Chapter 24 Revelation 17 and 18
CHAPTER XXIV
Chapters 17 and 18: THE DESTRUCTION OF THE GREAT HARLOT
17.1: There came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and spake with me, saying, Come hither: I will show thee the judgement of the great harlot that sitteth on many waters.
That is, one of the angels concerned with pouring out the Vials of the last outworking of God's wrath came to John, to reveal to him and us the detailed outworking of one of the matters already summarized in the previous chapter. Since the woman is to be called Babylon (17.5), it might be guessed that the particular angel would be he who poured out his vial on the Euphrates (16.12).
We have already shown that "the great Harlot" must originally have been a pure community pledged to God's allegiance, which subsequently falls away, and prostitutes her powers and duties to evil ends (pages 209-218, 225-227). We have shown that the two candidates for the office are apostate Jewry and apostate Christianity. If the Old Testament were to be our only guide, Jewry would be the only candidate, since the harlot figure is constantly applied to its declension from its covenant with God. But since the New Testment describes the bringing into being of a new people of God (1 Peter 2.9-10), whose apostacy is plainly prophesied, this new pervert could equally reasonably qualify for the title (1 Corinthians 6.15; Acts 20.29; 2 Thessalonians 2.3-11). International Jewish finance might be indicated by the horror of the nations of the world at the fall of'Babylon' in 17.4; 18.3-14, and the parallels with the trading activities of Solomon could point in that direction. But apostate Christianity is also by repute fabulously rich, with its finger on the pulse of much of the world's trade.
We are confronted, in fact, not with two but with three sources of financial and commercial power such as could throw light on Revelation 18.3-14. The Israeli one is currently discounted in the media of communication, especially in view of the economic difficulties of the land of Israel itself. But it is surely not negligible for all that. The Vatican one is not currently given much attention. But this, too, is far from insignificant. The third major factor in the control of the world's wealth to-day is, of course, the riches of the Arab oil-states. All the signs are that this could easily measure up to the other two in the league of world wealth, though it hardly seems that Islam can qualify for the Harlot's
office in view of the fact that as a religious faith it has apostatized neither from Judaism nor from Christianity. That Islam may, nevertheless, play its part in the symbols of Revelation is not to be overlooked: but in that event it would seem that its office is far more likely to be that of the False Prophet than that of the Harlot, especially in view of its slogan, "There is one God, Allah, and Mahomet is his prophet".
17.2: With her the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and they that dwell on the earth were made drunken with the wine of her fornication. 17.3: And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. 17.4: And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones, andpearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, even the unclean things of her fornication. 17.5: And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Whoever the woman turns out to be, she is in control for a while of many peoples, for the "many waters" on which she sits (17.1) are to be equated with the scarlet Beast on which she also sits (17.3), and with "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" (17.15). The fact that she is found in "a wilderness' (17.3), as we have suggested, invites us to compare her with the woman who went into the wilderness in 12.6,14, to stay there for a period of time and then presumably to return, for we have no record of her return if it be not here. This again, would strengthen the view that the Harlot is a fallen people of God, for the woman who gave birth to the Son of God in 12.5 was Israel as ideally represented by the faithful mother of Jesus, and her departure under persecution could correspond to the persecution either of Jewry or of the true church of God. Since, still recapitulating, it is "the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God" (12.7), the way is already prepared for the view that, since accepting the help of the earth, she herself ceased to keep them, and so could become the apostate of 17.1.
17.6: / 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 with a great wonder.
There have been Protestant expositors a-plenty who have called attention to the horrors committed by the Inquisition, to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, to the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and all the other horrors perpetrated in seeking to overcome the work of the Reformation, and there is no reason at
all to wish to diminish from their picture of the apalling things that were done. It remains a mystery as to how the human mind, when so plainly instructed by the Lord Jesus on the matter of loving one's neighbours, and seeking to overcome evil with good, could ever have allowed itself to name the name of Christ while committing such monstrous acts. It is hard to belive that some, at least, of the more learned among the persecutors did not realise how utterly wrong such behaviour is, and against the background of such calculated wickedness the stern punishments called down in such passages as 18.20,24; 19.2 seem very well deserved.
It has to be recognized, though, that the persecuting was not all on one side. Protestants could be as harsh to Catholics as Catholics had been to Protestants; and Gentiles could be as ruthless with Jews as Jews had been with their own prophets, with the Lord Jesus, and with the apostles. It is impossible to overlook Jewish guilt in any discussion of the persecutors of the saints of God (Matthew 23.32; 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16). On the other hand, the "little horn" which sprang up among the divisions of Daniel's empire of the Fourth Beast (Daniel 7.8, 20-21, 25) seems to belong politically to the last phase of empire. What this comes to is that the persecution of the saints has historically issued from Jewry, from Rome and other pagan powers, from apostate Christianity, from Islam, and from modern atheistic states, and any or all of these could be in principle included in 17.6 (of the Harlot), or in 13.7 (of the Beast). We are taught to expect both religious and secular persecution of the saints close to the time of the end, and it is better to keep a wary eye open as to the sources from which it might come, than to decide inflexibly beforehand that we know the answer beyond the possibility that our knowledge might be mistaken or incomplete.
17.7: The angel said to 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. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, they whose name hath not been written in the book of life form the
These words are substantially as they appeared in the first edition of APOCALYPSE FOR EVERYMAN. In the meantime, however, Peter Watkins' EXPLORING THE APOCALYPSE AND THE FUTURE has appeared, with a very different suggestion as to the meanings of Daniel's horn and the last phase of the Beast. This has been summarized and commented on pages 238-242 of this second edition, and in this writer s view the suggestions made above have still to be considered as more likely to be true.
foundation of the world, when they behold the beast, how that he was, and is not, and shall come (-17.8).
In interpreting the Beast in the phase in which we see it here, everything depends on when the Beast "was, and is not, and shall come". If we think of John's own day, the Roman Beast was then in full cry, so "is not" would hardly apply. If we think of our own day, when the glories of the Roman Empire are long past, then it may be that this power, by no means evident at the beginning of the events now being discussed, is to be resurrected in the course of them, so that a Fifth Universal Empire will arise, however fleetingly, from the world's abyss, with such suddenness and completeness that the world will wonder at it and helplessly accept its yoke, save only for those whose names are in the book of life, who will be protected from the deception.
