CHAPTER NINE
WHY GOD GAVE THE PROPHECY OF REVELATION 17:
HIS MESSAGE CONCERNING THE COMING WORLD CRISIS AND THE COMPLETE VICTORY OF HIS REMNANT CHURCH.
The prophecy of Revelation 17 is God's message of love for His remnant church. "The church is the one object upon which God bestows His supreme regard" (AA. 12). "To John were opened scenes of deep and thrilling interest in the experience of the church. He saw the position, dangers, conflicts, and final deliverance of the people of God.... Subjects of vast importance were revealed to him, especially for the last church, that those who should turn from error to truth might be instructed concerning the perils and conflicts before them. None need be in darkness in regard to what is coming upon the earth" (GC. 341, 342).
"When the books of Daniel and Revelation are better understood, believers will have an entirely different religious experience.... One thing will certainly be understood from the study of Revelation that the connection between God and His people is close and decided" (TM. 114).
"The burden of every book and every passage of the Bible is the unfolding of this wondrous theme man's uplifting-the power of God, ‘which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ'. He who grasps this thought has before him an infinite field for study. He has the key that will unlock to him the whole treasure-house of God's word" (Education, 125, 126).
This inspired instruction urges us to study Revelation 17 as a prophecy which reveals God's love for His people; it is for their sake that He has given this chapter that they may know what is coming on the earth and how they are to prepare for it; it also contains God's assurance that He will be with His people in their hour of test and will bring them through it victoriously.
The seventeenth chapter of Revelation commences with "one of the seven angels which had the seven vials" talking with John, saying: "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon 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). At first glance it may be thought that this chapter does not concern the church but rather concerns the judgments of God upon "the great whore". However, the angel immediately discloses the greatness of the evil committed by this "great whore", for which she is specifically condemned to receive the seven last plagues–and especially the 6th and 7th plagues. Her great sin that especially provokes the wrath of God, is that of Persecuting His people and seeking to destroy them. She
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employs the "many waters" upon which she sits to drown God's dear saints. She has illicit association with "the kings of the earth" and employs their power against the Lord's people.
That Revelation 17 was given to show that God's judgment will fall upon the Babylonian whore because she employs kings to persecute His people is shown in the opening verses. It should be remembered that often John comes to the climax of his theme at the commencement of a prophecy and then proceeds to present the circumstances leading up to that climax. Observe how he follows this principle in Rev. 1:7: "Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him." It will be noted that before the Revelator reveals even one of the many events which later he declares will occur through history until the second advent, he portrays the wailing of the lost as every eye beholds Jesus coming upon the clouds of power and glory. That is, he presents the climax before he unfolds the events leading up to it.
We cite another illustration. After briefly introducing the beast of Rev. 13, giving just sufficient details necessary for identification, John immediately says: "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast" (Rev. 13:3). That is, as soon as John introduces this beast he hastens to mention regarding it receiving a death stroke which is healed and resulting in the world bowing before the power of this resurrected beast. The wounding of this beast (v. 3) at the commencement of John's description of the activities of this beast is identical with its being led into captivity mentioned in v. 11 at the conclusion of John's description of the beast's activities down to the end of the forty-two months. The healing of the death stroke and the consequent wondering of the world after the beast mentioned in v. 3 is enlarged upon in John's vivid portrayal of the lamb-like beast that assists the first beast to regain its lost supremacy and causes the world to wonder after the beast through the enforcement of "the mark of the beast." see vs. 11-17.
The same principle of mentioning the climax at the introduction of a theme is again illustrated in Rev. 13:11. Here John describes the rise of the United States as the highest expression of Protestantism with its cardinal principle of separation of church and state, of religious and civil liberty, and then immediately passes to the climax of the activities of this lamb-like beast, saying: "And he spake as a dragon" (v. 11). How the lamb-like beast speaks as a dragon is shown in his imitating the ways of the first beast and threatening death to all who refuse to obey church
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dogmas enforced by the power of the State. Those who decide to obey the Law of God that enjoins the observance of the 7th day of the week as the Sabbath of the Lord and who refuse to keep the first day of the week as the Sabbath as declared by the Papacy, will be threatened with death. Thus the crisis over the enforcement of the mark of the beast–the threat of death to the people of God–is mentioned immediately the lamb-like beast is introduced into the prophecy.
