Doom of Babylon which Isaiah...saw. Lift ye up a standard upon the high mountain, raise high your voice unto them, motion with the hand that they may enter into the gates of the princes.
“I have commanded my sanctified, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger; even them that rejoice in my highness.
“They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
“There is a noise of tumult on the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
“Wail ye; for the Day of Jehovah is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands shall become weak, and every mortal’s heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall have throes, as a woman that travaileth: they shall wonder every man at his neighbor; red like flames shall their faces glow.
“Behold, the Day of Jehovah cometh, direful with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
“For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not shed abroad her light.
“And I will visit on the world its evil, and on the wicked their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and the haughtiness of tyrants will I humble. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of his fierce anger.†Isa. 13:1-13. Compare Rev. 16:14; Heb. 12:26-29.
“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.†Isa. 28:17
The various prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and the Apocalypse concerning Babylon are all in full accord, and manifestly refer to the same great city. And since these prophecies had but a very limited fulfilment upon the ancient, literal city, and those of the Apocalypse were written centuries after the literal Babylon was laid in ruins, it is clear that the special reference of all the prophets is to something of which the ancient literal Babylon was an illustration.
It is clear also that, in so far as the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning its downfall were accomplished upon the literal city, it became in its downfall, as well as in its character, an illustration of the great city to which the Revelator points in the symbolic language of the Apocalypse (Chapters 17 and 18), and to which chiefly the other prophets refer.
As already intimated, what today is known as Christendom is the antitype of ancient Babylon; and therefore the solemn warnings and predictions of the prophets against Babylonâ€â€Christendomâ€â€are matters of deepest concern to the present generation. Would that men were wise enough to consider them! Though various other symbolic names, such as Edom, Ephraim, Ariel, etc., are in the Scriptures applied to Christendom, this term, “Babylon,†is the one most frequently used, and its significance, confusion, is remarkably appropriate.
The Apostle Paul also points out a nominal, spiritual Israel in contradistinction to a nominal fleshly Israel (See 1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6:16; Rom. 9:8); and likewise there is a nominal spiritual Zion, and a nominal fleshly Zion. (See Isa. 33:14; Amos 6:1.) But let us examine some of the wonderful correspondencies of Christendom to Babylon, its type, including the direct testimony of the Word of God on the subject. Then we will note the present attitude of Christendom, and the present indications of her foretold doom.
The Revelator intimated that it would not be difficult to discover this great mystical city, because her name is in her forehead; that is, she is prominently marked, so that we cannot fail to see her unless we shut our eyes and refuse to lookâ€â€
“And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.†(Rev. 17:5)
But before looking for this Mystical Babylon, let us first observe the typical Babylon, and then, with its prominent features in mind, look for the antitype.
The name Babylon was applied, not only to the capital city of the Babylonian empire, but also to the empire itself. Babylon, the capital, was the most magnificent, and probably the largest, city of the ancient world. It was built in the form of a square on both sides of the Euphrates river; and, for protection against invaders, it was surrounded by a deep moat filled with water and inclosed within a vast system of double walls, from thirty-two to eighty-five feet thick, and from seventy-five to three hundred feet high.
On the summit were low towers, said to have been two hundred and fifty in number, placed along the outer and inner edges of the wall, tower facing tower; and in these walls were a hundred brazen gates, twenty-five on each side, corresponding to the number of streets which intersected each other at right angles. The city was adorned with splendid palaces and temples and the spoils of conquest.
Nebuchadnezzar was the great monarch of the Babylonian empire, whose long reign covered nearly half the period of its existence, and to him its grandeur and military glory were chiefly due. The city was noted for its wealth and magnificence, which brought a corresponding moral degradation, the sure precursor of its decline and fall. It was wholly given to idolatry, and was full of iniquity.
The people were worshipers of Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices. The deep degradation of their idolatry may be understood from God’s reproof of the Israelites when they became corrupted by contact with them. See Jer. 7:9; 19:5.
