many who hold to that view would see it as Memeorial in the Millinium as observing and remembering Jesus, same way Church does now in the Communion
We don’t need another memorial as we have the Lord’s table already for that.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Exactly what purpose would a rebuilt temple and animal sacrifice do? Seeing God wasn’t pleased with animal sacrifice to begin with, per per Isaiah 1:11, Hebrews 10:6,8? How would animal sacrifices in the future please Him when they didn’t in the past? How would animal sacrifices give them right standing before Him in the future when they didn’t in the past?
Some people believe that the third temple needs to be rebuilt for the son of satan. Since the modern day Jews do not believe Messiah has come yet, they are looking for a savior to come and lead them to war against the enemies of Israel. This would be considered the great deception:
"(3) Let no man deceive you by any means: for [that day shall not come], except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; (4) Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." {2Th 2:3-4 KJV}
If there is a 7 year tribulation, and if there is an antichrist (the son of satan in the flesh); then there would need to be a temple for the son of satan to be worshipped as God. This temple would need to be built to fullfill prophecy and thus would require animal sacrifice so that antichrist can defile it.
The tribulation took place in AD 70 with the destruction of the temple and the ransacking of Jerusalem. I already covered 2 Thessalonians 2:4, so no need to rehash it. The man of lawlessness was already at work at the time Paul wrote that second letter to Thessalonica.
Plus, IIRC, those OT passages referring to a rebuilt temple were written prior to the second temple that was built in Ezra and Nehemiah.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Mon Jul 21, 20257:58 PM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
We need to establish context before we can properly exegete any passage of scripture or even the whole book or letter we are exegeting.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John, who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood— and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. So it is to be. Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
I, John, your brother and fellow partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance which are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. Revelation 1:1-9]
We see that what John is writing to those seven churches are events that are to soon take place because the time was near. It would be fruitless for him to warn those churches of things that are to take a place, a minimum of two millennia later.
He then gives another timestamp showing the things he was writing were to be fulfilled in the near future, AD 70.
And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place. “And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”[Revelation 22:6-7]
Now, don’t confuse me with a hyper-Preterist, as I don’t think everything has been fulfilled. But if you will read the Olivet Discourse in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, you will see that it was fulfilled in that generation, AD 70, and John’s Apocalypse is his writing of the Olivet Discourse in greater detail.
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Mon Jul 21, 20258:09 PM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
This is my fourth and final installment (for the time being!) on Paul’s Man of Lawlessness. Though it is a difficult passage, it serves as a foundation stone to peculiar dispensational beliefs involving the rebuilt temple and the re-institution of animal sacrifices. I have been showing, however, that this passage is dealing with first century concerns, not last century ones. We will see this further in today’s installment.
The Restrainer at Work
In 2Th. 2:7 we read: “for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.” When Paul writes 2 Thessalonians 2, he is under the reign of Claudius Caesar. In this statement he even seems to employ a word play on Claudius’ name. Let’s see how this is so.
The Latin word for “restraint” is claudere, which is similar to “Claudius.” 1 Interestingly, Paul shifts between the neuter and masculine forms of “the restrainer” (2Th 2:6, 7). This may indicate he includes both the imperial law and the present emperor when referring to the “restrainer.” While Claudius lives, Nero, the man of lawlessness, is powerless to commit political lawlessness. Christianity is free from the imperial sword until the Neronic persecution begins.
Remarkably, imperial law keeps the Jews so in check that they do not kill James the Just in Jerusalem until about AD 62, after the death of the Roman procurator Festus and before Albinus arrives (Josephus, Ant. 20:9:1). So then, with these events the “mystery of lawlessness” is being uncovered as the “revelation of the man of lawlessness” occurs. That is, we are witnessing Paul’s anticipation of the transformation of the Roman imperial line into a persecuting power in the person of Nero.
The evil “mystery of lawlessness” is “already working,” though restrained in Claudius’ day (2Th 2:7). This perhaps refers to the evil conniving and plotting of Nero’s mother, Agrippina, who famously poisons Claudius so that Nero can ascend to the purple (Tacitus, Annals 12:62ff; Suetonius, Claudius 44).
