Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot

 "The great harlot"! Why so shocking a designation? Who is she? Some had identified this symbolic harlot with ancient Rome. But Rome was political power. This harlot commits fornication with the kings of the earth, and this evidently includes the kings of Rome. Besides, after her destruction, "the kings of the earth, " are said to mourn her passing. Therefore, she cannot be a political power. (Revelation 18:9, 10) Additionally, since she is mourned also by the world's destruction, she could not picture big business. (Revelation 18:15, 16) We read, however. that by her spiritistic practice all the nations were misled! (Revelation 18:23) This makes it clear that the great harlot must be the worldwide religious entity. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot 

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Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot

 JEHOVAH'S righteous anger must be poured out to completion, seven bowls of it! When the sixth angel emptied out his bowl at the location of ancient Babylon, it fittingly symbolized the plaguing of Babylon the Great as events move swiftly toward the final war of Armageddon. (Revelation 16:1, 12,16) Likely, it is the same angel that now reveals why and how Jehovah executes his righteous judgments. Joh is struck with wonderment at what he next hears and sees: "And one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying: 'Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wind of her fornication.' " - REVELATION 17:1, 2. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!" -Conclusion

 Thus, Satan's world will meet up with Jehovah's righteous judgment. To the end, most of humankind will continue to defy and blaspheme God. As with Pharaoh of old, their hearts will not be softened by the repeated plagues or by the final death-dealing culmination of those plagues. (Exodus 11:9, 10) There will be no last minute, large-scale change of heart. With their dying breath, they will have to know that I am Jehovah." (Ezekiel 38:23) Nevertheless, the sovereignty of Jehovah God the Almighty will have been vindicated. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Three/Judging the Infamous Harlot

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -"It Has Come to Pass!" - Continue

 Once again, Jehovah acts unmistakably toward mankind, this being signaled by "lightnings and voices and thunders." (Compare Revelation 4:5; 8:5) Mankind will be shaken in a way that has never happened before, as if by a devastating earthquake. (Compare Isaiah 13:13; Joel 3:16) This blockbuster shaking will shatter "the great city," Babylon the Great, so that it splits into "three parts"-symbolic of its collapse into unredeemable ruin. Also, "the cities of the nations" will fall. 'Every island" and "Mountains"-institutions and organizations that seem so permanent in this system-will go. "A great hail," much greater than that which afflicted Egypt during the seventh plague, will pummel mankind painfully." (Exodus9:22-26) This punishing downpour of congealed waters like pictures unusually heavy verbal expressions of Jehovah's judgments, signaling that the end of this system of things has arrived at last! Jehovah could well use literal hail too his destructive work. - JOB 38:22, 33.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!" - Continue

 This and the previous six plagues give the sum total of Jehovah's judgments against Satan and his system. They are a declaration of doom for Satan and his seed. When this final bowl is poured out, Jehovah himself proclaims: "It has come to pass!" There is nothing else to say. When the contents of the bowls of God's anger have publicized to Jehovah's satisfaction, there will be no delay in executing these judgments proclaimed by these messages.

John continues: "And lightnings and voices and thunder occurred such as not occurred since men came to be on the earth, so extensive an earthquake, so great. And the great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell; and Babylon the Great was remembered in the sight of God, to give her the cup of wine of the anger of his wrath. Also, every island fled and mountains were not found. And a great hail with every stone about the weight of a talent descended out of heaven upon the men, and the men blasphemed God due to the plague of hail, because the plague was unusually great." - REVELATION 16:18-21. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - "It Has Come to Pass!"

 "And the seventh one poured out his bowl upon the air. At this a loud voice issued out of the sanctuary from the throne, saying: 'It has come to pass!" - REVELATION 16:17

"The air" is the final life-sustaining medium to be plagued. But this is not the literal air. There is nothing about the literal air that makes it deserving of Jehovah's adverse judgments, any more that the literal earth, sea, freshwater sources, or sun deserve to suffer judgments at Jehovah's hand. Rather, this is "the air" Paul was discussing when he called Satan "The ruler of the authority of the air." (Ephesians 2:2) It is the satanic "air" breathed by the world today, the spirit, or general mental inclination, that characterizes his whole wicked system of things, the satanic thinking that permeates every aspect of life outside Jehovah's organization. So in pouring out his bowl upon the air, the seventh angel expressed God's wrath against Satan, his organization, and everything that motivates mankind to support Satan in dying Jehovah's sovereignty. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -The Gathering to Armageddon - Conclusion

 The name Har-Magedon means "Mountain of Megiddo." But rather than being a literal place, it represents the world situation into which all nations are gathered in opposition to Jehovah God and where he will finally destroy them. This is global in extent. (Jeremiah 25:31-33; Daniel 2:44) It is similar to "the great winepress of the anger of God" and "the low plains of the decision," or "the low plain of Jehoshaphat," where the nations are gathered for execution by Jehovah. (Revelation 14:19; Joel 3:12, 14) It is also related to "the soil of Israel" where the satanic armies of Gog and Magog are destroyed and that location" between the grand sea and the holy mountain of Decoration" where the king of the north comes "all the way to his end" at the hands of Michael the great prince. EZEKIEL 38:16-18, 22, 23; DANIEL 11:45-12:1. 

When the nations have been maneuvered into this situation by the croaking propaganda originating with Satan and his earthly agents, it will be time for the seventh angel to pour out the final bowl of the anger of God.

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Three/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -"It Has Come to Pass!" 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon -Continue

 The need for Christians to stay awake becomes even more pressing as the next verse of Revelation comes closer to fulfillment: "And they [the expressions inspired   by demons] gathered them [the earthly kings, or rulers] together to a place that is called in Hebrew Har-Magedon." (Revelation 16:16) This name, more commonly rendered Armageddon, occurs only once in the Bible. But it has fired mankind's imagination. World leaders have warned of a possible nuclear Armageddon /Armageddon has been linked also with the city of Megiddo, the site of many decisive battles in Bible times, and some religious leaders have therefore speculated that the final war on earth will take place in that limited area. In this, they are far wide of the truth.

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish - The Gathering to Armageddon - Continue

 Jesus here warns that something similar can happen today. The priests and the Levites foreshadowed Jesus' anointed brothers. (1 Peter 2:9) But Jesus' warning applies by extension to the great crowd too. The outer garments here referred to identify the wearer as a Christian witness of Jehovah. (Compare Revelations 3:18; 7:14.) If any allow the pressures of Satan's world to lull them to sleep or into activity, they are likely to lose these outer garments-in other words, lose their clean identification as Christians. Such a situation would be shameful. It would put one in danger of losing out completely. 

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Chapter Thirty-Two/God's Anger Brought to a Finish -The Gathering to Armageddon - Continue

 Jesus warned of the kind of pressures that this world, saturated with propaganda, would put on Christians. He said: "Pay attention to yourselves that your hearts never become weighed down with overeating and heavy drinking and anxieties of life, and suddenly that day be upon you as a snare . . . keep awake, then, all the time making supplication that you may succeed in escaping all these things that are destined to occur, and in standing before the Son of man." (Luke 21:34-36) "That day" is "the great day of God Almighty." (Revelation 16:14) as "that day" of the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty approaches, it becomes ever more difficult to cope with the anxieties of life. Christians need to be alert and watchful, staying awake until that day arrives.

What, though, is implied by the warning that those found sleeping would be shamed by losing their "outer garments"? In ancient Israel, any priest or Levite on guard duty at the temple had a heavy responsibility. Jewish commentators tell that if anyone was caught sleeping on such duty, his garments would be stripped from him and burned, so that he was publicly shamed. 

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