Revelation 17 is distinctly parenthetic. In it we get a picture of Rome as a religious system. The chronological order is arrested for the time being. No doubt Revelation 17 is the elaboration of the statement in Revelation 16:1919And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19): “And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.”
And notice too that the judgment of the false bride opens out the way for the introduction of the real bride in Revelation 19:7-87Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. (Revelation 19:7‑8), Revelation 21:9-279And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. 10And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, 11Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; 12And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel: 13On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. 14And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. 15And he that talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. 16And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. 17And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the angel. 18And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass. 22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. 23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. 24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. 25And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there. 26And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. (Revelation 21:9‑27) and Revelation 22: 1-5. In both cases the invitation to see comes from the same source.
“And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife” (Rev. 21:99And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife. (Revelation 21:9)).
Revelation 16:1919And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. (Revelation 16:19) proves that the judgment of the great whore—the apostate Roman Catholic system—will take place under the seventh vial. In the case of the true bride—the heavenly city—the seer is carried “to a great and high mountain,” from which vantage ground to view the scene. But in the case of the false bride he is carried away “ in the spirit into the wilderness.” The devout mind can appreciate the distinction. Little as this world may seem a wilderness to those who are in the vortex of it, to the spiritual it furnishes no spring of refreshment for God, no heavenly verdure.
The great whore sitting upon many waters, the kings of the earth committing fornication with her, and the inhabitants thereof being drunk with the wine of her fornication, present a very vivid word-picture of Romanism. Her great sin is spiritual adultery. You have only to read the records of the papacy, and you will find under the guise of religion the most determined and persistent attempt at world-power. To obtain power over the proudest emperor down to the commonest person is Rome's master passion.
Some religions appeal to the rich and the educated and not to the poor, as is the case, generally speaking, with Christian Science; others appeal to the poor and uneducated, and not to the rich and educated.
But Rome is concerned not only with the king but with the mendicant, not only with the noble but with the poor—she places under complete bondage all that she can, and never rests till all are so, or the hopelessly recalcitrant are put out of the way.
Next we read that the woman sits on the scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, and having seven heads and ten horns, thus showing that the Roman Empire carries and supports this awful system.
It is remarkable that the Greek Church, occupying in the main Russian territory, for Russia (Magog) is outside the Roman Empire, should have broken loose from Rome, thus emphasizing more than ever that it is the scarlet-colored beast that carries the woman, that is, the Roman Empire carries the Romish religion.
The woman is arrayed in purple and scarlet, the colors worn by Rome's cardinals and bishops, and significant of her claim to earthly power and dignity.
Decked with gold and precious stones and pearls awakens memories of the adornments of many churches—images, pectoral crosses, and the like—human glory and splendor, but paltry after all.
In her hand she holds a golden cup, but it is full of abominations, and the filthiness of her fornication; that is, abominations mean idolatries, and the filthiness of her fornication all the unspeakable corruptions that mark that system.
It is to be noticed that just as the Church is looked upon as a bride, a woman, and also a city, so Babylon is presented in Revelation 17 as a woman, and in Revelation 18 as a city. In the one case, the true bride; in the other, the false bride, the great whore; in the one case, the holy city; in the other, the unholy city.
Looked at in relation to Christ, the one is the true bride, the Lamb's wife; the other, the mother of harlots. Looked at in relation to the world, the one is the holy city, the nations walking in the light that shines through it, the light of God and the Lamb; the other the unholy city, corrupting and defiling the nations.
The city of Babylon was the spot that first became the center of lawlessness on the one hand, and idolatry on the other, after the break-up of the people into nations at Babel. Babylon is said to be the first city built after the flood. It thus becomes the symbol of the Romish religion on the side of idolatry, and of the Roman Empire in its political opposition to God's rule. In truth the Roman Catholic religion and the Roman Empire are inextricably mixed up, and it is in the understanding of this that the allusions to Babylon can be understood.
Some writers believe that the actual city of Babylon will be rebuilt, and that the allusion to its destruction in Revelation 18 refers to this literal city. Both Isaiah and Jeremiah liken Babylon's doom to Sodom and Gomorrah. These later cities were hopelessly overthrown, and their sites probably sunk in the depths of the Dead Sea—that extraordinary waste of waters, inland but salter than the sea, and far beneath its level. Sodom and Gomorrah will never be rebuilt. So it will be with Babylon. “It shall never be inhabited” (Isa. 13:2020It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there. (Isaiah 13:20)), “Neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation” (Jer. 50:3939Therefore the wild beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there, and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever; neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation. (Jeremiah 50:39)), are Scriptures conclusive enough on the point.
That Mesopotamia will open out again, and become of great commercial importance, we have no doubt, but that the center of interest will ever shift there we have no expectation. As a matter of fact, with the passing away of the Head of Gold (the Babylonian world-empire) there faded away all chance of its re-appearance in anything like its former glory. The Roman Empire is the only world-empire as such that prophecy has to say to now.
