The Great Harlot
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Let's pray before beginning this lesson:
Our Father in heaven,
The book of Revelation presents another prophetic character which we haven't studied yet:
the great harlot.
Who is this woman? Will her deeds have any impact upon our lives?
May Your Word give us clear and precise answers, just as it has done until now. In the
name of Jesus Christ we pray.
Amen.
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Revelation 12:1
Now a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a garland of twelve stars.
2 Corinthians 11:2
For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may
present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
In our lesson entitled «The Pure Woman»,
we studied a first woman.
In the prophetic word, a woman symbolizes a Church.
Being pure, this first woman therefore designates the Church which is faithful to God and
His Word.
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Jeremiah 3:6,20
Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has
gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
(...)
Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously
with Me, O house of Israel.
On the other hand, when the Church turns away from God and disobeys Him, it is
then symbolized by a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, a harlot.
The book of Revelation describes such a woman, which is the
subject of this lesson.
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Revelation 17:1-6 : Description of a second
woman, who is impure.
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came
and talked with me, saying to me,
«Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with
whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were
made drunk with the wine of her fornication.»
So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a
scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The
woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her
fornication.
And on her forehead a name was written: «Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of
harlots and of the abominations of the earth.» And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood
of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled
with great amazement.
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Revelation 17:1,15
Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
who sits on many waters (...).
The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and
tongues.
In order to identify the impure woman, let's take a look at her prophetic
description.
First, she is portrayed as a «harlot who sits on many waters»:
this woman thus represents a Church that is unfaithful to God, and holds dominion over a
great number of people.
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Revelation 17:2,18
[The great harlot,] with whom the kings of the earth
committed fornication (...).
The woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
This unfaithful Church, symbolized by the great harlot, prostitutes herself
with the kings of the earth.
The prophecy thus indicates that this Church concludes alliances with political powers,
and then holds dominion over them.
This political immersion leads this Church to «commit fornication»,
that is, to be unfaithful to God and His teachings.
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Revelation 17:2
[The great harlot,] with whom the kings of the earth
committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of
her fornication.
Jeremiah 51:7
Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made
all the earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged.
This Church made all the nations drunk with the wine of its fornication.
What does that mean?
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Isaiah 28:7
But they also have erred through wine, and through
intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through
intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through
intoxicating drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Just like wine, which causes the drinkers' judgment to reel, the unfaithful
Church's teachings intoxicate the nations, deceiving them with false doctrines which will
ultimately lead them to death and loss.
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Revelation 17:1,3
«Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot
who sits on many waters.» (...) So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness.
Isaiah 21:1,2,9
The burden against the Wilderness of the Sea. As
whirlwinds in the South pass through, so it comes from the desert, from a terrible land.
A distressing vision is declared to me; the treacherous dealer deals treacherously, and
the plunderer plunders. (...) Babylon is fallen, is fallen!
The vision of the great harlot takes place in the wilderness.
This «Wilderness of the Sea» (since the woman is sitting on
many waters) indicates that we will now witness her work of oppression and persecution.
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Revelation 17:3
And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Revelation 13:1
And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven
heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.
Then the prophecy indicates that the great harlot is sitting on a beast whose
description exactly corresponds to the beast rising from the sea.
As we recently studied in the lesson «The Beast Rising
From the Sea», this beast symbolizes the papal system.
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Jeremiah 3:6
Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has
gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
Daniel 7:17,23
Those great beasts, which are four, are four kings which
arise out of the earth. (...) The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom on earth.
On one hand, a harlot symbolizes an unfaithful Church.
On the other hand, a beast symbolizes a kingdom, a political power.
So the harlot sitting on the beast symbolizes an apostate religio-political system.
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Revelation 17:4
The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned
with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of
abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.
Matthew 27:28,29
They stripped [Jesus] and put a scarlet robe on Him.
(...)
And they bowed the knee before Him and mocked Him, saying, «Hail, King of the Jews!»
