The Mother of Prostitutes

This past week we had our VBS and it was absolutely wonderful. One of the thing we learned in VBS this past week is that our creator God is a creative God.

Created. Designed. Empowered! Because we are made in God’s image we too are endowed with creativity and invited to leverage that creativity for the glory of God and the worship of his name.

Unfortunately, when sin entered into this world that image of God was marred and distorted. Instead of using our creativity to display God and declare his glory we began to use it to develop our own gods made in our own image.

We fashioned those false gods to serve us instead of submitting ourselves to serve the true God.

John Calvin said that the human heart is now like an idol making factory.

Thousands of years later, that idolatry and its effects have only grown.

The examples are obvious and the consequences are devastating.

Corrupt Church

And it’s not just the unbelieving world “out there” that has the problem. Even within the church we see a growing worldliness.

There’s no clear distinction between those who belong to the Lord and those who belong to this world.

It’s one of the reasons we have so little influence when it comes to our culture and so little power when it comes to our witness.

We have become just as sexually immoral, just as materialistic, and just as self-centered as those who do not know God.

We spend money the same way, parent the same way, get divorced at the same rates, and on and on we could go.

Brothers and sisters this should not be! We are called to be different. We should embrace our weirdness and live it out to the glory of God.

Scripture encourages us,

1 John 2:15–17a

15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 And the world with its lust is passing away...

This passage is 1 John is a succinct summary of Revelation 17-18. In it we learn that Gods toleration of our spiritual adultery is TEMPORARY.

In Isaiah 42:8 the Lord says “I am the Lord. That is my name, and I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.”

That’s the heart of our text today in Revelation 17. There’s coming an end to false religion.

This world system that attempts to draw people away from Christ and the Gospel will eventually meet its demise.

To describe that battle and demise, John presents false religion as a scarlet woman riding upon a beast.

The beast is the antichrist and both he and this false religion were first mentioned in Revelation 13.

Each are related to the historical city of Babylon. A Babylonian mother and a Babylonian monster.

Today we’re going to look at the nature and pull of false religion and in the coming weeks we will see how Christ will one day defeat it.

Reviewing Revelation

Before we look at our text we need to situate it in its context.

Revelation 17:1 opens with one of the seven angels who held the seven bowls of God’s wrath coming up to John to have a conversation.

Who are these angels and what are these bowls and why are they talking to some guy named John?

John is a disciple of Jesus, eyewitness to the resurrection and author of this book of the Bible.

He was arrested and jailed on this island called Patmos and the book of Revelation is a journal of a series of visions he was given to describe the days leading up to the return of Christ.

These seven bowls of God’s wrath are the climax to a series of 21 judgments that God unleashes in the book of Revelation:

seven seals (Rev 6), seven trumpets (Rev 8-9) and seven bowls (Rev 15-16).

Our last series dealt with these seven bowls of God’s wrath. My take is that these bowls describe a world wide judgment by God, (carried out by Jesus on the earth) that prepares the world for a new heavens and a new earth headed up by Jesus himself.

Just like the seals had a parenthetical expansion in chapter 7 and the trumpets a parenthetical expansion in chapters 10-11, you might think of Revelation 17-19 as a parenthetical expansion of the events described in Revelation 15-16.

This section ends with the worldly system of idolatry destroyed and Jesus Christ recognized and worshipped as the true King of Kings and Lord of Lords to the glory of God the Father.

Revelation 17 (CSB)

1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the notorious prostitute who is seated on many waters. 2 The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and those who live on the earth became drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.” 3 Then he carried me away in the Spirit to a wilderness.

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. She had a golden cup in her hand filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of her prostitution. 5 On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth. 6 Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

IDENTIFYING BABYLON

We’ve said before that Revelation is a symbolic and apocalyptic book but no where is that more true than in Revelation 17!

The first time I read this chapter I thought to myself - this is why they tell you not to read the last book first!

Revelation 17 is about a great prostitute, a harlot. In Old and New Testaments the idea of adultery is not just physical but spiritual.

Playing the harlot doesn’t just equate to physical adultery but also to spiritual adultery. The woman/city in Rev 17 is the epitome and physical embodiment of spiritual adultery.

False religion. The world system. That which sets itself up in opposition to and replacement of the one true God.

The First Question

The immediate temptation of many readers is to immediately try and figure out WHO this mystery Babylon IS. What nation does she represent? Historical/future/etc.

The problem is - as the name on her forehead suggests - it’s somewhat of a mystery. There is great debate and disagreement on the particular identity of this woman and her historical or present-day manifestation.

