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THE REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST TO HIS SERVANT JOHN
The Unveiling of the Kingdom on Earth and in Heaven
Lesson 20
Succession Arrangements of the Covenant Treaty Continued
Chapter 17
The Great Prostitute and the Mystery Explained

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Eternal Lord,
Give us the spiritual strength and the physical will to combat sin wherever and whenever evil confronts us, whether it finds us in our homes, the workplace, or society in general. Help us to discern when evil is subtle and hides among platitudes of misplaced mercy. Give us the courage to renounce evil even when doing so will result in material loss or the loss of friends or social position. We know that the way of sin and corruption leads to spiritual death, but choosing the path of righteousness and goodness according to Your teachings leads to eternal life. We pray in the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

+ + +

...since they would not consent to acknowledge God, God abandoned them to their unacceptable thoughts and indecent behavior. And so now they are steeped in all sorts of injustice, rottenness, greed, and malice; full of envy, murder, wrangling, treachery and spite, libelers, slanderers, enemies of God, rude, arrogant and boastful, enterprising in evil, rebellious to parents, without brains, honor. Love, or pity. They are well aware of God's ordinances: that those who behave like this deserve to die; yet they not only do it but even applaud others who do the same.
Romans 1:26-32

Their corpses lie in the main street of the great city known by the symbolic names Sodom and Egypt, in which their Lord was crucified.
Revelation 11:8

The 7^th angel emptied his bowl into the air, and a great voice boomed out from the sanctuary, "The end has come (it is accomplished).
Revelation 16:17

Nevertheless, I have a complaint to make: you tolerate the woman Jezebel who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching, she is luring my servants away to commit adultery.
Revelation 2:20

But you became infatuated with your own beauty and used your fame to play the whore, lavishing your debauchery on all comers.
Ezekiel 16:15

Adultery/prostitution is a symbolic image of the covenant people's rebellion/apostasy from their covenant with Yahweh in the Old and New Testaments; see Part II in the chart:

Chapter 17 of Revelation corresponds to Jesus' letter to the church at Thyatira, where He promised His judgment on the woman Jezebel, the false prophetess who misled the congregation. Nevertheless, I have a complaint to make: you tolerate the woman Jezebel who claims to be a prophetess, and by her teaching, she is luring my servants away to commit adultery (Rev 2:20). This last division of the Book of Revelation that began in Chapter 15, also corresponds to the fifth and final part of a covenant treaty, the Succession Arrangements, dealing with the continuity of the New Covenant, the disinheritance of illegitimate/adulterous members, and the inheritance of those who are faithful to their sworn obligations (cf. Dt Chapters. 31-34).

In Revelation 11:8, a voice from Heaven identified the "Great City" where "Lord was crucified" symbolically as both Egypt and Sodom. After the sacrificial "pouring out" of the seven chalices by the seven angels/ministers of the heavenly Temple, it becomes clear why this "Great City" deserves to be symbolically linked to both Egypt and Sodom.
Question: Why is this "Great City" identified with Egypt? See Rev 11:8 and the chart comparing the Chalice and Trumpet judgments to the Plagues of Egypt.
Answer: The identity as Egypt is because of the "plagues" contained in the chalices, many of which correspond to the plagues of Egypt.

Question: Why is the "Great City," where the Lord was crucified, also identified with Sodom (see Rev 11:8). What happened to Sodom?
Answer: The "Great City" is like Sodom because of its judgment by fire, and, like Sodom, the destruction will be complete!

After 31/2 months of the Roman siege and the intense suffering of the population, the Romans destroyed the city of Jerusalem by fire on the 9^th of Ab AD 70, the same day Jerusalem and the Temple of Solomon suffered destruction by the Babylonians in 587/6 BC.

The "Great City" where Christ "was crucified" (Rev 11:8) had become a "false prophet" in her testimony to the world that Jesus was not the Messiah, and in her apostasy, she had become a "great prostitute" and a "false bride." This "Great City" identifies both Biblically and historically with the city once full of fair judgment was the city of Jerusalem. In this chapter, an angel identifies the "Great City" of Jerusalem symbolically identified as "Babylon." Babylon, whose name means "gate of Heaven," had at one time received the blessings of God and guidance by His holy prophet Daniel only to reject Him in favor of state-worship and false gods. God brought judgment on Babylon by the Persians in the 6^th century BC.

When Yahweh established His dwelling place among His covenant people in Jerusalem, the city became the true "gate of heaven" with His holy Temple there to be His witness to the nations of the world. But Jerusalem, whose name means "will provide peace," rejected God and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding (Phil 4:7) when she rejected Jesus, the Messiah, God who came in the flesh: The faithful city, what a harlot (prostitute) she has become: Zion, once full of fair judgment, where saving justice used to dwell, but now assassins!" Isaiah 1:21 (740 BC)

In Ezekiel 16:35-36, Yahweh gave the prophet Ezekiel this message to deliver to the covenant people five years before the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple: Very well, whore, hear the word of Yahweh! The Lord Yahweh says this: "For having squandered your money (literally = "poured out, ekcheo; your bronze," meaning "lust") and let yourself be seen naked while whoring with your lovers and all the foul idols of your loathsome practices and for giving them your children's blood, for this, I shall assemble all the lovers to whom you have given pleasure ... You have brought this on yourself, with your lewdness and your loathsome practices," declares the Lord Yahweh.

Revelation 17:1-7 ~ Condemnation of the Great Prostitute/False Bride
1 One of the seven angels that had the seven bowls came to speak to me and said, "Come here, and I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute [porne] who is enthroned beside [sitting on = kathemai] abundant waters [or many waters], 2 with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, and who has made all the population of the world [those who dwell on the land] drunk with the wine of her adultery." 3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding [sitting on = kathemai] a scarlet [kokkinon] beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet [kokkinon] and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold wine cup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitutions; 5 on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: "Babylon the Great, the mother of all the prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth." 6 I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified. 7 The angel said to me, "Do you not understand? I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast, she is riding [sitting on = kathemai], with the seven heads and the ten horns. [...] = Greek, IBGE, Vol. IV, page 688-89; kathemai = "to sit down" #2521 in Strong's Concordance. Notice that the same Greek word, kathemai (to sit down), appears in verses 1, 3, 7, and 15; the same word also appears in Rev 4:4; 5:13; 6:16; 7:10, 15; 18:7; 19:18 and the related word kathizo ("to seat/sit") in 3:21. The word kokkinon (scarlet) appears in verses 3 and 4.

