"Here we are informed that this beast upon which the woman rides, is full of names of blasphemy. It is not one name but many names, for the beast is filled with them. This word "blasphemy" requires special translation, or decoding. It was a familiar word in the New Testament era. It is not used so much today, but it does have its modern counterpart. Why did the Jews of Jesus' day call Him a blasphemer? That was always their charge against Him! It was because He dared to call God His Father and to call Himself the Son of God. Therefore, they called Him a blasphemer because He was not teaching and operating according to the rules and regulations which they had set down -- His doctrine was not that of the scribes and Pharisees, but He said that He spoke only what He heard personally from His Father. His entire message and ministry was outside of the "box" constructed by the religious leaders of the Jews. Today if a lawyer is not operating according to the rules laid down by the Bar Association he is called non-ethical or a malpractitioner. Just so, if a physician is not following the rules of treatment laid down by the Medical Association, he is labeled a malpractitioner. This gives you our modern counterpart of the ancient term blasphemy."
"Thus we can see that this beast upon which the woman rides symbolizes malpractice, that is, he appropriates to himself what belongs to God; he dishonors Him, vilifies Him, shamelessly offends all that is true and godly -- blasphemes Him. That is what both the world and religion do -- they usurp the place of God in men's lives, putting their authority above God's truth, dominating men's lives through malpractice! They are not doing things God's way! It is not the Father Himself speaking and acting through them. Rather, it is the elevation of Self to either impress, influence, coerce, or control men. You see this plainly in nearly all the rulers of the world's systems, and if you refuse their domination you will be persecuted, discriminated against, fined, imprisoned, exiled, or excommunicated! Oh, yes!"
Larger study in the link:
Continued -
Oh great, now none of us can love God if we believe in hell. What about the souls under the altar, crying out for vengeance, did they love God or not? Apparently they believe in hell, what are they doing in heaven?
I would suggest that you study really hard on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. There's no way you can spiritualize this. It's already happened. God said he would kill everybody in the city and he burned them all out with fire. That area today, stands ravaged with balls of sulfur lying all around. He said it would never be inhabited again and it hasn't been. Same thing with the physical City of Babylon, wiped completely off the map and then uninhabited even to this day. Literally as God told it.
How can you spiritualize Noah's flood?
They get there vengeance:
Revelation 18:20 Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.
The complete and utter fall of Babylon is the vengeance of our Lord. Again this is the Babylon in you! It is deliverance, and then you effect the whole creation, reigning with Jesus Christ, it is indeed wonderful..........way too far fetched for our carnal mind to understand, but the perfect spiritual mind sees the battle of Jesus Christ completely vanquishing all and every foe! It's awesom Andy!
Tell that to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Andy you're scared, Jesus didn't come to make you afraid. The new testament is not the old testament, the old testament had passed, I dare say most don't really get it, I surely don't, but we are of the new Testament, Jesus Christ doesn't want you all scared.
I believe in hell, but I don’t believe your doctrines, I've debated this for a decade, it actually bores me, but appeantly much of the body of Christ is still captive to this doctrine. So I'll gladly speak of these things, but there are plenty of recourses for you to study it on your own.
Tentmaker.org used to be good.........it's all there. But you would rather fight for your doctrine. It's endless and boring, now if you really want to learn something, follow the Holy Spirit and study the whole issue. Would you like another link?
https://tentmaker.org/
I don't study apostasy I study the Bible.