Babylon The Prostitute
BABYLON THE PROSTITUTE
REVELATION 17:1-6
This staggering and shocking vision is a picture of the world in its true colors.
It is the religious aspect of Babylon we are here considering. She is called “the great prostitute” (17:1) because false religion, like false sex, cheats; it gives only a counterfeit, never the reality. She is riding “a scarlet beast” (17:3), which is later clearly identified with that of 13:1, or sitting on “many waters” (17:1), rightly rendered “the ocean” (NEB), see also 17:15; Daniel 7:2, ie the nations. Here we have religion not as a political organization, but as exercising power through the State. This involves “the prostitute” in supporting the State; that is the price she must pay for power. Since God and the world are in irreconcilable conflict, religion must adopt the world’s values to retain its position. So she is seen in “a wilderness” (17:3); she kills true spiritual life.
When Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people,” he probably did not know that he was repeating the maxim of one of the Cromwellian Levellers or Fifth Monarchy men. In its original sense it is true. Every religious system, to preserve its own existence, is tempted to preach obedience to something in addition to Christ. In the measure it does this it belongs to the prostitute. We may think that one system more than others is the prostitute, but John makes no effort to identify her. We may also think that for someone to belong to such a system automatically taints them. Experience has shown that Christ leaves some of his choicest saints in such churches, that they may resist, often at great loss, the desire for power and the demand for obedience where it must not be given.
While it is the beast that persecutes, the impulse comes from the prostitute (see also 13:16, where the second beast is referred to that represents the religious side of persecution). The official world has normally very little fear of saints, for it knows that they have no longing to rule, no desire to seize power. It has been only when rulers have made themselves as gods, like the Roman emperors, or have claimed religious power they had no right to, like some Reformation monarchs, or virtually made a god of the State, like totalitarian systems, that the secular power has persecuted in its own interests. We are told the prostitute was “drunk” (17:6). That is one of the worst aspects of persecution. Once it starts, it seems to know no bounds; this is as true when it is done in the name of orthodoxy as in that of false teaching.