Verse 2 is the eleventh time the phrase "those who dwell on the land" appears in Revelation. As you will recall, this phrase is symbolic for apostate Israel and appears twelve times in Revelation; once for each of the twelve tribes of Israel: Revelation 3:10; 6:10; 8:13; 11:10 [twice]; 13:8, 12, 14 [twice]; 14:6; 17:2, 8).

Previous chapters symbolically identified the "Great city" of Jerusalem as Babylon and Sodom. Revelation 11:8 identified the "Great City" as where "our Lord was crucified," referring to Jerusalem. The second of the three sets of angels of the Temple in 14:8 also told John that Jerusalem is "the Great City" symbolized as sinful Babylon in Revelation 14:8 ~ a second angel followed him (the first angel), calling, "Babylon has fallen, Babylon the Great has fallen, Babylon which gave the whole world the wine of retribution to drink." And again, he was told in Revelation 16:18c-19 ~ The Great City was split into three parts and the cities of the world collapsed; Babylon the Great was not forgotten: God made her drink the full winecup of his retribution."

The original splendid city of Babylon (whose name means "gate of Heaven") no longer existed in the 1^st century AD. It was the site of the infamous tower of Babel in the land of Shinar (Gen 11:1-9; today, modern Iraq). It became the capital city of the Babylonian Empire, the world power that destroyed Judah and Jerusalem in 587 BC and took the covenant people into exile. The Medo-Persians conquered the Babylonians in the later part of the 6^th century BC and then by Alexander the Great in the 4^th century BC. After Alexander's death, there was a power struggle among his generals, and Babylon passed to the Greek Seleucid dynasty in 312 BC. When the Seleucid's built the new capital of Seleucia on the Tigris, they transferred part of Babylon's population there in 275 BC, and ancient Babylon ceased to be a city of significance.

The Babylon of St. John's day did not have the significance or wealth of the Babylon that destroyed Jerusalem in the 6^th century BC; it was no longer "a great city." Instead, sinful ancient Babylon was a symbolic image of Jerusalem who had become just like the sinful pagan capitals and a false "gate of Heaven." The clue lies in the description that this city that sits, with the concept of being enthroned, on "many waters," polus hydra in Greek, an image that repeats the prophet Jeremiah's description of Babylon in his oracle judgment against the city in Jeremiah Chapters 50-51 ~ Enthroned beside [sitting on = kathemai] abundant waters [many waters = polus hydra in the Septuagint], rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of your pillaging (Jeremiah 51:13).

John's first-century AD Jewish-Christian readers would have immediately made the connection to the Ezekiel judgment passage on Babylon. The literal reference to "abundant waters" or "many waters" in Jeremiah 51:13 is the Euphrates River, which ran through the middle of the great city and to the canals that surrounded the city. Ironically, the term "many waters" appears in Scripture to refer to the abundant blessings that God bestows on His people. Yahweh even gave a blessing to Babylon in the guidance of His prophet, Daniel, and King Nebuchadnezzar acknowledged that the God of Heaven was the only God and above all other gods (Dan 4:16-34). However, the Babylonian kings prostituted those blessings for her material glory and rejected Yahweh. Later, Revelation 17:15 will reveal an important aspect of the symbolic meaning of the term "many waters," but in this verse, the point is the identification of Jerusalem as a prostitute city like the ancient city of Babylon who accepted God's blessings but turned away from Him.

Jerusalem also sat upon "abundant/many" waters in the continuously flowing Gihon Spring, the city's only source of water, named as one of the rivers that flowed out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:13). No other city in the world received more of God's blessings than the city of Jerusalem. However, like Babylon, she turned from Yahweh, prostituted herself, and rejected God the Messiah. In rejecting the Redeemer-Messiah, Israel (Judah), the Bride of Yahweh, who was the Old Covenant Church and her priests, led those who dwell on the land (of Judah) astray and into adultery. They became drunk with the wine of her adultery; they became seduced into such a spiritual stupor that they did not even recognize their own Messiah when He came and therefore forfeited God's many blessings.

The phrase "many waters" or "abundant waters" (polus hydra) is significant in Scripture. Biblically, this expression is set within God's covenant relationships reflected in His many blessings and His liturgical interaction with His people. In all the passages, it is the same phrase: polus hydra (the Greek translation of the Old Testament and Greek New Testament):

1. Jeremiah 51:13 ~ Babylon's abundance granted by God: Enthroned [sitting on] beside abundant waters [polus hydra], rich in treasures, you now meet your end, the finish of your pillaging.
2. Ezekiel 1:24 ~ the voice from the Glory-Cloud sounds like many or abundant waters, produced by the innumerable angels in the heavenly council: I also heard the noise of their wings; when they moved, it was like the noise of flood-waters [polus hydra], like the voice of Shaddai, like the noise of a storm, like the noise of an armed camp...
3. Revelation 1:15 ~ John hears God's voice from heaven as the sound of many waters like the description of His voice in Ezekiel 43:2 ~ like the sound of the ocean [many waters = polus hydra]
   and Revelation 14:2 ~ like the sound of the ocean [many waters = polus hydra].
4. Revelation 17:1 ~ the great prostitute who is enthroned beside [sitting on] abundant waters [many waters = polus hydra]; the "city" to whom God has given many blessings.
5. Revelation 19:5-6 ~ Then a voice came from the throne; it said, "Praise our God, you servants of his and those who fear him, small and great alike." And I heard what seemed to be the voices of a huge crowd, like the sound of the ocean [many waters = polus hydra] or the great roar of thunder, answering, "Alleluia! The reign of the Lord our God Almighty has begun" = Liturgical praise.

Given the Biblical background and context of the phrase "many waters" or "abundant waters" (polus hydra), it would be no surprise to John's readers that the Bride of Yahweh was seated on [kathemai] "many waters"; the surprise is that she is a whore! She is the Bride who received God's blessings and has prostituted them. Read Ezekiel Chapter 16, where Yahweh condemns Israel in an extended allegory as a faithless wife and a "whore" of alien gods. Also, see Romans 2:17-24, where St. Paul writes, If, while you are boasting of the Law, you disobey it, then you are bringing God into contempt. As scripture says: It is your fault that the name of God is held in contempt among the nations (Rom 2:23-24).

