A Tale of Two Cities Part 1

The great commentator John Walvoord says, From this point on . . . we have what one might call “a tale of two cities.” It’s Jerusalem, God’s city, versus Babylon, man’s city. The city of Jerusalem is the most mentioned city in the Bible. It’s the “City of God” – it represents all that is “God.”

The second most mentioned city in the Bible is Babylon. Babylon has always been the “City of Man,” and Babylon represents all that is “Man.” And so, in Revelation Chapters 17-19, we see the City of Jerusalem versus the City of Babylon. The City of God versus the City of Man. The good news is each of us gets to choose which of these cities we will be citizens of for eternity.

Babylon has always been used to illustrate man’s rebellion and sin against God. And Babylon has always been used to illustrate the false religion that seduces man away from God. (Religion is Man’s attempt to reach God. The Gospel is God’s attempt to reach Man.)

Babylon was the first city built after the Flood
Ruled by the world’s first dictator (Nimrod)
The location of the Tower of Babel

And most importantly for our study today, Babylon is the birthplace of ALL FALSE RELIGION in this world.

All false religion ultimately has its roots in Babylon. And so, Babylon is seen as the Mother of All False Religion. All false religion was birthed from Babylon.

The “religious Babylon” is called the Spiritual Prostitute, the Great Prostitute, or Harlot that seduces the people of God away from him and seduces them into man’s religion. God has always used the illustration of adultery to describe those who turn away from him to embrace the false religions of the world. It’s spiritual adultery, and so we’re going to talk a lot about adultery and the Great Prostitute today. It’s spiritual. It’s spiritual adultery. It’s the adulterous relationship the people of God have with the religion of man. So, the Mother of all False Religion becomes the Great Prostitute we meet today, seducing people away from worshiping the One True God.

But Babylon is not only the symbol of spiritual adultery and false religion, but it is also the symbol of Man’s best attempt to gain power (take control) over God (if I were God, I would…) and the world. In the next three chapters, we are going to see “All that Babylon represents” (spiritually and humanly) finally and completely judged and destroyed. God’s judgment is coming upon all that Babylon represents.

We begin by looking at the Great Prostitute and Mother of all False Religion.

Revelation 17:1 (NLT)
1 One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls came over and spoke to me. “Come with me,” he said, “and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who rules over many waters. (power & control)

This IS the final One World, false religion system that is run on behalf of the Antichrist, ultimately run by the False Prophet, and takes complete religious control of the world in the second half of the Tribulation. Complete religious control, feeding into the governmental control of the Antichrist.

Revelation 17:2 (NLT)
2 The kings of the world have committed adultery with her (the great prostitute of false religion), and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.”
 
It’s spiritual immorality that God’s talking about. All through the Old Testament, the reference is to the people committing adultery and turning away from God. It’s all spiritual. And so, this last line is really important because this Mother of all False Religion, this Great Prostitute of false religion, has made the people who belong to the world drunk by the wine of her SPIRITUAL immorality. God is speaking graphically about the rulers and the people who have completely turned against God and completely embraced the final false religion of the world.

It gets worse.

Revelation 17:3 (NLT)
3 So the angel took me in the Spirit into the wilderness. There I saw a woman (the Great Prostitute of False Religion) sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it.
 
This is the focus of God’s judgment today. John sees the Great Prostitute of False Religion. She’s sitting on a scarlet Beast (the inference is in a dominating fashion) with seven heads and ten horns. If you’ve followed us through the messages, you’ll know that is verbiage from Daniel and speaking of the final rulers of the world that we know today as the Revived Roman Empire, otherwise known as the European Union. I’ve explained to you the Beast is used to represent different parts of the End Times Antichrist ruling system, but it’s also used to illustrate the complete ruling system of the Antichrist. ALL that goes with it. That’s the reference here. The scarlet Beast with the seven heads and ten horns – the federation of nations that supports the Antichrist to come to power. and blasphemies against God were written all over it. The Beast here represents the entire world ruling system of the Antichrist.

So, please get this picture in your mind. This is the key part of the message. This is what we are reading about.