The name originated with the frustrating of the plan for the great tower, called Babel (confusion), because there God confounded human speech; but the native etymology made the name Babil, which, instead of being reproachful, and a reminder of the Lord’s displeasure, signified to themâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“the gate of God.â€Â
The city of Babylon attained a position of prominence and affluence as a capital of the great Babylonian empire, and was called “the golden city,†“the glory of kingdoms, and the beauty of Chaldees’ excellency.†Isa. 13:19; 14:4
Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded in the dominion by his grandson Belshazzar, under whose reign came the collapse which pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness always insure and hasten. While the people, all unconscious of impending danger, following the example of their king, were abandoning themselves to demoralizing excesses, the Persian army, under Cyrus, stealthily crept in through the channel of the Euphrates (from which they had turned aside the water), massacred the revelers, and captured the city.
Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of that strange handwriting on the wallâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsinâ€Ââ€â€which Daniel had interpreted only a few hours before to meanâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.†And so complete was the destruction of that great city that even its site was forgotten and was for a long time uncertain.
Such was the typical city; and, like a great millstone cast into the sea, it was sunken centuries ago, never again to rise; even the memory of it has become a reproach and a byword. Now let us look for its antitype, first observing that the Scriptures clearly point it out, and then noting the aptness of the symbolism.
In symbolic prophecy a “city†signifies a religious government backed by power and influence. Thus, for instance, the “holy city, the new Jerusalem,†is the symbol used to represent the established Kingdom of God, the overcomers of the Gospel Church exalted and reigning in glory.
The Church is also, and in the same connection, represented as a woman, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,†in power and glory, and backed by the power and authority of Christ, her husband. “And there came unto me one of the seven angels... saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he...showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem.†Rev. 21:9,10
This same method of interpretation applies to mystical Babylon, the great ecclesiastical kingdom, “that great city†(Rev. 17:1-6), which is described as a harlot, a fallen woman (an apostate churchâ€â€for the true Church is a virgin), exalted to power and dominion, and backed, to a considerable degree, by the kings of the earth, the civil powers, which are all more or less intoxicated with her spirit and doctrine.
The apostate church lost her virgin purity. Instead of waiting, as an espoused and chaste virgin, for exaltation with the heavenly Bridegroom, she associated herself with the kings of the earth and prostituted her virgin purityâ€â€both of doctrine and characterâ€â€to suit the world’s ideas; and in return she received, and now to some extent exercises, a present dominion, in large measure by their support, direct and indirect.
This unfaithfulness to the Lord, whose name she claims, and to her high privilege to be the “chaste virgin†espoused to Christ, is the occasion of the symbolic appellation, “harlot,†while her influence as a sacerdotal empire, full of inconsistency and confusion, is symbolically represented under the name Babylon, which, in its widest sense, as symbolized by the Babylonian empire, we promptly recognize to be Christendom; while in its more restricted sense, as symbolized by the ancient city Babylon, we recognize to be the nominal Christian Church.
The fact that Christendom does not accept the Bible term “Babylon,†and its significance, confusion, as applicable to her, is no proof that it is not so. Neither did ancient Babylon claim the Bible significanceâ€â€confusion. Ancient Babylon presumed to be the very “gate of Godâ€Â; but God labeled it Confusion (Gen. 11:9); and so it is with her antitype today. She calls herself Christendom, the gateway to God and everlasting life, while God calls her Babylonâ€â€confusion.
It has been very generally and very properly claimed by Protestants that the name “Babylon†and the prophetic description are applicable to Papacy, though recently a more compromising disposition is less inclined so to apply it. On the contrary, every effort is now made on the part of the sects of Protestantism to conciliate and imitate the Church of Rome, and to affiliate and cooperate with her. In so doing they become part and parcel with her, while they justify her course and fill up the measure of her iniquities, just as surely as did the scribes and Pharisees fill up the measure of their fathers who killed the prophets. (Matt. 23:31,32)
All this, of course, neither Protestants nor Papists are ready to admit, because in so doing they would be condemning themselves. And this fact is recognized by the Revelator, who shows that all who would get a true view of Babylon must, in spirit, take their position with the true people of God “in the wildernessâ€Ââ€â€in the condition of separation from the world and worldly ideas and mere forms of godliness, and in the condition of entire consecration and faithfulness to and dependence upon God alone.
