“Gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls.” It is hard to find another place on earth that has as much gold and as many precious stones and pearls. The cathedrals in Rome, the idols in the cathedrals, and all the adornments and crowns of the pope are made of gold, precious stone, and pearls. For example, the pope has a diamond, the Kruger Diamond, which is worth 833,000 British pounds.
The pope must wear two crowns at his coronation, one signifying that he is the king of the church and the other signifying that he is the king of the world. One crown, the Miter, signifies the pope as the king of the church. When the pope receives the Miter, he claims headship over the church. Following that, another crown, the Tiara, is given to him. The Tiara is a crown with seven layers and is made of pure gold. This signifies that he is king of the whole earth. The Lord Jesus has not established His kingdom on earth yet. But here are men who have claimed the kingship for more than a thousand years. The kingdom is not here yet, but some have already assumed the kingship. The Tiara is embedded with 146 precious stones and 540 pearls. All of them are big and costly.
St. Peter’s Cathedral, where the pope frequently appears, was built at a cost of nine hundred million pounds. This building was supposedly erected in remembrance of Peter, a fisherman by the sea of Galilee.
I have visited the Vatican. It is hard to estimate how much that city is worth, because everything there is precious. The entire ceiling of St. Peter’s Cathedral is painted with eighteen-karat gold. Everywhere the city is shining with gold. The buildings in the pope’s residence cause any palace of any king or emperor on earth to pale in comparison! One can hardly find another place that exceeds Rome in luxury and excess. Yet the pope claims to be the earthly representative of Jesus of Nazareth.
Thus, every word of the Bible is fulfilled!
“Gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations.” In the Bible the word abominations always refers to idols. For example, abominations in 2 Chronicles 33, Ezekiel 20, Daniel 9, and Deuteronomy 7 refer to idols. Abominations in the Bible only mean one thing—idols.
“Cup full of...the unclean things of her fornication.” This means that the things of other religions have been brought into Christianity. This is indeed a defilement.
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and those who dwell on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication” (v. 2). The power of Roman Catholicism is truly international in nature!
Those who dwell on the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. Men have been converted to Roman Catholicism everywhere. She is indeed Babylon. Babylon means confusion and fornication, and that is exactly what she is! I have said that she has mixed the world with the church, paganism with Christianity, believers with unbelievers, grace with the law, the New Testament with the Old Testament, and God with idols. Everything is a mixture and everywhere there is fornication. This is what Roman Catholicism has done.
Revelation 17:6 says, “I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” She was drunk with the blood of the saints! All readers of the Bible know that the persecution of the Roman Empire ended in 313 A.D. But the persecution of the Roman Catholic Church has never stopped. It is going on even today (1948). We do not have to read many books to find this out. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs tells us about men killed by the Catholic Church and the Roman Empire. As a matter of fact, the number of people who have been killed by the Catholic Church far exceeds the number of those who have been killed by the Roman Empire.