THE HARLOT OF REVELATION
The chapter 17
of the book of Revelation speaks of a great harlot, who sins with all the
nations and kings of the earth
(Revelation
17:1-2,15).
This character
has been a point of discussion from different schools, about her exact identity.
Today we will have a closer, but brief view, on this famous biblical character.
WHO IS THE HARLOT
The author of
the book tells us straight, but in discreet language that the Harlot is
imperial Rome:
“And the
woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the
earth.”
Revelation 17:18
The problem is
settled at once. It is not Jerusalem, as some medieval catholic theologians
have put across, to distract the attention from protestant remarks about being Papal
Rome (1). Only Imperial Rome had that level of power and influence over the
whole known world at that time and nearly 1000 years pass that the time of the
revelation. Jerusalem had stopped existing as capital of a nation from the year
70, and this revelation was received around the end of the first century; plus,
Judea never had word-wide political and financial influence.
But is also more
than that.
THE SEVEN
HEADS
The seven heads
of the dragon over whom the Harlot rides, are said to be two different things by
the Angel explaining the vision:
1 – SEVEN MOUNTAINS
Revelation 17:9 says:
“The seven
heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated”
Those are
clearly the seven hills over which the capital of the Roman Empire was settled,
AVENTINE HILL, CAELIAN HILL, CAPITOLINE HILL, ESQUILINE HILL, PALATINE HILL
(Where the city of Rome was born before extending over the other six hills), QUIRINAL
HILL and VIMINAL HILL.
The claim that
the Harlot is the Roman Church is contested here by the fact that VATICAN CITY
is outside the perimeter of the seven hills, on top of the VATICAN HILL,
outside the North-West of the city of Rome.
2 – SEVEN KINGS
The seven heads
are also, seven kings, according to the explanation of the angel in Revelation
17:10:
“They are
also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come,
and when he does come, he must remain only a little while”
From this point
onwards, the Harlot is revealed to be a system, and not only a city or
institution.
From these seven
kings, five have already died, one is reigning at the time of the revelation,
and one more is to come.
If we take these
seven ‘kings’ as literal roman monarchs, we would have all emperors, from NERO
to DOMICIAN or NERVA:
NERO, GALBA, OTTO, AULUS, VESPASIAN, and possibly
TITUS, if we start with GALBA and not NERO. The reigning emperor would be either
DOMITIAN or NERVA, as the sixth, and the seventh will have to be either TRAJAN
or ADRIAN, and this would be impossible since there were 38th
emperors after that, and still the Roman Empire was standing with glory.
Therefore, there have to be seven KINGDOMS, not KINGS,
There have been seven ungodly empires in the known
world that could fit this picture, all equal in power in their respective times,
and all equally ungodly and corrupted:
EGYPTIAN EMPIRE, ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, BABYLONIAN EMPIRE,
PERSIAN EMPIRE, GREEK EMPIRE.
At the time of the revelation, the ROMAN EMPIRE was
reigning, the sixth kingdom, and there is a seventh to come, after the Roman Empire,
that will be destroyed by the ANTICHRIST and his 10 allies (Revelation
17:12,17).
Finally. this last government, the ‘eight’
(Revelation 17:11), and the 10 countries that will support the government of
the ‘Beast’ or Antichrist, will war against the holy men of GOD and his
Messiah, to be finally be destroyed by JESUS in his second coming (Revelation
17:14).
CONCLUSION
The Harlot or Whore of Babylon, is a system of
corruption, financial (Gold), religious (Purple) and Political (Red)
(Revelation 17:4) mode of life that has controlled all big earthly empires in
history, from the dawn of mankind, and will, until the end of time. This system
of things is the cause of all poverty, interest rates, private ownership of natural
resources, slavery, wars, pandemics, false religion, together with immorality,
homosexuality, abortion and all perversions that destroy society.
It is identified with IMPERIAL ROME, because at the
time of the revelation, pagan ROME incarnated this system of corruption on the
planet, but it is not limited to it.
All identification with the PAPAL CHURCH or
JERUSALEM, are false invention of men, with war agendas against each other.
At the end of time, however, this system will be
engulfed by the government of the Antichrist and the ten most industrialized nations
at the time of his government, the same that will persecute all believers,
until they are destroyed in Armageddon, by our Lord JESUS CHRIST, in his Second
coming.
Omar Flores.
(1)
Peter
Gaskell, Is She Jewish? Is She Roman? The Identity of the Whore of Babylon in
the Book of Revelation (2003).
Terry D. Bilhartz, Urban Religion and the Second Great
Awakening (1986).
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