HomeARC ML 2213
THE WHORE & THE BEAST!--Revelation 17, Verses 1-13 ET# 63 DO 2213 6/85
1. WHAT BOOK ARE WE STUDYING NOW? (FAM: REVELATION.) WHAT CHAPTER? (FAM: 17.) And what about? (Fam: The Antichrist.) Not the Antichrist alone, but the Antichrist & his reign. And we'll try to figure out a few more of these little mysteries.
2. A LOT OF PEOPLE BLAME EVERYTHING ON THE DEVIL, they forget that the Devil can't do anything except what the Lord allows him to do, he's literally working for the Lord. So all these things happening in this Chapter are allowed by God & are part of His plan, partly part of His punishment on wicked man. Wicked people deserve a wicked ruler & harsh severe troubles for their sins.
3. SO A LOT OF WHAT HAPPENS HERE IS GOD'S JUDGEMENTS ON THE WICKED, & He usually uses even the wicked as His tools many times, which is the way He did to Israel in ancient times. When they were wicked, He would let their enemies overcome them & persecute them & conquer them & even slaughter them & carry them into captivity & all the rest. But then later on after they repented in captivity & under persecution & under His chastening rod, He would slaughter their enemies too!
4. OF COURSE, THEY NEVER STUCK TO IT, BUT THEY WOULD REPENT & SAY THEY WERE SORRY & beg for forgiveness & beg for restoration & He'd finally let'm out, like any kind, loving, indulgent parent, let'm go again & punish their enemies for having done it, clobber them for having harmed His people, even though He let'm do it. They still shouldn't have done it because they were persecuting God's people. So that when He got His people out of the way, then He could clobber the enemies. So the picture we have in all of this here, again we have the Beast, Chapter 17.
REVELATION 17:1!
5. (VERSE 1:) "AND THERE CAME ONE OF THE SEVEN ANGELS WHICH HAD THE SEVEN VIALS & TALKED WITH ME." Who were the seven angels with the seven vials? (Fam: Seven vials of Wrath.) The seven vials of God's Wrath, His seven Angels of Wrath which preceded this passage in the 15th & 16th Chapters. And remember, the story is steadily progressing in greater detail all the time, but there are constantly flashbacks. So here you have in this chapter a new progression, & yet you have a flashback to help you understand this progression. It flashes back to some events, but then towards the end of the chapter it carries you beyond anything we've had before.
6. THE LORD KEEPS GOING BACK & FORTH LIKE THAT & A LITTLE FURTHER AHEAD EACH TIME.--One step backwards, two steps forward, one step backwards. In order to make sure you get it all very clearly & understand what's happening, He keeps reviewing a little background, repeating a little background, & then carrying you a little further toward the end of the story.
7. SO THIS ANGEL WAS SAYING, "COME HITHER, I WILL SHOW UNTO THEE THE JUDGEMENT OF THE GREAT WHORE." Now, according to Scofield, that must be another Rapture! I mean, after all, the Angel said, "Come hither!" That's all the Lord said in the 4th Chapter where Scofield says the Rapture is! Ridiculous, huh? He's talking to John, "Come here, I'm going to show you something!" That's all. And the main thing he's going to show is what? (Fam: The judgement of the great Whore.)
8. BUT NOW HE BACKS UP A LOT, EXPLAINING WHO THE WHORE IS & THE BEAST & all the things they're going to do, & he doesn't really get around to the final judgement of the great Whore until the 18th Chapter. In other words, the Lord feels that you need to understand the situation before you can understand why she's being judged so severely. Because she's finally destroyed in one hour of one day by burning with fire!
9. SO, "THE GREAT WHORE THAT SITTETH UPON MANY WATERS"--& waters are a symbol of what? (Fam: People.)--The peoples of the World. You say, "I thought she sat on the back of many governments?" Well, the governments of the World are composed of the peoples of the World, so she sits on both.
10. SO WHO IS THIS GREAT WHORE? You & I already know, we discussed it before. Who is this great Whore? (Fam: Mystery, Babylon.) Are the rest of you so timid after being over this so many times you're afraid to talk? Mystery, Babylon, yes, but that's still a mystery even if you say that! (Fam: The commercial system?) We could say that, but even a better, much broader word we've used for it lately is what? (Fam: Materialism.)--Materialism, the worship of Mammon!
11. THE WHOLE WORLD, BOTH CAPITALISTS & COMMUNISTS, THEY ALL WORSHIP THINGS! They all worship the gods of this World, things, wealth, possessions, money, & commercialism is a part of it, that's the way they trade & make some of their money. But a broader & better term, if you're going to include both Capitalism & Communism, would be Materialism. I don't think Communism would like to be accused of commercialism, although they're getting more commercial all the time.
12. SHE IS OBVIOUSLY THE RELIGION OF THE WORLD! She is the antitype of the good Woman of this book. She is the antitype of the Woman in Chapter 12, who is whom? (Fam: The Church.)--The Church or all born-again saved Christians. She is the antitype, therefore, of the Bride of Christ. This Whore, this woman is the bride of the Beast & the Devil! So you have two contrasting characterisations here, & each one is a symbol, of course. These are not actual literal things, but they were pictures that God was drawing for John, illustrations of the real thing.
13. YOU MAY THINK A LOT OF OUR POSTERS ARE JUST ILLUSTRATIONS, but we try to get them at least looking like the real thing.--I think a lot of them do, at least as far as what I have seen or dreamed. They look pretty good to me! So here the Lord is drawing pictures for John to illustrate how these things look to Him.
REV.17:2--FORNICATION!
14. (VERSE 2:) "WITH WHOM THE KINGS OF THE EARTH HAVE COMMITTED FORNICATION, & the inhabitants of the Earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." The kings & inhabitants of the Earth are all drunk with her fornication. What is "fornication" anyhow? The World has some funny definitions for it. It's an evil form of sex. In fact, usually in the dictionaries, in the World's terminology it can mean adultery, or they even stretch it as far as to mean sex before marriage.
