Does Scripture allude to Roman Catholicism? If the reader will follow the next five or six pages with his Bible opened at Rev. 17, he will find it difficult to see how it can refer to anything else. Let us pick out a few items, and compare them with Roman Catholicism, and we shall find they tally one with another, leaving us in no doubt that Revelation refers to Roman Catholicism, and to nothing else.
We begin with an invitation: " Come hither; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters " (v. 1).
Here we have introduced to us in symbolic language, a woman, characterized as " the great whore." The next verse sets forth the enormity of her sins. She is accused of having committed fornication with the kings of the earth, and that the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the intoxicating wine of her fornications.
The writer James tells us what spiritual fornication consists of, the Spirit of God taking this terrible carnal sin to express the Divine detestation of the Church seeking the alliance and friendship of the world. Scripture uses strong language: " Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God " (James 4:44Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:4)).
It is perfectly well known that Rome has ever sought to dominate the nations, has aimed for political power as well as spiritual. At this moment the Pope is the Sovereign head of the Vatican city, and reckons himself higher than the reigning sovereigns and presidents of the world. His pomp and palaces are utterly unlike the lowly Jesus, who had not where to lay His head in the days of His flesh. Roman Catholicism is the only professing Christian body that sets out for political power the better to enforce her dogmas and claims on the nations. Rome clearly is guilty of unabashed spiritual fornication.
Does not the great whore sit on many waters? Is Catholic, which means universal, not the proud name she takes to herself? Does she not boast of having adherents in every part of the world, especially represented by millions of worshippers in Europe and the Americas? There is no other professing Christian body that can claim such a following.
We are told this great whore is full of names of blasphemy. The Pope dares to call himself the Vicar of Christ, the Light of the world, the King of glory, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, a title that belongs alone to our Lord. We have already enumerated some of the blasphemous names given to the Virgin Mary, who is called by Romanists the Mother of God, Advocate of sinners, Refuge of sinners, Gate of Heaven, Most Faithful, Most Merciful. Are there not titles in this list that belong to the Lord alone?
That this is so is illustrated by the following: " In the dream of St. Bernard—which forms the subject of an altar-piece in the church at Milan—two ladders were seen reaching from earth to heaven. At the top of one of the ladders stood Christ, and at the top of the other stood Mary. Of those who attempted to enter heaven by the ladder of Christ, not one succeeded—all fell back. Of those who ascended by the ladder of Mary not one failed. The Virgin, prompt to succor, stretched out her hand; and thus aided the aspirants ascended with ease " (Morning among the Jesuits, p. 56).
The whore of Rev. 17 was arrayed in purple and scarlet. Does this not remind you of the scarlet hat and robes of the Cardinals of Rome, and also of the robes of the Romish priests, purple being a favorite color with them? Then we read of the whore being decked with gold, precious stones and pearls. You may go to many a shrine and see images of the Virgin and of others all covered with gold, silver and precious stones.
We have heard the story of the Pope in the Middle Ages who was showing Michelangelo the splendors of the Vatican, including immense displays of gold, silver and precious stones. Said the Pope with a courtly smile, " You see, the Church cannot now say what it said in early times, Silver and gold have I none.'" "No, nor can it say, Rise up and walk,'" was the quick and pointed reply, implying the lack of spiritual power in the Church.
We next get a gold cup in the hand of this woman, full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications. Not only is Rome notorious for spiritual fornication, but for the scandals of a celibate priesthood, which are too well known to be denied. They are matters of history affecting even the Popes.
We read of Pope Paul III, the contemporary of King Henry VIII: "' This ' Vicar of Christ' so far from being ashamed of his immoralities, flaunted them in the face of the world. The Duchies of Parma and Piacenza he conferred upon his illegitimate son Lewis, and he made provision for two of his schoolboy grandsons by appointing them cardinals. They were aged Is and 14 respectively, Julius III, who as Cardinal Del Monte, had presided for Paul III at the Council of Trent, made a cardinal of a boy whom he had brought into his house on account of his taking a fancy to him on the stage, and whom he employed in keeping his monkey-house. Such were the men that settled the creed of Christendom (The Bible or the Church? Sir Robert Anderson, p. 72).
