The Two Great Women of the Apocalypse
The Woman clothed with the Sun of Rev.12 The Woman sitting on a Scarlet Beast
There are Two Great Women mentioned in the Book of Revelation:
1- The Great Sign of Rev.12:1, "a woman clothed
with the sun".
2- The Woman seated on the Red Beast, Babylon the Great, mother of
prostitutes, of Rev.17:3,5.
They correspond to another two women of the same Book:
1- The Great Sign of 12:1 is the same as the Bride
of Rev.19:7, 21:2, 22:17, which is the New Jerusalem of Rev.21:2, the Church of Christ.
2- The Woman mother of prostitutes is typified by another woman in
Rev.2:20: Jezebel!.
1- The Woman clothed with the Sun of Rev.12:
1: A great and wondrous sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed
with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head.
2: She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give
birth.
3: Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on his heads.
4: His tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to
the earth. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he
might devour her child the moment it was born.
5: She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations
with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne.
(Rev.:12:1-5)
There are three symbols here:
1- The Woman.
2- Her Son.
3- A great Red Dragon.
Two of them are relatively easy to identify, and once we find who those two are the third one will be unmistakable.
1- The Dragon:
It is the easiest to identify, because later, in Verse 9, we are told
exactly who he is. The verse says, "The great dragon was hurled down -- that ancient
serpent called the devil or Satan, who leads the whole world astray." Here, then, is
the devil, appearing as a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns
upon his heads. We are also told that he is the ancient serpent, the very one who appeared
in the Garden of Eden to Eve, deceived her, and introduced sin into the human race. He
appears here as a dragon, which is simply a super-serpent and a symbol of satanic worship
in many countries of the world yet today.
His work is described also in Verse 9: The entire career of the devil is engaged in deceiving the whole inhabited earth, i.e. lying to the human race.
2- The male child born to the woman:
This is the next easiest to identify because we are told in Verse 5
that he is the one "who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter," or
"a rod of iron." This phrase is taken from the Second Psalm, which is quoted or
referred to four different times in Revelation. In some ways Psalm 2 is the basic
Scripture out of which the whole book is expanded and grows. Clearly that is a reference
to our Lord Jesus.
The Rod of Iron with which He will rule all the nations, in Psalm 2 says "You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel." (Ps.2:9), and it is identified in the Book of Revelation as "a sharp, double edge sword coming out of his mouth" (Rev.2:16, 19:15)…
What is this "rod of iron", and this "double edge sword"?:
I don't know how the Jews could understand it in Psalm 2, but look at Jesus how He is ruling the nations, and you and me: The sword is his love, and the two edges are his suffering at the Cross, and his humility in the Eucharist, made only bread and wine: With his humility, Jesus is shattering our pride as a potter's vase, day by day, and with his suffering and patience he is telling us "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Matt.16:24)… and again, day by day, with such a sword, Jesus is conquering the nations, day by day… we are now in the third millennium over 2 billion Christians!.
3- The Woman Clothed with the Sun:
This "woman" has been identified with Virgin Mary, Israel, and the Church… and the three possibilities are true:
1- Virgin Mary is the woman who gave birth to our Lord Jesus. The picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe is Rev.12.
2- It is clearly also a description of the nation of Israel as figured in Genesis 37, the story of Joseph as a young boy who has a dream. He dreamt one night that the sun, the moon and 11 stars came and bowed down before him (Joseph would make the twelfth of the stars.)… It was Israel that humanly brought forth the Christ, and that's why John says that "salvation is from the Jews" (Jn.4:22).
3- The Church is pictured in Revelation 19, 21, and 22 as the bride of Christ, i.e. as a woman. It looks impossible though for this woman to represent the Church because the Church did not produce Jesus. It is quite the other way around. It was the Lord who produced the Church -- the Church is born out of the wounded side of Jesus. Therefore that symbolism looks like it can't fit the picture here…. but it does!… it is the Spiritual Israel of Romans chapters 9 to 11, the one true Church of Christ, the People of God continuation of the real Israel.
The sun clothing the woman is the Lord Jesus. The 12 stars are the 12 tribes of Israel, and the 12 apostles of the New Israel, the Church. The moon at her feet, is the symbolism of Genesis 3:15, with the woman crushing the head of the serpent.
In fact, the book of Revelation has two main parts:
- The first one is about the Throne of God, to chapter 11,
- And the second one is the Church of Christ, the woman of Revelation
12, and the Bride and the New Jerusalem of the last chapters of Revelation…. with all
its tribulations and glory, and its final total and complete victory in Christ Jesus.
