This tape contains the final of six teachings in the series entitled The Counterfeit Kingdom, presented by the Reverend John W. Howe, Rector of Truro Episcopal Church in Fairfax, Virginia. The title of this teaching is The Overwhelming Victory, and the scripture reference is the Book of Revelation, chapters 17 through 22. Let's turn now to the book of Revelation, chapter 17. This is where we spent a fair amount of time last week, and I want to pick up on what we said and push on to really the final issue that needs to be dealt with. Let me just summarize some of what we were talking about last time.

In very vivid imagery, very highly symbolic imagery, the book of Revelation asserts that the dragon, who is clearly identified in chapter 12 as Satan, he's called that ancient serpent who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. It goes on to say that he has three principal allies, three chief allies, and they are, first of all, the beast of the sea, who represents anti-Christian government, political and military authority, anti-Christian rule, if you will. Secondly, the beast of the earth, who represents false, blasphemous, idolatrous religion, anti-Christian religion and philosophy.

And thirdly, the scarlet woman, who's also called the whore of Babylon, who represents anti-Christian morality, worldliness, self-indulgence, insatiable materialism. These are the dragon's three principal allies in the book of Revelation, anti-Christian authority, anti-Christian philosophy, and anti-Christian morality. And they've been with us since the very beginning, and they will be with us to the very end of the Christian era.

One of the things, we just kind of, we moved very quickly through this last time. I want to call your attention to two verses in chapter 17 before we push on. that really helped to unlock this symbolism.

Verse 9, it says, This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. We have this image of the woman seated upon the beast with seven heads.

And it says, The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated. And then the very last verse of the chapter, verse 18, And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth. And so I said to you last time that all three, the beast of the sea, the beast of the earth, and the scarlet woman, were incarnate in ancient Rome, were incarnated, if you will, in ancient Rome.

That the beast of the sea was the Roman emperors, the dynasty of the Caesars. that the beast of the earth was the Caesar cult that surrounded them, and that the Scarlet Woman was this lust for self-indulgence which accompanied that society, which corrupted that society. It's interesting.

This is a very important footnote. You may know this and you may not. One of the principal coins that was used in the first century throughout the whole Roman Empire was called Vespasian's coin.

And the picture on it was that of a woman seated on the seven hills of Rome. When you read this, if you know that footnote, it is absolutely unmistakable. Who is this scarlet woman?

She's Rome. She's Rome. She's the Roman culture gone into degradation.

She's the materialistic, self-seeking, self-serving, self-satisfying lust for indulgence. Verse 9, again, this calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven hills are seven mountains.

What is the city of seven mountains? Rome. Always has been known as that.

Verse 18, and the woman that you saw is the great city, which has dominion over the kings of the earth. Clearly in that day, Rome was such a city. Peter calls Rome Babylon in his first, I don't know, I forget if it's his first, I think it's his second letter, Babylon the Great.

And so the imagery is very clear. If you know a little bit about history, it doesn't take much to unravel that. What I'm telling you is that these three allies, anti-Christian authority, anti-Christian religion and philosophy, and anti-Christian morality, were incarnate in the days of Rome, and they've been incarnate in every other generation as well.

And they're with us today. Look around you. Do you see any anti-Christian authority anywhere?

That's the beast of the sea. Do you see any anti-Christian philosophies anywhere? It's the beast of the earth.

Do you see any anti-Christian morality? That's the scarlet woman flaunting her wiles. And what I suggested to you is that they may or they may not, they may or they may not be finally incarnated or manifested in the Antichrist.

They may or may not. Alternatively, they may continue to manifest themselves in a whole panoply of anti-Christian forces, movements, powers, programs, and so on. Wherever there is persecution of the church by anti-Christian authority, wherever there is deception of the church by anti-Christian philosophy, wherever there is seduction of the church by anti-Christian morality, This is the work of the dragon and his allies.

