| News and Views | May 1944 |
A Tale of Three Cities
“For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”—Hebrews 11:10
ROME, historically and Biblically an important link connecting the modern world with the time of Christ and earlier, has been prominently in the news during recent months. This ancient city has been threatened with destruction, not by the crude battering rams used in olden times to destroy and conquer, but by modern missiles of devastation dropped from the sky and hurled through the air by high explosives produced by supposedly enlightened science.
The position of Rome in a world at war has focused attention upon the city, what it stands for, and what would be lost to the world if and when it is destroyed. To find an unbiased answer to these questions, it will be enlightening—and therefore, we believe, helpful—to recall briefly some of the historical, Biblical and prophetic facts concerning what many refer to as “the Eternal City.”
Rome is sometimes spoken of as the seven-hilled city. It was founded some seven centuries before Christ, the original settlement of Romulus having been limited to the Palatine mount. Gradually, through the centuries, communities were established on the other hills, and all were finally fused into a single city and community, forming the ancient city of Rome which governed the surrounding territory, the State of Rome. History does not indicate how long Rome took in the making, or when or by whom the work was completed. Beginning as a city only, it gradually spread its conquests both by war and peace until it was mistress of all the known world.
The Roman government, originally a kingdom, was a republic from almost the beginning of authentic history to about 30 to 50 B.C., in which the free men of the state gathered in popular assembly and cast their votes direct on the issues involved. History indicates, however, that the matters submitted to popular vote were very limited, and probably the people did not have a great deal to say in governmental affairs.
Although little is known of Rome in the very early days when it was a monarchy, history indicates that its change from a monarchy to a republic was made with but slight disturbance in the original forms and customs of government. The title of king was retained, and applied to the chief ruler, but limited to him as a priestly officer (rex sacrocum). To this ruler the religious functions of the former kings were transferred. To assist the chief religious ruler, two consuls (or praetores) were elected each year. These elected associates of the king were called joint-heirs. Evidently St. Paul must have been acquainted with this arrangement and used it as an illustration when referring to the hope of Christ’s followers becoming joint-heirs with Him in His Kingdom upon the basis of making their calling and election sure.
After Rome as a city and state became ruler of the world, much of its political prestige was lost, but when it became the seat of the supreme head of the Catholic Church, its religious influence extended wherever the church ruled. As the capital of united Italy, Rome’s political and religious influence have been existing side by side.
While we customarily think of ancient pagan Rome as non-religious, in contrast to papal Rome, which has been outstanding because of religious influence in its government, yet pagan Rome actually was far from being without a religious complexion. The more carefully the civil and religious aspects of pagan Rome are compared with those of papal Rome, the more we are impressed with their similarity. About the only real change which seemingly was made when the one supplanted the other was in the name and identity of the deity. In both cases the supreme civil and religious control centered in one person. In imperial pagan Rome it was the Emperor, and in papal Rome it was the Pope.
Historically, and from evidence adduced from archaeology, it is clear that the emperors of pagan Rome, such as Nero, took the title of “lord.” The worship of the Caesar was part of the Roman tradition. This fact explains to a large extent why it was that some of the Roman emperors who seemed in other respects to be humane and just men, and the makers of righteous laws, were relentless persecutors of Christianity They were fanatically loyal to the Roman religious concepts and it made them determined that they would tolerate no rival.
The general college of priests in ancient Rome consisted of the pontifices, who were the religious rulers under the supervision of the chief religious ruler, styled Pontifex Maximus. In effect, this was equivalent to the worship of the state as supreme in religious matters. History indicates that beginning with Augustus, this supreme priesthood was held by the emperors in person. In this position, the Romans looked up to their emperor as their chief god, and he was worshiped as such, although they had many subordinate and auxiliary gods. Among the oldest gods of Rome were Saturn, Janus, Venus, Neptune, Jupiter, Juno, and Diana. Some of the titles applied to the officials of ancient Rome were rex, praetor, imperator, dictator, and curia.
