We have seen that there are five enemies of Christ and His church in the world: The dragon
(Satan), the beast out of the sea (the
anti-christ); the beast from the earth (the
false prophet), the great prostitute (symbolically called Babylon) and all those that bear the mark of the beast. These are
the ones that make the life of the
church in the world so difficult.
You
will remember that this is the starting point in John’s
revelation of the 7 letters
to the 7 churches (Rev 2 &3).
Ephesus (2:1-7) was tested by false apostles (2:2) and the false doctrine of the Nicolaitans
(2:6) ; Smyrna ( 2:8- 11) was
severely affected by the slander of the
synagogue of Satan, and by Satan’s severe temptations; Pergamum
(2:12-17) was living in the shadow of Satan’s earthly throne (2:13) and affected by the
false teaching of the Nicolaitans (2:15); The church at Thyatira ( 2:18-29) was seduced by a false prophetess called Jezebel; Sardis (3:1-6) had fallen into a spiritual state
of apathy; Philadelphia (3:7-13) was
also battered by a so called synagogue of Satan while Laodicea
(3:14-22), under the influence of
material prosperity had become
lukewarm in her affection for Jesus.
Each one of these seven churches battled
for spiritual survival, facing the daily
onslaught of Satan, the anti-christ, the false prophet , the great
prostitute and those who bear the mark of the beast.
This is the battle which every local church faces in this world. The apostle Paul describes it in
Eph. 6. Jesus has warned us
concerning this. He who has an ear to hear , let him hear what the Spirit
is saying to the churches.[1]
The church living between His ascension
and His descension must remain alert to
these realities. Jesus says at the end
of this book: “ I Jesus have sent my
angel to testify to you about these things for the churches .” (22:16a)
Last time we considered
the 7 bowl judgments (Rev.16), and we noted that with
these the judgment of God will be
complete. We also saw, that just as in the case of the 10 plagues upon Egypt (Ex. 7-
12), God’s people are spared
in this final judgment because they have
been sealed with the name of God and of his Christ. [Note: God will
not remove His people from the
earth at this time as some say[2],
but He will miraculously preserve them,
just as He preserved His people in Egypt,whilst He was judging Egypt.]
The sixth bowl judgment makes mention of the final battle resulting in the defeat of
Satan and all of those allied with him. This is
the battle of Armageddon[3]
(16:16) which is both Satan’s final assault upon the church and
also the record of his final defeat. From now on
it is all downhill for Satan and his unholy alliance. In Chapters
17 & 18 we shall witness
the total destruction of Babylon,
the symbolic city of fallen man, which has existed in opposition to Jerusalem, the symbolic city of God
and of the redeemed man. When the seventh bowl is poured out (16:17-21) Babylon, the
great city is “split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell” (16:19) collapsed. Then, in Revelation
19 we read of the fate of the beast and the false prophet. In Revelation 20, we read of the fate of Satan (the
dragon) after which Revelation 21-22 concludes
with the description of the
new heavens and the new earth - the glorious future of the people of God.
THE HISTORY OF THE GREAT PROSTITUTE – BABYLON
Chapter 17 begins with
these words: “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, `Come, I will show you the
punishment of the great prostitute, who is seated on many waters…”.
Here is an important contrast being made
between the prostitute and the bride, the wife of the Lamb (Rev. 21:9). The prostitute is the picture of ultimate perversion and wickedness (17:2). She is identified as “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of
earth’s abominations” (17:5),
who “is seated on many waters” (17:1). In v. 15 the metaphor of the waters is explained: “The waters
that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes
and nations and languages.” This is
indicative of the fact that her dominion extends to all “peoples, multitudes, nations and languages.” Her sin is depicted in
Rev.17:2, in terms of sexual immorality, which is a metaphor used throughout the Old
Testament[4]
for spiritual unfaithfulness. With her “the
kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the
wine of those whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.”
O, what power this prostitute has over the world! The sexual imagery
used here is symbolic (spiritual unfaithfulness), but it is also deliberate.