The Beast "was, and is not, and shall come" (17.8). The words in transliteration are:
en kai ouk estin hai mellai anabainein eh tes abusson (17.8a) and, en kai ouk estin kai parestai (17.8b) which seem to be designed as a parody of the very nature of God Himself, Who has been described in 1.4 as: ho on kai ho en kai ho erkhomenos.
The true God constantly is. The one who seeks to usurp the power of God has had a past; at the time under consideration has undergone eclipse, and is to have a brief future. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever, as God's manifestation, was in mortal form until, briefly, He lay dead; He is now at the right hand of the Father, and He will come with power and great glory. The future of the Lord Jesus is eternal: the Beast which opposes Him will "continue a little while" (17.11), and then go into perdition.
No doubt the wondering of the world at this restored Beast will be the same as its wonder at the deadly wound from which it is healed (13.3,12), for the verb and the identity of the wonderers are the same on both occasions.
17.9: Here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sitteth; and they are seven kings: the five are fallen, the one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue.a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, is himself also an eighth, and is of the seven, and he goeth into perdition (-17.11). . . 17.18: The woman which thou sawest is the great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
First, the seven mountains. The seven hills of Rome are legendary, but the certainty of the identification has already been examined. "Here is wisdom", to examine the obvious and be prepared for surprises. "The great city which rules over the kings of the earth" was Rome in John's day; in the purpose of God it was intended that at a day to come it would be restored Jerusalem. It is, as we showed, not in any case the political great city of which we are speaking, for the woman, not the heads themselves and not the Beast, is that great city (17.18).
So wisdom will keep its eyes open, and when it sees a great false pseudo-Christian (or perhaps pseudo-Messianic) power sitting astride the unified kingdoms of the world, it will know how close it is, however bitter the trials through which the wise ones must pass, to the time of permanent deliverance. Rome may indeed prove to be the physical centre from which the evil system will hold sway, but there will be no mistaking it in any case. The purpose of this and other prophecies is not to make it possible for us to write the history of the future, but to make it possible to recognize it as it unfolds.
The seven heads moreover do not only symbolize mountains. They denote, we are told, seven kings (17.9), of which "five are fallen, one is, and the other is not yet come". The last of these, in effect, is to be the same as the revised form of the Beast when it appears in the last time. So what are these seven kings, or systems, of which five have fallen, one remains, and one is awaited? If we have decided that the Beast in its ultimate form was not present at the beginning of the modern events with which the Vial period is concerned, then we must say the same of the 5 1 1 position referred to here. By that time five kings will have gone, one will be extant, and one will be yet outstanding.
It is already impossible to accept the interpretation offered by continuous-historic interpreters. Adam Clarke supposes that John is telling us of seven systems of government in the Roman Empire: Kings (-1181 to -753); Dictators (to -665); Decimvirs (to -336), Consuls (to -43); Triumvirs, and Emperors: of which the last would be the one existing in John's time. The one yet to come on this view would be the "Carlovingian Patriciate", a system set up in Rome by Charlemagne, and said to have lasted a mere 45 years (Bible Commentary, Abingdon Press reprint, VI, 1040-1041). This view arouses total incredulity in the present writer. To what purpose would John and ourselves be invited to look back more than a millennium before Christ to governments existing in Rome when even the Babylonian Empire was in the remote future? Why would we be asked to interest ourselves in Dictators and Decimvirs who were reigning in Rome while the dominant powers in the world were still Babylon, Persia, and Greece?
The Speaker's Commentary offers (but not with approval) another list, ranging from Kings to the Popes before the attainment of temporal power, while J.T. (Ill, page 44, on Revelation 12.3), lists the following: Regal, Consular, Dictatorial, Tribuni-tial, Imperial (-31 to 76), and Gothic ( 76 to 554). But all this seems far removed from the purpose of this chapter, which it is very hard to see concerning itself with the trivialities of the internal organisation of the Roman state. P.W. is surely right thus far in asking us to direct our attention to the beasts cf Daniel 7; but if the first beast is Babylon, with one head (Daniel 7.4); the second Medo-Persia also with one (7.5); the third Greece with four (7.6), and the fourth Rome with one (7.7), making seven in all, then the fifth fallen head would be the third of the Greek four, as he supposes, so that "one is" would be the fourth of these, with the Roman head yet to come! On every count the interpretation of this is difficult, and the solutions offered tortuous.
We may, after all, be driven back to a vintage solution of this problem which sees the Beast as representing the whole succession of human kingdoms in biblical lands, so starting earlier than Babylon. In this event the heads which have fallen would be (i) Egypt, (ii) Assyria; (iii) Babylon; (iv) Medo-Persia; (v) Greece. The one which still exists in John's day and is represented by its fragments now would be (vi) Rome; and the one yet to come would be (vii) the 'man of sin' regime to be destroyed by the Lord with the brightness of His coming (2 Thessalonians 2.8). This is the view of Alford and S.C. It fits in well with the assurance that when the last phase arises it will continue only a little while (17.10). The kings of the earth will share their power with it for only "one hour" (17.12; 18.10,17,19). The Beast dominated by the Harlot would be the seventh and short-lived head, and the Beast standing alone in all its arrogance would be the eighth and last.
17.12: The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings, with the beast, for one hour. These have one mind, and they give their power and authority to the beast (-17.13).
Whether we suppose that there are exactly ten such powers when this time comes will be decided by the degree of literality we are willing to ascribe to a symbolic Book. Our own bodies have ten fingers and ten toes; it is likely that the image of Daniel 2 had the same (though this is not stated). The figure 10 is used sometimes to mean 'a considerable number' (Genesis 31.7,41 of the changes in Jacob's wages; Leviticus 26.26 of the 'ten women who shall bake bread' in time of famine; Numbers 14.22 of Israel's repeated provokings of God; Daniel 1.20 of Daniel's superior
wisdom; Luke 15.8 of the number of coins on the woman's rope; 10.16 of the maximum gain from one pound). So 'ten kings' may well be a synonym for "all the authorities in existence at the time".
