Volume 2005/1
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"He
will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner”
(Mat.3: 12)
(From radio broadcast of Bro. Julius Adewumi)
Rev.18
We are going to Rev.18. I pray the Lord will open your understanding as we go along.
“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven,
having great power; and the earth was
lightened with his glory. And he cried
mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the
habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every
unclean and hateful bird.”
In the last
chapter 17, we discussed Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abomination
of the earth.
This was shown to apostle John: a woman seated on a
scarlet-colored beast. The angel said
the woman was symbolizing a city. The
scarlet colored beast was symbolizing the nations and the land where this woman
was seated, and also the kingdoms that the woman was sitting upon.
He said there were seven kings, the 7 heads. We said those represented seven world
empires, in the which five were fallen, which were the former 5 world empires,
the sixth world empire was then reigning, and he said another one (the seventh)
is yet to come. The eighth one is the
beast from the bottomless pit. What
does that really mean, when we say the kingdoms of the world? We know that kingdoms have headquarters
somewhere. Kings may change, but the spirit ruling the kingdom remains until
the kingdom is destroyed, and the spirit ruling the kingdom can be arrested and
locked up by the angels of God. That is
how the antichrist spirit was locked up in the bottomless pit. The angel said the beast was, and is not,
and shall arise out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. You see in Rev.17 where he said the beast
that was, and is not, is the 8th, but is one of the seven, this talked about
the spirit that ruled the kingdom. The
city that was ruling the world in those days was Rome.
“The
woman, which thou sawest is that great city that ruleth over the kings of the
earth.”
I take
the time to explain this so that you can get what we are talking about. The angel was talking about the Roman
Empire. Why would God be talking about
the Roman Empire specifically? Because
it was the Roman Empire that was ruling the world when Christ was
crucified. Just as the nation of
Israel was guilty of crucifying the Messiah, the Roman Empire was also guilty
of implementing the crucifixion. Not
only that. After the church was
started, the Roman Empire persecuted the Christians. It was the Roman Empire that exiled apostle John to Isle of
Patmos where he was, when he received these revelations. According to history, apostles Peter, Paul,
and many other Christians were killed in Rome. This was written in history.
After a while, the Roman Catholicism was started, which looked like
Christianity was being made the national religion, but it was amalgamated with
the idols they worshipped in Rome. So
that it was a polluted religion being presented to the world. They repainted some of those idols and gave
names (Peter, Paul, etc) to those idols, and the people kept on worshiping
their renamed idols. They introduced a mother idol named “the queen of
heaven” and gave it the name of Mary.
They claim to call the name of Christ, but it is the queen of heaven
they are worshipping.
What is the queen of heaven? In the book of the prophets, the Israelites
were worshipping a queen of heaven. It
was an idol. The prophets spoke against
it. (Jer. 44:17 ). That is why the bible called the city
“harlot” and mother of harlots. It is
fornication when one is supposed to worship the true God, but one is
worshipping a false god. They turned away from the true Christ and were
worshipping something else called the queen of heaven.
They also align themselves to the rulers of
this world. How does Christ look at
that? When Christ was on earth, did he
align himself to the High Priest and the chief priests and the rulers of the
nation? No. His kingdom was to be
separate from the kingdoms of this world.
Did he align himself with the governor, Pilate? No. His kingdom was not of this world. But
when a church or a group of believers already begin to align themselves with
the government of this world, with the kings of the world, to seek favor with
these kings, so that the kings and the rulers of the world will be on their
side, they are no more using the power of God. They are no more using the ways
of God, because God does not align himself with the rulers of the world. The rulers of the world have to
surrender to Christ, the same way that every individual has to surrender to
Christ. But that happened in the Roman-Catholicism where the Roman Catholic
papacy indirectly becomes the ruler of Europe. In all those generations, they
were ruling Europe, just like the kings and the queens and the emperors were
ruling Europe. The Roman-Catholic had so much power, because they control the
souls of the people. The king had to be
lined up with the priest.
Everything in Revelations 17, and 18, was
a prophecy. When it was prophesied, it had not formed yet. Now we can look back
at history and understand better. Roman-Catholicism was like a religious
dynasty ruling over many people in
those generations. Up ‘till now they are still ruling through religion. They
rule governments. In fact they
influence the governments of the world. In the earlier centuries, they wouldn’t
appoint the king, in any of those European countries, without consulting with
the Papacy. Why, because they rule the souls of men in their churches. When we
look back, we can see how idolatry was formed, but by the time this Bible was
written, it was prophecy. It prophesied that something like this would be set
up, and it was not God’s type of church, not God’s type of worship. It had already been mixed up, and they had
already lined themselves up, worshiping the rulers of the world. That is why in
chap.18, He said, “all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication.”
See what God called fornication?
Worshiping another thing. Roman Catholicism worship the queen of heaven. And
that was called fornication. And all nations have drunk of it. See, there is
Roman-Catholicism everywhere, in every country.
