Who is the Enemy that Martyrs Christians?

Who is the enemy that martyrs Christians? We are glad to point the finger at the blood lust of radical Islam, but that is too simple an answer. Consider what Holy Scripture actually says. The murderer of Christians is, “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations… arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality… And I saw the Woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” John the Revelator reveals that the Woman is, “the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth." [Rev. 17].

In the days of John and the early Christian martyrs the great city was “Rome, domina Roma, the pride and queen of the world!” “Rome was th' whole world, and all the world was Rome” [Spenser’s Ruines of Rome, 360 f]. In our age this Woman is the kingdom of this world, with all of its great cities, Washington, Moscow, London, Tokyo, Beijing, and all the other centers of power. It is the World, archetypal Babylon revisited in the kingdom of this World, that bids Christians kneel before it and proclaim that it is a god, or ultimately die. What is so weird is that so many Christians are eager to accommodate to the world, to its ethos and morals.

Always remember the testimony of the Psalmist, who with joy confessed, that it is the Lord God, “Who struck down great kings, for his steadfast love endures for ever; And slew mighty kings, for his steadfast love endures for ever; Sihon, king of the Amorites, for his steadfast love endures for ever” [Psalm 136:10-12]. What He has done before, He will do again. Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen from the grave and He is the Victor over death, over hell, and over all the kingdoms of this World.