Total apostasy (Revelation 17)
In Re. 17 and 18 we see the final form of the professing "church" just prior to Christ's return in power
and glory. This is after the translation of true Christians from the earth. Notice the characteristics of the harlot church
and remember that though the final, totally apostate church will not appear until the antichrist comes on the scene (the harlot
is pictured as riding upon the beast, the antichrist government), the conditions of apostasy have been growing throughout
the centuries and can be seen on every hand today. Preparations are being made throughout Christendom for the formation of
this end-time harlot church.
This explains the movement among even those who profess to be evangelical, Bible-believing Christians
to abandon fidelity to the Word of God and to move closer to those who are already apostate. This explains the movement of
Protestant churches back toward union with Catholicism. Herein lies the mystery of why the doctrine of separation is so despised
and slandered in our day. Fidelity to the Scriptures and separation from apostasy are stumbling blocks to the formation of
the harlot church.
HOW REVELATION 17 PICTURES THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.
The Roman Catholic Church fits perfectly the description of the harlot church of Re. 17, but the Catholic
Church alone as it presently exists does not fulfill this prophecy. Catholicism foreviews the prophecy, but does not yet fulfill
it. Romanism does, though, give a perfect picture to us of this future harlot church. Romanism has ridden through church history
upon the back of kings, is clothed in gorgeous robes and decked in expensive attire, is full of abominations, is drunken with
the blood of the martyrs it has slaughtered throughout its bloody history, and sits upon the seven mountains of Rome. The
inhabitants of the world are indeed drunk with the wine of her fornication. Countless multitudes of deceived people from practically
every nation of the world blindly follow the Catholic errors and glory in the apostate Roman rituals.
1. Spiritual harlotry (Re. 17:1). This harlot church, though claiming to be the bride of Christ,
is unfaithful to Christ and His Word, having prostituted itself with the world and the demonic powers behind the world system.
"No one who will take the trouble to read Eze. 16 and 23 can fail to understand God's plain language. In these two chapters
of Ezekiel alone, whoredom is mentioned over twenty times, as describing the sin before God of those who turn His worship
into shameless fellowship with demons and commerce with the world" (William R. Newell, The Book of the Revelation).
2. Worldwide power (Re. 17:1). "... the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." "Ecumenical"
means universal, worldwide, and the present-day movement of Christian unity, represented by groups such as the World Council
of Churches is the foreview of this worldwide apostate "church." The WCC itself is indeed worldwide, being composed of more
than 300 denominations representing some 500 million people in 100 nations. This large body of apostate Christendom has already
become one in spirit with the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, and even recognizes the so-called spirituality of
non-Christian religions. There is already a harlot "church" sitting upon many waters.
3. United with secular government (Re. 17:2). "With whom the kings of the earth have committed
fornication..." This failure to maintain N.T. separation between the churches and the secular government has always been a
hallmark of the Roman Catholic Church, the state churches of Europe, and now the World Council of Churches and other ecumenical
bodies. Apostasy does not hesitate to unite with godless men in government to accomplish its purposes. The Apostles and early
Christians did not unite in any way with the Roman government, but remained entirely separate and faithfully carried out the
commission Christ had given them. Apostate Christians care nothing for Christ's Great Commission, but have humanistic, socialistic,
worldly goals; therefore, they have no reason not to unite with secular government in these goals.
4. Causing men to be drunken with her fornications (Re. 17:2). "... and the inhabitants of the
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." Apostate religion allows men to continue in their sinful pleasures
while having a form of religion to soothe their guilty consciences. The attraction of apostate Christianity to the people
of the world, in spite of the fact that apostate Christendom has constantly discredited itself, is amazing to behold. This
is illustrated by the world's love of the pope of Rome. The pope has a definite supernatural attraction to unregenerate men.
Even the secular, humanistic press gives the Roman pope great acclaim, something not accorded any other religious leader.
Of the pope's journey to South America in 1980, Time magazine said: "The Polish-born pontiff proved a spell-binding
presence, drawing crowds of a million or more on at least six occasions." Following the first visit ever made by a pope to
America, Time magazine gushed: "A gentle shepherd with a will of steel, John Paul II thrilled the U.S. with a glorious
pilgrimage that won hearts--and challenged the nation. ... After only a year in office, the Pontiff is emerging as the kind
of incandescent leader that the world so hungers for--one who can make people feel that they have been lifted above the drabness
of their lives and show them that they are capable of better emotions, and better deeds than they may have thought." Several
people have been trampled to death in the great crowds which flock to see the pope during his world travels. In 1980, nine
people were trampled to death and dozens were hospitalized in Africa, while three were trampled to death and 30 injured in
El Salvador. These duped millions are indeed drunken with the wine of the fornications of the harlot "church."