As soon as John introduces this lamb-like beast as the one that will cause "the earth and them that dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed", he then immediately points to the climax of efforts put forth to persuade people to believe that the mark of the beast is of heavenly origin, saying: "And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in sight of the beast" (Rev. 13:12-14). This calling down of fire from heaven is done to convince people of the supposed sanctity of Sunday observance–the mark of the beast–see Rev. 19:20. But, it should be noted, as yet the mark of the beast has not been mentioned in the prophecy! Thus the climax of deception is presented before mentioning the mark of the beast; to attempt to prove the sanctity of which causes deceptions to reach their climax in the greatest of all time. "Satan also works with lying wonders, even bringing down fire from heaven in the sight of men. Thus the inhabitants of the earth will be brought to take their stand " (GC. 612).
Now with this guiding principle before us, of carefully noting how John presents the climax at the introduction of his theme, we turn again to Rev. 17:2 and notice that the first feature of the prophet's outline of "the great whore" is that it is she "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". That is, the union of Church and State–with the Church leading the State–will be, a practising belief of the governments of earth. This deception being also imbibed as a doctrine by the people who are drunk with "the wine of her fornication"–that is, those who believe this to be the teaching of the Scriptures.
When governments and people are united in the supposed righteousness of the enforcement of the mark of the beast by the State, they will also regard dissenters, who stand firmly for God's Sabbath and for the Bible principle of separation of Church and State, "as enemies of law and order, as breaking down the moral restraint of society, causing anarchy and corruption, and calling down the judgments of God. 78
Their conscientious scruples will be pronounced obstinacy, stubbornness, and contempt of authority. They will be accused of disaffection toward the government. Ministers who deny the obligation of the divine law will present from the pulpit the duty of yielding obedience to the civil authorities as ordained of God. In legislative halls and courts of justice commandment-keepers will be misrepresented and condemned. A false colouring will be given to their words; the worst construction will be put upon their motives. . . . The dignitaries of Church and State will unite to bribe, persuade, or compel, all classes to honour the Sunday. . . Liberty of conscience, which has cost so great a sacrifice, will no longer be respected. In the soon-coming conflict we shall see exemplified the prophet's words: 'The dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ"' (GC. 592).
Employing the same principle of observing the introduction of the actors in the moving drama of the conflict between the forces of good and evil, we cannot fail to be impressed with the dramatic way in which the saints come into the prophetic picture of Rev. 17. John says: "And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev. 17:6). This "great whore" is the murderess of the saints of God. The saints are thus introduced into this vision as the victims of this blood-thirsty whore; the objects of fiery persecution as she employs the power of kings and governors to execute her cruel designs upon the true servants of the Lord.
Thus there can be no mistaking the purpose for which this prophecy was given: it was given to reveal vital information for the Lord's loyal people, information concerning their perilous plight when "the great whore" becomes the mistress of the governments of earth, and when the populace give their assent to this unholy union. Earlier in the book of Revelation the apostate church is designated "that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess". In that same communication, the Lord of glory denounced her illicit association with the powers of earth, saying: "I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death" (Rev. 2:20-23).
Jezebel was "the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians" and led king Ahab into the worship of Baal. Ahab "reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him" (I Kings 16:31-33).