Now what I want to do is pick up at that very point and push on. I want to read from verse 12. Revelation 17 and verse 12.

And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast. And that means the beast of the sea. That first beast is the beast.

The second beast is a second beast like him. They're going to receive authority as kings for one hour together with that beastly anti-Christian authority. These are of one mind and give over their power and authority to the beast.

And they will make war on the lamb and the lamb will conquer them for he is Lord of lords and King of kings and those with him are called and chosen and faithful. Now we're going very rapidly over stuff that we could debate at great length. The ten here, the ten kings may be literal.

Maybe ten literal kings yet to come. I mentioned last time that there's a tremendous fascination today with the fact that at this particular moment there are now ten nations in the European common market. You know, is that the ten coming together?

Or it may be symbolic. Ten is a number that can be used symbolically to mean a great number, an unspecified large number of human rulers who are operating under the authority of a demonic principality. It doesn't really matter to me, for our purposes are simply to see that they make war on the Lamb.

These kings, these authorities, these human rulers who are in fact under the authority of a totally anti-Christian, demonic principality. They make war on the Lamb and on his followers, but finally they are themselves destroyed. And it says for one hour.

I don't know what that means, but it sounds very brief. We're not talking about a great long period of tremendous power and authority. We're talking about a brief, very brief moment in history.

Verse 15, And he said to me, The waters that you saw where the harlot is seated are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, and the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast, will hate the harlot. Note that. They will hate the harlot.

They will make her desolate and naked and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And then, as we've already seen, the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth.

Now, again, if you want to really get into this, I commend to you the series that I did some time ago on the book of Revelation because we really went through it in detail. I'm just very quickly summarizing. I want you to see two things out of this paragraph.

First of all, not only these human rulers, whether they're ten literal human kings or rulers or whatever they are, whatever they are, these human rulers, and the beast himself, this demonic principality, this beast of anti-Christian authority, end up hating the harlot. Isn't that odd? We've just said repeatedly that these three are the dragon's chief allies, and yet the beast of the sea ends up hating the harlot.

The beast of anti-Christian authority ends up hating anti-Christian morality. Does that strike you as odd? The dragon's allies hate each other.

Can you think of any place in the world today where there's evidence that that is so? I submit to you that it is all around us. Wherever you see totalitarian government, it hates the decadence of Western culture.

Anti-Christian government hates anti-Christian morality. The Soviet Union is puritanical by our standards. It hates the corruption of materialism and immorality that has pervaded the West.

It hates it. It wants to destroy it. wherever you see a socialistic or a communist regime, there's a crackdown on the immoral and the materialistic lifestyle of the hedonistic West.

I submit to you that is transparent in our own generation. Put it this way, that a godless communism hates a godless capitalism. Did you ever stop and think about that?

And we've got an awful lot of Christians that are running around trying to defend capitalism over against communism without seeing how godless capitalism can be. These are allies of the dragon, even though they hate each other. But more importantly than that, the other point is in verse 17.

For God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast until the words of God shall be fulfilled. Do you follow that? These kings of the earth who will rise up under the authority of the beast himself who are going to make war on the lamb, obviously that's not of God, right?

And yet God has put it into their minds to give their power over to the beast so that they will accomplish God's own purposes. Can you see the hand of God? in communism?

You need to. Communism is God's judgment upon his church. And as terrible, as ghastly as it must be to live under that, do you know that in many ways the church is stronger behind the Iron Curtain than it is here?

Do you know that? Do you know that in China they had a wholesale program of uprooting the pastors and the leaders of the church and moving them out into the countryside so that they could eliminate their influence in the major metropolitan areas. Do you know what happened 30 years later?

There's a tremendous village church all over the place. Tremendously strong. God has brought judgment upon his church for its decadence and in the process he purifies it and makes it stronger to serve his own purposes.

Martin Luther used to say, of course there's a devil, but he's God's devil. He's God's devil. He cannot do one blessed thing apart from the permission of God.