Unfortunately, several anti-Catholic Protestant commentators identify Rome as the "prostitute city," the geographic center of the Holy Roman Catholic Church. John's 1^st-century AD readers certainly would not have accepted this interpretation. Martin Luther championed this interpretation when the Pope excommunicated him from the Catholic Church in the 16^th century. Luther saw the Church of Rome as the False Bride and the Pope as the Antichrist, while Pope Leo X, in turn, denounced Luther as the Antichrist and Protestantism as a false prophet! But the Church, founded by Christ through Peter, His Vicar, stands on the promise that Jesus made in Matthew 16:16 when He said, "the gates of Hades will not prevail against her" because she is the True and Holy Bride of Christ. The irony is that the Bride of Christ, the Universal [Catholic] Church of Jesus Christ is full of imperfect sinners, yet she is the sinless Bride.

Question: Is there a warning for us in the 21^st century Church? Did the Old Covenant Church believe that judgment could lead to the destruction of their Temple and the transformation of their Covenant?
Answer: All Christians should heed the warning. Even though the True Bride, New Covenant Church, has the promise of Christ's protection, we should never become so overly comfortable that we fall into complacency and therefore fall into the danger of unfaithfulness through unorthodox belief.

We have so many blessings, but how many Catholics genuinely understand their faith? How many Catholics carry their Bibles to the celebration of the Lord's sacrifice of the Mass? How many parishes offer adult studies in the doctrine of the Church or Biblical study programs? It is only through ignorance that we lose Catholics to other denominations. After all, if one truly believed in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, how could one leave Him? And yet, every year thousands of Catholics leave Mother Church and walk away from Christ just as many of His disciples did in His Bread of Life Discourse when He promised them His flesh to eat and His blood to drink in John 6:66 (notice the trinity of sixes, the number of rebellion).

Biblically, the symbol of the "false bride" is a familiar image. In Biblical symbolism, the motif of the Bride falling into adultery and prostitution identifies God's Covenant people falling into apostasy. Running after false gods and abandoning the sacred covenant with Yahweh equates to the sins of adultery and prostitution. The Old Testament uses this metaphor exclusively for a city or a nation that has abandoned the obedience of faith to God's holy covenant and rejected its commands and prohibitions. This imagery always applies to faithless Israel, "Bride of Yahweh" with only two exceptions:

1. the Phoenician city of Tyre and
2. the Assyrian capital city Nineveh.

These are the two pagan cities Yahweh invited to enter into a covenant relationship with Him in 1 Kings 5:1-12, 9:13, Isaiah 23:17, and Amos 1:9.

The city of Tyre received an introduction to the worship of Yahweh during King Solomon's reign in the early 10^th century BC. Tyre's king contracted a covenant with Solomon (David's son) and assisted in the building of God's Holy Temple on Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem. The passage in Revelation 17:2, with whom all the kings of the earth have prostituted themselves, is from Isaiah's prophecy against Tyre, where it primarily refers to her international commerce through which her pagan influence and beliefs spread (Is 23:15-17). The other city is Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire. God's prophet Jonah called Ninevah to repentance with his preaching, and her king declared Yahweh the true God (Jon 3:5-10). Later, these two cities' return to paganism would be considered unfaithfulness to Yahweh expressed as adultery/prostitution. Pagan Rome of the 1^st century AD never entered into any relationship with Yahweh.

The other important point in the identification of the Great City is her identification as the "False Bride," and "False Prophet."
Question: What is the city described in contrast to the True Bride and identified as the Great Prostitute and False Bride? See Rev 21:1-2.
Answer: The "True Bride" is the Church of the New Covenant founded by Christ, the "New" Jerusalem; therefore, the False Bride is Old Covenant Jerusalem, who denied Jesus was the divine Messiah come to redeem His people and prostituted herself to the pagans.

The identification of the "False Bride" as opposed to the "True Bride" only makes sense if the "New" Jerusalem is in contrast to the "Old" Jerusalem that has rejected Christ as her bridegroom and has become a False, adulterous Bride! She has become like the builders of the tower of Babel, built on the site of what became the city of Babylon. Babel, from which Babylon took its name, literally meant, "gate of Heaven," but in rejecting Yahweh, He judged them, cast down their tower, scattered the nations and confused their tongues in their attempt to rebel against Yahweh by offering a false "gate of Heaven" through pagan worship.

Question: When did Yahweh's curse judgment on the people who built the Tower of Babel, which resulted in worldwide confusion of tongues and in scattering the people across the face of the earth in Genesis 11:1-9, get reversed? See Acts chapter 2.
Answer: The second great Pentecost in AD 30, fifty days after Jesus' Resurrection, was the reversal of the Tower of Babel's judgment. God the Holy Spirit came in "tongues of fire," and all the people present understood, as thought hearing one language, the disciples' message of the Gospel of salvation. Those who accepted the Gospel message, followed by baptism, were gathered into one world family in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

That event once again united all nations in a Holy Covenant that opened the gates of Heaven through Christ the Savior, the Bridegroom of the New Covenant, universal Church. Once again, God's blessing would flow as "many waters" as in John's vision in Revelation 22:1 ~ Then the angel showed me the river of life, rising from the throne of God and of the Lamb and flowing crystal-clear.

3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding [sitting] a scarlet beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls, and she was holding a gold winecup filled with the disgusting filth of her prostitution
The prostitute-woman is in a "spiritual desert," an abode of demons. In Matthew 12:34, Jesus said: "When an unclean spirit goes out of someone, it wanders through waterless country looking for a place to rest, and cannot find one." In Chapter 12, we saw the Woman, the True Bride in the image of the Virgin Mary, being forced to flee from the Dragon into the desert for a time where God protected her. But to the False Bride, the wilderness is her element where she chooses to remain instead of accepting the Messiah and following Him to her inheritance: the Promised Land of Heaven. Therefore, the "wilderness" becomes her destiny and her heritage (see Num Chapters 13-14; Zech 5:5-11).

