REVELATION 17 - CLUE (4)
CLUE (4) - “ . . . . and gilt with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, full of the abomination and filthiness of her fornication.” (Revelation 4b, DRCB)
ABOVE - GOLD MONTRANCESTO HOLD WAFER BREAD
ABOVE- GOLD ALTAR TABERNACLE TO HOLD GOLD CUP
ABOVE - GOLD CUPS (CHALICES) WITH PRECIOUS STONES
All the above items represent just a small part of the ‘riches and wealth’ of the “Great Harlot” [the Vatican, the Roman Catholic Church].
The following quotes help to explain the “golden cup” in the “Great Harlots’ hand…
[BEGIN QUOTE] - These indicate vulgar wealth lavished upon herself. Extreme riches is an outstanding mark of the apostate church this very day, which is richer by far than any human government, even including that of the U.S.A (Coffman) – [END QUOTE]. [1]
[BEGIN QUOTE] - The woman is said to have in her hand a golden cup, full of abominations. Here we have another picture of Babylon taken direct from the prophetic condemnation of the Old Testament. Jeremiah said: "Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord's hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad" (Jeremiah 51:7). So, Rome is said to hold the golden cup in which is that power of seduction which has spread immorality over all the earth. (Barclay) - [END QUOTE] [2]
[BEGIN QUOTE] The "golden cup" points to the splendour of Babylon, outwardly, as a vessel made to honour . . . . But the "wine" in that cup was poisoned, intoxicating men with wild ambitions and dark idolatries. The same image re-appears in Revelation 14:8; Revelation 17:4, save that there the "golden cup" is in the hand of the harlot, "whose name is MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT." (Ellicott) [END QUOTE] [3]
The "Great Harlot's" cup is full of false teachings that many people in many nations of the world have been deceived into believing. They are deceived because they tend to believe the ‘words of men’ written in the Catholic Catechism and dictated by men in the Vatican Hierarchy, rather than believing the Word of God in the Holy Bible. — God inspired godly men to write the Words of God into the Bible and God cannot lie. . . men can lie! This “golden cup” is intended to be a contrast with the ‘Communion Cup’ of the New Testament, "the cup of the Lord," which is a cup of truth and the “golden cup” in Revelation 17:4 is a COUNTERFEIT of the true “cup of the Lord.” It looks to the world like it is the true thing but is not… it is full of the abomination of “Transubstantiation’.
[BEGIN QUOTE] During Catholic mass, bread and wine are [supposedly] transformed into the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, who is considered the son of God, in a rite called “transubstantiation.” This isn’t a symbolic transformation. A core teaching of the Catholic faith is the belief in literal transubstantiation. Practitioners eat the body and blood of Christ to become one with God.
Similar rituals were practiced in the underground “mystery religions” of the Greco-Roman world. In a few of those occult religions, celebrants shared a communal meal in which they symbolically feasted on the flesh and got drunk on the blood of their god. For example, the Mithraic Mysteries, or Mithraism, was a mystery cult practiced in the Roman Empire in 300 BC in which followers worshipped the Indo-Iranian deity Mithram, the god of friendship, contract, and order. Mirroring the Catholic Eucharistic rite, the idea of transubstantiation was a characteristic of Mithraic sacraments that included cake and Haoma drink. But the ritual probably wasn’t original to Mithraism either. In Egypt around 3100 BC, priests would consecrate cakes which were to become the flesh of the god Osiris and eaten. [END QUOTE] [4]
LIFTING THE “GOLDEN CUP OF ABOMINATIONS”
TO THE WORLD
[BEGIN QUOTE] In the Old Testament, the priests entered the tabernacle repeatedly in order to offer blood sacrifices for the sins of God’s people. Christ, however, by means of his death and resurrection, entered into heaven and mediates on our behalf once and for all (Hebrews 7:27). His is not a sacrifice that needs to be or even can be repeated (Hebrews 9:11-28). It is sufficient. It is finished (John 19:30). If, however, the bread and wine of the Eucharist indeed undergo a change of substance and become the real body and blood of Christ, Christ’s sacrifice on the cross is neither sufficient nor final; instead, it is continually re-presented and made present. Thus, transubstantiation undermines the clear teachings of Scripture. [END QUOTE] [5]
Apostle Paul says the following in 1 Corinthians 10:21, (Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible) …
“Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils.”
END NOTES
[1] STUDY LIGHT, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Accessed August 20, 2024, Web: https://www.studylight.org/commentary/revelation/17-4.html
[2] BIBLE HUB, Barclay’s Daily Study Bible – “The Fall of Rome”, Revelation 17:1-18, Accessed August 20, 2024, Web: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/revelation/17-4.html [
[3] BIBLE HUB, Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers, Accessed August 20, 2024, Web: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/revelation/17-4.html
[4] BIG THINK, “The pagan origins of three Catholic practices,” Accessed August 28, 2024, Web: https://bigthink.com/the-present/pagan-roots-of-catholicism/
[5] DESIRING GOD, “TRASUBSTANTIATION, What Catholicism Teaches About the Supper”, Accessed August 28, 2024, Web: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/transubstantiation