The Last Days
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Lesson 67 | 06/7/26
Revelation 18:1-2 | Dwellings
Every created being has a choice as to where he will dwell and in what manner we will be clothed for all eternity. We as Christians have chosen to be clothed in God’s glory and to make Jesus our dwelling place and our refuge, to dwell with God, to abide in Him. But those who love this world have chosen to make the world their habitation. To clothe themselves in their own self-righteousness, their own glory, and to abide in the world. These are what the book of Revelation continually calls “earth-dwellers” - κατοικοῦντας. This is the lure of the enemy, to abandoned God, to be clothed in pride, to love the system of darkness, to abandon God’s dwelling place and abide in the world.
Solomon, the king of Jerusalem, the son of David, wrote about the seduction of riches in the book of Ecclesiastes. These are words of lament as he looked back in regret of how he lived his life saying, Ecclesiastes 2:3–11-3 I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4 I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. 9 So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity (empty) and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
Solomon saw the vain, empty pursuit in chasing after riches, wealth, and power, and I believe Ecclesiastes is his confession in repentance for how he lived his life. In Revelation chapter 17 we saw the root of this seductive spirit of spiritual and religious Babylon as she uses pride and glory to seduce the kings of the earth. She did this with Solomon, and she has continued for thousands of years to seduce the most powerful kings. We saw this in chapter 17. Now chapter 18 describes the physical aspects of spiritual Babylon and how she is presenting herself to the world as lustrous, luxurious, goldened with gold, seducing with its wealth and pleasures, enticing the people of the world to merge with her in the most abominable way. She is luring with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16.
There is a question among scholars if chapters 17 and 18 are describing two different and separate Babylonian systems. I don’t see it that way. I believe they are the exact same. They are Babylon, and these two chapters reveal the two different aspects of this great city. A city led by demons and fallen angels, which are the gods of this world, and all their manipulations, Rev 18:2. But in order to relate to physical people, spiritual Babylon has to present herself in a physical way to the world. This is chapter 18. Luxurious Babylon, not needing or being dependent on God. But rather everyone is their own god or rather the god of their own life, and there seems to be much wealth, much prosperity, and no dependency on God. It's the same spiritual Babylon, the same Jezebellian spirit, enticing and presenting herself in wealth and luxury and seduction drawing the kings of the earth to fornicate in her idolatries.
Let’s begin by reading Revelation 18:1-4.
At the end of chapter 17, Babylon is described as “the great city.” Revelation 17:18; 14:8. But is this a physical city? Will Babylon be rebuilt? I am not convinced the city of Babylon will be reestablished in ancient Babylon, which is modern day Iraq, where the Tower of Babel existed. Although she will probably have a physical headquarters to rule the world. But I think it's much more than just a city, even if it's a great city spanning several 100 miles. This city of Babylon is overshadowing and encapsulating the entire world.
How can a city envelop the entire world? The answer is... the system of the beast. The internet, fueled by AI, enforcing the mark of the Beast, that will make the world a very small place. It connects everybody. This may be what is happening with Babylon in the Tribulation. Yes, you have a physical aspect of spiritual Babylon, manifesting itself and presenting itself to the world, but this city is stretching out its arms, it is overshadowing and encapsulating the entire world. And the only way it can do that is through technology, through the internet, through AI. AI is the only thing that can make this system reachable to everybody, especially when the earth dwellers have taken the mark of the beast. This will make the world a very small place in which everybody is connected. Everybody will know each other's thoughts, feelings, emotions, decisions, they are all tapped into the system. For the first time Satan is omniscient and omnipresent, and through this, he, and the kingdom of darkness is governing the world, being merged and intertwined with each other from the great city, Babylon.
Revelation 18:1)
John says he saw, “another angel coming down from heaven.”
Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Compare this with Revelation 14:8- And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
As we have been learning, the fall of Babylon is a fulfillment of the Prophets, Isaiah 21:9- And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.”
Jeremiah 51 also speaks of the fall of Babylon and has very close connections with Revelation 18, Jeremiah 51:6-29; 36-48.
John 14:2–3-2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Exodus 15:17- You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your own dwelling (κατοικητήριον), The sanctuary (the holy place, body of Christ, His Church), O LORD, which Your hands have established.
Ephesians 2:19–22-19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place (κατοικητήριον) of God in the Spirit.
