CHAPTER SIXTEEN. ANTICHRIST AND BABYLON. (REV. 18).
In our last chapter we sought to show that in
Rev. 17 "the great Whore", and "Babylon the great", though intimately
connected, are yet distinct; the former being the representative of the latter.
While allowing, yea insisting upon it, that many features of the symbolic
prophecy contained in Rev. 17 have had a striking fulfillment already, still
that in which all its varied terms are to find their complete realization is
yet future. We also reminded our readers that Israel supplies the solution to
most of the problems of prophecy, and this is becoming more and more evident as
the last prophetic book in the Bible is receiving wider and closer study. Fifty
years ago the majority of the commentators "spiritualised" the first half of
Rev. 7 and made the twelve tribes of Israel, there mentioned, to refer to the
Church. But this has long since been discredited. So, the popular
interpretation of Rev. 12 which had the "woman" there a figure of the Church
has also been abandoned by many. An increasing number of Bible students are
recognizing the fact that "the Lamb's Wife," "the Bride" of Rev. 19 and 21 also
contemplates Israel rather than the Church. That the Church is the Bride (a
statement nowhere affirmed in Scripture) has been sedulously proclaimed by the
Papacy for over a thousand years, and the tradition has been echoed throughout
Protestantism. But, as we have said, there is a steadily increasing number who
seriously question this, yea, who are bold to repudiate it, and declare in its
stead that the new Israel, saved Israel, will be "the Bride". As this truth
becomes more clearly discerned, we believe it will also be apparent that the
great Whore is not the apostate church but apostate Israel.
The future of Israel is a wide subject, for
numerous are the scriptures which treat of it. It is, moreover, a subject of
profound interest, the more so because what is now prophetic is so soon to
become historic. The Zionist movement of the last twenty-five years is
something more than the impracticable ideal of a few visionaries; it is
steadily preparing the way for the re-establishment of the Jews in Palestine.
It is true that the Zionists have been frowned upon by many in Jewry, and that,
for a very good reason. God's time is not yet fully ripe, and He has permitted
the mercenary spirit of many of Jacob's descendants to hold it, temporarily, in
check. The millions of Jews now comfortably settled and prospering in this
land, and in the capitals of the leading European countries, are satisfied with
their present lot. The love of money outweighs sentimental considerations.
Zionism has made no appeal to their avarice. To leave the markets and marts of
New York, London, Paris, and Berlin in order to become farmers in Palestine is
not sufficiently alluring. Mammon is now the god of the vast majority of the
descendants of those who, of old, worshipped the golden calf.
At present, it is (with few exceptions) only
those who are oppressed in greater Russia, Hungary, etc. who are really anxious
to be settled in Palestine. But soon there will be a change of attitude. Even
now there are faint indications of it. As Palestine becomes more thickly
populated, as the prospects of security from Turkish and Arabian depredations
grow brighter, as the country is developed and the possibilities of commercial
aggrandizement loom on the horizon, the better class of Jews will be quick to
see and seize the golden opportunity. Few American Jews are anxious to emigrate
to Palestine when there is nothing more than a spade and a hoe at the end of
the journey. But as hospitals, colleges, universities, banking houses are
opened, and all the commercial adjuncts of civilization find a place in the
land of David, then rapidly increasing numbers of David's descendants will turn
their faces thitherward. High finance is the magnet which will draw the
covetous Hebrews.
Once Palestine becomes a thorough Jewish State it
is not difficult to forecast the logical corollary. We quote from the excellent
exposition on Zechariah by Mr. David Baron - his comments on the fifth
chapter.[11] Without any spirit of dogmatism,
and without entering at this place into the question of the identity and
significance of the Babylon in the Revelation - whether mystical or actual - we
would express our conviction that there are scriptures which cannot, according
to our judgment, be satisfactorily explained except on the supposition of a
revival and yet future judgment of literal Babylon, which for a time will be
the center and embodiment of all the elements of our godless civilization, and
which especially will become the chief entrepot of commerce in the world.