15. BUT WHEN THE LORD USES THE WORD, HE USUALLY MEANS BEING IN LOVE WITH SOME OTHER GOD THAN HIMSELF, which is spiritual fornication of the worst kind. It's being in love with the World & what it contains instead of with Himself. That's what God means by fornication. It comes from a Latin word "forni," which has to do with your sexual parts. I always had to laugh at the name of California. They always tried to claim they didn't know where it came from, that it was the name of some kind of flower, like cauliflower or something like that. What it literally means in Spanish is "hot cock"! So that's what this gal is guilty of!
16. NOT ALL HOT COCK IS EVIL, WE ENJOY IT OURSELVES, PRAISE THE LORD! It means sex, fucking, to put it very plainly. And I don't see anything evil about a good old Anglo-Saxon word like "fuck," when it's a nice short one & you don't have to use the big long Latin terminology of sex-u-al in-ter-course!--About 6 syllables, when you can describe it with just one, fuck, sex! PTL! There's nothing wrong with fucking, nothing wrong with sex as long as you use it & enjoy it the right way, God's way! PTL! He intended for you to enjoy it.
17. BUT THIS GAL'S BEEN ENJOYING SEX & FUCKING THE WRONG PEOPLE! And the kings & the peoples of the Earth have been fucking the wrong woman! They have not had intercourse with His people, His Church, the true Bride. They're not married to Him, the Bridegroom. The kings & the wicked of this World are married to this Whore of wealth, possessions, money & things--Materialism! They love it & they literally love her by loving it.
18. SHE'S LIKE THE GODDESS OF ALL THAT'S EVIL, THE GODDESS OF THINGS! Another name for that god used in the Bible by Jesus was Mammon. He uses it as a significant term that they were familiar with, because that was the ancient god of wealth & money & possessions, houses, lands, even women! You were judged by how many wives you had & how many women you could afford. I must be pretty rich! Hallelujah! TYL! Of course, maybe that's because the Lord knows I'll share'm! PTL! But kings had lots of'm.
CHURCHES, CATHOLIC & PROTESTANT BIBLES!
19. SO THIS WOMAN IS A SYMBOL OF ALL FALSE RELIGION OF ALL AGES, INCLUDING THE BIGGEST ONE OF ALL, MATERIALISM! She is a symbol of every false religion, all false religions put together. Because you can hardly find a single false religion of any kind which is not interested in money, property, wealth, power, ownership, big buildings & temples, they've all got'm! There's only about one of them that I know of that doesn't, & that's us!--Plus a few little other minor religions that Mama & I used to be connected with that met in homes & little storerooms & shacks & tiny little chapels & cheap little Gospel halls & things like that. They couldn't even afford to build a building, they just had to rent a storeroom & put a few rough benches in it or something.
20. AND BUILDING THOSE BIG TEMPLES & BUILDINGS & CATHEDRAL COST A LOT OF MONEY! Even the old rough-hewn tabernacles of the full Gospel age of the past century like my Mother's great Tabernacle in Miami cost thousands of dollars to build. Although it was just rough-hewn wood, sawdust floor & simple wooden benches, that still cost thousands of dollars. Of course it held thousands of people too, three to five thousand people every night, because crowds that went to church & Gospel meetings were big in those days!
21. HER RICH SUPPORTERS SEEMED TO THINK THAT IT WAS NECESSARY TO HAVE ALL THESE PEOPLE COMING TO ONE PLACE TO HEAR ONE PREACHER, because after all, that's all people knew how to do for the Lord! They knew little or nothing about witnessing, litnessing, winning souls & becoming missionaries. They knew there were a few people who did that sort of thing, but that was considered a special calling just for a few very peculiar people. It wasn't intended for the whole church, it wasn't intended for all Christians. The vast majority of the Christians, in fact about 98% of them, were just supposed to go to church & support the preacher & build a building to house them for their worship & give a little tiny bit, maybe 3 to 5 percent to missionaries, sad to say. But I'd better not get on that subject again! See, I had church up to here, about 49 years, & I am fed up with it!
22. I DON'T MEAN THAT CHURCHES AREN'T DOING SOME GOOD WORKS & SOME GOOD THINGS. At least they're keeping the Gospel alive, somewhat. Most of them are pretty dead. They may be keeping the Gospel alive, but they're certainly not keeping the Christians alive! Even the Catholic church has preserved the Scriptures over the years, although there was a time when they burned Bibles because those Bibles didn't happen to be theirs. They only authorised the Latin Vulgate in those days. They called it Vulgate because it was vulgar. But the term "vulgar" in those days didn't mean bad or dirty, it meant just "of the common people." The Latin Vulgate was a Latin Bible in the Latin of the common people, that the common people spoke by that time. That was the only one they approved of.
23. AND WHEN THESE REFORMATIONIST BIBLES BEGAN TO COME OUT BY THE GREAT REFORMERS LIKE MARTIN LUTHER & CALVIN & KNOX & TYNDALE & all the rest of them with their footnotes & annotations, etc., those Bibles made the Gospel so clear that the Catholics were wrong & some of their doctrines were downright wicked, or practices they'd gotten into. The Latin Vulgate Bible is a fine Bible, it was a good Bible for those who could read Latin, the same Bible as yours & mine, more or less, except they had a few books added in the middle called the Apocryphal books, little fairy tales & fancies of somebody. But they were interesting reading & some were historical & they weren't bad. They did help support some of the Catholic doctrines like Purgatory & things like that, which we believe in anyhow, so that wouldn't offend us.
24. BUT IT GREATLY OFFENDED THE PROTESTANTS, who were even more radical than the Catholics in dividing everybody between all those who just go to Heaven & all the rest who go to Hell, there's nothing between. Even the Catholics had a little more in between, such as Purgatory & Hades & Limbo & a few things like that. But if anything, the Protestants became even more fanatical & radical in some of their beliefs than the Catholics!
25. BUT ANYHOW, THE PROTESTANTS IN THEIR BIBLES, IN THEIR FOOTNOTES, SAID THE CATHOLIC CHURCH WAS THIS WHORE & THE POPE WAS THE ANTICHRIST & they were very explicit in their footnotes.--Just the way the Catholic Bible was quite explicit in calling the Woman in the 12th Chapter Mary when she's actually the Church, etc. They use footnotes to support their beliefs, just like Scofield used footnotes to support his belief, interpretative footnotes.
