BY PROSPER TINGINI In my last article I touched on the beast seen rising from sea in apostle John’s vision as described in Revelation 13:1-8. That part of the vision was explained by an angel as revealed in Revelation 17. However, there is an added feature to the beast; of a marvellous looking woman seen sitting on that beast. Revelation 17:4-6 reads of the woman; “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name: “Mystery, Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (end of quote).
An angel of the Lord then reveals to Apostle John the significance of the woman, saying, “The waters that you saw, where the harlot is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire, for God has put into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and giving over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman that you saw is the great city which has dominion over the kings of the earth.”
Firstly there is the mention of “Mystery, Babylon the Great.” The word and the name of the ancient Babylon was most likely derived from the more ancient city mentioned in the Bible, called Babel, meaning confusion as per the contents of Genesis 11. From verse 1-9, we learn that the inhabitants lived together in this place after the floods of Noah. We are told that these people sought to outshine the Almighty God by building a tower that would reach up to the heavens, to make a name for themselves greater than that of the Lord. However, God came down to confuse the language of the people so that no one could understand what the other was saying. This then brought these people’s ambitions to an abrupt halt.
Babylon, the first superpower of the ancient world, was also built with an identical mindset, to glorify and honour man, instead of God the Creator. This is confirmed by the King Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler of the then most powerful Kingdom, Babylon. In Daniel 4:30 are the words of the king; “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” As Babylon was built to glorify man, and not the Creator, it became a haven for several satanic practices. The Babylonians worshipped several gods, and engaged in other multitudes of pagan practices referred to in our Bible as abominations. Thus, she has mothered other children of evil.
Our scriptures often depict such satanic power, like of Babylon, as a whore. We have noted that a woman in Bible prophecy refers to a religions system. A faithful woman refers to God-fearing and law-abiding religions. An adulterous woman denotes those who have abandoned God’s precepts and principles to follow practices of evil or abominations. A beast in Bible prophecy refers to a kingdom, a king or a nation. Therefore, the vision of a combination of a beast and a woman is similarly representative of some form of a union between a religious system and a state, or a church and group nations in Christian terms.
In Revelations 17:2, Apostle John is told by the angel of God about the woman, “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.” This basically means that this religious system combines both religion and politics, working with the support of political leaders of the world as depicted by her riding and sitting on the beast. We are also told in this verse that the inhabitants of the world have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. This translates to people of the world being ‘intoxicated’ with the false doctrines and other abominations practiced by this religious-political system of worship. Thus a union of church(es) and nations combines in corrupting and flouting God’s law. Examples of this is when some religious entities (woman) work in cohorts with some states (beasts) to promote laws that promote practices of abomination such as same-sex marriages, homosexuality etc, in the presumed named of human rights or freedom of choice.
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Revelation 17:3 also reads; “And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns”. In religious circles, blasphemy is to belittle God by either equating oneself with the Almighty Creator or doing things that are solely reserved for the Lord. The angel of the Lord tells apostle John that the seven heads upon which the woman sits (Rev. 17:9) means that there are seven mountains on which the woman (church entity) is headquartered.
Daniel 7 also refers to a beast with ten horns which we deduced to represent the ten nations that sprung up from the collapse of the ancient Roman Empire.
The key characteristic we learn from the words spoken, “Mother of harlots and the earth’s abominations”, from Revelation 17:5, is that this religious system represents a ‘mother church’. This religious system has got some daughters under her wing. These ‘daughters’ are breakaway smaller religious systems or churches that have their roots anchored to the practices of their mother church. These ‘daughters’ are also churches that have left some set doctrines of the Lord our God in pursuit of other man-made false doctrines classified as abominations. They are united in alliance with their apostate mother church, with the support of some nations (beasts).
In the next article we shall try to learn of some characteristics that can assist us to learn more about this woman: to get to the bottom or identity of the “mother of harlots and earth’s abominations”. The saints of God who go to the Bible, and discover the truth of God’s Word for themselves, have always come back to question the unbiblical teachings of this ‘mother’. However these saints have been met with criticism and sometimes persecutions, portrayed as the worst of sinners who do not want to work according to the traditions of the already established religious systems. This, according to Revelation 17:6 which reads: “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Amen.
- Prosper Tingini is the Scribe of the Children of God Missionary Assembly – God’s messengers. Contact details: Mobile & whatsapp – 0771 260 195. Email address: ptingini@gmail.com