Chapter Thirty-Six -The Great City Devastated

Passion-Arousing Wine

The might angel next calls attention to the broad extent of the harlotry of Babylon the Great, proclaiming:  "For because of the passion-arousing wine of her fornication" all the nations have fallen victim, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the traveling merchants of the earth became rich due to the power of  her shameless luxury." (Revelation 18:3)  She has indoctrinated all nations of mankind in her unclean religions ways.  In ancient Babylon, according to Greek historian Herodotus, each maiden was required to prostitute her virginity in temple worship.  Revolting sexual corruption is portrayed  to this day in the war-damaged Buddhist sculptures at Angkor Wat in Kampuchea and in the temples  of Khajuraho, India, which show the Hindu god Vishnu surrounded by disgusting erotic scenes. In the United States, the disclosures of immorality that shook the world of TV evangelists in 1987, and again in 1988, as well as the revelation of the widespread practice of homosexuality by ministers of religion, illustrate that even Christendom tolerates shocking excesses of literal fornication. Yet, all the nations have fallen victim to an even more serious kind of fornication in this 20th century. 

We have already reviewed the illicit religio-political relationship hat captapulted Hitler into power in Nazi Germany.  Other nations also suffered because  of religon's meddling in secular affairs. For example, in Fascist Italy, on February 11, 1929, the Lateran Treaty was signed by Mussolini and Cardinal Gasparri, making Vatican City a sovereigns state. Pope Pius XI claimed that he had "given Italy back to God, and God back to Italy." Was that the truth? Consider what happened six years later. On October 3, 1935, Italy invaded Abyssinia, claiming that it was "a barbarous land which still practices slavery."  Who, really, was being barbarous?  Did the Catholic Church condemn Mussolini's  barbarity?  While the pope issued ambiguous statements, his bishops  were quite vocal in blessing the armed forces of their Italian  "fatherland."  In the book The Vatican in the Age of the Dictators, Anthony Rhodes reports:  

"In his Pastoral Letter of the 19th October [1935] , the Bishop of Udine [Italy] wrote,  'it is neither timely nor fitting for us to pronounce on the rights and wrongs of the case.  Our duty as Italians, and still more as Christians is to contribute to the success of our arms.'   The Bishop of Padua wrote on the  21st October 'in the difficult hours through which we are passing,we ask you to have faith in our statesmen and armed forces.' On the 24th October, the Bishop of Cremona consecrated a number of regimental flags and said:  "The blessing of God be upon all these soldiers who, on African soil, will conquer new and fertile lands for the Italian genius, thereby bringing to them  Roman and Christian culture. May Italy stand once again as the Christian mentor to the whole world. ' " 

Abyssinia was raped, with the blessing of the Roman Catholic clergy. Could any of these claim , in any sense that they were like the apostle Paul in being "clean from the blood of all men"? -Acts 20:26.

Add to Germany, Italy, and Abyssinia another nation that has fallen victim to the fornication of Babylon the Great-Spain.  The Civil War of 936-39 in that land was sparked, in part by the democratic government's taking steps  to reduce the huge power of the Roman Catholic Church. As the war got under way, the Catholic Fascist leader of the revolutionary forces, Franco, described himself as  "the Christian Generalissimo of the Holy Crusade," a title that he later dropped.  Several hundred thousand Spaniards died in the fighting. Apart from this, according to a conservative estimate, Franco's Nationalists had murdered 40,000 Popular Front members, while the later had murdered 8,000 clerics-monks, priests, nuns, and novices.  Such is the horror and tragedy of  civil war, illustrating the wisdom of heeding Jesus' words:  "Return your sword to its place, for all those who take the sword will perish by the sword." (Matthew 26:52)  How disgusting  that Christendom gets involved in such massive bloodshed!  Her clergy have indeed failed utterly to "beat their swords into plowshares."! -Isaiah 2:4. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Six -The Great City Devastated - The Traveling Merchants

From the book of Revelation