Great Harlot Antichrist City
by
“Some
have identified the Beast as being an individual such as the Pope,
Martin
Luther, John Calvin, William of Orange or Hitler. Others have seen the Beast
more as a group or movement of people, such as the apostate Roman Church, the
Protestants, the Roman Empire (or the Common Market), the Roman persecuting
power of the first century, or some other great world-power
that
will rise up to persecute Christians”.
prererist.org
Introduction
Thanks to the influence of Preterist (as they call
themselves) commentators, many of whom are presumably Protestants, a lot has
changed since the days when the Beast of the Apocalypse was the pope (papacy)
and the “Babylon” of Revelation was his Rome.
I, often inspired by writings of a Preterist
nature, have written articles such as:
Literal
Interpretation of Saint John’s Revelation
(2)
Literal Interpretation of Saint John’s Revelation
Apocalypse
Now? Or Then?
Apocalyptic
Apoplexy
Theme
of Apocalypse – the Bride and the Reject
(4)
Theme of Apocalypse – the Bride and the Reject
Josephus
a key to the Book of Revelation
(3)
Josephus a key to the Book of Revelation
Jewish
Zealots like a wild beast grown mad ... eating its own flesh
(3)
Jewish Zealots like a wild beast grown mad ... eating its own flesh
Book
of Apocalypse based on Hebrew imagery
(4)
Book of Apocalypse based on Hebrew imagery
Jesus
Christ came as Bridegroom
(4)
Jesus Christ came as Bridegroom
Stephen
‘Protomartyr’ is key to understanding ‘Beast’ of Revelation 13
(4)
Stephen 'Protomartyr' is key to understanding 'Beast' of Revelation 13
Michal Hunt, writing for Agape Bible Study, has
written well on the subject in:
CHAPTER 17: Babylon the Great Harlot and
the Mystery Explained
Babylon the Great
Harlot and the Mystery Explained
Succession Arrangements
Continued
"....and the peace of God which is beyond our
understanding will guard your hearts and thoughts in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:7
"Their corpses lie in the main street of the
great city known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was
crucified." Revelation 11:8
"At the end of the Passover meal after
everyone has received the wine of the Cup of Acceptance, the host announces the
completion of the meal and the recommitment to the Covenant by calling out
'teltelestai' which means "it is finished" or "it is
fulfilled." Christ
in the Passover
"A jar full of sour wine stood there; so putting
a sponge soaked in the wine on a hyssop stick, they held it up to his mouth.
After Jesus had taken the wine he said, "it is fulfilled'; and bowing his
head he gave up his spirit." John
19:30
"The 7th angel emptied his bowl
into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the sanctuary, 'The end has
come (IT IS
FULFILLED)." Revelation 16:17
*Old Testament reference: "The Great Harlot"
Ezekiel chapters 16 & 23
In Revelation 11:8 the "Great City" was identified symbolically as
both Egypt and Sodom. After the sacrificial "pouring out" of
the 7 chalices by the 7 angel/ministers of the Heavenly Temple it should be
clear why this "Great City" is identified as both Egypt and
Sodom.
Question: Why is this "Great City" identified with
Egypt after the Chalice judgments? See Rev. 11:8.
Answer: Egypt
because of the "plagues" contained in the chalices, which correspond
to the plagues of Egypt (see the Chart comparing the Chalice and Trumpet
judgments to the Plagues of Egypt).
Question: Why is this "Great City" also identified
with Sodom (see Rev. 11:8). Hint: What happened to Sodom?
Answer:
The "Great City" is like Sodom because Sodom was destroyed by fire
and like Sodom, the destruction will be complete! After 31/2 months of
the Roman siege and the intense suffering of the population, the city of
Jerusalem was destroyed by fire on the 9th of Ab 70AD the same
day Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon was destroyed in 586(7)BC.
The "Great City" where Christ was crucified
(Rev. 11:8) had become a "false prophet" in her testimony to the
world that Jesus was not the Messiah, and in her apostasy she
had become a "great harlot" and a "false bride." This
"Great City" that will be destroyed by fire and who has become a
"False Bride" identifies both Biblically and historically with the
city "once full of fair judgment," the city of
Jerusalem. In this chapter the "Great City" will be
symbolically identified as "Babylon."
