Revelation 17: Mystery Babylon

Overview

Revelation 17 describes the harlot as a woman seated on many waters (17:1), with the phrase "MYSTERY: BABYLON THE GREAT" written on her forehead (17:5). She is also referred to as the "great city that reigns over the kings of the earth" (Revelations 17:18). She is both a 'harlot' and a 'city'. The harlot represents Babylon's religious side, while the city symbolizes its civil side.

What was the name of the river that ran through the city of Babylon?

Both a geographical study of the region and Scripture answer this question. The ancient city of Babylon sat on the many streams of the Euphrates (Jeremiah 51:12-13). This implies that we must look for the sixth bowl, which is related to the river Euphrates (Revelation 16:12). In other words, the angel who poured down the sixth plague on the Euphrates in Revelation 16:12–16 returned to John in chapter 17 and described the meaning of the same plague in Revelation 17.

Revelation 17 is an explanation and amplification of Revelation 16:12-16

1) The first six verses are mostly concerned with the woman's actions when she comes together with the beast.

2) Then the angel emphasizing the beast's past, present, and future behaviors in the next 12 verses. The description of this woman, the beast she rides, and the activities in which the two of them engage will provide adequate insight into why God has condemned them so severely.

Revelation Chapter 17 verse 1 to 6

1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.

3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

5 And upon her forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon The Great, The Mother Of Harlots And Abominations Of The Earth.

6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

🔹Whore

The Old Testament prophets frequently equate apostate Israel, which went "a whoring" after pagan gods (Ezekiel 23:30; Isaiah 23:17; Ezekiel 16:15), to an unfaithful woman.

According to the Bible, a woman represents a church (Jeremiah 6:2; 2 Corinthians 11:2). The woman in Revelation 17 represents an unfaithful church, referred to by the angel as "the great harlot" and "the mother of harlots."

🔹Sits upon many waters

Revelation 16:12 describes modern Babylon as sitting on or oppressing the peoples of the earth, given that the ancient city of Babylon dwelt figuratively "upon many waters" or peoples (Jeremiah 51:12–13; Isaiah 8:7-8; 14:6; Jeremiah 50:23) and was physically located on the waters of the Euphrates.

The fact that this church is situated on several bodies of water implies that it is a popular church with many members. She has a wide following that includes "peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues" (Revelation 17:15). As a result, this church is universal.

🔹With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication

The earth's kings are the political forces who delegate their authority and resources to the "great whore." The "whore" is a religious-political alliance between an apostate church and world nations.

🔹Made drunk with the wine of her fornication

The normal abilities of reason and judgment have been rendered ineffective, and spiritual perception has been numbed. This "wine" represents Satan's deceptions in unifying the entire globe under her dominion, as well as the falsehoods and "miracles" used to accomplish his strategy (Revelation 13:13–14; 18:23–19:20).

The connection between apostate Christianity and earthly governmental powers is spiritual fornication, and it is Satan's plan to unite the globe under his control.

🔹Names of blasphemy

These names reflect the character of the beast. It presumes to usurp the authority of God. The harlot has blasphemous names written on her forehead (Revelation 17:5). Blasphemy is defined in Scripture as aggravating God by claiming to use His abilities on earth (John 10:30–33) or to pardon sins (Mark 2:7).

The Old Testament also uses it to show opposition to God (Ezekiel 37:3; 35:12).

The Bible mentions several titles and functions that belong to only God, and the papacy claims them all:

• The representative of Christ on earth is the Holy Spirit (John 14–16).

• God alone is our Father (Matthew 23:9).

• We can only bow in reverence to God (Acts 10:25–26).

• Only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:7).

• Only God is infallible in his proclamations (James 1:17).

• Only God has the right to set up kings and depose them (Daniel 2:21).

• According to John 5:22–27, only God has the authority to judge everyone.

• God established the seventh day as His memorial of creation (Exodus 20:8–11).

🔹Purple and scarlet color and decked with gold

The clothes of the Old Testament priest were "gold, blue, purple, and scarlet." (Exodus 28:3-6).

- Priests were instructed to wear blue robes with a blue tassel to remind them of the Lord's commands.

- Blue represents God's Commandments (Numbers 15:38–39, Ezekiel 1)

Which church has gold, red and purple as its main colors, but not blue?

The Papal priest's robes are also gold, purple, and scarlet (red), like the great whore. And the color blue is lacking from the Papal Church. So, whereas scarlet, the color of the beast, depicts sin (breaking God's law (1 John 3:4), the absent color blue indicates God's law.

🔹Abominations and filthiness of her fornication

"Unclean acts, including the filthiness of her fornication." The gold of the cup deceives men about the true nature of its contents.

• Idol worship is an abomination (Deuteronomy 7:25–26).

• The attempt to speak to and with the dead is an abomination (Deuteronomy 18:9–13).

• Refusing to hear God’s law is an abomination (Proverbs 28:9).

• Spiritual adultery is an abomination (Ezekiel 23:35–45).

• Eating unclean meat is an abomination (Deuteronomy 14:3).