What we have here is The Great Prostitute that represents all False Religion is riding in a dominating way upon the Beast that represents the world ruling system of the Antichrist.

Got it? Okay let me put a picture up.

That is a pagan goddess riding on the back in a dominating way of a beast god. Before I explain to you who those two god and goddess represent, let me tell you where that statue is.

It is in front of the European Union Council building in Brussels, Belgium.

This statue is used at almost every main location of the E.U. It is almost like an official statue of the European Union. In fact, it’s honestly used all over Europe and used proudly.

THIS statue of a pagan goddess riding upon a pagan Beast god is EXACTLY how Revelation 17 describes the End Times Great Prostitute of False Religion riding on the One World Government of the Antichrist system  – both of which will definitely come out of the Revived Roman Empire IN Europe.

There it is as a statue all over the European Union. So, I’m not making this stuff up. That’s from Wikipedia – so you know it’s true.

Listen, both the World Ruling System and the False Prophet – The Great Prostitute’s False Religion – come out of Europe. We know that. And honestly, we know they come out of the E.U., and you’re going to see in a minute that the Great Prostitute of False Religion comes out of a little city called Rome.

Let me try to expand on this pagan goddess riding the pagan Beast god. Remember, all false religion comes from Babylon. It initiates in Babylon – it’s the birthplace of all false religion.

NIMROD was the first King of Babylon, and Nimrod became a god upon his death. His wife makes him a god, and he’s kind of like the first of the mythological gods. He is connected to the Greek beast-god Zeus, who is the bull in this statue. But the Biblical (Canaanite) name that we know him by is BAAL. This is the god that the people of Israel continually committed spiritual adultery with against the True God of Abraham. This is Baal.

Nimrod’s wife (Queen of Babylon) became the High Priestess of idolatry. As a goddess, she was known by many, many names. She really just worked with the cultures and the languages as things changed. But mostly in the Bible, her name is ASHERAH or Astarte. This is the god and goddess that constantly brought the judgment of God upon the people of God, the Nation of Israel. She is always the goddess of sex, fertility, and war. (And also, the Mother [and wife] of BAAL.)

As the pagan goddesses were absorbed from one culture and language into another, eventually the goddess Europa came from this long line of goddesses. Europa – from which the name Europe comes. She is the goddess in this statue. So, this is Europa, known in the Bible as Asherah, riding the bull known in the Bible as Baal in front of The European Union. It seems like some group got together and said, “Hey. Let’s open the Book of Revelation, and let’s follow verse-by-verse. Let’s create this whole thing exactly like it says it’s going to be in the End Times for the Antichrist.” It’s so perfect, it’s like no way you put that there! Not only did they put it there, they’re very, very proud of it.

So, that’s Baal and Asherah, the god and goddess that come initially from Babylon and are responsible for much, much, much spiritual adultery and judgment from God upon the people of Israel.

So, all the subsequent false gods come from these two – Baal and Asherah from Babylon. They just get re-created in false religions from that time.

So, Babylon is the Mother (the birthplace) of all False Religion. The two most prominent false gods that Israel worshipped were Baal and Asherah, both coming out of Babylon. And the statue that represents the European Union is a statue of the Greek (European) versions of these two false gods. And Revelation 17, verse 3 clearly points to this Great Prostitute of False Religion riding the Beast of the Antichrist’s world system.

Do you see it? Okay, moving on.

In Revelation 17, verse 4, John describes what the Prostitute of False Religion looks like. Pay particular attention to the gaudy ornateness of the MOTHER of all False Religion.

Revelation 17:4 (NLT)
4 The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand she held a gold goblet. . .

Let me stop right there. This is the picture of (we call them, when we go to Israel and Greece, Orthodox Churches) here, and maybe in the Vatican, they’re called Catholic Churches. But seem very religious. A lot of purple, scarlet clothing. Beautiful jewelry. Gold all over the place, and gems. I haven’t seen a lot of pearls, but I haven’t been in a lot of Catholic Churches. I didn’t even really see pearls in Orthodox Churches. But, the gold goblet’s a big deal. What is inside the goblet?

 . . .full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality.
 
