The Harlot Bride
When Abraham left his own people to travel to the promise land, he left his people in the Ur Of the Chaldees (The area of Ancient Babylon).
“And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. And he said unto him, I am the LORD that brought thee out of Ur of the Chaldees, to give thee this land to inherit it.” (Ge 15:6-7 av)
When Isaac Abraham’s son of promise, a type of Christ, who was willing to lay down his life on an altar in obedience to his father, became of age, Abraham sent his servant to Babylon to bring out a wife for his son, a type of Christ.
“And I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of heaven, and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell: But thou shalt go unto my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac.” (Ge 24:3-4 av)
When God’s people, Israel, rebelled against God, it was told them by the Prophet Jeremiah, “you shall not rebel against the King of Babylon, because I have given you into his hand, go to Babylon, build houses, plant gardens, have children, but obey the King of Babylon”
“Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.” (Jer 29:5-7 av)
After seventy years of service to the King of Babylon, God sent the Kings of the Medes and the Persians to destroy Babylon and to assist in the rebuilding of the Temple of God in Jerusalem.
“Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.” (Jer 51:11 av)
Now each event we have spoken of bears it’s own significance, but have common themes, God has always taken his bride out of the land of Babylon to go to the promise land, a land flowing with milk and honey. We today have our Babylon that God’s true saints must leave and be delivered from, to go to the promise land and rebuild the temple.
“Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies. The LORD hath brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.” (Jer 51:6-10 av)
And tying this in with New Testament scriptures, it is said of BABYLON THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATION OF THE EARTH in Rev.,
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double. How much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her: for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow.” (Re 18:4-7 av)
May I just add that the image that is spoken of by the prophet Daniel ch. 2, had feet and ten toes mixed with iron and clay. This image existing until the very end of time, until that Rock that was formed with out hand, smashed the feet and the image was shattered and the kingdom of Christ was set up to rule forever! The ten toes and the iron represent the power of the state, the governments of men and the clay represents the religious systems; remember the scripture, “he is the potter and we are the clay?”; so the feet and toes are church and state combined, part iron and part clay. It is also important to understand that the Roman Empire was the forth beast of Daniel and the legs of iron for the image we previously mentioned.
From the Roman Empire came Constantine who was very instrumental in the merge of church and state, taking the strength away from the image, mixing the feet with clay, putting on the face of religious compassion, therefore making the image weak. This image has stood since then and every true servant of the Lord, every Ekklesia member, has faced the bondage and struggles with this image, yet given into the hand of the King of Babylon. There is no living person who has ever escaped this bondage, all Christians of all times have struggled with this image, were given over to it, force to obey it, EVERY man or woman of God, EVERY called out person, has been called to one extent or another, to come out of her and be ye separate says the Lord, yet it would be amiss if we didn’t give examples of the more recent “water shed” moments in history.
Jesus prophesied this about the Religious leaders of his day,
“Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” (Mt 23:34-35 av)
John the Revelator prophesied this about Babylon, the Mother of Harlots,
“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.” (Re 17:6 av) “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.” (Re 18:24 av)
Let me ask you a question, who will be called to account in the judgement, for all the righteous blood that was slain upon the earth? Will the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’s day or Babylon the Mother of Harlots? Now I know you might think that the Religious leaders of Jesus’s day will have to answer for their part, from Abel unto Zacharias, yet John the Revelator doesn’t give any limit to the guiltiness of the Harlot, he just says “All that were slain upon the earth”! Kind of sounds to me that the Religious Leaders of Jesus’s day, who crucified Jesus, are one in the same with the Harlot of Revelations! In John we get another hint of just who Babylon is, Babylon who gets responsibility for murdering righteous Abel.
“In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” (1Jo 3:10-14 av)
Cain is a child of the Devil and a servant of the King of Babylon, Lucifer.
“By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Heb 11:4-6 av)
Cain trust in his good works to save him, Abel offers that which he loves as his own self by faith! Cain trusts in his prudence and hard study to understand scriptures, Able believes in God, that if he buys the field containing that one pearl of great price, offering himself as a lamb, a sheep for the slaughter, that God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him, not by the arm of his own flesh, but by the grace and mercy of God, that how Able comes to the truth in the scriptures.
The Prophet Jude speaks of the servants of Babylon, “But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core. These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” (Jude 1:10-13 av)
So the Devil is the King of Babylon and the servant of the Lord, yes I said it, even the Devil is used by God! The Devil always wanted to be God and in particular the Devil has wanted to take the place of Christ as the head of God’s Church, the Ekklesia, the called out ones.
“How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” (Isa 14:12-14 av)
Another water shed moment in Christianity was in part and a type, but not in it’s fullness, “The Reformation”. Those who left the eastern and western Catholic churches for a more perfect way, called the Catholic Church, Babylon. They took many of the scriptures that I am quoting to justify their departure from the Catholic Church, which everyone understood was connected to Rome, the legs of iron. Protestants have for years held to this believe, that the Catholic Church was the Babylon of scripture, the Mother of Harlots. However in recent years as Protestant Christianity has gotten more wicked and vile, they have backed off from this belief, in fact many Protestants have joined back into the Catholic Church as part of the ecumenical movement. Now the Protestant Church has become the Daughter of the Harlot, much of the teachings of Catholicism have secretly crept back in. Some of the teachings never were rejected by the Reformers, the priestly robes, men ruling over men, infant baptism, organizational institutions run like earthly kingdoms, fathers passing the rule to their sons, behaving like kings over subjects. Babylon has always been with us, and will be until that rock which is Jesus Christ, smashes the feet of iron and clay!
There are two brides, both believe that Jesus is coming back for them, one bride is a harlot and the other bride is not, one bride has the spirit of Cain and hates their brothers, the other bride loves the brethren. The harlot bride loves big buildings and lots of money, the other bride loves not their lives unto death – being a building inhabited by Christ – having their treasure not in the things of this world!
“Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.” (Mt 24:41 av)
The harlot bride shall be refused by Christ – the true bride shall be taken by Christ.
“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.” (Mt 25:1-13 av)
The harlot bride is foolish and has no oil in their lamps, their light has gone out just as Jesus promised it would, because they did not heed his rebuke to the seven churches of Rev. 2&3. The true bride has oil in their lamps and they are not foolish, because they have the fear of God not according to the precepts of men, but the fear of God where wisdom begins.
Yet the harlot bride says “I am The Church that the gates of hell shall not prevail against, I shall be a lady, the bride of Christ, I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children”.
“I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient hast thou very heavily laid thy yoke. And thou saidst, I shall be a lady for ever: so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it. Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children: But these two things shall come to thee in a moment in one day, the loss of children, and widowhood: they shall come upon thee in their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great abundance of thine enchantments. For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me.
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me. Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know. Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee. Behold, they shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame: there shall not be a coal to warm at, nor fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee with whom thou hast laboured, even thy merchants, from thy youth: they shall wander every one to his quarter; none shall save thee.” (Isa 47:6-15 av)
Don’t believe the people that say, “America is Babylon”, don’t leave America. Yes it is Babylon to the extent that America claims to be Christian, the bride of Christ. But indeed, Babylon sits on seven mountains and every true Christian on the face of this earth has been forced to serve the king of Babylon, my people come out of the HARLOT BRIDE, her judgement is at the door!
Amen! Robert Begnaud
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