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The harlot Babylon, in Revelation 17, has been interpreted several ways since the earliest day of the church. It comes as no surprise that the early church interpreted the harlot as pagan Rome. In more recent times, preterists have attempted to interpret her as ancient Jerusalem, and the futurists harken back to the past in their assertion that she is the capital of a revived Roman empire, the worldly city of Augustine’s two cities. However, such interpretations do not exhaust the criteria concerning the prophecy and only convey some elements of truth in order to gain advocates. Presenting the elements of truth eliminate both the preterist and futurist interpretations and vindicate the historicist’s view, albeit with a refinement. The futurist’s view maintains the more excellent historical account that the Revelation was written around AD 96, which precludes the preterist interpretation. The preterist’s view maintains the criterion that the woman is fallen from grace, as did ancient Israel in such texts as Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 2:20; 3:1–11; Ezekiel 16:1–43; 23. The preterist’s element precludes the futurist’s interpretation, insomuch as Babylon’s fall is from grace, and neither a worldly kingdom or its capital can fall from grace, i.e., a revived Roman empire.
The element that the woman falls from grace conveys the Revelation concerns the church under the New Covenant and not Jerusalem in the first century. Jerusalem was ordained to refuse Christ (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 8:14; 49:7; and John 1:11), which is confirmation of Jerusalem’s fall state before the composition of Revelation. However, the Revelation conveys things that must shortly come to pass (Revelation 1:1), which represents prophecy (Revelation 1:3), and as such, cannot prophecy what had already come to pass. The preterist’s interpretation that identifies Babylon as Jerusalem is without historical correspondence even with their assertion that the composition of the Revelation occurred before AD 70. Babylon’s fall from grace must occur after the composition of the Revelation in order to agree with the element that the book conveys things that must come to pass and represents prophecy. Again, the element that the woman falls from grace conveys the Revelation concerns the church under the New Covenant, substantiated in such New Testament evidence as 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:1; Luke 8:11-13; Hebrews 3:12-14. Furthermore, the element that the woman falls from grace eliminates the futurist’s assertion that Babylon represents the capital of a revived Roman Empire, as such an entity has no grace from which to fall.
Revelation 18:23 promotes the rendering that mystery Babylon’s fall is from grace. The declaration that the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom and bride will cease in mystery Babylon establishes she was the source of these phenomena before her judgment. Christ’s revelation that his people are “the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill” in Matthew 5:14 deciphers the candlelight in Revelation 18 as grace. The indication that the woman sits on seven mountains in Revelation 17:9 that are developed further as “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” in verse 15 also sustains the application of Matthew 5:14 in interpreting the candlelight as grace. Texts such as Matthew 9:15; 25:1-10, Mark 2:19-20, Luke 5:34-35 and John 3:29 decipher the phenomenon of the voice of the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom is unquestionably Christ and the bride represents the remnant church who obeys the proclamation to come out of the fallen church in which the “tares” have become dominate, Babylon, so as not to receive of her plagues. The call to come out of Babylon is the commencement of the separation of the wheat from the tares.
As previously stated, the element that mystery Babylon falls from grace engenders a refinement of the historicist’s doctrine. In pursuit of this refinement, one must emphasize that the New Testament prophecies that the church apostatizes in the last days, heralding the return of Christ, and the exposure of the antichrist.
At the establishment of historicist’s school, its proponents interpreted mystery Babylon as the papacy. However, the criterion of the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom ever emanating from the little horn of Daniel, or sea beast of Revelation is without biblical warrant. The majority of historicists rightfully render the seven churches as prophetic and interpret Jezebel as the papacy during the middle ages. This establishes the papacy as the fifth kingdom in Daniel 7 and Revelation 17, one of the five that were fallen from the perspective in the said chapter of Revelation. Historicists William J. Reid typically interprets Jezebel as the papacy.