In addition to her scarlet garments, scarlet being the color of royalty, the
harlot is adorned with gold and jewels, demonstrating her pride and arrogance.
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1 Peter 3:3,4
Do not let your beauty be that outward adorning of
arranging the hair, of wearing gold, or of putting on fine apparel; but let it be the
hidden person of the heart, with the incorruptible ornament of a gentle and quiet spirit,
which is very precious in the sight of God.
The ostentation of the impure woman sitting on the beast contrasts with the
sober appearance which God asks of His Church.
Now, exactly as foretold by prophecy, popes have indeed always surrounded themselves with
majestic pomp in all their actions and travels.
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Revelation 17:5
And on her forehead a name was written:
«Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the
earth.»
The unfaithful Church gave birth to daughters, that is, other churches which do
not obey the teachings of God's Word, but rather the traditions of their «Mother
Church».
The group joining together the papacy and those churches which support its doctrines makes
up a religio-political system that prophecy calls «Babylon».
This name recalls the city of «Babel», whose inhabitants were rebellious to God, and
were struck with confusion.
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Matthew 22:21
Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's.
As we have seen in our last lesson, Jesus always disapproved of the association
between Church (the woman) and State (the beast), and commanded that they be kept
separate.
And He was absolutely right, since history reports that the union between religion and
politics has always resulted in horrible persecutions.
And the continuation of the prophecy of the great harlot once again confirms this fact...
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Revelation 17:6
And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints
and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.
And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
Just like the little horn (Daniel chapters 7 and 8),
the king of the North (Daniel chapter 11), and the beast
rising from the sea (Revelation chapter 13), the great harlot
persecutes the people of God.
While introducing itself as the Church of God, the papal system killed millions of
Christians who were faithful to God.
So we can understand why the apostle John, faced with such a contradiction, «marveled with great amazement».
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Revelation 17:7
But the angel said to me,
«Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that
carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.»
The apostle John then receives additional details about the great harlot and
the beast with seven heads and ten horns.
These details particularly concern last-day events: so they are especially significant for
us.
Let's look at these details.
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Revelation 17:8
The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend
out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.
In our lesson «The Beast Rising from the
Sea», based on Revelation 13, we have seen how the beast
was mortally wounded, and then was healed. Here, Revelation chapter 17 takes up the same
events again:
- the papacy reigned from 538 to 1798 («the beast
was»);
- then it lost its political power in 1798 («and is
not»);
- and it regained this power in 1929 («and will ascend
out of the bottomless pit»).
Now, let's see what happens from 1929 to the end, leading the beast «to
perdition».
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Revelation 17:8
And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names
are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the
beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
Revelation 13:3
I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally
wounded, and his deadly wound was healed.
And all the world marveled and followed the beast.
The prophecy once again confirms that, after 1929, the whole world will be
filled with admiration for the papacy.
We can see this happening nowadays.
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Revelation 17:9
Here is the mind which has wisdom:
The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
Then, the prophecy disgresses for a moment to explain the meaning of the
beast's seven heads and ten horns.
First, «the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman
sits».
The city of Rome is indeed also called «the City of Seven Hills», whose names are
Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Palatine, Quirinal, and Viminal.
But the seven heads symbolize a lot more than that...
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Revelation 17:10
There are also seven kings.
Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must
continue a short time.
Revelation 13:2
Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet
were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.
The seven heads also represent seven kings. Who are they?
Let's remember that the beast, by its composition, calls to mind the beasts of Daniel 7, symbolizing the kingdoms of Babylon, Medo-Persia, and
Greece.
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Revelation 17:11
And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also the
eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
The prophecy announces that the beast symbolizing the papacy, while being «of the seven» kings, «is himself also the
eighth», and «is going to perdition».
So the papacy, which has returned to power since 1929, being the seventh king, will soon
enter into a new stage of its reign, thus becoming «the eighth»
king shortly before the return of Jesus.
The end of the prophecy of Revelation 17 focuses on this last
stage of the papacy's reign.
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Revelation 17:12,13,18
The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have
received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the
beast.
These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. (...)
The woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Shortly before the return of Jesus, a coalition of the nations of this world
will arise, giving to Babylon (the papacy and the churches following its doctrine) a
worldwide and undisputed authority.
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Revelation 17:13
These [kings] are of one mind, and they will give their
power and authority to the beast.
Revelation 13:12
The beast coming up out of the earth] causes the earth
and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed.
The coalition of nations will join forces with the United States, symbolized by
the beast rising from the earth, to cause all the inhabitants of the earth to worship the
papacy.
And who will be their common enemy?
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Revelation 17:14
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will
overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are
called, chosen, and faithful.
The coalition of political and religious powers will turn against God's people,
in order to destroy them, in circumstances which will be the subject of future lessons.
But victory is already assured for the «called, chosen, and
faithful» who fight on the side of Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, the Lord of
lords and King of kings.
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Revelation 17:16
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.
When the coalition of political powers realizes that it has been deceived by
Babylon the harlot, that is, the system grouping together the papacy and the churches
following its doctrine, all these nations will turn against Babylon to bring about its
fall, as we will study in detail in a future lesson.
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Revelation 17:10
When [the seventh king] comes, he must continue a short
time.
Revelation 17:12
[The kings] receive authority for one hour as kings with
the beast.
Revelation 18:10
Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment
has come.
With the words «a short time» and «one hour», the prophecy clearly indicates that the last stage of
the papacy's reign, from the formation of the coalition of nations until the fall of
Babylon, will be very short.
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Revelation 17:17
For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His
purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God
are fulfilled.
Revelation 17:1
Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot.
The fall of Babylon is «the judgment of the great
harlot» which was announced at the beginning of Revelation
17.
So, even during the darkest period of history, let's remember that God has the situation
under control.
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Let's pray together:
Lord,
The coalition of nations, giving power and authority to the beast and the great harlot,
announces difficult times ahead for Your people.
We thank You for warning us of this, and we ask You to help us to seriously prepare
ourselves for those dark days, so that we may be not only «called»
and «chosen», but also «faithful»
until the end.
In Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord we pray.
Amen.
Source of the Pictures of this Lesson
Screen 1: ALLARD, William. «Dirt Track towards the Sun». In:
«National Geographic Photo Gallery», National Geographic Interactive, 1997.
Screen 2: BISHOP, Tom. «Woman and dragon of Revelation 12». In: «New Pictoral
Aid For Bible Study» (BREADEN, Frank), Australian Division of Seventh-Day Adventists,
1970, chart #40. Screen 3: Image from SuperStock. In: «Who's Who in the
Bible», Publications International Ltd., 1995, p.182. Screen 4: MANISCALCO,
Joe. In: «Images from the Bible and Sacred History CD», Chosen Works, MLI Software,
JM246.BMP. Screen 5: In: «The Watchtower» magazine (May 15, 1990),
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, pp.8,9. Composite picture by Cyberspace Ministry.
Table of Screen 5: First picture: HARLAN, Russel. In: «Revelation 12-13: The
Church and its Foes», G.C. Ministerial Association, 1976, p.1. Second picture: In: «La
Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York, Watch Tower Bible and Tract
Society, 1988, p.241. Screen 6: «The Whore of Babylon» (Bruges,
Belgium, 15th century), The Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. In: «Revelations - Art of
the Apocalypse» (GRUBB, Nancy), Abeville Press Publishers, 1997, p.72. Screen 7: In:
«La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York, Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society, 1988, p.242. Screen 8: MANISCALCO, Joe. In: «Images from
the Bible and Sacred History CD», Chosen Works, MLI Software, JM258.BMP. Screen
9: HOGARTH, William. «A Midnight Modern Conversation». Image ID: HT003225. From
the Web site: http://corbis.com. Screen 10: ROBERT, Robert. «The Whore
of Babylon Riding on a Beast with Seven Heads» (c.1991). In: «Revelations - Art of the
Apocalypse» (GRUBB, Nancy), Abeville Press Publishers, 1997, p.75. Screen 11: BONDOL,
Jean and DE BATAILLE, Nicolas. «The Great Whore Riding on a Seven-Headed Beast»
(c.1373-81). Musée des Tapisseries, Angers, France. In: «Revelations - Art of the
Apocalypse» (GRUBB, Nancy), Abeville Press Publishers, 1997, p.73. Screen 12: BISHOP,
Tom. «Woman and scarlet beast of Revelation 17». In: «New Pictoral Aid For Bible
Study» (BREADEN, Frank), Australian Division of Seventh-Day Adventists, 1970, chart #45.
