The Great Harlot - Who is She?: Part 2   02.2005

Part 2

"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.'" (Rev 18:4-5)

Last week we began to look at different interpretations of who the great harlot in the Book of Revelation is. We discussed three possibilities: 1. sexual immorality and worldliness, 2. the United States of America and 3. Islam. Even though different aspects of the great harlot apply to all of these, we found that none of them completely match the description that the Apostle John gives us.

Since God so strongly commands us to come out of the great harlot, in order to escape the plagues and judgments that will come upon her, it is necessary to know who she is. Our desire should be to be a part of the pure, glorious Bride of Messiah that will reign with Him forever and ever. This subject is therefore very important. We ask all of you to pray as we continue our search for the truth by looking at some more options.

Interpretation Number Four: The Present City of Jerusalem

The next option, "the present city of Jerusalem" is viewed by some to be what John meant with the great harlot. The expression is taken from Galatians 4:24-26 where Paul writes,

"These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother."

The Book of Revelation tells us that the New Jerusalem that comes down from heaven is the Bride. So could the present city of Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is "below", be the great harlot? Yeshua said about Jerusalem in Matthew 23:34-37,

"Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate."

It says about the judgment of the harlot in Revelation 18:20, "Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you." And in verse 24 it says, "In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the earth."

This sounds like the present city of Jerusalem, (as opposed to Jerusalem above, which is the Bride of Messiah), certainly could be the harlot. The harlot is also described as a city, which of course can be applied to Jerusalem. "The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth." (Rev 17:18) Furthermore, when it comes to immorality, Jerusalem during the time of the two witnesses is in Revelation 11:8 called Sodom, "Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified."

On top of this, Jerusalem is called a harlot several times by the prophets in the Tenach. Isaiah 1:21 for instance says plainly about Jerusalem, "See how the faithful city has become a harlot! She once was full of justice; righteousness used to dwell in her — but now murderers!"

So do we then have the answer to our question of who the harlot is? The answer is no. There are several things said about the harlot in Revelation 17 and 18 that rules out also this interpretation. The primary one is the judgment of the harlot. Revelation 18:21 says, "Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: 'With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again.'" And further in Revelation 19:1-3,

"After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting: 'Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for true and just are his judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute who corrupted the earth by her adulteries. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.' And again they shouted: 'Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up for ever and ever.'"

This judgment of the harlot does not fit the end time destiny of Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation mentions an end time judgment over Jerusalem, where a tenth of the city is destroyed. But throughout the entire Bible the final destiny for Jerusalem is always restoration and never obliteration. After the third Temple, from which the Messiah will rule the earth, is restored in earthly Jerusalem, Ezekiel concludes his entire Book by stating, "And the name of the city from that time on will be: THE LORD IS THERE." (Ez 48:35)

The Bible never mentions anywhere that the city of Jerusalem will be completely destroyed, never to be found again. On the contrary, the final destination of Jerusalem is to be the capitol of the kingdom of God in the earth, not to burn forever and ever! Its final destiny is described in Zechariah 14:10-11,

"But Jerusalem will be raised up and remain in its place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. It will be inhabited; never again will it be destroyed. Jerusalem will be secure."

And Isaiah 33:20 says, "Look upon Zion, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Jerusalem, a peaceful abode,a tent that will not be moved; its stakes will never be pulled up, nor any of its ropes broken."

There are other aspects as well that makes it impossible for present Jerusalem to be the harlot in the Book of Revelation that John saw. But the final destiny of the harlot is evidence enough at the moment to definitely rule out this possibility. Yeshua wept with love and compassion over the present city of Jerusalem and said in Luke 21:24 that Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. Once again, the final destiny of present Jerusalem is not destruction but restoration. We are commanded in Scripture to pray for Jerusalem's peace and welfare until she becomes a praise in all the earth. The present city of Jerusalem is not the great harlot that John saw.

Interpretation Number Five: The Roman Catholic Church

Let's continue our search by studying the fifth option: the Roman Catholic Church. This has traditionally been the most common interpretation for centuries. All of the reformers; such as Wickliff, Hus, Luther, Calvin, Melanchton, Zwingly, Knox, Tyndale and Wesley, believed that the Papal Church was the great harlot described in the Book of Revelation. Most of the denominations even included this doctrine in their creeds.

Even before the Reformation Catholics, like Nicholaus of Lyra and the Franciscans believed the same. Bishop Arnulf of Orleans and Bernhard of Clairvaux also had similar views and even talked about the pope as the antichrist.

Traditionally most Catholic and Protestant theologians agreed on one point regarding the great harlot: she has something to do with the city of Rome. For people at the end of the first century there certainly could have been no doubt. When John wrote that "The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth" (Rev 17:18) and "The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits" (v. 9) there was only one option. This obviously meant the city of Rome, which ruled the known world at the time and was built on seven hills. Catholic theologians interpreted this to mean that John was talking about the Roman Empire, which later was destroyed, whereas the reformers interpreted it to mean that John was seeing a vision of the Roman Church.

Next week we will take a closer look at this fifth interpretation to see if the Roman Catholic Church possibly matches the description of the great harlot in the Book of Revelation. Before we even consider this option, we need to emphasize one important point. We are not talking about Catholic Christians but the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. It is very important to make this distinction, because there are many, many wonderful Christians within the Catholic Church.

This fact is, however, an indication that possibly the Roman Catholic Church could be the great harlot since it says in Revelation 18:5,

"Then I heard another voice from heaven say: 'Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes."

In other words, up to the very end the harlot will include, if not all, then at least some of God's people. Whatever the correct interpretation is, this is important to remember. There will be born again people in the great harlot and they are commanded to leave her in order to escape the severe judgment that will come upon her.

We cannot draw any conclusions yet about who the great harlot is. Join us again next week when we continue this study.