Wednesday Bible Study: To Rome or Not To Rome

 

We're taking a detour before we get to what I closed with last week.  You see, last week I thought we were going to go to the next passage from where we were, featuring the coming of whom Revelation will call the False Prophet.  But God kept leading me to go with another character first, so we can understand the FP better.  And the reason being, the way it looks to me, the False Prophet really comes into his own AFTER the AntiChrist/the Beast declares himself to be God- the abomination of desolation. But that doesn't mean there won't be a 'church'- a religion, if you will- BEFORE we get there.  And that would be this:

Rev 17:1  And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and talked with me, saying to me, Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot sitting on many waters, 

Rev 17:2  with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and became drunk with the wine of her fornication, those inhabiting the earth. 

Rev 17:3  And he carried me away into a desert by the Spirit. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-colored beast, filled with names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 

Rev 17:4  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet. And she was gilded with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. 

Rev 17:5  And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 

Rev 17:6  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with a great marveling. 

Last week, we learned more about the Beast from this passage; this week, we are going to TRY to learn more of this woman.  I say, "Try", mainly because I am veering here into what I will call "informed speculation"; after all, it IS a MYSTERY.  Now if you are a Protestant, you have been taught again and again that the Harlot is the Roman Catholic Church, mainly on the basis of this passage:

Rev 17:9  And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sits. 

And from there, you are pointed to the seven hills of Rome.  But I have been seeing hints that there is a far grimmer reality going on here.  But, I do believe there is SOME truth.  Think:  the Rapture has occurred; true believers (except for the 144,000 and those they will convert in the seven years) are gone.  But there are tons of not-quite believers populating every denomination.  Plus, you've went through a massive- and partly man-made- famine; people are looking for answers, looking for help.  The still-substantial remains of the RCC, and whatever manner of reprobate is Pope at the time, will be a comforting- and RICH- place for them to go.

But this is not the Roman Catholic Church we know.  It has been shorn of any who might have guided it in a righteous direction.  It has had an influx of co-"religionists" from other denominations.  And it has had a long connection with idolatry.  I point out the 'veneration' of Mary and the saints, which is about as close to worship as you can get and still have an excuse to say it isn't.  I saw an applicable verse in Isaiah a few days back:

Isa 8:19  And when they say to you, Seek to the mediums, and to spirit-knowers who peep and mutter; should not a people seek to its God, than for the living to seek the ones who died? 

Isa 8:20  To the Law and to the Testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because there is no dawn to them! 

Is there a better way to describe praying to the saints than "for the living to seek the ones who died?"  And remember, back with the sixth trumpet, one of the things man is mainly accused of was their worship of idols- idols that came to screaming, deadly life.  HOWever, this isn't the whole of the story.  John McArthur calls our attention to, "the MOTHER of all the harlots and abominations."  He speculates that this is a reference to where idolatry began- with Nimrod building the original Babylon.  When God threw down the tower and divided the language, the people scattered:

Gen 11:7  Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." 

Gen 11:8  So the LORD dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 

And so idolatry spread across the earth.  And this original idolatry of Nimrod was the same idolatry of the Beast- making a man into a god.  But man's idolatry involves MANY gods, or men become gods, and Satan isn't into worship of any but himself, so...

Rev 17:16  And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, 

Rev 17:17  for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. 

Again, think:  this diseased "church", is powerful, rich- and INDEPENDENT of the Beast and his revived Rome.  There is no way he lets this stand, when his goal is to have everyone worshipping him.  But wait, you say, I thought SATAN was the one who wanted worship!  You have hit on the next key to understanding here.  Remember the first part of "History", when the Red Dragon, Satan, is introduced?  Now look back at this:

Rev 13:1  And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. 

The AntiChrist/Beast- and NO color.  then look again- 

Rev 17:3  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. 

The seven head and ten horns of the Beast- but the color of the Dragon!  Also note that we see THIS:

Rev 17:11  As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. 

So let me string this together:  AC was one of the heads; one that had a deadly wound, yet lived; a man, an attempted (or completed) assassination; and a rebirth, as Satan possesses him fully.  THEN he proclaims himself god, and THEN he bade his fellows to kill the harlot, the other false religion, that he alone is worshipped.  All good so far, until...

Rev 17:18  And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth." 

Does Rome have dominion?  I want you to look at two passages.  First, Ezekiel:

Eze 16:35  Therefore, O harlot, hear the Word of Jehovah. 

Eze 16:36  So says the Lord Jehovah: Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness was bared in your fornications with your lovers, and with all the idols of your abominations, and by the blood of your sons whom you gave to them; 

Eze 16:37  behold, therefore I will gather all your lovers, with whom you have been pleased, even all whom you loved, with all whom you have hated; I will even gather them against you from all around, and will uncover your nakedness to them, and they will see all your nakedness. 

Eze 16:38  And I will judge you with judgments of adulteresses, and with shedders of blood. And I will give you blood and fury and jealousy. 

My paper Bible connected this passage; it was specifically referring to Judah and Jerusalem, who had not learned from the destruction of Samaria.  And this is the judgment given this "other" harlot.  But look a bit farther down:

Eze 16:46  And your older sister is Samaria, she and her daughters who dwell at your left hand. And your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 

Eze 16:47  Yet you have not walked according to their ways, nor done according to their hateful deeds; but, as if it were a very little thing, you were corrupted more than they were in all your ways. 

Now a historian like me would say, "But Sodom came first in history; how then is Samaria the older sister?"  Because, the point God is trying to make:  Samaria's sin was putting up idols to replace the worship of God at the Temple; and from idolatry you move on into all kinds of perversion, which is Sodom.  A progression: idolatry leads to perversion.  Sodom is the sister of Jerusalem.  Now, back to Revelation, and two passages we have hit earlier...

Rev 11:7  And when they complete their testimony, the beast coming up out of the abyss will make war against them and will overcome them and kill them. 

Rev 11:8  And their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. 

Jerusalem called Sodom and Egypt...

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Rev 11:2  But leave out the court which is outside the temple, and do not measure it, for it was given to the nations. And they will trample the holy city forty-two months. 

Do you see what I see?  Oh, wait, you need to now see this:

Rev 17:18  And the woman whom you saw is the great city which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth. 

Now see it?  The AntiChrist, ruler of the New Rome, has indeed built a new Babylon- Babylon, the Great City.

And he built it IN JERUSALEM.