"To this conviction we are led chiefly by the
fact that there are prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the literal
Babylon which have never in the past been exhaustively fulfilled, and that
Scripture usually connects the final overthrow of Babylon with the yet future
restoration and blessing of Israel.
"And it is very striking to the close observer of
the signs of the times how things at the present day are rapidly developing on
the very lines which are forecast in the prophetic scriptures. "The fears and
hopes of the world - political, commercial, and religious, writes one in a
monthly journal which lies before me, are at the present day being increasingly
centered upon the home of the human race - Mesopotamia...As the country from
which the father of the Jewish nation emigrated to the land of promise, it is
also occupying the thoughts and aspirations of the Jews'.
"Whatever may be the outcome of the negotiations
which have been carried on recently with the Turkish Government by the Jewish
Territorialists for the establishment of a Jewish automonous State in this very
region, in which many Zionists and other Jews were ready to join, there is so
much truth in the words of another writer that when once a considerable number
of such a commercial people as the Jews are re-established in Palestine, `
the Euphrates would be to them as necessary as the Thames to London or the
Rhine to Germany. It would be Israel's great channel of communication with the
Indian seas, not to speak of the commerce which would flow towards the Tigris
and the Euphrates from the central and northern districts of Asia! It would be
strange, therefore, if no city should arise on its banks of which it might be
said that her merchants were the great men of the earth'"
Zech. 5 is most intimately connected with Rev.
18, and a grasp of the former is of such importance in studying the latter that
we must here give it a brief consideration. But first let us outline in the
fewest possible words the contents of the first four chapters of Zechariah.
After a brief introduction we learn, first, that God's eye is ever upon Israel
(1:7-17). Second, that His eye is also upon her enemies and desolators
(1:18-21). Third, assurance is given of her future blessing (2) and of her
cleansing (3). Fourth, we learn of the blessings which shall follow her
restoration (4). Fifth, we are taken back to behold the punishment of apostate
Israel: the "flying roll" symbolizes the destruction of wicked Jews (5:1-4).
Then follows the vision of "the Ephah" in 5:5-11 - let the reader please turn
to it.
We cannot do more than now call attention to the
prominent features in this vision. First, the prophet sees as "ephah" (or bath)
which was the largest measure for dry goods among the Jews. It would,
therefore, be the natural symbol for Commerce. Next, we note that twice over it
is said that the ephah "goeth forth" (vv. 5,6). As the whole of the preceding
visions concern Jerusalem and her people, this can only mean that the center of
Jewish commerce is to be transferred from Palestine elsewhere. Next, we are
told that there was a "woman" concealed in the midst of the ephah (v. 7). We
say "concealed", for in vv. 5 and 6 the "woman" is not seen - the leaden cover
(cf v.8) had to be lifted before she could be beholden. The writer is satisfied
that this hidden woman in the ephah is "the Woman" which is fully revealed in
Revelation 17 and 18. Next, we are told that "wickedness" (lawlessness) was
cast into the ephah, before its cover was closed again. Then, in what follows,
we are shown this ephah, with the "woman' and "wickedness" shut up therein,
being rapidly conveyed from Palestine to "the land of Shinar" (v. 11). The
purpose for this is stated to be, "to build a house", i.e. a settled
habitation. Finally, we are assured, "it shall be established, and set there
(in the land of Shinar) upon her own base". This vision or prophecy contains
the germ which is afterwards expanded and developed in such detail in Rev. 17
and 18, where it is shown that "the house" which is established for this system
of commerce is "Babylon the great". Let it be remembered that this vision is
found in the midst of a series of prophecies which have to do with, first the
faithful, and then the faithless in Israel, and we have another clear and
independent proof that the Corrupt Woman of the Apocalypse is none other than
apostate Israel!
In his helpful and illuminative work on the
Babylon of the future, the late Mr. Newton devoted a separate chapter to Zech.