“And the kings of the Earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the Earth are waxed rich
through the abundance of her delicacies.”
Up
till today the city of Rome, and the Roman-Catholicism, have a lot of influence
and involvement in the trading system.
I will describe the type of trading that was going on which continue up
to today.
Now
let’s read verse 4: “and I heard another voice from heaven, saying, come out
of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive
not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath
remembered her iniquities.”
You
have to remember, God said, mystery Babylon, was a city. God is judging a
particular city. And the city symbolized in chap.17 & 18, is talking of the
city that ruled over the world.
“The woman, which thou sawest, is that
city, which reigneth over the kings of the Earth.”
And
in those days it was the city of Rome.
Okay, we have established that it’s the
city of Rome. After the Roman Empire faded away, another form of empire, stood
up in the same city of Rome. God is talking, both in the spiritual world, and
in the physical world. God sees the spiritual world, and sees the physical
world. For example, if you set up a physical building, then suddenly that
building demolished, and something else was set up on that place, if there’s a
spirit behind all that is set up on that land, God is not just talking about
that building, he’s actually talking about the spirit that was setting up any
establishment in the land.
So
we see that the city Rome, was formally ruling as the Roman Empire over all the
kings of the Earth, and then suddenly, after the Roman Empire was dissolved,
here comes another establishment in that city Rome, in form of religion, and
that religion begins to rule over all nations of the Earth through religion.
Because in those days, they cannot even
make kings in any of the European countries, without consulting the Papacy. God
is seeing the spirit that is behind it all. Rather than the houses or the
building in the city. God is looking at the spirit that’s behind it all. And
that spirit is the spirit that is ruling the nations, the spirit that is ruling
the world. But God can see things in the spiritual world, and can also see the
influence of it in the physical world. This is why we’re pointing these things
out to you.
Let’s talk about this city and what God
said he would do to that city. When God
judges a city, whatever is in the city will be judged. When God was judging Jerusalem, what
happened? There were priests, and a
king in the city. They were all judged
and taken away. Same with city of Rome, whether there is papacy there or king
or rulers of the city, they will all be judged together.
It
says, “come out of her my people”. Who
are his people? They are those who have committed their lives to Christ, those
who are believers.
When God is to judge a city he always send
a warning to his own people. There are
Christians in Rome. There are believers
in Rome just like any other city in the world now. Even in the days of apostle Paul, believers were trading and
going back and forth in the city of Rome.
When destruction is coming to a land, God will send a warning to his people
to be able to escape the evil that is coming.
There was warning to the Christians in Jerusalem in the days before the
destruction of the city in 70 A.D. When
the Christians remembered the prophecy, which the Lord Jesus Christ gave about
the city, (Mat. 24), they fled the city when they saw Jerusalem surrounded by
the Roman army.
God always send warning like that when things
catastrophic are going to happen.
Through prophecies, through visions, through dreams, God warns. The Lord Jesus said we are not of the
darkness that the day should meet us unawares.
We should be children of light, hearing from God, seeing from God. That
is the type of Christianity Jesus Christ has formed upon earth. If your own church doesn’t believe in
prophecy, or you are not hearing anything, you are not seeing anything, you
ought to cry unto the Lord, or get out of that dead and lukewarm or false
organization. You also, individually,
build up your faith and God will talk to you directly. Build up your faith by praying, by fasting
and dedicating yourself and God will talk to you directly so that you can be
the prophet that will warn the others.
God is saying “whom will I send?”
God wants somebody to send.
V.5:
“Come out of her, lest you partake of her plagues, for her sin has
reached up unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities.”
“Reward her as she rewarded you, and
double unto her according to her works. In the cup which she has filled, fill
to her double”.
How has that city rewarded God? See how many Christians were killed in Rome,
fed unto lions? There has been no such
persecution since then, as history recorded that Rome rounded up Christians in
the earlier centuries and killed them in the public arenas while the spectators
hailed, in a stadium, watching lions eat them.
You think God will not remember?
Though it was a thousand years, when God decides to judge He will bring
the sin of the land to remembrance.
That is why in the book of Revelations chapter 5, the souls of believers
cried out to God to avenge them, and they were told to wait a little while till
the rest of the believers that shall be persecuted as they were, is fulfilled.
God takes note of every city that persecutes the
believers. And I am warning all the
cities and nations of the world where they claim to have another religion that
is not Christianity: may be the Islamic religion, or the Islamic countries that
are persecuting Christians. I am
warning them, and the word of God is warning them. You are better of if you don’t persecute the children of
God. If you don’t want to believe it,
you are better of if you just leave them alone. But for you to be the one persecuting and killing the Christian,
you are creating destruction for your city and for your land, because God is
marking those things down. Think of how
long ago those things happened in Rome!