Without in any way making a precise prediction, it is noteworthy that in the decades since the Second World War we have seen the creation of many new national entities in Africa, Asia, Australasia and the Caribbean, some of which have already thrown in their lot with Marxist ideology, and all of which could well join other world powers in "giving their power and authority to the Beast". Indeed, the free world seems almost bent on its own destruction, when in the name of freedom it awards independence to once colonial nations on terms which are bound to favour one-party states with an eye on Marxist goals. As the senseless cry of "one man, one vote" is used to put apparent power in the hands of those who have no idea how to exercise it, and actual power in hands which, politically at least, know only too well, the door is being opened wide to the kind of domination we seem increasingly to be experiencing, and with more to come.
17.15: He saith to me, the waters which thou sawest, where the harlot sitteth, are peoples and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which thou sawest, and the beast, these shall hate the harlot, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and shall burn her utterly with fire. For God did put in their hearts to do His mind, and to come to one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be accomplished (-17.17).
We have stood back and wondered at the suicidal folly of what goes on in the western world. Professing freedom, these countries nevertheless pursue policies fated to destroy that freedom, and impose on nations either the desperate tyranny of the far right as existing powers retrench their authority, or the designing tyranny of the far left, as oppressed peoples turn to the only source from which they think relief may come, and are Shamelessly exploited anew by the cynicism of their 'liberators'. As (to present appearances) the 'United Nations' is impeded or misdirected by the policies of left-wing members under an un-confessed but powerful central direction, so do the powers which reject this domination seem increasingly unable to coordinate their own policies, as 'democracy' is splintered by the very freedom which it allows to its minorities. It could almost look as though the seed of self-destruction had actually been implanted in the minds of the powers that be. And is not this precisely what this passage says with its words, "God hath put into their hearts"?
Excursus VIII: THE EXERCISE OF THE POWER OF GOD OVER THE HUMAN HEART
Those for whose eyes this exposition is primarily written are rightly suspicious of the approach to religious faith which seems to subjugate the human reason to the emotions of the heart. It is, we say, the business of a person to examine the evidence, accept that which is proved, do what is commanded, use his powers to the right end, and accept the blame for failures, and the responsibility to achieve success. We are to "work out our own salvation" (Philip-pians 2.12). We reject the existence of a mighty devil on to whom we might shift some of the blame for our failings, and we cast a critical look at any claims for a 'mystical' experience of the indwelling of God's Spirit which might seem to rob us of the initiative to discipline our own minds and bodies to God's service (or rob us of the credit for succeeding in doing so). In a proper defence of the freedom of man's will to obey or disobey God, the improper suggestion is sometimes made that for God to influence man's life from within his person would be an unacceptable interference with that will. Revelation 17.16 provides an excellent opportunity to examine that thesis.
We are not here considering the providential manipulation of events from without, though such manipulation by God does, of course, occur. A heathen king might employ enchantments to determine his military route, and God can so order the sign which arises that the king is actually sent on God's work. So, when "the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way to use divination", it was God who arranged it so that he went against Jerusalem (Ezekiel 21.21). Again, when God made Assyria the rod of His anger, and said, "I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people of My wrath will I give him a charge", the record adds that "he meaneth not so, but it is in his heart to destroy" (Isaiah 10.5-11). These are external influences only: God uses ideas already in the mind to ensure that men willingly fulfil His purposes, without in such instances influencing their thinking as such.
But He may do this too. The same king of Babylon who went of his own free will to do the work to which God directed him, also of his own free will spoke boastful words from his palace. It was then by no will of his that he became mad and was driven from men to live with the beasts of the field (Daniel 4.31-34). There could scarcely be more far-reaching intervention in a man's thinking than this. We can compare this, too, with "the evil spirit from the Lord" which affected Saul when he had freely chosen to disregard the commandments of God (1 Samuel 16.14; 18.10). In both cases God used men who had already made godless decisions, and manipulated their thinking to drive them further on the road they had chosen for themselves.
The classic case, of course, is that of the Pharoah of the Exodus. While it appears, in the main at all events, that this ruler wittingly went back on his word in the early stages of the Plagues, we learn with increasing frequency as the plagues proceed that "God hardened Pharoah's heart". Thus, following the Revised Version:
Exodus
4.21
Before the plagues
God will harden his heart (a promise)
7.13
Before the plagues
Pharaoh's heart was hardened
7.14
Before the plagues
Pharaoh's heart is stubborn
7.22
First plague
Pharaoh's heart was hardened
8.15
Second plague
Pharaoh hardened his heart
8.19
Third plague
Pharaoh's heart was hardened
8.32
Fourth plague
Pharaoh hardened his heart
9. 7
Fifth plague
The heart of Pharaoh was stubborn
9.12
Sixth plague
THE LORD HARDENED THE HEART OF PHARAOH
9.34
Seventh plague
Pharaoh hardened his heart
9.35
Seventh plague
The heart of Pharaoh was hardened
10. 1
Before the eighth plague
GOD HAS HARDENED HIS HEART AND THAT OF HIS SERVANTS
10.20
Eighth plague
THE LORD HARDENED PHARAOH'S HEART
10.27
Ninth plague
THE LORD HARDENED PHARAOH'S HEART
It is plain, therefore, that whereas Pharaoh was a deceitful and untrustworthy person, who could bring himself to go back on his word whenever he thought the peril was past, God had intended from the start that, on certain occasions, his freedom of choice should be denied him (4.21), and that on a least four of these He actually brought this about (9.12; 10.1; 10.20; 10.27). Scripture nowhere attempts to soften this fact, and when Paul refers to it he not only accepts that the hardening occurred, but even seems to generalize it: "For he saith to Pharaoh, For this very purpose did I raise thee up, that I might show thee My power... So then He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth" (Romans 9.17-18. No doubt God confines this fatal intervention to "vessels of wrath fitted for destruction" (9.22), and clearly no injustice is done in speeding to their destruction confirmed sinners who have no intention sincerely to repent. But the point is established at least in a negative way: God does influence the minds, at least of some evil people, in pursuance of His purpose.
