666...Who is the man that bares the mark?

[HarryStotle]

3) The Beast and the Whore could not be the same because the Beast destroys the Whore.

"And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the harlot; they will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire. (Rev 17:16)

Rome and Jerusalem cooperated which is why the Whore is represented as riding on the Beast – i.e., being supported by it.

I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of harlots and of earth’s abominations.” (Rev 17:3-5)

King Herod, the ruler of Israel in Jerusalem was appointed by the Roman Empire. Pontius Pilate cooperated with the leaders of Jerusalem on the Sanhedren to crucify Jesus but also to incite the people to abandon God.

…the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are no friend of the emperor. Everyone who claims to be a king sets himself against the emperor.”
When Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus outside and sat on the judge’s bench at a place called The Stone Pavement, or in Hebrew Gabbatha… He said to the Jews, “Here is your King!” They cried out, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but the emperor.” (John 19: 12-15)

The Roman-Jewish War ends in the destruction and burning of Jerusalem (the great city) in AD 70, fulfilling the prophecy from Revelation 11: “…the beast that ascends from the bottomless pit will make war upon them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city…”

Note the future tense “will” indicating this is about future events, supporting the thesis that Revelation was written before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Therefore, the harlot = the great city = Jerusalem.

4) The “great city” AKA “the Harlot” is replaced by the New Jerusalem.

[The angel]… called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! It has become a dwelling place of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a haunt of every foul and hateful bird; for all nations have drunk the wine of her impure passion, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich with the wealth of her wantonness.” (Rev 18:2-3)

 

[HarryStotle]

“Come out of her my people, lest you take part in her sins, let you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her as she herself has rendered, and repay her double for her deeds; mix a double draught for her in the cup she mixed. As she glorified herself and played the wanton (or “whore”), so give her a like measure of torment and mourning. Since in her heart she says, “A queen I sit I am no widow, mourning I shall never see,” so shall her plagues come in a single day, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she shall be burned with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.” (Rev 18:4-8)

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband; and I heard a great voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling of God is with men. He will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them (Rev 21:1-3).

Notice the language of husband and wife (groom and bride) depicting the new Jerusalem and her relationship with God, whereas the “old” Jerusalem was depicted as the adulteress and whore.

5) John uses the same imagery concerning Jerusalem as Ezekiel did concerning the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians (the “beast” of their days) in BC 587.

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Why was Jerusalem destroyed in BC 587? For roughly the same reason as in AD 70 – for her unfaithfulness and betrayal, I.e., her “whoring.” Ergo, who is the harlot?

Jerusalem. This time not just for betrayal but for the murder of her God.

 

[spina1953]

Hi Harry Stotle, yes! I agree with what you have pasted. I have not read those books you pointed out but hopefully i will be able to some time soon. I agree the harlot can’t be the beast The dragon is certainly satan and the beast is the Roman empire and the harlot is Jerusalem. This is true the OT does frequently refer to Jerusalem as the harlot because she abandons the faith in God. true Rome destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD and also in 132 AD which scattered the Jewish people. I do think you might be correct that Revelation may have been written before 70AD but one needs to explain the Patmos exile of John where he supposed to have written Revelation if he actually wrote it there or before as you said. When Jesus died the curtains of the Temple were torn in two which would tell me the old temple worship is no longer valid so the New Jerusalem then would be the Christians?

It is my understanding that the people who either were able to read it or heard it read to them understood revelation and its meanings. it was to bring hope saying in effect Jesus is Lord of the universe, calling the entire world, Christian and non-Christian, to repentance and commitment, to resist all evil, and never compromising with it.

This idea of Muslims are going to end the world and other theories like it are just what has been promoted to the point it makes no sense other than to scare people into believing something that Revelation is not. That sort of prophecy is nothing more then fake news without a basis of fact and is just what someone want s it to be as to their own private interpretation which really never had anything to do with what Revelation says and means. So hats off to you for bring clarity to understanding Revelation.

 

[Cruciferi]

He hasn’t been born yet. Desmond A. Birche’s book “Trial Tribulation & Triumph” presents irrefutable evidence that the Antichrist has to wait until after the Age of Peace. The number probably has a significance only in the future. To decipher the numbers is useless.