Jezebel “was the daughter of the priest-king Ethbaal, ruler of the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. When Jezebel married King Ahab of Israel (ruled c. 874–853 BCE), she persuaded him to introduce the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart, a nature god. Most of the prophets of Yahweh were killed at her command.”[2] Only Thyatira represents the body in that era that could fall from grace or lose its candlestick, as stated in Revelation 2:5. This is the aforesaid refinement to the historicist’s doctrine. In principle, there are two women to account for during that era: Thyatira and Jezebel. The church in the middle ages, Thyatira, maintained the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom, in resistance to Jezebel. Thyatira is the church in the wilderness. The interpretation that Jezebel was or is today a religious body that was once pure fails to conform to the Old Testament account of what Jezebel signified.
Progressive revelation has led many to view the little horn in Daniel as the same sea-beast in the Revelation, which is the fifth kingdom that has fallen from the perspective relayed in Revelation 17. The kingdom that “was” and “is not” during the reign of the sixth kingdom is the sea-beast of chapter 13. John was taken to the future “day of the Lord,” the judgment of the harlot Babylon. From this perspective, our time, it is easy to reconcile the sixth kingdom as the two-horned beast by the circumstances that it is instrumental in wounding the beast by separating church and state, which is why it is likened unto a lamb. Nevertheless, the two-horned beast is prophesied to speak as a dragon that ultimately “causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12).
From this future perspective, the harlot Babylon can no longer be construed as the papacy, as the traditionalists have in the past, but must represent apostate Protestantism that is drunk with the blood of the saints. Contemporary historicists acknowledge that the souls of the fifth seal petition for retribution because of the torment by the horsemen of the previous seals. Traditional Hebraic scholars view God’s locust army, which has the appearance of horsemen (Joel 2:4), as the antitype of Rosh Hashanah. Contemporary historicists also acknowledge that Christ’s manifestation before the “Ancient of days” in Revelation 5 parallels his manifestation in Daniel 7:13. At the same time, the Hebraic scholars view the opening of the books as portraying Rosh Hashanah. It invariably follows that Christ’s voice signifies the trumpets that herald the new moons (days of darkness) that pertain to the seven months between the spring and fall festivals, announcing Rosh Hashana. Again, Christ's voice in Revelation 4:1 represents the antitypical trumpet that announces judgment at Rosh Hashana. The answer to the prayers of the fifth seal is witnessed in the scene of Revelation 8, which leads to the end of their torment by the horsemen/locusts, as they are sealed in chapter 7. This end is conveyed in the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:7), which supports the unremitting advancement from the first partition of the typical sanctuary to the second, synchronizing the Hebraic feasts with Revelation 1 through 11.
The synchronization of the Hebraic festivals with Revelation 1 through 11, and the exposé that the first horseman was fulfilled by Protestant missionary imperialism at the time of the Laodicean church, Daniel’s “time of the end” and “cleansing of the sanctuary” is the object of my work. My work documents the exploitation of the true church by apostate Protestantism, Babylon, that fulfills the denunciation that Babylon is “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,” and this is the source of the torment of the souls in the fifth seal. Historically, Protestant missionary imperialism, represented by the rider of the white horse, led to wars for the resources of the world at the first attempt at globalism (the red horseman), ending their churches’ intercession in commerce and the exploitation that ensued (the rider of the black horse), resulting in famines and death (the rider of the pale horse).
[1] William J. Reid, Lectures on the Revelation, (Stevenson, Foster & Co., No. 48 Fifth Avenue 1878), 87; see also John Darby’s Synopsis, Revelation 2: “In Thyatira the assembly reaches to the close. There was found, in what Christ owned in this state of things, increasing devotedness. But Jezebel was allowed; and both connection with the world, idolatry, and children begotten to it in the assembly itself… Thyatira may go on to the end, but does not characterise the witness of God to the end; other states must be brought in to do that. It is, I have no doub,. the Popery of the middle ages, say to the Reformation; Romanism itself goes on to the end. The judgment on Jezebel is final. The Lord had given her space to repent, and she had not repented. It would be a forced association with those whom she had once seduced to the ruin of them all.
