The Whore on the Beast

The Whore on the Beast

 The entire article, which is somewhat lengthy, can be read from the “Pages” section at the following link.   The Whore on the Beast – Complete

Psalms 16:4 NIV     Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more. I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods or take up their names on my lips.

The concept and identity of mystery, Babylon has always intrigued me.  In the past few years there have been three serious studies that I am aware of identifying cities or countries that may qualify for the mystery place.  R.A. Coombes relegated much of his life attempting to prove that the USA, particularly New York City is the questionable harlot place.  He wrote many research articles for his internet blog and also published a book entitled America, the Babylon.  I have read several of his articles over the years but not his book.  Whether through Coombes, or another source, many people currently ascribe the woman as the USA.

The next major contender is Mecca or Saudi Arabia postulated by Walid Shoebat.  Both Mr. Shoebat and Joel Richardson have written books asserting the concept that the 70^th week of Daniel beast (antichrist) and the prostitute will be Islamic in nature.  In my opinion the writer and exegete Chris White has thoroughly debunked the assumptions of both Shoebat and Richardson concerning their Islamic antichrist declarations. 

The third major study is by Chris White and it is the one I recommend.  Mr. White’s writings include:  False Christ: Will the Antichrist Claim to Be the Jewish Messiah?, Mystery Babylon – When Jerusalem Embraces The Antichrist, Daniel – A Commentary, and The Islamic Antichrist Debunked.  All of his books are also available in Kindle editions and most can be freely downloaded as an MP3 file at the following addresses:  http://bibleprophecytalk.com and http://conspiracyclothes.com/nowheretorun/.  There are also videos and other files of the sites with most of the material contained in the books. 

All the books, blogs, and articles I have read claiming the USA is the mystery woman always include a list of the wrongdoings of the government and certain people of the country.  It is true the USA has done and continue to do many evil things, but it remains to be proven if the current USA is the most evil place in the world or in history.  The actions and evil workings of this country greatly concern me and I am not attempting to apologize, deny, or excuse any current action.  Most, if not all, of the accusations regarding the USA are supplied by citizens of the USA, who, like most others, have knowledge of the estate of the country and not necessarily the state of any other country.  It should also be said their world history knowledge is limited unless they have spent their life studying world history which is doubtful. 

However, one must view this situation through the concepts of the Bible which is the source of the prophecies in question.  The book of the Revelation, in addition to all Old Testament and New Testament prophecies concerning the 70^th week of Daniel are discussing and giving information of future events and are not discussing the state of the world as of today or right now.  Anyone viewing the headlines of today and saying they are relevant for the future is doing themselves and their readers a great disservice.  Also, has anyone analyzed why God, through the scripture of the Bible, refers to this end-times prostitute as Mystery, Babylon.  Why Babylon? What is it about ancient Babylon under the leadership of Nimrod that makes this end-times city to be referred to as Babylon and a mystery of Babylon?  The name Babylon is in the scripture for a purpose.  It is termed a harlot or prostitute for a purpose.  We need to determine the purpose for the name, Mystery, Babylon from the Bible and not the headline news.

The 70^th week of Daniel is a scriptural issue; it is an issue for the people of God; and most importantly it is the issue of God.  The book of the Revelation was not given to John by Jesus Christ just to give people a clue concerning end-times events.  It is the summation of world history given by God who created the world and everyone in it.  We need to view the events of scripture from the first words, “In the beginning”, to the very end.  It is about God dealing with his people, the Israelites, then the Church, and every historical event concerning the Israelites and then the Church.

WHY IS THE WOMAN TERMED A PROSTITUTE (WHORE)?

The People of Abraham     The Abrahamic Covenant (or the covenant that God made to Abram) (Abraham)) is a series of promises from God to Abraham.  After the confusion of languages at the construction of the tower of Babel, God appointed 70 Divine Council members (angels) as the authoritative administrators for the 70 nations that were inadvertently created by the confusion of the common language of the group. 

When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.   (Deuteronomy 32:8 Brenton)

God gave the people over to the lesser “gods” (the angelic beings) to which they were desiring to worship and serve as in the post-flood period under Nimrod.  According to His prophecy to Noah, God took for Himself a people from the linage of Shem which began with Abraham.

