Revelation - Part 18
Notes
Transcript
1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
The Great Harlot
The Great Harlot
Like we have done with other characters have been
introduced to us in this book, let us list the details we have been provided and look of them slowly.
Fortunately, the interpretation of many of the details, though symbolic in nature, have been given to us by the angel later in this chapter.
This is similar to what happened when we read about the Great Red Dragon earlier in this series.
We didn’t have to wait long before the Bible told us exact who that way, that old serpent, the devil.
Details of the Harlot:
Seated on many waters
Committed sexual immorality with Kings
Sits on a scarlet beast, with blasphemous names, 7 heads, and 10 horns.
She wears scarlet and purple
Adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls
Holds a golden cup.
Name of forehead: Babylon the Great
Drunk with the blood of the saints
Seated on Many Waters
Seated on Many Waters
This detail is explained in verse 15:
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
So, literally, Babylon was seated on the Euphrates river with many canals coming off of the river,
But symbolically, this detail refers to the many people this prostitute influences.
People from every nation
people from every language.
This takes up back to the original Babylon where the nations were divided and the languages were divided.
Babylon has been trying to get her people back.
She wants every nation and tongue to come worship her.
But the Bible says that every nation and tongue will bow down and worship Jesus.
10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Mystery Babylon
Mystery Babylon
So, Babylon represents a alternate faith, an alternate god to worship.
Babylon is false religion.
God’s version of salvation was to build an ark to escape the waters of God’s wrath.
Babylon’s version of salvation was to build a tower to escape the waters of God’s wrath.
They wanted to live like they did before the flood
and then how a tower to run to when God judged them.
The tower is the alternate faith.
False Religion.
God divided the people and their language at Babylon
And Babylon as been trying to get them all back ever since.
So, this Great Harlot represents the latest version of Babylon.
And we will find out who the latest version is as we continue to look at the details.
Immorality with Kings
Immorality with Kings
2 with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
This immorality, is adultery.
Adultery has been used to symbolize Idolatry many times by the Old Testament prophets.
Since God’s people have been symbolically called his bride
When his bride worships other false gods
They are committing adultery.
Or becoming the bride of another god with a little “g”.
The Great Harlot has convinced many kings of the earth to do just that.
To leave the worship of the one true God
and take up an alternate faith.
18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
As we will identify shortly
The Harlot is Rome
And it is no secret that the Holy Roman Empire turned many Kings in this world to a false religion of Catholicism.
It attempts to mimic the real faith in Jesus
but with some major differences
Both the Ark and the Tower would keep you above the flood waters
but only one was commanded of God
There are similarities between Catholicism and Christianity
but there are also some major differences.
These differences were accepted by Kings around the globe.
This is how we know John was speaking prophetically and not just referencing the worship of Roman Ceasars.
The Caesars also wore scarlet and/or purple
The colors of Royalty
But they also demanded worship to themselves
They did not turn kings against God
They overthrew Kings and Kingdoms
John wrote Revelation long before the formation of the Holy Roman Church.
He nailed it.
That church controlled Kings instead of conquering them by force like the Roman Caesars did.
Sits on a scarlet beast
Sits on a scarlet beast
3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.
We already know who this beast is.
We were introduced to him in chapter 12.
It is Satan.
The real source of all false religion.
This is true of Hinduism, Islam, and Catholicism.
Satan is the real power the Great Harlot is riding on.
She wears Scarlet and Purple
She wears Scarlet and Purple
4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.
These are the colors of Royalty.
But they are also the colors of Catholic Cardinals and the Pope.
Here’s an image of a Catholic Cardinal in Scarlet
and a Catholic Bishop in Purple.
Verse 4 list two other details we wrote down:
Adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls
Holds a golden cup.
Here’s a photo of the Pope John the 23rds gold, jewels, and golden Cup from 1959.
Here’s a close up of the pearls Pope Francis carried on his rosary.
here’s another image of Pope Francis holding a golden cup.
It is almost as if they used the book of Revelation as a play book on how to dress and how to act.
Name of forehead
Name of forehead
The name on the forehead of the Great Harlot identifies her as Babylon
5 And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.”
We’ve already established that Babylon represents false religion.
