VOICES, THUNDERS, LIGHTNINGS, AND A GREAT EARTHQUAKE
THE SHAKING OF BABYLON
EVERY ISLAND FLED
THE MOUNTAINS ARE NOT FOUND
HAIL
THE BLASPHEMY OF MEN
"And the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air; and there
came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, saying, It is done" (Rev.
16:17).
A great voice as of a multitude comes out of the temple of His
body in the heavens of the Spirit, saying, "It is done!" While the words
"it is done" are translated from a different Greek word, the meaning is
essentially the same as that triumphant cry of the Christ upon the cross
at the moment of His spirit's departure -- the conqueror's cry,
"Tetelesti," -- "It is finished!" More exactly, "It is accomplished." The
idea is not merely that a thing is ended, but that it is rounded out
perfectly. That piece of work, that heavenly purpose, was Divinely
Finished. Nothing can be added to it. Nothing can be taken from it. The
word of the preacher in Ecclesiastes, comes with wonderful power in this
connection. "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever:
nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it,
that men should reverence before Him" (Eccl. 3:14). It is that sense of
completeness, of unchangeable fulfillment and consummation, which is
wholly divine. Jonathan Mitchell has given some alternate renderings of
the Greek: "It has come to be." "It has been birthed." "It has come into
existence." "It has occurred!"
When men say, "It is finished," the world laughs at them. The
ink is not dry upon the page of a Constitution before many people are
clamoring for an Amendment. The law is not printed, oftentimes not
signed by the proper authority, before defects are found. What a cry of
triumph there was when the work on the formation of a Constitution for
the United States was completed! But tell me how many amendments we
now have. Twenty-seven! And it needs twenty-seven more! The
moment a church organization says, "Now we have finished our creed,"
and says of it, "We have the purest doctrine on earth," that very moment
the organization ceases to progress. Let anyone dare to interfere with the
truth as they perceive it, which they have set in concrete, thus making it
a static creed. "This is the creed," they say, "it is the whole truth and
nothing but the truth. If you do not agree with this thing which we have
finished, Anathema; to the faggot, to the stake, to the cross, to the
gallows, to the prison, to death with the man who dares to contradict this
finished creed of ours! Throw him out!" Through the years various
ones have written asking us for a copy of our "Doctrinal Statement." We
have never written one, and never will. Do you realize how many
revisions we would have had to make just during my brief lifetime? The
moment you write your creed you cannot go any further with God nor
have any more truth shed upon your pathway, for you have crystallized
truth into a restricted form. How wonderful the knowledge that the Holy
Spirit is still leading us into all truth! How blessed the realization that
we are still progressing from glory to glory, from experience to
experience, from faith to faith, and from one level of truth to another!
You have probably seen cars on the road that have a primer coat
of paint on them. They are on the way to becoming great-looking cars,
but they're not there yet. They are "in progress." People are like that.
God's elect are like that! If you look around you today at those whom
the Lord has called to sonship, you will see people who are unfinished
products. I'm sure you have seen the button some people wear that says,
"Please be patient, God isn't finished with me yet." Sometimes we
forget that our brethren are people "in progress." We are offended when
they manifest some imperfection. Sometimes we also expect ourselves
to be perfect, and we become discouraged or distressed if we fail to
measure up to our own expectations. The great news we can focus on
today is that God will bring His work in us to completion! Oh, yes, He
will! That is the great revelation and comfort shining brightly through
the words of our text. God has appointed a day -- there will come a
great voice out of the heavenly realm, out from the throne-room,
proclaiming, "It is done!" Oh, yes, we will be God's finished product!
HE is the one who started the work. He planned it in eternity. He
revealed it and has carried it out in history through the progression of the
ages. He is GOD and He will finish His work in His apprehended ones!
The seventh bowl brings the end of God's perfecting work in all His
people. The work has been carried forth through the opening of the
seven seals, through the sounding of the seven trumpets, and now we
have come to the pouring out of the final bowl of the seven last plagues.
We stand at the end, the finish, the termination of the limitations and
weakness of the flesh, the turmoil of the carnal mind, the pressures of the
world, the testings of the devil, the deception and bondage of religious
Babylon -- the end of all that has hindered and defeated God's people.
"It is done!" What a word that is!
Meditate upon the words of the preacher in Ecclesiastes, and
realize the completeness of the divine. What the Christ did was a
complete, finished work. Nothing can be added to or taken from it. He
accomplished the work the Father gave Him to do, and all that His death
meant and effected was carried forth successfully to its divine
conclusion. Yet it was only laying a finished foundation for that building
that was to be built up throughout the ages. Christ did not finish
everything in the divine plan, nor even everything included in our
redemption, when He yielded up His spirit on the cross. But the specific
work He was accomplishing by His death was wrought out and brought
to its divine conclusion. The foundation was complete. He finished the
work, and upon the altar of His own completed work which He had
Himself erected, He laid Himself down to be the propitiation for the sins
of the whole world. It is finished! It is significant to note that "It is
finished" are the very words the priest would say when the Passover
sacrifice was completed! Christ our Passover is slain for us, and having
died once…he dieth no more! Hence it never needs to be repeated. IT
IS DONE! "Nor yet that He should offer Himself often…but now once
in the consummation of the ages hath He been manifested to put away sin
by the sacrifice of Himself."
