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 of morality. Political leaders not only receive help to get into office but they can have a vast and rich power base if they agree to follow the church’s guide lines. Just like with wine, the more you get the more you want.
Since the Reformation the church has lost most of her political power, but as we come closer to the end times we will see her again become politically powerful. The coming defeat of the Russia and Arab armies, at the battle of Gog and Maggog mentioned in Ezek. 38,39, will be seen by many, including the church and Israel, as an act of God. People will desire guidance when they see this major prophesy come true and the church will use this as an excuse to become powerful again.
In the spiritual wilderness (v 3 of chapter 17), John sees the church join with the anti-christ to help give him his political power. The church in its greed and gullibility will swallow his many promises in order to get the exclusive right to the souls of men (18:13) as well as economic considerations (perhaps, for example; by helping him into power there are taxes the church shouldn’t have to pay or there are taxes the church will need to collect or receive).
The seven heads are seven mountains, revealing to us that the heads of both religious and political power will be in the city of Rome (17:9). The ten horns are the ten kingdoms of a new, revived Roman Empire. The seven heads also represent seven world kingdoms, five already fallen in John’s day, the sixth ruling then, the seventh coming for a short time, and the eighth, the revival of number six. (17:10,11)
This Harlot is all decked out in her finest apparel because she perceives herself as the bride of Christ. She brings to her wedding many false conceptions, especially when it comes to the mother of the Lord. The church calls Mary the mother of God, the queen of Heaven, never born, and never sinned. She and the saints are considered more influential and are represented as much more loving than either the Father or the Son who the church says are too pure to be directly involved with mortals. Even worse, with enough pieces of the cross to build a house and enough bones to fill the house; the church claims to have the very body and blood of Jesus to aid them in their idolatry of worshipping physical things, outwardly. God says we are not to have any representation of any object, or anyone other than Him, to worship or reverence. It must be the invisible God we trust and call upon, who can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth.
The word “Mystery” (17:5) means “Secret.” The secret of Babylon lies in its counterfeit religion. It is one of the seven secrets of God that only the true Christians know. Certainly those who idolize the church as a building to worship in with its sometimes expensive and beautiful construction and paid clergy who worship with altars, statues, and stained glass windows, etc, have no conception of the Body of Christ, the true church, which is also one of the seven secrets. Jesus said where two or three are gathered in His name, there He will be also. (Matthew 28:19,20) The great harlot is the mother of other harlots. Who are the others? The protestant denominations; who have never really broken away from the outward heathenism that was introduced as true Christian worship when Constantine, a Roman emperor, made Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire, circa 300 AD. This does not mean everyone who goes to the Catholic or protestant churches is lost to the glory of God. Revelation 18:4 tells true believers to “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” There are many, many people in these churches who worship the true God inwardly and know that He loves them with an unconditional love. When Isaiah complained to the Lord that he was the only true believer left in Israel, God told him He had reserved 7000 who had not bowed down to Baal. Many people go with the crowd even when they suspect that crowd goes the wrong way.
While it is true that sin against the truth and against the true church is the most wicked of sins, the false church, thinking it’s their duty and not Jesus’, has used, and will again use in the future, this pretext to torture and kill anyone who disagrees with them, including many true disciples of Jesus. The apostle Paul never used physical force or threats of hell-fire to make people conform to the gospel and the will of God like this Madame and her prostitutes have done, and will do. His weapons were truth and love. When John, who knew of only the simple gathering of the saints in homes for teaching and fellowship, saw this great whoredom which resembled the worship of Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians, he was greatly amazed (17:6). How could the simple worship of Jesus as Savior and God as Father in spirit and in truth, inwardly not outwardly, be so completely changed?
The beast (17:8) is the anti-christ, who is aligned with the false prophet and Satan who descended out of the bottomless pit. Ten kings shall join together (17:13), at a price, with the anti-christ to make one strong confederation. The hour is the last three and one-half years before Jesus comes. Their armies shall be in the valley of Megiddo when the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ (17:14) shall overcome them.
The waters on which the woman sits, again speaks of the church being multitudes in numbers and world-wide. The ten kings shall hate the whore and make her desolate. The anti-christ will see himself as the world’s true savior and he and the false prophet will back it up with many miracles and wonders. He will be a master of crafts and a financial genius who will bring great prosperity to the revived Roman Empire. The bible says he will conquer or control a quarter of the world, women will not interest him, he will worship unknown gods and he will consider himself to be a god of force. He will covet the churches vast financial holdings and property. He will also see the church and religion as standing the way of his program and will declare, since he is the only savior the world needs, there will no longer be a need for religion. He and his partners will destroy the church, confiscate all church finances and property (17:18) and make practicing of any religion illegal in this revived Roman Empire. It is during this time that no one will be able to buy or sell without having his mark or image on their hand or forehead. The hand means service, the forehead means worship; therefore everyone will be forced to serve or worship him, or be killed. (The number 6 represents man, 666 the unholy trinity and 7 which represents God, 777 the holy trinity). A greater part of the true Christians and Jews in this revived Roman Empire will be martyred because of this.
As the Roman Empire comes into existence, the false church will grow with it. Its greed for its own glory and material gain will be its undoing. The world will stand afar off (18: 10) and watch as the great citadel of official false religion will finally be no more. The light of the candle and the voice of the bride and groom will be gone from her forevermore. It must be destroyed before Jesus comes back to rule this world where He can be worshipped correctly, in spirit and in truth by the saints and as King of kings by the nations of the world.