Revelation 17:4 says, “And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication.” According to this verse, the woman is gilded with gold, precious stone, and pearls, the very materials with which the New Jerusalem is built. But these materials are the gilding of this woman. Gilding is a thin covering; it is not the real thing. For example, an ornament may be gilded with gold. The ornament is not actually gold; it is simply covered with a thin layer of gold.
Furthermore, the woman in Revelation 17 has a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication. In the Bible abomination indicates idolatry, because idols are an abomination in the eyes of God. Fornication signifies an improper contact, an improper relationship. Although the cup is golden, signifying the nature of God, it is not filled with gold, but filled with abominations and fornication, that is, with idolatry and improper relationships.
Verse 5 says, “And upon her forehead a name was written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, The Mother of the Prostitutes and the Abominations of the Earth.” This woman, Babylon the Great, is the mother of many prostitutes. It is important that we find out who this mother is and who her daughters are. Revelation 17:16 says, “And the ten horns which you saw and the beast, these shall hate the prostitute and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and shall burn her utterly with fire.” The ten horns refer to ten kings of ten kingdoms. Under the leadership of Antichrist, these ten kings will hate the prostitute, make her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her thoroughly.
Revelation 18:3 says, “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her luxury.” This word certainly refers to religious Babylon, which has made the whole earth drunk with her wine. The words “and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her luxury” refer to material Babylon, which makes people rich. Thus, religious Babylon causes people to be drunken, and material Babylon makes them rich in material things. The Babylon in the Old Testament was the literal Babylon, and the Babylon in the New Testament is the symbolic Babylon. Symbolic Babylon has two aspects: the religious aspect and the material aspect. According to history, there has been both a religious Babylon and a material Babylon. In the eyes of the Lord, the Roman Catholic Church is religious Babylon, and the city of Rome is material Babylon. Even Augustine said that Rome was Babylon. These two aspects of Babylon are both found in the book of Revelation. The religious aspect is found in chapter seventeen, and the material aspect, in chapter eighteen. Both are related to Rome, the one to the Roman Church, and the other to the city of Rome.
The word in Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, My people,” refers to both religious and material Babylon. Because Babylon is about to fall, God’s people must come out of her. Do not remain in Babylon waiting for her to fall. Come out of her now.
Now we come to the matter of the daughters of the woman, Babylon the Great, portrayed in Revelation 17. If the mother of the prostitutes is the Roman Catholic Church, then the daughters must be the religions which continue some of the Babylonian practices of Catholicism. The mother and the daughters make up a family of prostitutes. Although in this family there are the mother and the daughters, there is no husband, because fornicators do not have a proper husband. They have been involved with many men, but none of them is a husband. The mother and the daughters look alike. As the mother is, so are the daughters. We have seen that the constitution of the mother is division with confusion and idolatry; the constitution of her daughters is the same. Just as divisions issue in confusion, so idolatry issues in fornication. Four words adequately describe the mother of the prostitutes. These words are division, confusion, idolatry, and fornication.