Revelation 17:1

Revelation 17:1

The Bible says in Rev. 17:1-2, "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come here; and I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." We are at the point in the Book of Revelation just before the return of Jesus Christ where the judgment of a holy God must fall upon the earth. If wickedness is to be judged, then false religion must surely be judged also. According to Jesus, the greatest commandment is to love God with all the heart. The first of the Ten Commandments says to have no other gods before Him. The purpose for humans to be on the earth is to know and to worship and to serve God. Therefore, false religion encompasses the greatest failures and the greatest sins of mankind. God intended for His people to be His bride in a spiritual sense, married to Him and united with Him and knowing Him. That’s why false religion is called in Rev. 17:1 "the great whore." Instead of being a religious organization that is faithful to God, it is unfaithful and therefore is compared to a prostitute. We know that during the Great Tribulation the antichrist is worshipped as God. Evidently, there will be a united, one-world religious system that will have a big part in getting the people of the world to worship the antichrist instead of worshipping God.

Another reason that the one-world religious system will be so bad will be because of the part that it will play in people being doomed forever. Jesus said, "What shall it profit a man should he gain the whole world but lose his own soul?" Jesus came into the world to seek and to save them that are lost. People have an innate awareness of a need and a desire to serve God. A substitute will be so damaging because people will think that they have all that they need when in reality their soul still needs to be saved through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

There is true religion, and there is false religion. True religion preaches the truth about Jesus and helps people find salvation in Him. False religion does not preach the truth because it does not know it. People are kept in blindness and darkness because of their involvement with false religion. True religion helps to set people free. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." False religion controls and manipulates people. You have probably heard the saying that religion is the opiate of the people. That saying is true in regards to false religion. That’s why the last part of Rev. 17:1 says that the one-world religious system "sits upon many waters." Later in the chapter we are told that the "many waters" are the peoples, multitudes, and nations of the world. To sit upon them means to dominate, control, and manipulate them. This religious system will work very well with the antichrist. He will use the system for his purposes. It will be an unholy alliance of church and state. God looks down upon the earth and He calls this one-world religious system "the great whore that sits upon many waters."

Rev. 17:3-5 says, "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." There is a significance to the fact that when John was taken by the spirit to look at the one-world religious system, he was taken into the wilderness. What a contrast between the desolation and isolation of the wilderness compared to the gold and the pearls and the scarlet and the political involvement of the one-world religious system. The Spirit of God does not lead people to become a part of the one-world religious system. He calls His people to come out and to be separate. John the Baptist was not a part of the religious system. People had to go out into the wilderness to hear him. Instead of being in a cathedral, he preached along the banks of a river. Jesus was not an integral part of the organized religious system of His day either. As a matter of fact it was the religious leaders who organized the plot that led to the unjust condemnation and death of Jesus. They accused Him before Pilate, and they incited the people to cry out, "Crucify him, crucify him."

"Come you out and be you separate," saith the Lord. We should be tolerant of others because we wish them to also be tolerant of us, but there is a difference between tolerating other people’s right to believe as they chose and joining with them in their religious system. At the judgment of Christ some people are going to be very ashamed of the involvement that they had with what God calls, "the great whore who sits upon many waters." One of the things that attracts’ people who are not spiritual to false religious systems is also given in these verses by the references to beauty and riches when the religious system is described. It’s not the grandeur of the cathedral or the beauty of the buildings that’s important. What’s really important is the content of the teachings. The Word of God must be taught in Spirit and in truth. If it is not, then you have a false religious system that helps to keep people in darkness and helps them to continue on the road to hell.

In Rev. 17:5 the false religious system is called "Babylon." The word "Babylon" means confusion. The first appearance of this kind of organized false religion is found in the Book of Genesis when human beings who did not truly serve God banded together to build the tower of Babel. God was not pleased with them because they were building a religion that was not inspired by God. It did not get the basis for its existence from the revealed will of God. Instead it came from the heart and the imagination of man. It did not glorify God. It glorified man. God called it Babel, which means confusion.

All organized false religion from the tower of Babel until the present day has certain common characteristics. It does not come from God. It does not teach the truth about salvation and the need for repentance from sin. It attracts people by its riches and outward beauty. It unites in unholy alliances with wicked civil leadership. And one more common characteristic of false religion: it persecutes the true worshippers of God. Rev. 17:6 says, "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." No one in the world has more hatred for the children of God than the leaders of false religion. It was the religious leaders who had Christ crucified. They that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, and the most common source of such persecution will be false religion.

