Revelation part 32 April 14th 2013 ~ Chapter 17.
Last week in chapter 16 we saw where the wrath of God was being poured out on the world and on all who rejected the
Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The wrath consisted of seven angels with seven bowls each bowl filled with a different type of wrath.
Beginning in Revelation chapter 17 John describes the Lord’s step by step victory over the beast and his kingdom.
 In chapter 17 the religious system is judged…
 In chapter 18 the political and economic system is judged.
 Finally the Lord Himself will return to earth judge satan, the beast and the false prophet and then establish His kingdom.
In verse one we see one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls of wrath going to John and telling him to come with him
and see the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.
Throughout the Bible the picture of a woman portrays either spiritual purity or defilement.
The book of Proverbs has two distinct female profiles…
 In Proverbs chapter 5 it speaks of the adulterous wife…
 In Proverbs chapter 31 it speaks of the faithful wife.
In Rev. 17:1 the woman is seen as a harlot.
The word harlot comes from the Greek word porneo of which gives us the word porn.
A harlot is a woman who sells her body for sexual uses…
That sell can be done physically or visually.
Simply put a harlot is a person who yields herself to defilement for the sake of personal gain.
This harlot in verse 1 is not a literal woman…
In the Bible harlotry is associated with spiritual adultery or unfaithfulness to the Lord…
Harlotry or prostitution symbolizes idol worship and religious apostasy.
The harlot in this verse refers to the idolatrous church or religious system and how God will judge it.
The great harlot is that part of the church that will remain after the true church has been raptured.
It will be composed of those who had religion but did not have a relationship with or never trusted Jesus Christ as their Savior…
It is people who were never in the body of Christ.
They may have been in the building called the church…
But never in the body that made up the church.
Verse 1 says the great harlot sits on many waters.
Sitting on many waters emphasizes the power of the harlot seated on a throne ruling the waters.
Ruling the waters means many nations and people of the world.
This is speaking of the harlot church or the apostate church.
Apostate means deserting or abandoning what one has believed in as a faith or a cause.
They call themselves a church but are not a true church.
Instead of being the bride of Christ that keeps itself with purity and holiness …
It is a harlot that defiles it by selling itself to the world.
Verse 2 says with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made
drunk with the wine of her fornication.
What we see here is the universal apostasy or universal unfaithfulness to God does not affect just one class of people.
This unfaithfulness is from the very rich and powerful to the very poor.
Just as a drunken person naturally has no idea of what they are doing…
This apostate group will become intoxicated because they love to drink what she offers.
So intoxicated that they will not realize the terribleness of what they are doing.
This is a picture of people in the world being swept up into the intoxication and sin of a false system of religion.
Verse 3…So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness.
Here is a picture of the Holy Spirit transporting John into a lonely, deserted, desolate wasteland in order to give him a better
understanding of the vision.
The wilderness here is a description of what sin does to the world, the church and a person’s life…
In Genesis 2 we read of a pure bride brought into a beautiful garden to Adam by God…
But here in Rev. we see how civilization has degenerated to an impure harlot in a wilderness.
John saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having 7 heads and 10 horns.
We have already seen back in chapter 12 how that this description fits satan.
By the woman sitting on the beast it means the beast supports her, or her power comes from this beast.
The beast full of names of blasphemy refers to how far the religious system will have departed from the Lord Jesus Christ.
The seven heads and ten horns is a picture of the extent of the antichrist’s political alliances.
Verse 4…The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet…
Purple and scarlet are the colors of royalty, nobility and wealth.
This means the woman is very appealing to the world.
She was adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls…
Gold and precious stones are also associated priesthood and royalty.
Prostitutes often dress in fine clothes and precious jewels to allure their victims.
The picture is of a woman portrayed as a great harlot who has been very successful and extremely wealthy.
All of this means the woman thinks of herself as a queen instead seeing herself as a harlot.
She has a golden cup which again is evidence of the harlot’s great wealth.
But the pure gold is defiled by the filthiness of her immorality.
A prostitute first gets her victim intoxicated with her looks or with a substance in order to commit fornication with her…
The harlot religious system deceives nations into committing spiritual fornication with her.
The golden cup full of abominations is the religious intoxication of the anti church.
Verse 5…And on her forehead a name was written.
It was customary for Roman prostitutes to advertise by wearing a head band with their name on it for all to see.
The harlot’s forehead is emblazoned with a three-fold title that is descriptive of the world’s final false religious system.
Mystery…Babylon the great…Mother of harlots.
First title is mystery.
In the N.T. a mystery is a hidden truth that requires spiritual intelligence and discernment to understand.
The true church of the Lord Jesus Christ was a mystery because it was not revealed in the O.T.
The antichurch designated here as a harlot is a mystery in that it was not revealed until John wrote this revelation.
In this case the mystery has to do with Babylon.
Babylon the great...
It has been said that the Bible could rightly be called the Tale of two cities.
As you read the Bible from cover to cover two cities come up over and over again.
One is the city of Jerusalem and the other is Babylon.
Babylon is mentioned over 300 times in the Bible.
Babylon was founded on the plain of Shinar near the Euphrates River by Nimrod.
Nimrods name means we will rebel.
Babylon was centered around the tower of Babel, Babel means the gate of God.
Ironically the famous tower of Babel was an idolatrous attempt by man to defy God.
The Lord in turn sent judgment on the builders by taking the one language spoken by man and turning it into many.
The name Babel after that came to mean
confusion.
Babylon was never destroyed but gradually faded from history as a major city after its fall in 539 BC of Cyrus the great.
The defeat of Babylon in 539 BC was a foreshadow of the future destruction it will have.
There is a reason why Babylon is so important.
The religious system was set in motion in Babylon and has continued to this very day in one form or another throughout the world.
When people scattered from Babylon they took with them the religious systems established there.
All false religions stem ultimately from Babel or Babylon.
That is why various religions of the earth have similarities because they have a similar origin, Babylon.
That is what is meant by the words mother of harlots it refers to the Babylonian influence throughout the world.
The mother of harlots has seduced people into opposing God and persecuting His people.
But that is not all some of the Babylonian influence has been accepted by Christianity.
I thought a few weeks ago about Easter and why no one has called the ACLU about it or gotten offended by it.
So I looked up the word Easter and once I did I found out why no group is against Easter.
The reason is the word Easter is of pagan
Origin…
Easter eggs, cute little white dresses and bunny rabbits are all traced back to Babylonian fertility rites.
Easter egg hunts, bunny rabbits whether in a cage or a box, living or chocolate have worked their way into the Church.
And not only are they accepted in the church but promoted many times by the church.
Let me just say after I learned what I learned I did not call it Easter anymore I began calling it resurrection day.
We celebrate resurrection day and we do not have to look to find Jesus Christ because He is not hidden from view.
In Verse 6 Johns says…
I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus.
John’s point here is the woman is murderer.
False religion has killed millions
Notice the words the blood of the saints.
There are two categories of saints.
Those killed before Jesus came…
Those killed for their witness after Jesus came and died.
Both groups were killed by satanic religious groups that operate in opposition to God’s Word.
Remember it was Babylon that put the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace because they would not worship an image.
Verse 6 John says when he saw her he marveled with great amazement.
Marvel means to be filled with wonder or astonishment.
Why did John marvel?
He marveled in amazement because he did not understand the extent of the work of the woman riding the beast…
He marveled because of how active she had been in prior centuries and how active she will be till the end of days.
He marveled because so many have been and are being deceived both in and out of the church by the religious system.
He marveled because of how many would rather believe a lie than the truth.
Next week we will see the meaning of the woman and the beast.