Haven’t you ever been curious to understand what this “Mystery” is, and who this “Harlot” is?  And for crying out loud, WHY ARE THESE WORDS WRITTEN IN ALL CAPS IN REVELATION 17???, as written here:

Rev. 17:5–“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”.

Most people would be surprised to discover that the “all caps” appearance of the  words in this passage are entirely an idea of the translators who created the King James version of the Bible in the year 1611.

Greek, 101: There are no capital letters in the Greek alphabet, nor written language.

This verse is very important, but its message stands alone without the aid of this English literary emphasis.  So, to begin understanding what the Apostle John wrote, rather than how the translators chose to express it, let’s break it  down.  Here are each of the capitalized letters in verse 5:

ΜΥΣΤΉΡΙΟ, ΒΑΒΥΛΏΝΑ Η ΜΕΓΆΛΗ, Η ΜΗΤΈΡΑ ΤΩΝ ΧΑΡΟΤΆΜΕς ΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΒΔΕΛΎΓΜΑΤΑ ΤΗς ΓΗς, pronounced:

“mustErion babulOn hE megaIE hE mEtEr tOn pornOn kai tOn bdelugmatOn tEs gEs”

Here are those same Greek words in their English equivalents: “secret Babylon the Great, the Mother of-the Prostitutes and of-the Abominations of-the earth”.

Already, we can see the similarities between the words found in the KJV Bible and the actual Greek words that comprise this verse.  In the very center of this verse is a word that you will recognize–one which conveys a much stronger meaning than merely “harlots” or “prostitutes”.  It is the Greek word “pornOn”, from which we get our modern word “pornography”.  John is expressing much more in this verse than just prostitution.  He is telling us that there will be a degree of pornography throughout the earth, like no other time in human history, that is an abomination to Yahweh.

What could possibly make this particular sin of “porn” so bad that it’s the only sin in the entire New Testament that is defined as “abominations”?  It is because THIS particular sin is Satan’s weapon in his attempt to destroy mankind, and completely erase fulfilling our purpose here on earth–that is, to become members of Yahweh’s family.  And, if Satan would succeed by destroying every aspect of “family”, then Yahweh would fail in accomplishing his plan to bring us all into his family.  Of course, we know that Satan will fail, not Yahweh.

What is “Mystery Babylon the Great”?  As you can see, this description is not a separate idea from the other words contained in verse 5.  It is the “identity” of the person whose existence embodies the decadent behaviors that would be defined by the word “porn”.  This entity was a goddess that the Romans worshipped in John’s day called Hermaphrodite.  But this Roman goddess was a contemporary manifestation of an earlier Babylonian goddess named Ishtar.

In the Mesopotamian region of Assyria (or today’s Iraq, specifically the northwest region that contains the Kurds), Ishtar was believed to have been a god who, while in heaven, contained both sexes in one body.  Her female form was from the goddess Attar.  The Babylonians believed she was conceived as a male deity.  According to mythology, Ishtar eventually fell to earth and descended into the underworld.  It was at that time, that her dual-sex body “split” into two separate sexes, resulting in both male and female human beings.  The followers of this pagan goddess believed that we humans are all the living embodiment of an “imperfect” god, who are all either male or female.  If we can find a way to once again, through evolution, get both sexes back into our human bodies, then we too will become gods and we’ll return to our former glory in heaven.

Everything about this pagan worship ran contrary to how Yahweh created man and woman.  The gift of sex was given to us as a way to express our love between a man and a woman, as a way to populate the earth with our growing families and as a way to create a sacred bond between a man and a woman.  This gift from Yahweh is evidence of his joyous master plan.  But throughout history, mankind has been rebellious to Yahweh and has perverted what sex means, resulting in what we see on earth today.  We are getting much closer to the time when Yahshua will return, so Satan is working overtime to pervert everything that is moral, everything that is wholesome and everything that even resembles the man/woman/child family structure, as used to be the norm in most civilizations.

The “Mystery” described here is, in fact, a “religion”.  It is as much a belief system, or a faith today as it was in the 1st century A.D. when John wrote this book.  It was nothing new to John–this Mystery Religion made its first appearance long before 60 A.D.  The first introduction of this Mystery Religion was found in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah whose sins were based on homosexuality and lesbianism.  Today’s manifestation of this Mystery Religion are found everywhere.  But, the reason John referred to it as a “mystery” is because its practitioners will refuse to acknowledge that they are practicing a form of “religion”.  It will be defended by arguments such as these, and every single one is merely a “belief” based on “faith”, but not based on biology, science or reason:

I was born this way.  Evolution is how man was created.  Cloning is a perfectly acceptable way to procreate.  Gay parents can raise an adopted child just a successfully as male/female married parents.  Men need to discover their female sides.  Women should be allowed to fight with male soldiers and share the same housing and showers.  Men, if they self-identify as women, should be permitted to use the women’s restroom.  Transgendered people are just trying to correct the mistake of the gender assignment that was incorrectly given to them at birth.  Abortion isn’t killing a baby–it’s just a woman’s health decision.

