Carnegie Auditorium, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Tuesday, March 5, 1963
Kathryn Kuhlman
- Revelation 17:1 to 7.
Tonight I shall speak very slowly. I shall be very careful of every word that I use. After you leave the auditorium tonight, do not say something I did not say. Do not put words in my mouth. If you repeat anything I said, say it exactly as I said it. Even before I begin, may I say that I cannot finish this portion of the Word of God tonight. Therefore, two weeks from tonight I will continue exactly where I leave you this evening.
Now, first of all, in the prophetic week – and remember, whenever I speak of the prophetic week, that prophetic week as spoken of in the 9th chapter of Daniel, the 27th verse, it is referring to the seven years of tribulation upon the earth. Those seven years begin with the Rapture of the Church. After we have the great catching up, after the Rapture of the Church, begins the prophetic week which will last for seven years.
There will be suffering, there will be torment, there will be judgment. The three and a half years, the last three and a half, is known as the great tribulation because the suffering will be so intensified. But watch.
In the prophetic week of seven years, changes of the most startling character are witnessed. I cannot begin to tell you all of the changes that will take place here on this earth during those years. Startling changes; changes that will be taking place very rapidly in our government, religious leadership, everything.
Right now we think everything is moving so very quickly. It is. The whole thing is shaping up so very quickly, so much so, that we have gotten to the place where our first thought in awakening in the morning is to turn on the radio or the television to see what happened during the night while we slept. We do not know what tomorrow morning’s headlines will bring us. Anything can happen in the next 48 hours. The whole world, this whole generation, is sitting on a mighty volcano that is about to erupt at any time. But if you think things are happening quickly now – remember, all these things that are yet prophecy, and that John saw in vision in the Book of the Revelation, all these things from the 6th chapter to and including the 19th chapter, all take place in seven short years in that prophetic week. The whole political government of Europe will be rearranged under Satan’s prime minister, the beast. There will be a gigantic federation of ten powers. Think of the changes that are taking place now! Think of the changes in a matter of hours, overnight!
Do you know, we take it so calmly. No one is especially startled when we say they caught the guys that tried to assassinate De Gaulle. You know, we have gotten to the place where actually we are mentally educated to where life means very little any more. And more and more, so very quickly, we are becoming educated to it.
Even now, in the past six months, think of all the changes that have taken place in Europe. The whole political government of Europe, during the prophetic week, will all be rearranged under Satan’s prime minister who will be the beast. God’s Word clearly teaches that the old Roman Empire will reappear and will be revived under new conditions, guided and controlled by its active, blasphemous and persecuting head. Without fear of contradiction, and every Bible student in the county will agree with me – that is one thing we are all agreed on, anyone who knows anything at all about Daniel and the Book of the Revelation will readily agree – that the old Roman Empire will reappear, but not as it was but under different conditions, controlled by one who is the most blasphemous and the greatest of all persecutors of the children of God.
Now, hear me, when I make a statement and I ask you, if you are writing, to write it word for word just as I give it to you. The Antichrist guides religiously in Christendom and the beast rules politically. Remember, the Antichrist is not the beast, and the work of the beast is not the work of the Antichrist. Their work is separate and apart, one from the other. But it is the Antichrist that guides religiously. The Antichrist will be the brains religiously. He will be the head of Christendom during the prophetic week. The beast rules and reigns politically. He will be the head of all that is political. You must separate these two. You must know that the head of each is separate and apart from the other.
Now, we come – and I pray this will mean an awful lot to you tonight. I pray that the Lord will open your understanding to the whole thing because everything that I can give you I back up with the Word of God.
We come, beloved, to the whore that is spoken of in the 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation. Who is the whore? Who is she? The whore, or Mystery, Babylon, is the concentration of everything that is religiously vile. The whore, in that 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation, is the essence, the heighth, the concentration, the fulness of everything that is religiously vile. Her political dethronement in the Revived Roman Empire is effected instrumentally by the ten kings as recorded in the 17th chapter of the Revelation, the 16th verse:
“And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.”