While all men everywhere were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, they were not perfected, nor were they conformed to His
image, nor were they matured unto the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ. Right there is where many brethren misunderstand the
"finished work" of Christ on the cross. If every saint of God would
diligently and prayerfully study all the New Testament says about what
was accomplished by the wonderful cross of Christ they would see
clearly just what all is included in that "finished work." And if every
member of God's elect would then carefully consider all the "shall" and
"shall be" statements in God's Word they would also be enlightened and
instructed concerning those great and glorious things that are not
included in that "finished work," and therefore remaining to be
accomplished in each of our lives by the mighty on-going processings of
the Spirit of God. Time and space do not permit us to go into the many
passages touching on this great truth, but in one precious verse we have
an indication of just what was "finished" at the cross and of that which
was not finished at the cross, yet to be wrought out in our lives by a very
different process of God. "For if, when we were enemies, we were
reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled,
we SHALL BE SAVED by His LIFE" (Rom. 5:10).
And now, in our text, there is a great voice out of the temple in
heaven, from the throne, and who can deny that it is the voice of the One
who sits upon the throne, who also said: "To him that overcometh will
I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set
down with my Father in His throne" (Rev. 3:21). Observe, then, how
it is the Lord Jesus Himself, not Jesus on the cross on Calvary's hill, but
the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Christ who now again proclaims
a finished work -- "It is done!" This obviously cannot be the same
finished work He announced on the cross! Ah, now that all His
redeemed people have had visited on them the passion of God through
the seven last plagues, to bring them out of captivity in spiritual Egypt,
to deliver them from the tyranny of religious Babylon, to purge, refine,
purify, perfect, and mature them into the image of Christ, there comes a
voice, not from the cross, this time, but out of the heavens of the Spirit,
out from the throne of power; THAT was atonement, reconciliation,
redemption -- THIS is deliverance, purification, perfection: "It is
finished! It is done! It is accomplished!" ALL DONE! All the
fleshiness, all the carnality, all the foolishness of religion, all the
immaturity and childishness, all the sin and lack, all the
misunderstanding, all the doctrinal delusions, all the unbelief, and all the
worldly ways -- the day of deliverance has come and now, "Let us be
glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb
is come, and His wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine
linen is the righteousness of saints. And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed
are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb" (Rev.
17:7-9).
Paul Mueller commented on our text, "When the seventh angel
poured out his vial into the air, which is the same 'air' that once was the
devil's realm, a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne,
said, 'IT IS DONE.' Something has been concluded, finished, and
terminated. It is the continuing conflict between flesh and spirit, and
between sin and death and the Life of God that has been terminated. For
us, all that pertained to the past death-life will then be over. The attacks
of Satan will then be over. Our bondages also will be over, and
ultimately those of all mankind and of the whole creation. When God
says, 'IT IS DONE,' we may be sure that it is done! The proof of this
will be our transformation and the final fall of the evil powers of
Babylon. The old creation, that was created by the old, carnal man,
Adam, as 'he' was inspired by Satan, shall pass away. And the new
creation, created by Christ and His brother-sons, shall then come forth to
the glory of the Father."
Just as the "it is finished" of Calvary refers to a different work
than the "it is done" of our text, so there is one more "it is done" in the
book of Revelation which also signifies a different work than either of
the two preceding. "And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I
make ALL THINGS new…and He said unto me, IT IS DONE. I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end" (Rev. 21:5-6). No longer
just the body of Christ, but now the Lord moves to renew and restore
ALL THINGS, the entire creation of God. All things which John had
seen up to now were for the church, the people of God.
But now the
vision allows us to peer through the glory and to the very end, to an end
which includes all things everywhere. Who would not longingly look
toward that blessed consummation? And so certain is the Christ of the
throne that all will be made new, that He declares "IT IS DONE!" And
the glorious result is revealed in the words which immediately follow: "I
will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely." Even the rich man in hell will hear those words! Think of it!
VOICES, THUNDERS, LIGHTNINGS, AND A GREAT
EARTHQUAKE
"And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there
was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth,
so mighty an earthquake, and so great" (Rev. 16:18).
Let us look a bit more at what John sees when the seventh angel
pours his bowl into the air. Out of the atmosphere are seen proceeding
voices, and thunders, and lightnings; then there is a great earthquake, the
greatest ever recorded in human history. Three other times in the
Revelation it speaks of voices, thunders, and lightnings. These things,
of course, are the familiar accompaniments of a storm. It is significant
that each time they are named in the book it is in connection with some
direct action taken by the Lord out of the heavens of the Spirit which
produces a reaction and has an effect in the earth realm. And each time
there is some added action intensifying the scene!
