What does Revelation 17:15 mean?
In this verse we have the angel's explanation of the imagery of a prostitute (Revelation 17:1) seen in John's vision. The waters on which she sits are "peoples and multitudes and nations and languages." Her corrupt religious system will include false religions all over the world. Some identify this eclectic religious system as the culmination of the ecumenical movement. According to this view, apostate Protestantism, apostate Roman Catholicism, and all world religions will unite and exist as one in the tribulation.The apostle Paul advised Timothy "that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared" (1 Timothy 4:1–2). The apostle John also predicted the rise of antichristian religion in 1 John 2:18. He wrote: "Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come." Jude warned his readers that ungodly religious teachers had wormed their way into the church. He wrote: "For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ" (Jude 1:4).
Whether by combining all religions, the domination of a single false faith, the invention of a new one, or simply a widespread lack of spiritual truth, the apostasy that began in the first century will grow worldwide during the end times.
Revelation 17:15–18 continues the angel's explanation of John's symbolic vision, seen in verses 1 through 6. This section focuses on religious Babylon—pictured as a sexually immoral woman—and her judgment. Other Scriptures proclaim the judgment that God eventually brings on apostate religion. A few are Psalm 9:17; 73:27; Isaiah 1:25; 3:11; 34:1–10; Jeremiah 23:9–40; Zechariah 11:17; Luke 12:1–5 Jude; and Revelation 18:1–8.
Revelation 17 zeroes in on God's judgment of Babylon as the center of religious corruption in the tribulation. The target of this wrath seems to be an eclectic form of all apostate religions. This might be a concrete, single religion. Or, it might be a near-religious blending or equalizing of all spiritual beliefs. God views religious Babylon as ''the great prostitute'' that has support from heads of state. This system is both extremely rich and murderous, guilty of martyring saints. It has a past and a renewed existence as a religious-political system. Together, the political heads of state and religious Babylon battle Jesus, the Lamb, but He defeats them. The end of religious Babylon comes when the ten kings turn against her and ruin her. They destroy religious Babylon because God puts it in the hearts to do so.