…. Jerusalem was meant to be the true "gate of
heaven"; God's holy witness to the nations of the world. But
Jerusalem, whose name means "will provide peace" rejected God and the
"peace of God which is beyond our understanding" when she
rejected Jesus, the Messiah, God come in the flesh. "The
faithful city, what a harlot she has become: Zion, once full of fair judgment,
where saving justice used to dwell, but now assassins!" Isaiah
1:21 (circa 740BC)
Please read Ezekiel chapter 16
Ezekiel 16:35-36 (Yahweh to Jerusalem) "Very
well, whore, hear the word of Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says this:
For having squandered your money (literally "poured out [ekcheo] your
bronze" [meaning "lust"]) and let yourself be seen naked
while whoring with your lovers and all the foul idols of your loathsome
practices and for giving them your children's blood for this I shall assemble
all the lovers to whom you have given pleasure,... (v.58) "You have brought
this on yourself, with your lewdness and your loathsome practices"
declares the Lord Yahweh. (Yahweh's message to Ezekiel 5 years
before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586(7)BC)
Please read Revelation 17:1-7 Babylon the Great
Harlot; the False Bride
Revelation 17: 1-2 "One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls
came to speak to me and said, 'Come here and I will show you the punishment of
the great prostitute (harlot) who
is enthroned beside abundant waters, with whom all the kings of the earth have
prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world (those
who dwell on the land) drunk with the wine of her
adultery.'" This is the 11th time the
phrase "those who dwell on the land" is used in Revelation. As you
will recall, I have mentioned that this phrase is symbolic for apostate Israel
and is used 12 times in Revelation; once for each of the 12 tribes of Israel:
Rev. 3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10 [twice]; 13:8, 12, 14 [twice]; 14:6;
17:2,8).
Question: In what verses was "the city" symbolized as
Babylon in previous chapters and what was the judgment prophesized for
"the city"? Hint chapters 14 and 16.
Answer: John
has already been told that "the city" is symbolized as Babylon by the
second of the three sets of angels of the Temple in Revelation 14:8 "a
second angel followed him (the first angel), calling, 'Babylon
has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, Babylon which gave the whole world
the wine of retribution to drink.'" And again he was
told in Rev. 16:18c-19 "The Great City was split into three parts
and the cities of the world collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God
made her drink the full winecup of his retribution." The
original city of Babylon no longer existed in the 1st century.
It had been the site of the building of the infamous tower of Babel in the land
of Shinar … and had become the capital city of the Babylonian Empire, the world
power that had destroyed Judah and Jerusalem in 586(7) BC.
But John's city is not the original Babylon, instead
ancient Babylon is a symbolic image of this city. The clue lies in the
description that this city sits or "is enthroned" beside
"abundant waters." This phrase can also be translated
"many waters." It is polus hydra in the
Greek. This is an image of the prophet Jeremiah's description of Babylon
in his great oracle judgment against the city in Jeremiah chapters 50-51. "Enthroned
beside abundant waters, rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of
your pillaging." (Jeremiah 51:13). J
…. But ultimately the term "many waters" is
used Biblically to refer to the abundant blessings that God bestows on His
people. Yahweh even gave His blessing to Babylon but she prostituted those
blessings for her own glory and rejected Yahweh. Later in Rev. 17:15 we
will told of an important aspect of the symbolic meaning of the term "many
waters" but in this verse the point is the identification of the Harlot
city with the ancient city Babylon who accepted God's blessings but turned from
Him.
Question: So what is the connection between 'blessings' and
Babylon and Jerusalem?
Answer: No
other city in the world received more of God's blessings than the city of
Jerusalem, but like Babylon she turned from Yahweh, prostituted herself and
rejected God the Messiah and in doing this Israel (Judah) the Old Covenant
Church and her priests have led "those who dwell on the Land"
astray and into adultery. They became "drunk with the wine
of her adultery"; they become seduced into such a spiritual stupor
that they did not even recognize their own Messiah and therefore have forfeited
God's many blessings.
Let's look at the Biblical use of the words "many
waters" or "abundant waters" and its significance in
Scripture. Biblically this expression is set within God's Covenant
relationships reflected in His "abundant" blessings and in His
liturgical interaction with His people. In all the passages the Greek is
the same "polus hydra" (Greek translation of Old Testament and
Greek New Testament). Examples:
1. Jeremiah
51:13: Babylon's abundance granted by God: "Enthroned beside
abundant waters, rich in treasures, you now meet your
end, the finish of your pillaging."