If it is complained that in this event those concerned do not have freedom of will, the fact is unaltered even were this so; but strictly speaking it is not so. What God does is to confirm and fix in such persons the decisions which their free wills have already and deliberately taken, and so make insincere and time-serving repentance impossible for them. The examples given appear to be part of a more general policy, as Romans says again: "Knowing God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. . . wherefore God gave them up in the lusts of their heart to uncleanness. . . for this cause God gave them up to vile passions. . . God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting" (1.21-28). Once instructed men and women get to the point where God knows that they have ruled out any willing response to His goodness. He may harden their hearts also, so that they may reap the consequences of their wilful folly. There is truth in the words of the proverb set in verse by Dryden:
For those whom God to ruin has designed, He fits for fate, and first destroys their mind.
It is this sober fact which is brought out by our passage in Revelation. What we now need to know is whether God will also intervene for good in the persons of those who truly desire to please Him. That the same providential possibilities exist is plain, and doubtless uncontested. Cornelius is told in a dream to send for Peter, and Peter in a vision to go when he is sent for (Acts 10.1-16). Jesus appears to Paul on the Damascus road, to provide the evidence which will complete the process of conversion in His chosen vessel (9.10-16). A vision directs Paul and Silas into Europe (6.9-10). In all cases, though, those receiving the call are free to go or to stay. As Paul himself puts it, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision" (26.19), making it very plain that it lay within his power to disobey if he chose.
But there is much more than this. When God "gave a new heart" to Saul ben Kish, Saul became for a time a better man and king than he otherwise showed any promise of being (1 Samuel 10.9). He retained the freedom to accept or not this inward strength and counsel, and enlarge its scope, and the latter choice is, in tact, thr one he made. Again, when "the man after God's own heart" showed how easy it is for the heart to revert to baser things, in his dealings with Uriah's wife and Uriah himself, his earnest plea when he recovered his senses, and confessed that he had been "shapen in iniquity, and in sin did his mother bear" him was, "Create in me a new heart, and renew a right spirit within me", and also that God would not take away His presence from Him, nor remove His Holy Spirit (Psalm 51.10-11). It would be utterly out of accord with the spirit of this prayer to suppose David to be asking mechanically only for the continuance of inspiration, the power to receive revelations and compose God's hymns. Those blessings might be added also, but it is restoration to God's society, and the granting of grace to a repentant mind for which he is appealing. The R. V. references rightly relate this case to that of Saul discussed above.
It will be the same with Israel in the days of restoration to come. Those who reject the Lord Jesus when He returns will of course bear their punishment. But for those who repent there is the repeated promise that God will give them, as He did Saul, a "new heart" (Jeremiah 31.33; 32.39; Ezekiel 11.19; 18.31; 36.26). The new disposition will not be forced on them, but will be promoted in those who have already shown themselves willing to take the first steps, who "look on Me Whom they have pierced, and mourn" (Zechariah 12.10).
So far the positive evidence has been drawn only from natural Israel in past and future. Or, rather, this would be so had not the words of Jeremiah 31.33 been taken up in Hebrews 8.10, and applied to true believers in this present dispensation. And now the floodgates of evidence are open, for there is no gainsaying or resisting the overwhelming evidence that such help is precisely what God wishes and intends to give to His children in Christ. Here
are some results obtained simply by looking at Concordance-references under the word "heart":
1. God, Which knoweth the hearth, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Spirit, even as He did to us... CLEANSING THEIR HEARTS BY FAITH" (Acts 15.8,9).
2. A certain woman named Lydia. . . one that worshipped God, heard us, WHOSE HEART THE LORD OPENED to give heed to the things that were spoken by Paul (16.14).
3. Ye are an epistle of Jesus Christ, ministered by us, WRITTEN not in ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but IN TABLETS THAT ARE THE HEARTS OF FLESH (2 Corinthians 3.3).
4. Thanks be to God, WHO PUTTETH THE SAME EARNEST CARE FOR YOU INTO THE HEART OF TITUS (2 Corinthians 8.16).
5. Because ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son INTO OUR HEARTS, crying Abba, Father (Galatians 4.6).
6. I bow my knees to the Father. . . that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, that YE MAY BE STRENGTHENED WITH POWER THROUGH HIS SPIRIT IN THE INWARD MAN, THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS THROUGH FAITH . . . Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, ACCORDING TO THE POWER THAT WORKETH IN US, unto Him be glory (Ephesians 3.14-21).
7. Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father Which loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, COMFORT YOUR HEARTS AND STABLISH YOU in every good work and word (2 Thessalonians 2.16-17).
Such a search using only one key word is necessarily only superficial. But is is decisive for all that. If, in pursuit of his free choice whether or not to conform to God's way, a person should seek for help from God, these passages show that God will not deny him. He will in no way override the suppliant's freedom, but to the cry "Lord, I believe, help Thou mine unbelief (Mark 9.24), God will not be deaf. He can open the humble heart to receive; He can strengthen the obedient heart and comfort it, offering "the peace which passeth all understanding to fill it in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4.7-9). And, to complete a quotation left incomplete hitherto, if we do "work out our own salvation with fear and trembling", then on His part "It is God that worketh in you, both to will and to work, for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2.12-13).
God Himself, alone, can determine the extent of His inward influence, for good or ill, on His creatures. But their own conformity to His will, or lack of it, will determine the direction in which that influence will move. We are assured, though, that if by God's grace we have been brought to the knowledge of the faith, and have passed through the waters of baptism, it is not His will that we should then be left entirely to our own devices. Nor, having
given us the unique revelation to be found in the Bible and nowhere else, will He expect us to ignore or repudiate the plain promise that, having given up His Son Jesus Christ for our sins, He will "through Him freely give us all things" (Romans 8.32), as the Lord continues His constant intercession for us.
The Bible itself is the only valid witness in the case; and it is this Book which encourages us to pray for such help. It is only necessary, for example, to glance through the prayers of Paul in his Letters to see how committed we are to our need for God's active, inward help in the transformation of our lives, and how specifically this help is promised.
