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ONE of the most fascinating phases of Bible study is the study of Bible prophecy. Descriptions of the world just before Jesus comes and the glorious hope of a peacefully inhabited earth in the not-too-distant future will ever intrigue the mind of the prayerful and diligent student of Scripture. . .

Babylon and the Beast ONE of the most fascinating phases of Bible study is the study of Bible prophecy. Descriptions of the world just before Jesus comes and the glorious hope of a peacefully inhabited earth in the not-too-distant future will ever intrigue the mind of the prayerful and diligent student of Scripture. . . HOME ARCHIVES 1969 DECEMBER BABYLON AND THE BEAST O NE of the most fascinating phases of Bible study is the study of Bible prophecy. Descriptions of the world just before Jesus comes and the glorious hope of a peacefully inhabited earth in the not-too-distant future will ever intrigue the mind of the prayerful and diligent student of Scripture. Chapter seventeen of the book of Revelation holds a masterpiece of prophecy depicting the present and future. In the history of nations described in this chapter it can be clearly seen how God is permitting Satan himself to prove the futility of his system of government and man's great need of the system of government God has drawn up and sealed with the blood of His own Son. As outlined in this chapter, Satan's system, bereft of the fine principles of God's law that bind a people together eternally, is filled with moral corruption causing decay and degeneracy until final ruin comes upon it. The whole chapter is a description of the judgment of a great confederation of the wicked. THE VISION OF JOHN In verses 1 and 2 an angel introduces the subject to John. Beginning with verse 3, John is carried off in vision and sees a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast. It is clear that she is sitting upon a beast and not a dragon. Because of the satanic influence so characteristic in this beast, John sees it as being scarlet, the color assigned to Satan (Rev. 12:3, 9). Except for its color, it is described in Revelation 13 in even more detail. If we are to understand what God would reveal to us in this beast it is important that we do not confuse it with the dragon of chapter 12. This makes relevant the fact that this great whore is also depicted by the angel as sitting upon many waters (chap. 17:1). John tells us in verse 15 that the "waters" mean "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." It is helpful to the understanding of this prophecy when we remember that the conglomerate beast in Revelation 13:2 incorporates the ten horns of the nondescript beast (Dan. 7:7), the body of the leopard (verse 6), the feet of a bear (verse 5), and the head of a lion (verse 4). These beasts all came out of the sea (verse 3). What Daniel saw in four separate beasts, John sees in one homogenized Biblical depiction of a God-offending power. As the woman of Revelation 12 is presented a pure woman to symbolize a pure church, so chapter 17 presents an impure woman as the symbol of an impure church. The woman is clearly seen as the ecclesiastical power of the Roman church. Bedecked in costly array (verse 4), she is full of blasphemies and doctrines that cause the kings of the earth to commit spiritual fornication. She leads the people to utter destruction. We can only marvel at the accuracy of this prophecy as we today behold its fulfillment. The woman is pictured as "drunken with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (verse 6). Revelation 13:7 shows us that the beast actually persecutes God's people while the woman (Rev. 17:6) is intoxicated by her ability to dictate to the beast she rides. This is certainly in agreement with Bible symbolism, since a beast represents a political power (Dan. 7; Rev. 13:11) and a woman represents an ecclesiastical power. How aptly this fits the Roman Catholic power today and in the past. Popes have crowned kings, and have caused political powers to put to death those marked as heretical. To see how accurately history fits this prophecy, we must give careful scrutiny to the beast power. REVELATION 13 AND 17 That the beasts of Revelation 13 and 17 are one and the same is evidenced by the reading of two verses. "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed" (Rev. 13:3). Then turning to chapter 17, verse 8, we read, "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition." The first shows the beast mortally wounded, and the second, ascending out of the abyss (abussos). In both cases this marvelous recovery causes the world to wonder (13:3 and 17:8). Napoleon had General Berthier take the pope a virtual prisoner in 1798. In 1870 the Italian government stripped this church of her temporal power at home. Speaking of the historic treaty between the Fascist government of Mussolini and the papacy, we read, "Lateran Treaty, the accord concluded on Feb. 11, 1929 between the Holy See and the Italian State, which terminated the long estrangement between the papacy and the house of Savoy resulting from the occupation of Rome in 1870 by the troops of Victor Emmanuel II, king of Italy. . . . The signatories were Pietro Cardinal Gasparri f...