In verses 1 and 2 Jesus warns us that “offences” will come and that some will “offend” others. The word “offences” #4625 means a “snare, thing that causes sin, a stumbling block, apostasy.” And the word “offend” #4624 means “to entrap, trip up, entice to sin, cause to stumble.” So Jesus is telling us that there will be some “offender” used by Satan, who will purposely use “something” that will cause people to sin. Since Jesus was not specific as to “who” would commit the “offence,” we will have to look at the rest of His words to see if He gives any clues. Jesus says in verse 2 that a “millstone” would be cast into the sea “with the offender.” In rev. 18:21 the Bible says and a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, thus with violence should that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all.
So now we know that the “offender” that Jesus was warning us about is “Babylon” and since literal Babylon was destroyed in the sixth century BC by Darius the Mede (Daniel 5:18-31) we know that Jesus was warning us about spiritual Babylon. In Rev. 17:1-8, the Bible describes spiritual Babylon as a “woman” ruling over the kings of the earth, and we know that a spiritual woman represents a church (Isaiah 54:5,6) Thy Maker is thy husband, the Lord of hosts is His name . . .the Lord hath called thee as a woman. So a pure woman represents a true church. Rev. 2:20 that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce my servants . . .Rev 17:1-6 The great whore . . .with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication So a whorish woman represents a false church, and therefore spiritual Babylon must represent a false church that Jesus is warning us about. Now we know who the “offender” is, a false church but we don’t know “what” the “offense” is.
In Rev 17:1,2 the Bible says that Babylon or the whorish woman (false church) will commit fornication with the kings of the earth and cause the inhabitants of the earth to become drunk with the wine of her fornication. Thus the Bible is telling us that the “offense” of this false church has to do with spiritual fornication. To commit spiritual fornication means to go to bed with someone other than a marriage partner. Physically going to bed with someone means to have a physical relationship with that person. Thus to commit spiritual fornication means to spiritually go to bed with someone other than our spiritual marriage partner, the Lord. In other words to have a spiritual relationship with someone other than the Lord. A physical “bed” has only two functions. It provides a place of physical rest and physical relationship. So a spiritual bed will provide a place of spiritual rest and spiritual relationship. There are two beds spoken of in the Bible: the bed of God (Luke 11:7) my children are with me in bed and the bed of the harlot woman or false church (Rev. 2:20,22) I will cast her into a bed and them that commit adultery with her. Thus we have a choice of “going to bed with God” or “going to bed with the harlot woman or false church.
Our choice then consists of entering into a relationship with God who has His “place” of rest and relationship or entering into a relationship with the false church who has her “place” of rest and relationship. The Bible speaks of God’s place of rest in Hebrews 4:4,5 For He spake in a certain place of the seventh day on this wise, and God did rest the seventh day from all His work. And in this place again, if they shall enter into my rest This agrees with genesis 2:2,3 and on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all His work which God created and made.
Thus the Bible is clear that God’s “bed” or place of rest is the seventh day or Saturday. God commands us to “rest” with Him on this day and to do all our work on the other six days. Exodus 20:8, 9, 10 Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy, six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work; but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God.
Now we need to discover what the Bible says about the “place” of rest of the harlot woman or whore or false church. Isaiah 57:3, 7, 8 But draw hither ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore . .Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set up thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovest their bed where thou sawest it. The context of the above Bible verses is that God’s people have turned to idolatry and are copying the sun worship of the nations around them. Isaiah 57:5 Enflaming yourselves with idols. II Kings 23:5 And he put down the idolatrous priests . . . that burn incense unto Baal, to the sun. Ezekiel 8:16 And he brought me into the inner court of the lord’s house and behold . . their faces turned toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.
The idolatrous nations had named the days of the week after their gods: e.g., Sunday – day of the sun; Monday – day of the moon. The gods each had their “day” of worship and the sun god was worshipped on Sunday, or the first day of the week. Encyclopedia Americana Vol 26, p. 21, 1973 ed.: Sunday is the first day of the week, traditionally assigned for Christian worship. Literally Sunday means “day of the sun.” It derived its name from the ancient pagan week whose days were named after the sun, moon and five visible planets.
When the Bible says that the harlot woman or whore loved their bed or place of rest, it is saying that the false church would copy the day of worship of idol worshippers and would set up “her remembrance” as the first day of the week or Sunday as “her day” of worship. God has commanded us to “remember” the seventh day. The false church has commanded us to remember the “first day.”
“The Sunday, as a day of the week set apart for the obligatory worship of Almighty God; to be sanctified by a suspension of all servile labor, trade, and worldly avocations and by exercises of devotion, is purely a creation of the Catholic Church. The Council of Laodicea, in 364 AD defines: that Christians must not Judaize and refrain from manual labor on Saturday, but work on that day; and that preferring the Lord’s day they must then rest, if this can be done as becomes Christians. Constantine lent the power of the state to enforce the regulations of the church, and the civil law began to enforce the spiritual decrees. He commanded the Lord’s day to be observed by all as a festival and day of rest”-- The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Vol VIII, Jan-Oct 1883, page 139.
Conclusion: Jesus warned us of an “offender” and an “offence” that the offender would use to cause people to sin against God. We have discovered the “offender” to be a false church and the “offence” to be a change in worship days which causes people to sin against God.