And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast.... And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls.... And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
Such is the language in the Revelation given to the Apostle John. Who is the woman? How and when does she get the power to mount the beast?
Last month's issue of Christian Treasury identified the beast as the revived Roman Empire and the imperial personal head of it. This month we consider what Scripture makes known about the woman that rides the beast.
Upon the woman's forehead is written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. It is a picture of Rome as a religious system. Rev. 17 presents Babylon as a woman and chapter 18 as a city. She is the false church. She is, at the end, all of the profession of Christianity that is left upon the earth after the rapture of the true Church to heaven.
The general character of ecclesiastical Babylon is that of the great active Idolatress that has gained power over the mass of nations.
The last decade, the 1980's, has revealed a marked increase in the power of Vatican City. Pope John Paul II has traveled extensively and has received the heads of states of powerful nations at his sixteenth-century Apostolic Palace. In his meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev he was able to chat with him in Russian without using an interpreter. The near breakdown of communism in Eastern Europe has opened the way for popery to gain much power, and Rome is even trying to attract the Eastern Orthodox Catholic branch back to Rome after one thousand years of separation.
Sometimes great events cast their shadows ahead of them even as the first rays of dawn are seen in the eastern horizon ahead of the sunrise. The unrest in much of the world and the desire for some great spiritual leader to take over is even now directing the masses of the people to be ready to receive the seduction of the great Corruptress.
The coming judgments are for a period of seven years. The last three-and-a-half years the beast pursues his career. During the large part of this forty-two months is the time when the woman rides the beast.
This shows that she has the first three-and-a-half years to gain control.
The heavenly saints will be taken away before the judgment falls upon Babylon. They are not referred to in the exhortation in Rev. 18:44And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. (Revelation 18:4), "Come out of her, My people." This is spoken to God's earthly people in that coming day. However, its principle fully applies now, for the essence of Babylon is the union of the world with the name of Christ. What is directly written to us is, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." 2 Cor. 6:1717Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, (2 Corinthians 6:17).
For a better understanding of "the woman" and a particular description of her and of her judgment, we suggest reading Revelation from chapter 16:17 through chapters 17 and 18.
Ed.