CHAPTER XVII. We are fortunate in having chapter seventeen in the book of Revelation, for it serves to explain much of the symbolism of the book that otherwise would appear vague. And whatever explanations God gives of the meaning of this book are infinitely better than all the guesses men can make... [ Continue Reading ]
An angel comes to John and proposes to show him the judgment of the great whore that sitteth on many waters. In chapter sixteen we had the vials poured out and all the striking symbolism of the judgment that was to fall; and now the angel says he will explain it more fully. He calls the object of th... [ Continue Reading ]
"So he carried me away into the wilderness;" sometimes he was carried away into heaven to see visions; but the thing he was about to see now had no affinity with heaven, he could not see such a scene as this in heaven, SO he was taken to a wilderness as a more appropriate place, and one more in con... [ Continue Reading ]
This woman was arrayed in gorgeous apparel, and decked with jewels, and held in her hand a cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. What a combination! a gaudy body and a filthy heart! and how natural it is; people try to cover up with dazzle the rottenness within. Paint on th... [ Continue Reading ]
"And on her forehead a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." We have had the name Babylon. We were told: "Babylon is fallen." It is one of the problems of this book to determine what is meant by Babylon. Now this woman is labeled Babylon. Tha... [ Continue Reading ]
"And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Here is her persecution. She was intoxicated with a fanatical zeal to exterminate the Christians; Peter crucified head downwards, so tradition tells us; Paul yielding his head to the stroke of the e... [ Continue Reading ]
The angel said: "I will tell thee the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carrieth her." That is what we want to know. In the eighth verse we are told he shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition, that does not tell us much, but at least tells his character. Again, "the be... [ Continue Reading ]
"And here is the mind that hath wisdom" or here is the place to exercise your mind and gain wisdom. Here we will see great light on these problems. "The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman siteth," the well known seven hills of Rome. That is a geographical identification. I presume no... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses tell us about the horns of the beast. He had not only seven heads; but ten horns. These ten horns were ten kings, not kings sitting on the throne of Rome, as I understand, but those kings and countries subjected by Rome, and which made the empire great. We know that Rome embraced at tha... [ Continue Reading ]
"And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore and shall make her desolate, and naked and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." There are two things to be observed here. First that the ten horns are not successive kings on the throne of Rome, but they are con... [ Continue Reading ]