How this
perverted sexuality (promoted by internet pornography) is breaking
communities apart! The church at Thyatira was said to have been
seduced by such a woman, Jezebel.
Now, while Babylon has always been the epitome of evil in the OT, in John’s time the
city of Rome and the Roman empire had taken that place. Babylon and Rome
symbolize the city of man in
every age. Cities are the places where
such evil is bred. Cities are places of
sensuality. Such cities seduce
people away from the gospel into the arms of the great prostitute.
We shall now see that such a city cannot stand. The truth is that
prostitutes aren’t loved. They are used, and as soon as they have been
exploited , they shall be forsaken. We shall see that this is exactly what happens in 17:16, in conclusion of this
chapter .
In 17:3 John is
carried away in the Spirit into a wilderness , where he now
witnesses the destruction of Babylon the
great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations. Her
appearance is described in detail in vv.
3-6. She was clearly dressed to
kill. John says that she was “dressed in
purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and
jewels and pearls”[5]. She was “holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual
immorality” (17:5). A mysterious title is inscribed on her forehead, “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations .” She is
identified as the one responsible
for “ the blood of the martyrs of Jesus “(17:6)
She rides on a
scarlet beast that was “full of
blasphemous names, and it had 7
heads and ten horns.” (cf 13:1).
The prostitute and the beast are clearly in a symbiotic relationship. The
anti-christ who holds the real power
makes sure that this woman is
well supplied, and she in turn does her destructive work on his behalf. In John’s
day the anti-christ made sure that Rome would
prosper, and that she in turn would make sure that the Lord’s people – the true Christians
would be killed and persecuted or
subverted. Truly, the city of Rome “was
drunk with the blood of the saints”. Note,
that the Romans were involved in handing Jesus over to the cross.
When John first sees her in
this vision he says : “… I marveled greatly” (17:6).
It is as if John sees here for
the first time just how powerful the wicked culture of the city of man can be.
The angel however interrupts him: ‘why do
you marvel ? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast with the seven heads and ten horns
that carries her .’”(v.8)
The explanation now follows:
“The
beast that you saw, was, and is not, and is about to
rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on
earth whose names have not been written in
the book of life from the foundation of
the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was, and is not, and
is to come”. This beast , as we have
repeatedly said, is the anti-
christ, the imitation of Christ, for he was, is not, and is yet to
come. [Christ, “who is , and who was and who is to come.” Rev. 1:4 ] We first met him in Ch. 13 where he had
received a mortal wound to his
head, a which was miraculously healed
(13:3) and in that sense he was , was not , and yet has come.[6] The spirit of the anti-christ does not seem to die in this world. He is always
resurrected after he has
been dealt a mortal blow. In John’s
time he
persecuted the church by the means of
the Roman empire, and in the course of
time the Roman empire was judged and
came to nothing. But he always comes back in the form of a Hitler,
Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung. Pol Pot, Idi Amin.
Moreover, it seems as if John
speaks here of a future manifestation of
this anti-christ, more terrifying, associated
with the second coming of Christ. It is the event associated
with the battle at Armageddon[7]
(16:16) on the day of God the Almighty (16:14) when
an overwhelming enemy will
attempt to swallow up the work of God.
This event is referred to in Rev 20:7-10 when the devil comes up out of the bottomless pit, after he had been bound for a thousand years. The beast will come up from the bottomless pit
at the same time, and this
will be the time of his destruction, along with those whose names were not written in the Book of
Life from the foundation of the world.
So, then, in a nutshell: The
battle of Armageddon (the sixth bowl judgment 16:12-16), the seventh trumpet (11:15-19), the judgment of
the beast and of the false
prophet and of Satan (20:10), all
occur at the same time! It will
happen at the end of the thousand years spoken of in Rev. 20. What we are saying therefore is that we are
now living in these 1000 years – that
time between the first and second coming of Christ.
So what can we expect in future ? Satan and his anti-christ and the false
prophet will make a
spectacular comeback immediately before
our Lord’s return. The whole world will marvel at him (v.8). From
our perspective we need not be
afraid . This is the indication that judgment day is at hand!