Again, it’s spiritual immorality. The Mother of ALL False Religion is elaborately adorned in purple and scarlet and jewels and pearls, and she’s holding a gold goblet the world thinks is religion – but God says is full of the obscenities (or abominations) and impurities of her immorality that she uses to make the world drunk with her spiritual immorality.

Listen very carefully to me, please. This Mother of All False Religion, this goddess of false religion, uses the wine of her spiritual impurities and obscenities to inebriate – to make drunk – the world. Meaning that they aren’t using their senses. They’ve been inebriated by her.

So, just in case we don’t know who she is, God puts her name – right on her forehead.
 
Revelation 17:5 (NLT)
5 A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.”

Meaning she is the Mother of ALL SPIRITUAL Prostitutes and SPIRITUAL Obscenities in the world. The focus is on false religion, spiritual adultery, and spiritual prostitution.

I need to share with you right here (and this is the hard part): the false religion and mythology that all began IN Babylon has – to some extent – been absorbed into every religion in the world – EVERY SINGLE ONE.

It is easiest for us to see in the Catholic Church because when Constantine made Christianity the Religion of the STATE in the 300’s he forced Christianity on the people. Rome absorbed the idols and practices of the false religion and mythology – right into the Church.

NOT because it was spiritually right, but because it was the easiest way to CONTROL the people and make Christianity the STATE Religion. Religion has been used to control people. Constantine needed to control Rome. Rome was a very pagan, spiritual culture. There were temples all over Rome. Everybody made sacrifices to temples, to the temple goddesses. They were always goddesses – female.

And so, Constantine kept ALL the pagan temples and converted them to Christian churches. He didn’t want to “shake up” all the people he was “managing” (controlling), and he left all of the idols and the worship of the female goddesses in the temples. At that time, it was primarily Venus, but Venus came from Ashetera and from Babylon, ultimately. And he simply converted all the pagan idol worship to focus on Jesus AND on MARY. And they HAD to include MARY because ALL the pagan temples were focused on a female goddess who was a divine queen and MOTHER. The idols, he just gave different names to. And they are still there. They’re still in the Church.

It was done by Constantine to control the people; it was done by the Great Prostitute, the Mother of All False Religion, to inebriate the people. To inebriate the people. To make them drunk with religion so that their religion would control their thinking.

And I don’t know if you have ever met a Catholic person, but they’ve been pretty influenced by the Catholic Church, generally, especially if they’ve spent a long time in the Catholic Church. Just like if you spent a long time with Jesus, you’re going to be influenced by Jesus. If you have spent a long time with Man’s religion or with a certain religion, you’re going to be influenced by that religion. In fact, you’re going to be inebriated. You’re going to be affected by it. And that’s what we see in the Catholic Church.

It is certainly easiest to see in the Catholic Church, but our evangelical Christianity has also absorbed a few traditions that began as idol worship. Even into our “we want Jesus ONLY Christ-following culture.” It’s not just the Catholic Church. Every religion that Man creates, man goes back to the origin of Man’s religion, which is Babylon, which is the Mother of all False Religion. BOTH Christmas and Easter have their roots in the pagan religions of Babylon, Babylonian false religion mythology. We have simply changed them to focus on Jesus Christ.

Don’t freak out. You can continue to worship Jesus on those holidays, and I think you should. But that is why we don’t put Christmas trees up on Christmas at the church, and we try to say “Resurrection Sunday” instead of “Easter” because we are focused solely on Jesus Christ during those holidays.

Here’s what we do at home. We have a Christmas tree, our kids believed in Santa (up until they were about twenty years old). But here’s what we do. We put the Christmas tree up, and the first thing we do is we make it the Christ tree. The first thing we do is take out a spike – like the spike that nailed Jesus to the tree – and we read a little devotion about it. And we pray to God, and we say, “Lord, we want to worship you this season.” And then we hang the spike on the tree. And so, we kind of “force” it into a Jesus-only thing. You need to do that – you really do. The celebration that we have at Christmas – that’s not in the Bible. But celebrating Jesus’ birth – that’s a good idea.