We see then how powerfully the Scriptures demonstrate that God can and will strengthen the resolve of His servants to be true to their calling; that He can and will help in their sincere and prayerful desire to become better people in His sight. It is not for this writer to attempt to define the manner in which such help is given. Nor need anyone who is dissatisfied with his own apprehension of that help from God lose heart on that account. It is one of the unhappy side-effects of an emotional 'evangical' movement that it tends to flatter those whose emotions are easily aroused, and discourage the more phlegmatic because they cannot conjure up the same feelings. These notes are not concerned with promoting 'experiences' or advocating techniques for spiritual advancement. Ours is the humbler task of showing from the Scriptures themselves that the believer, however much or little he perceives it, will not be left to his own devices in working out his salvation.
One can understand why suspicion may be felt that to claim too much for God's inward operation is to take away spiritual initiative from the believer, and undervalue his need to have constant recourse to the Scriptures in order to learn more and more of God's will for him and God's purpose with the world. What is harder to understand is the misuse of Scriptural teaching which is sometimes encountered when these suspicions are rampant. An example of this is a newly developed advocacy of the part played by the angels in the life of the believer. It has been claimed, for example, that to stress the activities of God within the person of the believer is to revert to the error of Augustine, who is supposed to have replaced
A long list of such prayers is contained in my ACTS AND EPISTLES, pages 217 to 222. Here we merely reproduce some of the most relevant references, whose significance will be very plain as soon as they are turned up: Romans 1.7; 8.15; 15.33; 16.25; 1 Corinthians 1.3; 1.4; 1.8-9; 16.23; 2 Corinthians 1.2; 1.3; 8.16; 13.7; 14.14; Galatians 1.3; 6.18; Esphesians 1.2; 1.16; 3.14; 6.23; Philippians 1.2; 1.3; 1.9; 4.6; 4.19; 4.23; Colossians 1.2; 1.9; 2.1; 4.18; 1 Thessalonians 1.1; 3.11; 5.23; 5.28; 2 Thessalonians 1.2; 1.11; 2.16; 3.16; 1 Timothy 1.2; 6.21; 2 Timothy 1.2; 4.22; Titus 1.4; 3.15; Philemon 3; 4; 25; Hebrews 13.20; 13.25. In addition, related prayers from other Epistles may be added: James 1.5; 4.8; 1 Peter 1.2; 5.10; 5.14; 2 Peter 1.2; 1 John 5.14; 2John3; Jude 2.24; and, of course, parallel prayers in Revelation itself: 1.4; 2.20.
scriptural teaching on angelic operation by an unscriptural one involving the mystical indwelling of the believer by the Spirit of God. The present writer is no expert in the teaching of Augustine, but the statement does seem to be devoid of any historical foundation.
The facts are that, prominent though angels are in the records of Scripture, and particularly in the Apocalypse (in which 76 of the 188 occurrences of the word in the New Testament are found), there is no great stress laid on the part which they play in the lives of believers, whether in the Old Covenant or in the New. Nor is there in the writings of our well-respected authors. In God's Way, John Carter devotes pages 39-40 to the subject, and makes no reference to their providential activities among the saints. In Ways of Providence, Robert Roberts devotes pages 9 to 14 (Fifth Edition) to the same subject, taking up the same position, but adding, "The leading element in the operation of providence, where these operations really take place, consists of angelic interposition", a very moderate and unexceptionable observation. John Thomas (Elpis Israel, 14th Edition 1966) refers to the subject of angels on pages 11,271, and 273. The first reference is devoted to a speculation as to the meaning of "the angels that sinned" (2 Peter 2.4; Jude 6); the second refers to angelic tutelage of Israel prior to the coming of the Lord Jesus, and also speaks of the angels as ministering to saints: "The providential direction of human affairs is committed to the Elohim , who are termed the angels of the little ones who believe in Jesus, because they minister to their profit, in causing all things among the nations to work together for their ultimate good". The
This point was made in our First Edition in 1977, and has not been refuted. What is certain is that the community which holds Augustine in the greatest regard has a very well developed doctrine of the veneration of angels (and saints too), and an old catechism contained in The Catholic Instructor (New York 1910) says that veneration is due to angels "because the angels of God are our guardians, tutors, and governors, as appears from many texts of Scripture: Psalm 91.11,12; Matthew 18.10; Hebrews 1.14. It is therefore evidently the will of God that we should have a religious veneration for these heavenly guardians". What is equally noteworthy is that the same volume contains no teaching whatever on the inward activities of the Spirit of God!
J.T. here means "the angels". The only occasion where 'e:l7>hiym is translated "angel" is Psalm 8.5, where LXX has aggeloi, and the translation is justified here by the quotation in Hebrews 2.7. It is aggeloi too, of course, in the passage referred to concerning the "little ones" (Matthew 18.10). If a Hebrew word were required here it should have been mal:'S kiym.
The only passages in the New Testament which speak of the angels' participation in the lives of the people of God now are: (i) Matthew 4.6 = Luke 4.10, in special relation to the Lord Jesus Himself; (ii) Matthew 4.11 = Mark 1.13; Luke 22.43 of actual angelic ministration to the Lord Jesus; (iii) Matthew 18.10 of "the angels who behold the face of God" and care for the "little ones" that believe on Jesus; (iv) Luke 15.10 of the rejoicing of the angels when sinners repent; (v) Acts 5.19; 8.26; 10.3,7,22; 11.13,12.8-11; 27.23 of various appearances of angels to disciples and prospective disciples; (vi) Acts 12.15 where disciples in the house say "It is his angel" of the report by Rhoda that she had seen Peter; (vii) 1 Corinthians 11.10, where a woman should wear a covering on her head "because of the angels"; (viii) Colossians 2.19 where "worshipping of angels" is condemned; (ix) 1 Timothy 5.21, where Timothy is charged in the sight of the "elect angels" to be faithful; (x) Hebrews 12.22, where the saints are in the presence of "an innumerable host of angels"; (xi) Hebrews 13.2, where one should show hospitality to strangers because by this some have entertained angels unawares; (xii) Hebrews 1.14, in which we are told that the angels are "ministering spirits, sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation". This forms a quite adequate basis for being sure that angelic ministration does exist; though very few of the passages have much to do with their part in the lives of ordinary saints; and though the evidence is enough to be convincing, it is not enough to justify making angelic ministration a cardinal point of Christian teaching. And, when all has been said, this is a ditterent and a supplementary ministry which has nothing to do with the inward work of God for the betterment of His saints, of which the abundant evidence already cited speaks so plainly. It should be added that at no point is the disciple bidden pray for angelic help. No doubt God uses angels as appropriate for this.as for all other relevant works, but the disciples' prayers are, as we have seen above, at least in the main to be directed to purposes which the angels cannot serve. When they approach the throne of grace to "obtain mercy, and grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4.16), they look for mercy at the mercy-seat, and the grace to help is needed for the infirmities of our sinning natures, which only the power of God can touch.
