Chapter 17 Introduction: THEME: The apostate church in the Great Tribulation
In chapters 17,18 - judgment of the two Babylons. First the apostate church in the Great Tribulation in chapter 17, and then commercial Babylon in chapter 18.
The questions are: "Are there two Babylons, and are they in two different geographical locations? Are they representative of two systems? Are they two literal cities, or are they the same?" The answers to these questions will become more apparent as our redemption draws near. It appears at the present time, in my judgment, that two distinct cities are in view.
Chapter 17 is mystery Babylon, the apostate church. It will attain the goal of the present‑day apostates of all the great systems of the world: Romanism, Protestantism, pagan religions, cults, etc. The Bible calls it a harlot. This is an ecumenical one‑world church. The location of this system could be in Rome (the city built on seven hills).
It is called mystery Babylon because of its origin. At the Tower of Babel man attempted to rally against God. Under Nimrod, Babylon became the origin of all false religion. Now the dream of Nimrod will be realized in the first half of the Great Tribulation period. This church is guilty of spiritual fornication, selling herself to the world for hire. This is the church that says, "I am rich and increased with goods, and I have need of nothing."
The true church will not go through the Great Tribulation; it will be raptured before the Tribulation begins. Let's be specific: who will be raptured? Not denominations, not just individual churches, but His church, a collective term meaning all true believers, those who are in Christ.
As Dr. George Gill used to say, Asome churches will meet the Sunday after the Rapture and will not miss a member.@ J. Dwight Pentecost in his book, Things To Come (p. 368), gives this comment concerning the harlot system:
AThe Beast, who was dominated by the harlot system (Rev. 17:3), rises against her and destroys her and her system completely. Without doubt the harlot system was in competition with the religious worship of the Beast, promoted by the False Prophet, and her destruction is brought about so that the Beast may be the sole object of false worship as he claims to be God.@
Babylon is to be rebuilt, as we have seen in Isaiah and Jeremiah, and here in chapters 17 ‑‑ 18 we see it destroyed. Ecclesiastical Babylon will be destroyed by the wild Beast.
Ecclesiastical Babylon is destroyed by the wild Beast.
Commercial Babylon is destroyed by the return of Christ.
Ecclesiastical Babylon is hated by the Beast.
Commercial Babylon is loved by the world.
Ecclesiastical Babylon is destroyed at the beginning of the last three and one‑half years of the Great Tribulation.
Commercial Babylon is destroyed at the end of the last three and one‑half years of the Great Tribulation.
17:1-2 "The great harlot" is that part of the church that will remain after the true church has been raptured. It will be composed of those who have never trusted Christ as Savior; they have never been in the body of Christ. We are told certain things about her. She "sitteth upon many waters." According to verse 15, which we will see later, the "waters" refer to great masses of people and nations. The harlot will control most of the world.
"The kings of the earth committed fornication" show that there is an unholy alliance between church and state during that period.
My friend, the movement in our day of bringing all religions together certainly falls into the pattern of this false church which is to appear. This movement is more dangerous to our own country than is any foreign political system or some new morality. It will become a power‑bloc that will bring the world under the influence of the wild Beast out of the sea and the wild Beast out of the earth. They will use the apostate church to control the masses, and the church will yield to this arrangement for political power. When you reject the genuine, you are wide open for the spurious. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that when someone rejects the love of the truth that they might be saved, they will believe a lie.
"The judgment of the great harlot." God's cup of judgment will be pressed to the lips of the harlot. The Beast himself will destroy her. The Antichrist and the False Prophet will not want her around after she has served their purpose. Antichrist wants to be worshiped, and he doesn't want any competition from the Achurch.@
17:3 "He carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness." Remember that John was on the Isle of Patmos in the Spirit for the vision of the glorified Christ and His message to the churches. At that time John was caught up to heaven. From then on the scene shifts from heaven to earth. However, here we are told again that John was in the Spirit. Did he need a fresh anointing of the Spirit for this vision? Babylon was to become a wilderness, and in this connection read Isaiah 47-48; Jeremiah 50-51. Outside of Rome the wilderness is called the campagna.
John saw a woman "sitting upon a scarlet‑colored wild beast." The wild Beast has previously been identified as the Antichrist ruling over the restored Roman Empire. The woman is identified for us in verse 18: "And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth." The woman is a city, and the city is Rome, the religious capital of the world. She is religious Rome, which at that time will have inherited all the religions of the world.
The city is further identified in verse 9: "And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth." Rome was the city set on seven hills and was known as such to both pagan and Christian writers.
Horace wrote, "The gods, who look with favour on the seven hills. . . ." Ovid added, "But Rome looks around on the whole globe from her seven mountains, the seat of empire and abode of the gods." Augustine wrote, "Babylon is a former Rome, and Rome is a later Babylon." In these verses the city of Rome is assuredly in view.
"Full of names of blasphemy" reveals how far religion will have departed from the living Christ.
17:4-5 "Clothed in purple and scarlet." Purple was the predominant color of Roman imperialism. Every senator and consul wore a purple stripe as a badge of his position, and the emperor's robes were purple. Scarlet is the color adopted by Roman Catholicism.
"Gilded with gold" shows the beauty of the outward display, but, like the Pharisees, it is within "full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness."
"Precious stones and pearls" A sordid imitation of genuine heartfelt religion. The Lord Jesus said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess" (Matt. 23:25).