A physical storm is caused by two areas of unequal temperature
coming together. The storm is the process of the coming together and
equalizing of the atmospheric conditions. The inference here would
seem to be that the storm is created when the two "atmospheres" of
heaven and earth meet, that is, when the atmosphere of the spirit realm
touches the atmosphere of the earthy, carnal, soulical realm, and a storm
results which equalizes the atmosphere, bringing clear weather, or true
clarity in both the atmosphere of the spiritual and the soulical. It
suggests that the Lord is taking the next step in bringing forth the
revelation of Jesus Christ in all His people! He has risen up from His
secret place, spoken from His heavenly temple, and come forth to bring
judgment in the lives of all who name His name! And my, what a storm
that creates within God's people and throughout the church world! And
what commotions of voices, thunders, and lightnings this produces in the
midst!
The "storms" of the book of Revelation are interesting. In
chapter eight a storm is created when something symbolically
represented as "fire of the altar" is cast into the earth and becomes a
disturbing element in the atmosphere of the earth causing great
disturbance there. When the Lord comes in His Holy Ghost fire it always
changes the temperature and creates a disturbance! The fire of God heats
up the atmosphere of Adam's world, quickening the spirit within man,
and the heated atmosphere of the spirit meets the cold atmosphere of
man's soulical life, and a great storm is generated! God speaks out of the
storm, and there are heard voices proclaiming heavenly things! In the
storm God manifests His power in the thunderings! He gives brilliant
flashes of illumination and revelation by the lightnings! By this storm
He shakes (symbolized by the earthquake) everything of the old carnal
understanding, the old natural life, the old worldly system of things,
purifies the atmosphere, pours down the rain of His Spirit and Life, and
MAKES ALL THINGS NEW! The vision reveals the great truth that in
the outworking of God's kingdom purposes, first something happens in
heaven, and then as a consequence, certain events take place in our
earth. And the outcome is glorious indeed!
Throughout the scriptures the earthquake was a regular feature of
divine visitation. When God descended upon mount Sinai, "the whole
mountain quaked greatly" (Ex. 19:18). Isaiah prophesied that men would
hide in caves from the terror of the Lord, "when He ariseth to shake
mightily the earth" (Isa. 2:19). "Once again, in a little while, I will shake
the heavens and the earth," writes Haggai (Hag. 2:6). Earthquake
denotes a sudden, powerful, and violent disruption of the normal state of
things. No human power can control or bring about earthquakes. Many
times we have seen on the news cities that were shaken by temblors, and
have seen the wreck of some of the finest dwelling places and
commercial buildings the ingenuity of man can devise. In a few seconds,
while the hearts of men stood still with terror, while no human hand
could possibly aid them, the great concrete structures crashed and
shattered to ruins in the street below. Men and women grabbed their
babies and fled blindly for shelter -- they knew not where. No human
power can stay an earthquake, or even definitively warn of its coming.
Since Armageddon is the final battle in the saint's perfection into
Christ, it is fitting that the earthquake accompanying this battle is
described as "a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon
the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great." Now if that were a
literal earthquake it would be horrendous indeed, for there have been
historically some catastrophically devastating earthquakes. Pompeii was
destroyed by an earthquake in A.D. 63. In 1556 there was an earthquake
in the Shensi Province of China which took 800,000 lives. In 1693 an
earthquake on the island of Sicily took 60,000 lives. Early in the
eighteenth century the Japanese city of Edo (now Tokyo) was destroyed
with the loss of 200,000 lives. In 1755 the city of Lisbon, Portugal lost
60,000 persons to an earthquake, the shocks of which were felt as far
away as southern France and North Africa. In 1797 40,000 people were
killed in an earthquake at Quito, Ecuador. In 1819 an earthquake caused
2,000 square miles to sink and become the bed of a lake in the state of
Kutch in India. In 1883 a violent eruption at Krakatan in Sunda Strait
caused the deaths of 36,000 people. In 1896 an earthquake in Japan took
26,000 lives. So there have been some mighty literal earthquakes which
serve as faint shadows of the powerful spiritual shakings to come to
God's people in the battle at Armageddon!
On the physical level, an earthquake occurs where the cooling of
the earth has caused two layers of earth to overlap rather than to come
together flush. As they try to settle into a more natural position, great
pressure and stress is created and suddenly they release energy, there is
a mighty movement, and an earthquake takes place. Spiritually, this is
fulfilled within each of us in those areas of our life where the flesh and
the spirit, the carnal mind and the spiritual mind, truth and error, or our
will and God's will overlap within ourselves, causing intense pressures
to be formed, evoking instability in our lives. We have these places
deep within us where things do not fit together properly, where there are
flaws in our thinking or defects in our character, and pressure builds up,
for soul and body have not been synchronized with the spirit, so that they
do not "mesh" together. When we meet a situation that begins to trigger
these pressures and conflicts, a mighty rumbling and movement is set
off! The flesh wars against the spirit, and the spirit wars against the
flesh! When both the spirit and the flesh want to dominate great
pressures are created deep within. When God sets His hand to finally
and ultimately deal with every aspect of our flesh-life He gathers us
straight to that place called Armageddon!
