The Great Harlot - Who is She?: Part 3   02.2005

Part 3

"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)

The last two weeks we have studied the subject of the great harlot in the Book of Revelation. Over the centuries there have been different interpretations of who she is. We have so far studied four different options and have found all of them more or less wanting. Neither sexual immorality or worldliness, nor the United States of America, nor Islam nor the present city of Jerusalem fit the exact description of what the Apostle John saw.

Last week we began to look at a fifth option: the Roman Catholic Church. We mentioned that since the Reformation, this has been the most common interpretation. We also mentioned that traditionally both Catholic and Protestant theologians have agreed that the harlot must have something to do with the city of Rome. Catholics have believed that John described the Roman Empire with its luxury and persecution of the church. Protestants have believed that John rather described the Roman Catholic Church.

We also mentioned that there are many wonderful, born again believers within the Catholic Church, and that we are not discussing Catholics here, but the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. We discovered that this is, however, an indication that this interpretation could be correct, since the harlot up to the very end will include many of God's people. Revelation 18:4 says, "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.'"

We are doing this study of the great harlot with much fear and trembling. This is not a trivial matter. If the Messiah is returning for a pure and spotless bride that has made herself ready, this is one of the most important subjects facing believers today. It is our goal to avoid speculations as much as it is possible. Yet, we cannot afford to avoid the subject. Knowing the hour that we live in, it is necessary to carefully and prayerfully study this text to find out what it means.

We have already mentioned that the word harlot is used in the Bible primarily to describe the spiritual unfaithfulness of God's people. The reason for this is that the relationship between God and His people is described as a marriage. When Israel came out of Egypt it says in Exodus 19:3-5,

"Then Moses went up to God, and the LORD called to him from the mountain and said, 'This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.'"

The words "treasured possession" is the same expression that is used about a wife. God said to Israel, "I took you out of Egypt to marry you." At Sinai all of Israel stood as one before Him and said, "Yes!" Israel became the wife of YHWH. It is the same marital relationship that we have entered into through Messiah Yeshua as grafted into the commonwealth of Israel. All of history is going to culminate in the wedding supper of the Lamb and His Bride.

It is very important to understand that the great harlot is not referring to the world. It is used about the people that bear God's name through a covenantal relationship with Him. When they fornicate with the world and are unfaithful to Him, they are described as a harlot. Even though this to a certain extent can also be applied to the United States of America, we believe that that interpretation is somewhat of a stretch. In the New Covenant Scriptures the primary meaning of the word harlot must obviously be referring to the unfaithful church.

Idol Worship

In the Scriptures we can also see that harlotry is very closely connected with idol worship. The first two of the Ten Commandments that YHWH Himself wrote, with His own finger in burning fire on His marriage contract on Mount Sinai are,

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me.

"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." (Ex 20:2-5)

To make an idol or image of any form and bow down before it, look up to it, or trust in it for comfort and help is the essence of spiritual harlotry, which provokes God's jealous anger. Idolatry was the first serious sin that Israel committed. When Moses tarried on the mountain they made a golden calf and began to worship it as a symbol for YHWH. It is written in Exodus 32:4-6,

"Then they said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the YHWH.'" Then they rose early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play."

Notice that in their understanding and in their intention they did not begin to worship a foreign God. They just began to worship God in the ways that they had learned from the Egyptians. In God's eyes this was however the same as idolatry and harlotry. It was such a terrible sin in His eyes, and it caused Him so much grief that He wanted to divorce them.

"And the LORD said to Moses,'Go, get down! For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'This is your god, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt!' ' And the LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and indeed it is a stiff-necked people! Now therefore, let Me alone, that My wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation.'" (Ex 32:7-10)

In Deuteronomy 4:15-16 God says, "You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman."

Is idolatry something that applies to the Roman Catholic Church? It does not necessarily apply to all Catholics, but in general it is an indisputable fact that one of the major features of all the Catholic and Orthodox Churches are their icons, pictures, relics, statues and objects that people bow down to, revere and even pray to. Most predominant of course are the statues and images of the Virgin Mary.

