The Great Tribulation - Part 8

The natural calamities end in Revelation 16, and in Revelation 17 the religion of the great harlot comes under judgment. Revelation 17 describes this great harlot and her fall at the hands of the Antichrist and his ten puppet kings shortly after the middle of the Great Tribulation. Revelation 18 describes the city and its fall by the hands of God near the end of the Great Tribulation period. The fall of Babylon was announced in Revelation 14:8 and Revelation 16:19. Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 fill in the details of both destructions.

The Bible tells us that a harlot is more than just a woman who physically commits sexual sins. A harlot is also a person who spiritually has stopped following the true God and has turned to idol worship. The great Babylon (the great harlot) abandoned the true God and has raised her daughters (false religions) to do the same. She is the mother of false religions who wants all her daughters to grow up in her one-world harlot religion. The names of some of her daughters are New Age, Satan Worship, Mother Earth Worship, Globalism, Hinduism, and Islamism. Her daughters talk about love and peace, but none of them love Jesus, and none of them talk about peace with God through Jesus. Her daughters' followers are a collection of religious people who will be left behind when the true Church is raptured.

During the Great Tribulation, the great Harlot will open her doors to one-world government, one-world religion and global trade. People intoxicated with big govenment, big money, global commerce, and a lust for pleasure will flock to her. She will even entice these adulterous leaders to marry her daughters, which will represent a merger of one-world harlot religions with one-world government.

Shortly after the middle of the Great Tribulation, the harlot's sons-in-law (the kings of the earth) will become "wife abusers." They will kill the harlot (one-world religious system) and her daughters (the individual false religions). Near the end of the Great Tribulation period, God will pour out His wrath on Babylon where many of the sons-in-law live. Jesus will return and destroy Babylon, the mother and Babylon, the city.

Obviously, kings cannot marry religion. Think of it spiritually. Just as you and I (the true Church) are the wife of Christ, and Israel the wife of God, these adulterous kings will marry false religions in the sense that they will espouse the doctrines of the false religions. They will cooperate with the False Prophet and the Antichrist in pushing a false religion on the world.

The Antichrist will take advantage of this accommodation to consolidat his foundation for the first three and one-half years. At the beginning of the second part of the Great Tribulation, however, he will persecute this religious unity and crush it to pieces. Revelation 17 tells how he sets up his own idol and exterminates other religions.

The Judgment of the Great Harlot (Rev. 17:1, 2)

"Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, 'Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (Rev. 17:1, 2, emphasis added).

In Revelation 17, the judgment of the great harlot, signifying religion religion, begins. The great harlot represents a depraved and corrupt religion that, like an adulterous bride, follows the idol and the Devil, turning away from God. This great harlot forms a huge religious body. Taking advantage of its vast organization, she not only worships the Antichrist, but also uses him. In turn, the Antichrist politically uses the great harlot.

In the Bible, seas and waters represent great masses of people. They represent people, nations, and tongues. The fact that this wicked woman is pictured as sitting upon these great masses is an indication that she will be supported by them, and she will exercise control over them during the Great Tribulation period.

The great harlot religious sysem will commit adultery with the kings and inhabitants of the earth. She will conspire with world leaders to produce a merger of religion and government. The outcome is, a religious system united with a political system to manipulate the people of the earth into a false govenment-approved religion.

"The wine of her fonication" is a reference to demon possession. This wicked woman will cause people to be led astray by deceiving spirits.

The Scarlet Woman and Scarlet Beast (Rev. 17:3 - 18)

The kingdoms and their kings (Rev. 17:3)

"So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns" (Rev. 17:3, emphasis added).

The scarlet beast, with its seven heads and ten horns, is the Antichrist. The seven heads represent the seven kingdoms and their kings that continuously oppose God. The ten horns represent the ten countries that will form the union of Europe. The great harlot sits upon the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation. This means she will achieve religious unification by using the Antichrist politically.

The figure of the Great Harlot (Rev. 4, 5)

"The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE gREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (Rev. 4, 5).


The golden cup in the hand of the great harlot is a religious cup full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication. Those who drink from the cup become full of evil spirits. She is called "Babylon the Great" because she is the religion started in Babylon, as we saw in Revelation 2.


Every corrupt religion in the world today has been influenced by the Babylonian religion. Even within Christendom, bodies of the old and new Church are trying to form an ecumenical council with other religions - not to mention the Christian denominations violating the orthodox faith of the Bible. In this move toward consensus, all the religions of the world are being gradually united. At the beginning of the Great Tribulation, backed by the power of the Antichrist, union will be achieved quickly. This is the true character of the great harlot,


I believe, in the near future, Christendom will be distinctly divided into two groups: one will be the Church united politically and institutionally, and the other will be the Church united by the Holy Spirit. Churches that genuinely love Jesus will come together, rising above denominations. Christian organizations that follow the trend of modernism and new theology will be united according to their political concern, advocating sicuak refirm.


Denomination has no meaning before God. What matters is whether a Church receives the Holy Spirit at its center and surrenders itself to Him.


