JUST WHO IS THE HARLOT?

God spoke again to Ezekiel; it was about the past, present, and future of Jerusalem in the land of the Canaanites. In chapter sixteen, Jerusalem was likened to a royal whore. First, God described how He allowed “her” (Jerusalem) to prosper, decorating her much as a queen, and once a queen, she did what queens so often do; she acted the whore — a spoiled rotten royal whore.

She was the worst whore of the House of David. God called Sodom and Samaria her sister whores, but they were not as whorish as Jerusalem, albeit neither were fully Jewish.

God had taken the city when she was “naked and bare;” when she was ruled by the Canaanites and dressed her in a royal fashion. She was to be the “bride” of God. He took her under His wing and prepared her clean and pure and dressed ready for the wedding.

However, once in royal apparel, Jerusalem fornicated with those nations around her, especially Babylon, Samaria, and Sodom. Perhaps, as I had guessed, the “harlot Babylon” of the apocalypse is not Rome but Jerusalem.

The vison of John was much like the vision of Ezkiel: 

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, “Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.” And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Rev 17:4-6) 

Just like with John, Ezekiel heard Jerusalem, and her neighbors, referred to as a woman and her sisters. God revealed to Ezkiel that woman was arrayed in royal garments, just as the woman of the apocalypse.

Ezekiel saw the woman Jerusalem with a ruby on her forehead. John saw that harlot woman with the words, “Mystery Babylon,” on her forehead. Indeed, Babylon was once the “jewel” of the world.

John’s harlot was drunken with the blood of the saints; whereas Ezekiel’s woman, God “saw you polluted in your own blood” (Ezek 16:6).

John wondered at her admiration. Ezekiel had seen the harlot Jerusalem in a similar manner: 

I have caused you to multiply as the bud of the field, and you have increased and waxen great, and you are come to excellent ornaments: your breasts are fashioned, and your hair is grown, whereas you were naked and bare. (Ezek 16:7)

 

Jerusalem the Great was surely Babylon the Great.

John saw a fallen whore: “Saying, ‘Alas, alas that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!’” (Rev 18:16). Ezekiel described the whore Jerusalem using many of the same words.

In the end (Rev 19), God cleaned the great harlot and made her a fit wife. In John’s vison, He totally destroyed that once great city and made her upright again.

Ezekiel ended his vision of the whore Jerusalem with these words: 

 And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the Lord: that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I am pacified toward you for all that you have done, said the Lord God. (Ezek 16:62-63) 

Most theologians believe that the “harlot Babylon” is Rome, mainly because she is the mother of many nations built on seven hills.

Well, Jerusalem is built on seven hills, to wit: Mount Scopus, Mount Olivet, the Mount of Corruption, Mount Ophel, old Mount Zion, new Mount Zion, and the Antonia Fortress hill.

The harlotry of Jerusalem continued throughout time until God began to clean her up and make her a pleasant city again; but still divided by many nations by the quarters within the city. It fits John’s vision exactly.

Not only does Jerusalem have seven geographic hills but it has seven religious “hills” as well, the “Seven Pillars of Islam” (Walayah); their version of the branches of the Tree of Life, to wit (Ismail Gnosis 2020):

 

Guardianship: Love and devotion to God

Purity: Purity of mind, soul, and action

Prayer: At sunrise, before sunset, and after sunset

Charity: Giving one-fifth of one's income to the Imam for the poor

Fasting: During the religious holiday of Ramadan

Pilgrimage: A visit once in one's life to Mecca

Struggle: Confrontation with the enemy of the faith 

Islam’s struggle for a worldwide caliphate sums up John’s vision of the harlot very well. I believe that God is cleaning up Jerusalem right now using the forces and armies of the Islam to do so. Jerusalem may be God’s “estate” now but within the heart of Jerusalem it remains the estate of Allah. God must fix that, and He could be using Islam to make Jerusalem a fitting bride for the groom, Jesus.

Just think of the deception; the devil has our eyes on the “harlot Rome” all the while our eyes should be on the “harlot Jerusalem” which God is cleaning up as usual using other nations to do his cleansing.

Indeed, the covenant of which John referred may have been from long ago; it is written: 

Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. (Gen 9:26-27) 

Shem represents the Jews, and the brother Japheth, Christians. They shall live in the same “tent” — the Tent of God.

Canaan shall be the servant of Shem (the father of the Jews who are Semites).  Just as Ezkiel wrote that Canaanites made Jerusalem, as it turned out, Canaanites did not make Jerusalem for their own “tent,” so to speak, but for Shem and Japheth’s progeny — Jews and Christians.

Right now, “Canaan” is serving a purpose, remembering that Canaanites are to be servants of the Jews.

Canaan’s progeny and their allies (sisters) are trying to destroy all of Israel, and perhaps they will somehow hit the Dome of the Rock with mortars, fulfilling the revelation of John. The “joke” will be on them when they realize that their Jihad is a construct of Yahweh to defeat Allah and to cleanse the harlot Jerusalem.

"The Fall of Jerusalem 70 AD;" Warfare History Network