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Ahab became a tool in the hand of this wicked woman; at her instigation death became the portion of the servants of God. "Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord. . . . Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord" (1 Kings 18:4, 13). Obviously Jezebel did not herself slay these servants of the Most High God; she employed the power of the State. Elijah, the prophet of the Lord, who is employed in the Scriptures as a type of God's last-day messengers, was used powerfully to counteract the iniquity of the union of Israel with the idolatry of Baal worship. With the irresistible power of Heaven resting upon him, he challenged the false teachings of Baal worship and revealed to the people the iniquity brought into Israel by Jezebel working through king Ahab. Baal means Lord. Baal-worship was sunworship: a subtle, Satanic philosophy that placed God's creation in the place of the Creator; a religious philosophy that placed great power in the hands of a false priesthood (1 Kings 16:32, 33; 18:22-40).
The situation and circumstances which prevailed in Israel in Jezebel's time bear a remarkable similarity with those which existed during the Dark Ages and are to be particularly prevalent in the closing scenes of the great conflict between truth and error. The parallels of the events of those days and those to occur in the very last days of earth's history are such that one can readily see why the Lord has employed Elijah as a type of those who proclaim the last great warning message against the iniquitous work of the modern Jezebel, who will employ the kings of earth to persecute and seek to slay the servants of God. (For a further consideration of the times and circumstances concerning Jezebel and Elijah and their antitypical application in connection with last-day events, the reader is directed to previous publications: "The Fall of Babylon in Type and Antitype", and "Christ Conquers! or Why Christ Rose on Sunday".)
Those who serve the Lord in this dark world of sin, where His holy principles are challenged either outwardly or by subtlety, are precious in His sight; they are "the apple of His eye" (Zech. 2:8). The Lord Jesus Who gave His royal blood to save His people, says: "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me" (Matt. 25:40). To wound one of His children is to "sin against Christ" (1 Cor. 8:12). The Lord says: "But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in Me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt. 18:7). "His saints are lovely in His sight." They are never hidden from His sight (Heb. 4:13). Christ warns those who feel that they can harm His children with
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impunity: "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones" (Matt. 18:10). To His trusting children the Lord says: "Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.... No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper" (Isa. 54:15, 17). Today, as anciently God encouraged His people, the Lord assures His remnant church: "As birds flying, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also He will deliver it; and pass in over He will preserve it" (Isa. 31:5). The Psalm which was particularly penned for the perils of earth's closing scenes, says: "He shall cover the with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust" Ps. 91:4).
The prophecy of Rev. 17 is given to portray "the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters"; judgment which falls upon her from Heaven because of employing the kings of the earth (with whom she has unholy alliance) to persecute the people of God. This is the purpose for which this prophecy was given; and everything in this portrayal must be seen as contributing toward that purpose and thus justifying God in his dealings with this dissolute woman. It is also written in order to encourage God's people with the knowledge that the Lord has taken full cognizance of the fury of her wrath against His people and thus find comfort in knowing that the Lord will deal with her e and bring deliverance to His oppressed people.
The angel who is commissioned to reveal to John "the judgment of the great whore is definitely said to be "one of the seven angels which had the seven vials" (Rev. 17:1). Thus we are directed back to the description of the outpouring of God's unmingled wrath upon those who had rejected the warning message proclaimed by the people of God. The third angel's message (Rev. 14:8-11) warned against the worship of "the beast and, his image" and the reception of "the mark of the beast”. The beast persecuted the people of God in the Dark Ages; the image of the beast is also a last-day combination of Church and State which persecutes the people of God. "When the leading churches of the United States ... shall influence the State to enforce their decrees, and to sustain their institutions, (then) Protestant America will have formed an image to the Roman hierarchy, and the infliction of civil penalties upon dissenters will inevitably result....The `image to the beast' represents that form of apostate Protestantism which will be developed when the Protestant churches shall seek the aid of the civil power for the enforcement of their dogmas" (GC. 445).