This attraction of the world toward apostate Christendom will continue to increase as the Great Tribulation
draws nearer. Finally, the Antichrist's prophet will "cause the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast,
whose deadly wound was healed ... and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power
to do..." (Re. 13:11-15) "... God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be
damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." (2 Th. 3:11-12)
5. Rome will be the headquarters (Re. 17:3,9). "The seven heads are seven mountains, on which
the woman sitteth." John pictures the great harlot sitting upon seven mountains, which most fundamental preachers identify
as the city of Rome. The movement we are witnessing among Protestant groups toward reconciliation with the Roman Church is
the foreview of this. According to prophecy, Rome will again have supremacy in the final apostate church. "The woman is a
city, and the city is Rome, the religious capital of the world. ... Rome was the city set on seven hills and was known as
such to both pagan and Christian writers. ... Ovid said, `Rome looks around on the whole globe from her seven mountains, the
seat of empire and abode of the gods.' ... She is religious Rome, which at that time will have inherited all the religions
of the world. ... It will attain the goal of the present-day apostates of all the great systems of the world: Romanism, Protestantism,
pagan religions, cults and isms" (J. Vernon McGee, Revelation).
This uniting of all denominations and religions with Rome is occurring before our very eyes today. A
statement made in recent years by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the head of the Anglican and Episcopalian churches, shows
how far the ecumenical movement has gone toward reconciliation with Rome. "We should like to see the churches of England,
Scotland, the United States and any other countries, bound together in one body. If the pope would like to come in as chairman,
we should all welcome him" (Why Were Our Reformers Burned?). Chairman of the board, indeed! The pope will RULE! And
not only are apostate Christian denominations returning to Rome, but so are pagan religions. At the last two general assemblies
of the World Council of Churches some of the main speakers were non-Christians. There were Hindus, Buddhists, Jewish rabbis,
Muslims, Sikhs, native American Indians, and Australian aborigines. Pagan altars were erected and fire offerings made to various
pagan gods.
6. Names of blasphemy (Re. 17:3). Apostate Christianity is indeed full of blasphemy. There is
the blasphemy of liberals, who deny the very Christ, God, and Bible they profess to follow--liberals such as Nels Ferre, who
suggested that Christ might have been the son of a German soldier. There is the blasphemy of Unitarianism, which denies the
very Godhead and the deity of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. There is the blasphemy of popery, which takes unto itself names
which belong solely to the holy Trinity, names such as Holy Father, His Holiness, Pontiff, Vicar of Christ. There is the blasphemy
of syncretistic ecumenism which says God and truth are in pagan religions. Indeed, the harlot church is full of the names
of blasphemy.
7. Arrayed in purple and scarlet color (Re. 17:4). The Apostles and Christians of the early churches
were humble Bible-believers who lived simple lives and did not follow the pattern of the world's leaders and religions. The
harlot church loves impressive cathedrals, flowing robes, gorgeous ritualism, expensive ecclesiastical clothing and trappings.
8. Exceedingly wealthy (Re. 17:4). "... decked with gold and precious stones and pearls..." The
wealth of the Catholic Church alone is vast. When this is added to the wealth of the apostate Protestant denominations, the
sum is staggering. The harlot church is spiritually bankrupt, but amazingly full of material wealth. A book by Martin Larson
and Stanley Lowell entitled Praise the Lord for Tax Exemption estimated the 1971 statistics for church assets in America
at $133.3 billion. That included stocks, bonds, investment, real estate, and commercial business property. Today's values
would be much higher.