Almost 1500 years ago, and God is still going to bring that judgment
upon that city. You may say the people
that were living in that city are not the ones that are there now! God is not talking about the people that are
there now. God is talking about a land!
When God destroy a land, sometime he will say there will never be anything in
that land anymore forever. You will see
it in this chapter of Revelation. God
is not dealing with just a generation of 30 years. He is dealing with
generations forever. God judges lands,
God can judge planets, God can judge a whole solar system. He can make a whole solar system never to be
inhabited forever. “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hand of the Living God.” So, you that is persecuting the true
believers, the true Christians of God, you better be warned. You may be doing yourself a great harm,
because when God judges, generations of you and your people may be wiped out of
the planet earth. He said “touch
not my anointed, do my prophets no harm!” The bible also said when they are persecuting the Christians they
will think they are doing God service.
That was what they were doing; especially those who claim to follow
Islamic religion. They think they are worshipping God, they think they are
fighting for their Allah whereas God is not on their side. The true God is the
Lord Jesus Christ, and they don’t believe him.
May you repent!
V.7: “How
much she has decked herself … so much
torment give her, for she said in herself, I sit a queen … and shall see no
sorrow, therefore shall her plagues come in one day death and mourning, and
famine. She shall be utterly burned
with fire. For strong is the Lord God
which judgeth her.”
God says the city will be burned with
fire. And we said the city is the city
of Rome. You may look at it and say,
“How can that happen?” In fact God said
those ten kings, which are ten European kings are the ones going to burn the
city with fire in a war. This will
happen, no matter how long it takes, it will happen.
V. 9 “The
kings of the earth that have committed fornication with her shall bewail her
and lament for her when they shall see the smoke of her burning. Standing afar off for the fear of her
torment saying alas, Alas!”
Think about this.
God is saying they will stand afar off when the city is burning. How can a city be burning and the people
that love the city stand afar off? He said for fear of her torment.
It’s because of the type of burning that will take
place. Right now they know about Nuclear bomb.
If there is a nuclear destruction of a city, all the nations of the
world will stand afar off because of the Radiation. This is prophesying that a Nuclear destruction will occur against
that city. If there is a nuclear
destruction of a city all neighboring cities better run away because of the
radiation. It’s not the type of fire
that the fire fighters can try to put out.
We know
now that Nuclear destruction is possible against any city, any land, if there
is a world war. God was putting the
judgment against that city to the end-times, when human beings would have
acquired enough Nuclear bombs. It said
“in one hour”! A whole city can be
destroyed in one hour with a nuclear blast.
That is what we see here. In those days when this prophecy was
written it may look like this is exaggerated.
In our generation we can see that this is not exaggerated. This is what can happen in this generation
by nuclear bombs.
V. 11: “And
the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth
their merchandise anymore.”
Every trading system will stop.
Here are
what’s going on in the city. From the
list you can also tell which city.
V.
12-13 “The merchandise of gold,
and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls and fine linen, …… and horses,
and chariots, and slaves and souls of men…”
Now verse 13 mentioned the merchandise traded in
this city and included in the list “souls of men!” How can you trade in souls
of men? That is traded through
Religion, because people are going to Rome through the Roman Catholicism for
penance. Catholicism charges people
money to get the souls of their loved ones out of what they call Purgatory, a
place for the dead sinners: A false
doctrine that has made a lot of gold for the church of Rome. It is only in that Catholicism that they
introduced the doctrine of Purgatory.
Whereby they said anyone that dies and not good enough will go to a
middle place called Purgatory, where the relatives can pay for the dead out of
Purgatory. Pay some penance, pay some money to get your relative out of
Purgatory! That became like a trading system where the papacy was raking
money. That is trading in the souls of
men. There is nothing in the standard
bible that mentions Purgatory. If one
dies, he goes to Paradise or he goes to hell.
There is no purgatory in between.
That was coined by the Rome’s religious system. They made it up, and
used it over the centuries to make money for the church of Rome. That is one of the things God was talking
about.
I pray for you that is reading this. Don’t take offence in what we are saying
here. I am telling you that “Run out of her, my people, that you be not
partakers of her plagues”. If you are
joined to this religious system, begin to question it yourself that, “where is
it in the standard bible about Purgatory?”
Of course they may have their own bible where they have added some
verses to support their doctrine. If
you cannot find the doctrine in the standard bible you better get out of
idolatry and give your life to Jesus.
I pray that the Lord Jesus will give you
understanding for all these things.
Amen!
Bro.
Julius Adewumi
Gospel
Distribution Ministry
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Internet homepage:
Email: webmaster@gospeldistribution.org
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I want to thank those
that have been sending offering to this ministry. Your investment and mine send the literature to believers and
send the word on radio. That is one
sure way we can send our money ahead of us to heaven. The Lord said: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and
steal: But lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves
do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your
heart be also." (Mat. 6: 19-21).
"For we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can
carry nothing out." (1Tim. 6: 7).