Is Covid – and the Vaccine -the Fulfillment of Revelation?
My friend Terry Cropper has written an excellent response to some so-called “Bible experts” who are claiming that the Covid pandemic is the fulfillment of Revelation. Terry does an excellent job exposing the fallacy of failures of such claims, and it is important to understand the power of his response.
Enjoy!
I was told that in the Revelation 18:23 the word SORCERIES pharmakia is translates to Pharmacy Vaccine, and it applies to the global pandemic which is happening in our day because they want everyone to take a vaccine globally that has nanotechnology. This nanotechnology will connect you to the internet when they flip the switch. There seems to be a lot of false certain words mean in the Bible.
Firstly, nanotechnology is not new. Nano-sized particles occur naturally in some foods: a good example is milk. Casein micelles in milk are nano-sized spheres made of proteins. Nanoparticles can be created during food processing — such as in homogenisation and emulsification, and milling and grinding. They are also shed from metallic cutlery and other cooking instruments over time. Nanotechnology applications in the food industry can be utilized to detect bacteria in packaging, or produce stronger flavors and color quality. Nanotechnology is now invading the food industry. Nano food packaging materials may extend food life due to high barrier packaging, improve food safety, alert consumers that food is contaminated or spoiled, repair tears in packaging, and even release preservatives to extend the life of the food in the package. There is no way to get around not having Nano in our bodies.
While nanotechnology has been around since 1981 no one has ever been connected to the internet with the flip of the switch. The things people can come up with scare people that is not really in the Bible. Now by taking the Covid Vaccine with the flip of the switch your body is connected to the internet. No where in the Book of Revelation is there one word about a global pandemic in our future! And nowhere in the Book of Revelation is it talking about people taking the vaccine in our day! The book of Revelation is about God’s warning to the nation of Israel about her coming judgment and the consummation of the New Jerusalem and kingdom of God. Let’s see what scripture was really saying to the people living over 2,000 years ago, about the word SORCEY (pharmakia) for our understanding and benefit.
But first lets put everything in its Biblical context. John is addressing the fall of Babylon the great mother of harlots which starts in Revelation 14 then he moves on to Revelation18. The references to ‘Babylon’ (for John and his readers) is alluding to the city of Jerusalem.The fall of Babylon the great the mother of harlots is obviously Jerusalem, which is portrayed as a harlot. God often uses the names of Israel’s old enemies to allude to the spiritual conditions of Jerusalem at the time like Sodom, Gomorrah, Egypt and Babylon. In Revelation 11:8 we read. “And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.”
This verse notably illustrates the fate of the ‘two witnesses’ whose dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. This ‘great city’ was clearly Jerusalem, Jesus was not crucified in Sodom and Egypt. Jesus was crucified at a spot outside Jerusalem called Golgotha, which in Aramaic means “place of the skull. The city of Jerusalem had now become like her ancient enemy Sodom, Gomorrah, and Egypt.Through this kind of imagery John is painting a startling picture of the apostasy and impending judgment of God upon the old city of Jerusalem, a judgment that was realized in A.D. 70 .John is using the name Babylon the mother of harlots when he is alluding to the City of Jerusalem.
A closer reading of Revelation shows that John’s apocalyptic message was grounded in a firm foundation of Hebrew Scripture. The nation of Israel is portrayed as a harlot against God over and over in the Old Testament. “For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, ‘I will not transgress,’ When on every high hill and under every green tree You lay down, playing the harlot. (Jeremiah 2:20) This was addressed to Jerusalem. (2:1) Hosea tells us what had happened in Israel’s relationship with God: Hosea 9:1: “Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.” Why is this important? Virtually the entire Bible is about God’s relationship with Israel.
Jeremiah and Hosea and many other Old Testament scripture use this same metaphorical form to illustrate Israel’s faithless relationship with God connecting directly to the same usage in Revelation 14 and 17 and 18. In order to appropriately understand the passages in Revelation, one must first possess an understanding of the texts in the Old Testament. Once this connection has been established, the reader will present exegesis of Revelation. It is important to examine scripture in light of its Jewish roots, in order to better understand the author’s message to his readers, both in the time of his writing and in the current era. Strong evidence exists for the view that the harlot Babylon is the apostate city of Jerusalem.
We read in Revelation 14:8″ A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” Babylon the Great could not commit adulteries against God, for only Jerusalem was God’s wife. Jeremiah 3:8 says: “Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
When God established a covenant relationship, with Israel is was pure. It was not until later that Israel apostatized and violated the covenant. Isaiah 54:5 indicates that Israel was in a marriage covenant with God. Jerusalem became a widow by killing Jesus Christ, her God and spiritual husband. Babylon, is representing Jerusalem, For further evidence:
Both are called ‘the great city’ (Revelation. 14:8; 11:8).
