REVELATION LESSON 34

    In this lesson we will begin in Revelation 17:1 "And there came
one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me,
saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the
great whore that sitteth upon many waters:"

    As I have mentioned over and over throughout this study, this is
not to be understood with the mind, but must be understood by the
Spirit.

    This "...whore..." here is not a literal woman. In Hosea, his wife
(who was a whore) was speaking of Israel. Here, this "...whore..." is
speaking of the idolatrous church.

    This statement "...sitteth upon many waters...", speaks of large
groups of people. This is not the true church. This is the apostate
church.  God calls it the harlot church; the church that is not
faithful to God, the church that is worldly. This church, while
claiming to be Christian, finds many reasons to conform to the beast
and the evil world system. This, without question, is the part of the
church that has compromised with the world and is no longer a chaste
virgin in the sight of God. I truly believe that a large portion of
the church falls into this category today.  Worldliness has crept into
our churches. The sad thing is, that if she would repent, God would
take her back; but she will not repent.

    The Bride of Christ is called a city, and that is the portion of
the church which has not compromised.  The other (opposite) side of
that is the harlot. It is also called a city but is evil because of
compromise.  This is not only the apostate church in Rome, but the
apostate in the protestant churches, as well. Again, the waters let us
know that this apostate church is throughout the masses of people.

    Revelation 17:2 "With whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication."

    We see here, that this universal apostasy (unfaithfulness to God)
does not effect just one class of people. This unfaithfulness is from
the very rich and powerful (kings) to the very poor. The same way a
drunken person naturally has no earthly idea what he is doing, this
apostate group is so carried away with the world that they, too, do
not realize the terribleness of what they are doing. God will judge
this idolatrous church. Judgement begins at the house of God.

    Revelation 17:3 "So he carried me away in the spirit into the
wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full
of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns."

    This "...wilderness..." here, I believe, means the world. This
"scarlet coloured beast..." shows evil world power.

    Since this woman sits upon this beast, it means that her power
comes from this evil beast. It supports her. This woman, it appears,
has decided to trust the powers of this world over God's power.

    Seven denotes spiritually complete, ten denotes world government,
and horns denote power.

    You can easily see, since she is on top of this thing, she guides
it, but receives her support from the beast. The word "...scarlet..."
can be very good or very evil. In this case, it is very evil. This
great evil that this woman (church) has committed is spiritual
adultery (the watering down of the Word).

    Revelation 17:4 "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet
colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a
golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her
fornication:"

    The Catholic church is many times decorated this way, but I
believe this includes all of the apostate church, Protestant and
Catholic.  Perhaps this is people sitting on a church pew, but not
really being the bride of Christ.  There are some in all churches, but
most assuredly the church in Rome.  You can see great masses of gold,
silver, and jewels.  Usually when a church building is decked like
this, it is in an area where there is abject poverty.

"...purple..." indicates that this was in the church, because purple
means godliness. This was a false godliness.

    This "...golden cup..." also indicates this is inside the church,
because gold symbolically means the purity of God. We know this
"...cup..." belonged to God. To me, it just means that the sins of the
world have been brought into the church.

    This "...fornication..." here spoken of, I truly believe is
spiritual adultery or compromise with the world. God will tolerate
most anything except the worship of someone else or something else. I
truly believe this has to do with the watering down of Jesus. (Who He
is.)

    Revelation 17:5 "And upon her forehead [was] a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF
THE EARTH."

    Just as God marked the 144,000 with the name of the Father, and
just as the bride of Christ is marked with the name of Christ, we see
here this group marked on the forehead. This name alone makes you know
how evil and worldly this church is. Again, I say this is most
assuredly the church of Rome, but it is also the unfaithful in the
protestant churches, as well. This worldly part of the church, though
nominally Christian, is yet more faithful to the world than to God.
Notice here, that the church that pretends to be Christian and is not,
does more to cause harm than those worldly people who claim to be
lost. The worldly church always persecutes the faithful church. This
evil in the church is an abomination to God. It is a mystery how this
could happen in the church.

    Revelation 17:6 "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw
her, I wondered with great admiration."

    The faithless part of the church is guilty of the blood of the
saints.  In Matthew 12:20 we read that Jesus says "He that is not with
me is against me". This watered down church is actually causing great
problems for those who are sold out to God. We do know that Rome had a
great deal to do with the death of the martyrs and even had a hand in
crucifying Jesus. Of course, the Jews (church) of that day had even
more to do with the crucifixion of Jesus. However, the most blame for
His death has to be placed on each of us. Sin placed Jesus on the
cross. He went to the cross to crucify sin. His sacrifice stopped us
from being servant to sin.

    The wonder of it all is, that with the Bible as their guide, how
could these people get so far away from God and still occupy a pew?
The answer is quite simple. They never read or study their Bible
themselves.  They allow someone else to read it and tell them what it
is saying.

