In our study today we are going to take a closer look at the religious system that will be on the earth during the Great Tribulation. John is going to see the church of the end times symbolized as an immoral woman.
The angel John has been speaking with shows him a vision of the false church of the last days. "Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. 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) This woman is in no way connected to the Lord's glorious church or to the nation of Israel. We've already seen the church of the Lord Jesus Christ referred to as a beautiful and spotless bride dressed in white. We've seen the nation of Israel represented by a woman crowned with a crown that has twelve stars. These two women were virtuous and pure. But the woman who symbolizes the false church is a prostitute, as we were told in yesterday's study. She is not beautiful and virtuous and pure, but as we will soon see she is gaudy and immoral and staggering drunk.
Ever since Chapter 4, John has been viewing the events of the end times from heaven in his vision. Now he's viewing the false church from a wilderness. I tend to think this is because the religion of the last days is barren and empty. It's bleak and hopeless, unable to refresh anyone. This is a very sharp contrast to the Christian life in which the Holy Spirit is a stream of living water within us, perpetually refreshing us. (John 4:14, John 7:37-38)
The woman is being carried by the red dragon we met earlier in Revelation 13. She and the dragon are engaged in a mutually beneficial relationship, at least for a time. Later the dragon will hate her once he's done with her. Through his man the Antichrist, Satan has set up and used the false church for his own sinful purposes, in the same way a man who goes to a prostitute is using a woman for his own sinful purposes. The church means nothing to the devil, no more than a prostitute means to a man who pays for her company for an hour. And like a man who takes his leave of a prostitute once their transaction is complete, Satan is going to discard the church once he's finished with her.
While the relationship between the church and the devil prospers, the church is exceedingly wealthy. We know this because of how the woman is dressed: "The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls." (Revelation 17:4a) In the Apostle John's day, purple and scarlet dyes were so expensive that only the wealthy could afford to wear fabrics in those colors. These colors also represented power because it was typical for kings and other government officials to wear them. This is why a purple robe (probably one that had belonged to teh governor Pontius Pilate) was thrown around the shoulders of Jesus when Pilate's soldiers mocked Him by bowing to Him and saying, "Hail, king of the Jews!" The church of the end times is not only wealthy but is also powerful because of her connection to the Antichrist.
This gaudy prostitute is drunk. "She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries." (Revelation 17:4b) She isn't holding a communion cup that contains the wine or grape juice that symbolizes the blood that Christ shed for mankind. She's holding a cup filled with sin and she's drinking it right down to the dregs. She can't get enough of it. The church of the end times may be the wealthiest church that has ever existed. Its main headquarters is probably housed in the most beautiful cathedral that has ever existed. From the outside, everything probably looks fine, but on the inside there's nothing but filth. I'm reminded of what Jesus said when criticizing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who were concerned with looking good on the outside: "You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness." (Luke 11:39) The church of the end times is putting on a false front. From the outside it appears to be a place where a person can find comfort and strength, but it's capable of doing nothing but leading people farther down the road to perdition.
Like the Roman prostitutes of old who wore headbands with their names on them, the false church wears a headband with her name on it. "The name written on her forehead was a mystery: 'Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Prostitutes And The Abominations Of The Earth.'" (Revelation 17:5) This church is the culmination of all rebellion against the Lord. It contains every false doctrine it possibly can from around the world. It has something for everyone, so to speak. In our day and in our culture, people want everything customized to suit their own individual tastes and needs. They want to pick and choose what to believe and what to discard. They want to follow only the doctrines that suit the opinions they already hold. They don't want to hear doctrines that contradict the way they want to live their lives. The church of the end times is going to provide her congregants with a customized worship experience where they can participate only in the parts they enjoy and where they can ignore or completely miss the fact that none of the doctrine they are being taught lines up with the holy Scriptures. They'll be taught that they are okay just as they are. They'll be taught that if they've made mistakes, they can make up for their mistakes by performing certain rituals or charitable deeds to counterbalance their mistakes. They won't be told they are sinners. They won't be told they need the Savior. They'll be told that everything they need spiritually can be obtained by human effort.
As we study even more about this church in tomorrow's lesson, we'll learn why she holds such ugly titles. We'll learn that the dragon has seven heads because they represent seven hills, which may mean that the church's headquarters will be located in Rome since it it known as "the city of seven hills". It's possible that the Antichrist, and the church he uses for his own gain, will take over the Vatican. This doesn't mean that the church of the end times is the Catholic church, as some Protestant scholars have suggested in their prejudice against the Catholic church. The church of the end times won't resemble any Christian church of any era, except from the outside. If the false church does take over the Vatican, it will discard everything that points worship to Christ. It will look like a monument to Christ on the outside, but on the inside it will contain nothing but lies and idolatry.
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