Whore of Babylon (historicism) is the view among certain historic Protestant Reformation communities that the Roman Catholic Church is referred to as the great prostitute of the book of Revelation.
Contents |
The “great whore”, of the biblical book of Revelation is featured in chapters 17 and 18. Many passages define symbolic meanings inherent in the text.
| 17:4 | And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: |
| 17:5 | And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. |
| 17:6 | And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration. |
| 17:9 | And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth [King James Version; the New International Version Bible uses "hills" instead of "mountains"]. |
| 17:10 | And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space. |
| 17:11 | And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. |
| 17:12 | And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. |
| 17:15 | And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. |
| 17:18 | And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. |
The Protestant reformers were not the first people to call the Roman Catholic Church the Whore of Babylon. Frederick Barbarossa published letters that called the Papacy the Whore of Babylon, and the Pope the Antichrist, during the course of his protracted quarrel with Pope Alexander III. Dante equated the corruption and simony in the office of the Papacy with the Whore of Babylon in Canto 19 of his Inferno:
The Waldenses "declared the Church of Rome to be the apostate Babylon of the Apocalypse, and at the peril of their lives they stood up to resist her corruptions".[1] The Protestant reformers considered the Papacy to be the apocalyptic figure mentioned in Bible prophecy, and included the claim in Bible commentaries as well as polemics. They meant something more than to accuse the Roman Catholic Church of political or moral corruption; they claimed that, as a church, it taught a Satanic counterfeit plan of salvation, one that would lead its faithful to Hell rather than to Heaven.
Most Reformation writers and all Reformers themselves, from Martin Luther (who wrote On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), John Calvin, and John Knox (who wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women) identify the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon.[2][3] This opinion influenced several generations in England and Scotland when it was put into the 1599 edition of the Geneva Bible. Such a belief is based on a number of Bible texts. The Bible speaking of the whore of Babylon states "And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." (Revelation 17:5)
The Protestant Reformers and the modern Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that in Bible prophecy a woman represents a church.[4][5] . "I have likened the daughter of Zion To a lovely and delicate woman." (Jeremiah 6:2 NKJV) A harlot is representative of a church that has been unfaithful, "Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the LORD.” (Hosea 1:2 NKJV)[6] They also believe the primary location of this unfaithful church is stated in the same chapter. "And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:18) During the time of the writing of the book of Revelation, Rome, not Jeresulem was the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.[7] Therefore, those who take this interpretation believe this apostate church which is prophesied to rise in the future, must be located in Rome.[8]
"The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication." (Revelation 17:4) Roman Catholic cardinals are frequently arrayed in scarlet.[9] Catholic priests wear purple on Advent, Lent, and at funerals, along with occasionally other colors.[10][11] "Gold, pearls, and precious stones and pearls deck the statues of Mary and the saints in the Vatican."[11]
"And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration." (Revelation 17:6 NKJV)
Throughout a period of around 1260 years, the Roman Catholic Church has conducted multiple religious persecutions (see Spanish Inquisition, Medieval Inquisition, Portuguese Inquisition & Roman Inquisition). Conservative historians claim the Roman Catholic Church probably destroyed at least 50 million people over matters of religious conviction.[8] One source states: "That the Church of Rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that has ever existed among mankind, will be questioned by no Protestant who has a competent knowledge of history."[12]
Identification of the Pope as the Antichrist was written into Protestant creeds such as the Westminster Confession of 1646. The identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon is kept in the Scofield Reference Bible (whose 1917 edition identified "ecclesiastical Babylon" with "apostate Christendom headed by the Papacy") and pro-Reformation writings such as those of I.M. Haldeman, and it is kept alive by contemporary figures such as Ian Paisley and Jack Chick. The veneration of saints and relics and the Sunday sacredness, were viewed by Reformers as idolatry and apostasy.