It is interesting to compare the religious setup of pagan Rome with the later arrangements of papal Rome. A Roman medal is on exhibition in Memorial Hall, Philadelphia, Pa., the face of which presents a raised figure of a pope, and the abbreviated inscription, “Gregorius XIII, Pontifex Maximus.” In A.D. 1150 St. Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, wrote to Pope Eugenius III, as follows:
“Who art thou?—The High Priest, the Supreme Bishop. Thou art the Prince of Bishops, thou art the Heir of the Apostles. Thou art Abel in Primacy, Noah in government, Abraham in patriarchal rank, in order Melchisedec, in dignity Aaron, in authority Moses, Samuel in judicial office, Peter in power, Christ in Unction. Thou art he to whom the keys of heaven are given, to whom the sheep are intrusted. There are indeed other door-keepers of heaven, and other shepherds of the flocks; but thou art the more glorious in proportion, as thou hast also in a different fashion, inherited before others both these names. … The power of others is limited by definite bounds, thine extends even over those who have received authority over others. Canst thou not, when a just reason occurs, shut up heaven against a bishop, depose him from the episcopal office, and deliver him over to Satan? Thus thy privilege is immutable, as well in the keys committed to thee as in the sheep intrusted to thy care.”
Like ancient pagan Rome, not only does papal Rome have its pontifex maximus god supreme, together with his associate religious rulers, but it also, like pagan Rome, has a goodly supply of lesser gods, which the people are bidden to worship. Among these are the Virgin Mary, and the ever-increasing number of canonized saints. The patron saint of sailors, for example, is a substitute for Neptune.
The Roman-instituted worship of the Mother and Child, and of the Madonna alone, appears clearly to have had its inspiration in the former pagan religions where it was so prevalent. There are many examples of this in Roman paganism, such as the worship of Isis and Artemis, or Diana. In the galleries of the British Museum are to be found several statuettes of a pagan goddess which might readily be mistaken for papal images of the Virgin and Child. Sir William Ramsay, in his book entitled, Pauline and Other Studies, shows that Mariolatry flourished at Ephesus, and other famous centers of the worship of Artemis, “where,” says Sir William, “the virgin mother was worshiped thousands of years before the Christian era.” Evidently Sir Ramsay’s thought is that this form of idolatry predated the establishment of Pagan Rome.
In a book entitled, Exploring in New Testament Fields, A.R. Habershon, an English writer, says:
“In many ways archaeology helps us to trace how pagan temples were speedily adapted for Christian use; and pagan customs were incorporated with the religion of Christendom. By copying the heathen—the very thing which was forbidden to Israel—Christian truth became mixed with mythology, ‘till the whole was leavened.’ And thus the antiquities show how the prophecies of our Lord and His revelations to His apostles were fulfilled.”
Students of prophecy are generally agreed that the “dreadful and terrible” beast of Daniel 7:7,19-22, is a symbolic representation of the Roman Empire, and that the little horn which grew on the head of this beast, supplanting three others to make room for it, points to papal Rome. Concerning this The Divine Plan of the Ages, written in 1886, has the following to say:
“This beast or Roman Empire in its horns or divisions still exists, and will be slain by the rising of the masses of the people, and the overthrow of governments, in the ‘Day of the Lord,’ preparatory to the recognition of the heavenly rulership. … However, the consuming of the papal horn comes first. Its power and. influence began to consume when Napoleon took the Pope prisoner to France. Then, when neither the curses of the Popes nor their prayers delivered them from Bonaparte’s power, it became evident to the nations that the divine authority and power claimed by the papacy were without foundation. After that, the temporal power of the Papacy waned rapidly until in September, 1870, it lost the last vestige of its temporal power at the hands of Victor Emmanuel.
“Nevertheless, during all that time in which it was being ‘consumed,’ it kept uttering its great swelling words of blasphemy, its last great utterance being in 1870, when, but a few months before its overthrow, it made the declaration of the infallibility of the Popes. All this is noted in the prophecy: ‘I beheld then [i.e., after the decree against this ‘horn,’ after its consumption had begun] because of the voice of the great words which the horn spake.’—Daniel 7:11.”
Since the above was written, another change has developed in the political-religious aspects of Rome. Under the rulership of Mussolini, the Pope was given civil authority over Vatican City, which is a part of Rome. In a small way, this was a restoration of the temporal authority of papacy. Such is the status of the “Eternal City” as the armies of the United Nations storm at its outer defenses in an effort to capture it and destroy the Fascist authority that has given the Pope his present civil recognition among some of the nations of earth.
