by Allyn Smith

Created on: August 31, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2011

Revelation 17 begins by describing the judgment of the great whore, or Babylon, who has great influence worldwide. Both Jerusalem and Rome are called Babylon in the Bible but only Rome has seven hills.  The original Babylon, at the dawn of New Testament times, had long since disappeared, although at one time it was the greatest city in the world.  It was after the building of the tower of Babel that God confounded the languages of the people, throwing them into confusion, and scattering them across the face of the earth. Several prophesies in the old testament combine Babylon of their day with the Babylon of the future when it talks about its destruction. Today there is a confusion between true Christianity and false Christianity.  A testimony of this can be found in the parable of the wheat and the tares which is written in Matthew 13. True Christianity has been counterfeited, or confused, by false Christianity to such an extent, that only Jesus will be able to determine the tares (false) that are to be harvested from the wheat (true).

This false religion of the last times is called a woman and a whore, because the Bible teaches that the ecclesia, (the body of Christ), is also called the bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33) (Revelation 21). In Ezekiel 23, the prophet calls Israel and Judah harlots because they went “Whoring” after the false gods of their neighbors.  They left the great Jehovah to whom they had been joined and consorted with the idols of the heathen; therefore God delivered them into the hands of their lovers. The Bible does not call the idolatry of the heathen religions like Islam, Hindu, Buddhists, etc, harlotry because they never were joined or married to God.  False Christianity can be called harlotry because it professes to be married to the only true God, while it cheats on Him with its lover, the god of its imagination.  By departing from the faith once delivered to the saints, but still calling itself Christianity, it has earned the name of harlot. 

The “many waters” speaks of the universality of this false Christianity.  The church entering into politics and insisting upon everyone conforming to her precepts is what the second verse means when it says the church has committed fornication with the political rulers. Time and again throughout the past 1700 years the church as sought political allies that would agree to make and enforce laws making everyone conform to its idea

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