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REVELATION - Behold, I am Coming Soon
Studies in the Book of Revelation
BOOK 6 - BABYLON THE HARLOT AND THE WORSHIP OF GOD(REVELATION 17:1 - 19:10)
PART 6.1 - THE JUDGMENT OF GOD UPON THE HARLOT BABYLON (REVELATION 17:1 - 18:24)

2. The Harlot of Babylon Close Up (Revelation 17:3-6)


The Golden Cup of Abomination (v 4): The patriarch John saw in his vision a golden cup in the hand of the woman intoxicated with love, who had had her affaires with princes, kings, presidents and rulers (Revelation 17:4). The woman sitting on the scarlet beast extends her gold embellished chalice to the most influential men in the world, that they can drink out of it and become influenced and drunk with her spirit.

Whoever looks, however, into the inside of the artistic cup, will be shocked and abhorred, for in it all forms of abominations and impurities creep about. With abhorrence John described this ugly contrast. Like the Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees: Outside the cup is clean; inside is greed and wickedness (Luke 11:39).

Again and again critical question about the Catholic Church's understanding of Communion are forced open. Their priests and scholars claim to break the body of Christ every time they break the host. In so doing, they offer the real broken body of Christ to the faithful, thus repeating the killing of the Son of God each time. Only priests are authorized and worthy to undertake this action and transformation. But this teaching is not primary. In the Hebrew language the small word “is” does not exist in the sense of Indo-Germanic languages. According to Semitic language understanding Jesus did not say: “This is My body”, and also not: “This symbolizes My body”, but said: “This – My body!”; “This – My blood!” He left it open whether these words signified a real presence or were to be understood allegorically.

Notwithstanding, whoever deduces out of these sacramental words the teaching that every priest is authorized, even under obligation, to sacrifice and kill Jesus once more and even repeatedly, falls victim to insolent arrogance. He blasphemes with his liturgical dogma the once only and forever valid self-sacrifice of Jesus on the cross (John 19:30; Hebrews 10:14).

Relatively late in church history, at the First Vatican Council in 1870, Pope Pius IX pushed through the church dogma of papal infallibility in matters relating to teaching. He did this by the use of force and intrigue against the majority of cardinals and bishops, who had called his authority into question. In so doing, he exalted himself, for all men before God are liars and in error (Psalm 116:11; Romans 3:4). There is none righteous, no not one (Psalm 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-12). We are all of the earth and fall short of God's glory, wisdom and holiness (Romans 3:9; 19:23).

Dr. Martin Luther, in his struggle regarding the singular authority of the Bible, recognized that “councils and synods, like committees and parliaments, can err. This faultiness was especially apparent with Peter, the so-called “first pope”! Paul had to openly correct Peter, when, out of fear of Jewish Christians, he withdrew himself from eating with gentile Christians, so making hypocrisy of Old Testament piety and relegating Christians out of heathendom to second class believers (Galatians 2:11-14). Some years previously Peter had tried to hinder his Lord from going the way of the cross. But Jesus rebuked him: “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Matthew 16:21-23) Whoever as pope declares that he is infallible in his office makes God a liar (Isaiah 6:5-7; I John 1:10).

The history of the Catholic Church exposes the unbiblical dogma of papal infallibility as self-deception. Pope Stephan VII (896 to 897) had the remains of the deceased pope, Formosus, exhumed from the earth, placed his bones in the dock, and in a mock trial had him condemned as a heretic! At the beginning of the second millennium there were at one time three popes: Gregory VI, Benedict and Sylvester III. Which one of the three was infallible, for they were all fighting each other? From 1309 to 1377 all of the popes were French and resided in Avignon, in the “Babylon” of the Occident. The Waldensians called the Roman Church of their day the “Harlot of Babylon”.

The Patriarch John did not elaborate on each of the numerous abominations in the golden chalice of the woman. They were too repugnant and unholy for him. The patriarch was confronted in this vision with the antithesis of what he had experienced in the community of Jesus, the exact opposite of what he had taught and lived out before his churches. The mere existence of this adulterous woman was a frontal attack against the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth and love. It is clear, thereby, that the great harlot does not just symbolize worldly churches and estranged synagogues, but represents an antichristian great power. The beast and the woman both showed themselves in gaudy red, in a “partner-look”. They were of the same spirit.

PRAYER: Our Father in heaven, we magnify You and love You because Your Son Jesus Christ accomplished, through His death in our place, the complete atonement for our sins, forgiving the sins of all men freely. Help us to believe with many of the unbelievers in this perfect salvation that we may be assured that neither we nor others can save us, knowing that Your mighty Son has fulfilled all the requirements of our everlasting justification. Amen.

QUESTION:

  1. What are the abominations in the golden cup?

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