0
0
What is Babylon the great Harlot?
It simply is God’s people, Israel in the Old Testament and the Church in the New Testament who practice idolatry. For God’s people, His wife, idolatry is always adultery. Sin is very personal to the Spirit.
The Virgin of God is a very beautiful young woman. It is this very beauty that makes a harlot so alluring and so destructive. A harlot is still a beautiful young woman. This is why so many Christians defend the harlot and point to the harlot’s beauty thinking that the harlot is still God’s virgin.
A three-year-old cannot tell the difference between a virgin and a harlot, a ten-year-old knows something is wrong and a twenty-year-old knows he has to run.
Pagan law embraced instead of God’s Law
God has His own, way, manner, law, statute, precept, principle, and judgments. Psalm 119, shows this beautifully and clearly. Keeping these is in fact the “love of God”, and abandoning them, and embracing other ways is idolatry and adultery in God’s eyes.
The picture of Harlot is used to show this intimate betrayal of loving other gods. The Harlot is that portion of the church that has abandoned her virginity and engages with the manners, the ways, the laws, and the system of the pagan nations around them. God’s people are called to be pure and separate.
Isaiah 2
Here is a clear example showing that embracing the “manners” and the “ways” of the pagans angers God. This theme grows throughout Israel’s history and results in increased wrath and judgment from God, who is their husband, whether they know it and like it or not. As we see in Ezekiel 16 and 23 it gets very bad.
Below is an excerpt from the history of Israel that is analogous to the virgin church who is supposed to be a virgin in the Spirit but is engaged with Hollywood and Wall Street, money, power, fame, glory, and Babylonian methodology.
O house of Jacob, come and let us walk In the light of the Lord.
For You have forsaken Your people, the house of Jacob,
Because they are filled with eastern ways;
They are soothsayers like the Philistines,
And they are pleased with the children of foreigners.
Their land is also full of silver and gold,
And there is no end to their treasures;
Their land is also full of horses,
And there is no end to their chariots.
Their land is also full of idols;
They worship the work of their own hands,
That which their own fingers have made.
People bow down,
And each man humbles himself; Therefore do not forgive them.
Isaiah 2:5-9
The Nations around them
13. Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.”14. Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God.15. And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them.
2 Kings 17:13-15
The Revelation of Jesus Christ
The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a prophetic book full of prophetic pictures. The book contains an immense amount of parables, types and shadows and themes from the prophets of Old, especially Daniel (chaps. 7–12), Isaiah (chaps. 24–27), Ezekiel (chaps. 37–41), and Zechariah (chaps. 9–12)
Continuous Revelation
The Bible is one continuous revelation of God culminating in the Revelation of Jesus Christ. One cannot understand the Revelation of Jesus Christ, without seeing it as a continuation of the rest of scripture.
We will be looking specifically at the Great Harlot shown in Rev 17. If we want to know what the “Great Harlot” is we must obviously study the word “harlot” in The Bible to learn how and when Gods uses this term. In Revelation 17 God is using a word picture clearly defined by the prophets.
We don’t need some spooky and creative end-times interpretation
This harlot is sadly an apostate version of the Church, God’s wife and intended virgin in some perverse union with Babylon (the world system). The Great Harlot is that portion of the church that has adopted Babylonian manners, laws, statutes, and ways. There is very little distinction between the habits, strategies, business plans, goals, and rewards of the pagans and pagan Christianity Pagan Christianity Book Summary by George Barna. Only a reward system rooted in the death and resurrection of Christ and His people is spiritual.
It’s a SYSTEM and contains some of God’s people
“Babylon the Great Harlot” refers to the corporate structure of the commercial church, the marketing strategies, the obsession with money, the hierarchical title-based administration systems, the clergy system, fancy buildings, and all the other things that the institutional church has adopted from Hollywood and Wall Street.
Scary, Disgusting, Ominous
A simple reading of the passages below, disgusting and scary as they might be, along with Revelation 17, points out ominously that the harlot is the commercial church or at least includes the paganized institutional church.
