Babylon the great, Mother of harlots. Revelation 17:3

 I am jumping off my commentary on the Gospel of John to point something out.

One of the so-called “watchmen” that goes by “generation 2434” went on a bit of a rant, saying.

“I, 100%, stand against the teaching that “Mystery Babylon” could be Jerusalem because it goes against God’s word.”

He went on to say,

“There are many scriptures that prove this… but here is the short and firm answer.”

“Mystery Babylon is destroyed and will NEVER be a city again.”

If you search for the phrase “mystery Babylon,” you will NOT find it. The closest thing we have to mystery Babylon is Revelation 17:5. Here is the KJV.

(I have intentionally broken up the passage so that aspects could be emphasized.)

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment.”

(Judgment is that which originates from God and, in general, would be deemed “the great tribulation”; once again, this is an inappropriate term.)

“of the great harlot”

(Momentarily, we will see that BABYLON, THE GREAT, and THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS are the same thing, and Jerusalem is included.

Here is a huge assumption: If there is a great harlot, can there be lesser harlots?

Since we know that Babylon is one and Jerusalem is another, there is the possibility of others.)

“who sits on many waters,”

(Waters is representative of the nations.
Telling us that this “great harlot sits on many waters indicates that “she” has influence over multiple locations simultaneously.
If this were a human, this kind of influence could only be accomplished by having others fulfill their wishes; this conversation fuels the idea that this being is demonic.

Remember that Satan took a third of the angels, an uncountable number, to earth in his rebellion. It is the reason that Satan can have such an influence. )

“with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality,”

(Perhaps it is best to think of this harlot as wickedness, evil, transgressions, and general darkness.

The question to ask yourself is, against whom?

The answer is that these acts of evil are generally perpetrated against the masses who can do little to defend themselves.)

“and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.”

(God is showing John, and subsequently us, the punishment of the harlot and who she has had an impact upon; this is an aspect of God’s wrath. It is important to recognize that by the time we read this, the collapse of their empires and national relationships because of the immoralities associated with the harlot will just about be complete.)

Consider what Revelation 17:3 tells us.

“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness;”

(When God showed Abram how committed He was to this covenant that He was asking Abram to follow, the entirety of the dream, although it sounded like reality. What the Apostle John passes on to us is no less vivid and real. In Acts chapter 8, we see the disciple, Philip, run and catch up with an Ethiopian eunuch, who is riding in a chariot while attempting to read the scroll of Isaiah. I have so many questions about this scenario. Having, a few moments later, baptized the Eunuch in some standing water, Philip is translated; perhaps we can say he was carried away in the Spirit.

Did this happen to John? I cannot say, however, that it sounds like John’s experience was more like Abram’s.)

(Wilderness should be a familiar term as we saw Jesus driven into the wilderness – Matthew 4 - to commune with the Father and to be tested by Satan. The wilderness is typically bleak, foreboding, and lacking water.)

“and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names,”

(If I saw anyone riding on a “beast,” I would assume they believed they were in control of that animal. I had an opportunity to ride a horse when I went to Oklahoma. That horse, for the majority of the time, did what it wanted to do. Finally, as the horse was standing in about a foot of muddy water, a man led some young riders out by me and told them clearly to let their horses know who was in control and told them how to do that. Unfortunately, I don’t remember how to do that, but I applied my momentary education to the situation, got the horse out of the muddy lake, and got the horse to run on a sprint. By the way, this is when the ride smoothed out, but the thought occurred to me that this horse could run in front of an oncoming vehicle.)  

(It is the woman’s head that is full of blasphemous names, and she is riding the scarlet beast, and the beast is speaking blasphemies.

Let’s focus on the blasphemous names for a moment.

Blasphemy is the Greek word blasphēmia and carries meanings of slander, defamation, vilification, and verbal abuse against someone. The WSD conveys that it is the wounding of someone’s reputation by evil reports. We are not given the names, but if you can understand what they are intended to do, you can comprehend the focus of those words – they are meant to demean God and those who represent Him.)

“having seven heads and ten horns.”

(If you search for “seven heads,” you will only find the phrase in the Revelation.)

- Revelation 13:1 TLV  Then I saw a beast rising out of the sea that had ten horns and seven heads. On his horns were ten royal crowns, and upon his heads were slanderous names.

(I am constantly reminding you that our Biblical study is concentrated on Israel and the Mideast; with that in mind, these ten horns and seven heads are defined in Daniel 7 as ten kings. In Daniel 7, he desired an explanation.) The passage that follows is one of those responses.

