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Mystery Babylon: Difference between revisions
→The Identity of the Woman
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But contrary to what William Branham stated, the Bible does not say refer to "the church setting on the seven hills". What it does say is that "the woman which thou sawest is that great city..." | But contrary to what William Branham stated, the Bible does not say refer to "the church setting on the seven hills". What it does say is that "the woman which thou sawest is that great city..." | ||
Jerusalem itself had been pictured as a harlot by both Isaiah<ref>Isaiah 1:21</ref> and Ezekiel<ref> Ezekiel 1:15</ref>. Likewise Nahum describes Ninevah’s barbarities in terms of “the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft”<ref>Nahum 3:4</ref>. Similarly Isaiah’s litany over Tyre<ref>Isaiah 23:15–18</ref> calls for her to “take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”<ref>Gordon D. Fee, Revelation, New Covenant Commentary Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011), 242.</ref> | Jerusalem itself had been pictured as a harlot by both Isaiah<ref>Isaiah 1:21</ref> and Ezekiel<ref> Ezekiel 1:15</ref>. Likewise Nahum describes Ninevah’s barbarities in terms of “the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft”<ref>Nahum 3:4</ref>. Similarly Isaiah’s litany over Tyre<ref>Isaiah 23:15–18</ref> calls for her to “take up a harp, walk through the city, you forgotten prostitute; play the harp well, sing many a song, so that you will be remembered.”<ref>Gordon D. Fee, Revelation, New Covenant Commentary Series (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2011), 242.</ref> Lamentations, a lament over the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, portrays the fallen city as a woman “who has become like a widow” (Lam 1:1).<ref>Philip D. Stern, “Ruth, Book Of, Critical Issues,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).</ref>The typing of the city of Rome to a woman and particularly a harlot is, therefore, imagery taken from the Old Testament, something that is common throughout the Book of Revelation. | ||
So William Branham was wrong. A woman in the Bible does not always represent a church - it often represents a city. | So William Branham was wrong. A woman in the Bible does not always represent a church - it often represents a city. | ||