THE WOMAN ON THE SCARLET
BEAST
8/21/2018
The Woman in the Wilderness
Revelation
12:5-6 NET So the woman gave birth to a son, a male
child, who is going to rule over all the nations with an iron rod. Her child
was suddenly caught up to God and to his throne, (6)
and she fled into the wilderness where a place had been prepared for her
by God, so she could be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Revelation
12:1 pictures a sign in heaven of a woman with labor pains. She gives birth to a male child, “who is going to rule over all the nations
with an iron rod”. When the child is
caught up to heaven (ascension of Jesus), the woman, pictured as the early
church of believers, flees into the wilderness for a period of 1,260 years.
The
church (Roman church) came into power in 529-534 when Justinian changed the
laws and reset the calendar and fulfilled the “little horn” (or extension of
the Roman Empire) according to Daniel’s chapter 7 prophecy of the four beasts
from the sea. [at this time the Roman
church was the only church for all practical purposes] This is the point in time when the church (or
Roman church i.e. “the little horn”) became part of the succession of empires
which began with Babylon, because of its religious carnality.
The
dispensational belief system has interpreted 42 months as a literal 1,260 days,
however it should be understood to represent 1260 years. The sea beast is and was the Holy Roman
Empire or the Catholic Church. The authority
of the 1st beast (Roman Church) as an extension of the Roman Empire came
to an end during the French Revolution when Napoleon captured the Pope (Pius
VI) in 1798 and imprisoned him in France where he died in1799. However, Napoleon reinstated the pope in 1804
in order to have a worthy man crown him as emperor. There was approximately a 5 year period with
no Pope in office.
The
ruling government, at that time, placed the Vatican’s finances in the
trusteeship of a banking system which later became the Rothschild’s banking
system (the second beast) and the Vatican was not allowed to ever have a
standing army.
Revelation
13:3 NET One of the beast's heads (i.e. Pope Pius VI) appeared
to have been killed, but the lethal wound had been healed (the office of Pope
was reinstated). And the whole world followed the beast in amazement;
The Great Whore
The
Revelation appears to present two different Mystery Babylon’s that are related
but with some different characteristics.
There is only one Mystery Babylon but it has many layers with various
interacting groups. In the discourse of
the Revelation, one is referred to as Babylon, the city, and the other as Babylon the Great, the Mother of prostitutes and of the detestable things of
the earth.
Babylon
the city or the city of Babylon may be Vatican City or Rome, which is the home
of the Roman Church as it is related to Babylon the prostitute which is the
Roman Church.
John
relates the ancient cities of Babylon, Jerusalem, Sodom, and the nation of Egypt
as being associated with the earthly Jerusalem and therefore being harlot
cities. Isaiah 23:15-17 speaks of Tyre
as a past harlot city. The book of Nahum
claims that Nineveh was a harlot city.
And of course, Ezekiel chapter 16 is writing about Jerusalem as a harlot
city. Many Protestant churches
(daughters) also employ various tendencies of the Roman harlot church.
The
Protestant Reformation may have had a decent spiritual beginning but the various
denominations that developed and various types of “feel good” churches gives
credence to the Revelation statement “that Babylon the prostitute is also: “the Mother of prostitutes”.
The
first metaphoric woman presented in Revelation 12:6 is usually identified as
the Church. Although the life, death,
and resurrection of Jesus gave birth to the church, they are usually presented with
the similar symbolism.
In
Revelation 17:1 we are introduced to another symbolic woman who is also located
in the symbolic wilderness. This one is
referred to as “the great whore”. Later
in verse 5 the woman is called Mystery,
Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. The woman sitting on the
scarlet beast appears to be the same woman as presented in chapter 12 due to
their location in the wilderness.
As has been often stated, the Revelation is a
prophetic history of the Church from the time of John to the present. The overthrow of Mystery, Babylon (the
metaphoric city as well as a world wide operating system) is currently being
fulfilled which will be followed by the Millennial Kingdom of God.
Both
women in the wilderness (chapter 12 and 17) must necessarily be the same woman
at different points of time and stages of spirituality. They both represent different phases or
stages of the Church, past and present.
Those
who place their faith in the church may have difficulty seeing them as the same
woman, insisting that there were two
women in the wilderness but that may not be a correct understanding.
Revelation 17:3 KJV 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.
Revelation 13:1 NET
Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads,
and on its horns were ten diadem crowns, and on its heads a blasphemous name.
Note
that the beast rising from the sea in chapter 13 had seven heads and ten
horns. The scarlet beast in the
wilderness, carrying the woman, also has seven heads and ten horns. It would appear that both instances are
representing the same beast which would be a religious one under the initial
authority of the Vatican or Roman Church.
In
Rev 15:5 this second woman also represents “abominations” which is defined as
detestable things or idolatry. It can be
said the Roman Church has many images, Mary worship, a re-crucifixion of Jesus
with each Eucharist performed.
Revelation
17:5 KJV And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH.
