Quick Question From A Friend Of Mine

[Paladin D]

A dear friend of mine was wondering WHY this passage is featured in Revelations...

Revelation 12: 7-9 "and war broke out in heaven: Micheal and his angels fought the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, the old serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him."

...he's not sure if this is gonna happen, or already happened, or gonna happen again. Basically, he wants to know if this already took place or not, and why it's in Revelations.

PS: Does it have some meaning to it?

[ironmonk]

It already happened.

The Book of Revelations was past, present, and future at the time it was written.

God Bless,

ironmonk

[foundsheep]

In that case Ironmonk, Did the fall of Babylon already happen with the fall of what was Rome?

[ironmonk]

http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/REVSTRUC.TXT

Check it out... a lot to read... but who said growing deeper in faith and understanding was quick and easy.

God Bless,

ironmonk

FoundSheep,

Yes... Pagan Rome was considered Babylon.

But, there is something that a lot of non-Catholics do not realize... a prophecy can fit more than one happening... and a word can mean more than one thing....

Take for instance the word "Church" - Ekklesia...

Many non-Catholics think it must mean either the organization or the believers.

They are only half right.... because it can mean both.

Then as far as the English term, we can have 3 meanings...

1.) the organization i.e. The Catholic Church.

2.) the body of believers i.e. The people within the Catholic Church

3.) the building where a Mass happens or religious services. (the Mass is not a service)

God Bless, Your Servant in Christ,

ironmonk

Edited October 24, 2003 by ironmonk

[foundsheep]

thanks Monk

[Paladin D]

Thanks Ironmonk. B)

[Paladin D]

Oh btw, when did Babylon fall? Was it when the Roman Empire fell? Or when Christianity became legal?

[foundsheep]

Babylon was the code name for the Roman Empire. So I guess when it fell.

[Aloysius]

but it was the codename for the PAGAN roman empire... so possibly when Christianity was the official religion of Rome, Babylon fell.

hmmmm i dont know.

[M.SIGGA]

This sequence in the Old Testement forshaddows the fall of Babylon, and every other world Empire that prefigures the coming of Christ and His Church, from Dan. 2:31-44:

31 "In your vision, O king, you saw a statue, very large and exceedingly bright, terrifying in appearance as it stood before you.

32

The head of the statue was pure gold, its chest and arms were silver, its belly and thighs bronze,

33

4 the legs iron, its feet partly iron and partly tile.

34

While you looked at the statue, a stone which was hewn from a mountain without a hand being put to it, struck its iron and tile feet, breaking them in pieces.

35

The iron, tile, bronze, silver, and gold all crumbled at once, fine as the chaff on the threshing floor in summer, and the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone that struck the statue became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.

36

5 "This was the dream; the interpretation we shall also give in the king's presence.

37

You, O king, are the king of kings; to you the God of heaven has given dominion and strength, power and glory;

38

men, wild beasts, and birds of the air, wherever they may dwell, he has handed over to you, making you ruler over them all; you are the head of gold.

39

Another kingdom shall take your place, inferior to yours, then a third kingdom, of bronze, which shall rule over the whole earth.

40

There shall be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron; it shall break in pieces and subdue all these others, just as iron breaks in pieces and crushes everything else.

41

The feet and toes you saw, partly of potter's tile and partly of iron, mean that it shall be a divided kingdom, but yet have some of the hardness of iron. As you saw the iron mixed with clay tile,

42

and the toes partly iron and partly tile, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

43

The iron mixed with clay tile means that they shall seal their alliances by intermarriage, but they shall not stay united, any more than iron mixes with clay.

44

In the lifetime of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed or delivered up to another people; rather, it shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and put an end to them, and it shall stand forever.

Here Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's, the great King of Babylon, dream which predicts the triumph of the Church. The Gold Head of the Statue represents Babylon the Great, the Silver arms and chest represent the Medes and Persians, the bronze belly and thighs represent the Greek Empire, the iron legs represent the Roman Empire, and the clay and iron feet represent the divided Roman and Byzantine Empires.

All these nations were world powers of their time period and conquered the Jewish people in this sequence. The great stone that destroys the statue is Christ and His Church. I always like to use this example b/c it shows how Babylon the Great, and all the pagan nations that grew from Babylon (includung Rome), were conquered by Christ and His Church which wiped these pagan empires from the face of the Earth.

It's also a GREAT evangelization tool to use when proving the validity of JESUS CHRIST to Jews, b/c the Daniel says Christ and His Church would destroy and conquer all the lands that held the ancient Jews captive.

This was a bit long and I hope it was useful,

God Bless :D

[EcceNovaFacioOmni]

Emperor Constantine the Great started the Christianization of the Roman Empire after issueing the Edict of Milan in 313 A.D. and ending Emperor worship. He built Churches and had pagan temples destroyed, even building Constantinople (New Rome), which was to be the new Christian capital of the Empire. The Emperor Theodosius the Great, the last ruler of the united Roman Empire, outlawed Arianism and made Christianity the official religion of Rome in 380 A.D. The Roman Empire collapsed in 476 A.D.