One of the last seven angels is now commissioned to show the character and end of Christendom, called by its true name, “The great harlot that sitteth upon many waters,” BABYLON THE GREAT.
The poor, aged, banished apostle of the Lord Jesus could never possibly have had such thoughts of that which then bore the name of the church. We must remember, this is the revelation God gave to him to show to His servants. How could he ever have had such a thought as that the persecuted church should become the great harlot—murderess? Yet such it has been, and such it is, and such it will be, to its sudden and terrible destruction.
Verse 2. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with this religious system—that which should have been the holy, separated spouse of Christ! Alas, how many pens are there ready to defend and boast of this unholy connection of the church with state, or the spiritual fornication of the kings of the earth with this great harlot! The very senses of the inhabitants of the earth have been taken away, as in drunkenness, with this mixture, or fornication, of the church and the world.
Verse 3. Rome is actually revealed as the seat of this great harlot. “And I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy having seven heads and ten horns.” These are the well-known symbols of the fourth empire, Rome. We have seen the source of this empire, and its director to be Satan, the dragon in chapter 12.
Two things then are clearly revealed to us here. The harlot sits at Rome where Satan’s throne is. This harlot is gorgeously arrayed—assuming the royal colors, decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations, or idolatries. Could words or figures be found to describe more accurately the harlot of Rome, that assumes to be the mother of all churches, and yet is full of idolatry? Whilst these marks are distinctly seen in her history, yet her future will be still more arrogant, when the Roman empire is restored again. For it is the beast that is full of blasphemies, and there she has her seat.
She is Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, the corrupter of every stream. At that time every religious system in Europe will bear her likeness, and will embrace her abominations. Everything is rapidly preparing. This will be the result when the whole true redeemed church of God has been taken to be forever with the Lord. The whole of mere professing Christendom will become the Babylon thus described. It may be asked, Can it possibly be that all the dissenting bodies will be swallowed up in Rome or Babylon? Possible! why, are not many of these even now, whilst many true Christians are still. amongst them, doing their utmost to hasten on. Rome rule? What will be the blindness when the true saints of God, which form the church as built of Christ, are taken away?
Let us not be deceived, this is the revealed end of boasting Christendom. Ah, she calls herself the church. John saw her to be “The woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” This filled him with great astonishment, and well it might. Even to us, with the history of all her wickedness before us, is it not amazing that no cruelty or wickedness is too great, if it can only be thought that it is for the good of the church—that is, this great harlot? Hundreds of thousands of God’s saints have been murdered by her. Is she not the instigator of fearful crimes in this day? How little men know that she is still the same!
Verse 7, The angel now proceeds to explain the mystery of this woman, and the beast that carrieth her. There is then a mystery. A person might say, This is all imagination. The Roman empire did exist, but it no longer exists. Exactly so. “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not.” Can any man deny this? When John wrote this revelation the Roman empire did exist in all its imperial power. A time is revealed when it shall not exist. Has this come to pass or not? That is certainly true, at this moment, it is broken up and does not exist; but shall it exist again? Read on and see “And shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition; and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder,” &c. God said it would cease to be it has done so. God says it will rise again under these terrible conditions: it will; and the harlot called the church will sit on it, and its center and place is the even-hilled city of Rome. “The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.” The forms of government of Rome are also given: five had passed away, the sixth, the imperial, then existed; another shall come for a short space; and another, yet of the seventh—the eighth.
Verse 12. This is a very important verse. “And 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.” These ten kings or kingdoms of the fourth, or Roman, empire, are distinctly foretold in Daniel. We read “And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.... and it shall stand forever.” (Dan. 2:4444And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever. (Daniel 2:44).) Some have held the strange mistake, that the kingdom meant the gospel or the church! The least attention to Rev. 17:1212And 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. (Revelation 17:12), would have shown this to be impossible. The church had been formed for some fifty or sixty years, and yet these ten kingdoms had not then appeared, neither have they, as there described, ever appeared since that time.
In Dan. 7 the subject is again more fully dwelt upon. Indeed, the awful character of the fourth, or Roman, empire is taken up in its last ten-kingdom form: and, one like the Son of man is seen coming in, the clouds of heaven, to set up the kingdom of God. “Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be the fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And the ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.”
Thus in Daniel we learn that the fourth or Roman empire will be in its most terrible character, divided into, or rather composed of, ten kingdoms, immediately before the coining of the Son of man to set up the everlasting kingdom of God. But the objector might say, Then the prophecy of Daniel has failed, for the Roman empire has actually passed away, and is not, does not exist as such; and yet none of these things—that is, the ten kings or kingdoms have appeared; the Son of man has not come with the clouds of heaven, and the kingdom of God has not been given to the restored Jews and set up on earth. Our chapter in Revelation makes all this clear. The beast, or fourth empire, was and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit. It is then, when in its most terribly destructive character, that the ten kings appear, and they give their power and strength unto the beast. They are all of one mind in this matter.
The ten kingdoms of this restored Roman empire make war with the Lamb. But the time has now come for Him to put forth His power. For remember, that it is in the days of these kings that God will set up His kingdom.
Now the question is, What will these ten kingdoms do, as it regards the great harlot of apostate Christendom? At the time when they arise, or form the above alliance, she is sitting on the blasphemous beast. How great and far her baneful influence; yea, “The waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and nations, and tongues.” But she has now run her course. “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon [or as it should be and] the beast shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” This is God’s revelation of what the apostasy will become, and of her end. Long has she had her seat at Rome. During this century, especially for fifty years, God has, restored the gospel of His grace. And Satan has put forth his wiles to gather as in a net those who had escaped from the dark slavery of Rome. Christendom has rejected the gospel, shuts its eyes and stops its ears, and rushes blindfold back to Rome. And she, on her part, answers already to verse 18: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”
There are but few kingdoms within the bounds of the old Roman empire that are not nominally under the power of Rome and its darkness; who but God knows how much she rules even England. The felt power of “the woman” becomes greater every year. Every feature of that woman is in strongest contrast to the church of God; which not of this world. Her great aim and desire is to reign over the kings of the earth.
How little are men aware of what is about to take place in these lands. But Jesus speaks to us, to all whom the Father bath given to Him: “Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am there ye may be also.” (John 14:1-81Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 7If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. 8Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. (John 14:1‑8).) He will not forget this promise. Let us rest in His word with all our souls. This is the next thing, the next event which He presents to faith, This may take place as you read these lines, nay, as they are being written.
And then, assuredly as God has revealed, the fourth or Roman empire will suddenly re-appear as from hell. The false apostate, the great mother of harlots, will be more glorious and blasphemous than ever. She will have her seat upon the beast inspired by Satan. The nations will bear her pride and tyranny no longer, but the ten kingdoms and the beast will throw of all profession of even this apostate Christianity, and burn her with fire. Can we not perceive that everything political and of the world’s religion is tending very fast to this same end?
Oh ‘Christians, awake! search the scriptures, and see if these things are so. Is it not high time to awake? Lord Jesus, our eyes are up to Thee. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come: and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
But we must next look a little further, at the revealed character and doom of Babylon the Great.