The warning against this last great apostasy when Church and State unite to enforce the mark of the beast, will be proclaimed with the, mightiest demonstration of Divine power ever revealed
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in connection with the work of God on the earth. John said: "I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen ... for all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her" (Rev. 18:1-3). With what courage the Lord will invest His people that will enable them to proclaim this solemn warning against such national apostasy! Those who reject the warning will be stirred with bitter resentment and anger; their natural passions will be inflamed by the evil spirits into a white heat. Pointing, to this time, the Lord's servant says: "We were filled with the Holy Ghost as we went forth and proclaimed the Sabbath more fully. This enraged the churches and nominal Adventists, as they could not refute the Sabbath truth" (EW 33). Again the Lord's servant points to this final crisis hour among the nations, saying: "I was pointed down to the time when the third angel's message was closing. The power of God had rested upon His people.... The last great warning had sounded everywhere, and it had stirred up and enraged the inhabitants of the earth who would not receive the message" EW. 279 . It is to this time when the loud cry will be given with such mighty power that Daniel's last prophecy points: the loud cry will be given with such a mighty power that the king of the north will become greatly troubled thereby; "therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many". To accomplish his designs he encamps about the spiritual "holy city", but the Lord intervenes to deliver His people–this is the teaching of Dan. 11:44, 45; 12:1.
As we have shown in a previous publication ("The King of the North at Jerusalem. God's People Delivered"), there are three stages of the final conflict to which we are directed in Daniel's last prophecy: (1) The king of the north invades the land of Israel which he does when he brings about the union of church and state and thus, violating the principle of religious freedom, he enters the domain of the conscience which belongs exclusively to God; (2) Sunday laws have increased in severity until a death penalty is attached to their violation–to be executed after a period of time. "At that time” –when the threat of death is passed upon all Sabbath keepers who refuse to bow to the image of the beast– "shall Michael stand up, the great Prince which standeth for the children of thy people"; (3) "At that time" (the second time this expression is employed in Dan. 12:1)–when the time period in the death decree is about to expire and thus death is to be meted out to God's people, at the time of the 6th and 7th plagues–"At that time thy people shall be delivered."
It is at the time the people of God are threatened with death
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in the decree which gives them a limited period in which to relinquish their Sabbath keeping–that Michael, even our Lord and Saviour stands up and the reason for His standing, or commencing His reign after closing the door of mercy, is declared to be because He "standeth for the children of thy people. The forces of evil threaten to destroy His people–that is enough! This provokes Him to wrath! He arises and closes mercy's door so that He may with unmingled wrath deal with the persecutors of His people. He will deliver His people! to do this He pours out plague after plague. Never should the plagues be studied without seeing behind their outpouring the great love of the Lord Jesus for His ransomed people: it is for their sake, mainly, they are poured-out.
The Lord's servant says:
"I saw the leading men of the earth consulting together, and Satan and his angels busy around them. I saw a writing, copies of which were scattered in different parts of the land, giving orders, that unless the saints should yield their peculiar faith, give up the Sabbath and observe the first day of the week, the people were at liberty after a certain time, to put them to death. Satan wished to have the privilege of destroying the saints of the Most High; but Jesus bade His angels watch over them. God would be honoured by making a covenant with those who had kept His law, in the sight of the heathen round about them; and Jesus would be honoured by translating without their seeing death, the faithful, waiting ones who had so long expected Him, . . . God would not suffer His name to be reproached among the heathen. The time had nearly come when He was to manifest His mighty power, and gloriously deliver His saints. For His name's glory He would deliver every one of those who had patiently waited for Him, and whose names were written in the book" (EW. 283, 4.
Thus the Lord's servant connects up the death threatened by the king of the north, as he goes "forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many" (Dan. 11:44), and the deliverance of the people of God, "every one that shall be found written in the book" (Dan. 12:1).