We remember the first Israeli that we witnessed to about Yeshua, just after we moved to Israel. His first response to us was, "Look, I am not a religious man and I don't know much about religion. But I do know the first two commandments from school. Recently I was in Africa on vacation, and decided to go and look at a church, because I have never been inside one in my life. When I came in and saw all the statues I immediately knew that Christianity is not for me as a Jew."

God severely judged both Israel and Judah for their idolatry. Israel was dispersed to Assyria, and later on Judah was also judged for its idolatry and was carried away into exile to Babylon. Jeremiah 8:19 says, "Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: 'Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?' 'Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?'"

A result of this severe divine judgment on the Jewish people is that you will never ever find any statues or images in any synagogue around the world today. Since the Babylonian captivity this has been a foundational issue within Judaism. The Jewish people have learned first hand how severely God looks at this issue.

We must be fair and say that Catholic teaching differentiates between worship to God and reverence for icons, relics, statues and pictures. The problem is that the Bible does not make this distinction. Within the Catholic Church people kiss these items, have

processions in their honor, give flowers to them and make feasts to them. People make jewelry of them, light candles to them, bow down before them and even pray to them. This is pure idol worship, which is strictly forbidden and provokes God's jealous anger.

In order to avoid this problem the Catholic Church as well as many other denominations have changed the Ten Commandments by removing the second commandment, placing it under the first, and have instead made two commandments out of the tenth. The missing commandment says, "You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me." (Ex 20:4-5)

The word harlot in its primary Biblical meaning therefore applies to all churches which bear the name of Jesus Christ and claim to worship the God of the Bible, but also bow down before images and objects. It is the very essence of harlotry.

The Kings of the Earth

Let's look at another important feature of the great harlot. Revelation 17:2 says about her, "With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." We see here that the kings of the earth have committed adultery with the great harlot.

This harlotry began with the unholy alliance between the church and the secular powers under Emperor Constantine. Constantine, a practicing sun worshipper who supposedly had become a believer but never was baptized until his death bed, needed to unify the Roman Empire and made a decision to use the church towards that end. He courted the church, and the church after centuries of persecution accepted his services. One of the immediate results of this fornication between the church and an earthly king was that the persecuted church changed to become a persecuting church. From now on Church doctrine and unity began to be upheld with the sword of the State.

Constantine was not the last king to commit adultery with the church. Most of the main line protestant Churches have also had similar relationships with earthly kings. The important thing to notice is that the outcome of this fornication has always been heavy persecution of both the Jewish people and Bible believing Christians. The United States of America was founded by people who fled this heavy persecution in Europe from predominantly the Protestant state churches but also from the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Over the past 1700 years, millions of Jews and Bible believing Christians have been killed by these churches. Now we finally begin to see the picture of the great harlot emerge with greater clarity. It is a church that is fornicating with the kings of the earth and is filled with the blood of the saints. For the Jewish people this harlot church has been the most cruel institution in world history.

The Apostle John saw the great harlot riding on a beast."And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." (Rev 17:3) Beasts are used in the Scriptures to describe Gentile world powers. The particular beast described here is the antichrist or anti-messiah. In the last days, the harlot church will be in league with this world ruler and his empire. They will work together and strengthen each other. The end of this adulterous affair will, however, be disastrous for the great harlot. She will eventually loose the very power that she so carefully has sought to gain through her adultery. "And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose." (Rev 17:16-17)

The Roman Catholic Church was the first entity that Hitler made a pact with when he began his political career. They both agreed to refrain from harming each other. Hitler died as a Catholic and his membership has never been revoked. Pope John Paul II was the first leader in the free world to recognize Yasser Arafat as a statesman. This happened during a time when most of the world still saw him only as a leader of a cruel terrorist organization. Arafat frequently visited the Pope.

The protestant and orthodox churches have throughout history also worked closely together with earthly rulers. The Roman Catholic Church is unique, however, in that it is the only church in the world that is both a religious and a political institution. The Pope is not only a religious leader but also a head of state. The Vatican maintains formal diplomatic relations with 174 nations, including most of the Islamic nations, as well as relations of a special nature with the Russian Federation and the PLO.

We will continue our study next week. Hopefully we will by then be able to put all the pieces together and clearly identify who the end time great harlot is that the Apostle John saw.