When "The" Church Rides the Beast

Chapter 3

 

The Harlot’s Evil
Influences the World

  

World Leaders Enamored with the Harlot

 

“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,” (Revelation 17:2a).

 

In dramatic language a picture is painted of religious prostitution. It portrays secular leaders being emotionally captivated with the harlot. The language is intimate. There must be a “drawing card” towards this symbolic harlot! This same accusation occurs two more times in this interlude (18:3, 9).

This harlot – Babylon (an ecclesiastical power) – as we will shortly observe, is carried by a beast (kingdom). In that coupling (church and state), she “controls” the world through her devoted followers, the world leaders! The religious influence of the prostitute (sounds absurd, doesn’t it?) is exactly how the Bible paints it. Something the harlot “stands for” bonds world leaders to a false “religious” or “moral” issue that God despises. The worship of God, within His moral parameters, is debased.

This imagery reveals a global sacrifice of spiritual principles. We catch a glimpse of how devoted earth’s kings are from chapter 13, where the world “worships the beast” (13:8), which carries the harlot here in chapter 17. Thus, that church/ state, harlot/beast, receives loyalty from leaders and people globally.

 God is betrothed to us (Hosea 2:19). The betrothal contract is called a covenant. It was originally classified as the ten commandments (Deuteronomy 4:13). Just before the wedding, its principles will be part of us (Hebrews 8:10). Thus, fornication must have something to do with breaking that covenant or the law.

Isaiah 23:17 notes Tyre as being another city symbol for apostasy of God’s people – “and she fornicated with all the kingdoms of the earth.” The word “fornicate” or to be a “prostitute” is frequently used figuratively to illustrate Israel’s faithless behavior towards Yahweh. This designation is again based on a defiance of God’s ideal – a covenant coalition (between Yahweh and Israel) with marriage contracts (Lev 17:7; 20:5-6; Num 14:33; 15:39; Deut 31:16; Judg 2:17; 8:27; 1 Chr 5:25; 2 Chr 21:11; Ps 73:27), a metaphor found with particular frequency in the prophets Hosea (1:2; 2:4 [MT:6]; 4:15; 9:1), Jeremiah (2:20; 3:2, 9, 13; 5:7, 11; 13:27) and Ezekiel (6:9; 16; 23; 43:7, 9).[1]

The harlot rejects God’s great restoration covenant agreement, the Decalogue. This was prophetically introduced by Daniel:

“have indignation against the holy covenant” (Daniel 11:30).

“such as do wickedly against the covenant” (Daniel 11:32).

There, the leading actor is first called a “vile person” (11:21); then the “king of the north.” That antichrist drama parallels the one depicted here by John for the “beast,” “harlot” and “Babylon.” Those entities, influencing the world, are described as “whose names have not been written in the book of life” (Revelation 17:8). They are eternally lost. The harlot/Babylon/ Rome story/prophecy relates to eternal death.

Influenced First (17:2a): Kings of earch    ·  Commit fornication    ·  Tie with religious prostitute This creates an alliance

Influenced Second (17:2b): Inhabitants of earch    ·  Drunk with wine of fornication    ·  Accepts service of prostitute They join the alliance

 

God is describing, through His servants, the risk of divorcing from the betrothal bond He has with His people.

 

The world’s populace accepts the harlot’s beliefs.

“and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (Revelation 17:2b).

 

A cup of fruit beverage (“wine,” grape juice) is an intriguing metaphor that God uses in prophecy. As the pure grape juice (I Corinthians 11:35) symbolizes the blood of a sin-pardoning Savior, the alcoholic juice symbolizes the mind-numbing drink of the harlot. The thoughts are so deranged that falsehood is received as truth. The world drinks enough that it gets drunk. It is unable to decipher right from wrong.

This fearful report came as a warning in the second angel’s message. Babylon fell because “she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” (14:8).

“What is that wine? – Her false doctrines. She has given to the world a false sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, and has repeated the falsehood that Satan first told to Eve in Eden, – the natural immortality of the soul. She has spread many kindred errors far and wide, ‘teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’”[2] The Sabbath is at the center of the Decalogue and is the sign of the covenant (Exodus 31:13).

Note the fascinating sequence in this verse: The word for fornication is porneuo, which means the “practice of prostitution or sexual immorality.”[3]

This harlot, centered in Rome, as we will see, endorses appalling behavior, beliefs and power within the Roman Church. The “marriage” (illicit) to the inhabitants of the earth is repugnant and hints at victimization of the people because of darkness.[4]

In the Old Testament Babylon is condemned for making “the whole earth drunk” – and they “now have gone mad” (Jeremiah 51:7; cf. Isaiah 51:17).

The scene now changes. It seems as though John was in a literal real-time conversation with the angel. In the brief encounter, he was invited to “Come hither, I will shew thee …” John was to observe something far more dramatic and explicit. The event-driven circumstances that led to the harlot’s demise will now unfold!