The Mother of Harlots

Mystery Babylon in the End Times - part 1

Prologue

This essay relies on vital information from four previous essays. If you have read these essays, things will begin to click to see how it all fits together here in Revelation 17. If you have not read them, you may become lost as we discuss some things, since they rely on other prophecies in the Bible for understanding. Here are the four essays referenced in this one:

The Seventy Sevens of Daniel - Calculating the exact arrival of the Messiah and Identifying the End Times

Two Disturbing Dreams - Revealing the Times of the Gentiles

The Beast from the Sea - The Rise of the Antichrist

The Things Which Are - The Seven Churches of Revelation

Introduction

The theme of Revelation 17 and 18 is "Babylon." It is first introduced as a world-wide religious system in chapter 17 which is covered here, but we will learn in a later essay that it is also a commercial enterprise in chapter 18.

Revelation 17:1-5 states,

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who sits on many waters, 2 with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of sexual immorality, and those who live on the earth became drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality.” 3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, holding in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her sexual immorality, 5 and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery: Babylon the Great, The Mother of Prostitutes and of the Abominations of the Earth.

Notice that the word "mystery" is a part of her title. It is a noun, not an adjective and the word in Greek is μυστηριον (mustērion) which is the same word used to describe other mysteries in the New Testament. When the word is used, it normally indicates something that was not known before but is now being revealed through a revelation.

Babylon - Origin and Etymology

After the Great Flood, God gave this command to Noah and his family:

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. Genesis 9:1

But In Genesis 11, Noah's great grandson, Nimrod, led a group of people to start building a city and a tower in the land of Shinar. Scholars believe that this was an act of pride and defiance against this command. They also believe that the tower was an attempt to build something so tall that it could survive another flood. But as we can see, God decided that man was too unified, having a single language, so He caused them to have many languages which forced them to scatter into groups and obey His command to disperse. It is interesting that it says that "the Lord came down to see." This is likely one of many theophanies in Scripture where God takes on human form.

4 And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of all the earth.” 5 Now the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they have started to do, and now nothing which they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth; and they stopped building the city. 9 Therefore it was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. Genesis 11:4-9

After this, the failed city was called Babel in the Hebrew, בָּבֶל, which means "confusion." When a city was finally built there later, the people took the Akkadian name, Babilu, which means "Gateway of the gods." Then, when the Greeks came along, they transliterated this Akkadian word into βαβυλων, "Babylon" So, whenever this city is referenced in the Bible, it is the Hebrew word, Babel, even though in our translations the Greek word "Babylon" is used. Similarly, when we move to the New Testament, John uses the Greek word as well.

Babylon - the Cult

Many cuneiform tablets have been found and translated on the subject of Babylonian idol worship. Additionally, excavations in the early 1900s found that the city Babylon had shrines to Ishtar and a giant golden image to the Sumerian god, Marduk. The ancient Babylonians were famous for building ziggurats for cult worship.

Dr Walvoord believes that most false religion down through history has its origin in Babylon. There are a number of references in the Old Testament to Babylonian gods that were worshipped by the surrounding people and at various times by the Israelites, for example Ezekiel 8:14, Jeremiah 7:18, 44:17-19,25). It is a bit ironic that Israel was led captive into Babylon around 603 BC because they practiced idol worship. Its as if God said "Okay. So you want to worship idols? Then go do it in the capital of idol worship." Once Israel came back to the land, they never practiced idol worship again, and even today Jewish people have certain customs that are meant to avoid idol worship.

Historically, this Babylonian cult and its false Gods can be traced to Pergamos after the Medo-Persian take over, and then to the Etruscans in central Italy which strongly influenced Rome in the area of idol worship which included the worship of Ishtar, believed to have led to the festival of Easter. The Roman emperors picked up and continued this idol worship, and even when Constantine made Christianity the official religion, it included syncretism with the idol worship they had already been practicing. As Rome became the primary location of professing Christianity, this syncretism did not end.

The Woman

One common theme in the Bible is that women commonly represent religion of some kind, and oftentimes it is false religion. This may be because ancient cultures often had women who represented their false religion such as Babylon who worshipped the goddess, Ishtar, who had multiple titles including "Queen of Heaven" in Jeremiah 7:18:

The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to provoke Me to anger.

