In this episode of The Voice of Hope, J. Mark Horst begins an in-depth study of Revelation 17:1-18, where we see the mystery of Babylon. J. Mark explores why Babylon is depicted as a harlot and examines the history and symbolism behind this image. He explores the relationship between false religion and the world's political powers. Join us as we discover the meaning behind these symbols and why who we choose to align ourselves with matters eternally.
Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” In the 1800s, opium was a common and legal medicine used to dull physical pain. Marx meant that religion helps people cope with the pain of a hard life. In his mind, it was only needed by those who were weak. As followers of Christ, we embrace that weakness and trust in God’s strength to enable us. Since Marx denied God’s existence, he didn’t understand that we humans are incurably religious because God created us to be worshipers. We will inevitably worship someone or something.
According to Ezekiel 28:14, Satan was the “anointed cherub that covers”; he was close to the throne of God. So he knew about worship and wanted it for himself. For his desire to usurp the worship belonging to God alone, he was kicked out of heaven. Ever since he led our first parents into sin, the human desire for worship has been corrupted and misplaced. Romans 3 reminds us that “there is none righteous, not even one; no one who understands, no one who seeks after God.”
As we’ve noted earlier in our study of Revelation, Satan has a counterfeit trinity made up of himself (the dragon), the beast, and the false prophet. The goal of this false trinity is to induce people to worship him rather than God. Indeed, we have seen this in Revelation 13:4. “So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”
To consolidate this worship, Satan will gather his followers into a worldwide religious system. While the ecumenical movement of the early 20th century and the later creation of the World Council of Churches may have been precursors to this final attempt to unite all religions, Satan will have greater success, for a brief time, in these final days of human history. Those who join this system do not realize they are pawns in a cosmic chess game. Satan cares nothing for them, only for his own power.
In the book’s arrangement, chapters 17 and 18 immediately follow the outpouring of the bowl judgments. However, these chapters likely either precede those judgments or are integrated with them. Regardless, they show us how God will judge those who Satan deceives into worshipping him. Chapter 17 outlines God’s judgment on the one-world religion, while chapter 18 deals with a one-world government.
Revelation 17 is the focus of our study. The title is “Mystery Babylon,” and it will take more than one episode to explore this text.
1Then 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,
2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
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.
4 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.
5 And on her forehead a name was written:
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS
OF THE EARTH.
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.
7 But the angel said to me, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.
8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition. And those who dwell on the earth will marvel, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world, when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
9 “Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits.
10 There are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, and the other has not yet come. And when he comes, he must continue a short time.
11 The beast that was, and is not, is himself also the eighth, and is of the seven, and is going to perdition.
12 “The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet, but they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast.
13 These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast.
14 These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are called, chosen, and faithful.”
15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.
16 And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire.
17 For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
18 And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
This text records SCENES from John’s vision of the final world religion, pictured as a prostitute, and God’s judgment upon her.
In the First SCENE is,
She is Identified
It seems fitting that one of the seven angels with the 7 last bowls of judgment should reveal this judgment on Babylon, the great prostitute. Indeed, she is mentioned in the preceding chapter, verse 19. “And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.”
The angel’s invitation to John was, “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.” These words are very similar to God’s judgment of Babylon pronounced in Jeremiah 51:6-8.
The story of Babylon begins in Genesis 11:90. In direct disobedience to God’s command, the people decided they wanted to “make a name for [themselves],” and prevent being scattered across the face of the earth. This act of rebellion against God had religious implications. Brick towers, like the one they built (called ziggurats), had the sign of the zodiac on their tops, which pagan priests used to chart the stars. By observing the stars, the priests supposedly gained spiritual insights and knowledge of the future.
When God scattered the people, they took this false religious system with them. Despite the scattering, Babylon remained a world-renowned center of idolatrous worship. In fact, the beautiful Ishtar Gate was briefly listed among the wonders of the then-known world. It featured alternating rows of sculpted lions (symbolizing the goddess Ishtar), bulls (symbolizing the storm god Adad), and dragons (symbolizing the patron god Marduk).
In Jeremiah 44, the prophet rebuked the Jewish remnant that had fled to Egypt for the idolatry that had led to their downfall. Instead of repenting, however, they remained defiant in their worship of the Queen of Heaven, one of the names given to Ishtar. In the end times, the devil who deceived the people at Babel, and from there launched false religion over the earth, will deceive the world once again.
The great harlot that will be judged is not an actual prostitute. The term is a metaphor for false religion, idolatry, and religious apostasy. Besides Babylon, several cities in Scripture are designated harlot cities because of their idolatry and pursuit of false religion. Nineveh (Nahum 3:1,4), Tyre (Isaiah 23:15–17), and, sadly, Jerusalem (Isaiah 1:21). The waters on which the harlot sits are explained in verse 15 as peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues. These details should help us understand that we are dealing with a religious system.
Rulers from around the world will become obsessed with the Babylonian harlot. Deceived by the false prophet, Antichrist, Satan, and his demon hosts, they will become enamored with the false world religion. “All who dwell on the earth will worship [Antichrist], everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (13:8). But having joined themselves to the harlot, economically, socially, militarily, politically, and religiously, they will share her disastrous fate.[1] Their intoxication with her indicates they were under her control. Jeremiah prophesied this (51:7).
With that introduction, John is carried by the Spirit into a wilderness. There, he sees a woman, further identified in verse 18 as “that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” She is sitting astride a scarlet-colored beast with seven heads and ten horns that is full of the names of blasphemy. He (the beast) is supporting her, and she, in some measure, is controlling him. Religion will be the initial unifying and controlling factor of Antichrist’s kingdom. This description plainly indicates that the apostate church has eagerly sought and solicited the adulterous relationship with the political powers of the world. However, that alliance will not endure as we learn in verse 16.
