She's no lady. She seeks to seduce your soul. She's called the harlot of many harlots. She's also called the mother of harlots.
I'm talking about the woman mentioned in Revelation 17. The one whom many, over the centuries, wondered about. Who is she really? Here's the passage in its context.
"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials and talked with me saying, Come closer, I will show you the judgment of the great whore that sits upon many waters. 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.
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy havng seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precisious stones and pearls having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name written MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
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. And the angel said unto me. Wherefore why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns." Rev 17:1-7
This woman has been around a very long time, centuries in fact, but still comes across as a young, alluring temptress as she draws you closer by her intoxicating ways. Her clothing is beautiful and provocative turning your head as she passes by. You can't help but notice her. She is bi-sexual soliciting both men and women, young and old. She opens her door to any who will come in to her.
What does she desire? Money? More jewelry? Extravagant living? Your body? No. None of these would serve to satisfy her. The only thing she's after is your eternal soul. She wishes only to possess you by keeping you from a pure and holy life with the eternal God who both created you and redeemed you. To embrace her is to deny the one who truly loves you for you. Her taking you to her breast means to whisk you away from the one who desires an intimate, pure, holy and unconditional relationship with you. This whore is luring you away from the one who loves you more than you love yourself.
In the scriptures the term harlot is used to describe one who is unfaithful to God. Just as we in a physical relationship can become unfaithful to our spouse so too can one become spiritually unfaithful to God by turning to the temptations of this harlot. The Jews of the OT were unfaithful to God and described as playing the harlot. They were enticed by her ways and got into the business of unfaithfulness.
This Harlot is said to be sitting on "many waters." It's explained later in v15 as "the waters which you saw where the whore sits are peoples and multitues and nations and tongues." In other words this tramp has been very busy and knows no boundries when it comes to color, race, or language. Her business is worldwide. She's quite busy.
It says here that the Kings of the earth are fornicating with her. They do so for political benefit. We see here even the merchants of the earth become rich because of their association with her. This is for economic benefit.
The OT prophet Jeremiah wrote about her: "Babylon has been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken; the nations have drunken of wine, therefore the nations are mad." 51:7
We can see this whore helps those who embrace her both politically and economically. To the world it seems to pay to belong to this party. The nations are drunk on her wine and know not that they have gone mad. They are spiritually dead but do not know this. Yet. They feel nothing but the warm feeling that comes with drunkenness.
Her riding upon the beast means she has a partner holding her up. She is riding this helper who is scarlet in color and has seven heads and ten horns. We saw this beast back in Revelation 13 and now we see its association with the harlot here. It seems they are involved in some sort of bizzare partnership that has lasted centuries. Business is good for the moment but time is running short.
In Daniel 7:17 we read of the great beasts which stood for Kingdoms which is what the horns stand for. "These great beasts, which are four, are four kings, which shall arise out of the earth" A beast according to Daniel is a kingdom represented by a King who ruled over it. We learned that the four kingdoms Daniel predicted to come were Babylon, Medio-Persia, Greece and Rome and they ruled in that exact order.
The beast here is full of names of blasphemy. We know from history that many rulers attempted to deify themselves including the most infamous in Jewish history, Antiochus Epiphanes, who seemed to be the forerunner to Hitler hating the Jews with the same hatred as the forthcoming Nazi would.
Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians, wrote that the ultimate blasphemy will occur when the Anti-Christ "sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." This is exactly what Epiphanes did back in 165 B.C.
So the beast represents government while the whore who is riding it represents false religion. They are in total cahoots using each other to get what they want.
For many centuries the Protestant scholars identified this whore as religious Rome and the beast as imperial (political) Rome. The reason being that many were being persecuted by Rome so the identification made sense.
Not quite, but they had the right idea in making the link between politics and religion. As we see here, there is a close association between the whore and the beast she rides. So who exactly is the whore then?
Notice her dress. She's pretty decked out isn't she? Alluring and beautiful in her purple and scarlet. Our outside adornments give the world the impression of who we are inside. In Revelation 12 we are introduced to another woman. This woman is no tramp nor does she dress the part. She, in contrast to the unfaithful harlot, represents the faithful wife who is the faithful remnant of Israel. She is described as "a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars."
But the whore is dressed in an excessive lavish way adorned with the best gold and precious jewels that money can buy. Her clothing is designed to entice and impress. In comparison to the faithful wife of Revelation 12 the world turns after the whore who represents materialism at its best or worse whichever way you look at it.
Sad to say multitudes have been seduced by her and have turned away from God as they drink from the cup she holds in her hand. Alcohol entices and dulls the senses. This wine represents religion at its highest. It seems good and something to be attained and desired and used to satisfy the senses. But in reality the whole thing is a trick to drunken the soul, to tire the eyes and lead us into disaster.
We were warned repeatedly to stay sober, vigilent and awake. She, on the other hand, laughs and mocks those who do not come unto her and sit at her very crowded table. The few that are able to resist her temptations are saddened to see so many fall into her pit of lies and seductions. Her grip is strong and not easy to escape.
Her identification is attached upon her forehead with a name written there. A mystery in the bible is something that had been concealed in the OT but is now revealed in the NT. This mystery here has been revealed that Babylon the Great is the mother of harlots and the source of all false relgion. She is identified as "Babylon the Great." Every false and abominable religion throughout history she has played a part in. She is the mother of them all.
This all got started way back in the book of Genesis with a mighty hunter named Nimrod. He was a hunter of men's souls. His very name meant "revolt." He was the mastermind behind the Tower of Babal in ancient Babylon. The purpose of the tower was to reach heaven and become as God. His idea was to unify the people into one kingdom in direct defiance to what God had instructed after the flood.
The Anti-Christ will seek to follow the ways of Nimrod when he establishes a one world government with a one world religion and a one-world economy. The beast and the whore will seek to ride into the sunset together. That is, until the beast, throws the whore off his back. The beast (government) used the whore (religion) to attract the masses but the day will come when her job will be done and Babylon The Great will have a great fall. In the end she will be undressed, alone and naked, revealed for who she really was. This whore will succumb to the same fate as Jezebel way back in the days of the Kings. She will have a great fall and nothing, absolutely nothing will be left of her.
You may be very surprised to how the harlot started her business and the characters she used along the way.
Next time.