The Whore of Babylon is NOT the Catholic Church

The Whore of Babylon is Not the Catholic Church

I’m going to do a short series on the Whore of Babylon. John spends more time on the harlot than any other subject in the Book of Revelation. The greatest celebration in the entire Bible takes place when the harlot is destroyed. We are told to come out of her, my people, so we better know what she is.

The Harlot of Babylon is called a mystery. If you have spent any time studying the harlot, then you know how many different opinions are out there. Most of the prophecy teachers say the harlot is the Catholic Church. Some say America or New York. Others say she is Saudi Arabia or Jerusalem. Is it any wonder she is called a mystery?

I am going to show you, in simple terms, why these commentaries on what the harlot is, are wrong. She is not the Catholic Church. She is not America. She is not New York or Jerusalem. She is not Saudi Arabia. I am going to show you that the harlot has been around since the beginning. She has been around long before any of these other churches or countries or cities even existed.

Let’s look at Revelation 17. I’m only going to do the key verses here. You can read the whole chapter yourself to get the big picture.

Rev 17:3 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.

John is shown the judgement of the great harlot. He sees a woman sitting on a beast. The beast has seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:9 Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on 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.

John wondered greatly when he saw the harlot. The angel then asks him, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery.” The angel then tells John about the beast that carries her that has seven heads. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits, and they are seven kings.

Five of these kings have fallen. One of the kings now is. Then another king will come after him. Seven kings. Mountains are kingdoms and each one of these kings had a kingdom.

When John is writing the book of Revelation, he says that five of the kings that carry the harlot have already lived and died. John continues and says that the sixth king is living now. Then he says the seventh king will come after him and remain a little while.

According to one of the most ancient versions of the New Testament, called the Syriac, John was exiled by Nero and wrote Revelation around 68 A.D.  This means that the harlot existed long before he wrote his book! How can the harlot be the Catholic Church or America or New York or Saudi Arabia if she existed long before John? The Catholic Church didn’t come into existence until hundreds of years after John.

If you ask a Catholic when the Catholic church started, they will tell you at Pentecost when the church was created by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Of course that wasn’t the birth of the Catholic church. It was the birth of the early church. The early church was all Jews to start with and then the Gentiles were brought in a little while later.

The early church spread to all the areas surrounding Jerusalem which was ruled by the Roman Empire. The church was persecuted by the Romans until the third century.

Then the Universal or Catholic Church was created in 306 A.D. when Constantine declared Christianity the state religion of the Roman Empire. All the things that Protestants and Bible prophecy teachers associate with the Catholic Church today started in 306 A.D. None of the things they associate with the Catholic Church existed before Constantine.

Under Constantine, Sabbath was changed from the Biblical Saturday to Sunday. The seven Biblical feasts of the Lord were removed and replaced with pagan feasts. The persecution switched from Christians to Jews. The early church never prayed to Mary, and they were still baptizing people who repented and got born again by dunking them. They didn’t sprinkle babies who had not even sinned yet, much less repented. All these changes and many more happened when Christianity was declared the state religion of the pagan Roman Empire and eventually resulted in the Dark Ages.

If five of the kings that carry the harlot had lived and died prior to John writing Revelation, then how can the harlot be the Catholic Church? It didn’t even exist until almost two and a half centuries after John!

Not to mention America, New York, Saudi Arabia or all the others the teachers come up with?

She is not called the harlot of Rome. She is called the harlot of Babylon. Babel and Babylon are the same word in Hebrew. Bet, bet, lamed. Babel. You can call her the harlot of Babel or the harlot of Babylon. Makes no difference. They are the exact same word.

Here is what the harlot is.

At the beginning of the Bible there was the first corporate rebellion of mankind against God. This rebellion was the city and tower of Babel. The city of Babel is the mother of the harlots. She is the first. She has been giving birth to many more harlots and spreading her evil throughout history.

At the end of the Bible there is the harlot of Babylon. She is the final manifestation of what started at Babel. She is the final corporate rebellion of mankind against God. Babel was one city. The harlot is the great city. Seven times in the book of Revelation she is called the great city. She is all the cities of the nations on the earth in one final act of rebellion against God before the coming of Messiah.

The harlot of Babylon is the demonic spirit of rebellion. Rebellion against the creator of heaven and earth. Rebellion against the plan of God. Her passion is to stop the plan of God. She is drunk with the blood of prophets and saints. The blood of all those who have been slain on the earth throughout history is on her. She has existed from the beginning and has continued to exist throughout history.

She is responsible for most of the suffering of mankind. She rules over the kings of the earth. She brings the masses together to war against each other. She brings the masses together to rebel against God.

As we continue this series it will become more and more obvious what the harlot is.