After the Christian church is removed from earth during the Rapture, there will still be a church here on earth, but it will be a Christian church in name only. It will be a church who profess to know Christ, but have fallen away, or never had truly believed in Christ as their Savior. It will be a Apostate church. (For more on the two different churches, read our commentary on 04/04/04 "Christendom vs. Christianity").
Apostasy is defined in Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary as "renunciation of a religious faith - abandonment of a previous loyalty." It will be a church of people who call themselves Christians but have left the basic teachings taught by Christ in the four Gospels. The worldly pleasures overcame them, and they gave in to adultery, idol worship (mainly money), laziness, lukewarmness, lying and theft. This church exists today. And this is the church that is present during the Tribulation period, after the Rapture. This is the church that is symbolized as "the great harlot (prostitute) who sits on many waters" (Revelation 17:1). "Many waters" is defined in verse 15, as "people, masses of people of every race and nation."
So what we have for a time during the final days is a worldwide religious system that is not of Christ, it is a false religion. The people of the earth will be mesmerized by this false religious system, as stated in verse 2, "with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and with the wine of whose fornication the inhabitants of the earth have been drunk."
The harlot is sitting on a red beast that is full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. This beast is believed to be the Revived Roman Empire. The empire that is building up in Europe today. This beast in Revelation 17 is the same as the one in Revelation 13:1. The one with blasphemous names written on each of the seven heads, and each one is defying and insulting God.
We defy and insult God today when we abort our children, or I should say His children, as He is the One that created them. We defy and insult Him when we steal, lie, fornicate, break Commandments. We defy and insult Him by not spending time with Him in prayer, but have plenty of time for TV, movies, and all the earthly pleasures. We may think we are Christians, but we are really apostates.
When the true church leaves the earth in the Rapture, The Apostate church symbolized by the Harlot will ride on the beast (the revived Roman Empire) and all will come under control of one man - the Anti-Christ. For a while the Anti-Christ will play along with the Apostate church to gain power. But that doesn’t last long, as we find in verses 16 and 17, the ten kings (represented by the ten horns on the beast) hate the Harlot, and destroy her. They then agree to give their authority to the red beast. In other words the Apostate church is destroyed.
This then clears the way for the Anti-Christ to take full control of the Revived Roman Empire, and he can come in with his own false religion, which will probably be, self worship. The Anti-Christ wants to be god, he wants all mention of Christ removed from the earth. When the Rapture occurs and all those pesty Christians are removed from earth, he will get his foot in the door. Then to be god and have people worship him, he will have to destroy the Apostate church, or anything that even suggests of Jesus.
All of this described in Revelation 17 could be closer than you think. If you know you are living a lifestyle of apostasy, it's time to get in the true church. Read our comment on 04/18/04 "Abandonment of Your Will to God", for help on this.
Believe what I say, after the Rapture occurs, you will not want to be left here with the Apostate church.
By George Konig
February 20, 2005
www.georgekonig.org
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