Spiritual Gifts part 334. Meet the first Middle East tyrant.

Spiritual Gifts Part 334:

Meet the first Middle East tyrant

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

Point 4.
Developing the capacity you need to function effectively in your spiritual gift.

When you have doctrine in your soul that has been tested, you can discern evil trends in Christianity.

Apostasy means teachings and practices that are contrary to the Word of God yet seduce and deceive both professing Christians and true believers.

The Bible tells us that an apostasy or a major falling away will occur in the time period immediately preceding the Rapture and the Tribulation period.

The complete apostasy metastasizes after the Rapture of the church. However, the apostasy will begin its development in the last days of the church age.

The Book of Revelation is the textbook of world history from the time of John A.D. 96 to the end of time.

There will be a total rejection of biblical Christianity, and it will be replaced by the worldwide ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation called Babylon the great, the mother of harlots.

Apostate Christianity in the last days of the church age will morph into the worldwide ecumenical religious system of the Tribulation called Babylon the great, the mother of harlots in Rev 17.

The following material is taken from J. Dwight Pentecost’s excellent book on eschatology called “Things to Come” as well as Hampton Keathley III “Studies in Revelation”.

Revelation chapters 17 and 18 deal with the subject of Babylon and describe the destruction of Babylon.

Chapter 17 describes Babylon in its mystery form, as a religious system or spirit of false worship.

Chapter 18 describes Babylon as a political and commercial system embodied in a city, the city of Babylon in the future.

So there are
two Babylons: religious Babylon and political Babylon.

Chapter 17 describes the destruction of religious Babylon which occurs somewhere around the middle of the Tribulation.
It further explains an event introduced in ch. 13-14 of the book of Revelation.

It is a fascinating study to trace the subject of Babylon (“Babel”, “Shinar”) through the Bible.
It ends in Revelation but it begins in Genesis.

The ancient city of Babylon began shortly after the Flood and is an expression of man’s direct rebellion against God and His command to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (GEN 9:1b).

Ham was the father of Cush, and Cush was the father of Nimrod.

The Babylon of Rev 17-18 traces her roots back to the power politics and religious apostasy of Nimrod (Gen 10, 11).

The word Nimrod means “the rebel”.

This great-grandson of Noah had a tremendous desire to rise up and attempt to overthrow all existing order.

This inciter to revolt, this Nimrod, came to be the first tyrant on the earth, oppressing others and using them to further his own interests.

The word “mighty” occurs about 160 times in the Old Testament, and it always is used in the sense of peculiar greatness, especially warlike greatness.

Nimrod is not only setting himself up to be the rival of Noah; he also set himself up as the rival of God!

“on the earth” points to the extent of Nimrod’s dominion. His ambition, his might and reputation kept extending farther and farther across the earth.

You can see how in his restless ambition he kept enlarging his empire in verses 10-12.

Nimrod was the pioneer in empire building, and he would be followed by the likes of Nubuchadnezzar, Alexander the Great, and Caesar.