Roman Church Idolatry & Other
Corruptions
An
internet search for Catholic idolatry is filled with rebukes concerning the
worship of Mary, statues representing Mary, kneeling and bowing down to Mary,
asking for healing from Mary, etc. It
would appear that Mary worship is considered the primary sin of idolatry within
the Roman Church. The various incidents
of bleeding statues of Mary will be skipped due to the demonic instances they
represent.
The
latest sex abuse headline reads: 300
Catholic Priests Accused of Monstrous Sex Abuse of More Than 1,000 Children in
Pennsylvania Grand Jury Probe. This
appears to be a widespread affliction within the Catholic priesthood and the
overseers appear to be covering up and hiding evidence. Although only recently brought forth and
exposed, this sexual abuse has been occurring since reports first came out in
1960 and it has most likely been happening since the Middle Ages or before.
Some
groups of priests have expanded their approach by filming, collecting, and
selling child rape pornography.
Revelation
19:20 presents an interesting concept.
The 1st beast and the 2nd beast (called the false
prophet) are thrown alive into the lake of fire. The lake of fire judgment occurs at the end
of the Millennium at the White Throne Judgment, but these two entities seem to
be punished at the beginning of the Kingdom of God, at the return of Jesus
Christ.
Revelation 19:20 NET
Now the beast was seized, and along with him the false prophet who had
performed the signs on his behalf -- signs by which he deceived those who had
received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image. Both of them
were thrown alive into the lake of fire burning with sulfur.
The Prostitute Daughters
Before
anyone gets upset with my comments on corruption and idolatry, let it be known
there were several church people, both Catholic and Protestant oriented,
throughout the years and ages that were spiritual and desired to be a citizen
of the Kingdom of God. Within the Roman
Church many of these individuals were tortured, burned at the stake, or just
murdered before, after, and throughout the inquisition period. Their kingdom doctrines and beliefs did not
line up with the accepted doctrines of the Church.
The seven
letters to the churches found in Revelation 2 and 3 represent seven stages of
the Church throughout history. We are
currently in the era of the Laodicean church.
The
primary complaint of Jesus to this church era is: “I know
your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or
hot!” Although many people have just
quit believing the faith based on the Kingdom of Jesus most (NOT ALL) of the
remainder merely go to a church building on perhaps Sunday as some type of duty
or taught ritual. The mark of a
Christian is not attending a church building, having a position on a committee,
or singing in the choir. It is living
the life of a citizen of t
he
Kingdom of God all day and every day. If
you don’t live the life, think the life, and teach the life of a Kingdom
citizen then you are most likely not a Christian.
Joel
Osteen is an American televangelist based in Houston, Texas. His televised sermons are seen by over 7
million viewers weekly and over 20 million monthly in over 100 countries. What is his message that is admired so much?
The
Osteen website claims they teach: the
inerrancy and inspiration of the Bible, the triune nature of God, and salvation
by faith in Christ, which sounds reasonable.
Osteen teaches that physical healing and wellness
were provided in Christ’s atonement. “Jesus came that we might have a more
abundant life. He came to carry our weaknesses, our sickness, our pain, so that
we can walk in total freedom, peace, power and purpose” (from Lakewood Church’s official website).
What
he is reportedly said to teach is the Prosperity Gospel: God’s will is that we
be blessed with material things, which is a view that contradicts 1 Timothy
6:6.
1 Tim 6:6-10
Now godliness combined with contentment brings great profit. (7) For we have
brought nothing into this world and so we cannot take a single thing out
either. (8) But if we have food and shelter, we will be satisfied with that.
(9) Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and
many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction. (10) For the love of money is the root of all evils. Some people
in reaching for it have strayed from the faith and stabbed themselves with many
pains.
As the Lakewood Church’s website says, “To be
successful in your walk with God, commit to honor God with your finances. When
you commit to give the Lord the first 10% of your income, God promises He will
pour out blessings you cannot contain. Tithing is the
first key to financial prosperity.”
Lakewood’s website then quotes the favorite
proof-text for this teaching, Malachi 3:10. It is a prime example of taking Old
Covenant promises to Israel out of context to apply them to New Covenant
believers.
What
is the Prosperity Gospel?
In the prosperity gospel, also known as the “Word of Faith,” the
believer is told to use God, whereas the truth of biblical Christianity is just
the opposite—God uses the believer. Word of Faith or prosperity theology sees
the Holy Spirit as a power to be put to use for whatever the believer wills.
The Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a Person who enables the believer to
do God's will. The prosperity gospel movement closely resembles some of the
destructive greed sects that infiltrated the early church. Paul and the other
apostles were not accommodating to or conciliatory with the false teachers who
propagated such heresy. They identified them as dangerous false teachers and
urged Christians to avoid them.
The Exodus Example
These
two women in the wilderness are patterned after the Exodus experience of the
Hebrews under the leadership of Moses leaving Egypt and traveling through the
wilderness. The Israelites were required
to travel across the wilderness to get to the Promised Land, which they would
have reached in 490 days if they had the necessary faith.