It was an ongoing battle in the Old Testament in Israel to keep them from falling back to worship false gods and idols that could be traced to their origin in Babylon. It is ironic that there are Roman Catholic churches that exist today named "Queen of Heaven" and "Queen of the Universe." One prominent example of a woman promoting this false religion was the Phoenician woman, Jezebel, who married King Ahab and led Israel into Baal idol worship which included perverse sexual activity. More on these things later.

The Mother of Harlots

Not only is this woman called a harlot (prostitute), but she also has the title, Mother of Harlots. Symbolically, a mother of harlots is the supreme harlot who has harlots under her, working for her. In spiritual terms, it is believed that this means that in the End Times there will be a world religious system that is made up of many false religious systems that operate somewhat autonomously in cooperation with the Mother of Harlots. This may mean that they are allowed to maintain their own unique false doctrines and practices and still be a part of the whole. We might envision world religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, various cult groups, and apostate Christianity, for example, working together in some kind of abominable ecumenical religious system that also promotes sexual immorality.

The Persecution of Believers

One characteristic of this religious system is that it will persecute and kill genuine believers. Although all believers were raptured before the Tribulation, there are many more new believers as a result of a world-wide campaign of the 144,000 witnesses (Revelation 7 and 14). These become subject to death by the false religious system which cannot tolerate the truth of the gospel.

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. Revelation 17:6

The fifth seal in Revelation 6 is about the martyrdom of believers in the End Times. We will discuss the seven Seals in a future essay:

9 When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; 10 and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who live on the earth?” Revelation 6:9-10

Both the Beast from the Sea and the Harlot are Sitting on Many Waters

We have discussed in the past that water commonly represents the Gentile nations, and the fact that this harlot is sitting on many waters implies that her influence is world-wide, similar to that of the Beast that she is riding on who came up out of the sea.

The Scarlet Beast with Seven Heads and Ten Horns

If you read the essay entitled The Beast from the Sea - The Rise of the Antichrist, you will be very familiar with the language of seven heads and ten horns. This harlot is riding on the same beast that came out from the sea, which we know to be the Antichrist. So, there is clearly a close connection between the Antichrist and this world-wide false religious system. Since both the woman and the beast are decked in scarlet, and the woman is adorned with gold and precious stones, there is some kind of opulence that is shared between them.

As mentioned in the other essay, the seven heads appear to be world systems that have existed down through time including Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome and the seventh is a revived Roman Empire during the End Times. The ten horns are ten kingdoms that exist in the last days from which the Antichrist arises. So, this abominable false religious system will be intertwined with the political empire of the End Times. Additionally, the fact that the harlot is riding on top of the beast implies that this false religious system will dominate the Antichrist and the political system during that time that she is in power.

The Relationship Between the Professing Church and The Mother of Harlots

It is at this point that you need to have a clear understanding of at least three of the seven churches from the previous essay, The Things Which Are - The Seven Churches of Revelation. If you remember, the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 have a multidimensional meaning. First, they were seven letters written to seven literal churches in Asia Minor where each one exhibited certain good and bad characteristics. Second, these seven churches are representative of churches in general. At any point in time, it is possible to find churches that exhibit similar characteristics to these seven. And finally, it is clear that these seven churches also have a prophetic element to them in that they represent seven chronological ages of Christendom down through history. To see this mapping, you will need to read that essay.

For this essay, we are going to take another look at three of the seven churches and how they fit into End Times prophecy, especially how they relate to Mystery Babylon and the Mother of Harlots.

1. The Church of Philadelphia

This is the sixth church, and the significant fact about it is that this is the dominant church on Earth when the Rapture of all believers takes place:

Because you have kept My word of perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of the testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those who live on the earth. Revelation 3:10

After this event, there will still be "Christian" churches all over the world, but they will now be filled with unbelievers who were not raptured. This fact immediately leads to the next church in the chronology, Laodicea.

