The European Union in Prophecy The EU in Prophecy I | Page 304

The European Union in Prophecy
he says: "I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2.
The unfaithfulness of the church to Christ in permitting her confidence and
affection to be turned from Him, and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the
soul, is likened to the violation of the marriage vow. The sin of Israel in departing
from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of God which
they thus despised is touchingly portrayed: "I sware unto thee, and entered into a
covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest Mine." "And thou wast
exceeding beautiful and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went
forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness,
which I had put upon thee. . . . But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst
the harlot because of thy renown." "As a wife treacherously departeth from her
husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord;"
"as a wife that committeth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!"
Ezekiel 16:8, 13-15, 32; Jeremiah 3:20.
In the New Testament, language very similar is addressed to professed
Christians who seek the friendship of the world above the favor of God. Says the
apostle James: "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of
the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the
enemy of God." The woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17 is described as "arrayed in
purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having
a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness:...and upon her forehead
was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots."
Says the prophet: "I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with
the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Babylon is further declared to be "that great city,
which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Revelation 17:4-6, 18. The power that for
so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of Christendom is
Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and precious stones and pearls, vividly
picture the magnificence and more than kingly pomp affected by the haughty see of
Rome. And no other power could be so truly declared "drunken with the blood of the
saints" as that church which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. Babylon
is also charged with the sin of unlawful connection with "the kings of the earth." It
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