26. I UNDERSTAND WE'RE GETTING OUT A BIBLE NOW WITH FOOTNOTES TO SUPPORT OUR BELIEFS, so we're going to have another one pretty soon!--Our annotated Bible with interpretations following the verses! Well, they've all done it, so why shouldn't we? The difference is, how could they be Napoleon when I'm Napoleon? The fact of the matter is, I really do believe we're right, I really do believe we're it, & I really believe we're on the right track, because ours is really supported with the Scripture! We're not trying to twist them & wrench them around to fit our doctrine, we're trying to make sure our doctrine fits the Scripture.--And so far I think we have, thank the Lord! I think we've got about the purest Biblical doctrine of anybody I know, & with greater detail & belief, especially on Bible Prophecy, & certainly a greater freedom of interpretation regarding all the liberties which we enjoy, which God intended for you to enjoy. And we live like that too, praise God!
THE DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF REV.17!
27. SO IT ALL DEPENDS ON HOW YOU LOOK AT THINGS. The Catholic Church looked at this Whore as the Babel of Protestantism. That's what the guy said at the World's Fair in New York when some Catholic official came through the Protestant building with all the various Protestant denominations represented. He said, "It's Babel! It's Babylon! Confusion of tongues!" Well, I might have slightly agreed with him!--Ha! So they interpret this woman as being certainly the Babylon of Protestantism. The Protestants turn around & accuse it of being the Babylon of Catholicism!
28. TO THE PROTESTANTS, THE POPE WAS THE ANTICHRIST IN THOSE REFORMATION DAYS. Well, some of the Popes fulfilled the bill pretty well, especially the way they persecuted the Christians & slaughtered Christians & burned their Bibles, etc. No wonder some of the Early Christians under Rome thought that was the Tribulation & Caesar was the Antichrist! Rome was strictly pagan heathen & worshipped idols--other idols, not Christian idols like the Catholics--but worshipped other idols & other gods, the old Roman gods, etc. They also persecuted & killed & slaughtered Christians & burned their Bibles, etc. So it's no wonder that the Early Christians thought that was the Tribulation & thought that Caesar & Nero were the Antichrist!
29. SO EVERY NOW & THEN WHEN THINGS HAVE GOTTEN REAL BAD FOR THE CHRISTIAN FAITH, THEY HAVE THOUGHT, "WELL, THAT CERTAINLY WAS THE TRIBULATION & the leader of that System must certainly be the Antichrist!" But none of them filled the bill completely. They have come & they've gone, all of them from the very earliest days back even in Old Testament times & early history & Roman & Greek history, etc. There were many who caused a lot of tribulation & who fulfilled some of the characteristics of the Tribulation & the Antichrists, which were, you might say, foreshadowings & antitypes, meaning foretypes of the Antichrist to come.
30. AS JOHN SAID, "EVEN NOW THERE ARE MANY ANTICHRISTS." (1Jn.2:18) There were plenty of anti-Christ people in John's day, virtually the whole Roman Empire & its Caesars could very well have been characterised as the Antichrist & all of their Romans as antichrists. I am inclined to believe that John was talking a little bit more about their worst enemies & their closest enemies who dragged them into Roman courts & caused them trouble with the System, & that was the Jews! [DELETED]
31. ACTUALLY, UNTIL THE JEWS GOT'M STIRRED UP, THE ROMANS DIDN'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT CHRISTIANS OR CHRISTIANITY OR CHRIST OR ANYTHING! The Christians were a little nothing nobody bunch like us & they weren't causing Rome any trouble, they were no political threat or anything, so they didn't even want to be bothered. Pilate didn't even want to be bothered with this thing about Jesus. It was the religious antichrists, the religious leaders who stirred up the trouble with the government, with Rome, & finally got Him slaughtered, just to get their vengeance & wreak their ire on Jesus & the Christians for exposing them! It says they delivered Him for jealousy, for envy. (Mat.27:18) They were jealous & envious of Christ's popularity & the popularity of Christianity, which was sweeping amongst the common people, even a great company of the priests!
32. SO NEARLY ALL OF THESE MONSTERS OF THE PAST HAVE BEEN TYPES OF THE ANTICHRIST, & their horrendous regimes have been types of the Tribulation, but not one of them has ended the World yet! But this one threatens really to end the World, & at last the World has come to the point where they realise that man has within his hands the means whereby now he can entirely destroy man & the Earth itself if God lets it go on too far. So God has got to stop it now!
33. WE OFTEN PUT LITTLE ARTICLES IN THE {\ul \i WND} WHICH SHOW THEY'RE PREDICTING THE END OF MAN OR THE END OF THE EARTH or starvation or overpopulation, all kinds of dooms man is spelling for doomsday of the Earth, & I put at the top: "God's gotta stop it soon!"--Because if He didn't, all those things would happen, they would come to pass! But this is the first time in World history that man has gotten to the point where he can actually destroy himself & even the Earth if God would let him go on much further. So we know it's got to come to an end now! God's gotta stop it soon! Praise God! It won't be long now!
34. SO THERE ARE ALL KINDS OF INTERPRETATIONS OF THIS CHAPTER! And ours, by the way, is partially similar to some of the interpretations of some Evangelical, Pentecostal Protestant groups. However, you'll find that most of them, including Scofield, which is you might say the most modern, most up-to-date & the most generally accepted, still calls this Whore who do you suppose? (Fam: The Catholic Church.)
35. NOW TO BLAME ALL THE WORLD'S ILLS ON THE POOR CATHOLICS, I THINK THAT'S A LITTLE UNFAIR, since they're only a minority of the World's population. And to blame all the World's ills on the Pope as being the Antichrist is a little unfair. They try to interpret his name & his crown & all this sort of thing as adding up to 666 & all kinds of stuff, when I think this present Pope is a very good man! I have a feeling maybe he's even saved. He is the most evangelical, the hardest working, seems the most concerned about his flock of any Pope they've ever had! I think this is a hardworking, sincere man who really cares for the people & the poor & the World, & probably the smartest, wisest one they ever had. One reason probably is because he's one of the first non-Italians they've ever had! You dear Italians forgive me for that, will you?--But it's a fact!