5. His remarks are so excellent that we cannot forbear from making an extract:
"If human energy is to be permitted again to make the Euphrtean regions the
scene of its operation - if prosperity is to be allowed for a brief moment to
re-visit the Land of Babylon, it might be expected that the Scriptures would
somewhere allude, and that definitely, to such an event. And we find it to be
so. The Scripture does speak of an event yet unaccomplished, of which the scene
is to be the Land of Babylon. The passage to which I refer is at the close of
the fifth chapter of Zechariah.
"That the event predicted in this remarkable
passage remains still unaccomplished, is sufficiently evident from the fact of
Zechariah's having prophesied after Babylon had received that blow under which
it has gradually waned. Zechariah lived after Babylon had passed into the hands
of the Persians, and since that time, it is admitted by all, that declination -
not establishment - has marked its history. From that hour to the present
moment there has been no preparation of an house, no establishment of anything
- much less of an Ephah in the Land of Shinar. But an Ephah is to be
established there, and a house to be built for it there, and there it is to be
set firmly upon its base.
"An Ephah is the emblem of commerce. It is the
symbol of the merchants. In the passage before us the Ephah is described as
"going forth", that is, its sovereign influence is to pervade the nations, and
to imprint on them a character derived from itself, as the formative power of
their institutions. In other words, commerce is for a season to reign. It will
determine the arrangements, and fix the manners of Israel, and of the prophetic
earth. The appearance of every nation that falls under its control is to be
mercantile. He said, moreover, this is their appearance (or aspect) throughout
all the earth."
The theme is of deep interest, and we are tempted
to enter at length into details. But that is scarcely necessary. Every one who
has a general knowledge of the past, and who is at all in touch with political
conditions in the world today, knows full well the radical change which the
last two or three centuries have witnessed. For a thousand years the Church
(the professing church) controlled the governments of Europe. Following the
Reformation, the aristocracy (the nobility) held the reins. During the first
half of last century democratic principles obtained more widely. But in the
last two or three generations the governmental machines of this country and of
the leading European lands have been run by the Capitalists. Of late, Labor has
sought to check this, but thus far with little success. In the light of Zech. 5
and Rev. 18 present-day conditions are profoundly significant. It is commerce
which is more and more dominating the policies and destinies of what is known
as the civilized world. "If we turn our eyes abroad upon the world, we shall
find that the one great object before the nations of the earth today is this
image of commerce, drawing them with all the seductive influence a siren woman
might exercise upon the heart of men. The one great aim on the part of each is
to win the favor of this mighty mistress. The world powers are engaged in a
Titanic struggle for commercial supremacy. To this end mills are build,
factories founded, forests felled, lands sown, harvests reaped, and ships
launched. Because of this struggle for mastery of the world's market the
nations reach out and extend their borders" (Dr. Haldeman). The recent war was
caused by commercial jealousies. The root trouble behind the "reparation"
question, the "Strait's" problem the cancellation or demanding repayment of
United States loans to Europe, each go back to commercial considerations.
Sixty years ago it was asked, Is not commerce the
sovereign influence of the day? If we were asked to inscribe on the banners of
the leading nations of the earth, an emblem characteristically expressive of
their condition, could we fix on any device more appropriate than an ephah?"
With how much greater pertinency may this be said today! And how this is
preparing the way for and will shortly head up in what is portrayed in Rev. 18,
it is not difficult to see. There we read, " Thy merchants were the great men
of the earth" (v. 23). This was not true four hundred years ago: for then the
ecclesiastics were "the great men of the earth". Now was it true one hundred
years ago, for then the nobility were "the great men of the earth". But today.
Ah! Ask the man on the street to name half a dozen of the great men now alive,
and whom would he select? And who are behind and yet one with the "merchants"?
Is it not the financiers? And who are the leading ones among them? Who are the
ones that are more and more controlling the great banking systems of the world?