• Shedding innocent blood is an abomination (Ezekiel 22:2).

• Sun worship is the greatest abomination (Ezekiel 8:16).

🔹Upon her forehead was a name written

Her name, which is written on her forehead, clearly represents her character.

🔹Babylon the great

Since a woman represents a church, Mystery Babylon is a Church that revives BABYLON’S pagan teachings.

1 Peter 5:13 - “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark.”

The historic physical city of Babylon was destroyed and never rebuilt. It had fallen into obscurity and lay in ruins for generations. When the apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:13, he could not have been referring to actual Babylon.

As all authorities agree, he was referring to ROME. Given the very remarkable similarities between the cities of ancient literal Babylon and figurative "Babylon," or Rome, it is easy to understand why early Christians chose "Babylon" as a code word or nickname for Rome.

Rome was the leading military power in its own era, and Babylon was the leading military power in its own.
Babylon conquered Israel, followed by Rome centuries later.
Babylon destroyed the first Jerusalem Temple, and Rome destroyed the final Temple.

Rome is Babylon all over again

Rome, being Babylon's "carbon copy," provides an excellent illustration of history repeating itself. More importantly, though, this Rome-based church, represented by a lady sitting on seven hills, has brought back the same heathen doctrines that the ancient Babylonians taught long ago. She welcomes them into the Christian Church and baptizes them.

God caused language confusion among the arrogant men who attempted to construct the Tower of Babel in Babylon a long time ago (Genesis 11:1–9). Thus, in this final book of the Bible, the word "Babylon" refers to a spiritual state of confusion; not a language-based misunderstanding of the Old Testament, but rather the religious confusion that resulted from the Church's departure from God's Word.

The harlot and image worship

Many false doctrines entered the Church because of Papal Rome (Papacy). Babylon was the center of idol worship.

Everywhere you turned, there were images, idols representing the pagan gods, not just statues of Bel-Marduk, their chief god. King Nebuchadnezzar set up a huge golden idol and commanded all to bow down before it.
However, God's second commandment in Exodus 20:4-5 forbids the use of pictures/images in religious devotion, and people are forbidden to kneel before them.

Today, the Roman Church not only fosters those very things, but also has removed the second commandment from its catechisms.

The harlot and sun worship:

The sun god was the primary deity in Egypt and Babylon. Babylon is considered the birthplace of astrology and sun worship. But in Ezekiel 8:15–16, God refers to it as one of the biggest "abominations."
Roman Emperor Constantine was a sun worshiper who never gave it up.
The Roman Church disregards not only the second commandment about image worship but also the fourth commandment about the Creator’s Seventh-day Sabbath, substituting the unscriptural SUNDAY.

🔹Mystery Babylon is the "Mother of harlots"

She corrupted God's law, spilled the blood of millions of Christians, and is the source of many false beliefs.

When Israel committed spiritual adultery, God called His Old Testament Church a “WHORE”, a “HARLOT” and a “WHORISH WOMAN” and accused her of “FORNICATION” and “ADULTERY.”

The Catholic Church has done far more wrong than Israel. In a recent message to the countries, Pope Benedict sparked outrage among several Churches when he referred to the Catholic Church as the "MOTHER" Church and urged all daughter Churches to return to HER. Because they originated within the Catholic Church, they are known as daughter churches.

Unfortunately, many daughter Churches have accepted her many incorrect ideas, which is why she is known as the "Mother of Harlots." As a result, the daughters of this "mother" reflect the many religious groups that comprise apostate Protestantism.

The Protestant churches that sprang from Roman Catholicism in the sixteenth century were unable to totally break their ties with their harlot mother. Instead of finishing the Reformation, they joined the mother in apostasy, preaching many of her false ideas, including Christmas, Easter, the sanctity of Sunday, the immortality of the soul, and an eternally burning hell.

The book of Revelation plainly states that the daughters will be as eager to join the church and state as their mother. In reality, the daughters will assist the mother in regaining the power she lost at the end of 1260 years.

🔹Drunken with the blood of the saints

Revelation 18:24 describes Babylon as "drunk" with the blood of martyrs throughout history, but in a more specific sense, with the blood of martyrs and potential martyrs in the last stages of earth's history.

God holds Babylon accountable for the blood of those whose deaths she has ordered, but is unable to execute. Babylon is completely enthralled by her previous success in persecuting the believers (Daniel 7:25; Matthew 24:21; Revelation 6:9–11; 18:24) and the promise of shortly completing the gruesome task.

Between 1550 and 1870, some historians believe that the Catholic Church has killed 10–20 million Protestants. However, other historians believe that it might be more and it is difficult to know the exact number because this church has refused to disclose the total number of deaths.

🔹Shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, that was, and is not, and yet is

The beast had previously been active but disappeared at some point. This phrase appears at the end of verse 8 and once more in verse 11. Some relate the beast's "was" time to pagan Rome, its "is not" period to the brief period between pagan persecution ending and papal persecution starting, and its "yet is" period to papacy Rome.

