Who is "the great prostitute, who rules over many waters" from Revelation?

[InJesusItrust]

Once I discovered it is most likely Jerusalem I was able to accept Catholicism:

- The blood of prophets was ascribed to Jerusalem, who Jesus and much of the Old Testament calls a whore. Rome did not kill OT prophets.

- Revelation says that the Lord was crucified in spiritual Sodom. Where was He crucified?

- New Jerusalem is called a bride, so by contrast Old Jerusalem is a whore.

- The Jews have to accept a false messiah (the Antichrist, where "Christ" means messiah) who will fulfill their ambitions of subduing the world under their perceived opinion of prophecy. Rather than seeing Jesus as spreading knowledge of the Lord across the world, they think the world has to be Jewish for that to happen.

- Jerusalem has 7 hills.

- Many Catholic saints and seers claimed that the Antichrist will rule from Jerusalem.

[Yab Yum]

IMHO:

The Whore of Babylon is not itself Babylon.

"Babylon" itself (Rome) destroys its "Whore" (Jerusalem).

Revelation 17:16: And the ten horns which thou sawest in the beast [Rome]: these shall hate the harlot [Jerusalem], and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her with fire.

Revelation 11:8 : [A]nd their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified.

Revelation 13:18: This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666 [Nero].

Isaiah 1:21: How the faithful city has become a harlot, she that was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers.

Jeremiah 3:6: The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: "Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot?”

Ezekiel 16:2: Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations.

Ezekiel 16:26-30: You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your harlotry, to provoke me to anger. Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you, and diminished your allotted portion, and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yea, you played the harlot with them, and still you were not satisfied. You multiplied your harlotry also with the trading land of Chaldea; and even with this you were not satisfied. "How lovesick is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.

Matthew 23:29-38: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. 'O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate'.

Revelation 18:20, 24: Rejoice over her, O heaven, O saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her! And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.

[CyberAngel]

Whosoever has death camps for believers who do not bow down and worship the Beast
There will be persecution for ALL believers and we will see no more fences who is Catholic who is Protestant or other maybe Nondenominational. There will be those who kill True Christians. Either you are a "nazi" or you choose to be a "jew". Either you worship the Beast or you will suffer extremely. Be prepared for ANYTHING!!

[Nelka]

Originally Posted by GorgeousBlonde

I looked it up online and so many negative anti-catholic people say it is the Roman Catholic church, and I don't understand why? I am also curious as to who actually is "the great prostitute".

Revelation 17:1, 2
http://bible.cc/revelation/17-1.htm
http://bible.cc/revelation/17-2.htm

It is not the Catholic Church!

It is most probably Jerusalem.

[DaveBj]

The problem that I have with the interpretation that the "great prostitute" is Jerusalem is the fact that Jerusalem never ruled over many waters, while Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean.

[InJesusItrust]

Well the Jews are expecting a messiah who will make Israel a global superpower. No one has summoned fire from the sky either, so the Antichrist still has to come.

[Nelka]

Originally Posted by DaveBj

The problem that I have with the interpretation that the "great prostitute" is Jerusalem is the fact that Jerusalem never ruled over many waters, while Rome controlled the entire Mediterranean.

The many waters aren't waters but people.

Revelation 17:15 The angel continued, 'The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages.

[Nelka]

Originally Posted by InJesusItrust

Well the Jews are expecting a messiah who will make Israel a global superpower. No one has summoned fire from the sky either, so the Antichrist still has to come.

"He shall sit in the Temple of God as if he were Christ, and leading astray those who worship him." (St. Irenaeus)

"This accursed one is sent by the devil in order to lead men into error." (St. Hildegard)

"Antichrist will be born near Babylon. He will win the support of many with gifts and money. He will sell himself to the devil and thereafter will have no guardian angel or conscience." (St. Jerome)

"Dan, Moses said, is a lion's whelp; and in naming the tribe of Dan he declared clearly the tribe from which Antichrist is destined to spring." (St. Hippolytus)

"Antichrist will rule the world from Jerusalem, which he will make into a magnificent city." (St. Anselm)

[Ron Conte]

My interpretation is that the harlot (Rev 17:1) is the same as the false prophet who assists the Antichrist (Rev 13:12), and the same as the Jezabel who calls herself a prophet (Rev 2:20). The harlot is also the false church devised by the Antichrist and the false prophet, in order to replace the true Church.

[Jim Baur]

I believe it has to be religious.

I believe it is close to committing adultery or false worship--Jerusalem.

I believe it is the religious institution that is in the City of Seven Hill--Jerusalem.

I believe it has to be the City where Jesus was crucified--Jerusalem.

It has to be a biblical city of the O. T.

If these things have been stated before--please forgive me.

Thanks!

[Ron Conte]

Saint Victorinus:
9. "The seven heads are the seven hills, on which the woman sits." That is, the city of Rome.
http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0712.htm

So this would suggest that the Antichrist locates his false church, his false religion, at Rome.

[DaveBj]

Originally Posted by Nelka

The many waters aren't waters but people.

Revelation 17:15 The angel continued, 'The waters you saw, beside which the prostitute was sitting, are all the peoples, the populations, the nations and the languages.

My point still holds. It was Rome, not Jerusalem, that was ruling over many waters/peoples. The Jews, centered in Jerusalem, were one of the peoples/waters that Rome was ruling.

[CyberAngel]

The Bride - True Followers of the Christ
The Harlot - those who are following the Antichrist
Don't be chocked if the political powers and religious powers rule together everywhere
That means that churches are finally together, but the False Prophet is misleading people
That means that even your country and your church will be corrupt
Take care of yourself and your family
Be aware!
It looks good and it looks like Christ himself has finally arrived
BUT IT IS NOT!

[mercytruth]

St.John of the Cross says she represents the pursuit of mammon, of the riches and materialism of this world. Ezekiel speaks of Tyre in the same manner as does the book of Revelation...the world center for the trading of the riches and luxuries of this world which are pursuing the desires of the flesh rather than walking after the Spirit.

I think it is self-explanatory when this 'harlot' of the idolatry of mammon says, " I will not suffer", when Jesus says that to be his disciple we must deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.

God's peace

Micah

[Ron Conte]

Originally Posted by Nita

Sometimes I think the 7 hills refer to the 7 continents of our earth.

That interpretation might also be correct, since the Antichrist and the harlot reign over nearly the whole world.