VI The Vision of Victory (A Vision of Vindication). Ch. 17:1-20:15
The vision of victory is a revelation of complete and enduring triumph in the final issue of the conflict between sin and righteousness, showing the doom of Christ's enemies, the vindication of the righteous, and the consummation of the ages. The vision consists of three parts, viz. (1) the mystic Babylon and her fall, (2) the triumph of the redeemed, and (3) the last things, which are seven in number, implying a sevenfold completeness. This triple division of the contents of the section before us, into a description of Babylon's fall, redemption's triumph, and the things of the end, is one that is clearly indicated in the thought of the text, whatever plan of division we may adopt, and as these all belong to the final victory in its completeness, they may well be presumed to constitute parts of one vision. Opinions differ, however, concerning the correct division of this part of the book almost as much as they do in regard to the interpretation. The division adopted here, though not coinciding in all its parts with any single authority, is one of the simplest and most natural, and it is believed will commend itself to the reader.[510] In entering upon this section it will be noted that the transition from the vision of vials to the vision of victory is made in the first verse of the seventeenth chapter by one of the seven vial-angels, who offers to show John the judgment of the great Harlot, or of Babylon, i. e. the complete and final judgment of the seventh vial wrought out, thus leading by a natural connection of thought to a fuller view of one phase of the judgment of the world, and through this on to victory and to the End.
A The Mystic Babylon and Her Fall, Ch. 17:1-18:24
In these two chapters there is given an impressive portrayal of the sinful world as she lures men to evil, under the symbol of Babylon, or the Harlot, and of the final punishment inflicted upon her; it is, in fact, an elaboration of the judgment of the seventh vial, foreshadowing the downfall of the most insidious, seductive, and persistent form of the world's opposition to Christ and his kingdom, viz. corrupt society. This passage [pg 194] forms a subclimax of rare beauty and power, and one that is of prime importance in the interpretation of the book, for it contains one of the chief ideas of the Revelation, and necessarily affects our conception of the prophecy throughout. That pagan Rome in its social debasement and spiritual degradation was in the foreground of John's thought can scarcely be doubted;[511] but in the light of prophetic vision it formed an ideal groundwork for the larger thought of the godless world, the world from the standpoint of its material and social forces adverse to God and his kingdom, the perpetual Rome. Some interpreters limit the meaning of Babylon to the coeval city of Rome, or to the nation that centered in the city, pagan Rome, others refer it to the Roman church, papal Rome, and still others to Jerusalem, the Jewish Rome, while a common interpretation makes it the apostate church in a fallen age, a prophetic Rome. But the figure is more correctly interpreted as the ideal and universal world-city, a symbol designed to include every city or community that exalts itself against the dominion of Christ, the perpetual Rome, the ever-recurring Babylon whose spirit never dies, the city being regarded as the highest expression of the world's social and communal life.[512]
With the portrayal of Babylon is completed the cycle of great world-forces that we find depicted in the Revelation as arrayed against our Lord and his Christ. The entire opposition of the present evil world to Christ and his kingdom is presented in these visions under four separate and distinct symbols,—four the earth-number—viz. (1) the Dragon or Satan, the World-Lord, the prime antagonist and representative leader of the spiritual forces of evil, who incites the world to resist the rule of Christ, the world taking its cue and color from Satan, the arch-enemy of all good; (2) the First Beast, the World-Power, the national and political forces of the world in their organized form opposing and persecuting Christ and the church, the world acting through the elements of civic and social order, of law and government, making them the agents [pg 195] of persecution; (3) the Second Beast, the World-Religion, the national and racial false religious forces of the world, with their moral and intellectual thraldom over the minds of men, contending against Christianity and the kingdom, the world acting through the elements of the natural and ethnic religions, and of superstition and priestcraft their innate cogeners, permeating them with deceit and making them the agents of delusion and oppression; and (4) the Harlot Babylon, the World-City, society in its commercial, impure, and godless life resisting the progress of the kingdom, the world acting through the elements of the social, sexual, and commercial relations of men, making them the agents of sin. This fourfold form of world-opposition to Christ and the church is a fundamental conception of the Apocalypse, and lies at the core of any correct interpretation of the book.[513] For, notwithstanding their close relation, to identify Babylon with the first Beast, or the second, or both, as is often done, is to confuse ideas that are essentially distinct, and measurably to miss the proper significance of the lesson contained. And if we fail to perceive the proper meaning of any part of this fourfold symbolism, we lose in some measure at least the complete and general effect of the whole sublime creation of the Apocalyptic vision.
1 The Harlot and the Interpretation, Ch. 17:1-18
The vision of the Harlot is a figurative and profoundly significant view of the world's sin as unfaithfulness to God, described under the analogue of unfaithfulness to the marriage relation, according to the familiar method of Hebrew thought. The world is presented as a spiritual harlot, one that has proved untrue to her Lord and that merits condign punishment.