Devastating The Harlot

God's people are not the only objects of enmity of the ten horns. The angel now draws John's attention back to the harlot: "And he says to me: 'The waters that you saw, where the harlot is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshly parts and will completely burn her with fire.' " -Revelation 17:15, 16.

Just as ancient Babylon relied on her watery defenses, Babylon the Great today relies on her huge membership of "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues." The angel appropriately draws our attention to these before telling of a shocking development: Political governments of this earth will turn violently upon the Babylon the Great. What will all those "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues" do then? God's people are already warning Babylon the Great that the water of the river Euphrates will dry up. (Revelation 16:12) Those waters will finally drain away completely. They will not be able to give the disgusting old harlot any effectual support in her hour of greatest need. - Isaiah 44:27; Jeremiah 50:38, 51:36, 37.

Certainly, the immense material wealth of Babylon the Great will not save her. It may even hasten her destruction, for the vision shows that when the wild beast and the ten horns vent their hatred on her they will strip off her royal robes and all her jewelry. they will plunder her wealth. They "make her. . . naked," shamefully exposing her real character. What devastation! Her end is also far from dignified,. They destroy her, "eat up her fleshly parts," reducing her to a lifeless skeleton. Finally, they "completely burn her with fire." She is burned up like a carrier of the plague, without even a decent burial! It is not the nations alone, as represented by the ten horns, that destroy the great harlot, but 'the wild beast," meaning the UN itself, joins them in this rampage. It will give its sanction to the destruction of false religion. A majority of the 150-and more nations within the UN have already displayed, by their voting pattern, a hostility toward religion, especially that of Christendom.

Whey would the nations treat their former paramour so outrageously? We have seen in recent history the potential for such a turning against Babylonish religion. Official government opposition has tremendously reduced the influence of religion in lands such as the Soviet Union and China. In Protestant sectors of Europe, widespread apathy and doubt have emptied the churches, so that religion is practically dead. the vast Catholic empire is torn by rebellion and disagreement, which the itinerant pope has been unable to calm. We should not, though, lose sight of the fact that this final all-out attack on Babylon the Great comes as an expression of God's unalterable judgment on the great harlot.

Next time: Carrying Out God's Thought.