Continue With The Harlot Rides A Wild Beast

What, then, is this new scarlet-colored wild beast? It must be the image to the wild beast that was brought forth under the urging of the Anglo-American wild beast that has two horns like a lamb. After the image was made, that two-horned wild beast was allowed to give breath to the image of the wild beast. (Revelation 13:14, 15) John now sees the living, breathing image. It pictures the League of Nations organization that the two-horned wild beast brought to life in 1920. U.S. President Wilson had envisioned that the League "would be a forum for the dispensation of justice for all men and wipe out the threat of war forever." When it was resurrected after the second world war as the United Nations, its chartered purpose was "to maintain international peace and security."

In what way is this symbolic wild beast full of blasphemous names? In that men have set up this multinational idol as a substitute for God's Kingdom-to accomplish what God says his Kingdom alone can accomplish. (Daniel 2:44; Matthew 12:18, 21) What is remarkable about John's vision,though, is that Babylon the Great is riding the scarlet-colored wild beast. True to the prophecy, Babylonish religion, particularly in Christendom, has linked itself with the League of Nations and its successor. As early as December 18, 1918, the body now known as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a declaration that declared in part: "Such a League is not a mere political expedient; it is rather the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth. . . The Church can give a spirit of good-will, without which no League of Nations can endure. . . The League of Nations is rooted in the Gospel. Like the Gospel, its objective is 'peace on earth, good-will toward men.' "

On January 2, 1919, the San Francisco Chronicle carried the front-page headline "Pope Pleads for Adoption of Wilson's League of Nations." On October 16, 1919, a petition signed by 14,450 clergymen of leading denominations was presented to the U.S. Senate, urging that the body "to ratify the Paris peace treaty embodying the league of nations covenant." Though the U.S. Senate failed to ratify the treaty, Christendom's clergy continued to campaign for the League. And how was the League inaugurated? A news dispatch from Switzerland, dated November 15, 1920, read: "Opening the first assembly of the League of Nations was announced at eleven o'clock this morning by the ringing of all the church bells in Geneva."

Next time: Continue with The Harlot Rides A Wild Beast.