Question: If we can agree that Judea/Jerusalem is "the False Bride," what does the beast on which she sits symbolize, and what is the connection to past Revelation passages?
Answer: The beast on which the Woman sits is the sea-beast, with seven emperors and ten provinces, but the Roman Empire is in the image of the Dragon of Revelation 12:3.

The imagery points to both Satan and Rome, to whom Judah is tired politically and economically. That the beast is full of blasphemous names/titles is a reference to Jerusalem's apostate intimacy with both Satan (in rejecting Christ she chose Satan) and the Roman Empire, which was the devil's reigning political incarnation. The two, Satan and Rome, are represented as one image.

Verses 3-4 and its Satan/Rome imagery is another indication that the "Great Prostitute City/False Bride" can't be Rome because the verses present her as being distinct from Rome. She is seated on the sea beast, meaning she is supported and maintained by the Roman Empire in the image of the Dragon (Rev 12:3) and which supported, maintained, and controlled (empowered) Jerusalem, and whose emperor her priests, as the people's representatives, recognized as their "true" king instead of Jesus (Jn 19:15).

The other evidence we have pointing to the scarlet beast as Rome is in Revelation 17:9, where the angel tells John, "This calls for shrewdness. The seven heads are the seven hills on which the woman is sitting" (present tense). The seven heads of the beast represent seven hills. Jerusalem does not have seven hills; it was built on three mountain ridges, but Rome is famous for its seven hills.

Question: Do you see any contrast between the Throne of God (Rev 4:6-8) and where the Great Prostitute is sitting? See Rev 17:1-3.
Answer: The four Living Creatures who are "full of eyes" support the Throne of God, and they were full of singing God's praises in Revelation 4:6-8. However, the Prostitute Queen is sitting throne-like on the beast that is full of blasphemous names.

3 He took me in spirit to a desert, and there I saw a woman riding [sitting on = kathemai] a scarlet [kokkinon] beast which had seven heads and ten horns and had blasphemous titles written all over it. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet [kokkinon] and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet [kokkinon] and glittered with gold and jewels and pearls
Some commentators point out that there is a connection between the red Dragon of Revelation Chapter 12 and the beast of Revelation 17 because they are described by the same color, red, but the Greek text does not identify the same color. Instead, the scarlet color of the beast in Chapter 17 (Greek = kokkinon) matches the woman's dress in verse 4, whereas the Red Dragon in Revelation 12:3 is the color of fire (Greek = purros). Kokkinon is crimson blended with dark blue (see Isaiah 1:18). It was a color used to attract attention (for example, the scarlet thread attached to the first twin of Tamar in Genesis 38:28 and to the scarlet cord that marked the home of Rahab in Joshua 2:18).

The colors of the Prostitute's clothing are significant. Some commentators suggest the colors of scarlet and purple are an indication of ungodly conduct (for example Isaiah 1:18, sin like scarlet) and a color that stands in sharp contrast to the white garments of the elect (Rev 3:5, 18; 4:4; 6:11; 7:9, 13-14; 15:6; 19:8, 14). But other commentators suggest that she is not in the garments of a prostitute. The sea beast's scarlet color may refer to the short scarlet military cape worn by Roman military officers.

Please see Genesis 2:11-12; Exodus 3:22; Exodus Chapters 26 and 28; Proverbs 31:21-22; Isaiah 54:11-12; 60:5-11; Ezekiel 16:11-14; Ezekiel 28:9-29; Revelation 4:3-4; and 21:18-21. In these passages, the description of her clothing is in keeping with the Biblical descriptions of the glorious "City of God" in Isaiah and Revelation, and there is also a connection to the colors in the textiles of the Sanctuary and later the Temple's curtains (Ex 26:1, 31, 36), the outer garment of the High Priest (Ex 28:4-8), the jewels that covered the high priest's breastplate (Ex 28:15-21), and the Throne of God in Revelation 4:3-4. Exodus, Ezekiel, and Proverbs all describe the clothing of a bride with finery like the woman in Revelation 17. In other words, first-century readers would view this woman dressed as a "righteous," high-status woman, or as a Bride. Also, she is adorned in the beautiful garments of the Church, like the colors of the textiles of the Sanctuary and the garments of the high priest (Ex 26-28). If this interpretation is correct, the Prostitute/False Bride is still carrying the outward adornments of the chaste Old Covenant Bride of Yahweh!

she was holding a gold winecup
Question: What is the wine of her fornication, and what contrast, or parody, is there to the winecup of Holy Eucharist? See Revelation 17:6
Answer: The wine of her fornication is the blood of the Saints, and the blood of the witnesses (martyrs) of Jesus is in contrast to the holy and pure cup/chalice of Christ's blood that He offers baptized members of the covenant in a state of grace.b

But how is the blood of the saints and martyrs of Christ connected with Jerusalem or as some suggest, with Rome? Many commentators who prefer Rome as the "Great Prostitute" enumerate Rome's acts of violence against the Saints of the Church. However, while it is true that Rome became a great persecutor of the Church, Jerusalem was the preeminent persecutor of God's holy people as Jesus testified, from the blood of Abel onwards (Mt 23:33-36). This passage also recalls Leviticus Chapter 11 and 20:22-26 with images of unclean food and unclean marriage. There is also probably a connection to Jeremiah 51:7, where the city of Babylon is described as a golden cup in the hand of Yahweh, intoxicating all the earth. Old Covenant Jerusalem still has the golden chalice of the Covenant, but the communion she offers leads humanity to death and destruction. Her cup is full of "disgusting filth," or as other translations read "full of abominations," a word used Biblically to symbolize the worship of false gods.b

5 on her forehead was written a name, a cryptic name: "Babylon the Great, the mother of all prostitutes and all the filthy practices on the earth." 6 I saw that she was drunk, drunk with the blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus; and when I saw her, I was completely mystified. The angel said to me, "Do you not understand? I will tell you the meaning of this woman, and of the beast she is riding, with the seven heads and ten horns."
Question: What are two characteristics of the Great Prostitute? See verses 4 and 5.
Answer: She is holding a gold winecup, and she has a mysterious name on her forehead.

Question: Where have you previously read about the image of a name in Revelation, and what did it signify? See Revelation 3:12; 7:3; 14:1, and 13:16-17.
Answer: Previously, John saw a name on the foreheads of saints and the followers of the beast.