That does not mean everybody in the institutional church is going to hell, but it does mean that they are in grave danger of missing Christ, and of bringing no fruit to maturity as Jesus warned in the Parable of the Sower. The thorny ground is choked by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches which in the commercial churches are baked into the system.
The foolish virgins, who despite being diligent, are in the end not diligent enough.
Come out of her my people
my people?! that means Christians are included.
There is a clarion call to them: ““Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. “For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”
Having said that, the intents of the heart are at stake and some may claim to be outside Institutional Christianity and still have harlotry in their eyes. We must all take great care.
Ancient Jerusalem as the Harlot
The picture of Jerusalem and Israel as a harlot against her husband, YHWH, is very well developed in the prophets. A quick word search reveals more than 50 references to this. There is no unintelligible mystery about who and what the Harlot in Revelation 17 is, it is a paganized version of the church.
This Revelation is painful and scary but has to be faced
There is a secondary theme of harlotry that applies to cities and nations other than Jerusalem but they are few and far between. The only notable city in the Old Testament described as a harlot is Tyre, who incidentally was very close to Israel. Tyre’s King Hiram, was a close friend of David and contributed hugely to the building of the temple. Once again the type and shadow “harlot” applies to those who could and should know God.
The pagans are not described in this manner because the reality applies “to whom much has been given, much will be required”. The pagans and the unbelievers have not been given much, and consequently not as much is expected from them.
The Prophets develop the theme of God’s people as a harlot
“the faithful city” cannot refer to pagan cities
How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice;
Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.
Isaiah 1:21
The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
Jeremiah 3:6
God as husband to an adulterous wife
Then the Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.12. “Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not remain angry forever.
Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God,
And have scattered your charms
To alien deities under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.
“Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
Jeremiah 3:11-14
Beautiful Young Israel
“Your fame went out among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through My splendor which I had bestowed on you,” says the Lord God.
“But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it.16. “You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be.17. “You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them.18. “You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them.
Ezekiel 16:14-18
Ohola and Oholibah
3. They committed harlotry in Egypt,
They committed harlotry in their youth;
Their breasts were there embraced,
Their virgin bosom was there pressed.
4. Their names: Oholah the elder and Oholibah her sister;
They were Mine,
And they bore sons and daughters.
As for their names,
Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
5. “Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine;
And she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring Assyrians,
Ezekiel 23:3-5
“Now although her sister Oholibah saw this, she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.
“She lusted for the neighboring Assyrians,
Captains and rulers,
Clothed most gorgeously,
Horsemen riding on horses,
All of them desirable young men.
Then I saw that she was defiled;
Both took the same way.
But she increased her harlotry;
She looked at men portrayed on the wall,
Images of Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
Girded with belts around their waists,
Flowing turbans on their heads,
All of them looking like captains,
In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea,
The land of their nativity.
As soon as her eyes saw them,
She lusted for them
And sent messengers to them in Chaldea.
“Then the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love,
And they defiled her with their immorality;
So she was defiled by them, and alienated herself from them.
She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness.
Then I alienated Myself from her,
As I had alienated Myself from her sister.
“Yet she multiplied her harlotry
In calling to remembrance the days of her youth,
When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
For she lusted for her paramours,
Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys,
And whose issue is like the issue of horses.
Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth,
When the Egyptians pressed your bosom
Because of your youthful breasts.
Ezekiel 23:11-21
There is Hope!
There are good people in the bad system, but they must come out.
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.5. “For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.6. “Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her.7. “In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’8. “Therefore her plagues will come in one day—death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.
Revelation 18:4-8
He who has ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches, let him hear!
The Harlot is hugely contrasted with the Virgin New Jerusalem
1. After these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God!2. “For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”3. Again they said, “Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever!”4. And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, “Amen! Alleluia!”5. Then a voice came from the throne, saying, “Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great!”6. And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluia! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!
7. “Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.”8. And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.9. Then he said to me, “Write: ‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!’ ” And he said to me, “These are the true sayings of God.”10. And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”
Revelation 19:1-10
1. Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea.2. Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.3. And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.4. “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
Revelation 21:1-4