That does not mean God endorses sin. That means God will use even the devil to bring about his purposes. And so we see this in very vivid, very kind of, this is called apocalyptic imagery, very vivid symbolism.

I've already said the time is short. The time is short. We're looking at last things here.

The time is short. They're going to receive their authority for one hour. Verse 12.

Back in chapter 12, and again, the 12th verse, it says, The devil, woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short. His time is short. We're looking at end things here.

It's kind of like the Axis forces in World War II between the Normandy landings and V.E. Day. The decisive battle has already been fought.

They know they are defeated, and yet they fight on. Yet they fight on. The devil, like the church and the world for that matter, is between the two advents of Jesus.

D-Day already came at Jesus' first coming. The devil was defeated on the cross, and he remains a defeated enemy. but Jesus' second coming will be Victory Day.

Not victory in Europe, not victory in Japan. Victory, baby. All the way across the board.

And that's the picture as we come into the final chapters of the book of Revelation. That is the framework. You need to understand that.

We're looking at the very end things now and there's still a couple of major points of controversy but you need to understand the basic framework. The devil is a defeated enemy. His allies are defeated enemies, and they know it, and they know their time is short.

They fight on, but the outcome is not in doubt for one moment. Okay? In chapter 18, the Scarlet Woman is destroyed.

And whether that means a brief moment of triumph for world communism, I have no idea. the scarlet woman is destroyed this materialistic self-indulgent lust for pleasure is destroyed chapter 18 in chapter 19 the two beasts are thrown into the lake of fire the only thing that remains is then to deal with the devil himself and that comes in chapter 20 chapter 20 the first 10 verses without much question are the most controversial passage in the whole bible so if you've had trouble up to this point just fasten your safety belt chapter 20 the first 10 verses deal in very brief and again highly symbolic terms with what is usually called the millennium let's just read it then I saw an angel coming down from heaven holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain and he seized the dragon that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan and bound him for a thousand years and threw him into the pit and shut it and sealed it over him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were ended After that he must be loosed for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed.

Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshipped the beast or its image, and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended.

This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and they shall reign with him a thousand years.

And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be loosed from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, that is, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle, their number is like the sand of the sea, and they marched up over the broad earth and surrounded the camp of the saints in the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. the thousand year reign called in King James the millennium there are two radically different views about this and endless variations again on the theme two radically different views the first is that the thousand years is symbolic for this present church age that right now We're in the millennium. Why?

Number one, Christ does reign now. Isn't that what we confess? Jesus is Lord now, not just hereafter.

Right now, Jesus is Lord. Satan was bound at Christ's first coming. Isn't that what Jesus said he came to do?

I come to bind the strong man that I might plunder his house. Satan is bound. Yes, he's still active, but only within limits.

He's bound. He cannot go beyond what I allow him. Those who have died in Christ are alive now.

They're reigning now with Christ. They're sharing his reign in the heavenlies. And as we move toward the end of the age, according to this view, Satan will be somewhat loosed, somewhat, not completely, somewhat beyond what he's been able to do, perhaps by virtue of the church's rapture.

the church is taken out of the world Satan is loosed that which restrains him is no longer there restraining him and so Satan has a final heyday but surely inevitably he'll be crushed and destroyed by Christ that's one major view second major view is that after Christ returns second coming and sets up his kingdom here on earth for a thousand years, whether that's literal or symbolic, during that time, Satan is truly bound. I mean, he has virtually no influence whatsoever. There's heaven on earth during the millennial reign of Christ.

It's a time of peace and prosperity and joy. It's a time of very little sickness, of very little death. It's the golden age.

It's the time for which all noble men and women have ever longed. And it's a time of vindicating God's will and his laws because what we've ignored all these many centuries now will be, in fact, the case. We will govern.

We will do our agriculture. We'll do our commerce according to the laws of God. And suddenly we'll see that he was right all along.