As the Spirit of God moves sovereignly in our life, exerting a
force beyond the capacity of the natural man, the great "earthquake" then
ensues! The earthquake touches the fault-lines of our life, not just the
surface things, but the very depths of being where the foundation is
defective, imperfect, and unsound. It should not be difficult to
understand that no man can be conformed to the image of God apart from
spiritually devastating and destructive earthquakes! In order for creation
to be delivered and restored into God everything of the natural
constitution, the human mentality, the Adamic consciousness, the carnal
mind, the flesh life, our own will and ways, yes, and even all our former
heavens of spiritual experience must be shaken, utterly removed, and
demolished! And when He has finished His great work, in the most
powerful earthquake we have ever experienced or any man has ever
experienced, the carnal mind, the human nature, the flesh, and religious
Babylon will lie in ruins and eternal desolation! But the Christ-life will
be exalted on high in our lives!
When the earthquake comes there are great commotions within
and we react and feel in a spiritual way exactly like those people
experience naturally who are victims of physical earthquakes. Cars in
the streets roll back and forth, trees thresh about, broken like toothpicks;
buildings collapse, the terrain moves violently, bridges buckle, hospitals
are devastated, water supplies are broken, communications are cut off,
highways and railways are split asunder, our whole equilibrium is thrown
off balance, and there is great suffering and death. Oh, yes! When the
spiritual earthquake occurs within us, the old world of our carnal
understanding, the powerful citadels of the flesh, and all the entrenched
spirit of man-made religion are wiped away! This is the awesome work
of the earthquake that strikes when the word of our Father comes in
power and shakes us out of heaven!
Some years ago Rosemary Garzon wrote, "We have recently
heard of a prophecy given concerning a terrible earthquake this summer
in this country. Through the years we have heard of similar prophecies
being given, which most of you have also heard. Be that as it may. We
do know that the hour of the manifestation of the sons of God must
surely be nigh at hand. There is enough proof in His word that when we
have a breakthrough of great intensity from the natural earth realm into
the realm of His Spirit, an earthquake is assured! We might liken this
reaction to the 'sonic boom' we are all familiar with when a jet plane
breaks through the sound barrier. This reaction is one of God's laws in
His vast universe. When Jesus Christ broke through His flesh body and
'yielded up the ghost' we read of what took place. 'And, behold, the veil
of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom: and the earth
did quake, and the rocks rent: and the graves were opened: and many
bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after
His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many'
(Mat. 27:51-53).
But there is a truth beyond just the personal application. It is
significant to note that in chapter eleven of the Revelation we see a token
fall of the great city Babylon, which is the fall of Babylon within God's
chosen and separated elect, while in chapters sixteen through eighteen we
are shown Babylon's total collapse and destruction, which is the fall of
Babylon within the lives of ALL God's people! "And the same hour
there was an earthquake, and the tenth part of the city (Babylon) fell…"
(Rev. 11:13). What is a tenth? It's a tithe, a firstfruit, an earnest -- that
which is uniquely God's and guarantees the balance! All of Babylon, the
"great city," will fall, but here it is a partial fall. The manchild company,
the sons of God themselves, are the "tenth" part of Babylon that is now
falling. As the Spirit of the Lord has destroyed the strongholds of
Babylon within us, we are all aware that not all of this symbolic city has
fallen! The other nine-tenths, the structure of the carnal church systems,
has continued till today, but it has suffered some loss from the
earthquake that has freed God's elect from its clutches. What it has lost
and is losing from itself is here called "a tenth."
This reminds us that, when the prophet Isaiah was told about the
destruction coming upon Jerusalem and its kingdom of Judah, he was
told "there will still be within it a tenth, and it must again become…like
a massive tree in which, when there is a cutting down of them, there is
a stump; a holy seed will be the stump of it" (Isa. 6:13). The "stump" or
"holy seed" proved to be the faithful remnant that survived the exile in
Babylon and returned home to rebuild the holy temple at Jerusalem and
restore the kingdom of Israel. Though the application is a little different,
the principle is the same -- the "tenth part" is the promise that the whole
kingdom of Babylon will come down! Only after the blessed sons of
God are manifest and the glorious bride of Christ has "made herself
ready" will the entire city of Mystery Babylon be eternally desolated,
burned with fire, and reduced to ashes!
"See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped
not who refused Him that spake on earth, much more shall not we
escape, if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven: whose
voice then shook the earth: but now He hath promised, saying, Yet once
more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, Yet
once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as
of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may
remain. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved,
let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably" (Heb. 12:25-28).