2- The Woman
seated on the Red Beast, Babylon the Great, Mother of Prostitutes
(Rev.17 and 18).
"One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries." Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. (Rev 17:1-5)
Chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation are most controversial and specially most finger-pointing… Some people believe that Babylon is God's description of every religion, sect, and denomination except their own. They are clever enough to recognize the marks of Babylon in other churches, but blind enough to ignore the same things in themselves or in their own church.
The Catholic Church, the Orthodox, and dozens of Protestant Denominations have been labeled as Babylon the Great!… and there is some truth on all of it, but mostly falsehood, because the real Babylon the Great will last for only 42 months or 1260 days, like the Beast on which she rides, the same Beast of Rev.13, and "in an hour she will be devastated" (Rev.18:18). See Duration of the Reign of the Antichrist.
There is a fourfold fulfillment in this prophecies, like in most prophecies of the Bible:
1- A local and immediate fulfillment: The Roman Empire as the second
Babylon.
2- A fulfillment in my life and yours, today!: You and I will have our
Babylon the Great.
3- A continual and gradual fulfillment: "once was, now is not,
and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction" (Rev.17:8)
4- A final and exhaustive fulfillment: When she will come out of the Abyss at
the end of time (Rev.17:8, 20:3), and "in an hour she will be devastated"
(Rev.18:18).
1- Rome as the second Babylon:
Babylon was the city where Israel was brought into captivity by the Chaldean Empire. Rome is the city where the Spiritual Israel, the Church, was brought into captivity by the Roman Empire, where Peter, and Paul, and many Christians were martyred… Rome is Babylon the Great.
In other words natural Babylon in the past brought natural Israel into captivity. Spiritual Babylon has now brought spiritual Israel into captivity.
2- A fulfillment in your life and mine:
Ancient Babel or Babylon was the root of all heathen religion. When men tried to build their religious tower independently of the true God, they soon found other gods to worship; and the evil heathen influence spread to the surrounding countries as well. In the end these other gods surrounding ancient Israel led to her downfall and captivity.
The root of Babylon is human pride. "The heart of the natural man is more deceitful than all things and incurable", wrote Jeremiah (17:9). There is where the real problem lies. We love to build something that will glorify ourselves. We loudly say we want to give all the glory to God, and then we quietly steal it from him. We firmly declare we have no desire to please man, and then we pause and wait for people to clap their hands.
3- "Once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction" (Rev.17:8):
This is not a riddle, it is the most simple reality:
The real heart and soul of Babylon is Satan:
1- "Once was": Before the Cross of Christ Satan was the greatest spiritual destructive force on earth.
2- "Now is not": At the time of John "is not", because on the Cross Jesus defeated Satan. Satan still shall strike the heel of the offspring of the woman of Gen.3:15, but the offspring of the woman shall crush the head of Satan and his offspring… the Spiritual Israel, the Church, now has problems, the strike of Satan, but now she can preach and love and act, just like Jesus did in his life… bit right now the Church, you and I, crush the head of Satan, the victory of Jesus is your victory and mine…
The Imperial Rome described in Rev.17 is just but a very weak symbol of the real Babylon of the end of times… in Rome the Emperors were adored as god, may Christians were martyred, just for being a Christian… but in Babylon the Great the Great Prostitute will lead to the universal apostasy of 2Thes.2:3, not just Christians martyred but worse, Christians that prostitute against God becoming pagan anti-Christians…
3- "And will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction" (Rev.17:8): At the end of time she will come out of the Abyss, as described also in Rev.20:3, the chapter of the millennium…it is the Antichrist of Rev.13, with the same brutal force and deceit as before Christ… but only for 42 months!… and "in an hour she will be devastated" (Rev.18:18).
The "woman" is a "city", the capital of an Empire… The Beast the woman rides is the Beast of Revelation 13, the Antichrist of the end of the world, the head of the greatest empire ever known based in a city, which may be Rome or some other city (Rev.17:3, 13:1).
The original Babylon was in Babylon. The Great Babylon of Rev.17 was in the Imperial Rome… the Great Babylon of the end of times will be the capital from where the Antichrist will reign, which may be in the city of today's Rome, as many believe, or in any other city, the Bible does not specify any location… some scholars talk about the possibility of New York, or Tokyo, or Leningrad, or the rebuilt of the original Babylon, or Jerusalem…
Which is this Babylon the Great today?:
The question of Babylon is especially important because it affects the whole world. In Revelation 18:3 we read, "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her." Spiritual Babylon, Rome, is also something of universal influence, like the real Babylon. It is something which has corrupted and contaminated the whole Christian world.
So, who is this Babylon the Great today?… who is the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth today?…
The answer was given in the apparent riddle of 17:8: "Now is not"!… she will come out of the Abyss at he end of time!… for a short period of time, for 3.5 years, but brutal, she will be the mother of all prostitutes at the end of the world… and a "prostitute" in the Bible is the person or people who adore any other thing or person but God, the people or person who trusts his life in any other people or person but not in God!… it is like a regular prostitute who gives her body and trust to anybody other that her husband... the Christian who trust his life in money or power or the government, becomes a prostitute against God
The Catholic Church, many Protestant Denominations, starting with Luther and Calvin, and the Orthodox Churches, all have been labeled as "Babylon the Great"… and it is totally wrong: Luther and the Lutheran Church have always put officially their trust in Jesus… faith and trust in Christ has always been the heart of every document of the Catholic Church and of any Orthodox Church, and practically of any Protestant Denomination… and, on top of it, all of them have been around more than 42 months!…
… And even with the interpretation of the 1200 years instead of days, the Catholic Church and the Vatican would have to be destroyed completely at least 200 years ago!. see Papacy.
Anyone who labels any church as "Babylon the Great" has to interpret the 42 months, or 1200 days of the reign of the Antichrist into years, 1200 years!… which is biblically untenable. See Duration of the Reign of the Antichrist
However the spirit of Babylon the Great is already present today:
The Pharisees was the one group that Jesus denounced more than all others. Like the people of Babel their religion was not from God but from man. They looked as the most religious people of Israel, with the Bible and laws always in their hands. Outwardly they appeared righteous to men, but inwardly they were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23). You can be Bible-believing and still have the spirit of Babel.
If in your church do not give you the Eucharist, or they tell you that it is only a symbol, that's the Abomination of Desolation of the Antichrist of Matt.24:15, there is the spirit of Babylon the Great. See The Work of the Antichrist.
Where there is Spiritism or Divination or Horoscope or Magic or Witches or Satanism or any kind f the Occult, there is the spirit of Babylon the Great, as described in Rev.18:2, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a cage of every unclean spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird".
And still more: Babylon is not only a religious aspect, but also represents the world's government and economics. Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had a dream of a great image that represented the kingdoms of the world. He then saw a stone that smote the image on its feet and destroyed it. That stone, Daniel told him, was the kingdom of God. It became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. All world systems must be destroyed and give way to the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ… but if your trust in life is the government or money, instead of God, there is the spirit of Babylon the Great.
In conclusion: "The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and will come up out of the Abyss and go to his destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come." (Rev.17:8).
"Depart from her, my people" (Rev.18:4):
These few words may be the most important ones in the two chapters of Babylon the Great.
The Kingdom of Jesus does not come from this world, his kingship is not from here (Jn.18:36)… We are not of the world as Jesus is not of the world (Jn.17:16)…
A Christian lives in the world, but he is not of the world… he must fly into the dessert as the woman, the Church, did in Rev.12:14, with the two wings of faith and love: Total faith and trust in Jesus the Christ, in His Church, and with the heart filled with love and charity and hope…
Jesus does not say to fly into the dessert, but into the mountains, when the Abomination of Desolation comes, which is the same (Matt.24:15-16).
A Christian is not of the world!: He should not trust his life in money or reaches, but in God… otherwise the money becomes his god, and he becomes a prostitute to the real God. This is what it means to fly into the dessert or the mountains… he should not look for personal glory or honor or earthly power or pleasures, because then his god would become the honor or the glory or the power or the pleasures, robing it to God, and again becoming a prostitute to God, by trusting in his personal power or honor…
The old Hermits give us an example, but even so it is not enough to fly to the physical dessert as they did, it has to be the dessert of the soul, loving God with all our heart, and with all our strength and with all our soul, and trusting in God for everything… and that's what means to fly into the dessert or the mountains!…
The greatest victory of Jesus was His Cross!… the greatest victory of the Church against the world is her defeat!… the defeat of a Christian is his victory… the dessert or the mountain of the Cross is the destiny of every Christian, at the time of the Antichrist, and right now!… the Kingdom of God is not of this world, all the known universe compared with the Kingdom of God is like a drop of water compared with the ocean…
... And every Christian can have this Kingdom of God right now, on earth!… to live on earth with the joy, peace, and love that only Jesus can give by living in our heart. A love, joy, and peace that nothing and nobody can take away… but we have to fly into the dessert, into the mountain of the Cross!, praise the Lord! (Rom.8:31-39, 1Cor.1:18,23, 2Cor.4:7-11, 6:4-10) .