2. Ezekiel 1:24:
the voice from the Glory-Cloud sounds like many or abundant
waters and is produced by the innumerable angels in
the heavenly council: "I also heard the noise of their wings; when they
moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters [polus hydra], like the voice of
Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp.."
3. Revelation 1:15: God's voice from
heaven "as the sound of many waters" as His voice is
similarly described in Ezek. 43:2 "like the sound
of the ocean" (literally "many waters" polus
hydra) and Rev. 14:2 "like the sound of
the ocean" (literally many waters polus hydra)
4. Revelation 17:1 "the
great prostitute who is enthroned beside abundant waters"
(polus hydra); the "city" to whom God has given many
blessings.
5. Rev. 19:5-6 "Then a
voice came from the throne; it said, 'Praise our God, you servants of his and
those who fear him, small and great alike.' And I heard what seemed to be
the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean (many
waters/ polus hydra) or the great roar of thunder,
answering, 'alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has
begun.." = Liturgical praise.
Given the Biblical background and context of the
phrase "many waters" or "abundant waters" (polus hydra)
it would be no surprise to John's readers that the Bride of Yahweh would be
seen seated on "many waters"; the surprise is that she is a
whore!
This Bride has received God's blessings and has
prostituted them. (I refer you again to Ezekiel chapter 16 in which
Yahweh condemns Israel in a long allegory as a faithless wife, a
"whore" of alien gods, and Romans 2:17-24 (verse 23-24 "If,
while you are boasting of the Law, you disobey it, then you are bringing God
into contempt. As scripture says: It is your fault that the name of God
is held in contempt among the nations.")
I should mention that a number of commentators
identify the "harlot city" as Rome, the geographic center of the Holy
Roman Catholic Church. John's 1st century readers
certainly would not have accepted this interpretation. Martin Luther
championed this interpretation when he was excommunicated from the Church in
the 16th century. Luther saw the Church of Rome as the
Harlot Bride and the Pope as the Antichrist. Interestingly enough, Pope
Leo X in turn saw Luther as the Antichrist!
But the Church, which is founded by Christ through
Peter, His Vicar, stands on the promise that Jesus made in Matthew 16:16
that "the gates of Hades will not prevail against her" because
she is the True and Holy Bride of Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ is
full of sinners yet she is the sinless Bride.
Question: But is there a warning for us in the 21st century
Church? Did the Old Covenant Church believe that judgment could lead to
destruction of their Temple and the transformation of their Covenant?
Answer:
Even though the True Bride, New Covenant Church has the promise of Christ's
protection we should never become so overly comfortable that we fall into
complacency and therefore fall into the danger of unfaithfulness through
unorthodox belief.
We have so many blessings but how many Catholics truly
understand their faith?
…. It is only through ignorance that we lose Catholics
to other denominations. After all, if one truly believed in the Real
Presence of Christ in the Eucharist how could one leave Him? And yet,
every year thousands of Catholics leave Mother Church.
Biblically the imagery of the "False Bride"
is a familiar image. In Biblical symbolism the motif of the Bride falling
into adultery and harlotry identifies God's Covenant people falling into
apostasy. To go after false gods and to abandon the sacred Covenant is
equaled with adultery and harlotry. This metaphor of harlotry is
exclusively used in the Old Testament for a city or a nation that has abandoned
God's holy Covenant and rejected God. This imagery is always used
for faithless Israel, "Bride of Yahweh" with only 2 exceptions:
1. The Phoenician
city of Tyre and
2. the Assyrian
capital city Nineveh.
These are the 2 cities, outside of Israel, that had
both been in covenant with God. See 1Kings 5:1-12; 9:13; Is. 23:17; and
Amos 1:9.
The city of Tyre was converted to the worship of
Yahweh during King David's reign in the early 11 century BC and her king
contracted a covenant with Solomon (David's son) and assisted in the building
of God's Holy Temple on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. The passage in Revelation 17:2"with
whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves.." is
taken from Isaiah's prophecy against Tyre where it primarily refers to her
international commerce through which her influence and beliefs spread (Isaiah
23:15-17).
The other city is Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian
Empire. The city of Nineveh was converted through the work of God's
prophet Jonah and her king declared Yahweh the true God. See Jonah
3:5-10.
