Revelation 17:1

SECTION V

(Revelation 17-19)

REV:17

This mighty chapter, more than any other in the word of God, kindled the courage and fired the zeal of the great martyrs and reformers who led the rebellion against the tyranny of the Medieval church, re-opened the New Testament for all the peoples of the earth from whom it had been stolen for centuries, and dealt the great whore of this chapter a wound from which she has never fully recovered. This writer has no desire whatever to accommodate with that vast school of modern exegetes who, like Southey's owl:

Sailing with obscene wings athwart the noon; He drops his blue-fringed lids and holds them close, And hooting at the sun in heaven, Asks, Where is it? Where is it?

Christian commentators who withhold from view the obvious, historically accepted interpretation of this chapter must give an account to God for their reticence. If one is blind (spiritually), he may be pardoned for not revealing what he cannot discern; but, for those who reveal their true knowledge of what this chapter really means by the crooked arguments designed to contradict it, are nothing but an enigma. Do they not know that they themselves are under the eternal curse of this tyranny, proscribed and consigned to hell, and under the perpetual interdiction of that religious hierarchy which arrogates to itself alone the right to forgive the sins of people? Why, then, this amazing tenderness which so generally tempers their evasive comments?

The mainline interpretation of this chapter was thus stated by Albertus Pieters:

The Great Harlot symbolizes the apostate Christian Church, manifested historically in many forms, conspicuously and chiefly in the Roman Catholic Church, but also in other forms of nominal Christianity, especially when in combination with political power. We shall call this the Apostate Church interpretation.[1]

Although Pieters "reluctantly" voted against this view, for reasons which he cited, and which in no sense justify his decision, he nevertheless admitted that, "This view is held by many of the very best expositors, among whom we may mention William Milligan, Auberlen and Alford."[2] Criswell, Plummer, Carpenter and many others could be added. Before considering some objections to it, we shall list some of the reasons for accepting this main-line interpretation of it:

1. The figure of adultery, harlotry, or fornication is the standard Old Testament description of apostasy. A very few instances in which the figure was applied to heathen cities, not apostate, cannot nullify the general usage. It is in the sense of the apostasy of God's people that the figure is used "in the great majority of the Scriptures where it is used."[3] There would therefore need to be some compelling reason for setting aside the normal and general meaning of the figure here; and no such reason exists. Pieters also admitted that, "It is correct that the figure of the harlot is a standard symbol of the Old Testament, and it usually means apostasy from Jehovah on the part of his people."[4] "This argument has great force."[5] It practically proves that the Great Harlot is some form of Apostate Christianity.

2. This Great Harlot was viewed by John "in the wilderness," invariably associated with the church's sojourn on earth, answering to the type of the first Israel's forty years of wilderness wanderings, a symbolism that forces the conclusion that the Great Harlot is the true church gone astray, an apostate church. If such an apostasy had never occurred, this analogy might be ignored; "But this is exactly what happened to the Catholic Church, and not only to her but to many Protestant churches."[6] This is a very strong argument.

3. The astonishment of the apostle (Revelation 17:6) would be impossible to understand if it merely meant that a pagan city was in league with the devil. On the other hand, it would indeed be grounds for astonishment if Apostate Christianity itself was so revealed.

4. The glorified Bride of Christ, the church, is called "a city" in Revelation 21:2,9,10; and it should therefore be expected that an Apostate Church should also be referred to as a city, in this case, Babylon; and this cannot nullify the positive spiritual overtones in this prophetic description of the Great Harlot.

5. The Great Harlot, represented here as committing fornication with the kings of the earth, is not an appropriate metaphor of Rome's relation to the vassal kings of her great dominion when John wrote; but it is a valid metaphor of the Papal hierarchy's traffic with human governments going on throughout history up to and including the present time. The literal Rome indeed raped many kingdoms; but this is not the metaphor of Revelation 17.

6. The compound vision of the Great Harlot riding the scarlet colored beast (Revelation 17:3) requires that the harlot be identified with the second beast, the land-beast, of Revelation 13:11. Wilcock was correct in his affirmation that this chapter "has established her (the great whore's) identity with the second beast, false religion; while the scarlet beast in Revelation 13:1 corresponds to the scarlet beast in Revelation 17:3."[7] Plummer also agreed that, "The second beast there (Revelation 13:11) is identical with the Harlot and represents the apostate portion of the church."[8] A study of our notes on Revelation 13 will reveal just how conclusive this argument is. "There can be no doubt that the Harlot describes the degenerate portion of the Church."[9]

7. "The Mother of Harlots ..." (Revelation 17:5). This makes no sense at all unless understood as a reference to the apostate sects of Protestantism, historically the children of the Harlot, and many of them walking in her devious ways. In no sense whatever can this be understood of the literal city of Rome, nor of the emperor cult, nor of anything else ever suggested.