He exalts himself
The Roman emperor, according to Paul, “exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped” (2Th 2:4a). Apparently Paul is highlighting the fact that Nero intends or desires to present himself as God. We can see the evil potential of emperor worship just a few years before, when the emperor Caligula (a.k.a. Gaius) attempts to put his image in the temple in Jerusalem (Josephus, Ant. 18:8:2–3; Philo, Embassy to Gaius). Philo tells us that “so great was the caprice of Caius [Caligula] in his conduct toward all, and especially toward the nation of the Jews. The latter he so bitterly hated that he appropriated to himself their places of worship in the other cities, and beginning with Alexandria he filled them with images and statues of himself.” 2
But Caligula is not Nero. So how can Nero be the Man of Lawlessness of whom Paul states: “so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” He never did such a thing. To resolve this potential problem we need to understand Paul’s phrasing here. When an infinitive such as kathisai (“to sit”) follows the consecutive particle h ste (“so that”), it indicates a purpose intended, not necessarily a purpose accomplished. We see this operating in a clear case in Lk 4:29. There the Jews led Jesus to a hill “so as to cast him down (hoste katakremnisai auton).” 3 The angry Jews intended to cast Jesus down the hill, “but passing through their midst, He went His way” (Lk 4:30).
The future emperor Titus, for all intents and purposes, accomplishes this enormity, when he concludes the temple’s destruction set in motion by Nero. Titus actually invades the temple in AD 70, with the following result: “And now the Romans . . . brought their ensigns to the temple, and set them over against its eastern gate; and there did they offer sacrifices to them, and there did they make Titus imperator, with the greatest acclamations of joy” (Josephus, J.W. 6:6:1). This parallels Matthew 24:15 and functions as Paul’s abomination of desolation, which occurs in “this generation” (Mt 24:34).
Not only so but in Nero the imperial line eventually openly “opposed” (2Th 2:4) Christ by persecuting his followers. Nero even begins persecuting Christians, when he presents himself in a chariot as the sun god Apollo, while burning Christians in order to illuminate his self-glorifying party: “their death was aggravated with mockeries, insomuch that, wrapped in the hides of wild beasts, they were torn to pieces by dogs, or fastened to crosses to be set on fire, that when the darkness fell they might be burned to illuminate the night” (Ann. 15:44).4
Destroyed at the bright coming
Second Thessalonians 2:8–9 reads: “And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming. The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders.” 5 The lawless one is eventually openly revealed. The mystery form of his character gives way to a revelation of his lawlessness in Nero’s wicked acts. This occurs after the restrainer [Claudius] is “taken out of the way,” allowing Nero the public stage upon which he can act out his horrendous lawlessness.
In Christ’s judgment-coming against Jerusalem, we also discover judgment for the man of lawlessness, Nero. Thus, Christians may take comfort in the promised relief from both Jewish and Neronic opposition (2Th 2:15–17). Not only does Titus destroy Jerusalem within twenty years, but Nero himself dies a violent death in the midst of the Jewish War (June 9, AD 68). His death, then, will occur in the Day of the Lord in conjunction with Christ’s judgment-coming against Israel. Christ destroys Nero with “the breath of his mouth,” much like Assyria is destroyed with the coming and breath of the Lord in the Old Testament (Isa 30:27–31) and like Israel is crushed by Babylon (Mic 1:3–5).
Notes
1)F. F. Bruce, New Testament History, 310.
2)Philo, Embassy to Gauis, 43, as cited by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2:6:2.
3)E. W. Best, First and Second Thessalonians, 286–290. Dana and Mantey, A Manual Grammar, 214.
4)Gentry, Before Jerusalem Fell, 279–284.
5)Such imperial arrogance would produce alleged miracles as confirmation. Vespasian is called “the miracle worker, because by him “many miracles occurred.” Tacitus, Histories 4:81; Suetonius, Vespasian 7.
just as long do not head in heresy of full pretierism
No danger in that!
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
I was listening until he said Jerusalem is the harlot that rides on the beast lol... I knew this was different, but that is straight up blasphemy.