The saints will share in ruling here, not just in the heavenlies. But after that period of a thousand years, Satan will be loosed for one very brief moment. Why?

To give folks who have been under a kind of benevolent dictatorship of Jesus a free choice, even now. Even now, having had it proven to you that God was right all along, we're not going to force it on you. You have a free choice, God or his enemy.

You choose. And Satan is given a brief moment, one last chance at deceiving the world. Well, a variation on all of that is that Jesus comes somewhere in the midst of establishing his kingdom.

And then, as I say, there are further variations and variations. If you're interested in this subject, let me recommend a book. The Meaning of the Millennium by Robert Klaus, published by InterVarsity Press.

It's available in our bookstore. It's a wonderful book. It goes through all of these alternatives.

We could debate the matter at great length. I'm sure that some of you are totally committed to one view and others totally equally committed to the other. and some of you are wondering, what in the world am I talking about?

I'm not going to debate that now. Because whichever of those alternatives you hold, there's something much more important to be said. And that is, however it works out, it works out.

However it works out, it works out. The bottom line, Nobody disagrees on this who is biblically oriented. The bottom line is the annihilation of Satan.

That's it. First the scarlet woman, then the two beasts, then Satan himself. Okay, whether that's at the end of this present age as we know it, or whether there's another major radically different epoch in world history yet to come, the kingdom here on earth, the bottom line is the same.

Satan is annihilated and destroyed. Michael Green has a wonderful word on this subject. He says, whether the language of Revelation 20, verses 1 to 4, implies a short, final burst of satanic activity before the return of Christ, or after it, or whether the thousand years is a symbol for this present age or for one to follow, all this has been endlessly discussed and I do not wish to add to the millions of words about it.

He says, I am convinced that the Bible is not a book to answer speculative questions like this. I do recall that none of those who thought they knew the details of the first coming got it right. And I am prepared to leave the millennial question to God alone.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of that issue, the ultimate outcome is not in doubt. Satan will be defeated and abolished. Eternity will not be disfigured by the self-seeking, deceit, hatred, and accusations of the adversary, but God will be all in all, and the redeemed will forever be satisfied with their Lord who has turned paradise lost into paradise regained.

It's a good word, isn't it? A couple of footnotes, however. One thing that I think is important for our consciences is to be aware of the fact that the New Testament uses three different images for hell.

One is punishment, one is separation, and one is destruction. And I think that there's been a tremendous amount of bad preaching, bad theology, and horrific art that has focused on the aspect of punishment alone. And we have really terrifying images of people being basted and barbecued forevermore.

If you focus on that, I mean, you really will get a ghastly image of God. And the question obviously arises, how could anybody enjoy heaven while that is going on endlessly? You see, the problem is it's imagery.

And it's only one of the images. And somehow we've got to put them together. It's like a parable.

A parable makes one point. And if you try to push it too far, you're going to break it. Okay?

Let me give you an illustration. If I were to take this Bible and stick it in a fire, fairly shortly it would be reduced to ashes. And you could pick up a handful of ashes and you could say, that once was a Bible.

It's not a Bible anymore. I'm not sure I can imagine, but I would urge you to just meditate on what would it be to say that once was a human being. It's not a human being anymore.

That once was an eternal spirit created in the image of God. It's not that anymore. That once was a creature in whom God had poured some degree of his life.

It's not that anymore. That has ceased to be the image of God. That has ceased to be a life-bearing creature.

It's interesting that the imagery is fire. Because fire surely would punish. Fire would surely hurt, but not very long.

not very long it destroys. And you see what we're dealing with is this fundamental truth that at the very beginning of the story before our story began before our story began the devil chose separation from God. And in the very end that's what he got.

He got what he chose. and nobody ever is consigned to hell who doesn't choose that for himself. Finally he chooses separation from God which is punishment even though he chose it and which finally is annihilation.