The Woman drunk with blood (Rev. 17:6)


"I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement" (Rev. 17:6).


The great harlot will not only make other drunk, but she, too, will be drunk on the blood of the tribulation saints. The great ecumenical religion system will be actively involved in the persecution and death of God's people. She will be so determined to establich her one-world religion that she will actually be fill with the blood of the tribulation saints - converted by the evangelization of the 144,000 Jews and the testimony of the two witnesses.


The mystery of the Beast nad the great harlot (Rev. 17:7 - 18)


The remaining Verses of Revelation Chapter 17 reveal the mystery of the Beast (the Antichrist) and the mystery of the great harlot.


The Antichrist (a spiritual being) will come out of the bottomless pit. However, his identity has not yet been disclosed. God will one day release him, out of hell and cause him to be born into this world as a human being, imitating Jesus by putting on flesh.


My belief is that the Antichrist is already in the world. Soon he will emerge and become a conspicuous figure in the political world. Although his appearance on stage is now suppressed by the power of the Holy Spirit, he will be revealed as shoon as the true Church is taken up into heaven.


Rev. 17:9 says the seven heads of the Antichrist are seven mountains. Seven hills always refer to Rome, for Rome was built on seven hills. Hence, some people speculate that Rome will be the headquarters from which the Antichrist will rule the world.


Rev. 17:10 also says that among the seven heads, or kings, "Five have fallen, one is, and the other has yet to come." The five kingdoms - Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Medo-Persia and Greece - have already fallen. One is, which was Rome - the kingdom existing in the time of John - and the seventh kingdom is yet to come. When this kingdom comes, it will continue for only a brief time. Then the kingdom of the Antichrist will come as the eighth (Rev. 17:11).


The seventh kingdom is the union of the ten European countries that will arise in the former territory of ancient Rome. For the first part of the Great Tribulation period, united Europe will keep coalition with the Antichrist through compromise. When that period ends, the eighth kingdom, ruled by the Antichrist, will emerge out of the seventh. He will be supported by three of the ten nations, and the remaining seven will be subdued by his autocratic rule.


Rev. 17:12 - 14 further say that the ten horns are ten kings and that these kings will give their power and strength to the Beast. He, in turn, will oppose the Lamb, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, in the Armageddon war but will eventually be destroyed.


The fate of the great harlot sitting on the Beast is tragic. This religious organization will get along well with the Antichrist, as they take advantage of each other for three and one-half years. As soon as the second half of the Great Tribulation begins, however, the harlot is forsaken. The Antichrist will set up his kingdom and deify himself, erecting his own idol and quickly getting rid of her. In this way religious Babylon falls.


The fall of Babylon the Great (Rev. 18:1 - 24)


Revelation 17 shows the down fall of the great harlot, religious Babylon. Now Revelation 18 ceclares the fall of political and economic Babylon. In other words, the Bible shows here the miserable destruction of the Antichrist.


The fall of Babylon prophesied (Rev. 18:1 - 3)


"After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, 'Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her lusury'" (Rev. 181 - 3).


Political and economic Babylon, the city where the Antichrist has wielded power for the second half of the Great Tribulation, is now destroyed - by an earthquake judgment and/or by nuclear weapons launched by the army from the East.


Babylon the great is the place that always rejects God. It opposes Him not only spiritually but also politically and economically.


A warning of God (Rev. 18:4 - 7)


"And I heard another voice from heaven saying, 'Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plague. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remember her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, 'I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow'" (Rev. 18:4 - 7).


A voice from heaven will urge God's people to leave Babylon for two reasons: so they will not become involved in Babylon's sin, and so they will not fall victim to the plagues God will inflict on Babylon. Thus begins a warning of God to His people against being engulfed in the judgment coming to those who partake of the ungodly assembly of politics and business.


The judgment against Babylon the Great (Rev. 18:8 - 24)


The Bible tells in detail the judgment that will come upon Babylon the Great:


"Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her" (Rev. 18:8).


In a single day the capital of the Antichrist's kingdom will be burned to ashes by a great explosion. Nothing other than nuclear arms can accomplish that. Rev. 18:17 - 19 say that the smoke of her burning can be seen far and wide by sailors upon the sea.


Observing the calamity, the other kings who have been on friendly terms with the Antichrist now lament for him. The merchants who have traded in this capital will also weep and mourn over him (read Rev. 18:9 - 11).


Holy apostles and prophets in heaven, on the other hand, are told to rejoice over Babylon's destruction, for God has avenged those who were robbed and killed (read Rev. 18:20).


And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore" (Rev. 18:21).


Babylon has a long history as the city of Satan. The false prophet will make his headquarters there during the last half of the Great Tribulation period. He will worship the Antichrist and have no tolerance for the people of God. He will kill all those who lack the mark of the Beast (read Rev. 18:24). Babylon's destruction will be well deserved!


So far we have seen judgments that have fallen upon the world of nature and against the Antichrist and corrupt religion and government. In Revelation 19 we will see Jesus Christ holding the Marriage Supper of the Lamb and then coming down the Armageddon, accompanied by His bride.