With whole world in drunken stupor; cities, countrymen, next-door neighbors

Paul writes in I Thessalonians 5: [3] For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.
[5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.
[6] Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
[7] For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
[8] But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

What he's saying is in the battle that's involved here, the best defensive mechanism is to be active. The best defense is a good offense, says Richard Jordan.

He says we don't want to be like other people who sleep . . . but then "they that be drunken." It's one thing to be asleep, comatose, not paying any attention to what's going on, unaware of what's happening, in your own little dream world.

The sleep isn't physical sleep and the drunkenness isn't sitting up, breaking out a bottle of Smirnoff and tanking down a fifth to get snookered. The drunkenness here is Revelation 17. It's being drunk with the wine of the religious fornication.

Revelation 17: [1] And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

[2] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

This great whore, this prostitute; this woman is a symbol. [15] And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

[16] And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
[17] For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
[18] And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Here's a woman who really is a CITY that reigns over the kings of the earth and her dominion covers the whole planet. It covers peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.

This is a woman who really has an influence and control over the WHOLE of the earth and she's that great whore that sitteth upon many waters with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication.

There's the drunkenness that I Thessalonians is talking about. In other words, she's deceived and put the whole world into a drunken stupor. She's desensitized them to the things of God by this overwhelming religious system.

[4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
[5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
[6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This woman has been guilty of the blood of the martyrs of Jesus and the blood of all the saints. You remember in Matthew 23 when Jesus talked to the Pharisees He said:

[33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?
[34] 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.

"When He says the blood of Abel to Zacharias, that's like saying Genesis to Revelation to an Old Testament Jew. It began with Cain killing Abel and it extends all the way to here with the Second Coming of Christ.

I Thessalonians 5 is talking about the religious system here that the Antichrist rides to power. We talk a lot about where the Antichrist comes from and his politics and the military, but sometimes we forget that he rides to power, really, on the back of a religious system.

In fact, a cohort that works with him is called the false prophet. The Antichrist is not a religious character; it's the false prophet that is.

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Paul writes in I Thessalonians 2:18, [18] Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.

"Satan's interested in these local churches. He doesn't like what's going on because he knows it's a God-designed mechanism and vehicle to get that message out to all the world," said Alex Kurz.

"But the type of tribulation, going back to Acts 17, the Thessalonians are suffering at the hands of their own countrymen; their next-door neighbors, fellow citizens. We see that at the end of verse 5.

"The verse reads, [5] But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people.

"You see it's the CITY? All of a sudden the government's getting involved. One of the tactics of the satanic policy of evil is to get the government to harass and intimidate the local churches. 2,000 years ago, now fast-forward to now."