NR6-02 REV-39
980809PM
The True Bride of Christ
Revelation 17 – Why I’m Not A Roman Catholic
Aug 9, 1998 |
tags: 980809pm
Other congregations meet in churches, synagogues, mosques, cathedrals, and temples where organized religion stresses the achievements of humans working their way to God. This is the church of good works, self-righteousness and “I do it my way”. This is the following of rules; the joining of church and the hoping the good out weighs the bad in the balance of religions. This is the religion of many ways to God and many gods to seek. This is man’s making their god in their own image.
Jesus came to seek and save His Bride. He gave Himself to purchase her from sin and damnation. Jesus ever lives as a Great high Priest to purify and cleanse His Bride from all defilement. The True Bride of Jesus is a pure and chaste virgin, washed in the blood of the lamb, sealed by the Holy Spirit awaiting the day of marriage to Jesus.
Satan’s Bride
Satan also has a bride. We meet her in Revelation 17. She is a drunken, licentious harlot. She is the full-grown woman of the Tower of Babel. She is the Queen of Heaven of the Old Testament. She is the Mystery Religion in the cults of the near and far East. She is the one world church of the WCC and NCC of America. She is also the embodiment of a false Christianity, led by a false Christ and embodied in the image of the very mother of Jesus. That is why John was so shocked. No other beast in 16 chapters of death, demonism and destruction shocked him until he saw this false harlot bride given the deceptive name of Mary in religions today. Nothing is more Satanic and dangerous today in the entire World as the ecumenical (one united) church movement. God hates religious deception.
The 17th chapter of Revelation describes the Doom of the Babylonian System. This system is seen as a harlotrous woman. She seems to be a symbol of Satan’s world religion. This chapter records the demise of the counterfeit church Satan founded at Eden and has worked on ceaselessly ever since. The Beast (Satan’s incarnation as a false Jesus) finally destroys the apostate church (Rome merged with all world religions) and sets up unhindered Satanic worship (via the beast and false prophets work). His ultimate goals in the World today are to forge global unity politically, religiously and financially.
So in Revelation 17 we discover the true bride of Jesus. God’s Word is here unmasking the apostasy of false religions and revealing that the true Bride is made up of God’s own saints as 17: 14 describes them, they are “called, chosen and faithful”.
Outline of Revelation 17
The 17th chapter of Revelation can be divided into three sections. Each has a key verse that summarizes the central idea.
- SATAN’S PLAN EXPOSED v.1-6
- SATAN’S PLAN EXPLAINED v. 7-15
- SATANS PLAN EXTINGUISHED v. 16-18
Number One: Satan’s Plan Exposed
There is a very significant contrast [1] between the two women of Revelation. God’s saints are seen in Revelation 12 and Satan’s church in 17. First we need to look at: SATAN’S PLAN EXPOSED in verses 1-6.
God’s Plan vs. Satan’s Plan
Satan’s plan is always counterfeiting God’s way
| God’s way | Satan’s way | |||||||||
| Narrow Way | Broad Way | |||||||||
| Exclusive | Inclusive | |||||||||
| True Church | False Church | |||||||||
| True Bride | False Bride | |||||||||
| Exclusive | Ecumenical | |||||||||
| One Way | Many Ways | |||||||||
| Heavenly Destination | Earthly Destination | |||||||||
| Jerusalem | Babylon | |||||||||
| City Of Peace | City Of Confusion | |||||||||
| Spiritual. | Fleshly | |||||||||
| Internal. | External | |||||||||
| Creation | Evolution | |||||||||
| Love | Hate | |||||||||
| Life | Murder | |||||||||
| Self-denial | Self-Gratification | |||||||||
| Monotheism | Polytheism | |||||||||
| Heaven Rules | Astrological | |||||||||
| Spiritual Worship | Idolatrous | |||||||||
| Divine | Humanistic | |||||||||
| Contentment | Covetousness | |||||||||
| Faith | Intellectualism | |||||||||
| Spirit | Religious Rituals | |||||||||
| Cross of Shame | Crown of pride | |||||||||
| Pure Bride | Wicked Harlot | |||||||||
- Satan is orchestrating a Worldwide Political Unity [ seven heads equal totality of rule] Revelation 13:8,16,17 “all’
- Worldwide Financial/Business Unity Revelation 13:17
- Worldwide Religious Unity[2] as the Beast is worshipped Revelation 13:8,11-12; 14:9; 16:2. The Beast is beloved Revelation 13:3. The Beast is honored Revelation 13:8. The Beast is confidently followed Revelation 13:4.
Number Two: Satan’s Plan Explained (v. 7-15)
Remember that the 17th chapter of Revelation describes the Doom of the Babylonian System. This system is seen as a harlotrous woman. She seems to be a symbol of Satan’s world religion. This chapter records the demise of the counterfeit church Satan founded at Eden and has worked on ceaselessly ever since. The Beast (Satan’s incarnation as a false Jesus) finally destroys the apostate church (Rome merged with all world religions) and sets up unhindered Satanic worship (via the beast and false prophets work). His ultimate goals in the world today are to forge global unity politically, religiously and financially.
