Revelation 17—The Papacy's Last Stand
17:1. And there came one of the seven angels.—Volume VII, Studies in the Scriptures.
Which had the seven vials.—An explanation of the plagues upon symbolic Babylon.
And talked with me.—The John class, the Church in the flesh.
Saying [unto me] Come hither; I will shew unto thee.—In the 8th, 9th, 16th and 18th chapters of Revelation, and throughout the Book of Ezekiel.—Nahum 3:3, 4.
The judgment of the great whore.—Papacy, the “beast.”—Rev. 19:2.
That sitteth upon many waters.—The peoples of the earth.—Jer. 51:13; Rev. 17:15.
17:2. With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication.—“The kingdoms of Europe today claim to be Christian kingdoms, and announce that their sovereigns reign ‘by the grace of God,’ i. e., through appointment of either Papacy or some of the Protestant sects.”—A. 268; Rev. 18:3; Isa. 1:21; Jer. 2:20-24; 3:6; Ezek. 16:15.
And the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk.—“So great an institution as made all nations drunk with her false doctrine must be very prominent, indeed, to those who were made so under the influence of the stupefying draft from her cup.”—Pastor Russell.