“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman, ...Babylon. Rev. 17:1-5
And since the kingdoms of the civilized world have submitted to be largely dominated by the influence of the great ecclesiastical systems, especially Papacy, accepting from them the appellation “Christian nations†and “Christendom,†and accepting on their authority the doctrine of the divine right of kings, etc., they also link themselves in with great Babylon, and become part of it, so that, as in the type, the name Babylon applied, not only to the city, but also to the whole empire, here also the symbolic term “Babylon†applies, not only to the great religious organizations, Papal and Protestant, but also, in its widest sense, to all Christendom.
Hence this day of judgment upon mystic Babylon is the day of judgment upon all the nations of Christendom; its calamities will involve the entire structureâ€â€civil, social and religious; and individuals will be affected by it to the extent of their interest in, and dependence upon, its various organizations and arrangements.
The nations beyond Christendom will also feel the weight of the heavy hand of recompense in that they also are to some extent bound in with the nations of Christendom by various interests, commercial and others; and justly, too, in that they also havfailed to appreciate what light they have seen, and have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Thus, as the Prophet declared, “All the earth [society] shall be devoured with the fire of God’s jealousy†(Zeph. 3:8); but against Babylon, Christendom, because of her greater responsibility and misuse of favors received, will burn the fierceness of his wrath and indignation. (Jer. 51:49) “At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.†Jer. 50:46
“I have commanded my sanctified, I have also called my mighty ones for my anger; even them that rejoice in my highness.
“They come from a far country, from the end of heaven, even the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land.
“There is a noise of tumult on the mountains, like as of a great people; a tumultuous noise of the kingdoms of nations gathered together; the Lord of hosts mustereth the host of the battle.
“Wail ye; for the Day of Jehovah is at hand: it shall come as a destruction from the Almighty. Therefore, all hands shall become weak, and every mortal’s heart shall melt: and they shall be afraid: pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them; they shall have throes, as a woman that travaileth: they shall wonder every man at his neighbor; red like flames shall their faces glow.
“Behold, the Day of Jehovah cometh, direful with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.
“For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not shed abroad her light.
“And I will visit on the world its evil, and on the wicked their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and the haughtiness of tyrants will I humble. I will make a man more precious than fine gold; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir. Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall be removed out of her place, in the wrath of the Lord of hosts, in the day of his fierce anger.†Isa. 13:1-13. Compare Rev. 16:14; Heb. 12:26-29.
“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.†Isa. 28:17
The various prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel and the Apocalypse concerning Babylon are all in full accord, and manifestly refer to the same great city. And since these prophecies had but a very limited fulfilment upon the ancient, literal city, and those of the Apocalypse were written centuries after the literal Babylon was laid in ruins, it is clear that the special reference of all the prophets is to something of which the ancient literal Babylon was an illustration.
It is clear also that, in so far as the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah concerning its downfall were accomplished upon the literal city, it became in its downfall, as well as in its character, an illustration of the great city to which the Revelator points in the symbolic language of the Apocalypse (Chapters 17 and 18), and to which chiefly the other prophets refer.
As already intimated, what today is known as Christendom is the antitype of ancient Babylon; and therefore the solemn warnings and predictions of the prophets against Babylonâ€â€Christendomâ€â€are matters of deepest concern to the present generation. Would that men were wise enough to consider them! Though various other symbolic names, such as Edom, Ephraim, Ariel, etc., are in the Scriptures applied to Christendom, this term, “Babylon,†is the one most frequently used, and its significance, confusion, is remarkably appropriate.
