Part 30

A Woman on a Scarlet-Colored Beast.

“And he carried me away in spirit into a desert: and I saw a woman seated on a crimson-colored wild beast, full of names of reviling, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and crimson, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and the impurities of her fornication; and on her forehead a name was written, A SECRET: BABYLON, THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus; and when I saw her I wondered greatly.” Rev. 17:3-6.

“And the angel said to me, Why dost thou wonder? I will tell thee the secret of the woman, and of the wild beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and the ten horns. The wild beast which thou didst see, was, and is not, and will ascend out of the abyss, and go into destruction; and those who dwell on the earth will wonder, (whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world,) as they behold the wild beast that was and is not, and will be. And here is the mind having wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth, and they are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must remain a little while. And the wild beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into destruction. And the ten horns which thou didst see are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom; but they receive power as kings, one hour, with the wild beast. These have one mind, and will give their power and strength to the wild beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and those with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.” Rev. 17:7-14.

“And he saith to me, The waters which thou didst see, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples, and crowds, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou didst see, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot, and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh, and burn her up with fire. For God hath put it into their hearts to perform his purpose, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman whom thou didst see is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Rev. 17:15-18.

That the woman and city symbolize the same, is shown by the declaration that she is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth, v. 18. She is also thus indicated by the name of “Babylon,” on her forehead, and the golden cup in her hand: “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 are the nations mad,” Jer. 51:7. In like manner has the church of Rome intoxicated the nations.

“The scarlet-colored beast” on which the woman is seated, is evidently the same beast that John saw “rise out of the sea, having seven heads, and ten horns,” 13:1. The Roman empire had been symbolized by “a great red dragon,” which also had seven heads and ten horns. In that vision, crowns were on the heads of the beast, (12:3); which indicated that Rome, during the period thus represented, existed under the forms of government symbolized by the heads. These heads, the angel affirms, are the seven mountains on which the woman sitteth, (v. 9); and also that they are seven kings (v. 10), or forms of government. Mountains also symbolize governments, (16:20); and as the heads and mountains are the same, they must alike symbolize the seven forms of government under which Rome existed previous to its subversion by the northern barbarians,—viz.: 1, the kingly; 2, consular; 3, dictatorial; 4, decemviral; 5, tribunitial; 6, pagan-imperial; and 7, Christian-imperial. At the time of the explanation of this vision to John, the “five” first-named forms had passed away; or, as the angel says, had “fallen,” v. 10. One then was:—Rome then existed under its pagan-imperial, or sixth head. The other, the Christian-imperial, had not then come; but after it came, and had continued for a time, the Roman empire was subverted by the irruptions of northern barbarians. Thus “the beast was;” and then, was not for a season. But afterwards it emerged again from the sea (13:1), under an “eight” form, which was of the previous seven, 17:11. When it reäppears, its crowns are not upon its heads, but encircle its horns, (13:1); indicating that those governments have the ascendency, which are symbolized by the “ten horns;” and which, according to the angel, are “ten kings,” which had not received their kingdom at the time of the vision, v. 12. These were to be kings in “one,” or the same hour with the beast, and must therefore be contemporary kingdoms, while the forms symbolized by the heads, are evidently successive. They constitute the government of Rome, in its eighth, or decem-regal form; and symbolize the ten kingdoms which arose after and out of the subversion of imperial Rome. Under this form, the beast goes into perdition, (v. 11):—they continue under various combinations, till the end of the world, when they will war with and be overcome by the Lamb (v. 14), in the great battle of Armageddon, 19:19-21.

The ten contemporary kingdoms have one mind, (v. 13): they perpetuate the kingdom of the beast, by adopting similar laws, pursuing the same line of policy, and assuming the same powers that the empire exercised.

The “names of blasphemy” which cover the beast, symbolize its arrogating the right to dictate in matters of faith and religious worship, and to punish those who dissent from its creed. The Roman hierarchy was supported by legal enactments against heretics in all of the ten kingdoms. Those who dissented from the church were delivered over to the power of the civil arm, which punished by imprisonment, confiscation of goods, bodily torture, and death. The exercise of such power, was a blasphemous usurpation of the prerogatives of Christ, and an assumption of authority over the legislation of God.

On this beast the woman is seated. As its rider, she guides it, and is sustained by it. She is its directing power; and while she is thus seated, there is no reference to crowns encircling either heads or horns. All rule for a time is subservient to her control. Thus were the ten kingdoms obedient to the Roman hierarchy,—sustaining, and being controlled by it. She crowned their kings, and dethroned them at her pleasure. The religion of the church was enforced by the sword of the state; and thus did the kings of the earth commit fornication with her,—the idolatries of the church being sanctioned by them.