It’s the same with Easter. In fact, Easter is way worse because it comes from the goddess Eostre or Ostara – goddess of sex and fertility who comes from the original goddess of Babylon, the wife of Nimrod, Semiramis. And the goddess of Ishtar is celebrated by handing out Ishtar eggs. True story. And celebrated with bunnies, the symbol of reproduction, because she’s the goddess of sex and fertility. So, you can see there’s a connection there to our Easter. We say we’re celebrating the Resurrection. We’re celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes – does it have its roots in Babylonian mythology and false religion? I’m afraid it does. But – they are great days to celebrate the birth and Resurrection of Jesus. We can’t do away with it.

But don’t freak out. Be honest. Say, “Yeah. It’s not in the Bible.” It’s not. The Disciples didn’t hide Easter eggs on the day Jesus was resurrected. “Hey, boys! Get the eggs! Bring the kids! Jesus is risen!” It just didn’t happen. And honestly, the only thing we can tie to Christmas is the gifts to Jesus. But the Magi didn’t give gifts to each other. They just sacrificed what was valuable to the Christ-child.

So, here is the supercritical lesson. If you cannot clearly find ANY religious tradition IN the Bible – it’s because it’s not IN the Bible. And we need to make the Bible our only rule of faith and life because it is the only document on earth that’s been proven over a thousand times, over thousands of years, to be supernaturally, divinely written by God. And so, anything that the Church says, “Oh. Don’t worry that this isn’t in the Bible. This is Church history,” that IS what makes me worry because I’ve read about the Middle Ages. They weren’t pretty. If it’s not in the Bible it may very well have some roots in Man’s religion that all started in Babylon.

And so, if Man brings his own ideas and his religion, and we say, “Okay. This isn’t in the Bible, so man brought it,” then how do we view it? We view it as “Easy, pal! I need Jesus!” Because the Bible is really clear, I need Jesus. I need a real, personal relationship with Jesus! I need him living inside of me. I need to be identified with him by faith. I need his Holy Spirit to be poured into me every day. As far as that little religious tradition thing – it’s whatever.

I say this all of the time. A charismatic Catholic family got me saved. So, in the ‘70s there was this really cool movement in the Catholic Church where people were filled with the Holy Spirit. And so, a charismatic Catholic family got me to go to church, and it radically transformed my life. If you get radically saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and you’re developing an intimate, personal relationship with Jesus Christ every day, and you decide to go to a Catholic church, you will have to have the courage to say, “Yeah. That’s not in the Bible. That’s not in the Bible. That’s not in the Bible. And how about that Mary thing – it’s not in the Bible.” But it is heavily in Greek mythology, and the false religion of Babylon, brought into the Church in the 300’s by Constantine.

So, be aware of this truth and commit to follow what you can actually, clearly see in the Bible much, much, much more than ANY religious tradition that is not in the Bible.

I want to gently speak the truth in love. Here’s what happens. You say to somebody, “Do you know Jesus as your personal Savior?” And they say, “I’m Catholic.” “Okay. Do you have a personal relationship with Jesus?” “I told you I’m Catholic. I don’t want to talk about that.” “Well, yeah, but have you really made a commitment to surrender your life to Jesus Christ as your Lord?” And they say, “Look. I was christened. I completed catechism and was confirmed. I was baptized in the Catholic Church. I’m good!” “NO! You’re not good!”

You’re not good if you sit in Chuck Smith’s church your whole life. You’re not good. It doesn’t make you a Christian. The only thing that makes you united with Christ for eternity is you putting your full faith in him as your Savior and Lord. And developing a personal relationship with him. Anything else besides that, especially that’s not in the Bible, is Man’s religion. And if you think your religion is getting you to Heaven, you’ve been made drunk by the wine of your religion.

That’s the point. You’ve been inebriated by the wine of the False Religion that says that if you continue to say you’re of “this religion,” then you’ve got an easy entrance when you get to the gates. It’s not true. It’s not in the Bible. I am saying it with all the love I have.

The enemy knows that a church full of false truths is far more damaging than no church at all. Because a false religion lulls people into a coma state with God where they are unable to use the Bible as their authority, and they trust in their Church tradition much more than they trust in the Bible.

