13th verse, and 14th: (THREE he OVERTHROWS—Dan.7:8,24.)

18. "THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB."—This Lamb is capitalized‚ signifying, of course, JESUS. "And the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords and King of kings: and they that are with Him"—US—"are called, and chosen, and faithful." The Antichrist forces even have enough nerve and are stupid and dumb enough to try to make war with the forces of Christ‚ to try to make war with Jesus Himself and His children, His followers, His Christians! But that's where they go too far and they're defeated‚ because He is the Lord of all lords, and He's the King of all kings, and therefore they are defeated‚ because we are also WITH Jesus. We are with Him, and called, chosen and faithful. The forces of Christ here confront the forces of the Antichrist finally in the Battle of ARMAGEDDON after the Tribulation and the Wrath of God.

19. "AND HE SAITH UNTO ME‚ THE WATERS WHICH THOU SAWEST, WHERE THE WHORE SITTETH‚ ARE PEOPLES, AND MULTITUDES, and NATIONS, AND TONGUES." This is one religion that rules the whole Earth—materialism, the worship of things. She's pictured as a beautiful woman adorned with precious jewels and gold and silver and living in luxury. This is man's ideal of the ultimate end in pleasure and luxury, a beautiful woman and riches! So she, Babylon‚ the Great Whore, is the great witch that bewitches the whole Earth with her sorceries and her fornication to cause men everywhere to worship money and wealth and riches and material things of the flesh!

20. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER IT'S JUST, AS I SAY, A LITTLE THATCHED HUT AND A WOODEN CANOE. IF YOU WORSHIP IT, IT'S A SIN! It doesn't matter if it's out in Squattersville, Shantytown or Hobo Haven, and it's nothing but a little cardboard hut made of cardboard packing boxes and tin and packing crates! If you worship it and love it and work hardest for it in order to preserve it and keep it above God Himself with no love for God nor your fellow man or neighbor, but just for your little shack, or your little grass shack on Kilikilikile, Hawaii‚ as the old song goes: (Sings:) "I want to go back to my little grass shack on Kilikilikile, Hawaii!"

21. WELL, THAT, YOU SEE, IS WHAT SOME PEOPLE WORSHIP! Even if they don't have a mansion, even if it's just a little cardboard shanty or a grass shack, if it has become your god, your idol, what you worship, what you'd rather have than anything in this world, it's your religion, it's your whore, it's your witch that has bewitched you with her craftiness and her demonic power to cause you to worship anything and everything except God, in a spirit of selfishness and greed and not love!—Not self-sacrifice, not love for the Lord, not love for the lost, but only love for yourself!

22. THAT'S THE RELIGION OF THE WORLD, THAT'S WHAT MOST PEOPLE WORSHIP, THEMSELVES AND THEIR OWN PERSONAL DESIRES and greed and selfishness and wants, the idols of their lives, even if it's a cardboard shanty in shantytown! (Sings:) "It's only a shanty in old shantytown, the roof is so slanty it touches the ground! Just a tumble–down shack by the old railroad track‚ like a millionaire's mansion, it's calling you back! You'd give up a palace if you were a king, for it is your palace‚ it's your everything! And there's a queen waiting there with a great golden crown"—this Whore, this Witch of Babylon—"in the shanty in old shantytown!"

23. SEE‚ WHEN IT'S YOUR EVERYTHING‚ YOU'D GIVE UP ANYTHING FOR IT‚ even if it's just a hut or a tin shanty or grass shack on an island, or a Cadillac or a wooden canoe, if it's what you'd rather have above all things on Earth and what you worship, what you love above God and others‚ then it's your idol, it's your god, it's your RELIGION! In the capitalistic commercial system of Babylon, its TEMPLES are BANKS! Its temples are office BUILDINGS to which its devotees and worshippers resort to worship eight hours a day from nine to five, five or six days a week!

24. THAT IS THE RELIGION OF THE WORLD! THAT IS THE GREAT WHORE, BABYLON THE GREAT!—The Mystery of Iniquity, the Great Witch of all Witchcraft that has deceived almost all men upon the Earth into loving things, materials, this life! That is Babylon, that is the Great Whore that the kings of this Earth have made rich and who rides on their backs in power and controls them! It's their religion of lust for things and wealth and riches and power, and she rides on their necks and controls them! She rides on the back of the Beast!