- Daniel 7:23-24 BSB says ‘The fourth beast is a fourth kingdom that will appear on the earth, different from all the other kingdoms, and it will devour the whole earth, trample it down, and crush it.  24  And the ten horns are ten kings who will rise from this kingdom. After them, another king, different from the earlier ones, will rise and subdue three kings.

(Question: Of the nations in the Middle East, how many are NOT Muslim? Not many.)

The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality,

The description conveys that the participants are motivated by wealth and comfort. Soon, they will be subject to God’s wrath, and their money won’t do anything for them.

And on her forehead, a name was written, a mystery,”

Before we go any further, I want to explore this word mystery. I am NOT an expert in English grammar; I pay dearly to have my work edited by “Grammarly’s” document editor. With that said, I noticed that the word mystery ends with a comma. This indicates that there is a pause worthy of contemplating, in this case, the context of the paragraph. While the implications involved with Babylon are significant, we are not given this information for us to be confused because the name Babylon is a mystery.

The word mystery, as used in Revelation 17:5, is the Greek word mustḗrion, and it carries the implications of a person initiated into sacred mysteries. The word mustḗrion is a derivative of the Greek word muéō (G3453) and means to initiate, learn a secret, or some esoteric knowledge. It also denotes something hidden or not fully manifest.

If you are familiar with the Free Masons or the Illuminati, you are already acquainted with the terminology used to describe being initiated into the sacred mysteries.

The prophet, Daniel, revealed this piece of information, somewhat deflating the mystery.

“But as for you, Daniel, conceal these words and seal up the book until the end of time; many will go back and forth, and knowledge will increase.” Daniel 12:4 NASB

(God has seen fit to open the eyes of those who have an interest in end-times prophecy.)

And this is what was written upon her forehead.

“BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Revelation 17:5 NASB

You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that the description seen on the harlot’s forehead is the mystery. It is also an analogy to the centralized system progressively taking over the world.

In an attempt to understand what this mystery is, let’s look at what Revelation 17:18 says.

“And the woman that you saw is the great city exercising kingship over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:18 TLV

God calls Babylon the great city, but the problem is that Babylon is no longer there. To add to the confusion, Jerusalem is also called that great city. There are multiple references to the destruction of Babylon in the Old Testament and Revelation. Jeremiah 51:8 is one of our examples.

With all that history, God still has the initiative to use the term suddenly.

“Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed.” Jeremiah 51:8 NASB

We find the beginnings of Babylon when we find Nimrod and the tower of Babel. It is from this that Nebuchadnezzar brought about his Babylonian kingdom.

An excerpt from www.worldhistory.org.

“Babylon was founded at some point prior to the reign of Sargon of Akkad (the Great, 2334-2279 BCE) and seems to have been a minor port city on the Euphrates River until the rise of Hammurabi (r. 1792-1750 BCE), who made it the capital of his Babylonian Empire. After Hammurabi’s death, his empire quickly fell apart. The city was sacked by the Hittites in 1595 BCE and then taken by the Kassites who renamed it Karanduniash. The earliest mention of the city comes from an inscription from the time of Sargon of Akkad. It was briefly ruled by the Chaldeans (9th century BCE), whose name became synonymous with Babylonians to later Greek writers (notably Herodotus) and biblical scribes, and then was controlled by the Neo-Assyrian Empire (912-612 BCE) before being taken by Nabopolassar (r. 626-605 BCE), who established the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Babylon fell to the Persians under Cyrus II (the Great, r. c. 550-530 BCE) and was a capital of the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BCE) until it fell to Alexander the Great in 331 BCE. It continued as a trade center under the later Seleucid Empire (312-63 BCE), Parthian Empire (247 BCE to 224 CE), and Sassanian Empire (224-651 CE) but never attained the heights it had known under Hammurabi or the Neo-Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II (r. 605/604-562 BCE). The city declined after the Muslim Arab conquest in the 7th century CE and was finally abandoned.” (https://www.worldhistory.org/babylon/#:~:text=Babylon%20was%20founded,was%20finally%20abandoned.)

Jeremiah 51:37 also speaks to the cessation of Babylon, a place where no one will ever live again, much like the coming prophecy against Damascus.

Not that long ago, I watched an archaeologist as he visited the site of Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. The foundations that mark the perimeter of Babylon still exist, but no one, to this day, lives within those boundaries.

“Babylon will become a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, An object of horror and hissing, without inhabitants.”
Jeremiah 51:37 NASB

Consider this: Babylon, acting on behalf of God, in time, took the majority of Israel captive. It is possible that the prophets Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Obadiah were taken captive alongside Daniel.