I don't think that the New Testament teaches that we're going to be sitting up there in heaven looking over the rim at people in endless torment. It's over. It's done. There's nothing.

God is all and in all. That which is opposed to Him finally shrivels away to nothing. There's nothing left except God and those who are united to Him.

Well, I said that's the end, but it really isn't. is really the beginning. It's not the end of the story. It's really the end of the preface to the story.

The real story is about to begin. Notice chapter 20, verse 14. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.

Death itself, hell itself is destroyed. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

And that's the end of that. John takes a deep breath, moves into the final two chapters. The harlot is gone.

The bride has come. The bride has come. Babylon is destroyed.

the new Jerusalem comes down the beast of anti-Christian oppression is annihilated and the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever the beast of false religion is no more and God has become everything to everyone the darkness is broken and the lamb is the light of the city of God the raped and ravaged environment gives way to a restored garden of Eden did you notice that our story begins in a garden I love to debate with collegians on this you know they'll say you don't believe in a garden of Eden I say, where do you think we got our start? New York City? Of course we started in a garden.

We start in a garden and we end in the city of God. And yet in the heart of the city is the garden, restored. Even the tree of life, multiplied twelvefold.

This is imagery, friends. This is all imagery. Don't try to picture this in a literal way.

Just understand what's being said. it's unimaginable but understand it our bodies that have suffered so much in a world infected by the consequences of sin are made new again like unto Christ's own glorious body do you know that that's the real victory of the resurrection is that nothing given to Christ is lost nothing broken, rotten teeth. Even they are restored.

You're restored. Nothing is lost to the enemy that belongs to Jesus. Nothing.

That's why we believe in a bodily resurrection. God is the true materialist. The whore of Babylon represents a perversion of materialism but God is the first and the greatest materialist of all.

What true materialism is material ruled by spirit. And God resurrects all that, even our bodies. I have a wonderful quote from C.S.

Lewis. He says, These small and perishable bodies we now have were given to us as ponies are given to schoolboys. We must learn the manage.

Not that we may someday be free of horses altogether, but that someday we may ride bareback, confident and rejoicing. Those greater mounts, those winged, shining and world-shaking horses, which perhaps even now expect us with impatience, pawing and snorting in the king's stables. Not that the gallop would be of any value, unless it were a gallop with the king, but how else, since he has retained his own charger, should we accompany him?

Jesus' body is resurrected from the dead, and it's the firstfruits of those who believe in him. And we share, even in that victory, we're not just going to be disembodied spirits floating around heaven, but God's going to make it all new, purged of all the infection, cleaned up of all the filth, made utterly new. And so, in the very last analysis, the choice is between saying with Satan, not thy will, but mine, which leads to nothing.

It may be a season of pleasure, but it finally shrivels up into less than ashes. And we can choose to share His lot not Thy will but Mine. Or we can say with Jesus Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth, in my life, as it is in heaven.

In which case we share the overwhelming victory. Not one crumb lost to the enemy. Because God is all and in all.

And Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father. Let's stand and pray together. Peter wrote that you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, saying, where is the promise of His coming?

Ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued as they were from the beginning of creation. And yet He goes on to say, do not ignore this one fact, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years a thousand years is one day. And the reason Jesus has delayed his return is that more folks might come to repentance.

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, how we look forward to your return. When the victory will be complete, when the adversary will be utterly annihilated, when the world will be remade as you intended it from the beginning, when we ourselves will be freed from corruption and from its consequences. Yet we pray for patience, knowing that with every day there are new souls that are reborn because of your mercy.

And had you come a few years ago, we ourselves would not have been included in your great redemption. Thank you for delaying long enough to include me. Lord, we pray that we might live lives in the light of this victory.

Lives that belong to you. Lives that are obedient to you. And lives that are fruitful in serving you.

And give us boldness to share this good news with those around us. That many others might come to share that eternal victory and weight of glory for your great namesake. Amen.

Amen.