Revelation 17:16
Her final doom will come when God Himself will destroy her.
I want you to pause and see something before I go deeper into the discussion regarding the whore and why she is so important. When it comes to the final analysis, the basis for everything in man’s life is really religious. The basis for our living, the purpose for our being alive tonight really is a religious basis. You absolutely cannot take religion out of any man’s life. Every person who is ever born must, he has got to do something with religion. He has got to do it. Every human being from the first Adam to the last Adam. Every human being has to do something with religion. That is the basis for our existence today. Why? Because, beloved, you go back before man was ever created and God had created Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel to head all these tens of thousands and thousands and thousands of angels.
Lucifer fell before man was ever created. Lucifer, one of the three most beautiful angels God ever created, said: “I will be like unto the most High God.” Jealousy filled his heart. He desired to be worshipped. He was jealous of the worship, the homage, the adoration God was receiving. Lucifer ruled and reigned on this planet over tens of thousands and thousands of angels, even, of course, as someplace, somewhere, Gabriel and Michael are still ruling over millions of angels. There are other planets. Science will back us up and substantiate that statement. The other angels are all intact. But on this planet, Lucifer ruled and reigned, was given authority, his throne was here, until the day he became jealous of Almighty God, jealous of the homage to God.
That is why in the temptations of Jesus, the third temptation, what do we have when he came and said to Jesus – I will give You the kingdoms of this world, I will give You the kingdoms of this earth, if You will bow down and worship me? He absolutely craved worship. He will do anything to get worship. It was his to give. Jesus did not, for one instant, rebuke him. Both the devil and Jesus knew the kingdoms of this world were his to give. They both knew that the devil held the title deed to this world and he could have given it to Jesus. That was before the crucifixion of Jesus, before the price was paid that He might one day be the mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
When Lucifer fell and took with him one-third of the angels, God created man to reinhabit this earth. And from that first creation of man, that first Adam that will ever live and breath, each man, each woman has to do something, make a choice between Satan and the Son of the Living God.
Serving the devil is a religion. Serving Jesus is salvation. Every man and every woman, in some form or another, is religious; but THE ONLY TRUE RELIGION IS IN ACCEPTING JESUS CHRIST AS THE DIVINE SON OF THE LIVING GOD. That is what it is all about. That is what the whole thing is about.
The conflict today is still a religious conflict between the devil and the Lord Jesus Christ. For everything for which there is a genuine, wherever there is a genuine when it comes to the things of God, the devil comes along with a counterfeit. I don’t care what it is. He has a counterfeit for everything. It is as near like the genuine as he can possibly get it. That is why the Word of God says to “try the spirits.” Don’t be gullible. Don’t just accept everything. “Try the spirits.” Be careful! The counterfeit is so close to the genuine. Be careful! For the enemy today is still counterfeiting everything that Jesus has. Now, watch something.
In the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation, we have the history and the testing of the Church and its ultimate destiny, its association with Christ in Glory. It is HIS Church.
Again let me remind you, whenever Jesus spoke of His Church, it was not as a system or denomination. You are BORN INTO His Church. Christianity is not a system. Christianity is not a denomination. CHRISTIANITY IS AN INNER EXPERIENCE. You are BORN INTO His Church; you don’t join it. It is not a system.
That is exactly what Jesus was talking about in the 16th chapter of Matthew, verse 17:
“Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” What had brought those words? A question. Jesus came and said, “Whom do men say that I am?” Verse 14: “And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” Verses 15 and 16: “He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter anawered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.” Jesus said, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but Father which is in heaven.” Don’t stop there! Verse 18: “And I say also unto thee, THat thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” On what? For generations there have been those who have said that the Church was built on Peter, the Rock. It does not say that. Jesus said: ‘My Church is built upon My deity and My divinity.’
