Skip to main content

Revelation's Whore as Today's Culture

 https://thehustle.co/originals/why-you-almost-never-see-a-clock-at-the-mall

The word “whore” may have different definitions to some, but I want to use it as a woman who markets herself for the sole purpose of robbing men of their life for her own gain--whatever her “gain” is: monetary, lust, or otherwise. She is the reverse-consumer and profiteer at the same time, a vampiress, a luxurious drunk, functioning alcoholic. Her appeal is a marketing scheme based on not just years of study, but an exquisite composition of research and development where she is both scientist and evidence, psychologist and client--in an endless cycle and sinister feedback loop of trial and error, hypothesis and investigation, feeding and consuming.

All the while tricking you into believing you are the main character. But it isn’t about you. You have entered her Nirvana constructed for you to “remain inside” her. Once her legs are wrapped around you, she is sure to suck your life away. And as titillating as this may sound, in the end, you are either addicted to endlessly return for more, or drained dry of all your resources--or go into deep debt. And the sad thing is, you will feel pretty good about yourself or at least the amazing experience you had with her. Your manly seed sown upon a barren field—a mirage with no real hope, faith, love, peace, or joy to come. That’s how a whore functions. That is who she is. And she is everywhere, 24/7.

But while she seems omnipresent and even omniscient, she is not omnipotent. The link to the article above gives the whore of Revelation 17 and 18 a whole different understanding because of its perspective on casinos and how they market. But God has called him people OUT of her.

Revelation 17-18, not verse by verse, but in a more categorized way.

She is = the Great Prostitute/Harlot = one who tricks others to buy into her “luxuries”

Her name written on her forehead = a mystery: babylon the great - the mother of prostitutes - and of the abominations of the earth.

She sits by many waters = peoples, multitudes, nations, and languages = the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world and will be ASTONISHED when they see the beast upon which she rides, and are intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries

She desires the kings of the earth to commit adultery (share in her “luxuries”) with her

She uses her “magic spell” to lead astray all the nations [KEY CONCEPT].

She sits on a scarlet beast = Babylon/Rome/Indianapolis

Markets herself = dresses in purple and scarlet, glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls

She holds power = a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 

She overdrinks = drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who bore testimony to Jesus.

Hard to understand = When John saw her, he was GREATLY ASTONISHED/Marveled. 

INSIDE OF HER is the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people slaughtered on the earth.

 

The mystery = the beast she rides

A historical place with historical kings/leaders = going to destruction = seven hills = Rome

The beast and the ten kings hate the prostitute, will bring her to ruin = leave her naked, eat her flesh, burn her with fire

The woman is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth = historical and futuristic “Babylon”

Ten kings with one purpose = give their power and authority to the beast and wage war against the Lamb

The Lamb will triumph over them with his called, chosen and faithful followers.

God has put it into their hearts to accomplish His purpose = until God’s words are fulfilled. 

 

I have always seen the woman as the popular culture of the day both being loved and hated by the government it resides in. The people are somewhat victims, captives, caught up in the relationship between the culture and the government. Everyone thinks they have control, but no one does. It is enough for the government to seek to organize the chaos, but in the end, neither the culture nor the governing body survives. BOTH use the natural fallen resources for its gain: power, control, luxury, attraction, marketing--using and being used—these tactics are at war with the process and purposes of the Lamb of God and His means = His people who have made it their habit with foreheads and hands to surrender too and give their lives for. They are the continuation of the Lamb’s sacrifice in reaching the tricked, the deceived, the victims and captives under the magic spell and intoxication of the culture. 

The question the Whore is always asking is, “Will you surrender?”

The tactic of the casino is to keep the temporal distortion going for as long as possible—to make the people INSIDE forget about the real world. The evaporate any symbols of time, keep feeling like you are in an uninterrupted escape zone, and even block out the sunlight so you don’t know that it is day. Sounds are kept low so you can enter your fantasy world and keep the field of consciousness focus and not break.

“In the arena of chance, as though under the sway of a magnetic field, the passage of time freezes into repetition, space contracts, and the value that accrues to money is obliterated.”

The culture seeks to break down value in the minds of the wise. There is only what the culture, or she, says there is.

The longer you stay the more money you spend.

You don’t think – not about the future, just the moment you are in –that you’ve created.

Sure, all retailers want you to buy what you’ve come in for—PLUS a few additional things.

That’s because your brain changes while shopping.

“…after 23 minutes supermarket shoppers began using the emotional part of their brain rather than the cognitive part. That switch made it harder for people to consider costs and made them more susceptible to marketing bargains.

After 40 minutes, their brains effectively shut down. They struggled to make any logical decisions.”

To be able to show you all available products, the retailers need to slow you down—so they create a shopping maze. Coupled with slow tempo music, you spend more time in the store. You might call this “mood maintenance,” to keep you in a “positive state” and “in the flow” so you just stay shopping. Our brains are being coded by stores!

This is my fear for VR in the future. What will be meant and seen as entertainment will be sugar for the marketers to capitalize on. And this means more fantasy and much more lost time. VR will be the proverbial carrot leading sheep to the slaughter unaware of where they are going.

 

Will you surrender? --kk

Popular posts from this blog

"Just Thinking About Jesus"

I was wondering today about how I could start meaningful, spiritual conversations with others whom I know are not Christians but perhaps once were. I wondered how I would come across if I was deep in thought and he or she asked me, "What are you so deep in thought about?" and I replied, "I was just thinking about Jesus." I wouldn't want it to be annoying, just bridging. I was reading over an article adapted from The Evangelism Study Bible, that explored responding to people who have had a bad experience with Christianity. I found their five reminders worth repeating and good for keeping in the back of your mind, once practiced in your "holy imagination" (aka, spiritual reflection). 1. Don't be defensive. Remembering that it isn't so much that you do not agree, but HOW you disagree that will stick in their minds when they walk away. Take into yourself their comments as if you were the one who did them wrong and then reflect it back to the...

What if Metallica Came to YOUR Church?

A reaction to John Van Sloten's, The Day Metallica Came To Church: Searching For The Everywhere God in Everything ,  2010. This book caused me to rethink some of my foundational theologies, specifically Creation and the Fall. If God created us in His image and declared His creation as ‘very good’, what consequences did the sin of Adam and Eve have upon us? How deep does it go? I have some very strong thinking patterns that hold everything as either good or bad, God’s or Satan’s, black or white. This either/or (dualistic?) outlook doesn’t leave room for the mysterious. But what if all of these things were meant to lead me to something more? What if I always stopped short because I was led to believe that when I came to a certain point I had arrived—mission complete--stop here and move on to another subject? And what if that wasn't true? I was challenged by the thought of how God speaks to us outside of the Bible. I have believed that God speaks to me through many things (...

Family Time Videos