Revelation 17, however, is occupied with Babylon religiously. On her forehead is a name, Mystery. Apart from the light of God's Word, who could understand Rome?—her outward reverence, her inward hatred of the Word of God, her outward profession of piety, her inward corruptions which betoken the Satanic energy which is the driving power of the system.
Plain upon her forehead the student of Scripture can read her true character. “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of The Earth.”
The actual Babylon of old was the shadow of what was to come. “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine, therefore the nations are mad” (Jer. 51:77Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. (Jeremiah 51:7)).
The parallel between ancient Babylon, its rise, its splendor, its political power, its idolatries its sudden fall, is wonderfully typical of Rome political and religious, and its sudden fall.
John sees the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus, and he wonders with a great wonderment. That the Jews should become apostate under the Antichrist had been foretold by Daniel, and would excite no wonder in John's mind, but that the professing
Christian religion should take to persecuting Christians, and martyring them, was enough to excite wonder.
But the prophet's wonder leads to an explanation. Verse 8 gives us with remarkable brevity the rise, past and present history, and future doom of the Roman Empire. Remember John is not seeing things now from the standpoint of A.D. 96, but from that of Revelation 4:11After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will show thee things which must be hereafter. (Revelation 4:1), that is, at the close of “the things that are,” and the unfolding of things future from then.
Thus the beast is looked at as “was” and “is not.” The Roman Empire “was”—it was broken up by the Goths and Huns in the fifth century.
It “is not”; that is to say, it is in abeyance during the time covered by the expression “the things that are.”
It ascends out of the bottomless pit, its Satanic force and power are thus indicated, and it goes into perdition, foreshadowing its doom. The verse ends up with the remarkable expression, “ Behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is,” thus showing that whilst the Roman Empire does not actually exist, yet all the elements for its revival are at hand. It exists potentially.
The seven heads on the beast are said to be seven mountains on which the woman sitteth. Here the imperial city of Rome is clearly indicated. “The city of the seven hills” is a well-known poetical description of the city so closely identified with the Papacy.
There are seven kings.
Five had fallen, five phases of the governing power of the Roman Empire.
A sixth existed as John wrote.
Then he stretches his eyes to the future. “The other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.”
Who is the seventh? It is impossible to dogmatize. The late Mr. J. N. Darby writes. “My impression is, that the first Napoleon and his brief empire is the seventh, and we have now to wait for the development of the last” (Synopsis, 3rd edition, revised, page 529). Such an opinion is worth considering, but the revered author would be the last to dogmatize on the point.
Certainly the history of the first Napoleon was so remarkable as at any rate to furnish a type of the head of the revived Roman Empire. Napoleon arose out of the chaos of the French Revolution. The Beast will arise out of the chaos of a wider revolution; “I ... saw a beast rise up out of the sea,” said John. Napoleon's course was startlingly meteoric. He set kings upon their thrones, and for a moment there was a semblance of a revived Roman Empire. His fall was sudden, just as the Beast's will be. Napoleon is certainly an instance on a small scale of that which will be enacted in the future on a wider scale.
The eighth king is identified as the Beast. Eight is the resurrection number, and it may well stand as symbolic of a resurrected or revived Roman Empire.
The ten horns on the head of the Beast are plainly said to be ten kings, which have no kingdom as yet, but receive such for one brief hour from the Beast.
As a result of the Great War a wave of democracy has swept away ancient dynasties in Europe.
One cannot imagine the representatives of ancient proud dynasties tamely submitting to a man of Napoleonic ability and meteoric arrival at the top of affairs, but one can understand countries, seething in revolution, with men in their midst strong enough to rule in conjunction with others, but not strong enough to stand alone, gladly submitting to a federation of nations under this wonderful head as the only way of carrying on government at all in the face of things as they will be then.
Fear, we believe, may probably be the driving factor in this League of Nations—a name the Great War has familiarized us with already.
These Kings or Dictators will act as with one mind and strength, and give their power and strength to their overlord.
In verse 14 we have the battle of Armageddon given in a nutshell; its detail is furnished in Revelation 19. War is made against the Lamb, but the Lamb must and does overcome.
The last four verses of the chapter give us the doom of the woman, who was carried by the Beast. Evil always overreaches itself, and this fearful idolatrous system is no exception.
The ten Kings and the Beast (as some translators show) hate the whore. Her desire for power, and her ceaseless Jesuitical way in seeking to bring it about, her ruthless disregard of anything but her own aims, will lead to such exasperation that the ten Kings and the Beast will overthrow her system.
In the words of Scripture, they shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. Making her naked and eating her flesh evidently point to the spoliation of her buildings, endowments, and emoluments; burning her with fire, to the complete destruction of her system. This must take place before the Lamb destroys those who make war upon Him.