The deliverance of the people of God, is brought about by the voice of God (see 1T. 354, 184; EW. 37, 285; GC. 635, 6), which the Revelator locates in point of time at the opening of the 7th plague (Rev. 16:17). Daniel says that the king of the north comes to his end at the time of the deliverance of the saints. John says that the deliverance of the saints by the voice of God occurs at the opening of the 7th plague. The king of the north is described as being just about to slay the faints when the Lord brings them deliverance-and the king of the north comes to his end, none being able to help him for the Lord Almighty has determined upon his utter extinction in the battle of that great day of God Almighty– “Armageddon" meaning "the mountain of slaughter". Scripture and logic demand that the Revelator (who follows the order of events outlined by Daniel in his last prophecy) in his description of the drying up of the waters of
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Babylon's river, the Euphrates, must also be referring to the time when the world, will have united with "the great whore that sitteth upon many waters--the Euphrates, see Jer. 51:13 and compare with Rev. 17:1–in the determination to slay the people of God. The drying up of the waters threatening to engulf God's people, refers to the intervention of God on behalf of His people.
The invasion of Palestine by the Assyrians was likened by Isaiah to the overflowing of the Euphrates. The Assyrian armies marched across the land of Immanuel–"God with us", Matt. 1:23 - until everything seemed submerged by the flooding Euphrates. Like a man with head only above the swirling waters, so Jerusalem was surrounded and threatened with death–see the impressive figure presented by the prophet Isaiah, chapter 8:7, 8. At that time the Lord declared: "Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand; that I will break the Assyrian in my land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot.... This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations" (Isa. 14:24-26).
Thus the invasion of the land of Israel by the Assyrians, likened unto the overflowing of the Euphrates, is coupled up with God's purpose "upon the whole earth ... upon all the nations" at the time of the deliverance of God's people. Then, God defended the city of Jerusalem and delivered and preserved it (Isa. 31:5), destroying the Assyrian that surrounded it–see Isa. 38:35, 36. In the chapter (30) "Deliverance from Assyria." the Lord's servant in "Prophets and Kings", says: "The rise and fall of the, Assyrian Empire is rich in lessons or the nation of earth today. ... The pride of Assyria and its fall are to serve as an object lesson to the end of time" (pp. 362, 366).
In Isa. 30:27-31 the Lord couples up the defeat of the Assyrian army around Jerusalem, as the Lord then intervened on behalf of His people, with the deliverance of God's people in the last days when "the Lord shall cause His glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of His arm, with the indignation of His anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones. For through the voice of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down". This is the passage of Scripture which the Lord's servant employs when depicting the deliverance of God's people by the voice of God at the opening of the 7th plague–see GC. 635, 6.
Thus we see why the drying up of the waters of the Euphrates under the 6th plague is associated with the deliverance of the people of God at the opening of the 7th plague. (For fuller consideration see other books of the writer's which deal with this theme, such as "God Speaks-and Israel Triumphs".) 84
The Lord, by informing us that the angel who delivers to John the vision of Rev. 17 is one of the seven angels who pour out the seven last plagues upon the forces of Babylon, would thus have us study the significance of Rev. 17 in the light of what is revealed concerning the outpouring of the seven last plagues, such as we have briefly considered in the foregoing paragraphs.
The first plague is poured out "upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped [or obeyed] his image" (Rev. 16:2). That is, the plagues are poured out upon those who have subscribed to the Papal-Protestant-union of Church and State; those who know that such legislation must bring great distress and suffering to Sabbath keepers. In another publication where we have given a fuller analysis of the plagues, we have shown that all the plagues are poured out upon those who have rejected God’s last-day Message and who are seeking to slay the people of God. The death decree is to be executed at the time of the 6th plague, or as the Bible states, the 6th plague is poured out upon the waters of the river Euphrates–Babylon's river–because those waters, which are distinctly declared by the angel to be the "peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues" doing the bidding of "the great whore" (Rev. 17:1, 15), threaten to drown the people of God.
The foregoing facts, with others to be presented in the following pages, clearly show why the Lord gave John the important revelation contained in Rev. 17: it concerns the crisis that will come upon the people of God in all parts of the world when the powers of earth will unite for the extirpation of Sabbath keepers: it reveals that complete victory will come to Christ's faithful people and complete destruction to their enemies.
Luke 21:8
Christian, Be Not Deceived!
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