Screen 13: In: «La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.239. Screen 14: In: «The
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Screen 15: In: «The Watchtower» magazine (June 1, 1991), New York, Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society, p.24. Screen 16: In: «The Bible Story, volume
8» (MAXWELL, Arthur S.), Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1956, p.89. Screen
17: In: «La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York, Watch
Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.245. Composite picture by Cyberspace Ministry.
Screen 18: In: «La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.241. Screen 19: In: «La
Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York, Watch Tower Bible and Tract
Society, 1988, p.190. Picture edited by Cyberspace Ministry. Screen 20: Photo
by Reuters/Bettmann, New York. In: «John Paul II» (EDWARDS, Patrick), Bison Books, London,
1995, p.73. Screen 21: «Rome cityscape». In: «The Attica Interactive
World Atlas», Compton's Select, Softkey, 1997. Screen 22: In: «The
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beast of Daniel 7». In: «New Pictoral Aid For Bible Study» (BREADEN, Frank), Australian
Division of Seventh-Day Adventists, 1970, charts #20 and #21. Composite picture by
Cyberspace Ministry. Table of Screen 23: In: «La Révélation - le grand
dénouement est proche», New York, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.189.
Screen 24: In: «The Watchtower» magazine (October 1, 1986), Watch Tower Bible
and Tract Society, p.1. Table of Screen 24: BLAYNEY, William A. «7-headed
lion-beast with 10 horns coming ashore» (1960), Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York. In:
«Revelations - Art of the Apocalypse» (GRUBB, Nancy), Abeville Press Publishers, 1997,
p.59. Screen 25: In: «Awake» magazine (February 8, 1989), Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society, p.1. Table of Screen 25: BLAKE, William. «The
whore of Babylon» (1809), The British Museum, London. In: «Revelation» (LORIE, Peter),
Simon & Schuster, Labyrinth Publishing Ltd, 1994, p.142. Screen 26: In:
«Vous pouvez vivre éternellement sur une terre qui deviendra un paradis», New York,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1982, p.29. Screen 27: «The Whore
of Babylon» from «Luther Bible» (c.1530), Bible Society, London. In: «Revelations -
Art of the Apocalypse» (GRUBB, Nancy), Abeville Press Publishers, 1997, p.74.
Screen 28: In: «La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York,
Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, 1988, p.255. Screen 29: In: «The
Watchtower» magazine (May 15, 1990), New York, Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, p.7.
Screen 30: ZINGARO, Charles. In: «The Bible Story, volume 10» (MAXWELL, Arthur
S.), Pacific Press Publishing Association, 1957, p.153. Table of Screen 30: In:
WHITE, Ellen G. «The Triumph of God's Love, volume 2», Pacific Press Publishing
Association and Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1950, p.580. Screen 31: In:
«La Révélation - le grand dénouement est proche», New York, Watch Tower Bible and
Tract Society, 1988, p.256. Screen 32: PROVONSHA, Clyde. In: «Daniel
10-12: Palestine and Probation's Close», G.C. Ministerial Association, 1976, p.1.
Screen 33: In: «The Watchtower» magazine (April 1, 1990), New York, Watch Tower
Bible and Tract Society, p.8. Screen 34: MOBLEY, George F. «Daybreak
near Lake Two-Jack». In: «National Geographic Photo Gallery», National Geographic
Interactive, 1997.
Any copyrighted images not bearing a statement of permission, are used
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The test of Lesson 68 is waiting for you!