2. The Church of Laodicea

This is the seventh and final church that exists after all believers are gone. Although there will be some people who become believers after the Rapture, the primary description of this church is that it is an apostate church:

Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have no need of anything,” and you do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked Revelation 3:17

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20

Clearly this is a rebuke of an apostate unbelieving church. Notice that this church is also wealthy and in need of nothing, similar to the Mother of Harlots. This church exists in the intervening time after the Rapture but before the Tribulation. The fact that it is apostate and wealthy makes it a perfect fit to morph into becoming one of the "harlots" in the world religious system that exists under the Mother of Harlots during the Tribulation.

3. Church of Thyatira

It may seem odd that we are now going back and referencing an earlier church; namely the fourth church, Thyatira. But it has significant characteristics of the Mother of Harlots that need to be addressed. This is the church that was dominant during the Dark Ages, namely, the Roman Catholic Church.

You may remember that this church was a mixture of good and bad. The good contingent in the church was commended for their "love and faith, and service and perseverance." But there was another group in this church that was following "Jezebel" who led them into idol worship and other abominations similar to the Jezebel of the Old Testament:

But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray so that they commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols. Revelation 2:20

If we think about this church down through the ages (which is one of the ways to view all of these churches), there was a believing contingent, known for their good works. It is a reasonable assumption then, that when the Rapture occurs, this entire element will disappear from the Roman Catholic Church, leaving only the element that is following Jezebel.

One verse in the Letter to the Church ofThyatira in Revelation 2 shows its significance in the End Times; namely, that the followers of Jezebel in this church will go into the Tribulation:

Behold, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. Revelation 2:22

It would appear then that unlike the Church of Philadelphia that will be absent during the Tribulation, what is left of the Churches of Laodicea and Thyatira will go into the Tribulation.

Babylon the Ancient City

We know that Babylon was an empire that existed in the time of Daniel. And we know that in Revelation it is a metaphor for a false religious system. But future Babylon also has a physical location where it is centered. One clue is given at the end of chapter 17:

The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth. Revelation 17:18

There are reputable scholars who believe that "Babylon" literally refers to the ancient city and that it will be rebuilt to fulfill this prophecy. They then believe that both the religious element and the commercial element of Mystery Babylon found in chapter 18 will be centered in the literal city of Babylon which has been rebuilt over the ancient ruins. Some scholars then reference the fact that in the 1990s Saddam Hussein was making an attempt to rebuild it since the actual location is in Iraq 50 miles South of Bagdad. Of course, Saddam Hussein is no longer around and Babylon is no more than a historical site today.

The other problem with this view is that both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesy that Babylon will never be inhabited again:

17 Behold, I am going to stir up the Medes against them, Who will not value silver or take pleasure in gold. 18 And their bows will mow down the young men, They will not even have compassion on the fruit of the womb, Nor will their eye pity children. 19 And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans’ pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch his tent there, Nor will shepherds allow their flocks to lie down there. Isaiah 13:17-20

1 The word which the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet: 2 “Declare and proclaim among the nations. Proclaim it and lift up a flag, Do not conceal it. Say, ‘Babylon has been captured, Bel has been put to shame, Marduk has been shattered; Her idols have been put to shame, her images have been shattered.’

39 "Therefore the desert creatures will live there with the jackals; The ostriches also will live in it. It will never again be inhabited Nor lived in from generation to generation. 40 As when God overthrew Sodom And Gomorrah with its neighbors,” declares the Lord, “No one will live there, Nor will anyone of mankind reside in it. Jeremiah 50:1-2,39-40

They will not take from you even a stone for a corner Nor a stone for foundations, But you will be desolate forever,” declares the Lord. Jeremiah 51:26

So then, it would seem that if the literal city of Babylon were ever rebuilt in the same location, it would be a violation of these prophecies.

Babylon is Rome

You will recall that the Mother of Harlots is sitting on a seven-headed beast and we identified the meaning of the seven heads as they relate to the Beast with seven heads from chapter 13. But John adds a new element in chapter 17 to the description as it relates to the Harlot.

9 Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits, 10 and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while. Revelation 17:9-10

John interprets the seven heads in two ways here. In verse 10 he describes that the heads are the seven historical empires that we already mentioned. But, in verse 9 John provides an additional new meaning - the seven heads are also seven mountains upon which the woman sits. Almost every commentator says that when John was writing Revelation, the common literature of the day called Rome "The city of seven hills", and so John was indicating that this harlot is centered in Rome.

