The Emphasis and Intensity of God (3)

 Three’s (3) Denote God’s emphasis and Intensity. Three scoops of ice cream are better than one or two scoops! If you want to impress upon someone, give them three scoops. That will be about as much as most people can handle. Emphasize three scoops of someone’s favorite flavor and that will wake up their taste buds … now that is intense! God uses three’s (3) to say what he means and to mean what he says.

Three-fold Symbolic Women (Mother, Bride, Whore):

1. Woman – Mother (Israel). (2X). (Rev. 12:1, 12:4).
2. Bride (of Christ). (3X). ( 19:7, 19:8, 19:9).
3. Whore (Mystery Religion Babylon). (4X). (Rev. 17:1, 17:15, 17:16, 19:2).

Commentary: Israel is symbolically described as a mother in Revelation 12:1-5. These verses take place in context to being a heavenly sign, “a great wonder.” Celestially speaking, this sign Rev. 12:1 is widely believed by the eschatological community to have literally occurred on September 24, 2017. Personally, I also believe that the “great wonder” sign of Revelation 12:1 did in fact occur, based on the evidence. Israel is described as being with child and travailing in labor. She is also described as given birth to a man (Jesus Christ) and a child (Christian church). Both of whom will rule the nations with a rod of iron. There are other references in Revelation that describe Israel as a woman, but verses 12:1-5 clearly describe her in the context of being a mother and giving painful birth. Some teachers and students of eschatology have suggested that Revelation 12:1 is an ‘exit sign’ of sorts for the Child (or Bride of Christ, if you prefer). Just as signs on the highway tell us we are getting closer and closer to Disneyland, there always comes an exit sign that tells us that a particular exit is the one we have been looking for on our long trip.

The Christian Church is easily understood to be a Bride or Wife (of Christ) in verses 19:7-9. The three consecutive verses are to be taken into context all together as they are describing the same thing (the church). There is a marriage, she has made herself ready, she is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white (righteous), and there is a marriage supper. Those who participate in the marriage supper are also described as blessed. Interestingly, all of these verses describe the Bride or Wife in the past tense, as having already happened and will not occur at some point in the Tribulation future.

The four (4) references to the whore or great whore, require a little bit of discernment. There is an actual, physical, literal city that is given the name Babylon. There is a Mystery Religion Babylon which is the false, evil, tempting religious system propagated by the beast, false prophet and ten kings. Mystery Religion Babylon represents false and idolatrous religious doctrines and blasphemous worship of false idols. The whore or great whore is each used twice in the four verses referenced above. A whore is a temptress that diverts man’s attention away from his true bride or wife. Mystery Religion Babylon is the spiritual whore that seduces men, during the Tribulation period, away from understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ, salvation, redemption, forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ and the proper worship of Jesus and God. The great whore offers up anything and everything for men to worship, other than the true God and Jesus Christ. Hence, the Holy Spirit uses the proper description or metaphor of whore to describe Mystery Religion Babylon.