The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

The next verses (22-24), are designed to portray her complete desolation, indeed her
destruction. Not only shall her traffic, her merchandise cease, but there shall be no sign of
life in her at all; no pleasant sound of music, no mechanic's craft, no light of lamp, no voice
of bride groom and of bride--all of which is designed to teach that her destruction is to be
final and complete. As a millstone when thrown into the depths of the sea sinks forever
from the sight of men, so she is to be swept from the earth and leave not a trace of her
greatness or mischievous dominion; because she is a sorceress, whose whole agency has
been to seduce men from God; and a murderess who has shed the blood of prophets and
of saints and of all who have been slain in the empire for the Word of God during her
sway.
"What a tremendous doom thus awaits these apostate powers! What a demonstration it is
to form, that God rejects them! What a refutation of their impious pretenses that they are
his ministers, that they are exclusively invested with authority to teach His will, and that
they enjoy His sanction in their usurpations, their idolatries, their blasphemies, their
persecution of His worshipers! And what an illustrious vindication of the witnesses and
martyrs who resisted alike their seductions, and their vengeance, and maintained
allegiance to the King of kings!"
Chapter 41: Rev. 19:1-10
The Marriage of the Lamb
"And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia;
Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: for true and righteous
are His judgments; for He hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with
her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of His servants at her hand. And again they
said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever."--Rev. 19:1-3.
It is most obvious that the events portrayed in these visions of chapter 19 are yet to meet
their fulfillment. Indeed, to a considerable extent, as we have endeavored to show in the
preceding chapter, this is true also of chapter 18. For while it is clearly seen by students of
the Revelation that Babylon in both its Papal and Protestant aspects has fallen from God's
favor, it is of course apparent that as great systems they still exist. Chapter 18 describes the
rejection and destruction of the great mother system, the Papal hierarchy. The destruction
of Babylon, in its widest sense, commonly termed Christendom, is portrayed in chapter 19.
This being true it becomes apparent to the reverent student of the Revelation that the
prophecies describing these future events will be better understood in detail as history
gradually unveils them. However, in their general outlines they can even now be clearly
seen.
Four phases of Babylon
It will be recalled that we have in our previous expositions noticed that several distinct,
separate phases of the great anti-Christian apostasy are embraced in the one symbol
Babylon. The first and chief of these is that of Babylon the Great, the mother system, which