MOTHER OF HARLOTS

Pete Garcia -

 

Historically, we know Jerusalem and the second temple were conquered and destroyed by the Romans in 70AD by General Titus. Again, in 135AD, Emperor Hadrian quelled the Bar Kokhba revolt (132-135AD) and then scattered the remaining Jews abroad, salted the land (so nothing would grow), and then renamed the area Syria Palaestina (which is a Latin derivative of the word Philistine). For the next 1,813 years, there was no nation of Israel. For both the Christian and secular scholars, political leaders, and opinion makers of the early 20th century, the idea that Israel could become a nation again seemed absolutely impossible...until it wasn't. Along that same vein, the formation of a final global religion uniting all of mankind seems impossible given all the religious tensions, violence, and political realities of our day. But according to Scripture, there is coming a global religious system that is absolutely nauseating and blasphemous in shape and form, and it demands divine judgment.

 

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written,

 

MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:1-5 (KJV)

 

Assessment

 

There are many opinions on who or what this Mystery Babylon religion might be. In terms of possible scenarios, some believe that the worship of the earth via Gaia is most likely given all the climate change hysteria for the last 20 years. Some think extraterrestrials (or ancient aliens) will come back and offer to fix all that ails our world. Others believe it will be a revival of the old pagan gods with the return of the Nephilim. Still, others believe an artificially intelligent system will reach singularity and take over. While it's easy to get carried away with all the possible scenarios, as Christians, we are on safe ground when we stay within the confines of what the Bible actually allows. We know according to Revelation 13 that the whole world comes under one religious system.

 

And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindred's, and tongues, and nations. And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If any man have an ear, let him hear. Revelation 13:4-9

 

Though parts of Revelation tend to be more cryptic than others, it can be difficult to parse certain passages until either God reveals it or prophetic fulfillment unveils it. Still, we take note of every word written and even what Scripture doesn't say to gain understanding. Note first in the above passage, that "all that dwell upon the earth," would include every religion, every tribe, tongue, nation, etc. who are not "written in the book of life of the Lamb" to come under the sway of this final religious abomination. Also note, that it does not say "all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, except for the Church, or Christians, or the Bride, etc. to identify the minority who do not worship the Beast. Clearly, there is a purposeful distinction being made here to John (circa 95AD) as to who these final day believers are. They are believers, but they are not the Church.

 

Going back to the subject at hand, the most difficult aspects of Revelation 17 and 18 are not that it will happen, but of who and where it happens. Because of this, much debate has been ongoing as to which city(s) either chapter (17 or 18) are be located in. I first wrote about this subject back in 2011 in an article entitled Mystery-Babylon, Inc.. Going back and reading that again for the first time in as many years, I've seen that my understanding of this topic hasn't changed much given the fact that I limited my speculation to only what Scripture allowed me to know. This is why I don't have to rethink (or tweak) my position on it six years later.

 

The Fundamentals

 

After the Rapture of the Church, the world is thrown into political and economic disarray for a brief period of time. How long this period is, we don't know. Suffice it to say, it is long enough for the world to move from chaos to order. During this emergency, ten leaders (Dan. 7:7-8, Rev. 17:12) will rise up and handle the crisis which inevitably ensues after the Rapture generates a collapse of the current system. I've written on numerous occasions that what makes the United States unique in terms of its Christian population, is not how many we have, but that our Christians can still be found in every sector of the political and economic hierarchy. So whether you low-side the percentage and say only 1%, or high-side it with 10%, we are still talking in the millions of people who will suddenly disappear. This will upend our nation, and thus trigger a restructuring of the global order.

 

Whether these leaders use artificial intelligence or some other system to organize a new global economy, we don't know. But they are able to get a handle on things initially. Out of these leaders arises another one, the Antichrist (also known as the Little Horn or the rider on the white horse) and he quickly assumes control of the other ten.

 

Concurrent to this, a global religious system arises that (by necessity) decries fundamentalism of every stripe and militantly promotes ecumenism. We've seen a form of this now for the past century with the rise of political correctness. At the mid-point, a war in heaven ensues and Satan and a third of the fallen angels are cast out and grounded on the earth (Rev. 12:12-13). The Antichrist is seemingly (false signs and lying wonders) assassinated and then "resurrected" which is purposefully meant to be a mockery of Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. Instead of an actual resurrection, the Antichrist becomes the second man in history (that we know of) who becomes indwelt by Satan himself (the first being Judas Iscariot). The ten kings have no further use for the false religious system and then direct all worship solely toward the Antichrist. The False Prophet ensures this is militantly enforced (to the point of death) through the mark of the beast system (Rev. 13:16-18).