So I think it’s important before we define who this great harlot IS we first examine what she DOES and how she goes about it. That’s the most important lesson we can learn.

There are no less than 10 different descriptions of this woman and her behavior and each of them are helpful for understanding who she is and how she operates.

The Place to Start

But the best place to start is with her name. “MYSTERY: Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth

As we said earlier - the idea of prostitution in this context seems to be that of spiritual prostitution. Rebellion against God.

Notice that this woman is the “mother of prostitutes.” Not meaning that she produces more and more prostitutes underneath her but that she is the greatest spiritual prostitute of them all.

She’s the “mother of the detestable things on the earth” in that she is the greatest example of what it means to reject God, hate God and live life outside of his good designs.

What does that look like in particular? I think we can begin to answer that question by looking at the first part of her name: Babylon.

Old Testament Types

John uses this designation Babylon for a reason so it’s important we understand them if we want to understand John’s Babylon in Revelation.

Babylon shows up in the OT a couple of different ways.

The first is the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. The pride and arrogance of humans led them to believe they could build a tower to heaven and be just as great as God. Nimrod was in charge.

Many years later, the Babylonian empire was established in the same area with the city of Babylon being its capital. That Babylon was overseen by King Nebuchadnezzar.

Which of the two cities does John have in mind? I think both. As usual, Revelation acts as a climax of all the OT antitypes.

What were the sins of the ancient tower of Babel? They are laid out in Genesis 10-11. Essentially, they were pooling their resources in this great city in order to make a name for themselves. (Gen 11:4)

It was a display of old fashioned pride and ego. It’s all about MAN and not about GOD. It’s about MY glory and not HIS.

The same thing was true of Neb’s Babylon. It was a stunning city. Beautiful. Rich. Awesome in so many ways. But her ruler let that glory and prosperity go to his head.

Daniel 4:30 (CSB)

30 the king exclaimed, “Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built to be a royal residence by my vast power and for my majestic glory?”

What This Shows Us

What do these two Babylons have to do with Revelation 17?

If you keep reading in Daniel you discover that King Nebuchadnezzar is painted as a type of antichrist. He invades Jerusalem, he destroys the temple, he kills countless numbers of Jewish people.

So in that way - historical Babylon gives us a foretaste of what life will be like under the final end-times Antichrist regime.

Like the OT Babylon, this city will want to steal God’s glory and destroy God’s people.

Back then - Nebuchadnezzar demanded worship or else you were condemned to die. In Revelation, we see the end times antichrist demand the same thing.

This is why John describes this harlot as being “drunk on the blood of the saints.” (Rev 17:6)

The tower of Babel shows us the cultural attitude of “earth dwellers” during the end of days. They will be haters of God and lovers of self. Hungry for their own glory and allergic to the glory of God.

This cultural attitude and political movement will centralize in geographical location and thereby become a future Babylon the Great.

This city will be a powerful and wealthy city - linked with the authority of the antichrist - that encourages spiritual adultery through temptation to sin and the threat of death.

HOW SHE OPERATES:

Now that we have a general framework for what this woman represents. I want us to go back through and look at how John describes her in these verses.

Given that she’s a godless harlot I’ll identify SIX key characteristics of Mystery Babylon.

IMMORAL & GODLESS:

She's an immoral prostitute, dedicated to opposing the true God and leading others away from him. (Rev 17:1)

Not only does she hate God and tempt people to reject him. She also actively persecutes socially and physically those who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ.

ATTRACTIVE & INFLUENTIAL:

She sits on many waters and the kings of the earth commit adultery with her. (Rev 17:1)

Later we see these waters refer to influence over many peoples/nations Rev 17:15…

She is said to have “power” over the kings of the earth Rev 17:18

LINKED WITH THE ANTICHRIST:

She rides a seven headed, 10 horn, Scarlet beast This beast represents the antichrist and his end-times godless empire.

Whatever this city is, it’s in cahoots with the end-times godless government. (Rev 17:3)

EXTREMELY WEALTHY:

She's dressed in purple and Scarlet signifying power, royalty and incredible wealth.

She uses this power and wealth to lure people into her trap. (Rev 17:4a)

SINFUL LIFESTYLE:

She carries a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and impurities.

(hand = actions; signifying the dirty deeds she does. It’s not just a godless ideology. It’s a godless lifestyle.) (Rev 17:4b)

MURDEROUS INTENTIONS:

Like every godless city before her, she gets drunk on the blood of the saints and those who follow Jesus. She persecutes and kills the people of God. (Rev 17:6)

These symbols and images are not just John’s way of being artistic. They are used strategically and intentionally.