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” What rock? Peter had just answered and said: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Jesus said: “… upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
What is His Church? Living stones, those of us who have been BORN AGAIN, that new birth experience. Not a system, not an organization, but LIVING STONES, those who have had that experience of regeneration.
That is why at the great Rapture of the Church, when we have the great catching up, we say His Church will be raptured. Not as a system, not as an organization, but the living stones, those who have been regenerated, those who are members of His Church, those born into His Church. Now remember something. There are those in His Church who are Roman Catholic, there are those in His Church who are Greek Orthodox, there are those in His Church who are Protestant, there are those in His Church who are not members of any organized group of people. There are black folk and there are white folk. Race and color have nothing to do with it. It is still a matter of what you have on the inside here. Let’s get that straight before I go any deeper.
That is the reason when I make a statement regarding the papal church, I am talking of a system and not of individuals. Don’t you dare go out of here and say that I said all Roman Catholics are of the devil! If you do, I’ll pray the judgment of God on you! Don’t you dare! Whenever I speak of the papal church, I refer to it as a system. The saints of God in ages past have suffered more at the hands of the papal system than any other system in the whole world. The true saints of God. You talk about the saints of God. The true saints of God have suffered martyrdom, they have suffered intense agony, they have suffered the greatest persecution at the hands of the papal church than under any system or any organization ever recorded in the history of man. Study its history. God in His tender mercy sent the Reformation. The Reformation was God’s intervention in grace and power to cripple papal authority. I am talking of a system; I am not talking of individuals.
The things that I bring you tonight, do not condemn me. Do not thrust the knife in my back. Do not get mad at me. This is God’s Word! You cannot escape it. It is there. Watch.
As we come to this 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation, there are two women in connection with the Revelation: the Bride of the Lamb, and the harlot of Satan. As you study the Word of Cod, two women. I told you a few minutes ago that for everything for which there is a genuine, for everything for which God has a genuine, Satan has come along with a counterfeit.
The Lamb of God having a Bride. Oh, beloved, that is so precious. At the very beginning of the Book of the Revelation, in those first three chapters, we have a picture of the Church, His Church, from its beginning. Oh, it had some mighty rough times. They were not always true. A full picture, in all of its stages, of the Church from the day of the beginning of Pentecost. Because Pentecost began with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the Day of Pentecost continues and will continue until the Rapture of the Church. And we have a full picture of the Bride of Christ, the virgin, the Bride of the Lamb of God, from the time of its inception to the time of the great catching up when the door was opened in heaven and the Church went through. That was the first woman – His Bride, the virgin, the True Church. You and I belong to that True Church.
Now, we come to the second woman – the harlot of Satan. The Bride is subjected to Christ; the harlot is a subject of Satan. Turn to Revelation 17:1: “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.” This is what John saw. He very carefully recorded everything he saw. Watch this very carefully. “I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.” I just now told you that this whore, this harlot, is a subject of Satan.
Verse 2:
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
Revelation 17:2
In that second verse we see something. The descriptive words are most interesting.
“… the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.” In other words, her following is almost universal. Her following will be tremendous. You and I cannot begin to fathom the extent of her great following. It is spoken of here, it is described here as a “whore that sitteth upon many waters.” She herself is a vast religious system. She rules and dominates the nations religiously. There will come a day when this whore, as recorded in the 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation, will literally rule and dominate the nations of the world religiously. A system. This woman represents a religious system.
Take verses 2 and 3:
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Revelation 17:2-3
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
In other words, her corruption has been at work from the earliest ages. It is not something that is new. It is not something that just suddenly arises on the scene. It is something that has been in existence for ages.