Question: Can you think of any Old Testament connection? See Exodus 28:36-39.
Answer: The name on her forehead could be a parody of the High Priest's golden band worn on his forehead and labeled "consecrated to Yahweh."

But what is different about the name the Great Prostitute has written on her forehead is that it is a mystery, meaning it is a cryptic name, and there is a connection to the winecup. Her name is symbolic like the namesake of the ancient city that was the epitome of rebellion against God in Genesis 11:1-9, the Tower of Babel, and Babylon, who had rejected God and his many blessings (see Jer Chapters 50 and 51). The woman is identified with bestiality and confusion and is now the "Mother of Prostitutes," an expression reminiscent of evil Jezebel, the Queen of Israel in the Old Testament. The Great Prostitute also recalls the condemnation of the woman Jesus symbolically referred to as "Jezebel and her children/followers" in His letter to Thyatira (Rev 2:20-23), and the prophet Ezekiel's description of Jerusalem as " a Mother of Harlots/Prostitutes" in Ezekiel 16:38-48. The contrast is between the Mother of Prostitutes and her children, and the Church founded by Jesus Christ, who is the Mother of all who obey God's commandments and have in themselves the witness of Jesus (Rev 12:17).

The connection to the winecup is more subtle. If the name on the forehead of the Great Prostitute is a parody of the sacred name of God on the high priest's miter, perhaps the winecup is a parody of the blood of the sin sacrifice poured out by the high priest in his priestly function. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest, wearing the vestments especially reserved for that sacred feast, wearing the sacred name of Yahweh on his miter, and holding the golden cup of blood sacrifice, made offerings to Yahweh for the sins of the people. Now Jerusalem's high priest, in his apostasy from the covenant, bears the name of Babylon, Mother of Prostitutes, and pours out of the blood of the saints that is the sin of Israel!

Revelation 17:8-18 ~ The Mystery Explained
One of the seven angels in Revelation 17:1 continues speaking to John: 8 "The beast you have seen was once alive and is alive no longer; it is yet to come up from the Abyss, but only to go to its destruction. And the people of the world [those who dwell on the land], whose names have not been written since the beginning of the world in the book of life, will be astonished when they see how the beast was once alive and is alive no longer, and it still to come. 9 This calls for shrewdness. The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman is sitting. 10 The seven heads are also seven emperors. Five of them have already gone, one is here now, and one is yet to come; once here, he must stay for a short while. 11 The beast, who was alive and is alive no longer, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, and he is going to his destruction. 12 The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet been given their royal power but will have royal authority only for a single hour and in association with the beast. 13 They are all of one mind in putting their strength and their powers at the beast's disposal, 14 and they will go to war against the Lamb; but because the Lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings, he will defeat them, he and his followers, called, the chosen, the trustworthy." 15 The angel continued, "The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations, and the languages. 16 But the ten horns and the beast will turn against the prostitute, and tear off her clothes, and leave her stark naked; then, they will eat her flesh and burn the remains in the fire. 17 In fact, God has influenced their minds to do what he intends, to agree together to put their royal powers at the beast's disposal until the time when God's words shall be fulfilled. 18 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth. Note: And the people of the world, in verse 8, should read "and those who dwell on the land." This is the twelfth use of this phrase in Revelation as a reference is to apostate Israel.

The angel begins to explain the mystery by speaking about the composite beast in verse 3. The beast makes his appearance in words that are a parody of the words the angel used for God in Revelation 16:5, He who is, He who was, the Holy One. The Romans worshiped their empire as a deity embodied in their emperor, and the Romans expressed the connection between the Empire and the Emperor as "Rome is Caesar and Caesar is Rome!"

Unraveling the meaning of Revelation 17:8-19 is very tricky. The key is in the history of Rome as an Empire that began with Julius Caesar and his assassination by men who wanted to keep Rome from becoming an Empire instead of remaining a Republic. But the attempt to abort the Empire was in vain because Octavian, Julius Caesar's great-nephew, succeeded his great-uncle to become the first ruling emperor of Rome as Augustus Caesar in AD 29. Revelation 13:12 may refer to this event. With Julius Caesar's death, the hope of the empire seemed "dead," but it was revived in his great-nephew, Octavian. In turn, Octavian (Augustus Caesar) was succeeded by family members until the death of Nero, the last of his line, who committed suicide in AD 68. Nero was undoubtedly under the influence of Satan, the Beast from the Abyss, and this identification will become apparent as we continue. Remember, we have already seen Nero and Rome identified in the number of the beast in Chapter 13.

The Roman Historian Tacitus in his history, The Annals, begins his list of Roman emperors with Augustus Caesar (Octavian), but the Roman Historian Suetonius begins his list, in Lives of the Twelve Caesars, with Julius Caesar as the first of the Roman Emperors as does Dio Cassius in Roman History and Josephus in Antiquities of the Jews. There were, therefore, two official lists in use in the first century AD. See the chart below where the names in the two official lists are compared. The Emperor Ortho is both the eighth name and the seventh name in the lists. If the lists record the names of the kings the angel refers to in these verses, perhaps we can determine the year St. John received his particular vision. The eighth "king," who is also the seventh that remains for a "little while," could be a reference to the short reign of Otho who only reigned for three months before being murdered in 69 AD, the year before the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Please consult the chart on the Roman emperors, keeping in mind verses 9-11.

9 This calls for shrewdness. The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman is sitting. 10 The seven heads are also seven emperors. Five of them have already gone, one is here now, and one is yet to come; once here, he must stay for a short while. 11 The beast, who was alive and is alive no longer, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, and he is going to his destruction. Also, see the handout from Lesson 16/Chapter 13.

Verses 9-11 identify the beast on whom the woman is seated as Rome, the city of the seven hills. Some have tried to make the argument that the mention of the number seven is symbolic of the perfection of Jerusalem, but it is unlikely since Jerusalem was far from spiritual perfection at this time, and it was not built on seven hills. And it will become more evident as we continue that Rome and its seven hills is the intended reference in this passage.

