Quiet Talks on the Crowned Christ of Revelation

by S. D. Gordon

It is plainly said that the beast represents the great civil or governmental power in its final stage, the shape it will be in at the end when these events occur.[161] The chief dominating political power of the world will have passed through a succession of changes, seven kingdoms successively following each other. At the end there will be a combination of some sort, with ten great subdivisions, and one great head over all.

But at the last, the civil power will discard the Church, and persecute it. The spirit of evil thus gets embodiment typically in the great Babylon power, then in the Church, and at the very last, in a coalition of civil powers heading up in a new Babylon.

Then follows announcement of the fall of Babylon. The city is regarded here as the earthly capital of the organized system of unseen evil spirit power at work in the world. The city and the system are inseparably allied. The name Babylon is used in the Bible for both system and city.

If the question be asked what city is meant here, there can be but one answer. From the twelfth of Genesis on the Bible never touches history, except as history touches Israel as a nation. A thoughtful review of the book makes this clear. And this book of Revelation is a gathering-up of Bible threads, and only these. There is only one city in the Bible record that answers to the description here, "the great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." "Babylon the great."

But the old Babylon lies in ruins. And its ruined condition has been quoted as the fulfilment of the famous passage in Isaiah xiii. 19-22. It should be carefully noted that the present conditions at the site of old Babylon do not seem to satisfy fully the language of that passage. It would seem to be another illustration of the rare use of language in the Bible, which adapts a passage accurately to one event, and then to a second event, a long time afterward.

This would, of course, involve the rebuilding of the old capital of the Euphrates. The reverent student quietly notes the movements taking place in that part of the world, but restrains mere curious speculation, as he continues fervently to pray, "Thy kingdom come."

This eighteenth chapter of Revelation seems like an echo of that intense twenty-first of Isaiah, and indeed of a strain sounding all through the prophetic books. One familiar with the old writings is not surprised to find this echo; he expects it. No echo of God's voice or purpose is ever lost. God never loses any of the threads out of His hand.

Hallelujah! He Comes.

The seventh view presents the climax. It includes from chapter nineteen to chapter twenty-two, verse five. It presents in full the great scene that closes this tribulation period; touches the kingdom in a bare word so as to fit it into its place in the scheme of events being outlined; and then gives the final wind-up after the Kingdom time is over. We want to look now at the portion connected immediately with what has just gone before, the description of the wondrous close of the tribulation, in chapters nineteen, verse one, to twenty, verse three.