Page:Theapocalypseofs00berruoft.djvu/149

 hand. This is not a reference to the general judgment at the last day, but to the judgments about to fall upon Antichrist and his followers as predicted in the following verses.

8. A second angel, or apostle, announces the approaching fall of Babylon to be described in chapter xviii. Babylon is Rome, the seat of the false prophet and the capital of a neo-pagan empire. For political reasons St. John could not safely refer to Eome by name in this connection, so he uses the symbolic name as St. Peter had done before him.

Under the leadership of the false prophet Home will seduce other Gentile nations to worship Antichrist. For this infidelity she shall be destroyed. In Scripture infidelity to God is often depicted as fornication or adultery.

9-11. A third angel threatens all followers of Anti-christ with eternal damnation. They shall be punished with all the rigors of God's infinite justice untempered by mercy. The wine of wrath shall be poured into the cup unmixed with the water of mercy. This is a reference to the ancient custom of mixing water with wine for drinking.

These verses clearly prove that the pains of hell are etenral, and without respite. "The smoke of their torments shall ascend up forever and ever: neither have they rest day nor night."