If literature of a catechetical kind, such as "The Declaration", "The Good Confession", and Statements of Faith, included in the survey the result is the same. The first of these does not appear to single out angels for special mention at all; the same is true of the second in all its 127 clauses. In the third we are told that "God was revealed 'by angelic manifestation and vision". Finally "The Christadelphian Instructor" which gives the most detailed treatment, refers to the angels' duties their bodily nature and the saints' future participation in this, their appearances among men in the past, their names, and their having on some occasions borne the name of God. But there is no formal doctrine of angehc working laid down, and in any case the operations predicated are quite different from the ones discussed here.
So the harlot, apostate religious system is rejected by the powers she thought to control. Her short-lived dominion is terminated, and with it her very existence, for when she is robbed, stripped, her flesh devoured, and what remains "burnt utterly with fire", there is nothing that survives. The Beast will find itself another helper in the pseudo-spiritual field, but she, Babylon the great, is gone for ever. One power of evil, as has so often happened in the past, will have done God's work for Him by destroying another. It may well be that the Beast and its ten kings will not realise the harm they are doing to themselves when they destroy the harlot, for "the kings of the earth, which committed fornication with her shall weep and wail over her" (18.9; cf. 17.2,12), but that is the way of revolutions. It was the way in which things turned out in the French Revolution, when some of France's best brains were guillotined because "la Republique n'a pas besoin des savants", and the world was aghast at the wanton ruin caused to the culture and commerce of that country, from which it took long to recover. But have we not seen even more recently what self-inflicted damage can strike newly independent countries when they shake off the yoke of their oppressors and at the same time reject, or are denied, the advantages which theircom-merce and experience used to bring with it?
17.18: The woman whome thou sawest is the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth.
If "reigneth" means "reigneth at the time when the vision was given to John", it would have to be Rome. If, on the other hand, as we have found good reason to suppose, it means "reigneth at the time when the harlot mounts the Beast", the interpretation is more open. The widespread international influence of the Vatican might favour Rome, though a Rome different both from that which John knew, and the one we know now. Currently Rome as the capital of Italy represents near-bankruptcy. Rome as the centre of the Catholic Church speaks with an ambiguous voice, with loosened doctrine, weakened hold on its people, some liberty of conscience for non-Catholics even in traditionally Catholic lands, bitter disputes over the abandonment of the Latin rite, open defiance in the matter of family limitation, rumblings about a marriageable priesthood, left-wing insurrection in Latin American countries against right-wing Catholic rulers, and communist domination over such traditional Catholic countries as Poland and Hungary. That situation could alter, and best-selling books about political machinations involving possible concordats with communist authorities leave the possibility that we are far from having seen the last of such a power. This would be particularly so
if the oecumenical movement should progress far enough to include Catholicism within its purview, so that a reunited 'Christendom' took the place of a merely partisan church, however large that church might be. Finally, Rome considered as a name attached to the "Treaty of Rome", which brought into being the 'Common Market', offers another facet of the problem for consideration. The organization is not particularly Roman at this stage, whether or not it will ever become so. Its headquarters are in Belgium, and its most influential members appear to be Germany and France. But something much bigger is depicted in Revelation 13 and 17 as the Beast on which the woman rides, and there is nothing to exclude the thought that this western European community might find itself outflanked and then absorbed in the coming world empire, with Rome, perhaps, astride it as its spiritual leader.
Whatever problems face us in an attempt to assess Rome's candidacy for the role of the great city, the other possible candidate seems currently even less likely. Israel has now declared Jerusalem to be its eternal capital, indeed, and has won notable victories over its Arab neighbours in several wars since 1948. But it is politically disunited, economically chaotic, internationally under heavy pressure in relation to Palestinian claims, and militarily extremely vulnerable as industrial states seek to strike the precarious balance between giving Israel the support which some would like to do (or feel the need to do in the face of communist near-east menace), and risking still further the supplies and costs of Arab oil. Yet this, too, is not the whole picture. As we have mentioned earlier, it is hard to know what kind of grip Israeli finance might get on the world were it to be turned to the political support of Israel as a nation. And there is no doubting the apostacy from its true faith of a nation which continues to reject the claims of its Messiah whom its forefathers crucified.
And, again to repeat an earlier point, in these days when negotiations behind the scenes can produce surprising political alignments, who is to say that they might not produce surprising spiritual ones too? Eucumenicalism speaks grand words about there being room for all faiths in our search for God, so why not a liaison in which both Rome and Jerusalem play their part, for as long as the nations of the Beast allow them? Whatever form this harlot power will take, it will have to emerge from desolation or something very near that,else how could it say, as it will, "I sit a queen and am no widow"? (18.7)
18.1: After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority, and the earth was lightened with his glory. 18.2: And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen,
fallen, is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness (18.3).
