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17:13-16 (v. 2), as the instruments of her eventual destruction (v. 16-17). 13-14 St. John records that the “ten kings” join with the Beast against Christ, persecuting the Church throughout the provinces and subordinate kingdoms of the Empire: These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the Beast in order to wage war against the Lamb, as Michael and His angels had waged war with the Dragon (12:7). This has always been the ultimate goal of reprobate man’s exercise of government: the attempt to dethrone God. As the Psalmist foretold, “The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against His Christ” (Ps. 2:2; cf. Acts 2:26). The apostolic commentary on this text is revealed in an early prayer of the persecuted Church. After quoting Psalm 2, they said: “For truly in this city there were gathered together against Thy holy servant Jesus, whom Thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and Thy purpose predestined to occur” (Acts 4:27-28). The ungodly are united in the bond of hatred against the Son of God, the Anointed One. That is why we are told the outcome of the conspiracy of Herod and Pilate against Christ: “Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been at enmity with one another” (Luke 23:12). Enemies will unite in fighting a common foe, and in the Advent of Christ we see the world of pagans and apostates joining together in rebellion against Him. But the Psalmist long before had warned kings and rulers to “worship the LORD with reverence, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He become angry, and you perish in the way, for His wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!” (Ps. 2:11-12). The outcome of this cosmic struggle is thus assured, and inevitable: And the Lamb will overcome them, because He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful. St. John assures the Church that in their terrible and terrifying conflict with the awesome might of imperial Rome, the victory of Christianity is guaranteed. 15 The angel now explains the significance of the waters . . . where the Harlot sits. These are described in terms of a fourfold designation: peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues, i.e. the world. The identification of the ungodly, rebellious nations of the world with the raging sea is a familiar one in Scripture (cf. 13:1). Isaiah wrote of “the uproar of many peoples who roar like the roaring of the seas, and the rumbling of nations who rush on like the rumbling of mighty waters! The nations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters, but He will rebuke them and they will flee far away, and be chased like chaff in the mountains before the wind, or like whirling dust before a gale” (Isa. 17:12-13). “The wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace for the wicked, says my God” (Isa. 57:20-21). Jerusalem could truly be portrayed as seated on “many waters” (i. e., the nations) because of the great and pervasive influence the Jews had in all parts of the Roman Empire before the destruction of Jerusalem. Their synagogues were in every city, and the extent of their colonization can be seen in the record of the Day of Pentecost, which tells us that “there were Jews staying in Jerusalem, devout men, from every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5). 18 16 In their war against Christ, the raging nations turn against the Harlot, because of her connection with Him. 19 The angel portrays this new enmity toward the Harlot by a fourfold description: The peoples of the Empire will hate the Harlot and will make her desolate and will make her naked, and will eat her flesh and burn her up with fire (cf. Jer. 13:26; Lam. 1:8-9; Nab. 3:5). Jerusalem had committed fornication with the heathen nations, but in A.D. 70 they turned against her and destroyed her, making her desolate (the same word is used in Matthew 24:15, Mark 13:14, and Luke 21:20, reflecting the Greek version of Daniel 9:26-27: the abomination of desolation). One of the punishments for a convicted adulteress in the ancient world was the public humiliation of being stripped naked (cf. Isa. 47:2-3; Jer. 13:26; Lam. 1:8; Ezek. 16:37, 39; 23:29; Hos. 2:10; Nab. 3:5). Another connection with “Jezebel” (2:20; cf. on 17:5) is made here: The nations eat her flesh, as the dogs (cf. 22:15) had eaten the flesh of the original Jezebel (1 Kings 21:23-24; 2 Kings 9:30- 37). The prophets who spoke of Jerusalem as the Whore had said that just as a priest’s daughter who became a harlot was to be “burned with fire” (Lev. 21:9), so God would use Jerusalem’s former “lovers,” the heathen nations, to destroy her and burn her to the ground (Jer. 4:11-13, 30-31; Ezek. 16:37-41; 23:22, 25- 30). Russell observed that “Tacitus speaks of the bitter animosity with which the Arab auxiliaries of Titus were filled against the Jews, 20 and we have a fearful proof of the intense hatred felt towards the Jews by the neighboring nations in the wholesale massacres of that unhappy people perpetrated in many great cities just before the outbreak of the war. The whole Jewish population of Caesarea were massacred in one day. In Syria every city was divided into two camps, Jews and Syrians. In Scythopolis upwards of thirteen thousand Jews were butchered; in Ascalon, Ptolemais, and Tyre, similar atrocities took place. But in Alexandria the 18. Luke goes on to list some of these nationalities: “Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs” (Acts 2:9-11). 19. The destruction of the Harlot by her former “lovers” is inexplicable apart from the hypothesis that she is Jerusalem. There is clearly a contextual connection between the nations’ war against Christ and their war against the Harlot. Their opposition is, first and foremost, against Him; their destruction of her is represented as an aspect of their attempt to destroy Him. 20. Cornelius Tacitus, The Histories, v. 1. 176
