Revelation 17:6, commentary and pictures

The woman is an unfaithful church, set against the pure church joined to Christ as in marriage, and drunkenness with the blood of saints and martyrs marks Babylon as a persecuting religious power guilty of terrible apostasy.
She is Rome, the papal power, whose thousand-year history written in the blood of God's faithful people, especially through the Inquisition of the thirteenth century with its millions of martyrs, identifies her as the foretold persecutor.
Her purple and scarlet splendor displays royal pomp, while her unlawful union with earthly rulers makes a deadly church-state alliance that crushes opposition with despotic power over Christendom.
Her daughters are churches that follow Rome's corrupt doctrines, traditions and worldly practices, whose fall is proclaimed in the second angel's message.
The chapter stands as God's last-days warning of perils before His people, when satanic agencies combine with the professedly Christian world and secret confederacies that reject God's law, leaving only two parties — those who keep God's commandments and those who war against His holy law — before the final call of Revelation 18 and Christ's triumph and reign.

Symbol and Its Meaning

The woman is a symbol of a church, and a vile woman stands for an apostate church. That unfaithful religious body is set in contrast with the pure church joined to Christ in a covenant like that of marriage. The verse identifies Babylon as a persecuting religious power, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, an apostate church that persecuted Christ's followers and shed their blood and was responsible for the deaths of faithful Christians slain because they sought to preserve the purity of their religion.

Being drunk with that blood represents the terrible iniquity of apostasy, in which those who reject truth and resist the Holy Spirit become blinded by satanic deception and join in persecuting God's people. The woman's costly purple and scarlet clothing and ornaments picture magnificence and royal pomp. Her unlawful alliance with earthly rulers is part of her corruption, a deadly union of church and state exercising despotic power over the rulers of Christendom and cruelly crushing those who oppose them.

Babylon represents Rome, while her daughters represent churches that follow Rome's corrupt doctrines, traditions, and worldly practices, whose fall is announced in the second angel's message. The verse belongs within the connected section of Revelation 17:1-18.

Rome's Persecuting Record

The woman drunken with the blood of the saints and the martyrs of Jesus is Rome and the papal power, also called popery and the Romish Church. She is a persecuting religious power described as drunk with the blood of Christ's saints and martyrs because for centuries she cruelly persecuted Christ's followers. That bloodshed was carried out especially through the Inquisition established in the thirteenth century. The deaths of millions of martyrs show its extent.

Her thousand-year record is written in the blood of the saints and of God's faithful people. This blood-written record identifies popery with the prophesied persecuting power. Rome is a corrupt city already stained by the persecution and killing of Christ's faithful followers and Jesus' martyrs. That bloodshed made Luther's friends fear he would be in danger there.

The multitudes slain were slain because they sought to preserve the purity of their religion. The millions of martyrs are pictured as crying to God for vengeance against that apostate power. That record of persecution and killing challenges the claim that this power should be acknowledged as part of Christ's church.

Its history of killing fulfills the prophetic picture of the woman drunk with the blood of the saints. That record reveals a cruel and despotic spirit that remains unchanged beneath an outwardly altered appearance. The change in public appearance and present claims to resemble Protestantism do not alter what is beneath.

Final Warning and Alliance

Revelation 17:6 belongs to the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 that are being fulfilled, and therefore all are to hear it as the last message of warning. That warning leads directly to the very last call to the churches recorded in Revelation 18 and then to the destruction of the beast and false prophet, the binding of the dragon, the resurrection and final destruction of the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth. The chapter is God's warning of the perils before His people in the last days, showing what John beheld of the last days. It reveals a deceived company working counter to God, that has rejected truth and from whom the light of God has departed.

The great apostate power of the last day belongs to the same order and pursues the same line of action as the persecuting power guilty of shedding the blood of God's faithful people, determined to rule or ruin. It is formed when satanic agencies combine with and inspire the professedly Christian world. Those having the form of godliness without the power rank under Satan's banner, pervert truth, misapply Scripture, become blinded by resisting truth, display zeal in making void the law of God, and join in persecuting God's people, while the whole world is given the opportunity of choosing between Christ and Barabbas. Those who reject the truth and resist the Holy Spirit become blinded by satanic deception, and this is the terrible iniquity of apostasy pictured as being drunk with the blood of the saints.

The woman also represents the ruling powers of the world that bind themselves into secret societies and confederacies without honoring God's law, and her work belongs to the mystery of iniquity that figures largely in the winding up of earth's history. Near the close of time these false religionists increasingly manifest their evil doings with outward parade of heathen power, calling for wisdom to search out this mystery and warning those who have the light of truth to keep clear of these evils. Then there remain only two parties, those who keep God's commandments and those who war against His holy law, marked by the wicked character and seductive influence of those distinguished for persecuting God's people. Mystic Babylon has not spared the blood of the saints, and her unsparing persecution stands behind one fierce final struggle before the man of sin is disclosed for who he is and what his work has been. While the Protestant world grows tender and affectionate toward the man of sin, God's people must take their place as bold and valiant soldiers of Jesus Christ, with lives hid with Christ in God, wide awake to catch the beams of light shining from the angel who brightens the earth with his glory.

In the last deception when Satan personates Christ, this blood-drinking power is the papal power, the man of sin that thought to change times and laws, presented a rival sabbath to the world to be worshiped, and sits in the temple of God showing himself that he is God. At that time it is united with the fallen churches that rejected light, with the Protestant churches represented by the image beast having two horns like a lamb but speaking as a dragon, with spiritualism, and with the combined powers of earth, all bound in corrupt harmony under a corrupt leader and blessed by the false christ with the worshipers of the beast and his image who received the mark. Only the remnant who keep the word of Christ's patience and refuse to worship papal Rome and his image escape. Revelation 17:1-6 shows Satan working to the utmost to make himself as God and to destroy all who oppose his power, with the world bowing before him through miracle-working power confirmed by every object in earth, air, and water. John saw the resulting multitude as a vast, countless procession alive with intense activity, with one influencing and stimulating another in confirming the greatness and glory of Satan's kingdom, surging restlessly in determination to take and occupy the place of the throne of God. They display eagerness and rage in religious enthusiasm and defiant rebellion in their countenances in warfare against their Creator and Redeemer while thinking themselves mighty, and over this multitude hangs a cloud of judicial wrath containing the elements that destroyed Sodom.