 

Part I Conclusion

 

What I aim to show here is that we can't know the who and where until that time comes to pass, we can get a glimpse of the why and how by some of the things we see already being set in place.

 

The How

• Spiritual harlotry towards the one true God
• Global Organization
• Liberalism (or progressive ideology) and the removal of fundamentalism

 

The Why

• Ecumenist push for the three major monotheistic religions

 

Spiritual Harlotry

 

Spiritual harlotry has existed on earth since at least the time of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) when man was briefly united in open rebellion against God. As one progresses through the pages of the Old Testament, we see the Hebrew people suffered repeated punishment and judgment when they got caught up following after the false gods of their pagan neighbors. At that time, God had only recently introduced the Law to the Israelites of which He specifically told them the very first rule was Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exodus 20:3

 

Revelation 17 then points to a future time that will make everything before it pales in comparison. While Scripture does not shy away from rebuking the sexual acts of perversion and carnality when mentioned in its pages, the context here in Revelation 17 is specifically addressing the blasphemous spiritual fornication that will be running rampant in the world at the time of the end.

 

Although paganism is a form of spiritual fornication, it remains altogether removed from faith in the one true God. This is why this final world system isn't a revival of the Old Norse, Egyptian, Greek, or Roman gods...because they never existed, to begin with. It doesn't make any sense to counterfeit something that never existed. As the old saying goes, you can't counterfeit a three-dollar bill. Rather, the counterfeit must be against something that is real which is why this final religious system must make Christianity its main objective.

 

The Most Dangerous Lie

 

If the Roman Empire is to be revived (Daniel 7:7-9, 9:26; Rev. 13:1-3), then the spiritual battle over Europe is almost complete. We know angelic hosts have the capacity to oversee territories and nations (Dan. 10:20) and it is not unreasonable to assume that Europe also has fallen-entities governing their affairs. What these evil principalities and powers (Eph. 6:12) couldn't kill through two world wars and a holocaust, they finished with off anti-Christian liberalism which has all but quenched the spirit of revival in what was once THE stronghold of Christendom.

 

But vacuums do not exist in nature (at least here on earth) and something must fill that ideological void. If Europe has become post-Christian (it has), and their history is replete with brutal examples of Muslim invasions (it was), why would they willingly bring people back who seek their destruction?

 

Any good socialist worth his or her salt always believes that "this time" it will work. So too will these globalist believe that capitulation to tyrants will somehow work this time. It is not Islam that they seek to dissolve, but rather the fundamentalism strain within Islam. Islam in its pure state is a volatile and unsustainable belief system. It can only thrive in war and conquest. But when combined with liberal (or progressive) notions of relativism and given some existential threat that challenges all of the worldviews equally (the Rapture of the Church will do this), then we will see this merging of Christianity and Islam, along with other pagan belief systems coming back together for this final empire. The Roman Empire had their pantheon of gods but were equally willing to tolerate other religions (or gods) so long as Caesar got his first. The only way to tolerate many belief systems is to subscribe to the ideological worldview of liberalism (this would include pluralism).

 

• The first thing liberalism does is it seeks to undermine the authority of the Bible by placing doubt on its literal validity. In more recent times, this was done through historical criticism (also known as higher and lower criticism). Liberalism seeks to make Christianity simply another religion, which is no better or no worse than any other religion, thus, all religions are equal.

• The liberal approach to hermeneutics seeks to divorce the supernatural aspects of the Bible from its historicity. For instance, if one doubts the actual six-day Creation, or Noah's flood, or the Exodus through the Red Sea than what is it to doubt Christ rising from the dead or coming back one day?
• Liberalism (in a general sense) seeks to remove fundamentalism from any belief system. So it doesn't matter if we are talking liberalism in Christianity, Buddhism, or Islam, all seek to diminish the strong views in favor of tolerance.

 

The first example of the liberalistic approach was in the Garden of Eden (long before any religion was invented) when Satan (as the serpent of old), approached Eve with a question. He successfully inserted doubt into Eve's mind as to the motivation behind God's rules. Thus liberalism (in terms of biblical interpretation) becomes the first and most destructive vehicle Satan ever used against mankind. Think about it this way...it all began with "Yea, hath God said...?" Genesis 3:1