One of the ways we can look at the original Babylon is to see it as a protective force.

Did everyone obtain untouchable protection?

No, and we see an example of this when we read about King Zedekiah, the King of Judah (the Southern kingdom. Read Jeremiah 39:1-9), but others, such as Daniel and the other three young men that were taken captive, enjoyed God’s protection.

If you read about Daniel, you learn that he was thrown into the lion’s den for maintaining his routine of worship. King Darius, who had been tricked, fought to save Daniel, but his own edict was against him. Daniel came out of this sure death unharmed. Read all this in Daniel, chapter six.

Since we can understand that Babylon is gone, this discussion about Babylon, which is deemed a mystery, has to be more spiritual in nature and in the future. Needless to say, that future is now.

And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.”
Revelation 11:8 NASB

When God talks about the two witnesses who stand in the streets of Jerusalem, He refers to Jerusalem as that great city, merely clouding the issue.

So, when I or anyone else talks about false teachers and how they can lead you astray, someone speaking authoritatively can drag you into confusion by insisting that Babylon must be rebuilt. Clearly, that is not the case. To combat that happening, you must become a student of the Word of God; that means you read and write with the express purpose of gaining insight into how God thinks and feels.

After these things comes salvation. Revelation 19:1-2.

 Finally, the tide turns and we are now looking at Revelation 19 and Jesus, returning to earth as the Warrior Messiah.

First, I just want to be honest, trying to grasp chapter 18 and its usage of the name Babylon, was tough. I struggled for days and had to walk away from what I desired to share with you, several times.

Many years ago I took on an attitude in which I would make myself vulnerable when it came to God's Word, my relationship with the Father, and how I talk to God. Some, do not see me as being open, but weak and permanently broken. Guess what, I am and I know it. I can do nothing outside of God's grace and mercy. I think I came to this understanding when I put myself in recovery all those years ago.

My approach to teaching allows me to comprehend things in the Word, that most do not or will not. The underlying rule to understanding is to throw away tradition because tradition paints David, the King to be, as a ridiculously small child; and, it buys into the lie that Jonah lived within the belly of that great fish. If you believe that, then you have watched Walt Disney's Pinocchio too many times.

Since I just offended many of you, allow me to silence your arguments, in this case, about Jonah.

Then a demon-possessed man, who was blind and couldn’t speak, was brought to Jesus. He healed the man so that he could both speak and see. (Matthew 12:22 NLT)

Matthew 12 is the primary place where blasphemy is clearly defined. The Pharisees and a few others, having witnessed a miracle in which Jesus cast out demon(s), began to attribute what He had just done to the power of Satan (Beelzebub if you wish).

Don't let your traditions cause an argument to rage inside your head about how many demons were cast out, or if there were any at all. I have encountered so-called “Christian” people who deny the activity of demons.

Notice the word healed. How does one heal a person whose ailment originates from the action of fallen angels?

The word that almost every translation deemed healed, is the Greek word therapeuō. Wow, that has a familiar ring to it; the primary definition of therapeuō is to serve or do service. It also means to cure or restore to health.

So the obvious thing happening in Matthew 12:22 is that Jesus restored the man to health by doing service to and for him. Many see service as some form of work, like building a home in Mexico; it is not and you see this in Jesus' actions. He frequently responded to the requests of “will you” with a yes and an associated, life-changing response.

Jesus responded to their blasphemous statements by calling them a brood of vipers and trees with rotten fruit.

“Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten; for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything good? For from the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:33-34 TLV)

These things made them uncomfortable, and so they come back with this,

Then some of the Torah scholars and Pharisees answered Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” (Matthew 12:38 TLV)

What do you think you just saw?

It's a rhetorical question and you don't have to answer. They did not understand what happened when he delivered the man from the demons, because there is no doubt that someone being freed from possession was uncommon at best.

Now, here is where Jonah comes into the conversation.

But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as JONAH WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS IN THE BELLY OF THE SEA MONSTER, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. (Matthew 12:39-40 NASB)

If any of these naysayers were skillful with the Word of God (the Old Testament) then they would have been immediately familiar with the fascinating story of Jonah and this massive fish.

In the Mediterranean sea, there is really only one that comes close to being able to inhale a human. The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) is the second-largest living shark and fish,[4] after the whale shark, and one of three plankton-eating shark species, along with the whale shark and megamouth shark. Adults typically reach 7.9 m (26 ft) in length. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basking_shark

It would have been highly capable of inhaling a human.