Who is the Woman On the Beast?
There are 14 identifying[3] marks[4] of the Harlot Bride of Satan –
- The woman is a harlot (v. 1a) A prostitute or harlot is a woman who has promised but not kept her promise. It is a woman without faithfulness in spiritual worship. She is ‘the great whore … with whom the kings of the Earth have committed fornication…'(v.2). This is spiritual fornication. The only city that qualifies – conspicuously- is the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church. The ecumenical movement: in 1986, Pope John Paul II gathered in Assisi, Italy, the leaders of the World’s major religions to pray for peace: snake worshippers, fire worshippers, spiritists, animists, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and North American Indian witch doctors. All to the ‘same god.”
- THE HARLOT IS a woman (v. 1b) The figure is a Woman. The central figure of Roman Catholicism is a woman: a sinless, perpetually virgin, all-powerful woman whom Rome invented and worships.
- THE HARLOT IS wearing “Purple, Scarlet…” (v. 4a) She is clothed with ‘purple and scarlet’ another identifier pointing to Rome whose external precious treasures of spiritual trappings making her beautiful.
- THE HARLOT IS wealthy beyond calculation (17:4b). There is no church, no city, which is a spiritual entity, no religious institution past or present, which even comes close to possessing the incalculable wealth of the Roman Catholic Church.
- THE HARLOT IS wicked in spiritual adultery (17:4c). She has a golden cup in her hand. This is the holiest instrument in Roman Catholicism: the golden chalice of the Eucharist. No doctrine in the World is more damnable than the Doctrine of Transubstantiation (re-crucifying Jesus at every mass in every church around the world every day!). This “Gold Cup” is a picture of a false and vile counterfeit of true communion with God. The golden chalice is filled with the ‘filthiness of her abominations.’ The Biblical view of the sacrifice of the Mass, the very heart of Roman Catholicism, and a denial of the completed work of the cross.
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY that is the center of a mystery (v. 5a) There is something deeper here than mere religious technique. Only the church of Rome is built upon that spiritual fountain of false teaching going back to Nimrod in the Old Testament … On her forehead is her name: Mystery, Babylon. Babylon is a code word for Rome. [Keating, Catholicism and Fundamentalism; Sibylline Oracles(5, 159f.); Apocalypse of Baruch(ii,l); Esdras (3:1)]. Also, Eusebius Pamphilius, in 303, notes Peter using Babylon as a code name for Rome (I Pet 5:13). The identifying name, ‘Mystery.” The very heart of Roman Catholicism: the mystery of the Eucharist; etc. Custodianship of mysteries which permit trading ‘in the souls of men”(Rev 18:3), such as Mass cards and indulgences, et al. Rome has its spiritual foundations in Babylon from its occultic origins, the Tower of Babel, and the attempt to reach Heaven by steps of its own making. The Council of Trent, as re-proposed by Vatican II decreed: ‘If anyone says that the sacraments of the New Law are not necessary for salvation … and that without them … men obtain from God through faith alone the grace of justification … let him be anathema.’
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY that is “Mother…” (v. 5b) this city’s system gives birth to much religious error and further False Systems. The Woman is the ‘Mother of Harlots.’ Both spiritual and literal harlots spawned by the millions.
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY that is Intolerant Of The Truth . (v. 6) The Woman is ‘drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus’. No institution on earth has more aggressively and consistently slaughtered those who adhered to the Gospel of Christ. In the inquisition alone more were horribly murdered than by Hitler and Stalin combined!
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY that sits on seven hills (v.9). Rome called the Eternal City has always been known as the city on Seven Hills (the Palatine, Aventine, Caelian, Capitoline, Esquiline, Quirinal and Viminal Hills).
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY that rules over the kings of the earth (v. 15). Note she is first seated on the beast, which means for a time she directs the beast. This global political influence “sits on waters…” stands for all peoples, has been often wielded by Rome in European and now world history.
- The harlot is a system which will be destroyed by the beast (v. 17) This will be when World religions are all united the beast (as we saw in Revelation 13) will change all religions into the worship of the Beast, the antichrist!
- THE HARLOT IS A CITY (v. 18). “Great City” is Rome. No other city in the World that is existing today has a three thousand year history of continuous inhabitation, and once ruled the World, and once headed a world-wide empire than has never been destroyed. Only Rome.
The origin of paganism in Romanism.
Overview of World History
So how did Rome inherit this wickedness? Hold on to your seats, here is an overview of world history in 3 minutes:
Pagan Origin: It is shocking for Roman Catholics to learn that the proposal of the Lord’s Supper as a sacrifice was first made by a Benedictine monk, Radbertus, in the ninth century and was the subject of many fierce verbal battles by the bishops until Pope Innocent III declared it an official Roman doctrine in 1215 AD. The very principles found in the bloodless sacrifice of the Mass as it is in the Church of Rome today can be traced.