Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

by S. D. Gordon

The sixth view is of the great system of wickedness in the world, through which the tribulation comes, and which is judged at its close.[160] The description is full of details of great interest and instructiveness, but we can only have time at present for the essential thing being taught. The Spirit takes John into a wilderness. To the Spirit's eye wherever wickedness has sway, whether vulgar or polished, political or commercial, cunning or brazen, it is a wilderness.

Here is shown a woman gorgeously clothed, prodigally bedecked with jewels, and having a cup in her hand, made of gold, but full of vile filth. Upon her forehead appears a description: "Mystery [or explanation of mystery], Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." This woman is riding upon a strange beast; it is scarlet-colored, with seven heads and ten horns, and full of blasphemous names. This is the startlingly suggestive picture.

Who is this woman? And what is this beast upon which she is seated? The whole description taken together suggests that she is meant to stand for the whole system of wickedness which has had such sway in the world from earliest time until the end. And the beast represents typically the dominant governmental powers. The two have always worked together. There has been a consistent unity of spirit and of characteristic, and a persistent devilishness marking the wickedness in the world throughout the ages.

It has been as though there were an unseen spirit power tirelessly at work behind all the varied manifestations of evil. The dominant characteristic always has been blasphemy of God. It has controlled thrones and royal power, and has had unlimited gold at its command. And it has always been an enemy, subtle or open, cunning or violent, of God and His people.

That system or genius of evil is represented in the Old Testament as finding expression in one great political power after another, but chiefly in the power of Babylon. Babylon stands typically in these older pages, not merely for the great empire of the Euphrates, but for the unseen spirit of evil lying behind that power, and making use of it to carry through its own foul purposes.

But that unseen evil spirit power has found more than one agency to dominate and use. Babylon long since passed off the stage as a political factor. But the power of evil has not ceased. It is distressing to note another great organization behind and through which the power of evil has worked. What is the system that has, for the past sixteen centuries, been supported by the various great civil governments?

There is only one answer. It is the organization known as "the Christian Church." And the term Church must be taken here in its fullest, broadest meaning. Its great main stem historically is the Roman Catholic Church. The first great split-off was the Greek Orthodox Church. The Church of England was a later break-off. These, with the various government-ally supported Churches, and those free of such support, and various ancient primitive bodies,—these all together make up the organization known as "the Church."

The two symbolical characteristics of this woman and the two dominant characteristics of this historical Church are the same. The Church has been and is supported almost wholly by the civil governments, and used by them in furthering their policies. And it has been active in persecuting to death the people of God who would not yield to its domination. It has been marked by intolerance of all not yielding to its wishes, and especially of the Jew. That intolerance has been carried not only to the extreme of blood, but a riot of bloodshed. This is utterly heart-breaking to realize and to repeat.

The woman is said to be "drunken (1) with the blood of the saints, and (2) with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." The twofold statement is seen to cover the two great periods, before Christ and since. And it covers also the two great powers through which the spirit of evil has chiefly worked in those two periods. But the name given first in the plains of Shinar, and used characteristically of the God-defying power of evil, is given here, Babylon. It will be Babylon again at the very end after the Church system is overthrown.

[161] Revelation xvii. 8-12.