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THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
Revelation, Chapter 17, describes the Great Whore of Babylon, who represents the false religion of Babylon.
As we examine Revelation
Chapter 17 we learn that the Whore sits
upon many waters, and is arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold,
precious stones, and pearls. Her hand
holds a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her
fornication. Upon her head one sees
words written in capital letters: “MYSTERY,
BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Drunk with the blood of the saints (martyrs) she sits upon seven hills (Rev.
17:4-5, 9).
Harlotry, in the Bible,
equals idolatry. When Israel worshipped
other gods, God compared the nation to a harlot. The book of Hosea elaborates on this precept
by its description of an adulterous wife and a faithful husband, symbolic of the unfaithfulness of
Israel to God through idolatry.
The bride of Christ is
pure and holy, and she embraces truth.
The harlot symbolizes all false teaching. She leads individuals away from the true God,
to herself. The mother of harlots
encompasses all doctrine, beliefs, practices, and ideology that diametrically
opposes the truth of Jesus Christ.
Ishtar in Babylon-Isis in Egypt
The Babylonians worshipped
one woman in particular. This woman is
Ishtar, whom the Babylonians worshipped for being the mother of God. Her titles
include “The Virgin,” “The Holy Virgin,” and “The Virgin Mother.” Ishtar
represented the divinity of bounteous motherhood. Those who worshiped her considered her a
goddess of war as well as love. She
stood over prostitutes as well as mothers.
She called herself a caring courtesan.
Babylonians represented Ishtar sometimes as a bearded bisexual deity,
and sometimes as a nude female offering her breasts to suck. Though Babylonians referred to her as “The
Virgin,” this merely meant that her illicit lovers were free from all bonds of
wedlock.
Revelation 18:7 states: “She says in her heart, I sit as queen, and
am no widow, and will not see sorrow.” Ancient Babylonian prayers referred
to her as “Queen of all cities, Queen of Heaven and Earth,…Ishtar is great!
Ishtar is Queen! My lady is exalted; my Lady is Queen.” Revelation 17:16 names her “the whore.” In later centuries, among Babylon’s enemies, the upper classes
called her the “whore of Babylon.”
We begin to see the
Biblical references taken from the actual worship of Ishtar such as the
reference of the goddess as a Queen and oddly enough even the reference of her
as “Whore of Babylon.” Which also has great spiritual significance. We will see more examples as this report
continues.
False Religion
False religion led the Israelites from the
true God to its teachings. Babylon’s religious symbols and doctrines bore many
similarities to those taught in
the Scriptures, in part because the Jews lived within Babylonia and Jewish
doctrine influenced their myths. Ancient
Jews embraced the Babylonian religion, and God rebuked the Jews for following
its practices.
During Ahab’s reign in
Israel’s northern kingdom, Jezebel, the Phoenician princess, instituted Baal
worship and murdered the prophets of God.
Baal was the Sun-god, the Life-Giving One, equivalent to Tammuz. Baal worship was part of Babylonian society,
and caused the Babylonian invasion of Israel.
In Jeremiah 44:17-20, the Jews acknowledged to Jeremiah that they burned
incense, and gave drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. This passage mentions the “Queen of Heaven” four times. Four in the Bible represents the number of
man, and man invented religion. From
Babylon this mystery-religion spread to all the surrounding nations, and the
symbols remained similar, including the image of the Queen of Heaven with a
baby in her arms. Astoreth and Tammuz
became Isis and Horus in Egypt, Aphrodite and Eros in Greece, Venus and Cupid, in Italy, and bore many other names.
The Babylonian religion spread
throughout the lands and took on different names of the gods. They merged with the governments of the
ancient empires. These beliefs became state religion and merged with
Christianity during the reign of the Roman emperor Constantine. Eventually these combined beliefs became part
of the Catholic Church. Historians Will
and Ariel Durant recorded that, “Babylonian altars frequently sacrificed a
lamb, as the substitute for man who gave it in exchange for his life… priests
carried from sanctuary to sanctuary the image of Mardak, and performed the
sacred drama of his death and resurrection.
They anointed the idols with sweet-scented oils, burned incense before
them, and clothed them with rich vestments.”
The woman in Revelation
17 sits dressed as a harlot leading to herself the hearts of men. Revelation 17:2 tells us that the world’s
kings commit fornication with the Great Whore.
The fornication committed is not merely physical, but spiritual
adultery. As men deny the true Church of
Jesus Christ by embracing the harlot's false teaching, they become corrupt in
unholy union.
Babylon’s political and
religious aspects bring down God’s judgment.
While political Babylon’s judgment occurs just prior to the battle at
Armageddon and results from the Antichrist’s reign, religious Babylon’s destruction
comes through the Antichrist and his federation of kings. The Whore’s judgement
is described as a total annihilation of her.
The Antichrist abolishes
religion, and persecutes its followers for not worshipping him alone. In Dwight Pentecost’s Things To Come: A Study of Bible Eschatology, Pentecost quotes
Scofield, who confirms: “Two ‘Babylons’ are to be distinguished in the
Revelation…Ecclesiastical Babylon is ‘the great whore’(Rev. 17:1), and is
destroyed by political Babylon (Rev. 17:15-18), that the beast may be the alone
object of worship (II Thess. 2:3, 4; Rev. 13:15).”
This is an excerpt from the free online version of my book Whore of Babylon in Bible Prophecy: A Book of
Revelation Mystery Revealed
To Continue Reading see the articles below
Whore
of Babylon All Your Questions Answered, Free version of the Whore of Babylon in
Bible Prophecy" A Book of Revelation Mystery Revealed.
5-Zechariah
5 Predicts Whore of Babylon's Temple 6-The
Little Horn of Daniel Points to Revived Roman Empire 7-The
Seven Heads on the Beast of Revelation
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