Religion does not save you. Religion is man’s attempt to reach God. It has been since the Tower of Babel was built. It has been since the mythological false religions were created in Babylon, and it is still now, today, in all religion that man creates. The Bible is about Jesus, personally. And a vertical relationship with God that transforms our horizontal relationships with others, and an identification with Christ through faith through God’s grace that gives us the right to be children of God and to share the inheritance of Christ for eternity – not by any works. Not by any religion.

You understand I am saying this in love. Here’s the deal. When people are getting ready to go to Heaven, we want them actually to get in. And so, we look at the Bible and say how does the Bible say we get to Heaven? The Bible says we get there by faith in Jesus, even in your last minutes (the thief on the cross). Let’s help people put their faith in Jesus.

One day, the Great Spiritual Prostitute and Mother of All False Religions will be the only religion left on the earth, and that system of false religion will have a big part in the Antichrist’s war on God.

Now, in verse 6, John has now seen the Great Spiritual Prostitute symbolized by Babylon. And this is what John says.

Revelation 17:6 (NLT)
6 I could see that she was drunk—drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement.

John is shocked by this image of religion in the Last Days being drunk of the blood of the martyrs, God’s Holy People who were “martys” – witnesses for Jesus. He was shocked by the wickedness of the Great Prostitute of False Religion.

Revelation 17:7 (NLT)
7 “Why are you so amazed?” the angel asked. “I will tell you the mystery of this woman and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns on which she sits.

The angel is going to help John (and us) out a little, especially with the description of the Beast the woman is riding. Even with the angel’s explanation, it’s still a bit mysterious.

Revelation 17:8 (NLT)
8 The beast you saw was once alive but isn’t now. And yet he will soon come up out of the bottomless pit and go to eternal destruction. And the people who belong to this world, whose names were not written in the Book of Life before the world was made, will be amazed at the reappearance of this beast who had died.

Let me sum up.

This is: Satan himself coming up out of the Abyss
It is: The Government Structure that is built for the Antichrist
And it is: The Antichrist who comes OUT OF that Government Structure

And all the unbelievers on earth will marvel at the Beast because of all he has (seemingly) done. To sum up, all of verse 8 is the complete Antichrist system of the End Times.

In verse 9, the angel continues to describe this Beast.

Revelation 17:9(a) (NLT)
9 “This calls for a mind with understanding: The seven heads of the beast represent the seven hills where the woman rules . . .

The Great Prostitute rules from “seven hills,” and Rome is called “the City of Seven Hills.”

Revelation 17:9(b)-10 (NLT)
9 . . . They also represent seven kings.
10 Five kings have already fallen, the sixth now reigns, and the seventh is yet to come, but his reign will be brief.

So, double symbolism.

Most scholars agree the seven kings are a chronology of world rulers (going back to Egypt).

The five who’ve fallen are the five world empires that have passed
The one that IS would’ve been the Roman Empire of John’s day
The one to come would be the revived Roman Empire through which the Antichrist will rise to power

Revelation 17:11 (NLT)
11 “The scarlet beast that was, but is no longer, is the eighth king. He is like the other seven, and he, too, is headed for destruction.

The Antichrist himself is the eighth king.

He belongs to (comes out of) the seventh (revived Roman Empire), and he is definitely headed for destruction.

Verses 12-13 give us a clear picture of the final world power (the system) from which the Antichrist will rise (come out of).

Revelation 17:12–13 (NLT)
12 The ten horns of the beast are ten kings who have not yet risen to power. They will be appointed to their kingdoms for one brief moment to reign with the beast.
13 They will all agree to give him their power and authority.

If you remember the Daniel and Revelation connections we’ve made, then you know these ten horns are the ten kings through which the Antichrist is brought to power. This is the ten-nation federation through which the Antichrist rises to power. For a moment, they will reign with the Beast. We see that clearly as the European Union (the ten top nations in that multi-nation federation). They’ll reign for a moment, but then, this ten-nation federation hands over their power TO the Antichrist, presumably after his (probably faked) resurrection.

And these are the same nations that Satan will ultimately gather together to fight Jesus Christ.