10a The seven heads are also seven emperors.
Judea had three Herodian kings, but the others could only loosely be referred to as "kings" since they did not "rule" but governed on behalf of Rome in positions that more typified a governor of a district (i.e., the tetrarch Herod Antipas "ruled" Galilee and Perea). An emperor rules over more than one kingdom. According to the Roman historian Suetonius' list of Roman Emperors, there were seven emperors from Julius Caesar (d. 44 BC) to Galba (d. AD 69).

10b Five of them have already gone, one is here now, and one is yet to come; once here, he must stay for a short while.
This verse provides more information. The angel says "shrewdness" is necessary because there were two official lists of Roman Emperors. The Roman historian Suetonius began his list with Julius Caesar, who first conceived of the Roman Empire, while the Roman historian Tacitus started his record with the actual first emperor, Augustus Caesar (Octavian).

Question: What position of the lists does Nero hold?
Answer: On Suetonius' list Nero, the last of Julius Caesar's line, is #6, and on Tacitus's list, he is #5.

However, we do have more information in these passages to help us identify which emperor was currently in power when John had this vision. With Nero's suicide came what Roman historians called "the year of the four emperors." Following Nero's death in June 68 AD, Galba, Ortho, and Vitellius, who all died violently, briefly occupied the throne. The line the beast who was alive and is alive no longer, is at the same time the eighth and one of the seven, tells us that to solve the mystery, one must carefully consult both lists of Emperors. Notice the use of the present tense in these verses.

Question: Looking at the two lists of the emperors, which emperor is both the 8^th on one list and the 7^th on the other? If the number 5 (in 10b) is not symbolic, then neither are numbers 7 & 8.
Answer: Ortho is # 7 and #8.

Marcus Otho lasted only 95 days on Rome's Imperial throne before being replaced, violently, by Aulus Vitellius who was slain by Vespasian's soldiers in December of AD 69. Vitellius was probably the one who would stay for a short time. He was followed by Vespasian, probably the one to come, declared Emperor of Rome in December AD 69. Vespasian's Roman legions, under the command of his very able son, Titus, would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in the summer of AD 70. And Vespasian would also restore an Empire that had seemed dead and destined for destruction. The sea beast was still alive!

Question: Given this information, would you care to guess at a date for John's Chalice Judgment visions?
Answer: John probably received his vision sometime between the late summer or fall of AD 69. That would make it a little less than a year until the siege of Jerusalem that began three days before the Jewish Passover on April 14^th, AD 70.

The angel continued: 12 "The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet been given their royal power but will have royal authority only for a single hour and in association with the beast. 13 They are all of one mind in putting their strength and their powers at the beast's disposal, 14 and they will go to war against the Lamb; but because the Lamb is Lord of lords and King of kings, he will defeat them, he and his followers, called, the chosen, the trustworthy."
The number ten in the Bible is related to the concept of "perfection of order" or numerical fullness. There may also be a reference to Daniel 7:24.

Question: How are these "kings" associated with the beast?
Answer: The "kings" in verse 12 are associated with the sea-beast because they adorn his heads as "crowns," but they are subject to him because they have authority not through their own power but only from him.

Please refer to the chart listing the Roman Provinces where Rome ruled ten imperial provinces in the first century AD. There may also have been ten governors in the Provinces who supported the Roman assault on Judea or even ten legates of the Roman legions. Whether this number is literal or symbolic doesn't matter. Rome's soldiers came from all over the empire, and every provincial ruler was responsible for providing the workforce for Rome's legions and for supporting Rome's aims and ambitions.

The List of the Ten Imperial Provinces in the first-century AD:
Italy
Achaia
Asia
Syria/Judea
Egypt
Africa
Spain
Gaul
Britain
Germany

All the Roman provinces made war on the Lamb and His followers. We have the accounts of Christians being persecuted with Rome's approval in all parts of the Empire from AD 64 to AD 312, until the Church conquered the Roman Empire with the conversion of many Romans including Emperor Constantine I (ruled AD 306-337), known as Constantine the Great. It is a relatively short time in comparison with the history of humanity.

Question: How are the followers of Christ characterized in verse 14?
Answer: Revelation 16:14 characterizes them as 1) the called, 2) the chosen, and 3) the trustworthy.

There may be a parallel here to the parody of the Beast's name with the name of Yahweh (see Rev 16:6 and 17:8). The Beast/Satan and his followers are predestined for damnation (Rev 17:8), and Christ's elect are predestined for eternal life (17:14).

15 The angel continued, "The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting [kathemai], are all the peoples, the populations, the nations, and the languages. 16 But the ten horns and the beast will turn against the prostitute, and tear off her clothes and leave her stark naked; then they will eat her flesh and burn the remains in the fire. 17 In fact, God has influenced their minds to do what he intends, to agree together to put their royal powers at the beast's disposal until the time when God's words shall be fulfilled. 17 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth [having a kingdom over the kings of the earth].

In 17:15, the angel gives John an explanation of the waters.
Question: What fourfold designation does the angel give John for the waters, and what does this designation signify?
Answer: The designation is: 1. peoples, 2. populations, 3. nations, and 4. Languages, referring to the entire world.

Jerusalem and the Jews had great influence in all parts of the Roman Empire before the Rebellion of AD 66. Their synagogues were in every city, and because the Jews were so universally educated, they held positions of power and influence.
Question: Where in the New Testament is the influence of the Jews in the Roman world mentioned? See the Book of Acts of Apostles Chapter 2.
Answer: The discussion of the "Day of Pentecost" in Acts 2:5 records that there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven.

Question: In the first image, the Great Prostitute was "sitting on" (in cooperation with) the beast, but how does that relationship change, and is there a historical connection?
Answer: The sea-beast, as an agent of Satan/the Beast, attacks the Prostitute. In AD 66, Judah revolted against Rome, and the result was the destruction of Judah/Judea by the armies of the Roman sea-beast, leaving her "naked" and without protection.

Question: How was the action of the sea-beast/Rome against Jerusalem part of God's plan, and how in the past did God use another world power in the same way?
Answer: God used the Roman Empire, as He had used the Assyrian Empire in 722 BC to bring judgment on the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Babylonian Empire to bring judgment on Judah/Judea and Jerusalem in 587/6 BC.