The superb attire of the woman, and the costly gems with which she is decked, denote the wealth, luxury, and regal splendor of the hierarchy which she symbolizes. The cup, and its abominations in her hand, denote the false doctrines with which she would seduce the nations. Her names describe her nature, and identify her with Babylon; and her intoxication with blood, indicates her blood-thirsty, persecuting character, and the delight with which she would exult over the slaughter of the saints.

The Roman hierarchy was not, however, always to retain her supremacy over the nations. She was in due time to fall from the position symbolized by the woman seated on the beast; and the kings of the earth were to hate and burn with fire, her whom they had recognized as their mistress, and to whose control they had submitted. The governments which have sustained her pretensions, were to cast her off contemptuously. This has been in progress of fulfilment from the days of Martin Luther, since which her control of the ten kingdoms has been only limited and partial. Many of her ecclesiastical estates have been confiscated, and she has been deprived of her prerogatives in many countries. There may, perhaps, be hereafter a more complete fulfilment of this prediction. It is symbolized in the following chapter, by:

The Fall of Babylon.

“And after this, I saw another angel descending from heaven, having great power; and the earth was enlightened by his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, She is fallen: Babylon the great is fallen, and is become a dwelling of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird, for all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” Rev. 18:1-3.

This announcement of the fall of the city, synchronizes with the same symbolization in the 14th chapter: “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” 14:8. The angel, proclaiming her fall, doubtless symbolizes a body of men, who shall give utterance to corresponding declarations.

The epoch of this utterance is shown by the identity of this angel with that of Rev. 10:1-3. They thus correspond: They both descend from heaven: the one is a mighty angel, and the other has great power; the one is enveloped with a robe of cloud, his head is arched with the rainbow, his face is like the sun, and his feet like fire, and he stands on both earth and sea; the other is so glorified, and occupies a position so conspicuous, that the earth is enlightened with his glory; and the one cries “with a loud voice as when a lion roareth,” while the other cries “mighty with a strong voice.” Thus their position, manner and conspicuousness, are alike. What was uttered by the angel of the tenth chapter, is not revealed; but the fall of Babylon being announced in the eighteenth, it follows that it was the subject of the angel’s utterance in the tenth.

As the messenger of the tenth chapter appears subsequent to the sixth, and before the seventh trumpet; and as, after this epoch, there were to be prophesyings “again, before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” (10:11), it follows that the time then symbolized must be at an epoch anterior to the end of the world. A corresponding reason—namely, the command to come out of Babylon, and the fulfilment of her plagues and sorrows, which are to intervene between the cry of the angel announcing her fall and the time of her actual destruction—proves that the mighty angel of the 18th of Revelation must also be at an epoch having a considerable period between it and the end.

It follows, that when John saw the angel of the eighteenth chapter, and “the earth was lightened with his glory,” it did not symbolize a literal but a moral light,—the light of truth. And as the enlightening of the earth by its promulgation, pre-supposes a previous state of corresponding moral darkness, it must, as in the tenth chapter, symbolize an epoch, prominent in the history of the world, as a time when the darkness of ignorance, error and superstition, began rapidly to disappear before the spread of the light of truth and knowledge.

These considerations point to the epoch of the REFORMATION, when the midnight darkness of the dark ages began to be scattered before the uprising and onward progress of truth and knowledge. Then appeared a body of religious teachers, aided by the newly discovered art of printing, who so brought the Scriptures out from their obscurity, opposed the pretensions of the Papal hierarchy, and, by the clear teachings of the word, so secured the spread of gospel light and liberty, that they might appropriately be symbolized by an angel coming down from heaven, and enlightening the earth with his glory. The descent from heaven would symbolize the heavenly origin of the doctrines promulgated. His mighty power, and the strong voice with which he proclaimed his cry, would symbolize the greatness and earnestness of the movement, and the mighty results to be effected by it. This symbolization, twice given, could only be fulfilled by some great and mighty movement, like the Reformation.

The fall of Babylon is distinct from and anterior to its destruction, and must correspond with the fall of the woman from her position on the beast;—she is no longer to be the director of, and to be sustained by, the civil power. The cry of the angel, announcing her fall, as Mr. Elliot remarks, seems to be anticipative, and not retrospective. The denunciations of the Papacy by the reformers were of a character to fulfil this symbolization.