36. THEY FINALLY GOT A SMART POPE WHO DIDN'T HAVE AS HIS FIRST QUALIFICATION BEING AN ITALIAN, which most of them have had to have, the Catholic Church being Italian-headquartered & capitaled & led nearly all by Italians, since the Italians are the descendants of the Romans & the church became Roman, so naturally when the Romans fell & died out, the Italians who were then the successors to the Romans carried on. And the church carried on Rome, literally. So that although Rome only endured about a thousand years, the Roman church continued & endured another thousand years since then, in fact more now.
37. BUT TO CONFINE THIS AWFUL WOMAN TO JUST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH & say that all the peoples of the World & all the kings of the Earth are worshipping her & committing fornication with her & adultery with her & all that sort of thing, I think that's kind of really confining it & limiting it to only a part of the World's most popular & favourite religions.
38. BUT AS FAR AS I BELIEVE GOD'S WORD IS CONCERNED, & as far as my personal opinion is concerned, if the kings of the Earth & all the peoples of the Earth as a whole are going to worship & commit fornication with her, meaning intimate love--I wouldn't call it love, although they love the World, they love the things--& spiritual sex with her, it's got to be broader than the poor Catholics, or even the poor Protestants. It's gotta include all false religion!
THE WHORE--SYMBOL OF ALL FALSE RELIGION!
39. THE GOOD WOMAN OF CHAPTER 12, THE CHURCH, TYPIFIES ALL TRUE RELIGION, Christians of whatever faith they may be, as long as they're genuine Christians, whatever their denominational name or group name or sect, cult or whatever you want to call them. As long as they're genuine children of God, genuine, saved, born-again Christians, they are a part of that woman in the 12th Chapter, the True Church, the good Woman, the genuine Bride of Christ.
40. THIS WHORE SYMBOLISES EVERYTHING ELSE EXCEPT THE GOOD WOMAN, THE TRUE CHURCH, everything else the people love & commit adultery & fornication with. You didn't know you could commit adultery & fornication with money, with temples, with possessions? Some people love their cars more than their wives! Some women love their homes more than their husbands! Most churches love their temples more than God! So it's all fornication as far as God's concerned, it's all having sexual intercourse with the Devil, spiritual intercourse with the Devil, & He symbolises it by this foul Whore, an evil woman!
41. ALTHOUGH SHE'S WORSHIPPED & MADE RICH & FAMOUS & even rides on the back of the Beast & governs what the Beast does & tells the governments what to do--like they stir up governments against us--she's the foulest, most filthy, miserable system in the whole World, & that's all false religion no matter what name you give it! I don't care whether it's Catholics or Protestants or Buddhists or whatever you want to call'm!
42. IF THEY ARE NOT LOVERS OF JESUS, IF THEY ARE NOT THE BRIDE OF CHRIST, THEY BELONG TO THIS FILTHY WOMAN, THE WHORE OF REVELATION 17! Now that's a fact! I don't care whether they're Catholics, Protestants, Eastern religions or whatever! If they are not a part of the genuine Bride of Christ, the born-again, the saved, the Jesus-filled, lovers of the true God & the true Messiah, then they are worshippers of this horrible woman here pictured in this Book!--Terrible!--When you really bring it out how bad it really is!
43. SO ALL THE WORLD WORSHIPS HER & THE BEAST SHE RIDES ON, & THEY COMMIT ADULTERY & PAY BIG PRICES TO DO IT, MAKE HER RICH! Walk into any Catholic church & look at the riches & bejeweled idols & all that sort of thing, like I did in that church in Mexico, the Virgin of Guadelupe. She was no virgin, she'd been commmitting adultery with her church for a long time, bedecked with nearly a million Dollars' worth of jewels while the poor people were standing outside the door begging, hungry! That's not God, that's not Jesus, that's not Christianity, that is pagan adultery with the Whore of Revelation 17! You just need to know how bad the other side is if you're going to appreciate, thank God, how good He is & His children are by comparison!
44. KINGS ARE DRUNK WITH THE WINE OF HER FORNICATION. What is this fornication? Well, it's worship of her, it's being intoxicated with her. Most of these religionists are intoxicated with their religions, they're drunk with their false doctrines, they're drunk with their false practices, they're drunk with building churches & cathedrals, both Protestants & Catholics & Buddhists & all the rest of them! They're drunk with their religion! They're drunk with their false worship of false gods & literally the Devil himself impersonated by her & the Beast. That's how horrible the System is! That's how horrible the rest of the World are. You can be so thankful you know Jesus! PTL!
45. SO HERE WE HAVE A PICTURE OF ALL BAD PEOPLE, ALL FALSE RELIGION, ALL FALSE WORSHIP, all idolatry summed up in this one horrible woman & the Beast that she rides!--Get it? Is that a bad enough picture?--Amen!
REV.17:3-5!
46. (VERSE 3:) "SO HE CARRIED ME AWAY IN THE SPIRIT INTO THE WILDERNESS: & I SAW A WOMAN SIT UPON A SCARLET COLOURED BEAST full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads & ten horns." What does that sound like? Have you heard of that one before? Isn't that exactly the same Beast we've been reading about in the 13th Chapter?--Certainly! And the Beast has existed since the beginning of time! Its first major head was Egypt, remember? And she's been riding it since the beginning as well, she always represents the false bride, the bad woman in opposition, an antitype to the good Woman, the Bride of Christ & the Church.
47. (VERSE 4:) "AND THE WOMAN WAS ARRAYED IN PURPLE & SCARLET COLOUR & DECKED WITH GOLD & PRECIOUS STONES & PEARLS." No wonder some people thought it was the Catholic Church! "Having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations & filthiness of her fornication." There are some kinds of sex that are filthy, not all sex is clean, not all sex is good. It depends on who you're having sex with & what your motivation & attitude of mind & heart are, whether it's in love, especially God's Love. For whatsoever is love, how can it be against the law, Paul says. "Against such there is no law!"--The things that are done in love. (Gal.5:22,23)
48. THAT'S WHY I HATE TO SEE IN THESE MOVIES THESE PEOPLE MAKING SO-CALLED "LOVE" WHEN IT'S NOTHING BUT MAKING SEX WITHOUT LOVE!--Even admitting to each other they don't love each other, they're just having "fun," they call it. That's sickening! That's filth! That's absolute distortion & corruption! They're worshipping this woman, they're worshipping things, they're worshipping sensation, they're worshipping bodies instead of really loving each other with God's Love.--Horrible! Sickening! I say to Mama, "There they go chewing on each other again!" They look like they'd like to chew each other up, gobble each other up!
