Introduction
What if I told you that everything you have always known as ‘normal’ was an illusion? What if I said that we’ve all been living in a matrix…that the way the world truly operates has been hidden behind a veil for centuries while those who operate the world systems depend on us being pacified and lulled to sleep in order for their systems to continue working?
Would you even know what I’m talking about?
Would you call me a “conspiracy theorist” and tell me to go put on my tinfoil hat?
Maybe you would, but it doesn’t matter.
This isn’t about me.
Once you’ve had a peek behind the veil, you can’t ever see the world with the same eyes that you once did. Some will refuse to look. Some will surrender to their cognitive dissonnance and stay on the path of least resistance because it’s too uncomfortable to think that there are certain people in control of most of the world’s institutions (including church organizations) who actually want to control and/or destroy us.
Until you are willing to accept that the institutions that govern and influence our every day lives are part of a much larger, darker system (a system of systems, so to speak), you will return to the narrative you’ve always believed because your mind won’t accept what has become so increasingly obvious.
It is this system of systems, set up by men, and devised by a much darker influence, that will eventually lead to man’s destruction. Have no fear, however, because the solution to this great conundrum has already been provided.
Staging the Scene
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts…
– William Shakespeare
It seems with each natural disaster or tragic event, references to the end of the world are made on social media platforms. If you ask the average Joe walking down the street, even someone who doesn’t really believe in the Bible, what they think about the state of the world right now, they’ll likely use words like “Biblical”, “end times”, or “apocolypse”. There’s something in the air right now that is palpable – a tension between what we know as “normal life” and possible catastrophic events that could lead to the downfall of civilizations as we know them.
There are wars and rumors of wars, fires, earthquakes, hurricanes, diseases, drones, mysterious lights, and any number of other events that could potentially wipe us out…at least that’s what we’re told. It appears that the events unfolding before us now are as predicted in the book of Revelation by the apostle John. Surely, these must be the end of days, right? The times seem to be more evil now than ever before, do they not?
I would submit to you that the times aren’t any more evil now than they have been over the past 4000 years. Times have always been evil ever since Cain killed his brother, Abel. Mankind has been ccorrupted by the fall. No, what we are seeing and experiencing now is the exposure of the evil that has been plaguing humanity and running amok under our noses for milennia. What you see and hear on the news and on social media is intentional and with a specific purpose. I’ll dig more into that in part 2: The Dragon Behind the Woman, but for now, suffice it to say that while I do believe we are close to the end of days, the events recorded in the book of Revelation were not all directed to a specific generation. Many of the events in John’s writings have been repeating over and over for 2000 years.
Please allow me to pull back the curtain and expose what’s been going on in the shadows for millenia.
The Cast
Most people, even believers, don’t understand that the book of Revelation wasn’t just a telling of future events through the vision of the Apostle John, it was a great unveiling of what is really happening in the world – past, present, and future.
Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. 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. The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.Revelation 17:3-5
Just what is it we are experiencing in this world? Why do the times feel so desperately evil? Whether a believer in the Bible or not, we have all been under the influence of the whore of Babylon, mentioned in Revelation 17 & 18.
Who is this “whore of babylon”?
The whore of Babylon is not a person or some demonic entity yet to come, but a metaphor for the systems that mankind has set up to seduce, coerce and strong-arm the common people into submission through three tools: Fear, deception, and apathy. The men and women who set up these systems desire to acquire for themselves, all the power, riches, and pleasure they could ever want. They fear losing control of the commoners more than anything, because it would mean the end of their reign of power and the potential for prison sentences or execution. But just like the unveiling of the fraudulent wizard in the Wizard of Oz, once the curtain is pulled back on the illusion of their self-appointed godhood, their wickedness and weakness is exposed for all the world to see.
It isn’t that the world is more evil now than ever. It’s that their evil plans have been exposed and the people are waking up from their slumber.
Isn’t the whore of Babylon supposed to appear in the end times?
Yes, but it’s been here all along.
John’s visions while exiled on the Isle of Patmos were not just prophecies of the end of days, it was a great unveiling of the spirit realm and the battle taking place between God and Satan (Hebrew for “the adversary” or “accuser”), with mankind in the middle. Much of the symbology used is representative of figures, governments, and events that have taken place and have yet to take place. These themes repeat themselves over and over again. For example, while there will be one main anti-Christ in the future, there have been many anti-Christ figures in history. Many of the tribulations from the scrolls written about in chapters 5 & 6 have been echoed in prior eras and have been repeated multiple times in varying ways. Think of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. that Jesus referred to in Matthew 24 as one of those echoes.
John used imagery that would have been familiar to his audience at the time, but would also have protected himself and his readers from being seen as critical of the Roman Empire, since the Romans would have reviewed his letter before sending it on its way. “The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.” Rev 17:9. This was a reference to the city of Rome, which was physically built on seven hills. Remember that John was writing to the 7 churches mentioned in chapters 1-3 who were all living under the oppressive rule of Rome. They all understood John’s writings according to their own frame of reference. Revelation was written to Christians in the early church, living under persecution, to take heart and stand firm to the end, because they knew that the King of Kings would soon return and reign.
Just as in the days of the Roman Empire, the spirit of the age calls to men’s wandering hearts, like a siren, to set themselves up as gods, and to tread underfoot anyone who dares oppose them. This spirit is set in place by none other than the dragon himself – Satan – for he opposes God Almighty, and wants to be his own god. The whore of Babylon is the tool by which he controls and destroys mankind.
Read Part II – The Dragon Behind the Woman