17:17-18 carnage of the Jewish inhabitants exceeded all the other massacres. The whole Jewish quarter was deluged with blood, and fifty thousand corpses lay in ghastly heaps in the streets. 21 This is a terrible commentary on the words of the angel-interpreter: ‘The ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore,’ etc.” 22 It is important to realize, as we noted above, that the Beast destroyed Jerusalem as part of his war against Christ; the Roman leaders’ motive in destroying the Temple was not only to put down the Jewish rebellion, but to obliterate Christianity, as Sulphius Severus recorded: Titus is said, after calling a council, to have first deliberated whether he should destroy the temple, a structure of such extraordinary work. For it seemed good to some that a sacred edifice, distinguished above all human achievements, ought not to be destroyed, inasmuch as, if preserved, it would furnish an evidence of Roman moderation, but, if destroyed, would serve for a perpetual proof of Roman cruelty. But on the opposite side, others and Titus himself thought that the temple ought specially to be overthrown, in order that the religion of the Jews and of the Christians might more thoroughly be subverted; for that these religions, although contrary to each other, had nevertheless proceeded from the same authors; that the Christians had sprung up from among the Jews; and that, if the root were extirpated, the offshoot would speedily perish. 23 The Beast thought that he could kill the Whore and the Bride in one stroke! But when the dust settled, the scaffolding of old, apostate Jerusalem lay in ruins, and the Church was revealed as the new and most glorious Temple, God’s eternal dwelling place. 17 The sovereign Lord is thus not at the mercy of the Beast and his minions; rather, all these events have been predestined for God’s glory, through the execution of His decrees. For God has put it into their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the Beast. Obviously, it is a sin for these kings to give their kingdoms to the Beast, for the purpose of making war against the Lamb. And yet it is God who put it into their hearts! Some will complain, of course, that this makes God “the Author of sin.” The obvious answer to such an objection is that the text says that God placed the evil purpose into their hearts; at the same time, we are assured that “the LORD is righteous in all His ways.” If we believe the Bible, we must believe both Revelation 17:17 and Psalm 145:17. We must hold firmly to two (seemingly contradictory) points: First, God is not responsible for sin; Second, nothing happens in spite of Him, or in opposition to His purpose. 24 Thus, to those who fight against the Word of God, the Biblical response is blunt: “On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honor, and another vessel for dishonor?” (Rom. 9:20-21). St. Augustine observed: “It is, therefore, in the power of the wicked to sin; but that in sinning they do this or that is not in their power, but in God’s, who divides the darkness and regulates it; so that hence even what they do contrary to God’s will is not fulfilled except it be God’s will.” 25 The whole purpose for the heathen kings’ wrath, for their joining in conspiracy against both the Bride and the Harlot, for their surrendering their kingdoms to the Beast and receiving power for one hour with him, is now revealed. God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, until the words of God should be fulfilled. The war between Christ and the Beast, culminating in the desolation of the Harlot, took place in fulfillment of God’s announcements through His prophets. The curses of the Covenant (Deut. 28) were executed on Israel through the Beast and the ten horns. They were the instruments of God’s wrath, as Christ had foretold in His discourse on the Mount of Olives. During these horrifying “days of vengeance,” He said, all things that were written would be fulfilled (Luke 21:22). Vision and prophecy would be sealed and completed in the destruction of the old world order (Dan. 9:24). 18 The angel now identifies the Harlot as the Great City, which, as we have seen, St. John uses as a term for Jerusalem, where the Lord was crucified (11:8; 16:19). Moreover, says the angel, this City has a Kingdom over all the kings of the earth. It is perhaps this verse, more than any other, which has confused expositors into supposing, against all other evidence, that the Harlot is Rome. If the City is Jerusalem, how can she be said to wield this kind of worldwide political power? The answer is that Revelation is not a book about politics; it is a book about the Covenant. Jerusalem did reign over the nations. She did possess a Kingdom which was above all the kingdoms of the world. She had a covenantal 21. Josephus, The Jewish War, ii.xviii. 22. J. Stuart Russell, The Parousia: A Critical Inquiry into the New Testament Doctrine of Our Lord’s Second Coming (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, [1887] 1983), p. 503. 23. The Sacred History of Sulpitius Severus, in A Select Libraty of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, [n.d.] 1973), Second Series, Vol. 11, p. 111. This information from Sulpitius seems to have been derived from Tacitus’s record of eyewitness accounts. See Michael Grant, The Twelve Caesars (New York: Charles Scribners Sons, 1975), pp. 228f. 24. These seem contradictory to us because we are creatures. Problems such as the relationship of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility, or of God’s sovereignty and God’s righteousness, or of unity and diversity within the Trinity, cannot be “solved” by us because we are not capable of comprehending God. Cornelius Van Til writes: “Human knowledge can never be completely comprehensive knowledge. Every knowledge transaction has in it somewhere a reference point to God. Now since God is not fully comprehensible to us we are bound to come into what seems to be contradiction in all our knowledge. Our knowledge is analogical and therefore must be paradoxical” (The Defense of the Faith, Philadelphia: Presbyterian and Reformed, third revised ed., 1967, p. 44). For this reason, “all teaching of Scripture is apparently contradictory” (Common Grace and the Gospel, Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1972, p. 142; cf. pp. 9ff.; cf. Van Til’s Introduction to Systematic Theology, Presbyterian and Reformed, pp. 247 ff.). For a full consideration of this matter, see John Frame, “The Problem of Theological Paradox; in Gary North, ed., Foundations of Christian Scholarship (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1976), pp. 295-330. 25. St. Augustine, Anti-Pelagian Works, Peter Holmes and Robert Ernest Wallis, trans. (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans, reprinted 1971), p. 514, italics added; cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ii.iv.4. 177
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But when you see Jerusalem surround
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Copyright @ 1987 by Dominion Press
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FOREWORD Foreword Readers of the Bo
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE Publisher’s
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE case for esch
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE this book bec
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PUBLISHER’S PREFACE In contrast,
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INTRODUCTION St. Irenaeus is somewh
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INTRODUCTION we must be saved” (A