Later the apostasy of these 2 cities would be considered unfaithfulness to
Yahweh expressed as harlotry. Pagan Rome of the 1st century
never entered into such a covenant relationship.
The other important point in the identification of the
"False Bride" city is that she will be identified in contrast to
another city.
Question: What is the second city that is described in contrast to
the Great City identified as the Harlot, the False Bride? Hint: see Rev.
21:1-2.
Answer: the
"True Bride", the Church of the New Covenant founded by Christ, the
"New" Jerusalem. The identification of the "False
Bride" as opposed to the "True Bride" only makes sense if the
"New" Jerusalem is in contrast to the "Old" Jerusalem that
has rejected Christ as her bridegroom and has become a False, Harlot
Bride! She has become like the builders of the tower of Babel that was
built on the site of the city of Babylon. Babel literally meant,
"gate of God," but in rejecting Yahweh He judged them, cast down
their tower and scattered the nations and confused their tongues.
Question: What was the reversal of the "confusion of
tongues" at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9? Hint: see Acts chapter
2.
Answer:
The second great Pentecost was the reversal of the Tower of Babel. God
the Holy Spirit came in "tongues of fire" and all the people present
understood one language and the one message of salvation which would once again
unite all nations in a Holy Covenant that would open the gates
of Heaven through Christ the Savior, the Bridegroom of the New Covenant,
universal Church and once again God's blessing would flow as "many
waters;" Rev. 22:1 "Then the angel showed me the river of
life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing
crystal-clear."
Revelation 17: 3-4 "He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I
saw a woman riding a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had
blasphemous titles written all over it. The woman was dressed in purple
and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding
a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution..."
This woman is in a "spiritual desert," an abode of demons (Matt 12:34
Jesus said: "When an unclean spirit goes out of someone it wanders
through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find
one.") In chapter 12 we saw the Woman, the True Bride, being
forced to flee from the Dragon into the desert for a time where God protected
her. But to the False Bride, the wilderness is her element where she
chooses to remain instead of accepting the Messiah and following Him to her
inheritance: the Promised Land. Therefore, the "wilderness"
becomes her destiny and her heritage (see Num ch 13-14; Zech 5:5-11).
….
Some commentators point out that the Red Dragon of
Revelation chapter 12 is connected by the same color to the Red Beast of
Revelation chapter 17 but the Greek does not indicate the same color.
Instead the color of the Beast in chapter 17 (Gr. kokkinon) matches
the woman's own dress in verse 4 whereas the Red Dragon in Revelation 12:3 is
the color of fire (Gr. purros).
Kokkinon is
crimson blended with dark blue (see Isaiah 1:18). It was a color used to
attract attention (for example, the scarlet thread attached to the first twin
of Tamar in Genesis 38:28 and to the home of Rahab in Joshua 2:18).
Question: What is significant about the way the Harlot is
clothed?
Answer:
Some commentators suggest the color is an indication of ungodly conduct (for
example Isaiah 1:18 "sin like scarlet" and Psalms
51:5) and that the color stands in sharp contrast to the white garments of the
elect. But other commentators suggest that she is not dressed as a
prostitute. Please see Gen. 2:11-12; Ex. 3:22; Proverbs 31:21-22; Isa
54:11-12; 60:5-11; Ezek 16:11-14; Ezek 28:9-29; Rev. 4:3-4; Rev.
21:18-21. In these passages the description of her clothing is in keeping
with the Biblical descriptions of the glorious "City of God" in
Isaiah and Revelation. There is also a connection to the pattern of the
jewels that covered the high priest's garments in Exodus chapter 28 and the
Throne of God in Rev. 4:3-4. Exodus, Ezekiel and Proverbs all describe
the dress of a Bride with such finery. In other words, it is possible
that to first century readers that this woman is dressed as a "righteous
woman", as a Bride. She is adorned in the beautiful garments of the
Church. If this interpretation is correct, the Harlot Bride is still
carrying the outward adornments of the chaste Old Covenant
Bride of Yahweh!
Revelation 17:4 "she
was holding a gold winecup.."
Question: What is the wine of her fornication and what contrast
or parody is there to the winecup of Holy Eucharist? See Revelation 17:6
Answer:
The wine of her fornication is the blood of the Saints and the blood of the
witnesses (martyrs) of Jesus it is in contrast to the holy and pure golden cup
of Christ's blood that He offers those of the Covenant who are in a state of
grace. ….
