Revelation 18


	Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. It is well that remember that vengeance is truly his, for He alone is capable of righteous judgment.
	In this passage we can see some of the principles of this judgment:
	• It is from “her own cup.” Her grief is “as” her glory and luxury. This is nothing more than the principle laid down by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount:
	(Mat 7:2 NIV) For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
	The prophet Obadiah explicitly ties this to the Day of the Lord:
	(Oba 1:15 NIV) "The day of the LORD is near for all nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your deeds will return upon your own head.

	The principle of “double” in judgment sounds harsh to us. It is an old principle:
	• The thief caught in possession of his neighbor’s goods was to return double (Exodus 22:4, 7, 9)
	• Jerusalem -- the type of the church -- received double for her sins (Isaiah 40:2)
	• The first born heir was to receive a double portion of the inheritance (Deuteronomy 21:17)
	• The payment for the wickedness of idolatry is said to be a double payment (Jeremiah 16:18)
	Take them all together, and apply them to the Roman Catholic Church. She claims to be the original (“first born”) church; her idolatry is well known; she is in possession of what rightly belongs to God (worship) and as “church” the type of Jerusalem applies. God is just.

	The last principle is even more important. As you boast, so shall you fall. Can she really fall in one day? In one hour? What about the original Babylon’s fall -- see Daniel 5:30-31. (Mene, Mene -- now you see why the scales!).
	And who did Christ condemn on this earth? The proud, the hypocrite. This is the prostitute shown here.
	(Lindsey sees this fulfilled in the economic fall of the Common Market; Smith sees it as a nuclear blast on whatever city this might represent.)