[Sidenote: Another important series]
Another parallel series of prophecies covering the same ground and terminating at the same point will bring the subject of the Last Reformation to a grand climax. I have shown that the religious powers described in Revelation 13 as two beasts were also termed Babylon. We shall now give a more particular description of this antitype of the Old Testament Babylon. The Euphratean city—Babylon—the proud metropolis of the Chaldean monarchy, combined in itself the corruptions and wickedness of the world and then filled up the measure of its sins by destroying the temple in Jerusalem and leading into captivity the chosen people of God. When John wrote, however, this ancient city was no more. It had long since been destroyed, and it has never been rebuilt to this day. Even the Arab refuses to pitch his tent among its lonely, serpent-infested ruins. The city to which the apostle alludes in these prophecies must therefore refer, not to ancient Babylon, but to some other analogous power which was yet to arise and of which the old Babylon was a type.
OUTLINE OF PARALLEL PROPHECIES SHOWING FOUR ECCLESIASTICAL EPOCHS
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-------------------- The Apostolic | The Medieval Period | Era of Modern | The Last Period | | Sects | Reformation ----------------+---------------------+----------------+----
--------------- DRAGON | LEOPARD-BEAST | TWO-HORNED | FALL OF Rev. 12:3, 4, | Rev. 13:1-10 | BEAST | BABYLON 7-17 | | Rev. 13:11-18 | Rev. 14:1-9 ----------------+---------------------+----------------+----
--------------- PURE WOMAN | WOMAN SECLUDED IN | | 144,000 ON MOUNT Rev. 12 | THE WILDERNESS | | ZION | Rev. 12:6 | | Rev. 14:1-6 ----------------+---------------------+----------------+----
--------------- TEMPLE AND | HOLY CITY TRODDEN | TWO WITNESSES | WITNESSES TRUE WORSHIP | DOWN | SLAIN | RESURRECTED Rev. 11:1 | Rev. 11:2 | Rev. 11:7-10 | Rev. 11:11-14 ----------------+---------------------+----------------+----
--------------- | GREAT BABYLON | HARLOT | GOD’S PEOPLE | Rev. 17:1-6 | DAUGHTERS | CALLED OUT