She is dressed in purple and scarlet, bejeweled with gold, precious stones, and pearls. This was the dress of the rich, especially the temple prostitutes of Asia Minor in John’s day. Here is the simultaneous height of adornment with the depths of corruption. The more the church loses her inward values, which “in the sight of God are of great price” (1 Peter 3:4), the more she seeks to atone for this loss by sensual and extravagant dress. It has always been this way, as indicated in Isaiah 3:18-16, where he lists 21 pieces of dress worn by the idolatrous daughters of Zion.
In her hand was a golden cup, filled with abominations and the unclean things of her fornication. The Word of God does not spare words in describing the utter filthiness of this adulterous relationship in the sight of God. Few crimes in Scripture are spoken of in more unsparing terms than the crime of spiritual adultery of which this woman is the epitome. As alliance with the world and showy pomp increase, so spiritual truth and purity decline.[2] Eventually, this cup becomes the cup of God’s raging fury (Revelation 18:6, 14:10, and 16:9).
She has a name written on her forehead. Scholars are divided on whether her name is a “mystery” or if that is part of her name. At any rate, they agree that the mystery is explained by the phrase “mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” Many writers have noted that the pagan rites of Babylon crept into the early church and were largely responsible for the corruptions incorporated into Roman Catholicism, from which Protestantism separated itself in the Middle Ages. She is a previously undisclosed “Babylon,” revealed only in the end times. She will be the mother, the source, of all the false, idolatrous, blasphemous worship in the end times.
However, the pagan influences of Babylon were not all left behind at the time of the Reformation. Today, mainline denominations, particularly in the developed world, have embraced all kinds of behaviors that God calls an abomination. They consecrate same-sex unions (you can’t accurately call them marriages), celebrate transgenderism, promote sodomites as pastor/teachers, extol abortion as a compassionate choice (which is really child-sacrifice), and on and on. The corruption of the end-time church should surprise no one. We are well on the way!
Further, the woman is “drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” History has clearly demonstrated that the apostate church is unsparing in its persecution of those who refuse its enticements and strive to maintain a genuine faith in Christ. The history of my Anabaptist forebears substantiates this reality. This hatred will climax in the future when the number of faithful martyrs will be innumerable.
As John looked on this woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, he was altogether astounded. He was confused, shocked, astonished, and frightened by the ghastly vision of such a contrastingly magnificent figure of the woman and such deadly intent. Mystery Babylon had been identified. But what does it all mean? That leads us to the next scene…
In the Next SCENE is,
She is Explained
In response to John’s amazement, the angel asks, “Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.” From previous visions, John would have understood that the beast was the Antichrist and that the woman was the false religious system. What he could not see was the connection between the two figures. This is what the angel is ready to explain.
The explanation begins, not with the woman, but with the beast who carries her, described as one who was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit. As noted in Revelation 13, that phrase refers to Antichrist’s faked death and resurrection. The false prophet will use that alleged miracle to deceive the entire world into worshiping Antichrist (13:14). Until that point, Antichrist’s political and economic empire will coexist with the false religious system headed by the false prophet. Eventually, however, he will tolerate only one religion—the worship of himself.
As previously noted, the beast that John saw is Antichrist, the satanic ruler of the last and most powerful empire in human history, who will serve as Satan’s instrument to attack Israel, persecute believers, conquer the world for Satan, and oppose Christ. Scripture portrays him as an intellectual genius (Dan. 7:8); an outstanding orator (Dan. 7:20); a military leader without parallel in human history (Dan. 7:23); a shrewd, calculating, manipulating politician (Dan. 8:25; 11:21); and the ultimate religious charlatan (2 Thess. 2:4).[3]
I admit that the descriptions of Satan in the book of Revelation are confusingly similar. He is described as the angel of the bottomless pit (9:11), the beast that rises from the bottomless pit (11:7), the beast whose deadly wound was healed (13:3), and this beast of our text.
The solution to this intricate problem is that, to some extent, Satan is identified with the future world ruler, and the world ruler is identified with his world government. Each of the three entities is described as a beast. Only Satan himself actually comes from the abyss. The world government which he promotes is entirely satanic in its power and to this extent is identified with Satan. It is the beast, as the world government, that is revived. The man who is the world ruler, however, has power and great authority given to him by Satan. The fact that Satan and the world ruler are referred to in such similar terms indicates their close relationship with one another.[4]
Ultimately, the beast on which the woman was riding will, in the words of our text, “go into perdition.” This phrase is restated in verse 11. While some modern versions use the word destruction, synonyms of perdition, according to Webster’s Dictionary, are “hell” and “inferno.” They will go into the destruction of eternal misery. However, destruction is not annihilation. Revelation 20:10 tells us, “The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”
John is further informed that all those who live on earth and witness these happenings will marvel “with the amazement of a horrible surprise” when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is (Rev. 13:3-4). They will embrace these false miracles because their names were not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world. The specific cause for their amazement will be Antichrist’s seemingly miraculous return to life after receiving an apparently fatal wound. According to Matthew 24:24, only the elect will not fall for Antichrist’s deception.
[1] MacArthur, New Testament Commentary on Revelation, p. 855
[2] Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, p. 256
[3] MacArthur, New Testament Commentary on Revelation, p. 866
[4] Walvoord, The Revelation of Jesus Christ, p. 260
