The apostate church is also the mother of the abominations of the earth. These abominations are idols (Deut. 7:25-26), with which the apostate Roman Church is filled. These idols have been mixed in with the so-called service to God. When people go to a Catholic cathedral to worship, whom do they worship? Some purchase candles and stand before the idol of their choice. In Catholicism there is an idol market, and people can pray to any idol they choose. Although many pray to Mary, that actually is not Mary—it is Venus. The cathedrals in the Catholic Church are not different from idol temples. Not even in the idol temples in China did I see as many idols as there are in the Catholic cathedrals. Certainly, the apostate church is the mother of abominations.
When the apostle John saw the great prostitute, an angel carried him away in spirit into a wilderness (17:3). A wilderness is a desert, a parched land. This indicates that the apostate church is in a desert, where there are no springs of water prepared by God. Certainly the apostate church cannot receive the water supply from God. In order to show the apostle John that the apostate church is in such a desolate place, the angel carried him there.
Verse 1 says that the great prostitute sits on many waters, and verse 15 indicates that the waters “where the prostitute sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues.” These words are fulfilled in the fact that the apostate Roman Church rides on peoples and nations throughout the world. The Catholic Church actually numbers one third of the population of the entire earth.
The kings of the earth have committed fornication with this great prostitute. This means that she has sinful religious relationships with the rulers of the earth. What the apostate church commits is not adultery, the sin of an unfaithful spouse, but fornication, the sin of a prostitute. This is more sinful than adultery. The fornication of the apostate church consists of her sinful relationships with the rulers of the earth for her profit, just as a prostitute commits sin for gain. The fornication committed by the apostate church is spiritual fornication. The Catholic Church is intimately involved with worldly politics, and the kings of the earth commit fornication directly with her. In the eyes of God, this is spiritual fornication.
This great prostitute has made those who dwell on the earth “drunk with the wine of her fornication” (v. 2). The wine here refers to the heretical doctrines in the sinful religious relationships of the apostate church. They confound as wine does those who become involved in her religion. This is the wine of her fornication. In an indirect manner those who dwell on the earth are made drunk with this wine.
The heretical doctrines of the apostate church are like drugs. They befuddle people, make them dumb, and cause them to lose their senses. I have talked with many Catholics, and I have found them to be completely drugged. The more you talk to them, the less they understand. This indicates that they have been made drunk with the wine of the great prostitute.