The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"At the time of Babylon's fall, the mighty ones of the earth, financial and political princes
and kings, will stand afar off, keeping clear of too close an affiliation with her, although
they will greatly lament her destruction, realizing that it forebodes their own. Then very
shortly will come the complete overthrow and destruction of the present Gentile
governments, symbolically represented in the Bible as a great conflagration which will
consume the whole earth--all institutions--religious, social, political, and financial."
Carefully viewing the symbolic picture in the light of all the developments and facts of
history, our conviction is that chapter 18 portrays the judgment on that aspect of Babylon
that is comprehended in the symbol of the great harlot, referred to so frequently in the
Revelation visions as corrupting the earth (organized society) with her false doctrines. This
symbol is very generally, and we think correctly understood to represent the Romish
Papal government or hierarchy, which is very appropriately named the "Mother," because
out from her, since the Reformation, have come the Protestant sects (harlots). Many of her
false doctrines, have also been retained in the creeds of these sects, nearly all of which, as
also the so-called Christian nations, have been so permeated with Rome's false dogma of
inherent immortality that a clear conception of the great plans and purposes of God
becomes absolutely impossible.
It will be noted that the "image of the beast," which we have interpreted to be the great
Protestant Federation, and the "false prophet," another symbol of the same, are not
mentioned in the judgment vision of chapter 18. Still further as confirming this
interpretation it will be noted that the "kings" of the earth and the symbolic "merchants"
stand afar off lamenting over the fall, destruction of Babylon, the mother, in chapter 18,
which is clear evidence that these other parts of Babylon for a time survive her fall. Indeed,
it seems clear that if all Christendom is represented as destroyed by the judgment
portrayed in chapter 18, there would be no governments or supporters either civil or
ecclesiastical left anywhere in Christendom to mourn and lament over her destruction.
The last form of the beast
And still further in this same connection, the "beast" in its last form still continues to exist
after the destruction of Babylon occurs--the destruction described in chapter 18:21; thus
chapter 19:19,20 clearly shows the subsequent destruction of the beast. It should be kept in
mind that the beast symbol does not always refer to Papacy. Let it not be forgotten that the
fourth beast of Daniel 7, the Roman power in its varied conditions of rulership from its rise
until the end of the Age, is referred to as the beast. The Papacy is frequently referred to as
the beast because of its exercising a controlling influence over the kingdoms that occupy
the territory of the old Roman Empire.
In Revelation 17, the fourth beast (empire), exercising the power of its ten horns
(kingdoms), is called the "scarlet colored beast," because by these ten horns the
ecclesiastical system of Papacy is supported. Likewise, when these ten horns turn against
Papal ecclesiasticism, as portrayed in the great harlot, and exercise their power for its
humiliation and consumption, they exercise the beast's (the fourth empire's) power, and in