“With whom the kings of the earth …” All references made to the whore and to its religious system always refer to earthly. Whenever the Church of Jesus ie referred to, whenever the Bride of Christ is referred to, it is always regarding heavenly things, eternal things. But with the whore, it is always earthly. ” With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
Verse 3:
“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
Revelation 17:3
Here is something that is most enlightening. “… and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast…” Remember, the beast is the world ruler. We discussed that in a previous chapter, for this is not the first time the beast has come forward. We had the beast long before.No, this is not the first time that the beast is making his appearance. But remember, the beast is the world ruler. “… and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast…” What does it mean? Get this picture. She is sitting upon the beast. The beast is the world ruler. She is riding the beast. She has the supremacy over the governments. She literally has – her religious supremacy literally overshadows the great world ruler, the beast.
Oh, the wording in this is something. If you have a brain in your head, I don’t have to say it; I don’t have to talk too much. All I need to do is to give you the Scripture. Do you understand? I am trying to be very careful. It is most difficult for me to speak tonight, for I shall only give you Scripture. It is as plan – as we used to say in Missouri – as the nose on your face. Just watch the wording. “I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”
“Sitting upon the beast” shows a complete supremacy of the civil powers of the whore. We see the rule and supremacy of the woman over the beast. The whore rules religiously while the beast rules politically. She rules the beast and she controls it for her own selfish end.
Remember, keep in mind, that the beast is the world ruler. Somebody might want the Scripture for that. You have it in the 13th chapter of the Revelation, verse l: “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, …” Here is the world ruler. He doesn’t make his appearance, of course, until after the Rapture of the Church. No one can tell you who that great world ruler is. I would be a fool – anyone would be a fool, to stand up and say so and so will be the great world ruler, such and such a person. The great world ruler will not make his appearance until AFTER the Rapture of the Church. When anyone tells you the name of such and such, a personality, disregard it. I believe that he is alive today, the great ruler. John saw him in Revelation 13:1.
The picture that John sees here in the 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation is the woman, the whore, the head of all religion, the one who has religious supremacy, riding the beast. She rules the beast, she controls the beast for her own selfish ends.
Revelation 17:4:
“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.”
Revelation 17:4
Get those colors. Even those colors. There can be no doubt. Look at her vesture. “The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.” She is all decked out in the world’s finery and tinsel. All that follows her shows her great material wealth. Do you want to know where some of the world’s greatest wealth is this very hour? In the Vatican.
Verse 4: “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls…”
Don’t you hold some precious little Catholic mother responsible for the papal system! It is amazing the tens of thousands and thousands of precious sincere people who are in absolute religious darkness tonight, involved in a system they know nothing about. As a system, the papal system is the most damnable system in the world tonight. I am talking about a system. Don’t you go out of here and misquote me. Don’t you dare! When we have that great catching up, beloved, there will be some mighty precious BORN AGAIN Roman Catholic mothers and dads going up. I am talking about a SYSTEM, the damnable system.
How has that wealth been gotten? From whom has it come? By every means conceivable, by every trickery conceivable. The scheming, taking it from poor, promising to pay their loved ones out of purgatory and into heaven, when THE DESTINY OF A SOUL IS SEALED WHEN THAT ONE TAKES ITS LAST BREATH. If you had a million dollars, you could never change the destiny of the soul of one who has died. Pay for your prayers, pay for your confessions, pay for your lighted candles. Beloved, that thing is not of God!
Verse 4:
“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:
Revelation 17:4
Verse 5:
“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Revelation 17:5
Watch what this name is: “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” In other words, it was not the old Babylon. Oh, the wording of this is marvelous! She should have stood for God and truth, but now she is witnessed as the very embodiment of error and all that is morally vile and wicked. You know what the old Babylon stood for. The old Babylon stood for everything that was wicked, for everything that was vile. “And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, …” She is a mystery all right, but she stands for everything – she is the very embodiment of all that is vile, the very embodiment of all that is wicked, that is morally vile, the embodiment of all error. In other words, a huge system of spiritual evil, “THE VERY MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Babylon of old was the enslaver of God’s people. As bad as it was, it will be exceeded by its spiritual counterfeit.