"A golden cup full of abominations" is the religious intoxication of the apostate church, a pseudo-religion, counterfeit Christianity, and a fake and false gospel. This is the cup which makes the world drunk. "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 the nations are mad" (Jer. 51:7).
"Upon her forehead a name written" is a startling revelation of the character of this woman. She does not wear a crown but rather the mark of her profession. "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" is the disgraceful title for the "church."
"MYSTERY BABYLON." The true church is a mystery in that it was not revealed in the Old Testament (see Eph. 3:1‑9). The anti‑church, designated here as a harlot, is a mystery in that it was not revealed until John wrote Revelation 17. Babylon is the fountainhead for all false religion; therefore she is "THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." This is, by far, Scripture's more expressive and vivid picture of awful and abominable sin. Immorality and false religions are related.
Have you noticed that this "MYSTERY BABYLON" is called the "MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS"? - not singular but plural! It is impossible to water down theologies and practices to suit everyone. So each group will come into this great world ecumenical system but retain some of its distinctiveness. A religious brothel.
17:6-7 "Drunken with the blood of the saints." The harlot not only makes others drunk, but she is intoxicated by her acts of persecution.
"The saints" probably refers to Old Testament saints, and "the martyrs of Jesus" refers to New Testament saints. This indicates that "BABYLON" is more than just Romanism. Rather, it is an amalgam of all religions.
Babylon is a composite religious system which includes Protestantism, Romanism, cults. It is confusion compounded and is the fountainhead of all religious error and idolatry. Babylon in the Old Testament persecuted God's people and was the enemy of God. It was Babylon that put the three Hebrew boys in the fiery furnace because they would not worship an image.
When John saw the vision of the woman, he says that he "wondered with a great wonder."
17:8-10 The wild beast "was" speaks of the past history of the Roman Empire. "Is not" refers to the present condition of the fragmented Empire. The Roman Empire is not dead. It has fallen apart into the nations of Europe today. "Is about to come up out of the abyss" speaks of the reactivation of the Roman Empire by Satan.
Many have attempted to put the Roman Empire back together again but have never been successful: Charlemagne, Napoleon, Hitler, Mussolini tried it, and the United Nations. The wild Beast, who is the Antichrist, will be the one who puts the Roman Empire back together again.
"Shall . . . go into perdition" speaks of the destruction of the Roman Empire by the coming of Christ. The reappearance of the Roman Empire in its great power will win the admiration of the peoples of the world who are not redeemed. They will respect and worship the Antichrist.
"And there are seven kings" is taken by some to mean individual rulers. Govett gives the following list:
1. Julius Caesar ‑‑ assassinated
2. Tiberius ‑‑ poisoned or smothered
3. Caligula ‑‑ assassinated
4. Claudius ‑‑ poisoned
5. Nero ‑‑ committed suicide
6. "The one is" refers to Domitian who was living in John's day, who was also assassinated.
7. "The other is not yet come" refers to the Antichrist.
Other expositors consider these seven as the different forms of government through which Rome passed. These are listed as kings, consuls, dictators, decemvirs, and military tribunes. "The one is" refers to the sixth or imperial form of government set up by Julius Caesar and under which John was banished by Domitian. The seventh and last, though it has not yet appeared, will be satanic in form. Regardless of the interpretation: the Antichrist rules over the reactivated Roman Empire.
17:11-14 The Antichrist is designated. He is the "little horn" in the vision that God gave to the prophet Daniel. The "little horn" puts down three other horns ‑‑ that is, three kings ‑‑ when he comes to power (Dan. 7:8, 24). "The beast that was" refers to the past history of the Roman Empire under the emperors.
"And is not" refers to the end of Imperial Rome, which came to an end sometime between the third and fifth centuries.
"Is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven" identifies the Antichrist with the return to the imperial form of the restored Roman Empire. He is the "little horn" of Daniel, chapter 7. He is not one of the ten horns, but he is separate from them. He is an eighth head in this seven, yet he is one of the seven since he restores the last form of government to Rome.
"The ten horns" are the same as the ten horns of Daniel 7:7. These ten kings will reign with the Antichrist but will be subservient to him. They willingly or unwillingly give over their authority to the Antichrist and become his puppets.
17:16-18 "The waters" are the nations of the world. Cf. Isaiah 8:7 and Psalm 18. The position of the harlot reveals that she is ruling over them for only a brief time.
"The ten horns" are ten kings (verse 12) who rule over the different divisions of the Roman Empire. They in turn give over to the Beast their kingdoms. This solidifies the Roman Empire and enables the Beast to lift himself up as a world dictator.
For a time the Beast (Antichrist) is willing to share his place of glory with the harlot, since she has also sought to advance his cause. This he hates, and the ten kings are one with him in this. The Antichrist not only breaks his covenant with Israel, but he also breaks his relationship with the apostate church. This hatred against the apostate church is so violent that the reaction is described as the cannibalistic picking of her bones, then burning them with fire! This great hatred destroys the false church. This is what happens to the false church. It has no victory. It never comes into the presence of Christ. By eliminating the apostate church, the way is cleared for the worship of Antichrist, as advocated by the False Prophet.
This is the frightful but just end of the apostate church. It introduces the darkest period for religion in the history of the world. The reign and religion of Antichrist is the darkest hour earth will know, and yet it is the inevitable end of the distrust which began in the Garden of Eden when man failed to believe God.
My friend, you as a Christian should have thankfulness in your heart, knowing you will be spared from the Great Tribulation, but also you should have a real concern for your loved ones who may be facing this frightful period that lies ahead.