49. WE KISS & WE FRENCH KISS & DEEP KISS & ALL THAT, BUT MY GOODNESS, I DO IT BECAUSE I LOVE SOMEBODY! I make love with them because it is love & I want to make them feel good & be happy & satisfied & thrilled & have a wonderful time, a physical manifestation of genuine real love! That's God's kind of sex, that's His kind of love! But the kind of love they make to this woman is not love, it's horror, filthiness!
50. (VERSE 5:) "AND UPON HER FOREHEAD WAS A NAME WRITTEN, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." You say, "Dad, I thought you said Babylon was America!" Well, today virtually the head government upon which this woman rides is certainly the U.S.A., she dominates the most materialistic nation on the face of the Earth today! So in a sense she symbolises the U.S.A., or the U.S.A. is a fulfilment of her symbol of the Whore.
51. SO IF YOU THOUGHT I MEANT THE U.S.A. WAS THE ONLY WHORE & ALL THE WHORE, I'M SORRY IF WE GAVE YOU THAT IMPRESSION. The Whore is all of the false religions, including the greatest idolater of all, which is the U.S.A., because it's the greatest materialistic, richest nation on the face of the Earth, which therefore worships Mammon & money & materialistic things more than any other nation in the World, because she has more of'm!
52. SO THE U.S.A. IS A FULFILMENT, YOU MIGHT SAY, OF THIS TYPE, OF THIS PICTURE, THIS SYMBOL OF THE WHORE. She's the Mother of Harlots. My, look how many other countries follow after the U.S. & its fulfilment of this symbol, how many other horrible materialistic systems has the U.S.A. spawned as being the present day fulfilment of this Whore!
REV.17:6--DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS!
53. (VERSE 6:) "AND I SAW THE WOMAN DRUNKEN WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS, & WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS: & when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." Sorry to say, that "admiration" was kind of a poorly chosen word in our present day context & meaning. It means with great wonder, astonishment, even horror! Not admiration in the sense in which we use that English word today. To admire today is to respect, to give credit where credit is due, etc. But he is marvelling, astonished, awestruck with the horror of this monstrous woman!
54. AND WHAT'S SHE DRUNKEN WITH? (FAM: THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS.) What does the false church, the false woman, the materialistic religion of this World, the System, what does it always do? It always persecutes the true Woman, the true Saints, the true Church! You can always tell the difference between the two. Whichever government you catch persecuting the true Saints of God, like us, is a part of the governments upon whom she's riding & controlling.
55. SHE INSTIGATES THEIR PERSECUTION! SHE URGES THE GOVERNMENTS TO KILL THE SAINTS & SLAUGHTER THEM & JAIL THEM & PERSECUTE THEM. She is the one that controls the governments of the World & tells them what to do, & she tells that Beast to devour the Saints. Therefore she's drunk with their blood, she drinks their blood literally. She's not happy unless she can drink the blood of Saints! Isn't that horrible? She's terrible! All the false religions, no matter what you want to call them, no matter how pretty they may look on the surface, no matter how nice some of their doctrines may be, no matter how good their people may seem to be, they're all a part of this Whore if they are not true Christians, saved, born-again children of God! That's what you need to wake up to!
56. GOD REALLY SHOOK ME UP & WOKE ME UP ONE TIME ON THE STREETS OF HAIFA AMONGST THOSE JEWS! (See No.66.) All my life I'd been taught to adore them, worship them, love them, think they were the true children of God & that was His country & blah blah, the holy city & the holy land & all that junk that I'd been taught for years, that my parents & other Gospel people were fed by Scofield & his ilk! Thank God my Father finally got wise & broke out of it & began to realise that all that glittered was not true gold, & that the Jews were not any longer God's chosen people, that the only chosen people were those who were chosen by grace through faith & genuinely saved & born again!
57. BUT THE WHOLE EVANGELICAL CHURCH, CHURCHES, PENTECOSTALS, FUNDAMENTALISTS, THEY'VE EVEN PERSUADED A LOT OF THE MAJOR DENOMINATIONS, big formal denominations who don't even know Jesus or the Holy Spirit or anything, to support the Jews, to back the Jews as being God's chosen people & Israel His chosen land! What a deception! What a monumental, colossal, tremendous deception of the churches of the Last Day to get them to support the [EDITED: "Zionists and Israelis"]!
58. [EDITED: "MANY"] ARE MORE ANTI-[EDITED: "RELIGIOUS"] THAN THE RUSSIANS! A lot of the Russians are just aChristian, they're just areligious. In other words, they don't care about religion at all, they don't know Christ, they don't know anything about Christianity, a lot of them, they couldn't care less, they're not even all that anti-religious. [DELETED]
HISTORICISTS & FUTURISTS!
59. (VERSE 7:) "AND THE ANGEL SAID UNTO ME, WHEREFORE DIDST THOU MARVEL? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, & of the Beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads & ten horns." (Verse 8:) "The Beast that thou sawest was & is not; & shall ascend out of the bottomless pit & go into perdition." Now here's a marvellous verse.
60. NOW THE BEAST HE IS SEEING IS THE BEAST, IN A SENSE, OF ALL AGES. And this evil Whore he's seeing is the false religion of all ages. Yet God in His revelation is leading up here to the very End, the final Antichrist System led by the final Antichrist man & his final Antichrist religion.
61. SO JUST CONFINING IT TO HISTORY IS NOT SUFFICIENT. It is historical, but in a sense it's also present & it's also future! As I told you before in some classes, there are literally three major divisions of prophetic interpretation, schools of thought, if you want to call it. The one, the his-toricists or the preterit as they call it, is that all of this is finished, it's all happened in history & it's all past & it's all over with, in fact you're living in the Millennium now! You didn't know it?--The church now rules the World! Well, a few years ago that was true about the church ruling the World, & the false church still rules the World. But my Lord, this certainly is not the Millennium!
