Modern political Idolatry and the Interpreters Bible exposition/exegesis on Rev 2:14, 17:2 and my comments on Rev 13:4,

 

Revelation 13:4

"And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

(take a minute and think about politics in America circa 2022 and read that highlighted text again. Anybody in particular come to mind?)

"Whenever we allow political considerations to replace the authority of moral and spiritual judgements, the day of political idolatry has arrived."

Revelation 17:2

With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

"...since for John "fornication" signifies idolatry epically the imperial CULT."

The Greek word for fornication used in Rev 17:2 doesn't just mean unlawful sexual union. Adultery incest, premarital sex etc, It also means idolatry as well, as in you are breaking the covenant between you and God (a metaphorical marriage as it were) by cheating on him and giving reverence and worship to someone or something that doesn't deserve it.

(Psalm 96:4-5

For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;

He is to be feared above all gods.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols,

But the Lord made the heavens."

STRONGS NT 4202: πορνεία

b. In accordance with a form of speech common in the O. T. and among the Jews which represents the close relationship existing between Jehovah and his people under the figure of a marriage (cf. Gesenius, Thesaurus, i., p. 422{a} following), πορνεία is used metaphorically of the worship of idols...Revelation 17:2...

See the Exegesis on Rev 2:14

14. Despite their faithfulness as a whole, some were holding to the teaching of Balaam, who had caused Balak to induce the Israelites to eat things sacrificed unto, idols, and to commit fornication. In Jewish tradition Balaam became the evil of those who taught the Jews to engage in the worship of idols, which included the eating of food and sacred prostitution, or fornication (cf. Philo Moses I. 53-55; Joseph Antiquities IV. 6. 6; Sanhedrin 106a). Fornication (KJV) is not merely sexual immorality (RSV), but denotes idolatry, with special reference here to disloyalty to God and Christ through worship of the emperor, as in 19:2, where participation in the rites of the state religion is specifically called "fornication" in the RSV as well as in the KJV. John, it would seem, used Balaam to typify those who would induce Christians to desert their religion for idolatry, and especially to participate in the rites of the ruler cult, the most abhorrent form of idolatry known to him.

Hitler...

Mussolini

Stalin

Mao

Pinochet

Tito

Trump

Putin...

and countless others.

So ask yourselves? 

How far have we really come from the days when the man of Patmos wrote the book of Revelation?