[2] Jezebel | Description & Bible Story
See my work here: The Historicist: Babylon the Harlot
The element that the woman falls from grace conveys the Revelation concerns the church under the New Covenant and not Jerusalem in the first century. Jerusalem was ordained to refuse Christ (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 8:14; 49:7; and John 1:11), which is confirmation of Jerusalem’s fall state before the composition of Revelation. However, the Revelation conveys things that must shortly come to pass (Revelation 1:1), which represents prophecy (Revelation 1:3), and as such, cannot prophecy what had already come to pass. The preterist’s interpretation that identifies Babylon as Jerusalem is without historical correspondence even with their assertion that the composition of the Revelation occurred before AD 70. Babylon’s fall from grace must occur after the composition of the Revelation in order to agree with the element that the book conveys things that must come to pass and represents prophecy. Again, the element that the woman falls from grace conveys the Revelation concerns the church under the New Covenant, substantiated in such New Testament evidence as 2 Thessalonians 2:3; 1 Timothy 4:1-4; 2 Timothy 3:1; Luke 8:11-13; Hebrews 3:12-14. Furthermore, the element that the woman falls from grace eliminates the futurist’s assertion that Babylon represents the capital of a revived Roman Empire, as such an entity has no grace from which to fall.
Revelation 18:23 promotes the rendering that mystery Babylon’s fall is from grace. The declaration that the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom and bride will cease in mystery Babylon establishes she was the source of these phenomena before her judgment. Christ’s revelation that his people are “the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill” in Matthew 5:14 deciphers the candlelight in Revelation 18 as grace. The indication that the woman sits on seven mountains in Revelation 17:9 that are developed further as “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues” in verse 15 also sustains the application of Matthew 5:14 in interpreting the candlelight as grace. Texts such as Matthew 9:15; 25:1-10, Mark 2:19-20, Luke 5:34-35 and John 3:29 decipher the phenomenon of the voice of the bridegroom and the bride. The bridegroom is unquestionably Christ and the bride represents the remnant church who obeys the proclamation to come out of the fallen church in which the “tares” have become dominate, Babylon, so as not to receive of her plagues. The call to come out of Babylon is the commencement of the separation of the wheat from the tares.
As previously stated, the element that mystery Babylon falls from grace engenders a refinement of the historicist’s doctrine. In pursuit of this refinement, one must emphasize that the New Testament prophecies that the church apostatizes in the last days, heralding the return of Christ, and the exposure of the antichrist.
Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand. Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3)
At the establishment of historicist’s school, its proponents interpreted mystery Babylon as the papacy. However, the criterion of the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom ever emanating from the little horn of Daniel, or sea beast of Revelation is without biblical warrant. The majority of historicists rightfully render the seven churches as prophetic and interpret Jezebel as the papacy during the middle ages. This establishes the papacy as the fifth kingdom in Daniel 7 and Revelation 17, one of the five that were fallen from the perspective in the said chapter of Revelation. Historicists William J. Reid typically interprets Jezebel as the papacy.
It is supposed that the church of Rome is described in the epistle to the church of Thyatira, under the name of that woman, “Jezebel.” And it must be confessed, even by those who reject this theory, that the similarity is wonderful.[1]
Jezebel “was the daughter of the priest-king Ethbaal, ruler of the Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon. When Jezebel married King Ahab of Israel (ruled c. 874–853 BCE), she persuaded him to introduce the worship of the Tyrian god Baal-Melkart, a nature god. Most of the prophets of Yahweh were killed at her command.”[2] Only Thyatira represents the body in that era that could fall from grace or lose its candlestick, as stated in Revelation 2:5. This is the aforesaid refinement to the historicist’s doctrine. In principle, there are two women to account for during that era: Thyatira and Jezebel. The church in the middle ages, Thyatira, maintained the candlelight and voice of the bridegroom, in resistance to Jezebel. Thyatira is the church in the wilderness. The interpretation that Jezebel was or is today a religious body that was once pure fails to conform to the Old Testament account of what Jezebel signified.