Revelation 17:14 (NLT)
14 Together they will go to war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will defeat them because he is Lord of all lords and King of all kings. And his called and chosen and faithful ones will be with him.”

This is so awesome. This is a direct reference to Revelation 19 when Jesus Christ returns, and we are with him. Which means we are with him before he comes.

Revelation 17:15 (NLT)
15 Then the angel said to me, “The waters where the prostitute is ruling represent masses of people of every nation and language.

This seems to be a reminder that the Great Prostitute of False Religion is ruling over masses of people of every nation and language. We said that in the beginning, the Sea was an inference of ruling over the world. So, there is a reminder here that this Great Prostitute of False Religion is ruling over the masses of people.

So, the Great Prostitute of False Religion is a key part of Satan’s overall plan to get what he wants on this earth, which is to be worshiped as God!!

And the Great Prostitute of False Religion has played a vital role in bringing Satan to this point in the world. But there comes a time when Satan will not share the worship of the world even with the Great Prostitute of ALL False Religion. And so, the Antichrist with the ten-nation federation (European Union) will turn on the Prostitute of False Religion. And God will use them to destroy the False Religion that is controlling the earth.

Revelation 17:16 (NLT)
16 The scarlet beast and his ten horns all hate the prostitute. They will strip her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her remains with fire.

Even though the Great Prostitute has done so much to turn people away from the True God and feed them into Satan’s hands. At this point, the whole satanic conglomeration now turns to utterly destroy the Babylon Prostitute of False Religion. But notice it is not without God’s involvement.

Revelation 17:17 (NLT)
17 For God has put a plan into their minds, a plan that will carry out his purposes. They will agree to give their authority to the scarlet beast, and so the words of God will be fulfilled.

Even in the midst of complete Satanic control on the earth, who is still in charge? And God uses even the Beast to bring his judgment on the Great Prostitute of False Religion. And now, the only authority on earth is the Antichrist (but not for long). Finally, to finish the Chapter, the angel refers back to the Great Prostitute and the city she rules from.

Revelation 17:18 (NLT)
18 And this woman you saw in your vision represents the great city that rules over the kings of the world.”

That city is spiritual Babylon, which in the End Times is most often connected to a Church in Rome.

The Great Prostitute of Revelation 17 IS the Mother of ALL False Religion, and she IS the Great Spiritual Prostitute who has always turned Mankind away from God, and God will ultimately judge and destroy all False Religion.

So, what are we to do today about False Religion that has crept into all of Man’s religion to some extent and in some amount?

Number one, first and foremost, above everything else - we must use our Bibles!! Is that religious thing clearly seen as a positive instruction in the New Testament? Meaning, does the New Testament clearly say we should be doing it?

And what should we do about embracing a religious activity that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible as an instruction to the New Testament Church? Well, we should be very, very careful NOT to trust a religious tradition or activity over what the Bible clearly instructs us to do because the religious tradition or activity might actually have pagan religion roots.

Let’s be willing to actually put our religious traditions to the test.

Let’s put them up against God’s Word alone!!! And let’s have the courage to acknowledge what is Man’s religious tradition and what is clearly IN THE WORD OF GOD.

And please hear me: what is clearly, actually, and truly taught in the Bible is that salvation is through our genuine faith in Jesus Christ alone, with nothing added! No works added. No religion added. No anything added. When we put our faith in Jesus Christ, we become so identified with him that what he’s done becomes what we’ve done. And so, his payment for sin becomes our payment for sin, and his righteousness becomes our righteousness, allowing us to stand in the presence of God without any concern about what religion, or church we went to or even if we did or didn’t. And the Bible does tell you to fellowship, and you should. But your church is not getting you to Heaven. Your relationship with Jesus Christ is getting you to Heaven. Your faith in him gets you to Heaven. Nothing else! And if anything else is not in the Bible, you don’t have to freak out; just say, “Oh, yeah. That’s not in the Bible. So, I am going to take that as not being in the Bible.”

And our life and growth and transformation with God comes from a genuine, ever-increasing, personal relationship with Jesus Christ through his Living Word and the Power of the Holy Spirit. So, let’s make a commitment to that.