8. This Harlot reigns over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18), her dominion including authority over "every tribe, tongue, people, and nation" (Revelation 13:7); and she exercised "All the authority of the first beast" (Revelation 13:12). Furthermore, this authority of the second beast (the Harlot) continues throughout the dispensation until the second Advent of Christ. There is not anything else in the history of the world that fulfills this except the worldwide Papal hierarchy and its spiritual children, the daughters of the Harlot. It is pure fantasy to interpret this as the promoters of "the emperor cult."

There can be no marvel, then, that Luther, Tyndale, Huss, Knox, Wesley, Alexander Campbell, and other great ones of the Reformation accepted the interpretation presented here. For additional discussion of this see our "Excursus on the Man of Sin," my Commentary on 2Thessalonians, pp. 106-117.

OBJECTIONS

1. Revelation would have had no relevance for John's day if this interpretation is allowed. This is wrong. The great apostasy was specifically prophesied by Paul who stated that it was '"working already" (2 Thessalonians 2:7). The church already had the disease that was to develop in time into the apostasy. Furthermore, the idolatry, blasphemous arrogance, perversions of the true worship, and other characteristics of the later apostasy were the "stock in trade" of the pagan religions prevalent everywhere when Revelation was written; but the thing that astounded John himself was the visions of these same things in the church at a time which we recognize as being far later. See article below on "'Resurgence of Paganism in the Apostasy."

2. John's vision deals with the emperor cult. There is an element of truth in this; for the pure paganism of that condition was just as sinful in its original setting as it was later in the apostasy. The error is in making that original paganism the only thing in this prophecy. Such a view is just as myopic and unreasonable as limiting it to the Papacy alone; neither extreme is correct. See statement of the main-line interpretation at the head of this discussion.

3. As Pieters said, "It is difficult to see how original readers of Revelation could interpret this any other way than as a reference to the Imperial City."[10] We agree that that is exactly what they would have done, but this is not a valid objection, because the prophecy is vast enough to include a relevance for all generations. The acceptance of the New Testament as a guide, not for one age only, but for all ages, it seems to us is the only tenable view of it as the word of God, an inspired book. This is precisely the point where so many go astray.

4. Viewing the Harlot as the city of Rome harmonizes better with Revelation 18 and the facts of history. This must be denominated as a monstrous misstatement of fact. See our interpretation of Revelation 18. Also, the city of Rome (in its pagan character) has not continued throughout history to rule over all nations, a dominant prediction in the prophecy, except in the very sense of our interpretation. See more on this in the notes below.

5. "It is not without precedent to apply the figure of the Harlot to a heathen city, without any religious reference."[11] This of course is true; but where is the compelling reason for so doing? when the vast majority of instances employing this figure in the Old Testament refer absolutely to the apostasy of God's people from the true worship of Jehovah. Besides that, in the New Testament, there is no example whatever of its being used of a heathen city. This objection has no weight at all.

Over and beyond all arguments and objections is the startling, dramatic contrast between the Bride of Christ and the Harlot which dominates this and the succeeding chapter, and which, on its face, positively has to mean the True Church and the False Church.

RESURGENCE OF PAGANISM IN THE APOSTASY

The relevance of Revelation to John's day is seen in the condemnation of paganism which was rampant in apostolic times. The same relevance, of course, pertains to that resurgence of paganism which undeniably marked the character of the Apostate Church. If Revelation was relevant to either period, it was relevant to both. Here is a list of a few elements of paganism found in the apostate Christianity:

1. The consecration of sacred images for use in Christian worship was borrowed, in its totality, from paganism. Indeed, the "image" of St. Peter in Rome, the bronze foot of which has been kissed away by adoring multitudes, is reliably reputed to be the pagan statue of the god Pluto, transferred from the Pantheon!

2. Mariolatry has elevated a vulgar female statue above the high altar, where it stands higher than the image of Christ, the whole system being nothing but an adaptation from the old Babylonian myth of the queen of heaven, the Assyrian Ishtar and her Tammuz. "She was worshipped by the offering of a wafer (a little cake), along with forty days of Lent, of weeping over the destruction of Tammuz ... and after forty days, the people celebrated Ishtar, exchanging Ishtar Eggs!"[12] Of course, the holy communion itself was adjusted so that the bread was formed after the pattern of those pagan wafers.

