03.06.02. Appendix II
Part II The Mother of Harlots
The identification of "Mystery, Babylon, the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth" in Revelation 17:5 as the Church of Rome, aside from being based on a misunderstanding of Revelation 17:9, would probably not be widely held by commentators at all if Daniel’s prophecy concerning the fourth part of the image (or the fourth great beast) were understood correctly. Roman Catholicism is the predominate religious faith in Europe, and erroneously viewing a European Antichrist who reigns through ten European nations (necessitated by understanding the fourth part of Daniel’s image to be Rome, with a revived Roman Empire fulfilling the prophecy during the days of Antichrist), one would quite naturally associate the harlot with this particular religious faith.
Antichrist though will not reign from Europe through European nations. He will reign from the Middle East through Middle East nations, and, by far, the predominate religious faith in that part of the world is Islam. And this is exactly as it should be, for God will have concluded His dealings with the Church and will once again be dealing with Israel; and Islam is to Judaism what Roman Catholicism is to Christianity.
Beyond the present dispensation, it would be completely out of place for God to deal with a pseudo segment of the Church left behind at the time of the rapture on the one hand and with Israel on the other hand. There’s also no possible way that this pseudo segment of the Church (or a combination of all the various false religions, as some teach) could be called a "harlot" within the scope of God’s dealings with Israel. But Islam could, and it is really the only false religious faith on earth which could occupy a status of this nature.
To word the matter as previously stated, Islam is the false counterpart to Judaism (associating Judaism with the true teachings of the Old Testament Scriptures as opposed to Islam’s false view) in the same sense that Roman Catholicism (along with a large segment of today’s Protestantism) is a false counterpart to true Christianity. Those holding to both the Islamic and Jewish faiths trace the beginning of that which they believe back to the same point -- Abraham and the Abrahamic Covenant (ref. Chapter I). They both look back to the same father and to the covenant which God made with their father and his seed. Islam begins its false teaching at this point, claiming that the covenant promises are to be realized through Ishmael (Abraham’s firstborn) rather than through Isaac (born fourteen years later); and Islam looks back to Mohammed, a descendant of Ishmael, as the last and greatest of the prophets -- a false prophet with a false way of salvation. Thus, their religion becomes a corruption of the true faith given through Jewish prophets, which views the covenant promises one day being realized through Isaac, Jacob, and Jacob’s twelve sons, and which looks to the coming of a Jewish Saviour (Genesis 17:18-21; Hebrews 11:8-19).
There’s no other religious faith on earth even closely resembling Islam in this respect; and this is the religious faith of the nations presently surrounding Israel in the Middle East, which will be associated with Antichrist during the Tribulation. And it is because of the false form which this religion takes in relation to Israel and the Old Testament Scriptures that it is called a "harlot"; and it is because of this religion’s inseparable identification with Babylon that it is called "The Mother of Harlots." "Babylon" is the Mother (in relation to that which is false. The origin of all false religions, after some fashion, can be traced back to Babylon); and the harlot, inseparably identified with the city of Babylon, becomes "The Mother of Harlots."
No other false religion in the world could even come close to qualifying as the recipient of this title during the Tribulation, even if that religious faith possessed an inseparable identification with Babylon. Islam alone will occupy this dubious honor.
(Accordingly, the pseudo-Church left behind at the time of the rapture [whether Catholic or Protestant] will occupy no special place in God’s dealings with the earth-dwellers during the Tribulation, no more so than will the followers of Buddha or the followers of Confucius, among numerous others. God’s activities will no longer center around the Church [for the dispensation during which God deals with the Church on earth will have been brought to a close, and the Church will have been raptured]. Rather, God’s activities during the Tribulation will center solely around Israel and those nations coming in contact with Israel -- Russia, Germany, the Middle East Moslem nations, the nations from "the east," and finally the nations of "the earth" [Ezekiel 38:2-6; Daniel 11:21 ff; Revelation 16:12; Revelation 19:19].)
When the final form of the Babylonian kingdom, centered in Babylon, comes into existence, Islam will also appear in its final form, as "Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." And both will be destroyed shortly thereafter, never to rise again -- Islam first, and then the city of Babylon itself.