62. THE OTHER MAJOR SCHOOL IS THAT OF THE FUTURISTS, that's Scofield & his ilk who say this whole book is yet to come in the future, the whole works! Even the Letters to the Churches were types of the churches of the future, Church Ages that were yet to come, & everything in the book is all for the Future. In fact, Christians aren't even going to be here for most of it, according to Scofield & this futurist interpretation of Bible Prophecy.
63. THE HISTORICIST SCHOOL, THE OLD SCHOOL, CLAIMS THAT ALL THOSE THINGS IN DANIEL ARE ALL HISTORY, all of it history, including all about the Antichrist & all that other stuff. It names different famous Caesars & tyrants of the past as fulfilling all that & it's all over & done. Well, a lot of it is history, a lot of it is historical, but it's not all past & it's not by any means over with, it's not done yet! We have some more to go.--Not far, thank the Lord!
64. BUT OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS IN DANIEL THAT COULDN'T POSSIBLY HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED & obviously don't happen until the very End, impossible, if you really know it & study it. And there are certainly things here in this Book of Revelation which have not happened yet! In fact, most of it has not happened yet. I'd say the minority of the Book of Revelation is historical, most of the first few chapters & about the opening of the seals, etc. Whereas when you start getting to the trumpets, you're getting to the Tribulation & the Antichrist government & the Antichrist himself & the Tribulation & that sort of thing.
65. SO TO US, WE SEE THE BOOK OF REVELATION MOSTLY AS A BOOK OF THE FUTURE WITH SOME HISTORICAL PAST, just as Daniel has some historical past, giving you the picture from the beginning to the end. Now it would have been foolish, wouldn't it, to have all this put in here by God's Prophets & then for Christians to say it's all over. Maybe they think this is even Heaven on Earth! You can't see the Heavenly City anywhere though, in fact they don't seem to even know what it looks like!--Even though it's described in detail right here! They never picture it that way, never show it that way at all.
66. WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE CHURCH PEOPLE & THE CHURCHES & THE CHURCH ARTISTS & THE CHURCH THEOLOGIANS? Why in the World didn't they? Well, the only answer I always get is what the Lord said, "I reserved that for you!" He's given us an exclusive on the story, something every journalist wants, every newspaper wants, an exclusive on the story. We're the only ones that have this revelation. We're the only ones who see the Holy City as it really is & have pictured it. So therefore we've got the tremendous responsibility of spreading the pictures abroad & the news abroad by the millions to the billions! TTL!--Getting them into the hands of the World before the End comes, those who have really never heard, & will not only hear but see! Praise God! Amen?
THE BEAST THAT WAS, & IS NOT, & YET IS!
67. SO AGAIN WE GET A LITTLE MORE ENLIGHTENMENT ON THIS BEAST: He "was & is not"--in other words he was, then he disappeared for awhile--then he "shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." So this Beast is of whom? (Fam: The Devil!) He comes out of Hell, he's of the Devil. But where's he going to go again? (Fam: Perdition.) "Back into perdition." In fact, Paul calls the Antichrist the "son of perdition," the son of Hell, man of Hell! (2Th.2:3)
68. THIS IS NOT JUST TALKING ABOUT THE DEVIL & HIS IMPRISONMENT IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT.--Matter of fact, he's going to be thrown back in! It is talking about the Beast who is called the Beast, the Antichrist & his government of Revelation 13. Although the Beast with its seven heads symbolises all great World governments of all history, he is finalised & epitomised, he is summed up in the last final Antichrist government of the World.
69. THE HEAD IS ON THE SAME BODY, IT HAS THE SAME NATURE OF ALL OF THEM, & THE BODY IN A SENSE IS SATAN HIMSELF, Hell itself, & each of these heads is just a different manifestation of the Devil's governments & the Devil's hellish systems of the World. And he's the final one, so he's called the Beast. He is the Beast in its fulness, he is the Beast in its final fruition, this final Antichrist. He's the summation of all false governments. He even has the different characteristics of the different governments, partly like a leopard & a lion, etc., so that he's a little bit of all of them.
70. THIS FINAL ANTICHRIST GOVERNMENT IS IN A SENSE PART OF ALL OF THEM, ALL OF THEM ARE PART OF HIM, & HE COMBINES THEM ALL IN HIMSELF. But he is mostly a revival of one which was, but is not for awhile, & yet is, comes back out of Hell, back out of the Bottomless Pit. And what was that major Beast that seems to have vanished from the Earth, but yet is, & is coming back in its fulness? (Fam: The Roman Empire!) The Antichrist Government is a revival of old Rome at its worst with its worst of all Caesars!
71. "AND THEY THAT DWELL ON THE EARTH SHALL WONDER, WHOSE NAMES WERE NOT WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF LIFE." Notice there? Only the people who are not written in the Lamb's Book of Life are going to really wonder & marvel at him in the sense of worship & falling prey to him & receiving his Mark, etc.
72. "WHEN THEY BEHOLD THE BEAST THAT WAS, & IS NOT, & YET IS." Remember, the Beast is typical of governments, political governments. So this has to be a description of one of these heads, some head that was wounded unto death. "Was, & is not," & then revives, "& yet is." So the only head of this Beast that that's characteristic of is which head? It was the 4th Beast in the picture of the Beasts, it was the 4th government in the picture of the Image. But actually, in World history, going back to the beginning, Rome was the 6th great World Empire. Let''s name'm again: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece & Rome!--Sixth.
73. ALL RIGHT, THEN WE'RE SAYING THAT THE ANTICHRIST IS THE 7TH BECAUSE HE COMES NEXT AFTER ROME. There's been no great genuine World government since then. Then the 7th head is in a sense the revival of the 6th head, but it's made as being distinct & separate because it comes much later.
74. (VERSE 9:) "AND HERE IS THE MIND WHICH HATH WISDOM. THE SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS, ON WHICH THE WOMAN SITTETH." Now instead of using a beast to characterise these World Empires, He is using seven mountains, always typical of governments or great World empires or powers in the Scripture. When it speaks of "the mountain of the Lord's House" it's talking about the Kingdom of God, "the Mountain of the Lord," it's talking about God's Kingdom.--Not that silly little old Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, that's ridiculous! Just because the Temple was sitting on there, these Jews say that's the Mountain of the Lord's House & say that's all fulfilled.