In Rev. 17:9,
the angel reminds John, “This calls for a
mind with wisdom” [8].
Verses
9 & 10 are difficult to
interpret.
The angel now explains the matter concerning “the
seven heads which are seven hills on which
the woman sits”. This is mostly likely an allusion to the city of
Rome, known for its seven hills. But clearly
the angel has more in mind than
this. He says that the seven mountains, “are also seven kings.” Seven mountains and seven kings not only
refer to the city of Rome and the Roman empire, persecuting the church even while John
was writing, but it relates to the whole world , since the beast was
given authority over every people, nation
and tongue and nation ( cf. 17: 1 à
17:15 ; see also 13:7)
The angel says that five
of the seven kings have fallen , one
is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a
little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He
belongs to the seven and is going to his
destruction.” There are many theories as to who these kings might be [9].
It is perhaps better not to view this
succession of kings historically, but theologically. The number 7, is the
number of completion. From this
perspective the seven kings represent the entire history of fallen mankind . By
the time of the coming of Christ, five of these empires have come and gone,
with John and his readers facing the sixth empire (Rome), with a seventh yet to
come, who will remain for a brief period short time. The angel says furthermore that after these seven kings have come and gone, one
of the earlier kings, (connected to the beast) re-appears, as an eighth king , who will
be destroyed very quickly - relating
again to the battle of Armageddon when Satan seeks to destroy the kingdom of
God only to be destroyed himself.
If true, as stated before
this means we can expect an unprecedented world wide manifestation of Satanic power. In this
the anti-christ will dazzle the
world, and many will actually worship
him (the beast) , as he seeks to
deal the church a final death
blow. Expect to see a time of
great peace and prosperity in the world, but expect
also that the world’s worship of the beast, will lead to an
unsurpassed persecution of God’s people.
This same pattern follows with
the ten kings depicted in verses 12-14. Like the seven kings, the ten kingdoms,
depicted by the ten horns, will be
the servants of the anti-christ , but they can ultimately not prevail
against the King of Kings.
As this chapter closes, an amazing thing
happens. The great prostitute, the city
of fallen man is now discarded by the
anti-christ in the same way as a
prostitute is discarded by her lovers . In v.15,
we learn of the prostitute’s fate. “Then the angel said to me, `The waters you saw, where the prostitute
sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. The beast and the ten
horns you saw will hate the prostitute etc.
When the end finally comes, Satan’s kingdom will be
divided against itself and the first
casualty will be the prostitute. I
remind you that Babylon and Rome fell
under the weight of their immorality, when they were
attacked by the very nations who profited from the
systems that they had
created (trade, infra structure, order
etc.) So too, the prostitute who served the anti-christ so well, will
come to an end at the hand of the anti-christ, who
now hates her.
In Revelation 18, we will read
of two angels and a voice from heaven, which will explain the meaning of the great downfall of the
prostitute.
For us who read this prophecy, this is all very encouraging. Our Christ is in control. The city of man is not
our everlasting city. The beauty,
celebrity and wealth of the great prostitute, the city of man is a mere
illusion
Be warned then , not to allow yourself to be caught up in the externals of what the city of man offers. Unfortunately many have been led away in this way from the bridegroom,
Brothers and sisters let us take note and ask ourselves how we
might protect ourselves from all these things which we see even now, so that we might not loose the sight of our heavenly city and our heavenly bridegroom. Amen .
[1] 2:7,11,17,29;
3:6,13,22
[2] E.g. the
rapture theory of the pre-millenialists, by which they claim that God will
take His church out of the world
before what they call “the great tribulation”
[3] Refer to last
exposition for the details to the
battle of Armageddon
[6] There was incidentally
a story (The Nero Redivivus legend)[6]
that went around in AD 67 after Nero had died , that he was miraculously resurrected , only to
come back stronger than ever.
[9] Most commentators try to fit these seven kings into the four great empires
of Daniel 7:17; other to the succession
of Roman emperors beginning with Caesar Augustus down through eight successive
emperors. The problem is that these
theories really do not add up .
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