Ezekiel 16:15-63
"They say, 'If a man divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And becomes another man's,
May he return to her again?'
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the harlot with many lovers;
Yet return to Me," says the LORD…
Jeremiah 3:1-3
My people ask counsel from their wooden idols,
And their staff informs them.
For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray,
And they have played the harlot against their God.
Hosea 4:12
“ Behold, I am against you,” says the LORD of hosts;
“ I will lift your skirts over your face,
I will show the nations your nakedness,
And the kingdoms your shame.
Nahum 3:5
For those who profess to follow God but also practice in pagan practices, it's obvious that God calls them prostitutes, whores, or harlots.
Before we continue. In looking at symbolism of the Bible there will be a name of a church come up. It is not meant for offense. If you are a part of this church, please don't let your mind get on the defense as your brain will be working too hard to see what is actually being said as a whole. Open your mind because most who believe they are saved will n to make it because we followed religion rather than the truth in Scripture (Matthew 7:15-23).
In Revelation 17 we see an image painted of a woman on a seven headed beast. There are speculations by many but by and large, people are still trying to figure it out.
The fact is, the Jews did not teach in an academic way that most of the world teaches. They paint pictures for you to discover. Their methods did not change nor did the symbolisms they used. Case in point, if God called His people prostitutes, whores, and harlots, who served other gods and commingled other gods with Him, then that symbol stands true today. It also stands true in the book that is a "Revelation of Messiah Y'shua".
This starts to make this clear. The woman on the beast with seven heads is definitely a body of people claiming to be God's people. Today we call this a church. The next question is what is the beast?
In the prophecies of Daniel we always see a beast as an empire. The beast that the woman sits on is no different; it's an empire. So now we know the woman is a church sitting on an empire. Which empire is she sitting on?
"Here is the mind which has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits."
Revelation 17:9
The empire will have seven hills. The prophecy continues to say the seven heads also represent seven kings. So, the seven heads represent two different things, seven kings and seven hills.
The word kings also represent kingdoms, which makes sense since one would need a kingdom to be a king. We continue to see that five of the kingdoms have come and gone and one is during the time John was writing this letter. There will be one more still to come. I believe these heads represent the seven empires the world will see before the coming of Christ. This woman, the church, sits on one of those two and the city it's in has seven hills.
Notice that the woman sits on and not in. The symbol of sitting on something is to control it. Thus, this church will control the city it sits on.
Spoiler alert for the article Seven Kings
Rome was the empire during the day of John and one other empire has risen up since Rome and is still an empire today: The United States of America. Washington is the capitol of the US and it also has seven hills yet no one refers to these hills. The other problem with placing this church in America is that the US has multiple denominations of churches and no primary church and the government of that country refuses to allow any church control. The other problem is that America did not rise out of "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:15). This empire was the opposite, it rose out of the of the earth (Revelation 13:11).
On the other hand, Rome is called "The City of Seven Hills" and has one primary church, the Roman Catholic Church. It's also said that "All roads lead to Rome" because they did rise out of a "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues". History tells us that the Roman Catholic Church controlled the kings of Rome through fear of excommunication which the king believed would send him to hell.
Hold on, hold on. If you're feeling offended at this time then hang on because I'm not done mentioning churches.
It's only history that we know that the Roman Catholic Church adopted pagan god, statues, and rituals into the church. They admit to this commingling and claim they did it to bring pagans to God. The problem is that these same practices of commingling is what caused God to call His people prostitutes, whores.
Now we know who the woman is, where she sits, and why she's called a whore but what about her harlots?
To understand the harlots we have to understand the wording "Mother of Harlots". This phrase tells us that the harlots will come out of her.
Breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church is most churches in existence today. It was actually the breaking away from Roman Catholicism that caused the forming of the seventh empire on earth: The United States of America.
When looking at modern practices of the churches of America we see commingling of little things as in the obelisk (phallic symbol of baal) that is called a steeple. That's a little thing but there's also a commingling of holidays (christmas and easter) and more recently we're seeing the acceptance of LBGT into the church along with other worldly practices. This church is operating no differently than the Roman Catholic Church.
Considering that the Roman Catholic Church is called a whore and the churches that come out of her are called harlots because of the commingling of worldly things into the worship of God we are warned and should be careful not to practice such things.
Continued reading can be seen at the Easter in the Bible article.