25. ALL SEVEN HEADS‚ ALL SEVEN WORLD POWERS, SHE CONTROLLED THEM ALL, BECAUSE THEY ALL WORSHIPPED HER! From Egypt to the Antichrist, all mankind worships her and loves her and fucks her and has fornication and intercourse with her and bestows upon her everything they've got and all their power and all! That's Babylon! Including today's Babylon, America, the capitalist West and the communist East! They all seek and lust after the same things and not God! They worship things and riches and power and money and wealth, and materialism is the god and the religion of this Earth today! She, the great Whore of Babylon, the Witch that hath bewitched them, is the goddess of this world today! She's the one they worship and to whom they give their power and who rules over them!

26. "AND THESE SHALL MAKE WAR WITH THE LAMB AND THE LAMB SHALL OVERCOME THEM." They're going to make war with Jesus!—They've always made war with Jesus. They've always made war with the lovers of God and the lovers of Jesus and His Family of Love, His Children of God. They've always made war with Christians and persecuted them and killed them and tortured them and slaughtered them and massacred them and martyred them!—This false religion of the world, this lust for things, those who worship this world and the things that are therein!

27. GOD SAYS TO US, "LOVE NOT THE WORLD, NOR THE THINGS THAT ARE IN THE WORLD, FOR HE THAT LOVETH THE WORLD IS AT ENMITY WITH GOD! Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world!" (1Jn.2:15; Jam.4:4). For if you love this world and the things that are therein, you are an enemy of God! Because those who love Jesus, "If any man would come after Me," Jesus said, "let him take up his cross and follow Me. Let him deny HIMSELF"—let him forsake ALL—"take up his CROSS and FOLLOW Me! For he that would save his life shall lose it, and he that would lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's shall save it" (Mat.16:24,25). So they've always made war on the Church of Jesus Christ and His followers, but the Lamb will overcome them, for He is the Lord of all lords, and the King of all kings! And they that are with Him—us and you who love Jesus—called, and chosen and faithful!—All saved Christians!

28. VERSE 15: "AND HE SAITH UNTO ME, THE WATERS WHICH THOU SAWEST, WHERE THE WHORE SITTETH‚ ARE PEOPLES‚ MULTITUDES‚ TONGUES, NATIONS!"—The whole world! She rules over them all! "And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the Beast, these shall HATE the Whore‚ and shall make her desolate and naked, and eat her flesh, and burn her with fire!" Eventually they will TURN on her and destroy her and they will destroy the world materialistic system and turn the world over to the Antichrist.

29. THE ANTICHRIST WILL DESTROY THE WORLD CAPITALIST SYSTEM! He will destroy the world communist system! He will destroy the world materialistic system and demand worship of HIMSELF as God!—The Devil in the flesh, the Devil incarnate! He will say‚ "I am God! Stop worshipping all these things! Stop worshipping wealth and capitalism or communism or whatever, I am God! Stop worshipping this Harlot‚ this Whore of materialism you've always worshipped! From now on, I'M God!" So he destroys her! He destroys capitalism, communism‚ materialism, all of it, and demands self-worship of Satan in the flesh, the Devil in the flesh! He demands that all nations and persons worship Satan—the god of this world! So they destroy Babylon so they'll only worship him!

30. "FOR GOD HATH PUT IN THEIR HEARTS TO FULFILL HIS WILL, and to agree‚ and give their kingdom unto the Beast, until the Words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the Earth." What better typifies materialism today—wealth, power, greed, money, riches, things—than the cities of man, like New York, the great city system, the great world city system of man which are his monuments, his gods, his temples of worship!—His banks, his office buildings and all his religious temples, his worship to his god Mammon—materialism, things, riches!

31. PRAISE GOD FOR OUR TRUE GOD, JESUS, KING OF KINGS, who's coming soon to take us out of this materialistic Mammon mess!—Are you ready to go and leave it all behind? Will you be glad to depart when Jesus comes?—Are you ready to go with Jesus?