Reference to the shaking of the earth and heaven comes closer
home than just the upheaval and doing away with man's earthly orders,
governments, institutions, cultures, and religious systems. Certainly all
of that, too, shall pass away! It also speaks of God's dealings with all
who aspire to become sons of God in the here and now. Not only the
earth in us -- our humanity with its faults, weaknesses, limitations,
emotions, ways, powers, and attributes -- but also the heaven in us must
be shaken! The heaven in us embraces all our spiritual blessings and
experiences of the past. The purpose of this shaking is not to destroy but
to replace what has been of God in our spiritual journey but only
intended for a specific time and purpose in our growth and development
in Christ. The removal of those things is to reveal something far greater! Never does the Lord take something away unless it is to give us
something better! He removes the natural to give us the spiritual. He
replaces the good with His best. He takes away the "in part" to reveal in
us His fullness. When the transitory (shadow, letter of the word) has
fulfilled its purpose, He then introduces us to what is real, heavenly, and
eternal (divine substance). Therefore let us be grateful for the shaking
of even our heavens and for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken!
This wonderful kingdom of our Father is earthquake proof -- it will
never pass away, and of the increase of His government and peace there
shall be NO END!
THE SHAKING OF BABYLON
"And there was a great earthquake…and the great city was
divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great
Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of
the wine of the fierceness of His wrath" (Rev. 16:18-19).
What dreadful thoughts and feelings are awakened in the soul by
the very sound of the words Mystery Babylon! They are terrible words.
They bring before us at once, that vast mass of professed Christians who
call themselves "the church," but are not. Mystery Babylon is a dark and
dreadful anomaly. It is neither one thing nor the other. It is not "Israel,
nor the Gentiles, nor the church of God." The "great city" spoken of is
neither natural Jerusalem nor is it the heavenly Jerusalem from above, the
mother of us all. It is a corrupt mysterious mixture, a spiritual
malformation, a hideous mutation, the masterpiece of Satan, the corrupter
of the truth of God, the distorter of the character of God, the perverter of
the ways of God, the destroyer of the souls of men, a trap, a snare, a
stumbling block by which men are made two-fold more the children of
hell than before. It is the corruption of the very best thing -- the body
of Christ -- and therefore the most vile of corruptions. It is that thing
which Satan has made of professing Christianity.
It is worse by far than Judaism; worse by far than the darkest of
pagan religions; because it has higher light and richer privileges, makes
the very highest profession, and occupies the very loftiest seat. It is
without doubt that awful apostasy for which is reserved the very heaviest
judgments of God -- the most bitter dregs in the cup of His righteous
wrath. If the words penned by John on Patmos do not say this, then I
have no understanding or comprehension of language. I doubt if one
Christian in one hundred thousand has anything like an adequate sense
of the true character and inevitable doom of that system together with all
the teachings, rituals, traditions, holy days, programs, organization,
promotions, and religious exercises which surround them. If they had it
would solemnize their minds and hearts, and cause them to sense the
urgent need to flee at once out of Babylon's clutches, and stand apart in
holy separation from Babylon's ways, that they might escape such
awful judgment as is about to be executed, for "strong is the Lord that
judgeth her."
In our text, as a result of the "great earthquake," the "great city"
was divided into three parts. Elwin Roach gave the following
commentary on this thought, which I think is excellent. "'Divided into
three parts' indicates a division of a whole unit. In God we have one unit
with three parts, but not divided: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In man
we also have a tripartite being: spirit, soul, and body. To be complete,
whether it be God or man, there can be no division. It is the same with
a natural city which consists of man. If it is divided in its common
interest then it will surely fall. Not only that, all the other cities in her
dominion will also be desolated. 'And the cities of the nations fell.' This
is what we see happening to this "great city" -- a division before the
fall. This division also happened in seed form with Eve. She was
tempted, seduced, divided herself from her husband, conceived sin, died
spiritually, and was judged of God. We should be able to see the parallel
here. The city is divided, but this time it is by the hand of God -- an
earthquake! But before the shakings could cause the division she would
have had to already have separated herself from God. Otherwise the
earthquake could not have moved her, for that which is founded in God
cannot be moved!" -- end quote.
In another sense the great city, Babylon, is split into three parts
by the shaking of God, that is, it is brought to a complete break-up, to
complete ruin -- for three is the number of completeness. The two
statements -- "the great city was divided into three parts" and "the cities
of the nations fell" -- indicate that the whole city and every structure in
it fell in a heap in utter ruin. Every structure collapsed, one wall falling
to the right, another to the left, the roof and the floors falling down
between them. It is total disintegration! There is, of course, an
individual and personal application as the Babylon within each of us is
judged. The mighty earthquakes come to each individual as the Lord
shakes each believer from the death-hold of the spirit of Babylon, to be
loosed unto the complete control and Lordship of Jesus Christ through
the indwelling Spirit. All the cities (the religious strongholds,
dominating hierarchies, denominational headquarters) of the nations fall.