The Apostle Paul also points out a nominal, spiritual Israel in contradistinction to a nominal fleshly Israel (See 1 Cor. 10:18; Gal. 6:16; Rom. 9:8); and likewise there is a nominal spiritual Zion, and a nominal fleshly Zion. (See Isa. 33:14; Amos 6:1.) But let us examine some of the wonderful correspondencies of Christendom to Babylon, its type, including the direct testimony of the Word of God on the subject. Then we will note the present attitude of Christendom, and the present indications of her foretold doom.
The Revelator intimated that it would not be difficult to discover this great mystical city, because her name is in her forehead; that is, she is prominently marked, so that we cannot fail to see her unless we shut our eyes and refuse to lookâ€â€
“And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and abominations of the earth.†(Rev. 17:5)
But before looking for this Mystical Babylon, let us first observe the typical Babylon, and then, with its prominent features in mind, look for the antitype.
The name Babylon was applied, not only to the capital city of the Babylonian empire, but also to the empire itself. Babylon, the capital, was the most magnificent, and probably the largest, city of the ancient world. It was built in the form of a square on both sides of the Euphrates river; and, for protection against invaders, it was surrounded by a deep moat filled with water and inclosed within a vast system of double walls, from thirty-two to eighty-five feet thick, and from seventy-five to three hundred feet high.
On the summit were low towers, said to have been two hundred and fifty in number, placed along the outer and inner edges of the wall, tower facing tower; and in these walls were a hundred brazen gates, twenty-five on each side, corresponding to the number of streets which intersected each other at right angles. The city was adorned with splendid palaces and temples and the spoils of conquest.
Nebuchadnezzar was the great monarch of the Babylonian empire, whose long reign covered nearly half the period of its existence, and to him its grandeur and military glory were chiefly due. The city was noted for its wealth and magnificence, which brought a corresponding moral degradation, the sure precursor of its decline and fall. It was wholly given to idolatry, and was full of iniquity.
The people were worshipers of Baal, to whom they offered human sacrifices. The deep degradation of their idolatry may be understood from God’s reproof of the Israelites when they became corrupted by contact with them. See Jer. 7:9; 19:5.
The name originated with the frustrating of the plan for the great tower, called Babel (confusion), because there God confounded human speech; but the native etymology made the name Babil, which, instead of being reproachful, and a reminder of the Lord’s displeasure, signified to themâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“the gate of God.â€Â
The city of Babylon attained a position of prominence and affluence as a capital of the great Babylonian empire, and was called “the golden city,†“the glory of kingdoms, and the beauty of Chaldees’ excellency.†Isa. 13:19; 14:4
Nebuchadnezzar was succeeded in the dominion by his grandson Belshazzar, under whose reign came the collapse which pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness always insure and hasten. While the people, all unconscious of impending danger, following the example of their king, were abandoning themselves to demoralizing excesses, the Persian army, under Cyrus, stealthily crept in through the channel of the Euphrates (from which they had turned aside the water), massacred the revelers, and captured the city.
Thus was fulfilled the prophecy of that strange handwriting on the wallâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsinâ€Ââ€â€which Daniel had interpreted only a few hours before to meanâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. Thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.†And so complete was the destruction of that great city that even its site was forgotten and was for a long time uncertain.
Such was the typical city; and, like a great millstone cast into the sea, it was sunken centuries ago, never again to rise; even the memory of it has become a reproach and a byword. Now let us look for its antitype, first observing that the Scriptures clearly point it out, and then noting the aptness of the symbolism.
In symbolic prophecy a “city†signifies a religious government backed by power and influence. Thus, for instance, the “holy city, the new Jerusalem,†is the symbol used to represent the established Kingdom of God, the overcomers of the Gospel Church exalted and reigning in glory.