    I truly believe that much of the problem lies at the shepherd's
feet.  So many preachers are overlooking the need for the spiritual
growth of their people. In the 34th chapter of Ezekiel, it says God
will take the sheep away from the shepherds that do not care for them.
Shepherds BEWARE! We are not to be so concerned with "our" needs as we
are with the needs of "our people".

    Rome has been greatly admired for many reasons. The Catholic
church looks to Rome for one reason.  Another reason is that Rome
almost ruled the world at one time. As I said earlier, Rome had a
great deal to do with the death of Jesus and the saints.

    We see from all of this that literally this sentence above is
probably speaking of Rome and the Catholic church, who have brought
compromise.  Even more than that, it is speaking to individuals in all
churches who have compromised themselves. Those who have a form of
godliness, but deny the power thereof. A Christian on the outside, but
not on the inside. It is so easy to point to someone else, but in so
doing let's examine ourselves as well.

    Revelation 17:7 "And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou
marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast
that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns."

    Now you know I am always telling you to look at the symbol and not
to the reality. Here we need to not look at the symbol but look at the
reality, because we see in the verse above that this is revealed.

    Revelation 17:8 "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and
shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and
they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not
written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when
they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

    Here it is speaking of the reforming of the old Roman empire. The
old Roman empire has been reformed by the ten common market nations in
Europe today. In my opinion, these "...ten horns..." are these ten
common market nations.  The headquarters for these ten nations is in
Rome.

    We spoke, before, about the products coming from these nations
having the number 666 marking them.  I believe this mark indicates
that the power given unto this group comes from the bottomless pit.

    This word "...perdition..." means ruin, loss, or damnable. This
Roman empire was in great power, it fell, and then revived again in
the ten nations. It is a wonder how Berlin was divided into two parts
after World War II. This was done so the line of the old Roman empire
would be the same. Of course the governments of U.S. and Russia did
not know why they did this, but it established the old territory
anyhow.

    We will see in the next lesson, that the city of seven hills is
where this evil system has its headquarters.  This is a marvel to the
world who are not fully aware of the implications of the Bible it
shows. Of course the bride of Christ, the Christians who have their
names written in the Lamb's book of life since the world began, are
aware of all of this and why it happened. It is to fulfill prophecy.
Kings and Kingdoms, good and evil, have to do exactly what God wants.
Sometimes they are not even aware of why they are doing it. God puts
the idea into their head, while all the time, they think it is their
clever idea.

    Additional scriptures to read and study: Isaiah 1:21, Ezekiel 16,
Jeremiah 2:20, Jeremiah 51:7 and 26, Isaiah 21:1, Ezekiel 16:13,
Jeremiah 2:33-34, Jeremiah 2:20, Matthew 12:20.

    Memorize Matthew 12:20 and Joshua 24:15.

















                      Revelation Questions 34

1.  What did one of the seven angels promise to show John in V-1?
2.  Where is this located?
3.  What does many waters mean?
4.  Is this, whore, a literal woman? Explain.
5.  What kind of church does God call this?
6.  While this church claims to be Christian, it conforms to the
    ---------- and the ---------- -----------  --------.
7.  The bride of Christ, besides being all believers, is sometimes
    spoken of as a --------.
8.  These waters let us know they are located where?
9.  In V-2, speaking of kings tells us what?
10. What does apostosy mean?
11. Who will judge this idolatrous church?
12. In V-3, who was sitting on the scarlet-coloured beast?
13. How many heads and horns were mentioned in V-3?
14. What does this scarlet-coloured beast symbolize?
15. Where does the woman 's power come from?
16. What is the great sin this woman (church) has committed?
17. Who is V-4 describing?
18. What does the golden cup symbolize?
19. What was the name written on her forehead?
20. In V-6, the woman was drunken with what?
21. In Matthew 12:20, how does God separate people?
22. What three actually were responsible for Jesus being crucified?
23. What is the main reason Christians are being deceived?
24. In Ezekiel 34, what warning does God give the preachers?
25. We know that spiritually this message is to all apostate churches,
    but literally, who is it to?
26. What does the angel promise to reveal to John?
27. Who is the beast that was, and is not, and yet is?
28. Where does its power come from?
29. Who will marvel when the old Roman empire regains power?
30. What group makes up the old Roman empire today?
31. Where is the headquarters for this group?
32. What number is common to this group?
33. What city was divided in World War II and made the line correct
    for the old Roman empire?
34. What two major countries divided this city unaware that they were
    forming the old line?
35. Who is subject to God's will?
36. Write Matthew 12:20.
37. Write Joshua 24:15.
38. Give a synopsis of what you believe this lesson is telling us.