The actual event elaborated here is plainly that destruction of the harlot of which we have just been reading in Chapter 17, for 18.3 parallels 17.2; 18.6 parallels 17.4; 18.16 parallels 17.18.This is not a new and subsequent event, therefore, but a more detailed description of the event of which we read in the earlier chapter, itself the fulfilment of the outpouring of the Sixth Vial (16.12). Even so, the judgement in the hands of this angel of great authority shows that enormous significance attaches to the event. As in the Vials the drying up of the Euphrates was the essential prelude to the coming of the kings from the sun's rising, so here the fall of Babylon leads to the final conflict between the Lamb and the Beast. There is an interesting parallel between the language used here and in Ezekiel 43.2, in which "the glory of the God of Israel", which had forsaken Jerusalem before the city was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar (Ezekiel 10.18), returns to the land "from the way of the east" and, as here, "the earth shined with His glory". In Ezekiel it is the restoration of the glory of physical Jerusalem which is under contemplation, when the iniquity of the former city shall have been purged: how fitting it is that the passage in Revelation should refer to the destruction of the old apostate system, before the New Jerusalem of the saints is revealed as "coming down from God out of heaven" (21.10).
The words "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great" have been met earlier in 14.8. The title "Babylon" is found again in 17.5, but the words originate in Isaiah 21.1,9: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen". This occurs in "the burden of the wilderness of the sea," apparently a reference to the marshes of Mesopotamia reclaimed by Nebuchadnessar and made habitable and fertile. But there are more detailed parallels with Jeremiah 50-51 and with Ezekiel 26-27, as tabulated below:
Revelation
Jeremiah
18.2
Fallen, fallen is Babylon. A habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird.
51.8 Babylon is utterly taken and destroyed.
50.39 The wild beasts of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall
51.37 dwell therein. . . A dwelling place for jackals.
18.3
By the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen (cf. 14.8; 17.2).
51.7
Babylon hath been a golden cup. . . that made all nations drunken; the nations have drunk of her wine.
18.4
Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
50.8
Flee out of the midst of Babylon.
51.6
Be not cut off in her iniquity.
51.45
My people, go ye out of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the Lord.
18.5
Her sins have reached even to heaven.
51.9
Her judgement reacheth to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
18.6
Render to her even as she rendered, and double to her double according to her works.
50.15
As she has done, do to her. . . According to all that
50.29
she has done, do to her. . . I will render to Babylon ... all
51.14
the evil that they have done.
Revelation
Ezekiel
18.22
The voice of haprers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee,
26.13
I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.
18.13
(Merchandise of) the souls of men.
27.13
They traded the persons of men.
28.2
Thine heart is lifted up.
18.7
She glorified herself. . . in her heart.
18.19
They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning.
27.30
They shall cause their voice to be heard over thee, and shall cry bitterly, and shall cast up dust on their heads.
18.18
What city is like the great city?
27.32
Who is there like Tyre?
No less than 17 of the items of merchandise in Ezekiel 27.12ff are repeated in Revelation 18, including silver, iron, brass, horses, war-drums (taken as equivalent to chariots), ivory, purple, fine linen, wheat, oil, balm (taken as ointment), wool, lambs (sheep), spices, precious stones, and gold. Allowing for uncertainties in the identification of Hebrew and Greek terms with each other, the list might be yet longer: thus LXX has frankincense in Ezekiel as in Revelation 18.13.
There is no doubt that the Spirit is deliberately drawing the parallel between ancient Tyre and spiritual Babylon and, as we
observed previously, this again directs attention to Israel in some form, in view of Soloman's ancient relations with Tyre, and the similarity of her merchant activities, and those in our chapter, to his (2 Chronicles 9.24; 1 Kings 10.10-29).
18.4: / heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even to
heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. (18.5).
The words are again drawn from the Old Testament, when natural Israel is called on to forsake the doomed city of Babylon in Isaiah 48.20; and there are parallels also with 52.11, Jeremiah 50.8 and 51.6,45 as shown above, and Zechariah 2.6-7. In the New Testament the words are no doubt intended to remind us of Paul's call to all saints of all ages, "Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing" (2 Corinthians 6.17, itself quoted from Isaiah 52.11). The call is obviously to be heard before the destruction of 'Babylon' takes effect, just as the call of the Lord Jesus to His disciples to forsake the doomed Jerusalem (Luke 21.21) had to be heeded before the city was broken up. Like Sodom, the 'city' cannot be spared for the multitude of its iniquities but, like Lot (Genesis 19.16), the faithful have the opportunity to escape.
Who are they who are to come out, and when? Apart from the timeless call to those called on to join their Lord without the camp (Hebrews 13.13-14), having here no continuing city, the urgency grows as the day approaches in which "yet once more" the Lord will shake the world (Haggai 2.6; Hebrews 12.26-28). The Jewish believers needed to disentangle themselves from relliance on a doomed temple as the destruction of Jerusalem approached; and the disciples of a day soon to come may need to make a decision no less momentous and deliberate, as we near the time when "the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved in fervent heat" (2 Peter 3.10).
The enthronement of the Harlot on the Beast will be so obvious that the saint will see it and know, as surely as did the disciples of the first century, that "the desolation is nigh" of the systems they represent (Luke 21.20-23). The tribulations they will then suffer at the hands of the Harlot, and the Beast and his False Prophet, and the mark of slavery they will be called on to resist, will all serve to reinforce the lesson. These sufferings will themselves demand the choice: do the people of God cling to the things of this life at the cost of their faithfulness? Or do they keep faith at the expense of the loss of those things? This will be indeed coming out of Babylon, the drawing back of the hands from touching the unclean things.
At some stage, though, the saints will be taken away from the world's last travail. Noah needed to go physically into his ark; Lot must depart from Sodom; the disciples must leave Jerusalem. Before "one is taken and another left" (Luke 17.22-37), may not the Lord have then said to both of them, "Now is the time to leave: come with Me!" And will the one that is left say ' "I go sir," and go not'? (Matthew 21.30). The world will have its fill of people like Lot's potential sons-in-law; but the congregation of the saints, and every one of its members, need the warning: "Remember Lot's wife!"
