23:6. Which were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.—The leaders and rulers in worldly affairs were apparently faithful (clothed in blue, typical of faithfulness), and seemed desirable and attractive to be associated with. They were men of thought and men of action, riding hobbies of vain philosophies.
23:7. Thus she committed her whoredoms with them, with all them that were the chosen men of Assyria, and with all on whom she doted: with all their idols she defiled herself.—The Church associated with them for gain of worldly power, set her affections on them, instead of on things Above, and defiled herself with their pagan ideas.
23:8. Neither left she her whoredoms brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they bruised the breasts of her virginity, and poured their whoredom upon her.—Nor did she give up her worldliness when she took up oriental asceticism.
23:9, 10. Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted. These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.—The rulers discovered the naked, unprotected condition of Romanism; and by hundreds of thousands poured in from the East, literal Tartars, Vandals, Huns and Turks, and the pagan ideas from the same sources, and slew the sons and daughters of Romanism with the literal sword, as well as her children spiritually. Among the Pagan religions (women) Romanist “Christianity” became a name and a byword; for the invaders had executed the judgment of God upon her.
23:11. And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.—Protestantism began in comparative purity, but later on developed an inordinate love for temporal power. Even more than Papacy she tried in every nation to “run things.”
23:12. She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbours, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.—She, too, set her affections on popularity with earth's rulers, great and small, conservative, radical and revolutionary.
23:13-17. Then I saw that she was defiled, that they took both one way. And that she increased her whoredoms: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with vermilion, girded with girdles upon their loins, exceeding in dyed attire upon their heads, all of them princes to look to, after the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their nativity: and as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them [pg 476]into Chaldea. And the Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their whoredom, and she was polluted with them, and her mind was alienated from them.—God saw that both churches, Romish and Protestant, were of like tendency to church-state union, especially Protestantism; for she never saw or heard of a great worldly man, even down to the local leaders of the smallest rural communities, that she did not desire their influence and help—particularly their money—and systematically invited them to connect themselves with a church, quite regardless of whether or not they remained worldly. So much did the prominent people in every place crowd into the Protestant churches and try to “boss” things, that the rank and file even of ecclesiastics and of the less prominent supporters of ecclesiasticism grew sick of them.
23:18. So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then My mind was alienated from her, like as My mind was alienated from her sister.—The newspaper writers, Socialists, anarchists and muck-rakers, exposed the worldliness of the Protestant churches; and God Himself, from 1878 on, has been alienated from them.
23:19-21. Yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt. For she doted upon their paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of asses, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. Thus thou calledst to remembrance the lewdness of thy youth, in bruising thy teats by the Egyptians for the paps of thy youth.—Protestant ecclesiasticism multiplied her worldly alliances; and the prominent and wealthy, “of the earth, earthy,” filled the churches with tares, worldlings, desirous of profiting by association with prominent people.
23:22. Therefore, O Aholibah, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will raise up thy lovers against thee, from whom thy mind is alienated, and I will bring them against thee on every side.—Therefore, O Protestantism, thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will raise up, in warfare and revolution, the worldly people in you, of whom you are already sick, and bring them against you on every side.