The Church is also, and in the same connection, represented as a woman, “the bride, the Lamb’s wife,†in power and glory, and backed by the power and authority of Christ, her husband. “And there came unto me one of the seven angels... saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he...showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem.†Rev. 21:9,10
This same method of interpretation applies to mystical Babylon, the great ecclesiastical kingdom, “that great city†(Rev. 17:1-6), which is described as a harlot, a fallen woman (an apostate churchâ€â€for the true Church is a virgin), exalted to power and dominion, and backed, to a considerable degree, by the kings of the earth, the civil powers, which are all more or less intoxicated with her spirit and doctrine.
The apostate church lost her virgin purity. Instead of waiting, as an espoused and chaste virgin, for exaltation with the heavenly Bridegroom, she associated herself with the kings of the earth and prostituted her virgin purityâ€â€both of doctrine and characterâ€â€to suit the world’s ideas; and in return she received, and now to some extent exercises, a present dominion, in large measure by their support, direct and indirect.
This unfaithfulness to the Lord, whose name she claims, and to her high privilege to be the “chaste virgin†espoused to Christ, is the occasion of the symbolic appellation, “harlot,†while her influence as a sacerdotal empire, full of inconsistency and confusion, is symbolically represented under the name Babylon, which, in its widest sense, as symbolized by the Babylonian empire, we promptly recognize to be Christendom; while in its more restricted sense, as symbolized by the ancient city Babylon, we recognize to be the nominal Christian Church.
The fact that Christendom does not accept the Bible term “Babylon,†and its significance, confusion, as applicable to her, is no proof that it is not so. Neither did ancient Babylon claim the Bible significanceâ€â€confusion. Ancient Babylon presumed to be the very “gate of Godâ€Â; but God labeled it Confusion (Gen. 11:9); and so it is with her antitype today. She calls herself Christendom, the gateway to God and everlasting life, while God calls her Babylonâ€â€confusion.
It has been very generally and very properly claimed by Protestants that the name “Babylon†and the prophetic description are applicable to Papacy, though recently a more compromising disposition is less inclined so to apply it. On the contrary, every effort is now made on the part of the sects of Protestantism to conciliate and imitate the Church of Rome, and to affiliate and cooperate with her. In so doing they become part and parcel with her, while they justify her course and fill up the measure of her iniquities, just as surely as did the scribes and Pharisees fill up the measure of their fathers who killed the prophets. (Matt. 23:31,32)
All this, of course, neither Protestants nor Papists are ready to admit, because in so doing they would be condemning themselves. And this fact is recognized by the Revelator, who shows that all who would get a true view of Babylon must, in spirit, take their position with the true people of God “in the wildernessâ€Ââ€â€in the condition of separation from the world and worldly ideas and mere forms of godliness, and in the condition of entire consecration and faithfulness to and dependence upon God alone.
“So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness; and I saw a woman, ...Babylon. Rev. 17:1-5
And since the kingdoms of the civilized world have submitted to be largely dominated by the influence of the great ecclesiastical systems, especially Papacy, accepting from them the appellation “Christian nations†and “Christendom,†and accepting on their authority the doctrine of the divine right of kings, etc., they also link themselves in with great Babylon, and become part of it, so that, as in the type, the name Babylon applied, not only to the city, but also to the whole empire, here also the symbolic term “Babylon†applies, not only to the great religious organizations, Papal and Protestant, but also, in its widest sense, to all Christendom.
Hence this day of judgment upon mystic Babylon is the day of judgment upon all the nations of Christendom; its calamities will involve the entire structureâ€â€civil, social and religious; and individuals will be affected by it to the extent of their interest in, and dependence upon, its various organizations and arrangements.
The nations beyond Christendom will also feel the weight of the heavy hand of recompense in that they also are to some extent bound in with the nations of Christendom by various interests, commercial and others; and justly, too, in that they also havfailed to appreciate what light they have seen, and have loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Thus, as the Prophet declared, “All the earth [society] shall be devoured with the fire of God’s jealousy†(Zeph. 3:8); but against Babylon, Christendom, because of her greater responsibility and misuse of favors received, will burn the fierceness of his wrath and indignation. (Jer. 51:49) “At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.†Jer. 50:46