75. THEY HAVEN'T SEEN ANYTHING YET! THEY HAVEN'T SEEN THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD'S HOUSE YET! Wait'll they see it, then they'll know what the Mountain of the Lord's House is! Amen? Hallelujah! We're picturing it all the time, praise God! I think this is a revelation to the World! They never had this concept before! They never realised what the Bible really said before, but we're going to show'm! We are showing'm! And boy, they're falling for it right & left! All they want to know is, "How do I get There?" They want to go! Praise God! The poor World from whom the church has hidden all this truth & hidden all this marvel, the minute they see it, they want it & they want to go There & they want Jesus! Thank the Lord!
76. "HERE IS THE MIND WHICH HATH WISDOM. THE SEVEN HEADS ARE SEVEN MOUNTAINS ON WHICH THE WOMAN SITTETH. AND THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS." Also they are typified as kings. Literally the original word used here in the Greek is powers, in other words, also symbolising kingdoms, not just the heads of the kingdoms, but kingdoms, World powers. And here he describes the seven great World powers specifically:
77. "THERE ARE SEVEN KINGS, FIVE ARE FALLEN, ONE IS & THE OTHER IS NOT YET COME." Now that really pinpoints the chronology of this! It couldn't be more specific! It says five are fallen. Five great World empires had preceded John's day, & when John was being told this, what great World Empire was at his time? (Fam: Rome.) One is, it says, Rome was existent then. So the five that are fallen are all the ones before Rome. The one that was, or as He says, "one is," meaning right then in John's day was Rome.
78. "AND THE OTHER IS NOT YET COME; & WHEN HE COMETH HE MUST CONTINUE A SHORT SPACE."--That's obviously the Antichrist Government! It had not yet come in John's day. Also, it specifically identifies it by saying it will just continue a very short space. Most of these other Empires lasted for hundreds of years, Rome for a thousand! But when the Antichrist comes, he's only going to last seven years! Of course, he's had hundreds of years of preparation & distinct 150 to 200 years of actual plotting & planning & bringing about his empire. But he's not going to actually start ruling the World until the last seven years.
79. AND WHAT DOES THAT SEVEN YEARS BEGIN WITH? How will we know when he begins to rule? (Fam: The signing of the Covenant.) He's gotta make that Covenant first. And the Scripture which makes it very specific about the seven years is which Scripture, which says then he's going to break it in the middle? (Fam: Daniel 9:27.) It couldn't be clearer, as well as many other Scriptures bearing out the idea about the last 3-1/2 years, etc.
80. (VERSE 11:) "AND THE BEAST THAT WAS, & IS NOT"--MEANING THAT IT IS NOT YET COME IN THIS CASE--"EVEN HE IS THE EIGHTH." "How come, Dad? What eighth? I thought it only had seven heads? Here we pop up with an eighth head, how can that be?" Well, the explanation is right there clear as can be: "And is of the seven." The eighth head, so-called, is of the seven, it's one of the seven heads which was wounded unto death & then is revived. Right? So there you have it, he's still the seventh. He's of the seven. And the amazing thing about it is, he's also of the sixth. These last two heads are actually one & the same, although some may count him as the eighth, as He calls him here, because he's going to be very similar to Rome & like a revival of Rome, but still different & worse, so much so that someone might call him the eighth. "Dad, I'm really confused now, I don't know what you're talking about!"
81. WELL, IT'S REALLY QUITE A MYSTERIOUS LITTLE PUZZLE HERE, LIKE A CONUNDRUM! They called them riddles when I was a kid & they had some in the Bible too. Remember Samson told riddles, etc. I think the Lord loves mysteries! God seems to love mysteries, He loves sort of puzzling people & telling riddles & conundrums. Don't you like mysteries? Don't they really fascinate you? God knows that people like mysteries too. A mystery is like a question, & once you have the question asked, then you really want to know the answer to the riddle or the conundrum or the problem or the puzzle or the mystery.
82. SO GOD LIKES MYSTERIES TOO, HE LIKES TO MYSTIFY YOU IN A WAY SO THAT YOU'LL WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER, you really try to work on it to figure it out. And if all else fails & you get desperate enough, you'll ask the Lord for the answer! Has it come to that? I guess we'll just have to trust the Lord! "Oh! Has it come to that!"--As the lady said on the boat during the storm, remember? That's the way that most people feel about God. When it gets to where they've gotta trust God, oh, that's the last resort! They try everything else first, they try every other means first, every other resource, every other helper, every other saviour, everything but God!
THE EIGHTH HEAD!
83. ALL RIGHT, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT I JUST SAID OR NOT ABOUT THE 11TH VERSE, but if you don't, there's no use trying to explain it! It's still rather mysterious. But it says it right there plain as can be! It's a little easier to understand the 12th verse. But do you get the picture anyhow, the idea? He says definitely that the 8th one is of the 7, in other words, the 8th one is one of the 7. And already we know that that final Antichrist kingdom, even though He goes to the extreme of characterising it as being the 8th, is actually the 7th, & we know that the 7th is a revival of the 6th. So in a way, these last three, 6th, 7th & kind of a ghostly 8th are all one & the same, they are the Devil's own Empire, the Devil's own kingdoms, more of the Devil's than any other kingdoms or empires that ever preceded them!
84. ROME WAS THE WORST OF ALL, SO THE ANTICHRIST IS GOING TO BE A REVIVAL OF ROME, ONLY EVEN WORSE!--SO MUCH SO THAT HE EVEN SAYS IT'S THE 8TH. It's like what they call in mathematics, to the 8th power. One number times another, times itself, is the square. Then you go to a little three after the number, that's cubed, meaning that's the number times itself times that again. And then you go on up, & it's all multiples of the same number. 2 x 2 is 4. And then again what do you multiply that by to take it to the cube?: 2 x 4 is 8. That's cubed. Then you go on up, & in this case you go to the 7th & to the 8th power. But actually the last three, 6, 7 & 8 are all one & the same but in various manifestations & in various multiplications, multiple powers, each become worse times itself.
85. I DON'T KNOW WHETHER YOU UNDERSTAND IT OR NOT, I might have to give you a course in algebra or logarithms or trigonometry before you'd understand some of these deep mysteries of the Word, but maybe you've got a little idea of the picture anyhow. The next is a little easier to understand.
