REVELATION 17:1\u20136<\/b><\/p>\n
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<\/i><\/p>\n
(Revelation 17:3).<\/i><\/p>\n
Throughout the Bible the people of God are pictured as His bride, and when they betray Him, they are pictured as a harlot. Similarly, the nations of the world are pictured as beasts, and when Israel got involved with those nations, it is pictured as spiritual bestiality. The same symbolism is employed in Revelation. The New Jerusalem is the bride, the true church. The counterfeit church is pictured as Jezebel (Revelation 2:20), as the great whore (17:1), and as \u201cMystery Babylon\u201d (17\u201318).<\/p>\n
The harlot rides on the back of the beast. Similarly, the harlot sits on seven hills. This identifies the beast with the seven hills, and usually this is taken to be Rome. If we interpret Revelation 17 in terms of John\u2019s own day and of the history found in the New Testament, we can understand the principles involved without too much difficulty. Maybe the events pictured here are still in the future, but the basic principles were already operating in the first century, and we can get a fairly clear idea of them if we consult the rest of the New Testament.<\/p>\n
It is the Jews and Judaizers\u2014the apostate people of God\u2014who persecute the true church throughout Acts and the Epistles. The New Testament pictures the leaders of Israel as having sold out the Lord for Caesar: \u201cWe have no king but Caesar.\u201d Thus, false Jerusalem commits adultery with the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:2). The false bride is arrayed in purple, gold, gems, and pearls, a counterfeit of New Jerusalem (17:4; 21:9ff.). She rides on the beast, manipulating the power of Rome to put Christ to death, and in the book of Acts, to persecute the saints. Because of Jerusalem\u2019s splendor and the wealth of the Jews, she has influence over the kings of the earth for a time (17:18). But there will come a time when Rome will turn against her and destroy her, as happened in a.d. 70 (17:16).<\/p>\n
The harlot sets the beast against the church. The beast and his subordinate kings make war on the church, but the Lamb defeats them. Caesar may claim to be king of kings and lord of lords, but he is not (17:14). Eventually the church was victorious over the power of Rome.<\/p>\n
CORAM DEO<\/b><\/p>\n
Zephaniah<\/p>\n
Revelation 15<\/p>\n
Where is Mystery Babylon today? It may be manifest in the traditional cults, the \u201cname it and claim it\u201d health-and-wealth cults, liberal pseudo-Christianity in the \u201cmainline\u201d churches, and militant secular humanism. In the face of such opposition, take comfort in Revelation\u2019s promises of truth\u2019s ultimate victory.<\/p>\n
For further study: Nahum 3:1\u20136<\/i> \u2022 Jeremiah 51:6\u20139<\/i> \u2022 2 Thessalonians 2:6\u201311<\/i><\/p>\n
friday<\/p>\n
december<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
REVELATION 17:1\u20136 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 17:3). Throughout the Bible the people of God are pictured as His bride, and when they betray … Continue reading “THE HARLOT AND THE BEAST”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}