Why this Matters
There is a lot of “end times” mania right now. With the coronavirus, civil unrest, and now political unrest, people don’t know what to think. Prophets, church leaders, and political commentators are throwing out predictions left and right. I made a video last year answering the question “Is coronavirus a sign of the end?” Just last week, people were posting memes of VP Kamala Harris dressed in purple with a caption from Revelation. People claim VP Harris is the harlot of Revelation 17! With all the failed political prophets, this makes Christians look even worse.

Not only is this meme disrespectful and hateful, but it reveals a total ignorance of what Revelation is about. When we take a little time to examine the evidence, this conclusion becomes impossible. In fact, no world leader today could be the fulfillment of the harlot of Revelation 17, and below are five reasons that is the case.
#1 The harlot of Revelation 17 is a city, not a person.
The first major reason VP Kamala Harris, or any world leader, cannot be the harlot of Revelation 17 is the harlot is a symbol personifying a city, not a person.
The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Revelation 17:18
In chapter 18, God issues a warning for his people to come out of the city (Revelation 18:4). John further identifies her as a city in verses 10, 16, 18, 19, and 21 of chapter 18.
VP Kamala Harris is obviously not a city, so identifying her, President Biden, President Trump, or anyone else as a figure in Revelation makes little sense. This is just another example of people reading themselves, their politics, and their expectations into the Bible.
#2 The harlot of Revelation 17 was guilty of the death of the apostles.
John tells his audience that the city was guilty of the death of the prophets, apostles, saints, and witnesses of Jesus.
And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly.
Revelation 17:6
Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.
Revelation 18:20
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.
Revelation 18:24
Unless VP Kamala Harris lived two-thousand years ago, I don’t see how she could be guilty of the death of those that were eye-witnesses of Jesus. That being said, there isn’t a city in existence today that can bear that guilt, which brings me to my next point.
#3 The harlot of Revelation 17 existed when John wrote Revelation.
The great city in Revelation was the city “where also their Lord was crucified” (Revelation 11:8). John is dealing with a city that was around two thousand years ago; he isn’t concerned with modern day wars, politics, and other conflicts. As much as we may want to, and I don’t know why we would, we cannot find any modern city in the book of Revelation.
#4 The harlot of Revelation 17 was a city that was going to fall soon.
Another major reason VP Kamala Harris cannot be the harlot of Revelation is the great city existed in John’s day, and its fall was imminent. In the following passages, John clarifies that he was writing about something that was going to take place soon.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John,
Revelation 1:1
Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near.
Revelation 1:3
And he said to me, “These words are faithful and true”; and the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent His angel to show to His bond-servants the things which must soon take place.
Revelation 22:6
“And behold, I am coming quickly. Blessed is he who heeds the words of the prophecy of this book.”
Revelation 22:7
And he said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near.
Revelation 22:10
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done.
Revelation 22:12
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming quickly.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
Revelation 22:20
It’s been two thousand years since John said the things in Revelation were at hand, so nothing within the book is about some day of destruction in our future. In fact, the only city that fits within all these criteria is Jerusalem in the first century.
#5 The harlot of Revelation 17 was first century Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was guilty of the death of the apostles and prophets.
The first major point is that it was Jerusalem who was guilty of all the blood of the martyrs back to Abel. When reading this passage, pay close attention to the pronouns.
Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!
Matthew 23:34–38
In the book of Luke, Jesus said, “It cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem” (Luke 13:33). Of course, He wasn’t speaking literally, but He was identifying Jerusalem as the city known for rejecting the prophets.
The harlot of Revelation 17 must be Jerusalem, the city known for rejecting and killing the apostles and prophets.
Jerusalem existed when John wrote Revelation.
One thing to keep in mind is that I’m not writing about Jerusalem today. I’m specifically talking about Jerusalem in the first century. They were the ones who were guilty of the death of Jesus, not anyone living today.
In the book of Acts, Peter and the apostles cast the blame on Jerusalem for Jesus’ crucifixion. Though it was Rome who put Jesus onto the Cross, Jesus’ contemporaries pressured them into doing so. Peter explains it like this:
Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know— this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.
Acts 2:22–23
Jerusalem was about to fall in the first century.
Jerusalem also fits the criteria of being a city which was about to fall. Jesus lamented over the city shortly before His death:
When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”
Luke 19:41–44
Jesus was aware of the political tensions of the day. He knew that some wanted to take up swords against Rome, and, despite warning of this time and time again, He knew they would ultimately choose to rebel. He offered a way of peace and nonviolence, but they pursued a different peace that requires taking away peace from others.
