Scattered bits of information reaching us point up the growing significance of an article in this issue entitled, "Toward the Man or Toward the Woman." Two opposing forces are on the march: religion and materialistic infidelity.
In the field of religion, the growth of Roman Catholicism, in numbers, wealth, and power, is most impressive. True, she has lost much of these behind the so-called Iron Curtain in Europe, but is making progress in Western nations. Those which were formerly considered the strongholds of Protestantism are so no longer, for Rome has expanded her influence in Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and Scandinavian countries.
Even in England the power of Rome is being witnessed; for example, early this year the B.B.C. televised a Roman Catholic mass, from a cathedral in Leeds, for one hour and forty minutes. From the standpoint of public opinion, such a thing would have been unthinkable a generation ago, and all but impossible even a few years back. In itself it is only one sign of the times, but who would have thought that the time would come when members of the royal family of Protestant England would find it expedient to have audience with the Pope at Rome?
The rapid march of Rome in the United States is no less impressive. According to their own figures they have gained more than 10,000,000 members during the last 15 years, which is an increase at the rate of 2 to 1 over population growth.
During the same period they have erected 11,511 Churches, and gained 819,174 enrollment in their parochial schools. In less than 10 years they have spent $10,000,000,000 on new schools and churches.
Perhaps more indicative of the trend is the way in which the pomp and pageantry of Romish ritualism is being displayed and publicized. A definite campaign is in progress to condition the thinking of non-Catholics to the acceptance of the superstition and mysticism of their system. Paid advertising in newspapers and magazines tell the story in its best possible light, while news items carry such stories as that the blood of Saint Januarius, which has been kept in the cathedral in Naples since the year 350 A.D., has softened and melted on a certain day. The cry of "Hail Mary" is being heard louder and louder. Recently 115,000 persons filled the Los Angeles coliseum to honor Mary in the greatest religious assembly ever convened in that city. Spectacles reminiscent of Romish scenes of other days and in other lands were enacted as the "host" was carried across the field, and children stood in formation to spell the name "Mary" before her statue.
Financially the Roman Church in America has become the mainstay of what they call "the church universal."
Protestantism shares t h e general upsurge of religious fervor in America. Church membership is at an all time high, and new church buildings are going up all over the land. Books with religious themes are best sellers on the book stands, but they drift more and more to Rome and superstition. Protestants are accepting more of the symbols of Rome as their own, and religiously the Western world drifts closer to "the woman" as the end approaches. Christians, awaken! and shake off the trammels of superstition, ritualism, and all that savors of Babylon-"Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins." 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).
The trend toward the opposite evil likewise increases. Secularism, materialism, atheism, and communism march on, indicating that an indomitable force is moving them forward notwithstanding all the checks that are placed against them. Lawlessness and violence increase daily in America, and the youth of the land are casting off restraints, while infidelity stalks the school campuses and many pulpits. Nor are these conditions confined to the Western Hemisphere; they are more or less common in all lands.
Italy, the home of Roman- ism, and the nation where 98% of the people are nominal Catholics, has the largest communist core in Western Europe, and the people are restive under papal control.
The question could well be asked, How can the opposing factions both grow? The answer is that they grow, not so much at the expense of each other, but at that of nominal
Protestantism on the one hand, and cold indifference on the other. As the end approaches, people will take sides more definitely. Everything moves more distinctly in either one direction or the other.
Now as the article before mentioned indicates, these two opposing forces will for a time, after the Lord calls His own home, be found in league- the woman "is seen astride the beast" It will be an alliance of convenience and necessity. The wicked head of the revived Roman Empire will support the vast ecclesiastical system as a means of controlling the minds of men against the thought control of atheistic communism. The corrupt false church will cast in her lot with the vile and wicked beast for self-preservation. Such alliances are by no means uncommon. Even Mussolini started out in an anti-religious materialistic crusade, but soon found it expedient to work hand-in-glove with the Church of Rome.
In the end, the political and military heads will weary of the harlot and her interference, and will utterly destroy her and "eat her flesh" in a sudden burst of violence. Read Revelation 17 and 18 for the account of her destruction. Here the parallel with the Old Testament comes in, for the most wicked woman there is killed and her flesh eaten-see Jezebel; 2 Kings 9.
Before the flood, "God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth," and it was also "filled with violence." (See Gen. 6.) Corruption and violence were the twin evils which brought on the deluge. And while they have been present among men from then until now, they will appear in gross form at the end-corruption in the debased and debasing ecclesiastical system in all its worldly grandeur (Rev. 17:1-6; 18:2-51And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2With 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. 3So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 4And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: 5And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:1‑6)
2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. 4And 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. 5For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:2‑5)), and violence in the wicked and God- defiant head of the revived Roman Empire (Rev. 13:1-8; 17:8-131And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. 2And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. 3And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. 4And 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? 5And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months. 6And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. 7And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations. 8And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:1‑8)
8The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. 9And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. 10And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. 11And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. 12And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. 13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. (Revelation 17:8‑13)).
What a cause for sober reflection when we consider that that which started out so brightly as the Church of God on earth (Acts 2 to 4) should become in the end the corruptress of the earth. Need we wonder that the Apostle John was greatly astonished (as it should read) when given the vision of the woman upon the beast (Rev. 17:66And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. (Revelation 17:6))?
We need ever to keep in mind that the Lord will soon come and take every blood- bought person to be with Himself in the Father's house. Then the great profession of Christianity that is left will go on to even greater heights in the world, with Rome as its center and guiding spirit.
Corruption it surely is, and of the worst form, when that which professes to be Christ's representative on earth prostitutes her professed relationship to Him for worldly aggrandizement. She allows anything and traffics in everything which serves her ends of world power and glory. But as the corruption in Noah's day received its just recompense in the flood, so will the corrupt false church be swept away by the violence of the beast and his ten confederate rulers, for God will put it into their hearts to fulfill His will and exterminate that which is so hateful to Him.
While violence will mark the days after the Church has gone to be with Christ, yet the beast will be the personification of it. He will be the man who destroys cities and makes the earth a wilderness, who makes treaties and breaks them, who recklessly blasphemes God, and persecutes any who witness for Him. The Jewish remnant, as expressed in the Psalms, will cry out because of "the violent man."
This violent man, after he destroys the corrupt woman, will be in league with a false Jew in Jerusalem who will be a lying prophet—even him "whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders," whereby he will deceive the world. This last form of evil (lying) is particularly connected with Satan who is a liar and "abode, not in the truth" (John 8:4444Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. (John 8:44)). It will be the direct "working of Satan" who as soon as man came upon the scene, went to him with a lie, inferring that God did not speak the truth, but that He was keeping back something good from man
"And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone."
May the Lord graciously keep His own from the growing attractions of ritualism, the infidelity of the violent man, and all falsehood which has its origin in the father of lies. On the other hand, may we who belong to Christ be more true in heart to Him who is so worthy of our unstinted and undivided devotion, and may we be willing to suffer shame for His name
" 'A little while'-'twill soon be past,
Why should we shun the promised cross?
O let us in His footsteps haste,
Counting for Him all else but loss!
For how will recompense His smile,
The sufferings of this 'little while.' "