"Her sins have reached to heaven". Such was the primeval sin of Babylon, and its seems always to be linked with her name. Men sought to unite under its banner from the days of Nimrod, who "began to be a mighty one in the earth" (Genesis 10.8), the beginning of whose kingdom was Babel (18.10) in the land of Shinar. There it was that they commenced to build their tower to reach to heaven (11.4), without having counted the terrible cost. Thence arose the confusion of tongues which scattered them abroad. All the empire-builders have sought to gather the scattered people together again and build the tower anew, and all in one way or another have said, "Is not this great Babylon which I have built for the royal dwelling place, by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?"
This is the characteristic of Babylon, its unforgiveable sin. "Thou saidst in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14.14). "She has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel" (Jeremiah 50.29). "Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall spoilers come to her, saith the Lord" (51.53). Jeremiah actually saw to it that these terrible predictions should be sent to Babylon by the hand of Seraiah (51.59-64), that Babylon might be warned of its peril much as Jonah had warned Nineveh (Jonah 1.1 -2; 3.1 -4), but Nineveh, for the time, repented and Babylon did not. It is just the same with the Babylon of the Apocalypse.
That final witness to the nations of which we have written before, returns to the picture now:
The last witness will have been borne and rejected (10.8-11; 11.3-10; 14.6-7), and its bearers made to suffer for their testimony; and this, filling up all the iniquities of the past, will be the immediate ground of the punishment. There is a long history of sinfulness, indeed, when the final visitation comes, but when it does come it will at that time be fully warranted by the continued stiffnecked refusal to repent.
18.6: Render to her double even as she rendered, and double to her double according to her works; in the cup which she mingled, mingle to her double. How much soever she glorified herself and waxed wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. Therefore in one day shall her plagues come: death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God Which judgeth her (-18.9).
This is an unmistakeable quotation from Psalm 137.8-9: "O daughter of Babylon that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the rock; and, notwithstanding the apparently vindictive language, the message is plain: ancient Babylon had behaved cruelly and proudly, in full knowledge of the wickedness of its deeds, against ancient Israel, and the hard words were in warning as well as in expressions of Israel's hope. The deliverance would inevitably be accompanied by heavy afflictions to the ruthless aggressor, and he had been duly warned. There was and will be no place for pity in the ruin of those who had or have hardened their hearts like flint against God and His people.
It is the same in Isaiah 47.4-9, where the 'daughter of the Chaldeans' shall no more be called 'The Lady of Kingdoms'; Israel had been delivered to Babylon because of its own sins, but Babylon had shown no mercy. It had been warned but it did not "lay these things to its heart, neither remember the latter end thereof; it arrogated divine claims to itself, saying "I am, and there is none beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children". But all these things would come upon it, in spite of its sorceries and enchantments. As with the old Babylon, so with the new: each will have sinned with a high hand, and made blasphemous claims. Old Babylon did at least have the extenuation that it was carrying out God's judgements on an unfaithful race, but the new Babylon has no such excuse: those whom it injures are the "remnant of the seed" of the woman, "who keep the commandments of God" (Revelation 12.17).
18.9: The kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived wantonly with her, shall weep and wail over her when they look on the smoke of her burning, standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city of Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour is thy judgement come. And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more (-18.11).
Though this apostate system is destroyed, not by the visible intervention of God, but by the nations over which it so fleetingly
rules, yet no good comes to its destroyers because of it. In the interlocked commercial world of our day, supposing that the message is at least partly literal, it is impossible to ruin any of its major components without bringing hardship to the rest. The world would not be better off if one of its great trading nations were ruined, nor if the western world suddenly disintegrated. Even the slow, if serious, recession against which these words are written, affects the whole world if it affects any major nation. The picture we have suggested of the economic power of the Harlot system means to us that, even when a resentful world brings it to ruin, it will but be hastening its own bankruptcy. It may not be fully relevant to point out the much lower standard of living endured by those countries which have destroyed their capitalist enterprises and set up 'Peoples' Democracies', but it is a fact.
18.20: Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and ye apostles, and ye prophets: for God hath judged your judgement on her.
The only people to find any satisfaction in this situation, while the rest of the world mourns, are the saints of God themselves. In just such terms did Moses sing of the victory of God on His people's behalf in the times of the Exodus, and in prophecy of the later victory also: "Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people: for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries." (Deuteronomy 32.43).
18.21: A strong angel took up a stone, as it were a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all. And the voice of harpers and ministrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman of whatsoever craft shall be found any more at all in thee; and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain on the earth (-18.24).
There is still the same uncertainty as between apostate Jewry and apostate Christendom. For though saints have been persecuted both by Jews and by those professing the name of Christ, and though apostles, too, were victims of both, the prophets :in the dominant, Old Testament sense of the term) were slain by the Jews, and the generation which engineered the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was held guilty in all respects, as we have clearly seen (Luke 13.34; Matthew 23.29-37; Luke 11.31; 1 Thessalonians 2.14-16). But unless the last days before the Lord returns see a large-scale deceit of the nations promoted by resurgent Jewry, certainly the prime candidate for that role is at present apostate Christianity. The time will reveal the truth when the situation arises, but for the present we need to remember again that any body which apostatizes from the truth is guilty in God's sight of prostituting its heritage, and therefore it may prove to be unnecessary to distinguish between the two fallen estates. Each alike is contrary to the God who bought it, and each alike may turn against Him in the end.
To whatever extent the Book of Revelation may concern itself with the behaviour and fate of unfaithful natural Israel (as is plainly the case in, say, 2.9 and 11.8), it would be incongruous if a Book dealing with "all kindreds and nations and peoples and tongues" should be primarily concerned with Israel after the flesh, and the land to which it is returning. If more stress than usual has been laid in this work on the possible connection of Israel with the Harlot system in the last days, it is because this aspect has so often been neglected completely. And if cautionary notes have been struck from time to time, it is because it seems to this writer that in some writings the pendulum may have swung too far in the other direction, running the danger of contracting the gospel which was preached in Jerusalem, Judaea-, Samaria, and the uttermost parts of the world, and confining the scope of its last and broadest message within the shrunken boundaries of Canaan once more.
It is important, however, to note that even if natural Israel proves to be involved in the Harlot figure, the destruction can only refer to the temporary system she represents, and not to the nation as a whole, of which God has promised, "I will not make a full end of them."
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