REV.17:12 & 13--TEN HORNS, EUROPE, EEC!
86. (VERSE 12:) "AND THE TEN HORNS WHICH THOU SAWEST ARE TEN KINGS, WHICH HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET; BUT RECEIVE POWER AS KINGS ONE HOUR WITH THE BEAST." So, if they are kings during the time of the Beast's government, they are therefore on which head?--The last head, the 7th head. Which means, in a sense, they are on the revived 6th head & the shady, you might say like spiritual power 8th head. They're all on the same head. In other words, they all exist at the same time of the Antichrist. They are part of his kingdom, they are leaders of his kingdom.
87. WE HAVE INTERPRETED THAT TO MEAN THE ONLY GREAT WORLD POWERS WHO IT LOOKS MOST LIKELY TO GIVE THEIR POWER TO THE BEAST or to the Antichrist when he arises. Is there a great continent, a great land which today has ten heads? They now have 12, but it's really only my theory that the 10 nations of the EEC are the 10 Kings. In any event, we know it is Europe. I wouldn't care if there were 14 or 15 or 20 countries of Europe, 10 of them are going to join the Antichrist!
88. WHO KNOWS BUT WHAT THOSE STRICTLY CATHOLIC COUNTRIES LIKE SPAIN & PORTUGAL, THE ONES THAT JUST JOINED THE EEC, MAY EVEN REFUSE TO GIVE THEIR POWER TO THE BEAST! You know how Christian & Catholic they are. It doesn't mean that every single nation of the EEC has to join the Antichrist. But there will be 10 & I wouldn't be surprised if the last two that just joined would be the most likely to back out. Europe is the only one that fulfils this picture of the revived Roman Empire, because it covers the same territory that Rome covered. So the picture fits. This final Empire is going to be like the revival of Rome, even the very countries of which Rome was composed!
89. SO WHAT ARE THESE TEN COUNTRIES, TEN KINGS OR KINGDOMS, TEN HORNS WHICH HAVE RECEIVED NO KINGDOM AS YET?--In his day they were not separate kingdoms, countries or powers. In other words, they won't have the power yet. They're getting the power now! For the first time since Rome, Europe is being united!--For the first time since the days of Rome, when Rome united them all under its power, just as the Antichrist will unite them all under his power. I hope you're understanding some of this, at least, so you'll recognise what's happening.
90. THIS FINAL POWER OF ROME & THE NATIONS OF WHICH IT'S COMPOSED DO NOT RECEIVE POWER OR HAVE A TRULY UNITED POWER AGAIN LIKE WHEN THEY WERE UNITED IN ROME, UNTIL THE VERY LAST DAYS UNDER THE BEAST! He unites them. They receive power one hour with the Beast. You say, "I thought it was 3-1/2 years, Dad! I thought maybe it was even 7 years, Dad!" Well, here we're having the use of the term "one hour" in a figurative sense, in a symbolic sense, meaning a very short time. We talk about, "That was back in Abraham's day," but Abraham didn't just live one day, he lived scores of years! He was 175 when he died, he lived a lot more years than one day!
91. SO OFTEN THE LORD SPEAKS OF A DAY AS BEING A PERIOD OF TIME. In this case He's speaking of a very short period of time, so short that it's symbolised as only one hour, very short. And compared to all these other kingdoms that lasted for centuries, some for almost a thousand years, like Egypt, Assyria & Rome, seven years is nothing!--One hour compared to the rest of World history.
92. "THEY'LL RECEIVE POWER AS KINGS ONE HOUR WITH THE BEAST"--that's when Europe will really come into its own with real power at last! They've been trying to unite under the EEC, the European Economic Community, for a long time, trying to unite not only economically, but now they're trying to unite politically, & when this hour comes they're going to unite militarily with the Beast! Because they are going to have the power then with fire, fire power, to destroy the Whore! It says so here. One hour they're going to unite with the Beast, the very last of this World's history!
93. (VERSE 13:) "FOR THESE SHALL HAVE ONE MIND, & SHALL GIVE THEIR POWER & STRENGTH UNTO THE BEAST." Which way is Europe going to go? Is it going to side with its present ally America?--No! And if you read between the lines of the newspaper every day, they're turning gradually more & more away from the U.S. & resenting U.S. influence & power & U.S. dictation & the U.S. trying to force their decisions on Europe, they're resenting it more & more. And who is leading the pack? (Fam: France.) France, the most independent of all, is leading the pack! The most powerful nation in Europe today is France. It used to be England, it used to be Germany, think of it! But no longer. There was even a day when it was Spain, & once upon a time even Portugal was very powerful.
94. BUT TODAY, THE ONLY GREAT TRULY POWERFUL NATION LEADING THE PACK OF THESE TEN KINGS OF EUROPE, IS FRANCE. And take a look at France & notice her present attitude toward the U.S.A., she is the most antagonistic of all the European nations! And, believe it or not, although she's still very independent, she's keeping her place, but has been very friendly & had a lot of de'tente with Russia, the coming Antichrist government! Even the most conservative leader they have had, Giscard d'Estaing, went up there on several visits to Moscow & had quite friendly relations with Moscow, much more than nearly all the other European countries! So she's leading!
95. WELL, WE'D BETTER FINISH UP THE REST OF THIS CHAPTER, WHICH IS QUITE POWERFUL, NEXT CLASS! This tells you what they do, these kings that get together with the Beast!
96. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE & MOST OF ALL FOR YOUR LOVE & YOUR FAITH IN THE LORD & His goodness & mercy & love & His Will for your life, whatever it may be. Are you yielded to do His Will no matter what He asks you to do? So far you have been, thank the Lord! He may give you another test yet of what He wants you to do or not do. Some of these moves are coming soon, big changes ahead, but I think you'll like'm. They're all for the better, better for you, better for us, better most of all for the Lord's Kingdom & His work. So we should all be happy & yielded, amen? TYL! TYJ! PYL! Amen! PYL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Bless them all & keep them & make them a blessing, in Jesus' name. And don't forget, though I'm the gold miner, He's the One that made the gold!
--ROLL IT!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
