Since the early centuries AD, the Catholic Church has spared no expense in erecting the most magnificent churches. The imposing architecture and superb stoneworks of her grand cathedrals were made to stand out from the surrounding squalor like heaven on earth. Indeed, the grand scale of these churches is calculated to awaken wonder and curiosity. Upon entering their enormous portals, gold-plated ceilings dazzle the eyes. As the vision adjusts, the gaze lights upon a sequence of priceless paintings, and sculptures made from the rarest of stone. Echoing through the cavernous ceilings, the ear is greeted by harmonious Latin chants. By overwhelming the senses, the heart is enticed with a deep feeling of awe and reverence.
The cardinals might say that all this costly array and artisanship is for the honour and glory of God. Yet the true God can never be honoured in such edifices. Besides the fact that they are infested with idolatry, the apostate church of Rome has done nothing but trample upon God’s name, truth, and saints since she first made her league with Constantine. Thus, having abandoned the truth and righteousness of God, the Roman church turned to wealth and prestige in order to win the world’s adoration and worship.
In Bible prophecy, a woman is a symbol of a church. A virtuous woman symbolises a pure church, while a harlot symbolises an impure church. In Revelation 17, John was shown a striking depiction of the self-styled ‘mother church’ of Rome:
So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. Revelation 17:3-5
Rome’s cardinals wear purple and scarlet. They deck themselves and their churches with earth’s rich bounties of pearls and gold. Through these extravagant displays of royalty, Rome lays her blasphemous claim to the place of God on earth.
Moreover, the cup she holds out is pure gold, and its glimmering brightness blinds the world to the ‘extortion and excess…which is within the cup’ (Matthew 23:25-26). For centuries, church-goers readily drunk down her doctrinal abominations, such as the mass, the triune god, and Sunday sacredness. More recently, her priests have donned an academic garb to appeal to a wider audience. ‘Father’ Nicholas Copernicus mingled the heliocentric theory into that golden cup. Centuries later, ‘father’ Georges Lemaître added the Big Bang Theory to the same abominable brew.
Babylon’s lies have prospered, not because they are intelligent, but because of the money, power, and influence of the worldly institutions that promote them. Money talks, and ‘on the side of their oppressors there [is] power’ (Ecclesiastes 4:1). It is therefore befitting that Satan’s movement of Babylon is portrayed as a seductress offering worldly grandeur. The movement of God is also depicted in the book of Revelation as a woman. But what a contrast there is between these two women!
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: Revelation 12:1
While the whorish woman sits upon a beast in the wilderness of this world, the pure woman stands in heaven, planted upon the lesser light of the moon. The former decks herself with earthly bounties, while the latter is utterly destitute of this world’s treasures.
The contrast between these two women can also be seen in the disparity between Jesus and His self-styled ‘vicar’, the Pope. Besides his gorgeous Apostolic Palace within Vatican City, the Pope has the luxury of a summer residence in the Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo. By contrast, in His earthy sojourn, Jesus had not even the shelter that animals enjoy. Said the Lord: ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head’ (Matthew 8:20). When asked for alms, the Apostle Peter similarly said: ‘Silver and gold have I none’ (Acts 3:6). Yet his alleged successor, the Pope, shows off garments embroidered with silver and gold.
What the whore chooses to conceal, however, are the abominations inside her golden vessel. Indeed, the blasphemous meaning of Rome’s doctrines are hidden from those who receive them, being known only to the initiated. But the pure woman has nothing to hide. She wears heaven’s glorious truth on her person for all to behold. While she may be lacking in this world’s riches – as the church of Christ generally has throughout the ages – she is adorned with the celestial light of the sun, the moon, and the stars.
Unlike Rome, the true church does not employ wealth or prestige to appeal to the world. ‘Known and read of all men’, church members themselves are the walking testimonies of heaven’s truth, ‘blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world’ (2 Corinthians 3:2; Philippians 2:15).
Christopher Sparks