So we need to pay close attention to the way John describes this end-times false religion so we can be discerning and effective in resisting it’s pull in our own life today.

Even if this city doesn’t exist in our modern day, there are certainly prototypes in our world right now.

In many ways our OWN CULTURE embodies so many of the characteristics this mystery Babylon possesses.

Here are 3 things about false religion we need to remember:

Exploited Desires

First, false religion will exploit the desires of your flesh to disorder your love for God.

Every human who has ever existed has a God-given and natural craving for meaning, purpose and fulfillment. We have natural cravings for a full belly and a satisfied soul.

What Satan does is stimulate those desires while saying, “they’ll never be satisfied through the worship of God.”

It’s as old as the Garden of Eden. Satan tempted Eve with the forbidden fruit. How? Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life.

Genesis 3:6 “The woman saw that the tree was good for food and delightful to look at, and that it was desirable for obtaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it...”

This is how Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness.

This is what John warns about in 1 John 2:16 “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride in one’s possessions—is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

This mystery Babylon is making promises to the people committed to her: I’ll give you what you need, I’ll give you what you want, I’ll make life worth living.”

Her spill is - you’ll never find those things by being obedient and submissive to God. You’ll only find those things and be satisfied when you submit yourself to ME.

Good Desires Bad Application

The sad thing is - these desires are God-given and GOOD. They were meant to be satisfied IN GOD by living life according to HIS DESIGN.

There’s nothing wrong with sex.

It’s a God-given gift that brings about incredible pleasure and the miracle of human life. But Satan takes that good gift and says “it’s MORE enjoyable when you do it THIS way instead of GOD’S way...”

There’s nothing wrong with money or power.

It’s a God-given stewardship that can bring about good in your life and the world. But Satan takes that good gift and says “if you really want to be happy then you’ve got to spend your money THIS way instead of God’s way… use your power for THESE ends instead of Gods...”

Satan exploits our natural desires and appetites for his destructive purposes. And false religion takes that strategy and puts a framework around it so it seems plausible and inevitable.

It’s a game of seduction that ends in destruction. Instead of being satisfied in Jesus we end up being enslaved to sin and brokenness.

Some of you are caught in it right now…

In fact the image of a prostitute is helpful because at first the sin seemed so attractive, so reasonable, so enjoyable. And there were no negative consequences at first. It actually made you feel free and strong and valuable and right.

But then suddenly, without warning you became a slave. You became trapped. Now you’re miserable and feel like there’s no way out. That’s the way false religion works.

Exploits Conformity to Normalize Sin

The second thing that false religions does is exploit it’s influence to normalize sin. You also see this principle in our passage today.

One enough people buy into it and enough power and influence is amassed, Satan will begin to exploit that influence to normalize behaviors that violate God’s design.

It’s always a slow burn. Satan never leads with temptations that seem unreasonable. It starts out with small compromises that seem harmless and that over time put one in a compromising position.

One a person realizes they’ve been compromised they have a decision to make: own up to it and suffer the pain associated with making things right… OR… justify the behavior by minimizing the wrong doing and shifting the blame to somebody else.

If you think about the physical act of adultery it begins with temptation… begins with disordered affection but after you act on that temptation the next stage of adultery brings about the normalization of that sinful act.

No longer is it a one-time thing it’s an everyday thing. You begin to justify it and rationalize it and find others who will support and affirm your sin. You begin to blame your spouse or your kids or your stress at work.

This end-times false religion will do the same thing. It will grow extremely powerful and leverage its influence to convince other nations (other peoples, other tribes, other languages) to join her in opposing God and living in sin.

Do you not think these kings and political leaders won’t have “reasonable justifications” for why they join the harlot in her detestable practices?!

Of course they will? Would those “reasonable justifications” have made sense 3-4 years before that sinful behavior got normalized? Of course not.

But that’s how false religion works: what initially seems “unreasonable” eventually becomes “inevitable.”

There are so many examples of this throughout history.

One of the clearest is Hitler’s Germany.

Hitler even perverted religious language to justify his leading a genocidal nightmare.

That kind of national madness doesn’t happen over night. It’s a slow burn whereby the false religion exploits it’s influence to normalize sin.

We see this in our culture with moral issues surrounding the LGBTQ+ movement.

What initially seemed unreasonable has now become inevitable.