And, as every well-informed person knows, the answer is, Jews. How profoundly
significant, then, that the head on the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream (which
symbolized the Babylon Empire) should be of gold, and that the final Babylon
should be denominated "the golden city" (Isa. 14:4). And how all of this
serves, again, to confirm our interpretation of Rev. 17, namely, that "the
great Whore" with "the golden cup in her hand" (17:4) is apostate Israel, whose
final home shall be that "great city", soon to be built on the banks of the
Euphrates. Not yet is it fully evident that the wealth of the world is rapidly
filling Hebrew coffers - only a glimpse of the "woman" in "the midst of the
Ephah" was obtained before it became established in the Land of Shinar. But it
cannot be long before this will become apparent. At the End-time it will fully
appear that "the woman...is (represents) that great city" (17:18). This
explains the words of Rev. 17:5, where we learn that the words "Babylon the
great" are written upon "her forehead" - it will be obvious then to all!
Apostate Israel, then controlling the wealth of the world, will personify
Babylon.
And what part will the Antichrist play in
connection with this? What will be his relation to Babylon and apostate Israel?
The Word of God is not silent on these questions, and to it we now turn for the
Divine answer. As to Antichrist's relation to Babylon, Scripture is very
explicit. He will be "the King of Babylon" (Isa. 14:4); the "King of Assyria"
(Isa. 10:12). As to his relation to apostate Israel, that is a more intricate
matter and will require more detailed consideration. We shall therefore devote
a separate chapter (the next one) to this interesting branch of our subject.
Here we shall deal briefly with what Rev. 17 and 18 say thereon.
Rev. 17 presents the relation of apostate Israel
to the Antichrist in three aspects. First, she is supported by him. This is
brought before us in 17:3, where we are shown the corrupt Woman seated upon the
scarlet-colored Beast. This, we believe, is parallel with Dan. 9:27, which
tells us that "the Prince that shall come" will make a Covenant with Israel.
This covenant, league, or treaty, will insure her protection. It is significant
that Dan. 9:27 tells us the covenant is made by the one who is then at the head
of the revived Roman Empire, which corresponds with the fact that Rev. 17:3
depicts him as a "scarlet colored Beast...having seven heads and ten horns". It
is the Antichrist no longer in his "little horn" character, but as one that has
now attained earthly glory and dominion. As such, he will, for a time, uphold
the Jews and protect their interests.
Second, Rev. 17 depicts apostate Israel as
intriguing with "the kings of the earth". In v. 2 we read that the kings of the
earth shall commit fornication with her. Note how this, as an item of
importance, is repeated in 18:3. This, we believe, is what serves to explain
17:16 which, in the corrected rendering of the R.V. reads, "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". What it is which causes the Beast to turn against the Harlot and
hate and destroy her is her unfaithfulness to Him. Not content with enjoying
the protection the Beast gives to her, apostate Israel will aspire to a
position of rivalry with the one over the ten horns. That she succeeds in this
we learn from the last verse of the chapter - "And the woman which thou sawest
is (represents) that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth".
As to how apostate Israel will yet reign over the kings of the earth we hope to
show in the next chapter.
Third, Rev. 17 makes it known that apostate
Israel will ultimately be hated by the Beast and his ten horns"(v. 16). The
12th verse tells us that the ten horns are "ten kings". This has presented a
real difficulty to many. In 17:16 it says that the ten horns (kings) and the
Beast hate the Whore, and make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh
(that is, appropriate to themselves her substance, her riches), and burn her
with fire; whereas in 18:9 we read, "The kings of the earth who have committed
fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for
her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning". Yet the solution of this
difficulty is very simple. The difficulty is created by confusing "the kings of
the earth" with the"ten horns", whose kingdoms are within the limits of the old
Roman Empire (see Dan. 7:7). The "kings of the earth" is a much wider
expression, and includes such kingdoms as North and South America, China and
Japan, Germany and Russia, etc., all in fact, outside the bounds of the old
Roman Empire. It is the intriguing of apostate Israel with "the kings of the
earth" which brings down upon her the hatred of the Beast and his "ten
kings".
