In Revelation (2:20-25; 18:7), Queen Jezebel symbolizes a great religious system (the apostate church of Rome) in this Gospel Age. Roman Catholicism did great violence to God’s truth and to true Christians by putting to torturing and killing hundreds of thousands of Christians during the 900 or so years known as the Dark Ages.
In symbol, Jezebel is also called Babylon, the mother of harlots. Revelation 17:3-6 (NIV), “3…I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4 The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones, and pearls. (The Catholic Church was and is very wealthy.) She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things (doctrines and practices) and the filth of her adulteries. 5 The name written on her forehead was a mystery: Babylon the great the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the earth. 6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.”
King Ahab seems to represent worldly governments claiming to be Christ’s kingdoms. His wife is a false Christian church system married to earthly governments. The true church of Christ is always pictured as a virgin waiting for her marriage to her heavenly Lord at his second advent.
As the Prophets of Baal were under the care of Queen Jezebel and under the patronage of King Ahab, so the priests and the religious representatives of the great church system of Rome have been the obedient servants of the great false institutions pictured by Ahab and Jezebel.
Elijah the prophet and his dealings with Ahab, Jezebel and the affairs of Israel were a type (picture) of Christ’s true church before receiving their heavenly reward. During the 1260 days (539-1799 AD) of the drought and famine (famine for God’s word during the Dark Ages), Elijah (representing the true church) was in the wilderness hiding from Jezebel the persecutor. (Revelation 2:20)
The Reformation movement (16th century and onward) brought some doctrinal reforms, but these Protestant churches also sought a church-state union (harlotry) within their countries. Elijah’s eventual taking away in a whirlwind, in a chariot of fire, illustrates the ultimate gathering of the last members of the Gospel church in connection with the time of trouble.
“Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee (church at Thyatira), because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel (the apostate church of Rome), which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce (from the proper course of Christian living) my servants to commit fornication (church-state union), and to eat things sacrificed unto idols (idolatry of wealth, worldly status, power)” Revelation 2:20.
Additional Resources:
Free PDF: “Church Union and the Antichrist”