This is not about Jonah, it is about our traditions and how they move us away from the truth.

Jesus compared His upcoming DEATH to Jonah, who had already spent three days and nights in the belly of a great fish.

Why is three days and nights significant?

Because the Jews believed that the soul stayed in the body for three days. It was only after this time frame that you are officially dead in their minds. This bizarre thinking is one of the reasons He did not go rushing to Lazarus. He wanted to prove to them that He could raise someone from the dead.

Besides all that, what would be the point of telling this bunch of skeptics that what happened to Jonah would happen to Him, unless Jonah had died?

I have intentionally left out a voluminous amount of information in order to stay on point, and in so doing left the door open for more foolish arguments; it is, however, interesting that God effectively slammed the door on stupidity by telling us this.

And the LORD appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights. (Jonah 1:17 NASB)

As ridiculous as this might seem, God appointed a fish capable of swallowing a human, and there you have it.

And with that, we open Revelation chapter 19.

Revelation 19:1 NASB After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, "Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;

“After these things,” where have we heard this phrase before?

If you guessed Revelation 4:1 you would be correct.

Now, what had God just finished defining in Revelation chapters one through three as they establish the context for chapter four?

The church age. You should not be surprised to learn that we are living in the age of the final church, the Laodicean church.

'I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. 'So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16 NASB)

We are neither hot nor cold and such worthy of nothing less than to be spit out on the ground in disgust.

So, as in the beginnings of chapter four, something has come to a crashing halt and that is what Revelation 18 calls Babylon. I have twice, in recent posts, explained that Babylon is representative of Israel; and, Babylon is symbolic of the godlessness and lust that motivates the globalists and their agenda to dominate this world.

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God;”

Since virtually everything in the Revelation is a witness of the prophetic that we find in the Old Testament, then we should be able to find parallel pieces of evidence.

And the ransomed of the LORD will return And come with joyful shouting to Zion, With everlasting joy upon their heads. They will find gladness and joy, And sorrow and sighing will flee away. (Isaiah 35:10 NASB)

If I did not know and understand God, then I might think that God should have wrapped me up in His gladness and joy, but, much like in Ukraine, sorrow and sighing have not fled away. It is the people that have needed to flee. As I stand here today, it is difficult at best to see a statement such as “Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,” belonging to the here and now.

Statements such as,

"I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, And they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; And all flesh will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob." (Isaiah 49:26 NASB)

For example, the current leader of Russia has been bullying people and nations around for years. Aside from the pushback he has received from the global community, here at the end of February 2022, no one has stood up to this crazed dictator. And yet, God says, in time, I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh.

Words like what we see in Isaiah 60 seem farcical.

"Violence will not be heard again in your land, Nor devastation or destruction within your borders, But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.
(Isaiah 60:18 NASB)

Well, Revelation 19 is where we finally see this happening.

(Revelation 19:2 NASB) “BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”

“ for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality,”

The harlot is integrated into the Babylon system and is also referred to as a beast. And, though it is analogous to Israel the harlot stands apart from Israel and wants Israel destroyed.

In the NASB translation of Revelation 19:2, the harlot is associated with the idea that there is a long-term corruption of Israel and the populace of the earth taking place, while the majority of translations tell us that the harlot corrupted. So, in trying to grasp who the harlot is and what is her role, we have to ascertain whether the damage done by the harlot has already taken place or is an ongoing process.

The Greek term for corrupt is phtheirō. The explanatory terms derived from this word are varied.

The Word Study Dictionary tells us it is to waste, pine. To corrupt, destroy. Trans. to destroy, punish with destruction, bring to a worse state (1Corinthians_3:17). To corrupt, spoil, vitiate, in a moral or spiritual sense (1Corinthians_15:33; Ephesians_4:22; Judges_1:10; Revelation_19:2). To corrupt, with the meaning of to subvert or corrupt opinions (2Corinthians_7:2; 2Corinthians_11:3.

You probably noticed that it says that the great harlot has already been judged.

Wouldn't that imply the end result would have been imposed as well?

Think about our current justice system.

Don't we have thousands sitting on death row, awaiting the judgment imposed upon them?

We do, but even they continue to have rights. Since our worldly legal system is thought to be based upon God's moral values, then it makes sense that these, associated with the harlot, have a potential chance at mercy; and here is why.

"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. (Proverbs 8:22 NASB)

At the beginning is in reference to God's work in the creation of the heavens and humanity. Knowing full well that the man would take a destructive path God had a plan, with the purpose of purging Satan and his army of fallen angels, along with the method of redeeming those He has chosen before any of this cataclysmic damage took place.