And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; …..   (Genesis 9:26 KJV)

God selects Abraham as the progenitor of His nation.  The Lord appeared to Abram, told him to leave his country of southern Babylon and travel to another land.  Then God promises Abram that he will be a great nation.  This promise was fulfilled by the kingdom of David and Solomon.  Abram was promised to be blessed – which he was; his name would be made great – which it is; and he would be a blessing – which was fulfilled by the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:   (Genesis 12:1-2 KJV)

Jacob and Israel     The people referred to as Israelites are all supposed to be the offspring of Jacob.  Jacob was the father of twelve sons and their offspring became the twelve tribes (actually 13) of Israel.  The Levites were priests and the tribe of Joseph was divided into the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, his two sons.  God appeared to Jacob when he was fleeing from his brother, Esau.  The Lord told Jacob to go to Bethel and live there.  Jacob did so and commanded his company of people and their families to rid themselves of their idols and foreign gods which were buried.  Jacob built an altar and worshipped God at Bethel.  As an overcomer, God renamed Jacob as Israel and thus the name Israelite was applied to his descendants.  During the divided kingdom, after the death of Solomon, the term Israel was used as the name of the northern kingdom consisting of ten tribes.  The southern kingdom, mostly the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levites, and several of the other ten tribes desiring to live in the area of the temple was known as the nation of Judah, named after the dominant tribe.  The name, Judah, was later shortened to Jew.  Historically the term Jew denotes a citizen of the nation of Judah although the term was misapplied in the New Testament by the King James interpreters.  Today, a Jew is anyone claiming an Israelite pedigree.

Abraham was promised the land of Israel and several years later, the Hebrew people were taken from Egypt and placed in the land of Canaan.  In a type of prophetic parallel which occurs after the wrath of God, the Israelites will once again be gathered from the areas of the world and brought again to the land of Israel perhaps from the areas listed in the scriptures below.

At that time the sovereign master will again lift his hand to reclaim the remnant of his people from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and the seacoasts.   (Isaiah 11:11 NET)

At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession.  (Jeremiah 3:18 NET)

During the 70^th week of Daniel, there will be 144,000 from the twelve tribes of Israel sealed by God.  The current location of these people varies with the commentator.  When God gathered His people at the beginning of the Millennium will some not realize they were an Israelite?

The nation of Israel was established by God as a linage conduit through Shem to Judah to David to Jesus Christ.  Abraham was the founding member of this people of God.  The ultimate goal of the nation of the Hebrews (or Israel) was to provide a linage for the birth of Jesus Christ.  The desire of God was to have a nation that would acknowledge and follow the commandments of the Lord God as a model to the world, rather than the dictates of a heathen idol (which actually was controlled by a lesser angelic “god”).  After the death of David and Solomon this nation only rarely followed the leadership of God which resulted in the northern 10 tribes of Israel conquered by Assyria with the majority (not all) of the people taken to northeast Assyria as captives and other people brought in as replacements.  The southern kingdom, containing the tribe of Judah, remained a few centuries longer until being conquered, destroyed, and the majority (not all) taken to Babylon.  70 years later a few returned, preparing for the appearance of the Messiah with most Judahites remaining in Babylon.

The Wife of God     The Lord God considered the people of the undivided nation of Israel as His wife and He as her husband.  However, the divided nations of Israel and Judah played the harlot.  God divorced the northern nation of Israel and the majority of the people were either killed or sent away as captives of Assyria, although some most likely escaped and remained in the area.  Later, the nation of Judah also played the harlot and was also divorced, conquered by Babylonia, many were killed and others sent as captives to the nation of Babylon.

In Deuteronomy is found the commandment of God concerning divorce.  When a wife is divorced, due to her offensiveness, and marries another (as in idolatry) the first husband is not permitted to remarry her because she has become ritually impure.  They have become ritually impure through the worship of idols.  They later rejected the Person and authority of the Messiah and continued their organized Judaism and ritual sacrifice.  Only through the new covenant and living in the Kingdom of God may one become the future bride of Christ, the Son of God (or One with the Father).  Those of the New Covenant and the Kingdom of God are not ritually impure and qualify as the bride of Christ and future wife of God.

Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.  (Jeremiah 3:20 KJV)

But as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!   (Ezekiel 16:32 KJV)

There are many additional scriptures concerning the adultery or prostitution of Israel and Judah that could be included.  The main point is that God is/was concerned with all manners of sin or law breaking committed by Israel and Judah (or the Church of today).  Some instances of commandment breaking were punished with drought, famine, plagues, or minor attacks but the sin of idolatry were judged with invasion, destruction, death, and captivity. 

As previously noted, the nations of the world were given governmental control by 70 angels of the divine council.  The nations were handed over to the idolatry they had desired and entertained after the confusion of the languages at ancient Babylon.  There is an abundance of historical documents delineating the vast levels of idolatry and mythology throughout the antiquity of the world.  God chose Abraham to begin a nation of people who would acknowledge and worship the one true God and creator of all things.  They were sent to Egypt to initially escape famine and starvation.  They were eventually made slaves in an isolated area, free from outside genetic mixing and became a multitude of people called the Israelites.  They left Egypt to return to Canaan; they were given the laws and commandments of God, first at Mt. Sinai through Moses.  They agreed to accept and abide by the commandments and were sprinkled with the blood of the agreement sacrifice was a type of baptism.  However, they immediately committed idolatry and many were killed.  At the outskirts of Canaan, their refusal to trust the Word of God due to fear of the giants, necessitated a forty year wandering in the wilderness until all died but the two faithful scouts.