9. A bloodless cup (Re. 17:4). "... having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication." Instead of the cup of the precious blood of Christ, the harlot church has a cup of abominations and filthiness
of fornication. In light of this prophecy, it is a fearful fact that the WCC, the United Bible Societies, the National Council
of Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and other ecumenical bodies are sponsoring the perverted Good News Bible, which almost
entirely leaves out the blood of Christ. Though the word "blood" in reference to the cross of Christ has been omitted, this
version has been approved by all branches of apostate Christendom. It was one of the first Bible translations to be approved
by both Catholics and Protestants. Here also we see the Roman Catholic "bloodless" sacrifice--the Mass, and their refusal
to allow the people to partake of the cup of the Mass, which signifies the Lord's blood. Many modern Protestant hymnals have
removed all reference to the blood of Christ. In the place of the cup of Christ's blood, the harlot church has set up idols--abominations--and
has offered its people the spiritually adulterous union with this present wicked, demonically-controlled world system.
10. The final manifestation of the ancient apostasy--Mystery Babylon (Re. 17:5). This connects
the final apostate harlot church with the false religion established at Babel in the early history of man (Ge. 10:8-10; 11:1-9).
In other words, it is the final product of Satan's corruption of true religion through the ages.
11. Persecution of true believers (Re. 17:6). "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus..." Both the RCC and certain of the Protestant denominations have been
guilty of murdering and persecuting true N.T. Christians. The RCC has murdered millions. No one has ever been able to count
the total number. In the Netherlands alone following the Reformation, multitudes were tormented and destroyed. Consider these
excerpts from a record of those persecutions dating from the 1520s:
The history of the Low Countries from this time is so full of martyrdoms, that it is like a gradual extermination
of the population. ... The fires were now kindled all over the country, and edict following edict, with increasing severity,
kept them burning. It was death to read a page of the scriptures; death to discuss any article of the faith; death to have
in one's possession any of the writings of Luther, Zwingle, or OEcolampadius; death to express a doubt respecting the efficacy
of the sacraments, or the authority of the pope. In the year 1536, that good and faithful servant of the Lord, William Tyndale,
was strangled and burnt at Vilvordi, near Brussels, for translating the New Testament into English, and printing it in 1535.
... About four hundred churches were thus plundered and defaced in a few days. ... The troops were ordered to be distributed
over the distracted country, that the persecuting edicts might be enforced. The Protestants were reduced to great straits;
many were put to death, and many fled the country ... In the year 1567 the cruel duke of Alva was sent into the Netherlands
with an army of fifteen thousand Spaniards and Italians; and the Inquisition was to put forth all its energies. . The wooden
churches were pulled down, and, in some places the beams were formed into a great gallows on which to hang the minister and
his flock. [These atrocities against Bible believers were] to be witnessed almost daily in the country for nearly forty years.
... In the year 1567 `the council of blood,' as it was called, held its first sitting. ... Blood now flowed in torrents. ...
A new edict was issued, affixing a heavy penalty upon all waggoners, carriers, and ship-masters, who should aid in the emigration
of `heretics.' They had resolved that none should escape. ... Upon the 19th of February 1568 a sentence of the Holy Office
condemned all the inhabitants of the Netherlands to death as heretics. ... A proclamation of the king, dated ten days later,
confirmed this decree of the inquisition, and ordered it to be carried into instant execution, without regard to age, sex,
condition. This is probably the most concise death-warrant that was ever framed. Three millions of people--men, woman, and
children, were sentenced to the scaffold in three lines. Under this universal condemnation the reader will see the real spirit
of popery, and what all had to expect who did not yield an absolute, though blind submission, to all her idolatries, and superstitions
(Miller's Church History, pp. 1002-1008).
Similar atrocities were being committed against Bible believers across much of Europe. The persecution
of N.T. Christians has been the legacy not only of Rome, but of certain Protestant denominations as well. The Protestant Church
of England has imprisoned and martyred hundreds of faithful saints of God during its illustrious history. John Bunyan wrote
Pilgrim's Progress during the 12 years he languished in Bedford prison because of his refusal to accept a license from
the state church. Bunyan committed the "awful" crime of preaching the Gospel without the permission of ecclesiastical authorities.
Did he not have authority from that One who has all power in heaven and in earth (Mt. 28:18-20; Mk. 16:15)? Indeed he did,
but the old Harlot has usurped Christ's authority unto itself. It is recorded that there were never less than 60 other "dissenters"
with Bunyan in that one jail, and there were many other jails in England in those sad days. These are only tiny examples of
the persecution which has raged against N.T. Christians by those who have imbibed the spirit of the Harlot. Unprecedented
persecution will be unleashed against those who hold to the Word of God after the final form of the harlot church appears,
supported by the satanic power of Antichrist's government.