Peter also makes a cryptic reference to Babylon in his writings:

She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark. 1 Peter 5:13

Dr Ryrie and others believe that, in the context, Peter is referring to Rome. Clearly ancient Babylon did not exist in Peter's day, and there are indications that Peter was in Rome when he wrote this. If this is the case, it gives credence to John using the same cryptic reference in Revelation. Most doubt is put to rest when John equates the woman with "the great city" in 17:18 which we cited above. In John's day, this was none other than Rome.

We should also note that the seventh and final world empire that exists in the End Times is an extension of the ancient Roman Empire. This is spelled out in the essay Two Disturbing Dreams - Revealing the Times of the Gentiles. In the dream, Daniel reveals that the statue represents present and future kingdoms culminating in the End Times:

However, there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. Daniel 2:28

In the vision of the statue, the legs of iron represented the Roman Empire. This was followed by feet and toes made of iron and clay which is a form of the Roman Empire that comes back in the End Times. So, it makes sense that the revival of the Roman Empire in some ways includes Rome itself.

Finally, you may also remember from the first essay, The Seventy Sevens of Daniel - Calculating the exact arrival of the Messiah and Identifying the End Times, that Daniel 9:26 indicates that the Antichrist himself will in some way also come out of Rome since his background will match the background of the people who destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in AD 70, which was Rome:

"...and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. Daniel 9:26b

Then, if we combine the fact that the "Jezebel" element in the Church of Thyatira will enter the Great Tribulation, and that Mystery Babylon is centered in Rome, it is a reasonable assumption that the Mother of Harlots is what is left of the Roman Catholic Church after the Rapture, ruling from the Vatican. But instead of practicing the "love and faith, and service and perseverance" which was a characteristic of the church, it will now be led by "Jezebel", the other contingent in the church. In the End Times it will fulfill all of the elements of the prophecy - "clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, holding in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her sexual immorality" and will orchestrate the other harlot religions of the world in one system.

The Timing and Destruction of the World Religion

We know from the context that this world religion exists during the Tribulation. So the question becomes what part of the Tribulation does it operate in? Although it is not clearly stated, scholars are able to infer that it operates in the first half of the Tribulation.

The harlot is sitting on the Beast (the Antichrist) which implies a measure of control over him. But we know from the Book of Daniel that the Antichrist causes major changes at the halfway point of the Tribulation including stopping the sacrificial system in Israel:

And he will confirm a covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; Daniel 9:27a ("week" here is the Hebrew word for seven which represents 7 years as we determined in the first essay).

So, the consensus is that the Mother of Harlots world religion dominates the world and even the Antichrist to some extent in the first half (three and one half years) of the Tribulation. But then the political system of kings and the Antichrist no longer tolerates her and decide to destroy her:

And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. 17 For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. Revelation 17:16-17

The New Religion that Replaces the Mother of Harlots

We know from Paul's writings that at some point the Antichrist demands to be worshipped as God:

who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God. 2 Thessalonians 2:4

So, the world religion under the Mother of Harlots is destroyed by the Antichrist who then demands to be worshipped as God.

Summary

Chapter 17 of Revelation describes the Mother of Harlots which is a religious system that is the final ultimate form of idol worship and false religion that dominates the political empire of the Antichrist for the first half of the Tribulation.

It started at the Tower of Babel with defiance of God's command to Noah and morphed into the Babylonian gods and every form of false religion that followed. It is an extension of the apostate Christian element that is left over after the Rapture and also incorporates all false religions in existence. It seems from the evidence that it is run by the "Jezebel" contingent of the remnant of the Roman Catholic Church which is now also apostate after the Rapture and is centered in Rome. This religious system will be destroyed by the Antichrist at the midpoint of the Tribulation as he decides that he wants to be worshipped as God in the temple in Jerusalem.

In the near future, we will cover chapter 18 which introduces more elements that make up the title "Babylon."

(1) Revelation, Dr Charles Ryrie, Charles Ryrie Publishing, 1996

(2) Revelation, David Levy, The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, 2003

(3) The Revelation of Jesus Christ, Dr John Walvoord, THe Moody Bible Institute, 1966

All quotes are from NASB unless otherwise noted.