The Holy Spirit presents the apostasy of the State-Religion as a mystery, a tableau. The name ‘Mystery, Babylon The Great’ tells it. Babylon is about to come up for judgement which gives a handle for all the world governments with whom Israel played a whore worshiping their false gods. What is this woman guilty of? St John saw her so arrayed in purple and scarlet color,’having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication.” From whence did she acquire this decadent life style? In Ch.18 we have the answer. Here her golden cup was filled with the filthiness of her fornications.
What is more she had acquired a taste for wine, ‘the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. The martyrdom of St. Stephen for instance and Jesus also referred to the saints that belong to the list. “That ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.” and further down, ” Behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:/That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar./Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.”(Matt.23:31-36)
The question that the angel asks, ‘Wherefore didst thou marvel?’ is with the intention of supplying the key to this mystery play. “The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” (17:15) All their false doctrines, from far and wide trickle by trickle have gone into her own belief system and it is with this in mind the Apostle Paul says, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.”(1 Co.15:33). Earlier was humanism and existential angst of post WWII making ‘God is Dead movement’ into the church. White Evangelicalism Prosperity theology ad nauseam. These are what dark waters which we have already seen in Ch.12. ‘And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.”(12:15). The woman here is the left behind church.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.
6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
7 And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel?
GuidetohisWord 
Reblogged this on Bennythomas's Weblog.