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INTRODUCTION previous relationship
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INTRODUCTION You have lain down as
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INTRODUCTION are only elaborating a
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INTRODUCTION early churches had suc
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INTRODUCTION actions mean more than
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INTRODUCTION Some will complain tha
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INTRODUCTION Outline of Revelation
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1:1-3 that must shortly take place.
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1:4-6 accomplishment. We probably h
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1:7-8 observe that a central aspect
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1:9 14 And His head and His hair we
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1:16 That all the peoples, nations,
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1:20 things that must shortly take
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO Part Two H
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INTRODUCTION TO PART TWO The confli
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2:4-6 endure evil men. . . . And yo
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2:9-10 dead, and has come to life:
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2:14-16 expression (none of which m
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2:18-23 and leads my servants astra
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2:26-29 end, to him I will give aut
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3:4-6 church, or even against a nat
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3:8-11 And I will clothe him with y
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3:14-16 sons disinherited and cast
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3:21-22 the elders of a church, and
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INTRODUCTION TO PART THREE The laws
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4:2-3 numerous names and descriptio
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4:5-8 superseded and transcended; t
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4:5-8 19) led Biblical writers to s
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5:1-4 family worship; it is radical
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5:5-7 St. John; and it seems as if
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5:8-10 have gained the victory for
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6:1-2 6 IN THE PATH OF THE WHITE HO
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6:3-4 forth conquering, and to conq
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6:9-10 And authority was given to h
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6:15-17 that Israel’s time has ru
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7:4-8 Though he flourishes among th
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7:4-8 they were listening to the Ap
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7:9 is presumably deliberate, for i
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7:10-14 inheriting the Kingdom (Mat
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7:15-17 They will not hunger or thi
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8:3-5 for that would be about the l
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8:6-7 rout the Midianites, in Judge
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8:12 13 And I looked, and I heard a
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9:13 The vegetation of the earth is
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9:20-21 lations advanced by some co
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9:20-21 men much more atheistical t
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10:2-4 beyond reasonable doubt that
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10:8-10 the Spirit at Pentecost was
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11:1-2 angelic priest measures the
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11:7 have the power to shut up the
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11:11-14 climax with the murder of
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11:16-18 month in the liturgical ye
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12:1-2 12 THE HOLY WAR The Book of
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Page 146 and 147: 14:1 14 THE KING ON MOUNT ZION St.
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22:6-9 Final Warnings and Blessings
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22:17-21 unconquerable strength and
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CONCLUSION the pure Bride-City, is
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CONCLUSION does not exempt us from
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APPENDIX A it is reflected in “It
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APPENDIX A make him a pillar in the
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APPENDIX A and wine the night befor
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APPENDIX A Babylon, falsely priestl
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APPENDIX A B. CHRISTIAN WORSHIP 1.
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APPENDIX B been the defining mark o
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APPENDIX B The Bible teaches us tha
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APPENDIX C APPENDIX C Common Grace,
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APPENDIX C for all eternity because
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APPENDIX C better arrangement cultu
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APPENDIX C be destroyed. The two ex
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APPENDIX C universe. It is governed
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APPENDIX C completed, the world was
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APPENDIX C deceive the nations. The
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APPENDIX C creeds and theological u
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APPENDIX C coherence that at least
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APPENDIX C There is continuity in l
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Athanasius. On the Incarnation of t
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________. The Institutes of Biblica
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