At this time the Bride of Christ sits on the beast of Babylon drinking the cup of Babylon’s fornication. Most of us have mistakenly assumed, myself included, that the woman on the beast in Revelation 17 is Babylon the Great. No, both comprise a mystery. The mystery is that as did Israel of old, so did God’s church, Christ’s bride. Just as Israel bowed down to idols of wood and stone and worshiped that which was not God, so do the vast majority of those called by his name (Christians) bow down to the current idols of this world. Which American church do you know that is not a 501(c)(3) corporation? Most agreed to become licensed by the state so they could enjoy a “tax exempt” status. And to maintain that status they then agreed to stop speaking about relevant social issues and endorsing candidates who stood for Godly values. This explains why Revelation pictures her sitting upon the beast of Satanic government and drinking from “a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.” She has taken “the mark of the beast.” She refuses to come out of Babylon, out of the idolatry of every Satanic lust. Therefore God writes Babylon’s name upon her forehead.
Thus when John saw the future condition of the very church his Lord died to create and which he spent his life building, he was astonished and “marveled greatly.” See Revelation 17:1-6. How would you feel if you were one of the foundational apostles of God’s church and saw what she had become at the end of the church age?
God, of course, prophesied all of this, through many of his prophets and especially through Isaiah (I call his book “the Book of Revelation in the Old Testament). We have seen many of his prophecies concerning the barren bride in the previous few posts. Now, in order to understand the coming prophecies in chapters 51 to 66 we need to understand that the word “Jerusalem” in the final chapters of Isaiah speaks of New Jerusalem. John reveals New Jerusalem more fully in Revelation 21 and 22. We also need to remember that John identifies New Jerusalem as “the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (Revelation 21:9-14 ESV)
The question now is, how does a harlot riding a Satanic beast become transformed into the Bride of Christ? “When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, `Who then can be saved?’ 26 But Jesus looked at them and said, `With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.'” (Matthew 19:25-26)
