INTRODUCTION:

“A Tale of Two Cities” begins with Dickens talking about London and Paris.  It was the best of times; it was the worst of times…. Except in Revelation it is the very worst of times, the end of time!

The Bible tells us the story of human history is the Tale of Two Cities from Genesis 11 to Revelation 19: Jerusalem (God’s people in relationship with Him) and Babylon (God’s enemies who are in rebellion against Him and oppress His people). 

Augustine says human history is marked by conflict between the City of God (driven by love for God) and City of Man (driven by love for self and idols): We are citizens of the City of God (by faith in Christ) but until His kingdom comes we live in the City of Man.  That conflict reaches its climax in Revelation.

These two cities/communities are personified in the images of Two Women: the Harlot of Babylon (Revelation 17-18 cf. Zechariah 5 & Hosea 1-3: Israel, Ezekiel 16: Jerusalem, Nahum 3: Nineveh, Isaiah 23: Tyre, Jeremiah 51: Babylon) and the Bride of New Jerusalem.  We live in Babylon but we long for our true home in the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22).

The vision of Revelation 17-18 is an extension and elaboration of the final Bowl of Judgement (16:19) poured out on the Beast’s kingdom ruled from Babylon, culminating in the Second Coming of Jesus (Revelation 19).

BIBLE STUDY:

1. Summarise the simple plotline of the characters and events in ch.17.

• The Great Prostitute: is described as “the great city” (the centre of evil government) (v.18). She is dressed like a queen in regal purple.  She is drunk (lust for violence against God’s people) and she promotes sexual immorality (i.e. spiritual unfaithfulness and idolatry) throughout the world, represented by the many waters on which she sits (v.15).  She is tattooed (by her pimp) with blasphemous names (just as Beast worshippers will take his mark, 666).  Holding a cup for sorcery, witchcraft and divination.
• Riding the Beast: Satanic evil. Most of the beast’s heads have been killed and conquered by Christ already, so this looks ahead to the final threat to come (the 8^th head) – but we’re assured that it is as assuredly doomed as the previous 7 heads (v.10-11).  It is the pimp that slave-master of the prostitute.
• Beast empowered by an alliance of nations: the ten horns are ten kings – ten a number for completion (v.12-13).
• Great Prostitute is destroyed by the nations: evil turns in on itself – showing the house of Satan is dividing against itself as the end draws near.

2. Describe the wrongs committed by Babylon in ch.17-18, that God’s wrath would destroy it? What things does it symbolise in our world today: politically, socially, morally, economically?

• Idol of wealth, consumerism and luxury
• Degrading human treatment and injustice
• Corrupted with occult activity
• Persecution and martyrdom of God’s people
• Immorality
• Idolatry and blasphemy against God

“this city is not just a historical one; it is the great city, the mother city, the archetype of every evil system opposed to God in history … John is burdened to exhort the churches to shun the charms and ensnarements of the queen prostitute (17:7) as her qualities are manifest in the world they live in. Wherever there are idolatry, prostitution, self-glorification, self-sufficiency, pride, complacency, reliance on luxury and wealth, avoidance of suffering, violence against life (18:24), there is Babylon. Christians are to separate themselves ideologically and physically from all the forms of Babylon (18:4)” (Johnson)

3. How should God’s people respond to Babylon? What things does it symbolise in our world today: politically, socially, morally, economically?

• God is going to judge the idolatry and immorality and inhumanity, and injustice of Babylon – so Christians need to separate themselves from its values and ways (v.4)
• Christians should rejoice in its judgement and destruction (v.20)

4. What emotions does the vision of the Harlot and City of Babylon in 17:1-6 and 18:21-24 evoke in you?

• We’re meant to see both royal grandeur and luxurious riches and seductive charms. Easily God’s people would be attracted and in danger of being seduced by her.
• Lead into next section – the temptation of John’s readers to give into the Emperor cult of Rome…

HISTORICAL CONTEXT:

While this passage is about the worldly system of evil, represented in the past in Babylon, represented in the future in the Antichrist’s final empire; it was represented in John’s day in Rome.  Rome was a city built on seven hills; the great capital city of the world at that time; the throne of the Emperor who demanded worship as a god and persecuted God’s people; the centre of global trade, social influence and political power. On some coins of the time, Rome was depicted as the goddess queen Roma who sat on seven hills over the nations and kings of the earth.  A well-known Roman historian Tacitus said: “Rome is the place where all the horrible and shameful things in the world congregate and find a home”.  Yet Rome was also the place of status, power, splendour and wealth – it seemed to offer life in all its fullness.  The seductive draw to compromise with her, to say “Caesar is Lord” was a strong temptation. But John is shown the true reality: that Rome is a just a call-girl, enthralled to Satanic power, used, abused and ultimately to be destroyed by her pimp.

Revelation wants to purify and renew our minds as we live in this world with all its seductive idols:

“Revelation’s readers in the great cities of the province of Asia were constantly confronted with powerful images of the Roman vision of the world.... All provided powerful visual impressions of Roman imperial power and of the splendour of pagan religion.  In this context, Revelation provides a set of Christian prophetic counter-images which impress on its reader a different vision of the world: how it looks from heaven.  The visual power of the book effects a kind of purging of the Christian imagination, refurbishing it with alternative visions of how the world is and will be.  For example, in ch.17 John’s readers share his vision of a woman.  At first glance, she might seem to be the goddess Roma, in all her glory, a stunning personification of the civilisation of Rome, as we was worshipped in many a temple in the city of Asia.  But as John sees her, she is a Roman prostitute, a seductive whore, a scheming witch, and her wealth and splendour represent the profits of her disreputable trade.  In this way, John’s readers are able to perceive something of Rome’s true character – her moral corruption behind the enticing propagandist illusions of Rome which they constantly encountered in their cities” (Richard Bauckham).

DISCUSSION:

1. Heaven rejoices over God’s judgement on the sinful world, while the merchants and kings of the earth are sad to see it pass away. What idols can you become too attached to or distracted by in this world? 

For more see Tim Keller: “Counterfeit Gods”

• Our academic success
• Our job/work/position
• Our sport
• Our hobbies
• Our right to “me time”

2. “We should live in the world but not of the world” How should we live in counter-cultural ways, as Christian citizens in the midst of ‘Babylon’ today?

• Social action: defending, speaking out for and working towards social reform for the poor, marginalised, voiceless, powerless, victims of unjust laws and practices in our society.
• Living justly and generously
• Modelling sexual purity and faithfulness
• Campaigning against human trafficking and exploitation
• Buying from ethical retailers and products (clothes, food, jewellery, etc.)

CONCLUSION:

We live in the City of Babylon… but something of the Harlot of Babylon lurks in all our hearts!  The gospel is how God redeems and transforms people with prostitute hearts to be His beloved people.

Let me tell you the story of the King and the Prostitute (Martin Luther).  Christ is the King while we are Prostitutes - because we have spiritually adulterous hearts which pursue many lovers instead of Him.  When Christ in all His royal and holy splendour looks upon us that's the stark contrast He sees between us and Himself.  Yet even with this full knowledge about us He chooses to set His love upon us! 

Driven by such love, He must leave His palace and get down into the gutter in order to rescue her and unite her to Himself. When she marries the King, He takes her debt, extinguishes it, and shares with her all His credit.  Now she is a Queen by status, but still a Prostitute at heart.  Therefore, He shares His life and love, in order to melt and change her heart, so that she becomes in fact what she is already in law.  In response to His love, she desires to please and be committed to Him too.