By Pete Garcia
And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” Revelation 17:5
It isn’t that it is Mystery Babylon, so as that her identity could be interpreted as anyone’s guess, but that there is a Mystery about Babylon. The mystery as it was revealed in the New Testament, and even more recently, is that she is the wellspring of ALL false doctrine and religions. Dr. Rhodes goes on to conclude that after the Rapture the Church (1 Thess. 4:13-18) and the Gog-Magog War (Ezekiel 38-39), the world’s two most exclusive religions, Biblical Christianity and Islam will be removed. The Rapture will remove the true Christians from the earth. The Gog-Magog War will effectively destroy Islamic militancy forever. Thus, the world will be ripe for both delusion and ecumenism. This ecumenism will find itself source goes ALL the way back to Mother Babel.
However, this creates a major, political, theological, and spiritual vacuum, which the Antichrist and the False Prophet will rush in to fill. Politically, the Antichrist will create some form of political alliance with Israel. His partner, the False Prophet, will in conjunction with an alien intervention/revelation, and aided by a sentient (e.g., demonically-supercharged) artificial intelligence, form a new ecumenical religious system that will be filled with lying signs and wonders (2 Thess. 2:9-11). It will be powerfully deceptive.
Those people who remain after the Rapture and after the Gog-Magog War will be swept up into this new religion like a tsunami. Those who refuse to go along with this will feel the sharp edge of the sword to the neck. This new version of an ancient Babylonian ecumenism will become the most intolerant belief system ever devised.
“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.” Revelation 17:6
The NIV states that John was ‘astonished’. The ESV records it as ‘marveled greatly’. The NASB states it as ‘wondered greatly’. Thus, based upon that context, along with the other translations, we dismiss number one from the possible definitions from Greek Lexicon here since John is not proposing that this is a positive/wonderful thing.
Apparently, this is something that really blew John away, which is saying a lot, considering all he had already been witness too. The angel goes on to tell him about what the Mystery is:
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest 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… Revelation 17:7-8
So what is Mystery-Babylon? Unlike the beast, she is not a government. She rides the beast:
– She sits on many waters; meaning she is global. Verse 15 confirms this. (vs. 1)
– Kings have committed fornication with her, and the people of the world have been made drunk by the wine of her fornication; meaning mankind has not only gotten drunk but has received “the bite”, by her addictive lies. (vs. 2) (“the bite”= alcoholic term for hopelessly addicted)
– She sits upon the ‘scarlet covered beast’ full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns, meaning, she fully embraces a plurality of gods and beliefs, and implemented by the antichrist’s governmental system. (vs. 3)
– She herself, is wrapped in purple and scarlet, holding a golden cup full of abominations, meaning she will be greatly lavished (this system) with great wealth and holds to this diabolical lie that tolerates everything, except Jesus Christ. (vs. 4)
And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:5
– She is called ‘Mystery’, which means she is not literal Babylon, but a symbolic picture of representing the ‘Babylonian’ system of control in which has enslaved the world from the beginning.
– She is called “Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the earth”, meaning she is the originator of all false doctrines. Every evil and insidious religion, doctrine, belief system have their roots in her, regardless of where they are, or who started them.
No comments:
Post a Comment