"(9) And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. (10) And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God," {Rev 21:9-10 KJV}
Last edited by Church44; Mon Jul 21, 202510:44 PM. Reason: added scripture reference
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
I was listening until he said Jerusalem is the harlot that rides on the beast lol... I knew this was different, but that is straight up blasphemy.
"(9) And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. (10) And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God," {Rev 21:9-10 KJV}
There are two Jerusalem's the bible teaches, Jerusalem the city, and the Jerusalem from above, mother of us all. Jerusalem is the harlot on the beast, as she was complicit in the Lord's death. They were the ones who turned Him over to Roman authority. The city of Jerusalem is not married to the Lord. And notice it is the Jerusalem that is coming down, not the Jerusalem on terra firma.
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Tue Jul 22, 202512:05 AM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
I was listening until he said Jerusalem is the harlot that rides on the beast lol... I knew this was different, but that is straight up blasphemy.
"(9) And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. (10) And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God," {Rev 21:9-10 KJV}
And what Dr. Gentry said was in no way, shape, form, or fashion, blasphemy, but spot on.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
I was listening until he said Jerusalem is the harlot that rides on the beast lol... I knew this was different, but that is straight up blasphemy.
Are you ready to call the LORD a blasphemer as well?
How the faithful city has become a harlot, She who was full of justice! Righteousness once lodged in her, But now murderers.[Isaiah 1:21]
“For long ago I broke your yoke And tore off your bonds; But you said, ‘I will not serve!’ For on every high hill And under every green tree You have lain down as a harlot.[Jeremiah 2:20]
Then the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.[Jeremiah 3:6]
And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.[Jeremiah 3:8]
My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.[Hosea 4:12]
Then the Lord called Jerusalem this:
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.[Revelation 11:8]
God compared Jerusalem to Sodom, which He destroyed due to their gross sexual practices. So, again, is God a blasphemer, too?
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
Here’s a video that’s a little over an hour that covers this…
I was listening until he said Jerusalem is the harlot that rides on the beast lol... I knew this was different, but that is straight up blasphemy.
Read this rather strong language used to describe Israel:
“But you trusted in your own beauty, played the harlot because of your fame, and poured out your harlotry on everyone passing by who would have it. You took some of your garments and adorned multicolored high places for yourself, and played the harlot on them. Such things should not happen, nor be. You have also taken your beautiful jewelry from My gold and My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images and played the harlot with them. You took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set My oil and My incense before them. Also My food which I gave you—the pastry of fine flour, oil, and honey which I fed you—you set it before them as sweet incense; and so it was,” says the Lord GOD. 'Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire? And in all your abominations and acts of harlotry you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, struggling in your blood. “Then it was so, after all your wickedness—‘Woe, woe to you!’ says the Lord GOD— that you also built for yourself a shrine, and made a high place for yourself in every street. You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry[/]. You also [u]committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger. “Behold, therefore, I stretched out My hand against you, diminished your allotment, and gave you up to the will of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior. You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied. “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord GOD, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot. “You erected your shrine at the head of every road, and built your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned payment. You are an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. Men make payment to all harlots, [bg]but you made your payments to all your lovers, and hired them to come to you from all around for your harlotry[/b]. You are the opposite of other women in your harlotry, because no one solicited you to be a harlot. In that you gave payment but no payment was given you, therefore you are the opposite.” ‘Now then, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD: “Because your filthiness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotry with your lovers, and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, surely, therefore, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved, and all those you hated; I will gather them from all around against you and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness. And I will judge you as women who break wedlock or shed blood are judged; I will bring blood upon you in fury and jealousy. I will also give you into their hand, and they shall throw down your shrines and break down your high places. They shall also strip you of your clothes, take your beautiful jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. “They shall also bring up an assembly against you, and they shall stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. They shall burn your houses with fire, and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women; and I will make you cease playing the harlot, and you shall no longer hire lovers.[Ezekiel 16:15-41]
So, again, is God a blasphemer for calling Israel a harlot?
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Tue Jul 22, 20254:00 AM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
So, again, is God a blasphemer for calling Israel a harlot?
Absolutely Not! But deceiving people into believing that God's Holy City, although flawed as she may be, is the Great Whore of Babylon is most definitely blasphemy!