It’s an amazing thing and a strange thing that there is so much false religion in the world that has done so much damage and held so many people in its sway. The Apostle John marveled when he saw the one-world religious system, but he was told not to wonder about it probably because its doom is sealed. When the judgment of God falls against the wickedness of the earth, it must also fall against false religion, and the one-world religious system will be completely destroyed. Rev. 17:7 says, "And the angel said unto me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns." The woman is the one-world false religious system of the end-time. The beast is the antichrist who supports and increases the influence of the false religious system. The seven heads and ten horns are leaders and countries who give their authority to the antichrist.

More information about the antichrist and the false religious system are given to us in the rest of Revelation Chapter 17. Rev. 17:8-13 says, "The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind and shall give their power and strength unto the beast."

One of the things that these verses are trying to remind us of is the certain destruction of the antichrist. We are told that the kings who will rule with him will survive only "one hour with the beast." This means that they will not last long before they are put down and defeated. It says of the antichrist that he will continue only "a short space." We are assured of the final defeat of the antichrist. Twice in these verses we are told that he will go into perdition. The word that is translated "perdition" is the Greek word “apoleian”, and it means destruction. In Revelation Chapter 9 the devil was called the Destroyer. Jesus said that they who live by the sword will die by the sword. They who destroy will be destroyed. We who believe in Jesus do not fear the antichrist. We are thankful that God has shown us what will happen. When the antichrist comes on the scene, in just a few short years thereafter he will be destroyed.

One of the interesting details about the antichrist is given in Rev. 17:10. It says, "And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come..." Since the Apostle John was living in the Roman Empire, he was probably talking about certain Roman Caesars. Therefore, John is associating the antichrist with the Caesars of Rome. In a certain sense the kingdom of the antichrist will be a return and a revival of the Roman Empire. It will probably be centered in the Mediterranean area just like the Roman Empire was. It will be a totalitarian government headed by a leader with similar characteristics as those who headed the Roman Government in the first century.

The Roman leaders were notorious for their ruthlessness. Often they supported violent persecutions against believers. They demanded that they be worshipped as gods. The antichrist will be just like them; only he will outdo all the others. His persecutions will be more intense. His hatred and pride will be greater. He will openly oppose God and try to wage war against the Lord of Hosts. Rev. 17:14-17 says, "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of Lords and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he said unto me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are people, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put in their hearts to fulfill His will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled."

Of course, when anyone opposes God, including the antichrist; their doom is sealed. Those who do not oppose God will reign with Him forever. Notice the three things that are said about the believers in Rev. 17:14. It says that they "are called, and chosen, and faithful." You are called when God touches your heart to draw you to Jesus. No one can be saved until God calls them. One of the fallacies and failures of some Christians’ witnessing and recruiting is that they might go ahead of God. No one gets saved just because another human persuades them to bow their head and pray a certain prayer. No one gets saved until God calls them, and God’s time is not always our time.

Salvation starts with God not man. Without God no one would be saved, and no one would go to heaven. Humans sin, but God sent Jesus to die for our sins. Humans live in spiritual darkness and have no hope of escaping that darkness on their own, but God comes at just the right time in their lives to call them to Himself. In Mat. 22:14 Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." The way you become one of God’s chosen is to respond to God’s call. This is where the human will and the human choice become involved. God is not willing that any should perish. He offers His great salvation to whosoever will. Those who respond to God and come to Jesus for forgiveness of their sins become the "chosen."

They are also called "faithful." Faith is the mechanism and the means by which a person responds to God’s call and becomes one of the chosen. The Bible says in Eph. 2:8, "For by grace are you saved through faith." This kind of faith means to depend upon, to rely on, to trust in, and to commit oneself to. If you come to Jesus Christ for salvation and commit yourself to Him, then you have faith in Him. It involves a decision and a surrender on your part. For those who are called but who do not have faith, who do not trust in Jesus Christ, they have made a decision to oppose and resist God’s calling. In a spiritual way they have made the same decision as will be made by the antichrist: to resist and oppose God.

What decision have you made concerning God and His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ? You may not be alive during the Great Tribulation when the judgment of God comes to the earth, but you will stand before God one day to be judged for your sins. The only possible escape that you have is the mercy that is found in Jesus Christ. You will either be numbered with the antichrist or you will be numbered with those who "are called, and chosen, and faithful."

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