They fall within the affections of each of us! They all fall before the
greater revelation of Jesus Christ! Every island of religious gatherings
flees away. Every mountain of religious achievement, fame, and power
crumbles and are no more. The ultimate truth of God's great hail falls
unrelentingly upon every thought, concept, doctrine, and tradition of
man, crushing it into the earth. The spirit of Babylon is marked
"finished" because the Lord, by His Spirit and His Word, puts down all
rule, authority, and power! Isn't it wonderful!
EVERY ISLAND FLED
"And every island fled away" (Rev. 16:20).
This also is the result of the "great earthquake" as God shakes the
kingdom of Babylon within us. Islands signify that separate,
individualized, independent gathering and effort of man to do his own
thing, build his own kingdom, gain a following, and make a name for
himself. This is one of the roots of the Babylonian religious system
which separates, divides, and exalts itself into a domineering, cultish
form -- "WE are the true church, WE are the body of Christ, WE are the
repository of all truth, WE, and WE ALONE, are God's anointed
instrument in the earth!" How many times have you heard that!
Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses,
certain "sonship" groups, and the list goes on and on. But all spiritual
egotism, self-centeredness, self-exaltation, and sectarian spirit will be
dealt with by the Lord! All this is the "way of Cain" who "went out from
the presence of the Lord…and he builded a city" (Gen. 4:16). He sought
to exalt his own name, gain a following, and build a kingdom around
himself. The final result of that spirit became Babylon -- first ancient
Babylon and now Mystery Babylon. But all the efforts of man will fail,
for God sends His great earthquake and the "great city" is divided and
demolished and every island flees away! Oh, yes!
THE MOUNTAINS ARE NOT FOUND
"…and the mountains were not found" (Rev. 16:20).
Mountains always occupy a dominant position in relation to the
surrounding terrain and are imposing and strong, consisting primarily of
rock. From this standpoint they fittingly picture kingdoms, governments,
organizations, and strong dominating powers which impose themselves
over men. Thus mountains signify great and strong kingdoms of man,
either within ourselves or that which is built up outwardly. The kingdom
of God itself is symbolized by the stone cut out without hands which
smites the image in its feet, grinds it to powder, and then grows to
become a "great mountain" that fills the whole earth! The prophet Micah
saw that "in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain
(kingdom) of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains (above and over all other strong kingdoms), and it shall be
exalted above the hills (above and over the smaller kingdoms), and
people shall flow unto it. And many nations shall come, and say, Come,
and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord…and He will teach us His
ways, and we will walk in His paths…" (Mic. 4:1-2). As the prophet
Daniel reveals, the end result shall be that all these earthly "mountains"
shall be swallowed up by THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD! "…and
the mountains were not found." All the kingdom-building of man shall
cease. The empires -- religious, economic, or political -- which were
monuments to the abilities of the flesh will be brought low.
HAIL
"And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone
about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the
plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great" (Rev.
16:21).
The plague of hail is also reminiscent of the seventh plague
that God sent upon Egypt at the hand of Moses. It was this plague
that brought total devastation to the land of Egypt. Men, animals, and
plants were violently killed by the hail and lightning that rained down
from heaven upon Egypt. This plague was somewhat unique because
Yahweh constantly reiterated the fact that this plague was intended to
prove to all the Egyptians that He was the one, true God who was to
be reverenced and worshiped (Ex. 9:14, 16, 27, 29). This plague
brought "very grievous hail, such as hath not been seen in Egypt since
the foundation thereof" (Ex. 9:18). Many gods of the Egyptians were
humiliated by the events that came to pass as a result of the plague of
hail. Because many cattle were killed, the bull and cow gods were
again proven to be powerless. Because the trees, plants, and crops
were destroyed by the hail, Renenutet -- the harvest goddess was
shown to be impotent. Seth, the god of storms and protector of crops
was ineffectual. As cattle and men died in great numbers, Isis, the
goddess of life was humiliated by this plague, as was Shu, the god of
the air, Tefnut, the goddess of moisture, and Osiris, a god of
vegetation. And there were others! The plague of hail was
undoubtedly a direct affront on more Egyptian gods than any other
plague that had come before! And without doubt, the plague of hail in
the Revelation is a powerful and devastating judgment against the
many "false gods" of the religious systems of man!
The size and weight of this hail is designated to be "about a
talent." A talent is estimated at various weight figures, and this need not
surprise us when we consider that the modern concept of having a
standard gram or kilogram had not pervaded the ancient world. Suffice
it to say that it was probably in the vicinity of 95 pounds. Hail of such
magnitude, weighing almost as much as a 100 pound bomb, would
indeed be an unquestionably lethal weapon! To be struck on an arm or
foot would mean certain severe damage, and a strike landing directly on
the head would bring instant death. The property damage to buildings,
cars, planes, and infrastructure would be incalculable. Here in Texas I
have heard of hailstones as big as baseballs. A lady in Iowa said she
could top that -- she had seen hail fall in great chunks. Yet most of us
have seen how hailstones no bigger than the end of your thumb can
devastate a cornfield, a cotton field, an automobile, or a house roof. The
destruction of hailstones of a talent weight can hardly be imagined. The
Roman catapults threw stones this size into Jerusalem, according to the
historian Josephus.
