| Revelation 17:2 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication."2[The wine of her fornication is the false promise of living in lusts and pride with no consequence of the fury of God. As Paul also predicted: "For the time will come when men will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap [accumulate in piles] to themselves teachers after their own lusts, who will say what their itching ears want to hear; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and will be turned to fables." 2 Tim 4:3-4. The whole world has been turned to the false-church whore's fables that teach men to live however they please, with no fear of God, and to ignore all laws, the requirements of holiness, and the necessities of repentance — being drunk on the sweet wine of the whore's assurances that they are greatly favored by God and on their way to heaven, despite their indulgences in sin.] | |||||||||
2 the great whore who sits upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. The Kings of the earth also fornicated with this whore, the false church. By 325 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine had effectively become the head of the "Christian" church, ruling on many of its doctrines. Under the leadership of Emperor Constantine, who had poisoned his son and boiled his wife to death, the Catholic sect was embodied into the Roman government, which prescribed its doctrine, built its churches throughout the empire, paid the clergy, clothed the clergy identical to Roman government officials, abolished Passover to become Easter, and designated Christmas to coincide with Roman pagan holidays. Christian names were applied to the various heathen rituals and traditions, giving credibility to the unsuspecting. Roman Emperor Theodosius I enacted a law in 380 AD establishing Catholic Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. The crushing boot of the Empire's sponsored Roman religion was used to persecute and kill the true church. All dissenting Christian believers were either banished into exile or killed. The Roman Empire's church, both east and west, had doctrines that had been dictated by the sainted Emperors Constantine and Justinian the despot, thus eliminating the true gospel by 388 AD. As prophesied in Revelation 18:3, the church adulterated with the Kings of the earth. You can't mix a church with the powers of the earth, and expect anything but a monster religion to result because the powers of the earth are motivated by greed, approval of men, possessions, pride, envy, revenge, blood lust — all the base human characteristics.
All the nations of the earth have become drunk on the wine of the whore, the false church's fornications (uniting with the world's corruptions). The whole world joined with this intoxicating religion that excused the ways of the world, giving license for immorality, allowing man to live however he chose, without regard for God's commandments, without regard to sin. Just by believing, attending sect services periodically, eating the bread, drinking the wine, paying the money — anything was excused, anything was overlooked, assurance of heaven was guaranteed. And so man became dead drunk on the intoxicating wine of fornication — the pleasures of the world, serving his lusts and greed without any restraint, with no fear of God.
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