A MIGHTY LAST-DAY PROPHECY
By M. C. W.
The Time—Babylon the Harlot
All great symbolic prophecies of the books of Daniel and the Revelation reach forward to the eternal kingdom. They do not pause in their forecast of earth’s rule till the coming of Him whose right it is to reign forever. We wish to study with our readers the seventeenth chapter of the Revelation, and its vital connection with chapters 12 and 13. It is preeminently a last-day prophecy. Its predictions pertain to the last days, the times in which we live. We may not see it all now. Its details may be hidden from us. But God has given us encouragement to study, with the assurance of blessing. Rev. 1:3. First of all, then, read the prophecy itself, slowly, prayerfully, thoughtfully, seeking the guidance of His Spirit for its meaning. Following are its first eight verses as found in the American Revised Version: “And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and they that dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication. “And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication, and upon her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth. “And 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 a great wonder. “And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou wonder? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and is about to come up out of the abyss, and to go into perdition.” Let us study: (1) The time of its application; (2) The meaning of the harlot, and of Babylon; (3) The meaning of the seven-headed beast; (4) The meaning and time of the wilderness; (5) The fifth head; (6) The seventh head. I. THE TIME OF ITS APPLICATION
There is a difference between the time of the giving of a prophecy and the time to which it applies. This is a principle that must be recognized in the study of all prophecy. To illustrate: The prophecy of Isa. 40:3-5 was given seven centuries before Christ, given as though it were a present fact in the prophet’s day; but it was not fulfilled till seven centuries later, in the mission and work of John the Baptist. John 1:19-23; Luke 3:4-6. Another case in point is Isa. 61:1-3. The prophecy reads as though it belonged to Isaiah then; but it was fulfilled in part in the mission of our Lord at His first advent, and it will be in part when He shall come again. Luke 4:18, 19. The day of vengeance of our God is yet future. See also Daniel’s vision of chapter seven, where he repeatedly sees the events as if they were then present, although some are not yet fulfilled. To John on the isle of Patmos was given the vision. He stood as the representative of God’s church militant in all coming time. By repeated prophecy, he is brought in vision, in prediction and fulfillment, down to the end, and thus he brings us. Among the last of events, coming just after the close of probation, is the pouring out of the seven last plagues, in which is187“filled up the wrath of God.” Rev. 15:1. These are the righteous judgments of God, as well as the consequences of ages of sin, upon a world that has rejected the Saviour and rightful King. Before these judgments fall, however, one of these angels comes to John, who stands for God’s people, to show him the judgments to be visited upon Babylon, and the sins and crimes that demand the punishment. That, then, marks the time to which the vision applies, the period just before the close of probation, just before the plagues are poured out. Our “IS” is the “IS” of the vision. See the expression “One is” in verse 10. If it be said that the “is” refers to John’s day, we reply that the angel who gave the vision forbids it, as the development of the prophecy will demonstrate. A parallel to this is found in the message of the angel of Rev. 14:6, 7, “The hour of His Judgment is come,” not in John’s day, but in our day, it is now pending. The “IS” of Rev. 14:7 pertains to the times when that message is due; and the “IS” of chapter 17 applies to the time when the prophecy is applicable, even now. It is a living prophecy for to-day; and to-day God would have the church understand that the judgment of great Babylon is impending, and that her sins merit the judgment. A woman in Scripture is the symbol of a church. That church as she ought to exist is likened “to a comely and delicate woman” (Jer. 6:2), to a virgin betrothed to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2). But when God’s church, espoused to Him alone, unites with the world, she is counted a harlot. See Jeremiah 3, Ezekiel 16, and other passages. When our Lord gave His church the great commission, He assured her of a plenitude of power in Himself. Matt. 28:18-20. When she departs from Him, and unites with the world, she becomes an adulteress. James 4:4. “Babylon” means confusion. That is the origin of the name. God gave to man, after the Deluge, clear directions regarding his duty. He was to scatter abroad, and cultivate and replenish the earth; but man said: No, “let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” See Gen. 11:1-9. And according to the well burned bricks that men have dug up from the ruins of that ancient structure, they named that tower “Bab-il,” which meant “the gate of God.” In other words, by their human schemes, they would enter heaven, even though it was in transgression against God. It was a form of self-salvation, salvation by works, which has been the curse of the ages. The result of that effort was that God confounded the language, and named the tower “Babel,” or “Babylon,” meaning confusion. The human way to heaven, that promised gate of God, became the way of division, defeat, and confusion. So it has ever been. Nebuchadnezzar could build a mightier Babylon in his exaltation and pride; but in God’s everlasting way of right, it falls. Compare Dan. 4:29, 30, with Isa. 13:19-21. The ancient city of Babylon, professing a religion that exalts man and perverts truth, was antagonistic to God. Hence it became a type of apostasy, and of apostate organizations, churches, associations, federations, which, professing to save men, are really perverters of God’s plan. Thus also Jerusalem, the daughter of Zion, stands for the true church and people of God. Recognizing the good in modern Babylon, God has put forth mighty efforts to heal her, but she would not be healed. Jer. 51:9. When the church came from the hand of Christ, she was one, with one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father, Creator, and Redeemer. She had the one rule of conduct, the Decalogue; one Mediator, the Man Christ Jesus; one book of faith and instruction, the Holy Scriptures; one Holy Spirit for power, manifest in a plenitude of gifts for service. We do not take time to prove these statements; they will be acknowledged by all. God’s ideal is expressed in such scriptures as John 17; Eph. 4:1-13; 2 Tim. 3:13 to 4:5, and in other passages. But the church departed from the standard. Heathen philosophy crept in. Truth was perverted. Works of merit were used to purchase salvation and sainthood. The great, growing, popular church had become Babylon, confusion. Men then began to form creeds, and endeavor to warp the Scriptures to perverted human thought and practice. Creeds were adopted by presbyteries, synods, councils. Departure from the creed meant heresy. Multiplying heresy brought greater confusion. Then came union with the state, the church using the state to support and enforce church dogmas; then the persecution of “heretics” as a logical result. Conscientious men in the apostate church put to death conscientious, God-fearing Christians who could not repudiate their God-given freedom. He who studies the development of mystical Babylon as manifest primarily in the Roman Catholic Church, and in all Protestant churches that have followed human plans,—deceptions in Babylon’s maze,—will have great charity for Roman Catholics, but none for the system. Admit their premises, to them almost or quite divine, and logic demands their intolerance of heresy, their persecution of heretics. The more conscientious a man is in the wrong, the more harm will he do. Therefore the Roman Catholic Church became the worst of persecutors, because she has been conscientious in the worst system of error that the world ever knew. Protestant churches that followed her in church and state union have invariably and logically become persecutors. Whenever the human has assumed the place of God’s vicegerent, and attempted to enforce God’s will, he has done the most ungodlike things in an inhuman way. The Babylon of the prophecy is the symbol of apostate Christianity centering in the Roman Catholic Church, and the daughters are those who have been molded by the same principle. The thought of the prophecy is not physical fornication, and we have no sympathy with the use of the figure of the harlot in an endeavor to apply it to any of the organizations connected with the Roman Church. Toward individuals or persons in Roman Catholicism we have naught but the kindliest feelings. The system of the papacy is evil; but many of its followers are Christians, not because of it, but in spite of it. They are in the mystical Babylon, and the mystical Babylon is doomed to destruction. May all who are in her communion hear God’s call, and come out before it shall be too late! M. C. W. The next article in the series is on the meaning of the seven-headed beast.