There is a big difference between a woman who has sex with other men, and a woman who purposefully deceives and tricks other women into having sex with other men. Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16 was taken in and raised by God, but eventually gave into temptation and fornicated with other men (false gods, etc.). She did not do this on her own, but was tricked by that great whore, the whore of Babylon!
Just as Jerusalem is the Holy City of God, Babylon is the unholy city of Satan! As with everything else, the devil, in his fruitless attempt to become God, mimics God in every way. Spiritually Satan, that great serpent, has taken to himself a woman (Babylon), just as God took Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16:8 and thou becamest mine!
But Jerusalem grew up and when she became of age, and thy renown went forth among the heathen, the heathen nations came in unto her. That great whore of Babylon wanted only to pollute God's Holy City and so in her ignorance and youth, Jerusalem gave into the temptation and sinned.
Obviously God was mad at Jerusalem for her fornication and punished her because of it, but He still loved her and remembered His covenant with her. He forgave her! Jerusalem is still and will always be the City of God, and Babylon is still and always will be that great whore who rides the unholy beast and fornicates with the kings of the Earth!
Last edited by Church44; Tue Jul 22, 202511:17 AM. Reason: fix grammer
So, again, is God a blasphemer for calling Israel a harlot?
Absolutely Not! But deceiving people into believing that God's Holy City, although flawed as she may be, is the Great Whore of Babylon is most definitely blasphemy!
There is a big difference between a woman who has sex with other men, and a woman who purposefully deceives and tricks other women into having sex with other men. Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16 was taken in and raised by God, but eventually gave into temptation and fornicated with other men (false gods, etc.). She did not do this on her own, but was tricked by that great whore, the whore of Babylon!
Just as Jerusalem is the Holy City of God, Babylon is the unholy city of Satan! As with everything else, the devil, in his fruitless attempt to become God, mimics God in every way. Spiritually Satan, that great serpent, has taken to himself a woman (Babylon), just as God took Jerusalem in Ezekiel 16:8 and thou becamest mine!
But Jerusalem grew up and when she became of age, and thy renown went forth among the heathen, the heathen nations came in unto her. That great whore of Babylon wanted only to pollute God's Holy City and so in her ignorance and youth, Jerusalem gave into the temptation and sinned.
Obviously God was mad at Jerusalem for her fornication and punished her because of it, but He still loved her and remembered His covenant with her. He forgave her! Jerusalem is still and will always be the City of God, and Babylon is still and always will be that great whore who rides the unholy beast and fornicates with the kings of the Earth!
Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns.[Revelation 17:1-7]
Compare that to this:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.[Matthew 23:29-36]
They murdered Christ, as they were directly involved in His crucifixion. He foretold they would kill and crucify some of the prophets and wise men He would send them. They were blood thirsty ppl. The holy city Jerusalem, Jesus called them in it a brood of vipers.
Here is why Jerusalem is the harlot in Revelation 17. The temple was there, and that was the place ppl were to come to worship Him. Yet, they were doing anything but that. They had even turned the office of the high priest into a political office. They were committing spiritual fornication by not worshipping God, and God, in many places, called them harlots for doing so. When Pilate said, “Behold, you King!”, they said, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him! We have no king but Caesar.” Their rejection of Christ as their Messiah was the final nail in their coffin.
They Lord’s bride came down from God out of heaven, not the Jerusalem on terra firma. You are conflating the two. The Lord’s bride is the Jerusalem from above, not the Jerusalem in Israel. I was wrong!
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Tue Jul 22, 20252:45 PM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
In Revelation John uses Babylon as a metaphor of Jerusalem. Before I can demonstrate this, I must rehearse two important interpretive keys to the Book of Revelation:
(1) Revelation is dealing with events “which must soon take place” (Rev 1:1; cp. 1:3; 22:6, 10). It is not prophesying events thousands of years distant from John’s original audience.
