Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon… Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.
I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: ‘Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations’.
Revelation 13:11-17 & 17:3-5
The last book in the Bible is called Revelation because it opens with the words, ‘The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place’. An older name for the book is Apocalypse, which originally also meant an unveiling, or the discovery of something mysterious, but today is associated with catastrophe.
We have previously noted that although history remembers ancient Babylon as a place of splendour, commerce and culture, the Old Testament tells of its love of money, pride, greed and oppression of the poor. In Revelation, at the end of the New Testament, through a series of visions, Jesus of Nazareth, now ascended to heaven, pulls back a curtain on how the world really works. We will consider just two of the images.
Babylon has been symbolic of wealth and decadence throughout history and in Revelation we see how its spirit and influence continue for all time. For a complete picture of this Babylon, read Revelation 14-16, where it is mentioned in the context of unfolding events; then Revelation 17-18, where the writer takes a closer look at it and its fate.
This Babylon facilitates world trade in a wide variety of precious goods and in the ‘bodies and souls of men’: Christians used to think this a reference to slavery but it is a control of humankind that is even deeper – the trade in human character and values. The nature of Babylon is illustrated as being inhabited by demons, foul spirits and hateful birds; it is full of blasphemy and drunk with the blood of Christians. It is portrayed riding on a beast that many commentators agree is symbolic of a government (see Revelation 13): the image suggests the sort of partnership that exists between a horse and its rider.
Is this Babylon a banking system, or the financial markets financial institutions generally? Is it capitalism, as distinct from older forms of free trade? Or a broad reference to our consumer society? As Babylon is an image in a vision, I do not think that it can be ‘de-coded’ so precisely; what matters is that we take the point. It is a way of life; the sum of a generation's received wisdom about how things should be done that few question; the human quest for material wealth with little to constrain it.
With that in mind, to what extent do you think the current relationship between financial institutions and national governments is illustrated by Babylon riding the beast?
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Copyright © All Souls Clubhouse Community Centre & Church and Philip Evans 2012.
Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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