Some associate the "was" era with the beast and its seven heads; the "is not" period with the time between the seventh head's wounding and the beast's resurrection as "the eighth"; and the "yet is" period with the beast's resurrection at the point when it becomes "the eighth."

🔹The seven heads are seven mountain

The three seven-headed beasts originate in different places:

Revelation 12:1 says, that a seven-headed dragon attempted to destroy the man-child (Revelation 12:1).
Revelation 13:1 says that a beast with seven heads rose from the sea.
Revelation 17:8 says that a seven-headed scarlet beast will arise from the abyss..

Seven mountains are another way to describe the seven heads of the dragon beast. Scripture states that mountains, rather than individual kings, symbolize kingdoms (Daniel 2:34, 35, 44; Jeremiah 51:25; Micah 4:1; Revelation 17:9 in light of Daniel 2:38, 39; 7:17, 23). This implies that the seven heads must stand for the seven kingdoms that the harlot or apostate religion has dominated during its time on Earth.

The seven heads stand for the following civil kingdoms that have ties to apostate faith or will do so in the future:

Babylon
Medes and Persians
Greece
Roman Empire (and its ten horns/divisions).
The civil powers of Europe (with its ten horns/divisions) under the control of the harlot/papacy
The civil power of the United States under the influence of apostate Protestantism.
As in the past, the ten horns represent the world's civil forces that will rise again and be led by the harlot. They will persecute God's people.

Three of the last four heads of this scarlet beast are Roman (heads #4, #5 and #7) and even head #6 (the United States) will become an ally of Rome because it will speak like a dragon, and the dragon is a symbol of Rome.

Why would three (or four) of the seven heads relate to Rome? Isn’t one head enough to represent the various stages of Rome?

This is a straightforward question to answer. The books of Daniel and Revelation each cover different stages of Rome. Daniel 2 discusses the feet of iron and clay, symbolizing the fragmented Roman Empire and the city of Rome under the Pope's rule.

Daniel 7:23 and 24 make a clear difference between the dragon with ten horns (head #4) and the dragon with the little horn (head #5).
Revelation 13 also says that the little horn or beast will go through another stage after its deadly wound is healed (head #7).
The United States, as kingdom #6, will help head #5 get its power back.

Three beasts that arise in three different locations represent the various stages of Rome, so it should come as no surprise that separate heads represent those same stages.

🔹The sixth head

It is imperative to emphasize that the sixth head, which represents the United States under heretical Protestantism, is represented by a different beast and has to do with Rome since it talks in the manner of a dragon, which stands for Satan operating through Rome.

The angel informs us that this power "is to come," that it "shall ascend out of the bottomless pit" (Revelation 17:8).

Revelation 20 uses the bottomless pit as a symbol for Satan's millennium-long imprisonment. Revelation 20:7–13 refers to it as his "prison". This nicely sums up what has transpired with the papal power since 1798. It is the woman who "is not" the beast. It has endured confinement and captivity for some time. However, it will rise over this limitation, represented by the abyss. According to Revelation 17:8, it "is to come" back into union with the woman. Once again, the state and the church will work together to impose the teachings of the Roman Church on everyone's conscience.

How could this happen when America presently upholds church-state separation?

Recall what we learned about Revelation 13? One day, the United States, a nation that has represented religious freedom for people of all faiths for more than 200 years, will speak "like a dragon" (Revelation 13:11). According to Revelation 13:14, it will state that "those that dwell on the earth, shall make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword and did live." Because the beast supports the woman and its heads stand for forces that are a part of that support, the United States is the sixth head of the beast in this sense. Although the United States has represented church-state separation for more than 200 years, prophecy indicates that one day it will talk like a serpent and assist the woman of Revelation 17.

🔹The seventh head

According to Revelation 17:10, the beast's seventh head will represent the pinnacle of its impending power display. According to Revelation 17:8, the beast "shall ascend out of the bottomless pit." The limitations placed on this power by the doctrine of church-state separation will be dismantled. The United States of America will become an image of the beast (Revelation 13:12–14). The woman and the beast, church and state, shall once again join. With the full support of the US and the rest of the world, the seventh head symbolizes papal power in its revitalized or "healed" state (Revelation 13:3, 7; 17:12-13, 17).

Revelation Chapter 17 verse 13 to 18

13 These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.

14 These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.

15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.

16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.

18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth

🔹Make war

The last phase of the age-long struggle against Christ and His people now begins with this conflict with the world unified under the leadership of the "beast" in verses 3, 8, and 11. Revelation 19:11–21 provides more details about this phase of the struggle. Revelation 16:14 refers to it as "the battle of that great day of God Almighty".

🔹The kings hate the harlot

The kings of that realm will not always harbor affection for the harlot who governs the earth. They will discover the harlot and her daughters have tricked them too late, at the voice of God. Then the harlot will become despised and targeted by the rulers (Revelation 17:15–16). Prominent politicians will incite the masses to rebel against the harlot and her daughters. The streams will dry up around her, and the rulers will despise her. We are about to witness a global version of the French Revolution.

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