Even though there are very clear and dangerous implications to separating things like “sex and gender” or redefining marriage to be whatever we want it to be. We run headlong into the headwinds thinking “those dangers don’t apply to us.”

It’s not just sexuality either. We can see this play out economically, educationally, institutionally in so many other ways.

Drunk on Deception

You even see this in the text when John says that the kings of the earth become drunk on the wine of her sexual immorality.

What happens when somebody gets drunk? (some of you know better than others!) It’s dulls your decision making faculties. It slows down your reaction times. It numbs you to standards of morality and potential threats of harm.

That’s what false religion does. Slowly, over time, it lulls you to sleep. It leads you to believe, mistakenly, that you’re not the crazy one - everybody else is.

You begin to think you can’t be stopped, God’s on your side, everything’s going to work out okay.

Be warned. God is NOT MOCKED. Every drunken stupor eventually comes to a sobering end. And that sobriety can be cruel and unrelenting. And that’s what we’ll see happen in Revelation 18.

Exploit Government to Destroy the Saints

The third warning about false religion is that it will inevitably exploit political power to persecute and destroy God’s people.

If you’ve ever done a study on the persecuted church you’ll soon discover that the PRIMARY means of Christian persecution isn’t terrorist groups or other religious movements. It’s always the state. Usually an atheistic and communistic state power.

That is exactly what’s going on in Revelation 17. We will dive more into this next time.

Notice that the woman is riding on a beast. That beast is the same beast mentioned in Revelation 13. It’s representative of a god hating end-times empire that leverages the state to crush the saints.

We will try and identify where this empire might be located in our next message.

Some believe it was the Roman empire at the time of writing, others a future political power like a Revived Roman empire, or even the Islamic Caliphate.

Depending on your theology you may or may not believe that the church is still on the earth during this time.

Whether we are or we aren’t - at minimum there are going to be a group of believers - predominantly Jewish, located in the middle east - who are going to be absolutely devastated by this end-times empire.

Seeds Already Planted

So we must be ready.

We see the seeds of this kind of empire even today. We’ve certainly seen it throughout history.

Whether it’s Hitler’s genocide of the Jews or Communist China’s religious war against the Christian church - the State can be captured by false religion and use the sword against the people of God.

That doesn’t mean we don’t want Christian politicians or ethical laws with Christian influence.

It’s only to say that historically and prophetically the state is used by Satan to crush the saints.

It’s even a danger for us here in the USA. Whether on the left or the right there are “religious sounding” ideologies that are animating both movements. We should always be wary of a religion bearing the sword.

The only religious leader qualified to institute a national religion is Jesus Christ and when he gets ready to do that there’s nothing anybody else is going to do to stop him. Until then, we should be suspicious of centralized religious authority.

That’s one reason I’m proud to be a baptist. We rightly understand that a “national religion” isn’t always a great idea. Every time “Christianity” becomes politically institutionalized - bad things happen.

Conclusion

So for all of these reasons we should be careful of the influence of false religion in our world. It is subtle, attractive and incredibly influential.

Like every adulterous affair - it starts with small compromises, innocent intentions and gullible assumptions. It ends with death and destruction and the persecution of God’s people.

The woman represents worldly seduction and the beast represents worldly persecution. These forces are present in seed form already today. There’s coming a day when the final expression of these things bring about the end of all things and the return of the TRUE KING.

The End of False Religion

We will not have to live with false religion forever. In fact, what you see happen later on in Revelation 17 is that the beast the woman is riding on ends up EATING THE WOMAN.

Why? Because Satan’s lies and temptation always end in death. Sin is fun for a season but eventually and inevitably it ends in death.

1 John 2:17 (CSB)

17 And the world with its lust is passing away, but the one who does the will of God remains forever.

What is the will of God? It’s to believe in Jesus as the one whom he has sent. (John 6:29)

Have you come to believe that Jesus is the Christ? Are you committed to living by faith even as the world goes further and further into it’s false religion?

If so, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to look weird. The world is going to mock you, hate you and probably eventually try and silence you. But we should just embrace our weirdness for the glory of God.

Let us stop trying to “be cool” or “culturally acceptable” and be more concerned about pleasing God than we are the world.

The truth is we are on two totally different tracks going two totally different destinations. The only way we will be able to persuade people that God’s way is better is if we ACTUALLY LIVE IT OUT!

And God’s way IS better. We will be more joyful, less stressed and much more loving than any other group of people in this world. That’s what we’re being invited to experience and display.