In closing this chapter we wish to call attention
to some of the many and striking verbal correspondences between Rev. 17 and 18
and the Old Testament Prophets: -
1. In Rev. 17:1 we are told the great Whore
"sitteth upon many waters".
In Jer. 51:13 Babylon (see previous verse) is
addressed as follows: "O thou that dwellest upon many waters".
2. In Rev. 17:2 it is said that, "The inhabitants
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication".
In Jer. 51:7 we read, "Babylon hath been a golden
cup in the Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have
drunken of her wine".
3. In Rev. 17:4 the great Whore has "a golden cup
in her hand".
In Jer. 51:7 Babylon is termed "a golden cup in
the Lord's hand".
4. In Rev. 17:15 we are told, "The waters which
thou sawest, where the Whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations,
and tongues".
In Jer. 51:13 we read, "O thou that dwellest upon
many waters, abundant in treasures".
5. Rev. 17:16 tells us that Babylon shall be
burned with fire - cf 18:8.
So in Jer. 51:58 we read, "The broad walls of
Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with
fire".
6. In Rev. 17:18 we are told that the woman who
represents the great city "reigneth over the kings of the earth".
In Isa. 47:5 Babylon is denominated "the lady of
kingdoms".
7. Rev. 18:2 tells us that after her fall,
Babylon becomes "the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit,
and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird".
Isa. 13:21 says, "But 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".
8. Rev. 18:4 records God's call to the faithful
Jews - "Come out of her My people".
In Jer. 51:45 God also says, "My people, go ye
out of the midst of her".
9. In Rev. 18:5 it is said, "Her sins have
reached unto heaven".
In Jer. 51:9 it reads, "For her judgment reacheth
unto heaven".
10. In Rev. 18:6 we read, "Reward her as she
rewarded you".
In Jer. 50:15 it says, "Take vengeance upon her;
as she hath done, do unto her".
11. In Rev. 18:7 we find Babylon saying in her
heart, "I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall see no sorrow".
In Isa. 47:8 we also read that Babylon says in
her heart, "I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither
shall I know the loss of children".
12. In Rev. 18:8 we read, "Therefore shall her
plagues come in one day".
Isa. 47:9 declares, "But these two things shall
come to thee in a moment, in one day".
13. In Rev. 18:21 we read, "And a mighty angel
took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus
with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and be found no
more at all".
So in Jer. 51:63, 64 we are told, "And it shall
be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a
stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates: And thou shalt say,
Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I bring upon
her".
14. In Rev. 18:23 we read, "And the light of the
candle shall shine no more at all in thee, and the voice of the bridegroom and
of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee".
In Isa. 24:8,10 it is said of Babylon, "The mirth
of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the heart
ceaseth...the City of Confusion is broken down: every house is shut up, that no
man may come in...all joy is darkened, the mirth of the land is gone".
15. In Rev. 18:24 we read, "And in her was found
the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the
earth".
In Jer. 51:49 we read, "As Babylon hath caused
the slain of Israel to fall, so Babylon shall fall the slain of all the
earth".
These parallelisms are so plain they need no
comments from us. If the reader still insists that the Babylon of Rev. 17 and
18 is the ultimate development of the Papacy as it envelopes apostate
Christendom, it is useless to discuss the subject any farther. But we believe
that the great majority of our readers - who have no traditions to uphold -
will be satisfied that the Babylon of the Apocalypse is the Babylon of Old
Testament prophecy, namely, a literal, re-built city in "the land of Nimrod"
(Micah 5:6), a city which shall be the production of covetousness ("which is
idolatry" - Col. 3:5), and a city which shall yet be the home of
apostate Israel.
[11] Mr. Baron is probably the ablest and most
widely known and esteemed Hebrew Christian alive today.