"As we approach chapter seventeen of the Revelation the visions of John move rapidly toward a double climax. We are in the ascending foothills beyond which are the towering twin peaks of the Revelation — the fall of Mystery Babylon and the ascendancy of New Jerusalem. This seventeenth chapter has sometimes been called a "twisted rope" or a "tangled web," for there are many ambiguous, puzzling, and somewhat perplexing and bewildering scenes which seem beyond comprehension or understanding. However, we will not find the chapter too difficult if we proceed with patience and holy waiting upon the Spirit of Truth to quicken our hearts and enlighten our minds with that wisdom which is from above. Let us pray for the spirit of understanding to understand that which is written for our blessing and edification!"
"No word given to a prophet from the Lord by the Holy Spirit can be truthfully understood or interpreted unless the same spiritual understanding is given to the reader by the Holy Spirit that gave it originally to the prophet. God’s elect in this hour is being given the ability to "Hear what the Spirit saith," and it is the same anointing wherein it was spoken and written. The book of Revelation, like any other part of the scriptures and prophecies, must be "spiritually" understood. Understanding came to the disciples of Jesus when He "opened unto them the scriptures." Before that their natural understanding was unfruitful. They didn’t have a clue! They read all the scriptures and never saw Jesus there until He "opened" the scriptures to them. And it wasn’t a doctrine that He shared with them, it was spiritual illumination that burst forth within their hearts!"
"We must remember that what John is writing is prophecy, and prophecy is not merely history written beforehand. The prophet’s distinguishing characteristic is not foresight but insight. He peers behind the appearance of things to the spiritual realities they represent and he announces the things that he sees in the most vivid and arresting ways as they are communicated to him in signs and symbols. This does often involve prediction as to the future yet the vindication of the truth of his message does not lie in the exact correspondence of event with prediction but in the true apprehension of the eternal principles and spiritual realities revealed therein. O that the saints of the Lord might see that the value of any prophecy of scripture does not lie in the ability of the prophet to forecast the future, but in the insight it shows into the purposes of God and the power it has to quicken discernment and understanding in the spiritual realities of the kingdom of God."
Much more in the link:
"The church of Christ is called a MYSTERY. She is presented as a virgin. She is called a bride. Finally, she is presented as a city, the New Jerusalem, the city of peace, righteousness, glory, and divine order. The scarlet-clad woman is called a MYSTERY. She is not a virgin, she is a harlot. She is not a wife, she is the paramour and mistress of the kings of the earth. Finally, she is that great city which is called Babylon, the city of confusion, filthiness, shame, and the denial of divine order. As to Babylon, John adds, "When I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman…the seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. The waters are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues…and the woman which thou sawest is that great city (a corporate people) which reigneth over the kings of the earth" (Rev. 17:7,8,15,19)."
"These prophecies present two broadly contrasted WOMEN, identified with two broadly contrasted CITIES, one reality being in each case, doubly represented, as a WOMAN, and as a CITY. The harlot and Babylon are one; the bride and the heavenly Jerusalem are one. My prayer is that the Spirit of the Living God will enlighten the eyes of all who read these lines and give understanding, shedding forth abundantly of the spirit of wisdom and revelation that each may be able to discern and easily differentiate between the virgin church without spot or wrinkle, which Jesus Christ is preparing for Himself, and that filthy harlot system, full of names of blasphemy, who with her multiplied sects and denominations, seduces the inhabitants of the world with the unspeakable lie that she is, herself, the bride of the Lamb. One would certainly think that God’s people would respond to the invitation to revelation whereby the Spirit says, "COME HITHER, and I will show you," and that they would look with anointed eyes and readily perceive the difference between the virgin and the harlot, but sadly such is not the case. Would God that all men could now see that this hidden mystery of the bride of Christ has nothing in common with that tradition-ridden system, that gaudy harlot, which all men everywhere believe to be THE CHURCH."
that they would look with anointed eyes and readily perceive the difference between the virgin and the harlot, but sadly such is not the case.
I have no idea how anyone could possibly confuse the two. What is this crank talking about?
"Of all the contrasts in this book of weird opposites the most remarkable one is that of the two women and the two cities. One thread of golden thought runs through the entire drama. The two women are contrasted in every particular that is mentioned about them; the one is pure as purity itself, "made ready," clothed in heaven’s unsullied holiness. The other, foul as corruption could make her, fit only for the burning fires of judgment. The one belongs to the Lamb, who loves her as the bridegroom loves his bride; the other is associated with a wild beast, and with the kings of the earth, who ultimately hate and destroy her. The one is clothed in fine linen, clean and white, and in another place is portrayed as clothed with the dazzling brilliance of the sun, and crowned with a coronet of stars, that is, robed in divine righteousness as her state of being, and resplendent with heavenly glory and power; the other is attired in scarlet and gold, in jewels and pearls, gorgeous indeed but with earthly splendor only, who, being increased with this world’s goods and having need of nothing has made herself drunk with the blood of the saints and thrust Christ Himself outside her doors."
Which one was John referring to in JOHN 8:10-11 ?
Both are within us. Babylon is within, the new Jerusalem is within us.........and we are in them, We are to "go and sin no more", that is coming out of the flesh and into the Spirit.
Really that author writes on these things much better than I, that is why I am posting the Revelation series, it is outstanding for a Spiritual interpretation of Revelation. I started at the first one, and we are now on #189
Here is the index:
https://www.godfire.net/eby/
"Babylon is the aggregation or collection, the bringing together of everything that suits and appeals to man, while New Jerusalem is the exhibition of the divine beauty and the excellencies and virtues of Christ by the Spirit."
Finally, she is presented as a city, the New Jerusalem, the city of peace, righteousness, glory, and divine order.
False. New Jerusalem is a literal place, streets paved with gold, many mansions, etc. It is the ABODE of the bride of Christ. There is no temple therein because God is the Temple.
You are the Temple Andy, you are the New Jerusalem of Spirit.
Babylon and the whore are synonymous, and the bride and New Jerusalem are synonymous,
John Chapter 14 KJV 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
Revelation 21 KJV 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15 And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16 And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17 And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.
Sounds like a physical city to me.
That is because you are reading it as physical. All the physical symbols point to spiritual realities. We are spiritual, the flesh, the physical is nothing to us, going deeper with your faith will bring you to spiritual realities, they are above the physical. I've been around Andy, right in the midst of some really crappy physical stuff, but the Spirit was my reality, the physical was simply not my reality. We are in the world, but not of the world, just Like our Lord Jesus Christ. We are of the kingdom of God, not the kingdoms of this world, we are spiritual.
Maybe you're not ready for this stuff yet, God is the only one that readies us, I can talk all day about this stuff, but if God is not moving you in that direction, you will not go.