Progressive revelation has led many to view the little horn in Daniel as the same sea-beast in the Revelation, which is the fifth kingdom that has fallen from the perspective relayed in Revelation 17. The kingdom that “was” and “is not” during the reign of the sixth kingdom is the sea-beast of chapter 13. John was taken to the future “day of the Lord,” the judgment of the harlot Babylon. From this perspective, our time, it is easy to reconcile the sixth kingdom as the two-horned beast by the circumstances that it is instrumental in wounding the beast by separating church and state, which is why it is likened unto a lamb. Nevertheless, the two-horned beast is prophesied to speak as a dragon that ultimately “causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:12).
From this future perspective, the harlot Babylon can no longer be construed as the papacy, as the traditionalists have in the past, but must represent apostate Protestantism that is drunk with the blood of the saints. Contemporary historicists acknowledge that the souls of the fifth seal petition for retribution because of the torment by the horsemen of the previous seals. Traditional Hebraic scholars view God’s locust army, which has the appearance of horsemen (Joel 2:4), as the antitype of Rosh Hashanah. Contemporary historicists also acknowledge that Christ’s manifestation before the “Ancient of days” in Revelation 5 parallels his manifestation in Daniel 7:13. At the same time, the Hebraic scholars view the opening of the books as portraying Rosh Hashanah. It invariably follows that Christ’s voice signifies the trumpets that herald the new moons (days of darkness) that pertain to the seven months between the spring and fall festivals, announcing Rosh Hashana. Again, Christ's voice in Revelation 4:1 represents the antitypical trumpet that announces judgment at Rosh Hashana. The answer to the prayers of the fifth seal is witnessed in the scene of Revelation 8, which leads to the end of their torment by the horsemen/locusts, as they are sealed in chapter 7. This end is conveyed in the fifth trumpet (Revelation 9:7), which supports the unremitting advancement from the first partition of the typical sanctuary to the second, synchronizing the Hebraic feasts with Revelation 1 through 11.
The synchronization of the Hebraic festivals with Revelation 1 through 11, and the exposé that the first horseman was fulfilled by Protestant missionary imperialism at the time of the Laodicean church, Daniel’s “time of the end” and “cleansing of the sanctuary” is the object of my work. My work documents the exploitation of the true church by apostate Protestantism, Babylon, that fulfills the denunciation that Babylon is “drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,” and this is the source of the torment of the souls in the fifth seal. Historically, Protestant missionary imperialism, represented by the rider of the white horse, led to wars for the resources of the world at the first attempt at globalism (the red horseman), ending their churches’ intercession in commerce and the exploitation that ensued (the rider of the black horse), resulting in famines and death (the rider of the pale horse).
[1] William J. Reid, Lectures on the Revelation, (Stevenson, Foster & Co., No. 48 Fifth Avenue 1878), 87; see also John Darby’s Synopsis, Revelation 2: “In Thyatira the assembly reaches to the close. There was found, in what Christ owned in this state of things, increasing devotedness. But Jezebel was allowed; and both connection with the world, idolatry, and children begotten to it in the assembly itself… Thyatira may go on to the end, but does not characterise the witness of God to the end; other states must be brought in to do that. It is, I have no doub,. the Popery of the middle ages, say to the Reformation; Romanism itself goes on to the end. The judgment on Jezebel is final. The Lord had given her space to repent, and she had not repented. It would be a forced association with those whom she had once seduced to the ruin of them all.
[2] Jezebel | Description & Bible Story
See my work here: The Historicist: Babylon the Harlot
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