MYSTERY, BABYLON has been working for a long, long, long time. A long time! It began its hatred and its persecution upon the saints away back there. Go back and read your church history. Go back to the dark ages. MYSTERY, BABYLON was at work away back there. There are things that are happening right now before our very eyes that are no mere accidents.
Verse 6:
“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.”
Revelation 17:6
Her history is black and stained on every page with the blood of the saints. That is all on earth you have to do. Go back and read your church history. Go back to Constantine and read your pages on church history. It is as though you were reading part of the pages on church history as you read the 6th verse of the 17th chapter of the Book of the Revelation.
Remember, whenever I say “woman,” it is a “religious system.” “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.” It doesn’t mean the admiration as we know it. In other words, John saw her. It was enlightening to him, it was so horrible, it was so awful, the counterfeit was so near the genuine, and her power, the power of this whore, was so great that as he saw it at that time – it changes. Don’t leave me in just this message, because it changes. The beast, before we get through, turns on the whore. But right now as he sees it, there is coming a time in that great prophetic week – for how long I do not know – but there is coming a time in that prophetic week of seven years when literally the whore, this great religious system, will ride the beast and control the great world ruler. In other words, Rome will control the man who will be at the control of the governments. He will be getting his orders from that city.
If you don’t believe it, read the 18th verse in the 17th chapter of the Revelation: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” What is that great city? Rome. “… which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
Verse 7:
“And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.”
Revelation 17:7
Beloved, again I repeat. The foundation of every man’s life, the why, the purpose in every man’s life, in the final analysis, is religion. Every man has to face it. Every man has to do something about it. If you ACCEPT Jesus Christ, as the Son of the Living God, you are regenerated and you are BORN INTO His Church. NOTHING ELSE IS GENUINE. Watch it.
If you are a Catholic, never having been regenerated, then, you are a Catholic; you are not a Christian. You can be a Baptist, a Methodist, Episcopalian, Christian & Missionary Alliance – there are some folk who are just Church of God or just Assembly of God, and that is all they are. But to be a member of His Church, to be a member of the Bride of Christ, YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN; YOU MUST HAVE A SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE ON THE INSIDE HERE.
There is only ONE TRUE CHURCH – HIS CHURCH. You can belong to His Church whether you are Catholic or Protestant. You can be neither Catholic nor Protestant and still be a member of His Church. It is that experience here on the inside on the inside. Not a system, not an organization, but a SPIRITUAL EXPERIENCE. And that is ONLY thing that is genuine; that is the ONLY thing that will suffice.
If you have had that experience, then, beloved, you have accepted the genuine. You are a member of His Church; you are a member of the Bride of Christ – the woman who is subjected to and is a subject of Christ. Anything else will NOT suffice. Anything else is counterfeit.
And the most deceivable counterfeit the devil holds – and it is not surprising, really. He holds the trump card when it comes to the very heighth of all counterfeits. Literally, for generations and generations, for centuries, he has been laboring with the greatest counterfeit and the world’s greatest deception, because there can be no greater deception than something that is religious. He holds the greatest religious deception in the history of mankind in a system that for centuries now has persecuted the saints, has brought death to scores of God’s precious children.
After the great catching up, after the Rapture of the Church, after the Church has been gone, after the Bride of Christ has been gone, then, beloved, the power of that counterfeit, the power of that great system will be so great that it literally will control the beast, the one who will be the head over the great government of the world. Isn’t that something!
In the quietness of your home, I want you to sit and read very carefully every word I have just given you. Watch the wording. I have had to give it. I could not escape it, because IT IS GOD’S WORD.
Thank God for the Word. There is no substitute for the Word. Thank God for the Blood of Jesus Christ which cleanseth us from all sin. Thank God for the Truth. May we be the most grateful people who walk this earth this hour.
REMEMBER TO WHOM YOU BELONG, AND AT ANY COST, AT ANY PRICE, STAY TRUE TO JESUS!
PRAISE THE LORD!!!