It is the “mother of prostitutes”, meaning all false religion comes from that same spirit.
And they all commit adultery with false gods.
Drunk with the blood of the saints
Drunk with the blood of the saints
6 And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.
This one is certainly true of the Roman Catholic church.
Ironically, they would argue that they were only killing heretics
but heretics is a subjective term.
A heretic is anyone that opposes the Catholic church.
And they were all burned at the stake.
tens of thousands of executions
Including many Oneness Pentecostals
Drunk here means intoxicated
This means she didn’t just have a sip
She overindulged in the blood of the saints.
“The blood of the martyrs of Jesus” literally means the witnesses of Jesus in the Greek.
The rest of the chapter, an angel comes to tell John what the mystery of the woman is.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.
9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;
The city of Rome is known as the city of seven hills.
But the 7 heads don’t just represent land
They represent 7 kings according to verse 10…
10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.
11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.
This beast in verse 11 is referring to the AntiChrist.
He died from a mortal wound, but then came back to life.
This beast, according to the angel is one of the 7 kings
12 And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.
13 These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.
14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.”
So, the ten horns represent ten other kings who will turn over their authority to the Antichrist
Together with the Antichrist, these 11 rulers in total will go out to battle Jesus.
Of course, they won’t last long
They will only have power for one hour
Their defeat will be quite swift
Just long enough for them to even say they were in a battle at all.
15 And the angel said to me, “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.
We already discussed the significance of the waters earlier
This symbolizes all the people under the control of the harlot
She is trying to bring them all back to “Babylon”
Where God divided them up.
16 And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire,
Eventually the Antichrist will turn on the great harlot.
Could this be when the mark of the beast system is instituted
Perhaps he uses false religion to get followers
but eventually he has to turn on them to get them to take the mark or die.
I’m not quite sure.
17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
This is talking about the 10 kings
Despite being drunk on the wine of the harlot
they side with the Antichrist in the end
and it is God who has put it in their hearts to carry about the Antichrist’s purpose.
18 And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
Again, this is the Roman Catholic church
The Vatican City.
So small, but so powerful
>>>Time Check<<<
1 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory.
2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
This whole chapter is a song about the falling of Babylon.
It is a long song, and we won’t read all of it
Some of it is repetitive, like a chorus of sorts.
But we do need to see just few passages from this chapter to show you more evidence that this harlot is the Vatican City in Rome.
First of all there is these merchants of the earth mentioned here in verse 3 and repeated a few times
and also shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors whose trade is on the sea.
There is this image of people travelling the world to sell what the harlot is producing
Look at verse 11
11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,
12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,
So, the merchants of the earth are sad because they have nothing to sell once the harlot is dead, once Babylon is fallen.
Again, in verse 17…
17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off
So, there were merchants of the earth, and also one on the seas
and they were spreading the products of the harlot around the globe
These were Catholics in the crusades
They were the Spanish inquisitors
They were missionaries on the seas
going around the world to spread the harlots false religion.
And watch what they do when they see their mother fall
18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”
19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
It says they put dust on their foreheads
During Lent, the Catholics put ashes on thier forheads.
Finally the city is cast down in verse 21
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more;
and listen to what is said next
22 and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,
23 and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
The light of a lamp will shine in you no more.
The KJV says the light of a candle will shine in you no more.
One day, all the candles in all the Catholic churches will stop shining
1 After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
2 for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”
3 Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”
4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!”
To me, this is the clearest thing in the world to interpret
If it represents something else
then it will be something just like the Catholic church that exists in the future
because nothing in our past so closely resembles the great harlot as the Roman Catholic Church.
No entity has killed more saints
No entity has spread more false religion
Not just pagan
But paganism that tries to mimic the Truth
Like the tower vs the ark
Close, but not the same
They both rise above the water
But one was to avoid wrath they deserve
and the other was to receive salvation they deserved
There are over 1 Billion Catholics in the World
The merchants of the earth and of the sea have spread her products far and wide
She will fall one day
and their won’t be any more candles shining in her
And her people will mourn with dust on their foreheads
