The Union of Church of State in the Last Days.
“These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” – REV 17:14. NASB
Firstly please let me correct a mistake I made a few days back. I accidently inserted my heading: “This will be the last challenge for the people of God,” into the text for the day. I can only explain this by the time lag between writing and editing and I apologise for that inadvertent mistake.
Secondly, in the light of what is currently happening in the Middle East I am going to insert our previous study from Daniel 11 into this study. Daniel’s last prophecy about the King of the North and the King of the South has to somehow mesh with what we have been studying in Revelation 13 and 17. Some of you did that study with me and others did not. Either way it is relevant to insert it in here. I will do this at the end of the posts from Revelation 17, before we do Revelation 18 and bring the whole series to its exciting conclusion.
To continue: Revelation 17 is not the first place where Scripture mentions 10 kings. Daniel 7:24 speaks of 10 kings that arose out of the fourth kingdom (the kingdom of Iron – Rome). The dragon of Revelation 12 has 10 horns, and again in Revelation 13, the sea beast has 10 horns. We now see the 10 horns again in Revelation 17. In each case it is speaking of the nations of western Europe, because that is where each of these creatures arose from and this all corresponds to the ten toes on the statue of four metals in Daniel 2. It is interesting that the 10 kings give their power and authority to the beast, and not the woman. In Bible prophecy, a beast stands for a civil power, whereas a woman symbolizes a church. The woman sitting on the beast represents the uniting of church and state, and the only way that a church can enforce her dogma and laws is through civil government, since a church has no legal power of its own. This is as it was in the Medieval Period. The image to the beast (Revelation 13) is simply a replica of this.
Using civil power, she has made the world drunk with her false beliefs and spilled the blood of the God’s people. The uniting of paganism, Catholicism, and apostate Protestantism create the woman riding on the beast, a system that according to Scripture will not work. (See on v16 to follow)
If they are warring against the Lamb, then they are warring against those who are “with Him.”
The Bible says a close relationship with God requires a close relationship with fellow Christians (1John 4:20 (NIV): “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” If we cannot say, “I was wrong,” to a fellow human, our confession of sin to God is called into question.
Those who are with Jesus in the final battle will be on intimate terms, not only with Him but also with each other. We need each other. “Forsake not the gathering together of God’s people, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Heb 10:25 c.f Matt 24:33)
The war described in Rev 17:14 is the global war of the end-time, called Armageddon in 16:16. It will involve every nation on the earth and every economic and religious power. But that battle also has personal dimensions. The New Testament is fond of describing the personal battle against sin and satan in military terms (see Eph 6:10-17, for example).
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NASB
In the New Testament “the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly weapons” (2 Cor 10:4). Fleshly weapons tear you to pieces, but spiritual warfare is different. It is about tearing down false arguments V:5 says, and every pretension that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and taking captive every thought, to make it obedient to Christ.
There is a battle raging inside every one of us. And our part in this battle is real. We are not to fall under the enticing allurement of the adulterous woman. Revelation 14:4 indicated that God’s people (symbolically the 144,000) have not defiled themselves with women, that is corrupt churches and their false teachings.
So, we are able to understand the filth, the adultery, the lies, the attacks on God’s character, and the deception that the partnership of beast and woman has been able to unleash on the world. When we look at chapter 17 with our Jesus glasses on, as we have attempted to do all through this series, we see another picture of satan taking everything that is beautiful about the life, sacrifice and high-priestly ministry of Jesus and twisting it into something evil, bloodthirsty and filled with corruption. There are two characters on display here. The question you need to ask is, “which one am I following?”
Revelation 17:1-14 is the vision, what follows is explanation.