(2) The Harlot is filled with the blood of the saints (Revelation 16:6; 17:6; 18:21,24; Matthew 23:34-48; Luke 13:33; Acts 7:51,52).
(3) The fact that the Harlot is seated on the seven-headed Beast (is obviously an alliance between Jerusalem and Rome against Christianity) Babylon could not be seated on Babylon.The plea for God’s people to come out of Babylon in Revelation 18:4 echoes Jesus’ urgent instruction to leave Jerusalem in Luke 21:20-21.
The similarities between Revelation 18:4 and Luke 21:20-21 is yet another bit of evidence suggesting that Jerusalem is the whore of Babylon in Revelation. Now lets look at Revelation 18:23 in its context: “The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore.”
This phrase is very similar to what Jesus’ said to the church at Ephesus. He calls upon the church at Ephesus to remember the love from which it had fallen and repent or He will remove her lampstand. (Revelation 2:5). Another image of desolation, as if every light were put out, and there was total darkness: “The voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore.” This can only apply to the old city of Jerusalem which was the wife of the Lord.
Jeremiah foretold how the Lord send his servants the prophets, to the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem to repent from their evil way and evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to them and their fathers forever and ever. (Jeremiah 25:1-6). The Lord then tells them: “Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’ 7 Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt. (25:6-7).
Now notice what the Lord tells them in verses 10-11: “Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. For your merchants were the great men of the earth.”
Jerusalem’s whole economy was ultimately rooted and centered on the Temple. In his book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Alfred Edersheim writes:
In these streets and lanes [of Jerusalem] everything might be purchased: the production of Palestine, or imported from foreign lands—nay, the rarest parts. Exquisitely shaped, curiously designed and jeweled cups, rings, and other workmanship of precious metals; glass, silks, fine linen, woolen stuffs, purple, and costly hangings; essences, ointments, and perfumes, as precious as gold; articles of food and drink from foreign lands—in short, what India, Persia, Arabia, Media, Egypt, Italy, Greece, and even far-off lands of the Gentiles yielded, might be had in these bazaars. Ancient Jewish writings enable us to identify no fewer than 118 different articles of import from foreign lands, covering more than even modern luxury has devised. But no one buys this cargo anymore because the once great city is now burned and demolished.
Jerusalem’s whole economy was ultimately rooted and centered on the Temple. Thus with the Temple having been permanently destroyed in A.D. 70, Jerusalem’s economy mentioned in the vs. above ended forever. Alfred Edersheim’s The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah. Concerning this oversea trade, Josephus writes:
Nor indeed is Judea destitute of such delights as come from the sea, since its maritime places extend as far as Ptolemais: it was parted into eleven portions, of which the royal city Jerusalem was supreme, and presided over all the neighboring country, as the head does over the body. Josephus The Wars of the Jews 3.3.5.There are four places in the New Testament describing ‘sorcerers.’
Look now at at Revelation 18:23:
“For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived.” The Greek word for “sorcery” is pharmakeia, from which we derive the English word “pharmacy.”(Strong’s #5331): magic, sorcery, enchantment.
In the Middle East ancient pagans used hallucinating drugs to communicate with the dead. While the English word ‘pharmacy’ is indeed derived from the Greek words pharmakeia, it is used in scripture to describe pagans who used potions to encourage hallucinations in those who wanted to contact the spirit world. Psychoactive plants which contain hallucinogenic molecules that induce a form of altered states of consciousness (H-ASC) have been widely used during the religious rituals of many cultures while the consumption of these plants for spiritual and religious purposes is as old as human history.
To suggest that our modern medical English word pharmacy and the Covid Vaccine are associated with the Greek word “sorcery” pharmakeia is not only Biblically unsupported. it is as ludicrous as suggesting that the mark of the beast is a computer chip under the skin. In short, while the Greek word pharmakeia can mean the modern word pharmacy, the actual meaning is different in the sense that the modern word pharmacy means something different from the ancient word sorcery. If our modern word pharmacy is imposed upon the Biblical text, this is called trying to appropriate an event to a period other than that which it exists, To associate our modern day pharmacy with ancient day sorcery does a grave disservice to scripture.
Finally we come to Revelation 18:24
“And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”
This echoes Jesus’ words to the Scribes and Pharisees:
“Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: 35 That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. (Matthew 23:34-35).
It was Jerusalem who killed the prophets, and of saints and Jesus as well 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15:
For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men.
For more info on who is Babylon the Great I highly recommend you to get a copy of my good friend Don Preston book Who is this Babylon available for Amazon.
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Is Covid – and the Vaccine -the Fulfillment of Revelation?