“The great city” is “Babylon,” (14:8); which “reigneth over the kings of the earth,” (17:8); and which John had seen sitting “upon many waters,” 17:1. This was doubtless seen when he saw the waters of the symbolic Euphrates being dried up, 16:12. Babylon, being a symbol of the Roman hierarchy, its triple division indicates a like division of the church of Rome, not geographical, but under different leaders, previous to its destruction.
“The cities of the nations,” must symbolize other hierarchies, analogous to that of Rome, of which there are the Greek church, in Russia and Greece, the Arminian and Syrian churches, and other corrupt nationalized [pg 291] establishments. All such will become disconnected, like Babylon, with the governments by which they are sustained.
“Great Babylon” then comes into remembrance to drink the cup of the wine of the fierceness of God's wrath. Because her sins have reached unto heaven, “God hath remembered her iniquities,” 18:5. This synchronizes with her destruction, symbolized in Rev. 18:8-23. As the Papacy continues till Christ's coming (Dan. 7:21, and 2 Thess. 2:3-8), this epoch must synchronize with that event, when he comes to receive his chosen ones.
With the destruction of Babylon, occurs the subversion of all national authority. As ecclesiastical hierarchies are symbolized by cities, the “mountains” and “islands” on which they are situated must symbolize the larger and smaller governments; and their removal from their places, their subversion in the great moral “earthquake” which is to overwhelm them. This synchronizes with the sixth seal, when they are all “removed out of their places,” (6:14); and it leaves the inhabitants of earth in a state of anarchy. It is at this time that the kings and great men of the earth become aware that the great day of God's wrath is come, 6:15-17. With this time of trouble, comes the deliverance of God's people, (Dan. 12:1); who shall be caught up together “to meet the Lord in the [pg 292] air,” 1 Thess. 4:17. To them the Lord has said, “Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Lord which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation,” Ps. 91:5-9.
The removal of the saints leaves the wicked exposed to the vengeance of God's wrath, of which a terrific hail-storm on their defenceless heads, is an expressive symbol. The Lord said, by Isaiah: “Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding-place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. For the Lord [pg 293] shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption even determined upon the whole earth,” Isa. 28:17-22.
This must synchronize with the final conflict, (symbolized in Rev. 19:19-21): also with the casting of the vine of the earth into the wine-press of God's wrath (14:19), and terminates the battle of “Armageddon,”—the “battle of that great day of God Almighty,” 16:14.
The Judgment of the Harlot.
“And one of the seven angels, who had the seven bowls, came and talked with me, saying, Come here; I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot who sitteth on many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Rev. 17:1, 2.
The Roman hierarchy had been frequently referred to in the preceding visions; but an institution, so interwoven with the history of the nations, required a more full and minute symbolization.
The subject of this vision is announced to the revelator, by one of the angels who had the seven vials;—very probably, the seventh. The harlot is identified as one “that sitteth upon many waters.” Ancient Babylon was thus addressed: “O thou that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the measure of thy covetousness,” Jer. 51:13. She is also described as “The well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts,” Nahum 3:4. Therefore the harlot whose judgment is to be more minutely shown, is the city of the previous vision, which received the cup of the wine of God's wrath (16:19), and which probably was shown to John on the waters of the Euphrates, (16:12); for the reference indicates that she had been thus previously exhibited,—the waters on which she was seated, being the people, nations, &c., which sustained and defended her idolatries, 17:15. In the vision now to be shown John, the Roman hierarchy is symbolized by Babylon; but it is first exhibited as: