In the "Crisis" of the 20th ult., we find the following utterances: "As evidences increase, foreboding the destruction of Rome, the 'most celebrated city in the world, either ancient or modern,' we presume a few words of description may be read with interest," &c. Again alluding to the same event, it says: "She who is 'drunken with the blood of saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,' is about to reap her 'reward'—death and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire."
The judgments here mentioned stand in the sacred book, as threatenings against mystical Babylon the great: the "Crisis" applies them to the city of Rome. We can but inquire, therefore, if the "Crisis" believes that Rome, literal, is the Babylon of the Apocalypse, and that the present war will result in the fulfillment of the prophetic proclamation of that angel who cries mightily, Babylon is fallen, come out of her, my people?
Let us notice a few facts:
1. Babylon signifies, mixture, confusion. Why the literal city of Babylon on the banks of the Euphrates, was thus named, is well understood; viz., because God there confounded the languages of men, thus thwarting their impious attempt to build a tower to heaven. From this circumstance the city took its name. Literal Babylon then has had its existence, and suffered its doom. Isa. xiii. This definition must of course guide us largely in our application of Babylon in its mystical sense. But what is there in the city of Rome which would lead us to apply the term there. What is there of confusion or mixture there, that we should call it Babylon above any other city on the face of the earth? None at all. Again, literal Babylon being a literal city, there is involved therein an antecedent improbability that "mystery Babylon the great," should be a literal city also.
2. If Rome is Babylon, its "fall" [Rev. xiv, 8; xviii, 2.] must be its destruction, and take place when, as quoted by the "Crisis," it is utterly burned with fire. But a grand difficulty meets us here; for it is after Babylon's fall that God's people are called out of her. "Babylon is fallen," and because she is thus, "come out of her, my people," says the Lord by his angel. Rev. xviii, 4. But the idea of calling God's people out of a burnt-up city is simply preposterous.
3. We learn by verse 4, that Babylon's plagues are future, when she is in her fallen state. One of these plagues is to be utterly burned with fire. Verse 8. If therefore her fall is her being burnt with fire, and even then her plagues are future which burn her with fire again, we have two utter burnings in a short space of time, predicated of the same city: a theological "camel" which we can never swallow.
4. God's people are in Babylon; the idea conveyed is that as a body, they are there: Who believes they are in Rome?
Rome may be burnt as a result of the present war; and it may not. If it should be, it would be no fulfillment of the Apocalyptic threatenings against Babylon. If she perishes in the flames, it will not be the smoke of Babylon that is ascending to the heavens. It will take a greater destruction than that of Rome, to cause the kings of the earth to stand afar off, and lament for her, crying, Alas! that great city! It must be a greater destruction than that of Rome, unimportant as a commercial metropolis, to cause the merchants of the earth to lament over her, those dealers in "gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, thyine wood, all manner of vessels of ivory, brass, iron and marble, and cinnamon, odors, ointments, frankincense, wine, oil, wheat, fine flour, beasts, sheep, horses, chariots, slaves and souls of men." Surely the destruction of Rome could not cause them to raise the bitter cry that "no man buyeth their merchandise any more!"
It is of no use to court disappointment by making forced interpretations, and riding untenable theories; nor is there danger of our doing this unless we ignore the theoretical teachings of the Bible on the great subject of the last days, and the end of the world, especially the prophetic periods, and so are compelled to build on the bare signs the whole superstructure of our doctrine on this point, and rest on them alone as the main-spring of our zeal. It is thus that people are in danger of impressing events into a service for which they were never designed.
In regard to the subject of Babylon, we have some very prominent facts to guide us; and if we interpret with strict fidelity to these, we can hardly go amiss in our application. Thus, we know (1) that Babylon signifies mixture, confusion; and whatever object we apply the term to, must possess these characteristics. (2.) Babylon is where God's people are as a body; hence it is not any particular locality, but bodies with which the people of God stand connected, and from which they are to come out. (3.) The fall of Babylon is not a physical but a moral one; for the primary reason of God's people being called out of her after her fall is that they partake not of her sins, and consequently, receive not of her plagues. And on no other ground can her existence be accounted for after her fall.
These facts must be apparent to the most cursory examiner of the testimony relative to the fall and destruction of Babylon; and no interpretation, not rendered in accordance with these, can be sound. The application that we make, it is not necessary that we reiterate.