Next we read in our Chapter: "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 a great admiration " (v. 6).
Looking widely at history this can only apply to Rome. Which has been the great persecuting professing Christian body but Rome? Read Foxe's Book of Martyrs for proof of this. Who has not read of the Massacre of St. Bartholomew? " The leading Protestants of France were invited to Paris by the French King, to celebrate the marriage of his sister. They had been granted solemn and oath-bound pledges of safety, but at midnight at the Festival of St. Bartholomew (21st August, 1572) the signal was given for their butchery. Ten thousand Huguenots, men, women and children, including five hundred persons of rank, were massacred. Their mangled bodies were flung into the streets; the gutters were choked with their blood. In other towns the butcheries were perpetrated. According to the estimate of Sully, the defenseless victims numbered 70,000. But when Charles, repenting too late of his hideous guilt, sought to palliate it by inventing charges of political conspiracy against the Huguenots, the Vicar of Christ ' rebuked his repentance by celebrating a Te Deum, and ordering public rejoicings in honor of the crime " (The Bible or the Church? Sir Robert Anderson, p. 166).
When the tidings of this terrible massacre of innocent people, for no other crime than that they were Protestants, and had an open Bible, reached Rome, the cannon of St. Angelo was fired in celebration, the city was illuminated, and Pope Gregory XIII went in procession to all the Churches and offered thanksgiving at the shrine of every saint.
Who has not heard of the terrible Inquisition? It was set up in Italy, Spain, France, Germany, Poland, Bohemia and extended as far as Syria and India. We read: "Its victims were apprehended commonly at midnight. The familiars of the Holy Office surrounded the door of the house, whispered the name of the tribunal on whose errand they had come, and the inmates transfixed by the dreadful words, delivered up their dearest relatives without pity or remorse. The person apprehended was consigned to a dungeon, generally below ground; he knew not his accuser; he was not even told of what crime he was suspected; and when he refused to incriminate himself the most horrible tortures were employed to extort confession.... He knew not his sentence even, till, led forth to the auto da ff, he read it for the first time in the terrible symbols on his dress, or in the dreadful preparation of pile and fagot for his execution " (The Papacy, Dr. Wylie, pp. 446, 447).
From its institution in the 13th century to its suppression in Spain in the 19th century, hundreds of thousands of persons were tortured and executed, often by being burned alive.
Rome is unchanged today. But she dare not go to such lengths today in Protestant lands because of the power of public opinion and of reprisal, but in backward countries which are still fully Roman Catholic you will find persecution. We give an instance in 1959, when the Protestants of La Plata in Colombia began building a church: "In the meantime, the parish priest, Father Jose Ovies, and Bishop Gerardo Martinez, spoke against the construction. They stirred up opposition against the Protestants which resulted in a violent attack against their property in September. Said Father Ovies, It is up to my followers to decide whether we shall tolerate the building of a Protestant chapel in La Plata'" (Bulletin of Evangelical Confederation of Colombia, March 1960).
It has been urged by Romish apologists that the Protestants burned Roman Catholics in the reign of Queen Elisabeth. This is true, but with a very great difference. They were not burned because they were Roman Catholics, but because they plotted against the state and its safety. They were destroyed on the ground of high treason. Romanists cannot point to anything outside their system comparable to the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and the horrors of the Inquisition with its thumb screws, its pulleys for dislocating joints, called the corda, the queen of torments; its veglia resembling a smith's anvil, with spike on top, ending in an iron die, its trap-doors, etc. Romanists in Protestant countries are unmolested in following their religion, as long as they do not infringe the laws of the land in which they dwell.
Finally the great whore is seen as sitting on seven mountains Now we all know that Rome is known as " the city of seven hills," and this further helps to identify Rome as being portrayed in this Chapter. Is it any wonder that the pen of Divine inspiration traces such a terrible description of the great whore?
" And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (v. 5).