Revelation 21:3- And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
2 Corinthians 5:1-2- 1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation (οἰκητήριον) which is from heaven, (our glorified body)
What an amazing promise we have from our God! That He wants to dwell with us and He has made this available through His Son, Jesus Christ. The οἰκητήριον is not just the place where we live, it is the manner in which we are clothed for eternity. We as Christians will be clothed in His Glory. This is the habitation that God has decreed for every human being. But there are those who have rebelled against this decree. They have chosen to abide in the world, they reject His dwelling place that He has prepared for them and they have decided to be clothed in the world with its pride and its glory.
This is what will be happening in the last days. Jesus gives us a glimpse of this in Matthew 24:37–38-37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. People will be giving themselves over to Babylon. They will be marrying the world, rejecting their οἰκητήριον just as they did in Genesis 6.
Notice how Jude describes these angels that came down and changed their bodies into a form that could cohabitate with women, he describes them as “the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode (οἰκητήριον- dwelling place that God had decreed for them), He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;” Jude 6. These fallen angels who left their proper domain and exchanged their dwelling place from what God had originally intended have been bound in Tartarus awaiting final judgement, 2 Peter 2:4- For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell (ταρταρόω- to hold captive in Tartarus) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
Revelation 18:2 tells us that in the end, people and angels will be doing the same thing; leaving their proper domain for the world, human beings intermingling with evil things. This is the abomination of the mark of the beast. Notice the connection between Babylon and the mark of the beast in Revelation 14:8-9 The mark of the beast is not an accident. Those who take this mark will be giving themselves over to the kingdom of darkness, mingling and trading their οἰκητήριον for the world. In the last days, this world will be full of transhuman people. People who have mingled themselves with unholy things. This is why the angel cries out in Revelation 18:4- “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
But even now, Jesus is pleading with the people of the world saying, “Come to Me, make your abode with Me. Come out of the world and enter into Life and dwell in Me.”
PREVIOUS LESSON 66 ← GO TO → NEXT LESSON 68
Solomon, the king of Jerusalem, the son of David, wrote about the seduction of riches in the book of Ecclesiastes. These are words of lament as he looked back in regret of how he lived his life saying, Ecclesiastes 2:3–11-3 I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4 I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. 5 I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. 7 I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. 8 I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. 9 So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me. 10 Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, For my heart rejoiced in all my labor; And this was my reward from all my labor. 11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled; And indeed all was vanity (empty) and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.
Solomon saw the vain, empty pursuit in chasing after riches, wealth, and power, and I believe Ecclesiastes is his confession in repentance for how he lived his life. In Revelation chapter 17 we saw the root of this seductive spirit of spiritual and religious Babylon as she uses pride and glory to seduce the kings of the earth. She did this with Solomon, and she has continued for thousands of years to seduce the most powerful kings. We saw this in chapter 17. Now chapter 18 describes the physical aspects of spiritual Babylon and how she is presenting herself to the world as lustrous, luxurious, goldened with gold, seducing with its wealth and pleasures, enticing the people of the world to merge with her in the most abominable way. She is luring with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, 1 John 2:16.
There is a question among scholars if chapters 17 and 18 are describing two different and separate Babylonian systems. I don’t see it that way. I believe they are the exact same. They are Babylon, and these two chapters reveal the two different aspects of this great city. A city led by demons and fallen angels, which are the gods of this world, and all their manipulations, Rev 18:2. But in order to relate to physical people, spiritual Babylon has to present herself in a physical way to the world. This is chapter 18. Luxurious Babylon, not needing or being dependent on God. But rather everyone is their own god or rather the god of their own life, and there seems to be much wealth, much prosperity, and no dependency on God. It's the same spiritual Babylon, the same Jezebellian spirit, enticing and presenting herself in wealth and luxury and seduction drawing the kings of the earth to fornicate in her idolatries.
Let’s begin by reading Revelation 18:1-4.
At the end of chapter 17, Babylon is described as “the great city.” Revelation 17:18; 14:8. But is this a physical city? Will Babylon be rebuilt? I am not convinced the city of Babylon will be reestablished in ancient Babylon, which is modern day Iraq, where the Tower of Babel existed. Although she will probably have a physical headquarters to rule the world. But I think it's much more than just a city, even if it's a great city spanning several 100 miles. This city of Babylon is overshadowing and encapsulating the entire world.
