PART 2 GREAT HARLOT THAT SITS ON
MANY WATERS
What more does the prophecy disclose as to the great harlot and her fate? As John now relates, a further vivid scene comes to view:
“And he [the angel]
carried me away in the power of the spirit into a wilderness. And I caught sight of a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns.”—Revelation 17:3.
Why is John carried into a wilderness? An earlier pronouncement of doom against ancient Babylon was described as being “against the wilderness of the sea.” (
Isaiah 21:1, 9) This gave due warning that, despite all its watery defenses, ancient Babylon would become a lifeless desolation. It is fitting, then, that John should be carried in his vision to a wilderness to see the fate of Babylon the Great. She too must become desolate and waste. (
Revelation 18:19, 22, 23) John is amazed, though, by what he sees out there. The great harlot is not alone! She is sitting on a monstrous wild beast!
This wild beast has seven heads and ten horns. Is it, then, the same as the wild beast that John saw earlier, which also has seven heads and ten horns? (
Revelation 13:1) No, there are differences. This wild beast is scarlet-colored and, unlike the previous wild beast, is not said to have diadems. Rather than having blasphemous names on its seven heads
only, it is
“full of blasphemous names.” Nevertheless, there must be a relationship between this new wild beast and the previous one; the similarities between them are too pronounced to be coincidental.
What, then, is this new scarlet-colored wild beast? It must be the image to the wild beast (league of nations then United Nations) it was brought forth under the urging of the Anglo-American wild beast( combination of United States and England) that thas two horns like a lamb. After the image was made, that two-horned wild beast was allowed to give breath to the image of the wild beast. (
Revelation 13:14, 15) John now sees the living, breathing image. It pictures the League of Nations organization that the two-horned wild beast brought to life in 1920. U.S. President Wilson had envisioned that the League “would be a forum for the dispensation of justice for all men and wipe out the threat of war forever.” When it was resurrected after the second world war as the United Nations, its chartered purpose was “to maintain international peace and security.”
In what way is this symbolic wild beast full of blasphemous names? In that men have set up this multinational idol as a substitute for God’s Kingdom—to accomplish what God says his Kingdom alone can accomplish. (
Daniel 2:44; Matthew 12:18, 21) What is remarkable about John’s vision, though, is that Babylon the Great is riding the scarlet-colored wild beast. True to the prophecy, Babylonish religion, particularly in Christendom, has linked itself with the League of Nations and its successor. As early as December 18, 1918, the body now known as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a declaration that declared in part: “Such a League is not a mere political expedient; it is rather the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth. . . . The Church can give a spirit of good-will, without which no League of Nations can endure. . . . The League of Nations is rooted in the Gospel. Like the Gospel, its objective is ‘peace on earth, good-will toward men.’”
What of the League’s successor, the United Nations? From its inception, this body has also had the great harlot riding on its back, visibly associated with it and trying to guide its destiny. For example, on its 20th anniversary, in June 1965, representatives of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church, together with Protestants, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims—said to represent two thousand million of earth’s population—assembled in San Francisco to celebrate their support and admiration of the UN. On visiting the UN in October 1965, Pope Paul VI described it as “that greatest of all international organizations” and added: “The peoples of the earth turn to the United Nations as the last hope of concord and peace.” Another papal visitor, Pope John Paul II, addressing the UN in October 1979, said: “I hope the United Nations will ever remain the supreme forum of peace and justice.” Significantly, the pope gave very little attention to Jesus Christ or to God’s Kingdom in his speech. During his visit to the United States in September 1987, as reported by
The New York Times, “John Paul spoke at length about the positive role of the United Nations in promoting . . . ‘new worldwide solidarity.’”
A Name A Mystery
The apostle John is soon to learn that the great harlot has chosen a dangerous beast to ride. First, though, his attention turns to Babylon the Great herself. She is richly adorned, but, oh, how repulsive she is!
“And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls and had in her hand a golden cup that was full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication. And upon her forehead was written a name, a mystery: ‘Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.’ And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.”—Revelation 17:4-6a.
As was the custom in ancient Rome, this prostitute is identified by the name on her forehead.
* It is a long name: “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” That name is “a mystery,” something with hidden meaning. But in God’s due time, the mystery is to be explained. In fact, the angel gives John enough information to allow Jehovah’s servants today to discern the full significance of this descriptive name. We recognize Babylon the Great as being all of false religion. She is “the mother of the harlots” because all the individual false religions in the world, including the many sects in Christendom, are like her daughters, imitating her in committing spiritual harlotry. She is also the mother of “disgusting things” in that she has given birth to such revolting offspring as idolatry, spiritism, fortune-telling, astrology, palmistry, human sacrifice, temple prostitution, drunkenness in honor of false gods, and other obscene practices.
Babylon the Great is dressed in “purple and scarlet,” the colors of royalty, and is “adorned with gold and precious stone and pearls.” How appropriate! Just reflect on all the magnificent buildings, rare statues and paintings, priceless icons, and other religious paraphernalia, as well as astronomical amounts of property and cash, that this world’s religions have accumulated. Whether at the Vatican, in the TV empire of evangelism centered in the United States, or in the exotic wats and temples of the Orient, Babylon the Great has amassed—and at times lost—fabulous wealth.
Look now at what the harlot has in her hand. John must have gasped at the sight of it—a golden cup “full of disgusting things and the unclean things of her fornication”! This is the cup containing “the wine of the anger of her fornication” with which she has made all the nations drunk. (
Revelation 14:8; 17:4) It looks rich on the outside, but its contents are disgusting, unclean. (Compare
Matthew 23:25, 26.) It contains all the filthy practices and lies that the great harlot has used to seduce the nations and bring them under her influence. Even more revolting, John sees that the harlot herself is inebriated, drunk with the blood of God’s servants! In fact, we later read that “in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.” (
Revelation 18:24) What massive bloodguilt!