Both the Roman historian, Tacitus, and the Jewish historian, Josephus, record the great animosity which the Arab soldiers in the Roman army felt against the Jews as well as the bitter hatred of the population in Samaria toward them. There were also wholesale massacres of Jews in many great cities like Alexandria, Damascus, and Caesarea just before the outbreak of total rebellion in AD 66. The Gentile residents massacred the entire Jewish population of Caesarea Maritima in a single day (Josephus).

It is critical to understand that the Beast/Satan destroyed Jerusalem as part of his war against Christ. God allowed the angel of the Abyss to come out and attack the Church, but Satan was mistaken in thinking that he could destroy the Prostitute and the Bride at the same time. That Rome wished to destroy both Judaism and Christianity is evident in the statement of the Roman Christian historian Sulpitius Severus: "Titus is said, after calling a council, to have first deliberated whether he should destroy the temple, a structure of such extraordinary work. For it seemed good to some that a sacred edifice, distinguished above all human achievements, ought not to be destroyed, inasmuch as, if preserved, it would furnish an evidence of Roman moderation, but, if destroyed, would serve for a perpetual proof of Roman cruelty. But on the opposite side, others and Titus himself thought, that the temple ought specially to be overthrown, in order that the religion of the Jews and of the Christians might more thoroughly be subverted; for that these religions, although contrary to each other, had nevertheless proceeded from the same authors; that the Christians had sprung up from among the Jews; and that, if the root were extirpated, the offshoot would speedily perish" (The Sacred History of Sulpitius Severus, vol 2, p 111, quoted from Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church). Reports by the Roman historian and statesman, Tacitus, also supports this assessment.

17 In fact, God has influenced their minds to do what he intends, to agree together to put their royal powers at the beast's disposal until the time when God's words shall be fulfilled.
Verse 17 makes the shocking statement that God "put this in their minds." God is not responsible for sin: Upright in all he does, Yahweh acts only in faithful love. He is close to all who call upon him, all who call on him from the heart (Ps 145:17). Nothing happens in spite of Him or in opposition to His purpose in His divine plan for humanity. The whole reason for the pagan kings' wrath, for their joining in the conspiracy against both the True Bride and the False Bride, and in surrendering their kingdoms to the Beast/Satan is that God has put it into their minds to fulfill His purpose until the time when God's words shall be fulfilled. God's announcements to his prophets in the Old Testament and to Christ in His judgment on Jerusalem (Mt 24, etc.) and the curse-judgments of the covenant executed on Israel through the Dragon/Satan's influence on the sea-beast/Rome and the ten "horns" of Rome's provinces was that they became the instruments of God's wrath.

18 The woman you saw is the great city which has authority over all the rulers on earth.
Question: In what two statements is the identity of the great city made clear to John?
Answer: 1) She is "the great city," and she 2) "has authority over all the rulers on earth."

The angel now identifies the woman as "the great city," which we have seen used as a title for Jerusalem, "the city where the Lord was crucified" (Rev 11:8 and 16:9). This verse, probably more than any other, has confused the identity of the city between Rome and Jerusalem. Proponents for Rome point out that only Rome had this kind of political authority over the known world.

Question: But what kind of authority over all the rulers on earth is important to God? What was the promise made to Abraham in this regard, and which city truly had that kind of power, and why? See Genesis 12:3; 22:18; Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6 and 10:14-15.
Answer: The promise made to Abraham was that all nations on earth will bless themselves by your descendants (Gen 22:18). God gave a similar promise to David in 2 Samuel Chapter 7 that Yahweh would make David a "house" = dynasty that would last forever and that David's son should build Yahweh's Temple in Jerusalem.

And what is Yahweh's position related to the Jerusalem Temple? Is He only the God of Israel? Read Psalm 99. Some significant passages are verses 1-2: Yahweh is king, the peoples tremble; he is enthroned [sits on] on the winged creatures, the earth shivers; Yahweh is great in Zion. He is supreme over all nations;" and verse 9: Exalt Yahweh our God, bow down at his holy mountain; holy is Yahweh our God!" With God's presence in Jerusalem on His Holy Mountain, Jerusalem had power over all the nations of the earth.

Rome's power was only political. Israel and Jerusalem, God's Holy people and His Holy City, had spiritual power, and in this regard, Jerusalem did have authority over all the rulers on earth. Israel did possess a Kingdom that was above all the other kingdoms. She had covenantal power and authority over the earthly kingdoms because she was a Kingdom of priests of God, the Great King (Ex 19:6). It was her duty in this regard to exercise ministry, guardianship, instruction, and intercession on behalf of all the nations of God's creation. When Israel was in full communion with God, offering up sacrifices for the nations, the world was at peace; when she broke the Covenant, she threw the world into turmoil and chaos (see 1 Kng 10:24; Ezra 1:4-7; Rom 2:17-24).

The Jewish priest and historian, Flavius Josephus, repeatedly points out in his histories that the nations of the world had historically recognized the sanctity and importance of the Temple in Jerusalem: "This celebrated place....was esteemed holy by all mankind" (The Jewish War, Book 5.1.3; Book 5,9.4; Book 5.12.6). It is interesting that the action of the Jewish rebels in the summer of AD 66 when they stopped the daily sacrifices for the Roman Emperor, in violation of their agreement with the Roman government, was the single event that finally precipitated the Roman war against the Jews. And even at the very end, as Roman General Titus prepared to make the final assault on the city, he pleaded with the Jewish priests to offer up the sacrifices to Rome!

To be continued: Next week, the angel announces the fall of "Babylon": In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and all the blood that was ever shed on earth (Rev 18:24).

John's visions in the Book of Revelation point to the end of the Old Sinai Covenant purity rites and liturgical celebration to be replaced by a New and eternal Covenant and a new liturgy of worship for the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. There is no great battle at a site called Armageddon between the forces of good and the forces of the evil Antichrist in the Book of Revelation. Instead, Megiddo was the gathering place for the forces of the kings of the Roman Provinces before their attack on Jerusalem in AD 70. Revelation 16:16 is the only place in the Bible where the place-name Armageddon appears.

Also, the word "antichrist" does not appear in the Book of Revelation! However, the only sacred writer who uses that word is St. John! He uses the word antichrist in two of his letters in three passages; therefore, if the "Antichrist" had any part in the visions in Revelation, John would have named him.

Where did John name the evil entity known as the Antichrist?