(2) John is reflecting on Jesus’ Olivet Discourse and has his stated theme the judgment of Israel in AD 70. Note that the only two verses in the Bible that merge Dan 7:13 and Zech 12:10 are Matt 24:30 and Rev 1:7. In Matt 24:30 Jesus is clearly dealing with the destruction of the temple (Matt 24:2, 16) in the first century (Matt 24:34). John’s theme in Rev 1:7 states that Jesus is coming in a cloud-judgment against those who crucified him (in the NT the Jews are blamed for Christ’s crucifixion (Matt 26:59, 66; 27:1; Mark 14:64; Luke 23:22–23; 24:20; Acts 2:22–23, 36; 3:13–15a; 4:10; 5:28, 30; 7:52; 10:39; 13:27–29; 1 Thess 2:14–15). As a consequence, all the tribes of “the Land” (the Greek ge is usually translated “earth,” but can and should be translated “Land,” i.e., the Promised Land).
In Revelation 17:3–6 John views a horrifying sight. Seated upon the dreadful beast is the sinful Harlot:
“He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.”
Since she sits on the seven-headed beast, some believe she represents the city of Rome.
This is because she is resting on Rome’s seven hills and is called “Babylon,” which often applies to Rome in antiquity. But since the beast itself represents Rome, it seems redundant to have the woman representing the same. Also, the name “Babylon” does not historically belong either to Rome or Jerusalem, and thus cannot prove that the city is Rome. I am convinced beyond any doubt that this harlot is first-century Jerusalem. The evidence for so identifying Jerusalem is based on the following considerations.
First, Revelation 14:8 calls Babylon “the great city.” But in the first mention of “the great city” in Revelation 11:8, this indisputably refers to Jerusalem, “where also our Lord was crucified” (cf. Lk 9:31; 13:33–34; 18:31; 24:18–20). Her greatness especially highlights her covenantal status in the Old Testament (Jer 22:8; Lam 1:1).
But even pagan writers speak highly of Jerusalem as a significant contemporary city. Tacitus calls it “a famous city.” Pliny the Elder comments that it is “by far the most famous city of the ancient Orient.” Appian, a Roman lawyer and writer (ca. AD 160) called it “the great city Jerusalem” (Tacitus, Histories 5:2; Fragments of the Histories 1; Pliny, Natural History 5:14:70; Appian, The Syrian Wars 50). The Sibylline Oracles, Josephus, and the Talmud concur in calling Jerusalem “a great city” (Sibylline Oracles 5:150–154, 408–413; Josephus, J.W. 7:1:1; 7:8:7. For Talmudic references, see: Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, 82). Thus, the first interpretive clue to Babylon’s identity points to Jerusalem.
Second, the harlot is filled with the blood of the saints (Rev 16:6; 17:6; 18:21, 24). Of course, with the outbreak of Nero’s persecution, which commences just prior to John’s writing Revelation, Rome is stained with the saints’ blood. But Rome has only recently entered the persecuting ranks of God’s enemies.
Throughout Acts Jerusalem is appears as the persecutor and Rome as the protector of Christianity (Acts 4:3; 5:18–33; 6:12; 7:54–60; 8:1ff; 9:1–4, 13, 23; 11:19; 12:1–3; 13:45–50; 14:2–5, 19; 16:23; 17:5–13; 18:12; 20:3, 19; 21:11, 27; 22:30; 23:12, 20, 27, 30; 24:5–9; 25:2–15; 25:24; 26:21. See also: 2 Co 11:24; 2Th 2:14–15; Heb 10:32–34).
Interestingly, in the Olivet Discourse context Jesus reproaches Jerusalem: “Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes: some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. . . . Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Mt 23:34–35, 37).
Before his stoning Stephen rebukes Jerusalem: “Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them who showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers” (Ac 7:51–52).
Paul warns of Jewish persecution: “For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus. For you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, just as they did from the Jews, who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they do not please God and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved, so as always to fill up the measure of their sins; but wrath has come upon them to the uttermost” (1Th 2:14–16).