Stop Trying to Make Revelation About Our Day
Revelation is the vision of a struggle between two ideas, two types of kingdoms: the heavenly kingdom of Jesus and the physical kingdom of the zealots. It isn’t about the USA, North Korea, Russia, or China. Although many of the themes are similar and are applicable today as patterns of what happens when humans choose the way of violence, they ultimately had their fulfillment two thousand years ago in the Jewish-Roman war.
Dr. Don K Preston of the Preterist Research Institute has a splendid book on this subject called Who is this Babylon? It is available at https://bibleprophecy.com and Amazon. You can also check out my ebook on Revelation.
Excellent, and very timely, especially: Stop Trying to Make Revelation About Our Day.
Revelation is the vision of a struggle between two ideas, two types of kingdoms: the heavenly kingdom of Jesus and the physical kingdom of the zealots. It isn’t about the USA, North Korea, Russia, or China. Although many of the themes are similar and are applicable today as patterns of what happens when humans choose the way of violence, they ultimately had their fulfillment two thousand years ago in the Jewish-Roman war.
Excellent and timely. Short and right on point.
This short essay is exegetically sound. You applied common-sense hermeneutical principles. This essay was a master piece of reading the context. As you know, there are three basic rules of interpretation: CONTEXT, CONTEXT, AND CONTEXT. You demonstrated your familiarity with all three principles.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
Many grab what fits in the moment without researching the text. Out of emotions it’s easier to wish that a text says what one wants it to say than actually read it in context. I would guess that few who share and repost those memes have ever actually studied the prophets and Revelation.
You are obviously institutionalized and have not read the Bible from the Holy Spirit. I do agree with your conclusion of Kamala, and the reference of Revelation 17. However, the Bible is much more thorough of the timeline of the end.
Daniel, and Matthew, in Jesus own words, reference the time of the end. That time is the rebirth of Israel, May 17, 1948. And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.
9 Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
10 And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
11 And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
12 And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.
15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17 Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:
18 Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.
19 And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!
20 But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:
21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.
23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not.
24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.
25 Behold, I have told you before.
26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.
27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:
30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Clearly that has not happened. Notice also the generation that sees the liberation of Israel has not passed also. The true time is 2018-2028, 70 to 80yrs being THIS generation.
Buckle up my friend. That time is upon us. The next 7 years has, and will, reveal ALL of the references to the old, and new testament descriptions of Bible Prophecy.
And for anyone of you who are deceived, Romans 10:9-12 is the ONLY way you will escape whats coming upon the world!
I’ll make a deal with you. Save my blog, and come back in 2029. We’ll reconnect and go over what transpired between now and then!
The problem with the above is that Jesus promised living, breathing disciples that He would return before some of them died. I’ll look to hear from you on January 1, 2029!
He did return to them in the resurrection. That’s the ONLY reason the Bible was ever written in the first place. There were too many witnesses that saw Him and witnessed His ascension to Heaven.
The reason we have so many people that are deceived is because people like you are corrupting, and twisting, the text to create an illusion that it is not legitimate, or exact. I pray that somehow you will have a change of heart in how you feel about Yahshua’s promises. In the meanwhile, keep in mind this passage. You are in it. 🙏
agreed
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How can the woman be the city of Jerusalem and was riding on a beast with ten horns yet it is very clear that the beast she was riding with ten horns and blasphemous names once was in power , was not active in the days of John’s vision of revelation (was in the Abyss) yet would come?
The ten horns are ten kings of Europe who would yet arise from Rome and we’re yet to come in the days of John on patmos?
Has the beast come from the Abyss yet and if so what is the identity of this Kingdom that preexisted before Rome was not in the days of John yet would come?
I am sorry to tell all of you this, but tou are all very wrong kamala harris is the one in revelation and the harlot was arrayed in purple and pearls and kamala has been laughing alot as in hehehehehe she is like the one drunk with everything it is clear she arrived book of rev has been unfolding and look at the world events right now its terrible u.s. already in tensions eith china and iran firing missles as warning shots, and 53 volcanoes erupting,quakes, and riots. Democrats out to destroy voting right, all of rights, and power grab, america about to bankrupt soon now. All of these are signs jesus is coming very very very soon sooner.than we think it is. Sorry but you need to be careful what you say on your tongue because god is watching you making wrong mistakes or errors god knows whats going on now we will see america coming to an end. So be careful what you try to interpret be careful