1. I John 2:18-23 ~ Children, this is the final hour; you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, and now many antichrists have already come; from this, we know that it is the final hour. They have gone from among us, but they never really belonged to us; if they had belonged to us, they would have stayed with us. But this was to prove that not one of them belonged to us. But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and have all received knowledge. I have written to you not because you are ignorant of the truth, but because you are well aware of it, and because no lie can come from the truth. Who is the liar, if not one who claims that Jesus is not the Christ? This is the Antichrist, who denies both the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son cannot have the Father either; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father too.
   
   
2. I John 4:1-3 ~ My dear friends, not every spirit is to be trusted, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world. This is the proof of the spirit of God: any spirit which acknowledges Jesus Christ, come in human nature, is from God, and no spirit which fails to acknowledge Jesus is from God; it is the spirit of antichrist, whose coming you have heard of; he is already at large in the world."
   
   
3. 2 John 1:7-10 ~ There are many deceivers at large in the world, refusing to acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in human nature. They are the Deceiver; they are the Antichrist. Watch yourselves, or all our work will be lost, and you will forfeit your full reward. If anybody does not remain in the reaching of Christ but goes beyond it, he does not have God with him: only those who remain in what he taught can have the Father and the Son with them. If anyone comes to you bringing a different doctrine, you must not receive him into your house or even give him a greeting.

Some Biblical commentators suggest that St. Paul seems to be referring to the Antichrist as man who is in opposition to God when he uses the term "lawless one" in his first letter to the church at Thessalonica written in the winter of AD 50-51, twenty years before the destruction of the Temple and the Old Covenant in Jerusalem in AD 70. However, other Biblical scholars reject this theory. In the Second Letter to the Thessalonians, Paul writes 1 About the coming of our Lord, brothers, and our being gathered to him: 2 please do not be too easily thrown into confusion or alarmed by any manifestation of the Spirit or any statement or any letter claiming to come from us, suggesting that the Day of the Lord has already arrived. 3 Never let anyone deceive you in any way. It cannot happen until the Great Revolt has taken place and there has appeared the wicked One, the lost One, 4 the Enemy, who raises himself above every so-called God or object of worship to enthrone himself in God's sanctuary and flaunts the claim that he is God. 5 Surely you remember my telling you about this when I was with you? 6 And you know, too, what is still holding him back from appearing before his appointed time. 7 The mystery of wickedness is already at work, but let him who is restraining it once be removed, 8 and the wicked One will appear openly. The Lord will destroy him with the breath of his mouth and will annihilate him with his glorious appearance at his coming. 9 But the coming of the wicked One will be marked by Satan being at work in all kinds of counterfeit miracles and signs and wonders, 10 and every wicked deception aimed at those who are on the way to destruction because they would not accept the love of the truth and so be saved. 11 And therefore God sends on them a power that deludes people so that they believe what is false, 12 and so that those who do not believe the truth take their pleasure in wickedness may all be condemned (2 Thess 2:1-12).

The "Great Revolt" Paul prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 took place in AD 66 when Judah-Judea revolted against the Roman Empire. The Lawless One that Paul mentioned, who was not in authority yet in AD 50, must be Emperor Nero. Emperor Claudius married Nero's mother, Colonia Agrippina, in AD 49, just the year before Paul wrote his letter. Agrippina persuaded Claudius to choose Nero, her son by her first marriage, over Britannicus, his son by a former marriage, as his heir and then, in AD 54, she poisoned Claudius so that her son could become Emperor. Nero ruled from AD 54-68 when he committed suicide. During his lifetime, he insisted that he receive worship as a god and had built statues of himself for people to offer worship to him, including one he planned to install in the Temple in Jerusalem where daily sacrifices were already offered on his behalf. The Jews of Judea (Judah) and Jerusalem, the seat of authority of the Old Covenant Church, rejected Jesus as the Messiah but offered sacrifices to Nero. Nero may have been "an antichrist" in his war against Christians, but he was not the Antichrist.

In AD 66, three Jewish leaders emerged, each of whom claimed to be the Messiah. They led Judea into a disastrous revolt against Rome, resulting in the complete destruction of the country, in which Jerusalem and the Temple burned to the ground. Jesus had indeed come in judgment. The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem fulfilled what the inspired writer (probably St. Paul) wrote in Hebrews 9:8 ~ By this the Holy Spirit means us to see that as long as the old tent stands, the way into the holy place is not opened up; it is a symbol for this present time. The "old tent" is the Temple in Jerusalem, the center of Old Covenant worship. As long as Old Covenant worship and sacrifice continued, the way for the New Covenant Kingdom could not be fully established. The destruction of the Old Temple and its liturgical practices had to make way for the New Covenant and its eternal blessings.

Paul's passage in Thessalonians also refers to the prophecy of the Old Testament prophet, Joel, verses from the Book of Joel that St. Peter quoted in his homily at Pentecost (Acts Chapter 2) when he warned Jerusalem that the "Day of the Lord" was coming (Acts 2:16-21) and that these were the "Last Days" Joel had prophesized. And then in verse 40, he told the crowd of Jews gathered around him: "Save yourselves from this perverse generation!" It is the same statement Jesus made in Matthew 17:17a, calling the people of Jerusalem a "faithless and perverse generation!" and in Matthew 23:36, He said, "In truth, I tell you, it will all recoil on this generation." What would recoil on that 1^st-century generation? The judgment of God for killing His prophets and rejecting the New Covenant and the Messiah. When Judea/Jerusalem rejected Christ, they rejected the Covenant and became false prophets who denied God had come as a man to redeem Israel and all humanity. That was the spirit of antichrist (1 Jn 4:1-3)! However, the Antichrist has yet to appear upon the stage of human history.

What does all this mean to us on this side of salvation history? St. Augustan believed that before the Second Advent of Christ, the spirit of Antichrist would be manifest in a single human being, and that tribulation for the Church would increase at that time. We do not know when Christ is returning to collect His Bride; we only know that He will come. In the meantime, we must be obedient to the Covenant, faithful to the teachings of Mother Church, and to be ready for His return!

Catechism references for this lesson (* indicates Scripture quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
New Covenant of Christ (CCC 762, 781)
Bride of Christ (CCC 757, 772-3, 796, 808, 823, 867, 926, 1617)
Battle against evil (CCC 409-10)

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