Third, the harlot’s dress reflects the Jewish priestly colors of scarlet, purple, and gold (cp. Rev 17:4–5 with Ex 25:2, 4; 26:1, 31, 36; 27:16; 28:1–2, 5–12, 15, 17–23, 33). In fact, she even has a blasphemous tiara on her forehead, which reads: “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth” (Rev 17:5). This negatively portrays the holy tiara that the Jewish high priest wore, which declares “Holy to the Lord” (Ex 28:36–38). Still further, the harlot has a gold cup in her hand, reflecting the high priest on the Day of Atonement, according to the Jewish Talmud.1]
Fourth, Rome cannot commit adultery against God, for she had never been God’s wife. But Jerusalem was God’s wife (Isa 1:21; 57:8; Jer 2:2, 20; 3:1–20; 4:30; 11:15; 13:27; Eze 16; Hos 2:5; 3:3; 4:15), and Scripture often charges her with committing adultery against him (Isa 1:21; 57:8; Jer 2:2, 20; 3:1–20; 4:30; 11:15; 13:27; Eze 16; Hos 2:5; 3:3; 4:15). The harlot imagery better suits an adulterous wife, such as Jerusalem.
I will conclude this study in my next blog article.
This is me: I need to retract my saying that God was never married to the Jerusalem on terra firma, I was obviously wrong.
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Tue Jul 22, 20252:45 PM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
In my last blog article I began a brief argument for John’s Babylon being a metaphor for first-century Jerusalem. In this study I will bring the argument to a conclusion. Though I welcome questions!
John clearly engages in a literary contrast between the harlot and the chaste bride, suggesting that he is counterposing the Jerusalem below with the Jerusalem above (Rev 21:2; cf. Gal 4:24ff.; Heb 12:18ff.). In Revelation 17:2–5 and Revelation 21:1ff the contrast is remarkable and detailed. We must remember that Revelation specifically designates the bride as the “New Jerusalem” from heaven. We see at least five contrasts:
(1) Notice how John is introduced to the harlot: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, ‘Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters’ ” (Rev 17:1). This is identical to the way he sees the bride: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues came to me and talked with me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife’ ” (Rev 21:9).
(2) The two women have a contrasting character: “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters” (Rev 17:1). “Come, I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife” (Rev 21:9).
(3) The two women appear in contrasting environments: “So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast” (Rev 17:3). “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God” (Rev 21:10).
(4) John focuses on the contrasting dress of each woman: “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication” (Rev 17:4). “And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints . . . having the glory of God. And her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal” (Rev 19:8; 21:11).
(5) John contrasts their names. Earlier in Revelation Johns calls earthly Jerusalem by pagan names quite compatible with the designation “Babylon.” In Revelation 11:8 he describes here as “spiritually Sodom and Egypt.” In an earlier day Isaiah identifies Jerusalem as Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 1). The idea is that rather than conducting herself as the wife of God, she has become one of God’s enemies, like Sodom, Egypt, and Babylon.
The fact that the harlot sits on the seven-headed beast (which represents Rome) indicates not her identity with Rome, but her alliance with Rome against Christianity. The Jews demand Christ’s crucifixion (Mt 27:24–25; Jn 19:12–15; Ac 2:23) and constantly either directly persecute Christians (Mt 23:37ff; Ac 8:1; 1Th 2:14–17) or stir up the Romans to do so (Ac 12:1–3; 17:5–7).
The evidence proves that the harlot is Jerusalem (for more detailed discussion see my book The Book of Revelation Made Easy). John’s Revelation contrasts the Jerusalem below with the Jerusalem above, as in Hebrews 12:22 and Galatians 4:25–26. The Jerusalem below has forsaken her husband in denying the Messiah.
I believe it to be supremely clear that John is dealing with Jerusalem under the image of Babylon. She is the new enemy of God, even being called “a synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9; 3:9) and “Egypt” (Rev 11:8). This is much like Isaiah calling Israel Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 1:10) and Ezekiel calling her the sister of Sodom (Eze 16:49).
Last edited by SovereignGrace; Tue Jul 22, 20258:25 PM.
“The foundation of knowledge is God’s revelation.” Dr. Greg Bahnsen
“In the New Testament the Lord Jesus Christ appears in order to fulfill the Old Testament hope of the Messiah. He presents himself as the king who has come to establish his kingdom in anticipation of his universal rule.” Dr. Kenneth Gentry
“Men must be governed by God or they will be ruled by tyrants.” William Penn
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