How can a city envelop the entire world? The answer is... the system of the beast. The internet, fueled by AI, enforcing the mark of the Beast, that will make the world a very small place. It connects everybody. This may be what is happening with Babylon in the Tribulation. Yes, you have a physical aspect of spiritual Babylon, manifesting itself and presenting itself to the world, but this city is stretching out its arms, it is overshadowing and encapsulating the entire world. And the only way it can do that is through technology, through the internet, through AI. AI is the only thing that can make this system reachable to everybody, especially when the earth dwellers have taken the mark of the beast. This will make the world a very small place in which everybody is connected. Everybody will know each other's thoughts, feelings, emotions, decisions, they are all tapped into the system. For the first time Satan is omniscient and omnipresent, and through this, he, and the kingdom of darkness is governing the world, being merged and intertwined with each other from the great city, Babylon.
Revelation 18:1)
John says he saw, “another angel coming down from heaven.”
- ἄλλον ἄγγελον- another angel of the same kind
- another angel like those in chapters 14 and 17
- This is not Jesus, but rather an angel speaking His words and showing His glory
- There are three angels in chapters 17 and 18, Rev 17:1; 18:1; 18:4
- Possibly the same three angels from chapter 14 because the proclamations in chapters 14 are very similar to 18.
- The timing is the same as well, probably the middle of the Tribulation when the angel announces the destruction of Babylon.
- Notice what he says in verse 2...
Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen. Compare this with Revelation 14:8- And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
As we have been learning, the fall of Babylon is a fulfillment of the Prophets, Isaiah 21:9- And look, here comes a chariot of men with a pair of horsemen!” Then he answered and said, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen! And all the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.”
Jeremiah 51 also speaks of the fall of Babylon and has very close connections with Revelation 18, Jeremiah 51:6-29; 36-48.
- The fall of Babylon is the fulfillment of His purpose and His Words, Rev 17:17.
- Babylon has become a dwelling place for three separate beings:
- Demons- the disembodied spirits of the Nephilim (giants)
- Every unclean spirit- fallen angels
- Every unclean and hated bird- the human false religious leaders who are seducing the people
- The tares among the wheat, Matt 13:25
- The birds of the air nest in her branches, Matt 13:32
- Those who have been caught in the snare of the devil, 2 Timothy 2:26
- God dwells in the heavens, Psalm 33:14; 1 Kings 8:39; 2 Chron 30:27
- Man dwells on the earth, Acts 17:26; Psalm 107:7; Jer 21:13
- Animals even have their God appointed places in the earth, Nahum 2:11-12; Jer 9:11
John 14:2–3-2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.
Exodus 15:17- You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your own dwelling (κατοικητήριον), The sanctuary (the holy place, body of Christ, His Church), O LORD, which Your hands have established.
Ephesians 2:19–22-19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place (κατοικητήριον) of God in the Spirit.
Revelation 21:3- And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.
2 Corinthians 5:1-2- 1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation (οἰκητήριον) which is from heaven, (our glorified body)
What an amazing promise we have from our God! That He wants to dwell with us and He has made this available through His Son, Jesus Christ. The οἰκητήριον is not just the place where we live, it is the manner in which we are clothed for eternity. We as Christians will be clothed in His Glory. This is the habitation that God has decreed for every human being. But there are those who have rebelled against this decree. They have chosen to abide in the world, they reject His dwelling place that He has prepared for them and they have decided to be clothed in the world with its pride and its glory.
This is what will be happening in the last days. Jesus gives us a glimpse of this in Matthew 24:37–38-37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark. People will be giving themselves over to Babylon. They will be marrying the world, rejecting their οἰκητήριον just as they did in Genesis 6.
Notice how Jude describes these angels that came down and changed their bodies into a form that could cohabitate with women, he describes them as “the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode (οἰκητήριον- dwelling place that God had decreed for them), He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day;” Jude 6. These fallen angels who left their proper domain and exchanged their dwelling place from what God had originally intended have been bound in Tartarus awaiting final judgement, 2 Peter 2:4- For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell (ταρταρόω- to hold captive in Tartarus) and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
Revelation 18:2 tells us that in the end, people and angels will be doing the same thing; leaving their proper domain for the world, human beings intermingling with evil things. This is the abomination of the mark of the beast. Notice the connection between Babylon and the mark of the beast in Revelation 14:8-9 The mark of the beast is not an accident. Those who take this mark will be giving themselves over to the kingdom of darkness, mingling and trading their οἰκητήριον for the world. In the last days, this world will be full of transhuman people. People who have mingled themselves with unholy things. This is why the angel cries out in Revelation 18:4- “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
But even now, Jesus is pleading with the people of the world saying, “Come to Me, make your abode with Me. Come out of the world and enter into Life and dwell in Me.”
PREVIOUS LESSON 66 ← GO TO → NEXT LESSON 68