This, of course, is all symbolism, emphasizing the power and
effectiveness of God's judgment upon spiritual Babylon! Job 38:22 asks
the piercing question, "Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow?
or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail." The sweet singer of Israel
spake unto the Lord the words of a song in the day that the Lord
delivered him from the hands of his enemies, and from the hand of Saul;
in one place in that song David says concerning the intervention of the
Lord on his behalf, "The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the
Highest gave His voice; hailstones and coals of fire" (Ps. 18:13).
Notice now the sublime message in the words of the prophet
Isaiah wherein he says, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone,
a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that
believeth shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the line, and
righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge
of lies…and your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your
agreement with hell shall not stand" (Isa. 28:16-18). I think that's a
marvelous passage because what the inspired prophet is declaring is that
the hail which He sends as judgment will REMOVE THE REFUGE OF
LIES which is a covenant with death and an agreement with hell -- and
it will do it through the tried stone, the precious corner stone -- the
mighty Christ within our spirit! Christ is the word of God and He is the
truth. The "great hail" is another symbol for the word of God and the
truth. It is not the truth of God as the gentle rain of blessing, but the
"hard word" of correction and judgment! If you pause to think, you will
become fully aware that only HE can remove the refuge of lies beneath
which the whole church world has been enshrouded! Who can deny that
a vast amount of what the church systems teach about the nature of God,
His purposes, the church, heaven, hell, eternity, sacraments, baptisms, the
end-time, the great tribulation, the rapture, the millennium, the antichrist,
free will, the judgment, and a hundred other things is just that -- a refuge
of lies!
The elect of the Lord should be aware that water, especially rain
falling from heaven, is used in the scriptures as a type of God's word and
God's spirit combined, that is, the living word of God! Usually it
indicates that He is sending a blessing in the time of drought. When God
sends the rain that refreshes, sometimes it has come to us as a prophetic
word. The Spirit speaks words like these, "Yea, my son, thou art mine,
thou art precious in my eyes; I have called thee, I have chosen thee
before the foundation of the world unto a high and holy calling. Yea,
thou shalt be a great one, a mighty one in my kingdom! My goodly
spices shall flow out from thee and thy fragrance shall fill the earth in the
day of my moving! I will never leave thee nor forsake thee, I will be
with thee in all of thy ways, yea, my hand shall bring thee unto thy
appointed place, saith the Lord!" Oh, yes, we all love a word like that,
and in days past the Lord has spoken in just such endearing, encouraging,
and faith-inspiring promises to many of us! But not so when He sends
His word that comes as hail!
Water flows, and also it becomes sometimes hard as ice and hail.
When it falls as hail it is not a blessing, as we think of blessing. When
it falls as hail it always brings destruction, depending on its size,
quantity, and duration. Hail is water, but it is frozen water, thus it
bespeaks a hard word from the Lord! It is the word of God that strikes
us and knocks the carnal-mindedness out of us! It is the word that
rebukes, chastises, and corrects us! It gives us an attitude adjustment!
It is not an easy word, not a flowery word, not a sweet, soothing word,
but a word that devastates our field and beats down the carnal mindset,
ways, and works that grow out of our earthly nature. What large
hailstones of a "hard word" fall from the heavens of God's Spirit into our
land as He smashes our religious idols and all the things we treasure
more than His will and way! The "refuge of lies" speaks of all the false
ideas, false concepts, false doctrines, and false ways of the Lord's
people!
You can be a good Christian and embrace these false teachings
and practices, but you'll never be a son! The dealing hand of God must
come into our lives to thoroughly correct, purge and purify us from all
the defilements of religion! Multitudes of believers want only the rain
of God's word and God's spirit, only the blessings from above. To these
the Lord says, "Ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto
you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He
chasteneth, and scourgeth every SON whom He receiveth. And if ye
endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is
he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without
chastisement…then are ye bastards, and not sons" (Heb. 12:5-8). Oh,
yes, the Father will give us His glory, His nature, His wisdom, authority,
and power, and raise us up to judge the world and rule the nations with
a rod of iron. But before He entrusts into our hands such awesome
responsibilities He will put His finger on every aspect of our lives, He
will bring training, discipline, order, and judgment to our house. He will
send the hailstorms into our lives to beat down and destroy all the refuge
of lies, all the falsehoods of the doctrines of men, all the foolishness of
the religious systems, in which men take refuge, in which they trust for
their blessing and eternal salvation.
