Summary of the Cycles of Seven
Three cycles of sevens have transpired. Scholars, as they review the whole arc of this series, see different metanarratives.
Historicist
Scholars with this perspective see the history of the church in John’s prophecies. Early on, the church took a wrong turn, and the growth of the Roman church as an expression of the Roman empire, came under God’s judgment. The language of John’s apocalypse is meant to be understood symbolically, beginning in the early centuries of the church, going through to the French Revolution, and to be concluded in the future, with God’s ultimate goal to bring the era of the Roman church to a close.
Preterist
Expositors are divided in how to understand the three cycles as a whole. Some understand all of John’s prophecies as pertaining to the War of the Jews, from 66-70 CE, ending in the destruction of Jerusalem. Others see God turning from Jerusalem after Chapter 11 to the judgment of Rome in Chapters 13 to 19.
Futurist
Commentators in this camp expect the Great Tribulation to be triggered in a time still future to us by the opening of the seven seals, and brought to a close at the pouring out of the seventh ceremonial bowl. Interpreters differ in where on the timeline to put the Rapture of the Church, but all agree that Jesus will return after God’s final warnings and judgment on all those who have rebelled against God and worshipped the dragon (Satan) and its dangerous creatures. The Battle of Armageddon is the climax of this rebellion, bringing decisive defeat and the Coming of Christ.
Spiritual
Each cycle revisits the same concepts from different angles, with increasing intensity. Perhaps these all describe events that will come at the end of human history, but they can also be understood as God’s ever stronger call to repentance. The last cycle represents each person’s final opportunities to turn to the Lord in repentance, or receive God’s judgment.
The World Revealed
Now, John’s Apocalypse will explore what Babylon is (Revelation 17) and what Babylon’s doom means (Revelation 18).
Historicist
Babylon the harlot is a depiction of the Roman church, both in its religious and political aspects. Now, the paths of godly and the ungodly will be characterized, and the godly will be vindicated.
The rider on the white horse is a portrayal of either Christ as conqueror through His Word, or Christ as Judge.
Preterist
Babylon might represent Rome as the harlot, and the downfall of the Roman Empire. On the other hand, Babylon might be spiritual Jerusalem, and John would be describing the razing of God’s holy city by Titus and his troops. John shows how both the righteous and the unrighteous react.
Futurist
Babylon possibly characterizes spiritual apostacy, the imagery of a prostitute, one who sells themselves rather than remain faithful to the One. This great apostacy will come together as a world religion under the leadership of the AntiChrist. Babylon might also be an actual city, either the original Babylon rebuilt or Rome rebuilt into a world power.
Whether a spiritual entity, or an actual city, or both, Babylon is iconic of unrighteousness and lies, in rejection of God, God’s word and God’s way. At the end of the Great Tribulation, Babylon will be judged and destroyed. For the ungodly, this will be massive defeat, for the godly a time of rejoicing and glorying in God.
Jesus will return, visibly and bodily, riding on a white horse.
Spiritual
Babylon is the world system, what 1 John warns believers to avoid,
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world, for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world.”
1 John 2:15-16 (NRSVUE)
The imagery John and his audience would have readily related to was Rome, so depicting the destruction of Rome could conjure up a vision of the end of the world. God’s final judgment of Babylon comes in the form of Jesus returning as the rider on the white horse. Or, possibly, the rider represents the preaching of the word going throughout the world system, awakening many to the truth of the Gospel.
Babylon the Great
The word “Babylon” first appears in the book of 2 Kings when Israel was taken into exile and the king of Assyria repopulated the region of the northern kingdom of Israel with non-Israelites.
“The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and placed them in the cities of Samaria in place of the people of Israel; they took possession of Samaria and settled in its cities. When they first settled there, they did not worship the Lord…”
2 Kings 17:24-25 (NRSVUE)
But reaching back into the foundational stories featured in Genesis, Babylon appears as the Tower of Babel, situated on the Mesopotamian plan—the Plain of Shinar—between the mighty Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. In 460 BCE, Herodotus visited the now long-crumbling ziggurat at the center of what had been Babylon, rebuilt by Nebuchadnezzar in around the seventh century BCE. At its zenith, the tower stood nearly 300 feet high.
“in the midst of the temple is built a solid tower measuring a furlong both in length and in breadth, and on this tower another tower has been erected, and another again upon this, and so on up to the number of eight towers. An ascent to these has been built running outside round about all the towers; and when one reaches about the middle of the ascent one finds a stopping-place and seats to rest upon, on which those who ascend sit down and rest.”
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, The Histories, Book I, 181 (translated by G. C. Macaulay)
In antiquity, Babylon was known as the City of Cities, becoming the capitol city of one of the world’s earliest empires, in the eighteenth century BCE. It became the largest city in the world during that time, and again when Babylon rose to its second ascendancy in the fourth century BCE. Today, it is an archaeological tell about 53 miles south of Baghdad.
The four perspectives taken from Revelation: Four Views A Parallel Commentary, edited by Steve Gregg