At
Mt. Sinai the vast majority refused to listen when God wished to speak to them personally
with His voice of fire. Due to their
fear of God within the fire, they instructed Moses to listen to God by himself
and then relay the message to them, which he did. The Israelites lack of faith also caused them
to worship the golden calf only weeks after refusing to hear God speaking for
themselves.
When
the Israelites camped at Paran in preparation to cross over into Canaan, Moses
send 12 spies to check out the land.
Because the people listened to the 10 false reports instead of the two
positive reports of Joshua and Caleb their lack of faith and their fleshly
motivation God caused them to remain in the wilderness until all adults except
Joshua and Caleb were dead.
Israel
was afraid to hear the voice of God at Mt. Sinai, therefore God’s message was
relayed to them by Moses. The congregation
under the “little horn” Roman Church was not allowed to read and listen to the
Word on a personal level. They only knew
what they were told by the priests. Both
Israel, conquered and deported by Assyria, and Judah, conquered and held
captive by Babylon were punished due to a history of carnal flesh, harlotry,
and idolatry. The Christian church has
been retained in a metaphoric wilderness for the same issues: carnality, harlotry, and idolatry (which is scripturally
identical to harlotry).
The
majority of the so-called church has been disqualified from ruling the Kingdom
of God during the Millennium. The
apostle Paul explains that only the remnant of grace known as the overcomers or
the “elect” are the true chosen ones, similar to the days of Elijah when he
said, “I
alone am left and now they want to take my life,” but God answered:
1 Kings 19:18 NET I still
have left in Israel seven thousand followers who have not bowed their knees to
Baal or kissed the images of him."
Quote from
Dr. Stephen Jones:
So here in Revelation 17:3 we see that the church,
which fled into the wilderness shortly after Pentecost in Acts 2, was not able
to enter the Kingdom at that time, but like Israel, she had to spend a long
time in the wilderness. That in itself is an indictment upon the church. Whereas
Israel spent just 40 years in the wilderness, the church spent 40 Jubilee
cycles in the wilderness.
The
harlot is described as sitting on the
beast (although many claim she is riding the beast). She is not portrayed as sitting on a throne
since a throne is symbolic of law and this woman is considered lawless. She follows the carnal laws of the beast
system and not the laws of the Kingdom.
The phrase “full of blasphemous names” portrays the many manifestations
of immorality and lawlessness in the red beast.
Although the great harlot is much more than the fleshly church, it most
definitely includes it.
The Harlot’s Description
Revelation 17:4 NET Now the woman was dressed in purple and
scarlet clothing, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls. She held
in her hand a golden cup filled with detestable things and unclean things from
her sexual immorality.
Purple
and scarlet clothing speaks of royalty while gold, precious stones, and pearls
speak of great wealth.
It
is now apparent the Roman church and its popes, cardinals, and others have attempted
to somewhat duplicate the clothing and vessels listed by God in the Pentateuch
as the apparel of the temple priests. Of
course, they have added greatly to the masquerade.
Although
literal gold cups have been used in the Roman church, this scriptural golden
cup has more to do with symbolism and prophecy.
John employs many scriptures and ideas from the Old Testament including
this golden cup reference in Jeremiah 51:7.
Jeremiah 51:7 NET Babylonia had been a gold cup in the LORD's
hand. She had made the whole world drunk. The nations had drunk from the wine
of her wrath. So they have all gone mad.
The
gold cup was given to Babylon by God for divine judgment upon Judah and other
nations. Now God has given the gold cup
to the harlot to bring judgment upon the nations of today.
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
The
woman sitting (riding) on the beast is called the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth. Harlotry is a
euphemism for idolatry and abomination is a euphemism for an idol. Therefore this harlot is the mother of all
idolatry appearing in the earthly church.
Idolatry is not limited to worshipping false gods, it also includes
submitting to the laws of the beast rather than the laws of God.
Drunk With the Blood
Revelation 17:6 NET I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood
of the saints and the blood of those who testified to Jesus. I was greatly
astounded when I saw her.
Although
Leviticus 17:10 forbids the drinking of blood, the harlot has become drunk with
metaphoric blood. God created blood as
the emissary of the soul for the work of atonement. The apostles had no problem with this for
they write in the first Church Council:
Acts 15:19-20 NET "Therefore I conclude that we should not
cause extra difficulty for those among the Gentiles who are turning to
God, (20) but that we should write them a letter
telling them to abstain from things defiled by idols and from sexual immorality
and from what has been strangled and from blood.
This
apostolic edict was repeated in Acts 15:29.
However, the Roman church which strongly upheld its own Church Councils
failed to recognize and enforce the very first Church Council held in the book
of Acts.
To
drink blood is a natural sign of a spiritual problem. Scripture defines murder as an act of
drinking blood (or spilling blood).
Therefore, when Jerusalem killed the prophets, they were in violation of
drinking or spilling blood, even with the law of God threatening to cut off
anyone who drank blood. When the prophets
called Jerusalem "the bloody city," they were figuratively accusing
it of drinking blood, and by extension they were saying that the city would be
"cut off from among his people".