In the statement above I substituted the word falsehoods for lies
because lies infer a deliberate, intentional, malicious deception. Very
few preachers, teachers, and church systems deliberately intend to
deceive God's people. They themselves are deceived and the message
they proclaim is laced with falsehoods. The hail is a strong, hard,
corrective word from the Lord which He sends into our lives with such
SOLID IMPACT that it sweeps away our refuge of falsehoods. I have
experienced the hail, and I tell you that in just a very brief period of time
the word of God can come to us in such power that it completely lays to
ruin all our strongholds of carnal thinking and religious error! The
ultimate result of this wonderful deliverance is that He will abolish our
covenant with death and destroy our league with hell! (Isa. 28:17-18).
It is a complete salvation, yet it cannot be wrought apart from the
hailstorm of God's strong and powerful word which sweeps away the
falsehoods that have kept us from laying hold upon life and immortality.
He is doing this now in the life of each member of His called and chosen
elect, but before it can be said that "the bride has made herself ready" He
will also accomplish this same work in ALL OF HIS REDEEMED
PEOPLE! Aren't you glad!
This certainly edifies me more than to think Russia is going to
invade Israel or that there will be some kind of nuclear holocaust over on
the plains near Megiddo, somehow causing giant hailstones to fall upon
the people. If any of this is literal, we have some glaring
inconsistencies. Notice -- if the great earthquake has shaken everything
apart, the great city split into three parts, the cities of the nations fell,
great Babylon was judged, every island fled away, none of the mountains
could be found -- who or what could even be left for the hail to fall
upon! We have all kinds of carnal-minded prophets of doom and gloom
in the land today talking about hailstones as big around as beach-balls,
Godzilla monsters walking down Main Street, giant insects invading the
homes, hideous demons riding horses, scorpions as big as bulls crawling
up out of the earth, and other foolishness too ridiculous to enumerate --
all of which they imagine is revealed in the book of Revelation! I often
wonder how people who have received the Holy Spirit of God can fail to
see that all these things are symbolic, they are metaphors representing
great spiritual realities within our lives and in the experience of
mankind. I really have to question whether a man has truly been filled
with the Holy Spirit of Truth if he can listen to such literalistic trash,
such carnal drivel, and never say, "Wait a minute -- there's something
about this that doesn't add up -- how can that be the revelation of Jesus
Christ!"
I'm sure there are some who read these lines who have attended
seminars where the literalistic doom and gloom were taught, and when
you left there you thought, "You know, that really doesn't bear witness
with my spirit," but for lack of a better answer you thought, "This brother
must know what he's talking about!" Yet, a voice way down in your
inner being whispered to you even then that it wasn't true. There was a
sudden flash of lightning, a momentary burst of illumination, that
suggested to you that there was a truth deeper and higher in God! And
today prophets of God are openly proclaiming that truth which you knew
in the very depths of your life but which you were unable to clearly focus
or articulate. The truth does not speak from outside of you. Truth speaks
from inside of you, out of the inner sanctum of your spirit. If it is the
voice of our Beloved it will make our inner-son leap! That is what is
happening within God's elect in this hour as the message of Christ in the
Revelation is quickened within our hearts!
THE BLASPHEMY OF MEN
"…and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail;
for the plague thereof was exceeding great" (Rev. 16:21).
For a time men will blaspheme God "because of the plague of the
hail," for it will be devastating in its working. This verse, however, it is
not placed at the end of the judgment upon Babylon and the final
deliverance of God's people. This work continues on through chapters
seventeen and eighteen. Only then does the seventh plague complete its
grand purpose! Therefore, the "blasphemy" of men is a response along
the way in the process of judgment. When the work is finished Great
Babylon will fall to rise no more, the church -- the bride -- will have
been purified and made herself ready, the city of God will be adorned
with the glory of God descending out of the heavens, and the nations will
walk in the light of that city which is the bride of the Lamb. The whole
of creation will be subdued before Him, joyfully to live in His sight, all
things will be made new, and all will be gathered into Him -- for HE is
the beginning and the end!
It is the Truth that is to fall on men and cause them to blaspheme.
The carnal mind and the old Adamic reasoning always resist the mind of
the Lord, for they are enmity against God and cannot receive the things
of the spirit of God, because they are spiritually discerned. The truth
hurts carnal-minded men and causes them to resist it in resentful
blasphemy. This is the natural man crying out because his death-knell
has arrived, his day has ended, his time has come, and he will now sink
into oblivion to be reckoned with no more! The Lord employs nothing
with which to defeat error and correct men except the Truth. The
adversary attempted in the beginning of human history to defeat the
purposes of God and destroy the life of man by and through deception
and falsehood, and not through the employment of physical or any form
of super-human power. God will likewise send a hard word with such
devastating power that it will prevail and sweep away the refuge of lies.
Falsehood swept away, Babylon is disarmed and helpless, and her armies
must perish by the sword of the Spirit!