Babylon
Prophetically, Rome is not identified in the Bible by name. However, practically all Protestant students of the Bible believe that the use of the name Babylon, both in the Old and New Testament prophecies, is intended by the Lord to be descriptive of the counterfeit kingdom of Christ centering in the literal city of Rome.
Much is said in the Book of Revelation concerning “Babylon.” Her sins are graphically described, and her destruction forecast. As this book was written at a time when pagan Rome dominated the world and was persecuting the church, the use of the name Rome in its excoriations of the iniquitous system which it outlines, would probably have been disastrous to the purposes which the Lord was working out with His people during those early days of the Christian era.
Babylon, as a city and world empire, was the first to hold universal sway during the prophetic period called “the times of the Gentiles.” Rome was the last. The political and religious setup in ancient Babylon was somewhat like that of Rome. The name Babylon originated with the building of the tower of Babel shortly after the flood. It then meant the gateway to God, but in Bible usage later it came to mean confusion. The confusion of mystical Babylon is manifested in all her beliefs and practices, and particularly in the manner in which she has confused the worship of the true God with that of false gods. This thought of confusion is an added symbolism which helps to identify the system portrayed in the prophecies under the mystic name of Babylon.
St. John, the Revelator, had mystic Babylon portrayed to him as a woman, and the angel which showed John the vision, said, “The woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” (Rev. 17:18) This reign of the Babylonish woman over the kings of the earth is described in Revelation 18:3 as “fornication,” spiritual harlotry. The text reads: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
God’s plan for His true church was for her to wait for the return of her Lord and King, and then to be united with Him as joint-heirs in His thousand-year Kingdom for the blessing of the world. For the professed followers of Jesus, therefore, to unite with civil rulers in order to control nations, is properly likened to fornication. Such is the prophetic picture of the church-state systems of government that ruled Europe for so many centuries, and are now being destroyed.
The evils of this form of government were apparent to the founding fathers of America, hence the Constitution of the United States specifically guards against its adoption here.
The Holy City
There is still another city brought to our attention prominently in the Scriptures. Like Babylon, the symbolic name for mystic Rome, the holy city of God is also symbolic in character. Literal cities, in all three cases, are involved in the prophecies only in the sense that their characteristics are used to illustrate facts concerning that which they symbolize. Thus, for example, the seven hills of literal Rome are used to picture seven successive dynasties of the Roman Empire. (Rev. 17:9) The city of Jerusalem constitutes, the literal background of symbology contained in God’s promises and prophecies concerning the holy city. The literal city of Jerusalem is to have an important position in the earthly phase of Christ’s Kingdom, but the “New Jerusalem” of Revelation 21:2 is symbolic.
Jerusalem was the capital city of Judea, where centered God’s government over the affairs of His chosen people Israel, and was, therefore, a meaningful picture of the promised Messianic Kingdom that is yet to rule all nations. The Revelator, after witnessing in vision the destruction of the unholy city of Babylon, sees the holy city of God, the “New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”—Revelation 21:2
In Revelation 21:9,10, John writes: “And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God.”
Here, thank God, we have the assurance of a genuine divine rulership over the earth, not a paganized counterfeit. In this real Kingdom of the Lord, the true church of Christ will be united, not with the kings of the earth, but with her heavenly Bridegroom, her Lord and Master, in whose steps of suffering and ignominy she has followed faithfully even unto death. (Rev. 2:10) Under the administrative rule of this holy city, there will come peace and joy, and everlasting life to all who become its loyal and enthusiastic subjects. “Of the increase of His government and peace there shall be no end.”—Rev. 21:4; Isa. 9:7
The “Holy City” symbolism of God’s Kingdom arrangement to bless all nations is employed throughout the Scriptures. Paul tells us that Abraham looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker was God. The original promises made to Abraham contained no specific mention of a coming “city,” but evidently he understood that they implied the coming of such a city.
Cities in Abraham’s day were more than merely a gathering together of people to live in one small area. They were also governmental centers from which emanated laws governing the surrounding district, Abraham’s faith in a coming “city,” therefore, meant that he believed in a coming government to be established by God. Abraham’s hope centered in the coming Messianic Kingdom. This hope has inspired all of God’s people, from Abraham’s time until now. It is our hope today.