3. The use of holy water in the church came over in its entirety from paganism. "The holy water was used by the heathens to sprinkle themselves at the entrance to their temples; and this is admitted by Montfancion and the Jesuit La Cerda."[13]

4. The burial of dead bodies in church houses came from Athens, as related by Plutarch in his Life of Theseus; and, as they did of old with their pagan heroes, the church began to deposit relics of so-called saints, supplemented by processions and sacrifices."[14]

5. Celibacy is another relic of paganism. "It was most esteemed among the heathen philosophers."[15]

6. Praying for the dead began in 380 A.D., and was at first vigorously opposed and condemned. It is another relic of paganism and the forerunner of the doctrine of purgatory.[16]

7. The Papal keys are exactly the same as those of the pagan gods Janus and Cybele, worshipped by pagan Rome long before Christianity.

8. The lighting of blessed candles was practiced in paganism in Siberia where they were placed before the statues of pagan gods.[17]

9. The tonsure, the shaving of the heads of priests, was practiced by the pagan priests of Osisis, the Egyptian Bacchus, as was also true in India and China.[18]

10. The forgiving of sins, "absolutions," one of the most monstrous of un-Christian doctrines, appears to have been an outright invention.

These are only a few of a hundred similar things that might be cited, such as: the assumption of blasphemous titles, the consecration of sacred priestly vestments, the baptizing of bells, "The Feast of All Souls," first celebrated by pagans in the lifetime of Romulus, monasticism, the elevation of the host, and many other devices and practices of paganism at the time Revelation was written. It is clear enough for anyone looking into the matter that Apostate Christianity was indeed the old paganism with a Christian veneer.

Therefore, the interpretation received here by no means violates the relevance of the sacred prophecy for the first generation that received it. Paganism, whether in its original setting, or as revived and continued by the Apostate Church itself, is the essence of what the apostolic writers condemned. We shall now examine the text of this marvelous chapter.

[1] Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 250.

[2] Ibid.

[3] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 413.

[4] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 251.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid., p. 252.

[7] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975), p. 165.

[8] A. Plummer, op. cit., p. 413.

[9] Ibid.

[10] Albertus Pieters, op. cit., p. 256.

[11] Ibid.

[12] W. A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), III, p. 185.

[13] John F. Rowe, History of Reformatory Movements (Cincinnati, Ohio: John F. Rowe, 1894), p. 259.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Ibid.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ibid.

And there came one of the seven angels that had the seven bowls, and spake with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters; (Revelation 17:1)

There came one of the seven angels ... This angelic interpretation of the vision is here identified with the series of the seven bowls just concluded, leading to the conclusion that what is about to be revealed in Rev.17 and Revelation 18, is actually a "playback" of the great judgment scene just seen, but with an elaboration and specific attention to what was included in the fall of "Babylon the great" (Revelation 16:19).

I will show thee the judgment of the great harlot that sitteth upon many waters ... But was she not seated upon a beast? Yes, but both she and the beast rise from the teeming populations of the earth.

Harlot ... "In Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20,31, etc., these terms are used to describe God's apostate people, those once joined to him in covenant relationship, but who had broken their marriage vow of faithfulness."[19] "In the Old Testament, this imagery is commonly used to denote religious apostasy."[20] "Is this harlot, then, Papal Rome? The answer is: Insofar as Papal Rome has wielded tyrannical power, turned persecutor, stood between the spirits of people and Christ, depraved the consciences of people, withheld the truth, sought aggrandizement and demonstrated the power of a political engine rather than that of a witness of Christ, she has inherited the features of Babylon."[21]

Note that there are three Babylons: (1) the original city of that name situated upon the Euphrates river, and the historical persecutor of the first Israel; (2) the pagan city of Rome, symbolized by the sea-beast (Revelation 13:1), and also its counterpart ridden by the harlot; and (3) the "Mystery Babylon" symbolized both by the land-beast and by the harlot herself. In this and the following chapters it is the third meaning which predominates.

[19] Ibid.

[20] Robert H. Mounce, Commentary on the New Testament, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977), p. 307.

[21] W. Boyd Carpenter, Ellicott's Bible Commentary, Vol. VIII (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), p. 611.