These beliefs are all just that–beliefs.  Yet, in this generation, they are so widely accepted and embraced that anyone who doesn’t enthusiastically promote these new “enlightened” lifestyles is a (pick your pejorative) bigot, neanderthal, intolerant, homo-phobe, woman-hater, selfish…you name it.  But every single one of those descriptions is in full-throated opposition to Yahweh’s vision of the human family.  If the person whose core beliefs are much more similarly aligned with what scripture says, and they try to live their lives according to those spiritual principles, you can rest assured–that person must now learn to keep a low profile, lest they wish to have the WRATH of the followers of this Mystery Religion come breathing down their neck!

WHAT?  You won’t sign this marriage certificate for these two gay men just because it runs contrary to YOUR religion?  THROW HER IN JAIL!

WHAT?  You won’t supply pizza for the wedding reception of our gay wedding?  DRIVE THEM OUT OF BUSINESS!  (Who is so cheap that they serve pizza at a wedding reception?  But I digress.)

WHAT?  You refuse to bake a wedding cake and put two same-sex figurines on the top?  SUE THE BAKERY AND FORCE THEM INTO BANKRUPTCY!  Then, when the moral core of the country has finally seen enough and their outrage reaches a boiling point, a courageous person creates a Go Fund Me page to help pay the fines and legal defense costs of this bakery (already in excess of $135,000), and in a matter of days reached over $100,000 in donations!  The previous record of collecting over $900,000 in donations to support the Pizza restaurant in Indiana was probably going to be broken.

But, the Mystery Religion’s convert, who happens to be the owner of the Go Fund Me web site, had seen enough.  He shut down the entire donation campaign, effectively voiding all of the donations that had poured in from throughout the country.  How dare anyone deny the superiority of the Mystery Religion?  As a result, the bakery also closed.

Each and every one of the examples above are the obvious, non-stop, daily manifestations of this “religion’s” involvement in our lives.  And it’s only going to get worse.  This is why the Apostle Paul was so vocal about avoiding this kind of sin when he wrote to the people of Corinth.

1 Cor. 6:18–“Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.“

In this passage, Paul was also emphasizing more than just the sin of “fornication”.  The Greek word used in this verse is “porneian”, which you will notice is the same root word I pointed out above from Rev. 17:5.  Paul is urging his readers to avoid ALL kinds of inappropriate sexual behaviors, not just limiting it to “fornication”.  He and John both knew what kind of culture would exist on earth shortly before Yahshua returns and they wrote dire warnings for us to pay attention to, not just gloss over.

If you’ve followed some of my earlier articles on this blog, you will recall that the book of Zechariah is entirely a prophecy that pertains only to the generation of the end times, or our generation today.  He warned us of how easily accessible all of this kind of information would be today, thus Paul and John’s warnings take on a greater meaning.

Zech. 5:1–“Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.  ² And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.”

What is Zechariah telling us in these two verses?  It’s not difficult understand if you first place yourself back into the time when he wrote these words.  First, what is a “flying roll”?  At the time that Zechariah wrote these words, there was only one known method of writing–on parchment. Books as we know them today were still many centuries away from being introduced.  Therefore, the “roll” that Zechariah sees in this vision is another word for “scroll”, or parchment, or the sole communication tool to share written information with all other people.

He sees it “flying”.  Since we obviously know that parchments, scrolls or “rolls” cannot literally fly, Zechariah is attempting to express in the words of his time, exactly “what” the “roll” was doing.  He is telling us that this roll, or written method of communication, is not confined to a physical or individual parchment.  It is in the “air”, or it is “everywhere”.  How do we know that this is what Zechariah meant by these words?  Read the answer in verse 2.

Whenever a scribe or an author would put quill to parchment, that writing device would have been no wider than the length of a person’s forearm, from the elbow to the wrist,  and the length would have varied, depending on the length of the scroll.  In scripture, the measurement of a “cubit” could fall between 16″ and 22″ inches, depending on the culture’s definition of measurement, but it usually meant approx. 22″.  Let’s do the math.

If the “roll” that Zechariah saw in the air was 20 cubits long and 10 cubits wide, he’s describing a parchment that would measure 440″ long and 220″ wide, or about 36 FEET long and 18 FEET wide.  If you think about it, Zechariah has just described a parchment of such absurd proportions, it borders on hyperbole.  No such parchment could possibly exist for real.  So why did he describe it that way?

It was because at that time, the only words that he could use to describe the gigantic, flying communication device was a flying 18′ x 36′ roll.  He did not have the words “World Wide Web” or “Internet”.  But that is exactly what he wrote about in Zech. 5:1-2.  He spoke of the Internet over 2,500 years before it was invented.

Both Paul and John were very familiar with this verse.  It is the reason that they placed so much emphasis on avoiding all kinds of immoral sexual behavior in the latter days.  They knew how readily available it would be, as the “flying roll”, a.k.a.: the Internet, would deliver this information to the entire world immediately and effectively “through the air”.  (Haven’t you noticed the thousands of cell towers that have sprung up all over the country in the past 20 years?  Communications…flying through the air….)

And that’s why it’s so important to remain rooted in the truth of scripture, because it’s only through prayer and fasting that we can remain close to Yahweh and his promise of protection that will keep us safe from the Mystery Religion’s advances.

The first time I discovered what this passage actually meant, it took me a really long time to absorb its full impact.  It was moments like this that I would always turn back to John and re-read why we are given this sobering information in this generation:

John 16:33–“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.“

And so will we.