Possessed is the Hebrew word qānāh and it means to purchase, to acquire, to possess. It is used with God as its subject to mean His buying back His people, redeeming them.

While it is true that forgiveness was purchased on the cross. So, everyone has been freed to follow Jesus, the Son of the Father, without regard for the punishment associated with following Satan.

But, do we do that?

Well, since we have free will, most choose to follow many other things besides God.

Now, as for judgment. All judgment will be given to the Son.

John 9:39 tells us distinctly that He came into this world to judge.

And Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind." (John 9:39 NASB)

But it is not the man Jesus that does the judging right now, it is His word that judges us. If I understand this to be true, and it is, then it would obviously be confusing to hear this next statement.

"For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. (John 3:17 NASB)

Jesus had more to say about the Word being the judge.

"If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. "He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day. (John 12:47-48 NASB)

Ah, it is the Word, in the last day, that will judge those that do not keep His Word.

But we do see judgment happening in scripture.

One of those moments is in Revelation 19.

And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness, He judges and wages war. (Revelation 19:11 NASB)

Here we see Him judging through waging war. War, of course, to Jesus, happens rather quickly.

From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the winepress of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. (Revelation 19:15 NASB)

Some assume there will be a complete annihilation of every person deemed the nations at this point, but that is not true. He only strikes down those who choose to fight against Him.

Ask yourself a question.

Did Russia send every breathing human to fight against Ukraine?

Of course not, but just because they are not on the front lines, does that mean the entrenched hatred of the foreigner does not burn in their hearts? Don't be foolish, prejudice is learned and may stay with you as long as you breathe and are a broken human. Thankfully, all that will be fixed in the twinkling of an eye.

The second judgment happens at the Bema seat of Christ. When this takes place, seems to be associated with the catching away of the church, just moments before the seven years of wrath begins. I see no fear associated with this judgment as it is primarily a time of rewards for God's saints.

And finally, the final judgment at the great white throne. For many, this will be final and complete separation from God. However, for others, whose names are found in the books of life. Matthew 25 spells this out plainly, but it is evidenced in Revelation 20.

“And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.”(Revelation 20:12 NASB)

The assumption is that the Book of Life is only there to give those watching a chance to mock and laugh at those being sent off to the lake of fire for a permanent separation from God. Honestly, that is NOT funny, but abnormally cruel if you can think in this manner.

If you invested some time reading about the sheep and goat judgment that you find in Matthew 25, then you will know that God spent

time fervently looking to see if there was any reason to show them mercy. It is because of these actions that He is able to separate the crowd into what He deems sheep and goats, based upon their works. Those works boil down to the simplest of acts; bringing someone that is thirsty a drink of water; visiting Jesus in prison, even when it did not look like Jesus; and, feeding someone who was down on their luck. The reality of this is that you acted as God hoped you would if confronted by someone whose life was destroyed by circumstances beyond their control.

I have never been a good gambler so I have to go with the sure thing, God. God, through His Son, has proven Himself to me to be the sure thing. Because of those toward me I have given my life to Him and thrown myself upon His mercy.

I realize that this next little aspect will come across as facetious, I am telling you this because I did it, as Pastors and evangelists repeatedly chastened us to do so.

Having spent most of my life in the church, and, after repeatedly asking God to forgive me for my sins, I thought about some of the things I had heard in church, such as Jesus died once for all (sins.) Well, I decided to dive into my bible, set aside the traditional things I had shoved down my throat, and learn what the Bible had to say, for myself. I learned that God is NOT angry, that Jesus, His Son, demonstrated who God is and that once having given myself over to Him, there is no more reason to ask Jesus to forgive me. Recovery, all those years later, taught me the reality of what the Apostle Paul later trying to convey when he said, confess your sins to one another. 1. That other person has to be safe or this confession process will bring out the religious zealots and they will destroy you. 2. By confession, you are being open and honest about your own brokenness. This brokenness is a common trait among all of us, however, most will not admit they are messed up. 3. Confessing our sins to one another has nothing to do with your relationship with God; the relationship begins with handing your life over to Him.

Consider the thief on the cross. It would seem that he only had a few seconds of Jesus' time before they would both be dead, and yet in those few seconds, that guy gave his life to Jesus. The ABCs I have included is a path to this relationship with Jesus, and, security knowing that you are now His and have the guarantee of a permanent home with the Father.

A - Admit you're a sinner.

Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."

B - Believe Jesus is Lord.

John 14:6 Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

C - Call upon His name.

Romans 10:13 "Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."