The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

Marcella to quit Rome for Bethlehem, writes: 'Read what is said of Rome in the
Apocalypse of the seven hills.'"
The names of the seven hills of Rome are the Palatine, Quirinal, Aventine, Coelian,
Viminal, Esquiline and Janiculan. Another explanation given by the angel is concerning
the many "waters": "The waters which thou sawest where the whore sitteth are peoples,
and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." Such was certainly the position of Rome, and
the church system ruled from Rome. The peoples and nations and tongues were for long
centuries subject to her sway; and while her temporal authority over the kings is gone, she
still claims it, and exerts a world-wide influence over very many peoples and tongues, and
in the present time is increasing her influence and power.
A still further explanation of the revealing angel is that of the "ten-horns" on the beast. The
ten horns are explained as symbolizing ten kingdoms, which, at the time that St. John was
given the visions, were still future. Indeed, these ten horns are the same as those seen by
Daniel on the fourth beast, which were divinely explained to him as the ten-fold division
of the Roman Empire. The explanation as given by the revealing angel to St. John is
contained in the words: "And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings {kingdoms],
which have received no kingdom as yet [that is, at the time St. John saw the vision]; but
receive power as kings one hour ["at one and the same time," as rendered by noted
translators] with the beast." As the ten horns, according to Irenaeus, a disciple of a disciple
of St. John, are "the same as mentioned by Daniel," and since they came into existence on
the division of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, the vision of the "harlot woman"
seated on the beast could not possibly begin to meet its fulfillment, until the Roman
Empire was thus divided. In the explanation of the angel, these horns or kingdoms are
represented as first giving a voluntary submission to the harlot woman or city
(government). They are subsequently represented by the revealing angel as rising against
her, "and making her desolate and naked, and eating her flesh and burning her with fire."
Now this explanation by the angel is a faithful portrayal of outward Christian history for
long centuries. It is universally agreed that in less than four centuries after St. John's day,
the Western Roman Empire fell and its territory was divided into ten kingdoms, and that
after a brief period these kingdoms all gave their support to the Roman bishop who sat at
first as a religious ruler and next as a temporal ruler. Gibbon, the great historian, who was
an unbeliever, has thus described this momentous event of history:
"About the close of the sixth century Rome had reached the lowest period of her
depression. By the removal of the seat of Empire [to Constantinople], and the successive
loss of the provinces, the sources of public and private opulence were exhausted; the lofty
tree under whose shade the nations of the earth had reposed, was deprived of its leaves
and branches, and the sapless trunk was left to wither on the ground. . . . Like Thebes or
Babylon or Carthage, the name of Rome might have been erased from the earth, if the city
had not been animated by a vital principle which again restored her to honor and
dominion. Under the sacerdotal monarchy of St. Peter, the nations of the earth began to
resume the practice of seeking on the banks of the Tiber, their kings, their laws, and the
oracles of their fate."