Revelation 17:1-18

The Punishment of the Great Prostitute
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The intoxicating wine of her adulteries represents false doctrines. The idea here is that the wicked have rejected truth and righteousness. They have chosen to submit to the devil’s authority and hope for the best.

 

They cannot think straight. Totally deceived.

 

Revelation 17:3   Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns.

 

Revelation 17:4   The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries.

 

Revelation 17:5   This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHEROF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

 

Revelation 17:6   I saw the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.

 

Revelation 17:7   Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns.”

 

Ok, let’s gather up the ten specifications:

 

1.   The great prostitute will be punished by God

 

2.   She is “the great city”

 

3.   She sits on many waters

 

4.   She rides/directs the composite beast

 

5.   The kings of the Earth committed adultery with her

 

6.   The people of Earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries

 

7.   She wears purple and scarlet

 

8.   She has a golden cup, full of abominable things and the filth of her adulteries

 

9.   She is drunk with the blood of the saints

 

10.  She wears the title: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF  

       PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

 

Who is she?

 

In a sentence, she is the bride of Lucifer, his one-world government, a theocratic church/state. Each specification highlights a fact about her that God wants us to know. Let’s go through them carefully:

 

1.   “….Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters.”

 

The great prostitute is a system of government. Those who participate in its administration will be punished with seven bowls and ultimately; they will be destroyed by fire.

 

(This is why one of the angels having the seven bowls was sent to John. In the previous chapter this angel had participated in the punishment of the prostitute.)

 

2.   Revelation 17:18   “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.” 

 

The term, “The Great City” is a parallel concept from the Old Testament….

 

Under Plan A, God designed that Jerusalem would eventually become “The Great City” from which He would rule over all the Earth.

Psalm 48:1   A song. A psalm of the Sons of Korah. Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise, in the city of our God, his holy mountain.

 

Psalm 48:2   It is beautiful in its loftiness, the joy of the whole earth. Like the utmost heights of Zaphon [Hebrew: the North] is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King.

 

Psalm 48:3   God is her citadels; he has shown himself to be her fortress.”

 

Under Plan A, Jerusalem would have become so great in size that it would encompass much, if not all of the land of Canaan.

 

Remember this passage?

 

Zechariah 2:1   Then I looked up—and there before me was a man with a measuring line in his hand!

 

Zechariah 2:2   I asked, “Where are you going?” He answered me, “To measure Jerusalem, to find out how wide and how long it is.”

 

Zechariah 2:3   Then the angel who was speaking to me left, and another angel came to meet him,

 

Zechariah 2:4   and said to him: “Run, tell that young man, ‘Jerusalem will be a city without wallsbecause of the great number of men and livestock in it.

 

Zechariah 2:5   And I myself will be a wall of fire around it,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will be its glory within.’”

 

If Plan A had been carried out, Jerusalem would have forever been the city of God! Notice the words of Jesus:

 

Matthew 5:34   But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

 

Matthew 5:35   or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.”

 

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