A prostitute is a woman who grants sexual favors for money. This chapter is about “the great prostitute.” Her clothes and jewelry are expensive, but this doesn’t hide the fact that she is both intoxicated and wicked.

Did you notice what she has been drinking? It’s the blood of those who love Jesus!

Before concluding that our subject is a sinful woman, however, remember that Revelation is full of symbolism. My caution is justified because verse 18 reads, “The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”To the early Church, this had to mean Rome!

But was Revelation given exclusively for that early generation of believers experiencing persecution under the powerful Roman Empire? Could it be this is a prophecy that’s also relevant for our modern times?

Were you aware that what’s about to happen and what’s a long way off are often mixed together by the biblical prophets? Even Jesus did this. In the Olivet Discourse, our Lord spoke about the near future, when the city of Jerusalem would be destroyed by the Romans, and events associated with the end of the age. At the time He spoke, everything He mentioned was future. However, Jesus didn’t differentiate between what was close and what was far off.

This pattern is consistent with other scriptural prophets. So I have a feeling that this “great city that rules over the kings of the earth” might have both a past and a future fulfillment. Re-said, the early Church’s interpretation may differ from our own, and both renderings could be right!

It is also true that prophecies sometimes have early partial fulfillment’s and then later complete fulfillment’s.

To confuse things even more, in this chapter another city is named that we need to take into consideration. We find it in the title written on the great prostitute’s head.

We will continue this discussion in the next blog post.

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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Seven churches—seven seals—seven trumpets—seven thunders—what’s next? Seven swans a-swimming?

Would you believe chapter 15, verse 6, reads, “Out of the temple came seven angels with seven plagues”? And what were they given? The answer is “seven golden bowls filled with the wrath of God.” That’s found in verse seven!

To get our bearings in the midst of all these sevens, let’s do a quick review.

Opening the seven seals on the edge of the scroll brought us to the threshold of the end-times.

Between the seven seals and the seven trumpets there was an interlude, or insertion, or interruption that broke the flow of what was happening. It focused first on the Jewish martyrs and then on the much-larger multitude of Gentile ones.

When the final or seventh seal was broken, there was absolute silence in heaven for about half an hour. Then the wrath of God began to be displayed against the evil of the world.

Between the seven trumpets and the seven bowls there was once again an insertion. This interruption informed us first about the two Jewish witnesses. Then we learned about the two beasts that will also temporarily rule over the Gentile world.

The seven golden bowls of God’s wrath are a continuation of the seven trumpets. So we can expect both overlap and also some new material. The bowls, therefore, are an intensification of the trumpet plagues, plus the revealing of additional information regarding the future.

In many ways the trumpets and bowls remind us of the plagues of Egypt during the time of Moses.

The purpose of God showing His power like this is to bring men and women to their knees in a last opportunity for repentance. For the most part, however, they stubbornly refuse to do so (16:9, 11, 21).

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Please click here to visit David Mains’ Sermon-Coach.com website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Please click here.

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