The year 1300, during the pontificate of Boniface VIII., may be regarded as marking the highest eminence to which the Papal power ever attained. From this period the dominion of the Roman Pontiffs appeared to be gradually undermined. Twenty-four years after this date, John Wickliffe was born, who, together with his followers, made more vigorous attacks upon Babylon itself. Some of these declared Rome to be mystical Babylon, and the Pope and church there to be Antichrist. These heralds announced the fall of mystical Babylon, as the ancient prophets had done that of literal Babylon, long before the event.—Jer. 51:7, 8. Antichrist and Babylon are identified in prophecy. In 1518, Luther first suspected their application to the Papacy; and, writing to his friend Link, on sending him a copy of the acts just published of the conference at Augsburg, he says: “My pen is ready to give birth to things much greater. I know not myself whence these thoughts come to me. I will send you what I write, that you may see if I have well conjectured in believing that the Antichrist of whom St. Paul speaks now reigns in the court of Rome.”

At first, Luther and his companions sought only the reformation of that church. They had no idea of dissolving their own connection with it. But when the thunders of the Vatican were hurled at them, and they found themselves excommunicated as heretics, they came to the conclusion that the church of Rome was the Babylon of the Apocalypse. Immediately upon this conviction, they began to cry, “Babylon is fallen!”

In 1520 appeared a famous book, by Luther, on the “Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” in which he attacked Rome with great skill and courage. In Switzerland and England the reformers considered themselves as fulfilling this message of the Apocalyptic angel. Elliot says, “They seized on this very prophecy for application; and, for the first time, upon grounds of evidence sound and tenable, concluded on the fact of progress having been made up to it, in the evolution of the great mundane drama, and on their own chronological place being already far advanced under the sixth trumpet, and in near expectancy of the seventh trumpet, of the Apocalyptic prophecy.”

These denunciations against Mystic Babylon, and protestations against all her idolatrous ceremonies and superstitious appendages, were given, by the great body of the reformers, within the very bounds of her empire. They resulted in her loss of power, and of control over the princes of Europe. In 1526, the other monarchs becoming jealous of the power of Charles V., Emperor of Germany, “Pope Clement VII. placed himself at the head of a league of the principal states of Italy against him; but their ill-directed efforts were productive of new misfortunes. Rome was taken by storm, by the troops of the constable, sacked, and the Pope himself made prisoner. Charles V. publicly disavowed the proceedings of the constable, went into mourning with his court, and carried his hypocrisy so far as to order prayers for the deliverance of the Pope. On restoring the holy father to liberty, he demanded a ransom of four hundred thousand crowns of gold, but was satisfied with a quarter of that sum.”—Ency. Am., v. 3. p. 76.

All the Protestant princes of Germany denied the assumptions of the Pope; and the powers of western and northern Europe, one after another, denied their allegiance to him. In 1798, Pius VI. was taken prisoner by the French, under Gen. Berthier, and died in exile. When Berthier entered Rome, many of the cardinals “fled from the city on the wings of terror;” but those who remained “were disposed still to uphold the authority of the Pontiff.” Finally, however, “with melancholy voice, they pronounced their absolute renunciation of the temporal government.”—Life of Pius VI. His successor resumed his position. But in 1848 Pius IX. fled from his own subjects, and was only restored by French arms. Thus gradually the Babylonish woman became unseated, and fell from her position on the beast; and, instead of guiding and directing the civil power, now only exists by sufferance. As a city, also, her supremacy was gone. Being no longer the mistress of the nations, or the ruling city, the Papal See is in the condition of ancient Babylon when becoming a dependency of the Medes and Persians.

After the fall of ancient Babylon, it became gradually more and more deserted, until there was a literal fulfilment of the words of Isaiah: “Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces,” Isa. 13:21, 22. In like manner the apocalyptic Babylon, after her fall, and the withdrawal of Protestants from her communion, was to become the receptacle of corresponding spirits. Her members were to be more impious than before, and were to adhere more closely than ever to her idolatrous practices. The contrast between these and true Christians would also be more apparent from the separation which succeeds her fall, in obedience to:

The Voice From Heaven.

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached to heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities! Reward her even as she rendered to you, and double to her according to her works, in the cup which she hath poured out, pour out double to her. By as much as she hath glorified herself, and lived luxuriously, so much torment and mourning give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am not a widow, and shall see no mourning. On this account, her plagues will come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she will be burned up with fire; for strong is the Lord God, who judgeth her.”—Rev. 18:4-8.

So long as the true character of the apostate church was unperceived, she would contain many good, as well as a multitude of bad members. The voice from heaven, indicates an epoch when there should be a widely extended and marked separation between these two classes. Till the time of that separation should be indicated, the children of God would be justified in continuing members of her communion; but not subsequently. The condition of Babylon, at the time of her fall, indicates that the separation must take place in near connection with that event; and the cry must synchronize with that of the third angel in Rev. 14:9,—which symbolized a body of men who should insist on such a separation from the Papacy as that here symbolized.