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Revelation Study Series 22 - God’s Mysterious Plan Fulfilled (Chapter 17) Series
Contributed by Clayton Beck on Mar 7, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: Jesus came! He died! He resurrected! He is coming back!
Revelation Study Series 22 - God’s Mysterious Plan Fulfilled (Chapter 17)
05.01.22
Message…
I told you last week we were going to talk about prostitutes this week…so, let’s go! This is no “Pretty Woman” movie tale! This is prophetic truth, revealed to us…to understand what is to come! And, therefore be prepared!
Seven seals…seven trumpet judgments…seven bowl judgements. These seven bowl judgments will be poured out during the second half of the seven year Great Tribulation…
1 One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls came over and spoke to me. “Come with me,” he said, “and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who rules over many waters.
2 The kings of the world have committed adultery with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.”
…
18 And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world.”
“Prostitute (Whore)” - “Word: pronh - Pronounce: por'-nay
1a) a prostitute, a harlot, one who yields herself to defilement for the sake of gain
1b) any woman indulging in unlawful sexual intercourse, whether for gain or for lust”
http://www.godrules.net/library/kjvstrongs/kjvstrongsrev17.htm
“Adultery (Fornication)”...
“Word: proneuw - Pronounce: porn-yoo'-o
2a) to commit sexual immorality
3) metaph. to be given to idolatry, to worship idols
3a) to permit one's self to be drawn away by another into idolatry” http://www.godrules.net/library/kjvstrongs/kjvstrongsrev17.htm
“Waters” - figurative of nations/people
So, we have nations of people being drawn away into spiritual adultery, by giving themselves to anyone/anything that is not God or of God. In this case it is giving themselves to this symbolic woman/prostitute.
So, then the question becomes, Who is this woman/prostitute/great prostitute (harlot/whore)? Who is John seeing in this vision?
18 And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world.”
“great city” - What city would this be? What does this mean? How can you commit spiritual adultery with a city?
This city is a little complicated. But, figuratively it is Babylon, ?(it may represent a literal Babylon as well). And, more specifically religious Babylon (I said religious, that does not mean Godly. You can be religious about something…and be religiously wrong)...
OT Babylon in Gen. 11 tells us there was one people and one language and those people built a brick tower to the sky.
4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”
5 But the Lord came down to look at the city and the tower the people were building. 6 “Look!” He said. “The people are united, and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them! 7 Come, let’s go down and confuse the people with different languages. Then they won’t be able to understand each other.”
8 In that way, the Lord scattered them all over the world, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why the city was called Babel, because that is where the Lord confused the people with different languages. In this way He scattered them all over the world.
The whole tower building thing was their attempt to exalt themselves above God, or even in place of God. It was a defiance against God! People were creating their own religion refusing to worship God as God!
This “Babylon” is a figurative/symbolic picture.
“...every age has featured a “Babylon,” a political and economic system that has sought to control people’s minds and destinies.” -Warren Wiersbe
So, this is not an actual city per se but a false religious and political system that draws mankind into committing spiritual adultery, sleeping with the enemy (ultimately satan).
Unfortunately, mankind doesn't realize when they have tied themselves to their enemy until it’s too late. They choose to buy and believe the lie, only to realize that it is to their destruction!
3 So the angel took me in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it.
This “scarlet beast” has been mentioned before…
And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.
1 Then I saw a beast rising up out of the sea. It had seven heads and ten horns, with ten crowns on its horns. And written on each head were names that blasphemed God.
