Chapter 16 ended with judgment from heaven in the form of 100-pound hailstones. At this point, John’s vision suspends the passage of time in Chapters 17 and 18 in order to focus on a great judgment that will be fulfilled in Chapters 19 and 20. This pause in chronology freeze-frames the false religion of Antichrist and his cohorts and the judgment to come, so that we can recognize his dirty work between now and when Jesus returns.
An intriguing way to understand Chapters 17 and 18 is to view the place of judgment in the Cycle of Perfect Unity (the “Cycle”) that we have developed in these blogs. Many scholars have spent their lives defining all the actual nations and people that will be judged. But for our purposes, if we step back for a moment and think about where judgment crashes down in the Cycle, we can see why the harlot, prostitute, and Antichrist are doomed.
It is just after temptation, disobedience, and warnings from God when every person encounters the good fork and the bad fork in the road to perfect unity with God, unity which includes Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Everyone must make a decision whether to take the good fork in the road or the bad fork. Taking the good fork leads to sincere repentance for sin, followed by a rush of God’s never-ending love, forgiveness by and restoration to God, and perfect unity with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Choosing the bad fork leads directly to disunity from God, judgment by God, and a scary dead end.
Clearly what we see in Chapters 17 and 18 are the harlot, prostitute, and Antichrist, who have proudly chosen the bad fork. They neither care nor understand the judgment coming their way beginning in Chapter 19, nor the dead end known as hell.
Viewed in this way, those who have given their lives to affirm that Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Kings of the Earth have chosen the good fork in the road and are promised perfect unity with Jesus forever and ever.
In these blogs, we have faithfully presented every word in the New Testament. At this point, the remainder of the Revelation of John has many horrible metaphors for the Antichrist, prostitute, and harlot. This is why this introduction is necessary and why we use Italics for the steps in the Cycle.
Chapter 17 begins with a snapshot of the Great Prostitute and the Beast:
“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on the earth have become drunk’” (Rev 17:1-2).
Look around: do you think this describes a large portion of society today?
The vision continues:
“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled greatly” (Rev 17:1-6).
Those who love Jesus and who are walking sincerely on the good fork to perfect unity with him see behaviors like the kings of the earth in ancient Babylon the great every day, although the metaphors we would use to describe them might be a bit tamer. Where John marvels, I shake my head in disgust.
Hurry back for Time Suspended – Part 2, as our angelic tour guide leads us toward having “minds of wisdom.”