Demystifying Mystery Babylon

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illuminati_123babylon_header

Most eschatology studies direct teachers to examine things future and past the prophets of Scripture address. The Old Testament’s major and minor prophets addressed both Israel’s seventh and eighth century dispersions, and Christ’s Millennial Kingdom to come. Jesus, John, and Paul’s New Testament prophecies address things in mankind’s future, announced by Jesus as things spoken “in advance” (Matthew 24:25). Some apply Paul’s last-days teachings in 2 Timothy 3 to the present. But few apply intelligently any of John’s revelation to current events.

This article deals with one of John’s best known prophetic symbols that will fulfill its significance as the church age ends, the Babylonian whore drunk with the blood of the saints. But a closer look at her prophetic presence shows she has been affecting Adam’s offspring since the days of Cain.

The Harlot of Babylon

Revelation 17:18-18:3
18        “And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”
1          After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.
2          And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
3         “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

Some teach the “great city” the Babylonian harlot represents will be a physical metropolis such as Amsterdam or New York to receive the judgments and plagues described in John’s prophetic text. But a studied hermeneutic of her vision reveals there is more to the harlot’s coming than a central locale.  In fact, if you look closely, you will realize that she is not a central place, and that she is already here.

Demystifying the Babylonian Harlot

23 Babylon the Great

Identified in her prophetic snapshot as the mother of all whores, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth appears dressed in the wealth of the world and holds a golden cup “full of abominations (“bdelugma”: idolatry) and the unclean things of her immorality.”

Revelation 17:3-6,10
3  And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
4  And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality,
5  and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.
10  and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.

Staying true to her visual parable, the corrupting figure seen in John’s prophetic movie is an ancient demonic presence. She is seen riding above and guiding the affairs of the world.

The beast she rides is a prophetic picture of the world’s governments her presence has corrupted from28 Dragon Released antiquity. (Egypt’s Old Kingdom; Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon; Sennacherib’s Assyria; Cyrus and Darius’ Persia; Alexander’s Greece; Nero’s Rome, and an eschatological European empire that will resemble the dominion of Rome). But she  has never been confined to those kingdoms. She was corrupting the earth before the first Pharaoh was born, and will remain until God destroys her stronghold at the end of the age.

Lights, Camera, Action!

Revelation 17:5
5  and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

Her name comes from the infamous 2300 BC city of Babylon disrupted by God for the demonically inspired witchcraft of its infamous tower.

Genesis 11:9
9  Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth.

Both history and archaeology have proven Nimrod’s infamous tower built on the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11:2) to be more than a prideful edifice on which rebellious men shook their fists at God. It was a high place of satanic worship. Archaeology has unearthed many similar towers, called ziggurats on the Sumerian plain. The harlot’s pagan cycles of worship that originated there have always included fertility sex rites to appease the “gods of harvest.” The ministry of Elijah was raised up to deal with her presence in Baal and the fertility goddess Asherah (Astarte) that corrupted the nation of Israel. The first thing successive good kings did when they rejected the immoral gods of the surrounding nations was tear down the high places of Baal (Numbers 22:41; 2 Kings 18:1-4).

“She” is the Great City

Mystery Babylon’s Revelation 17:18 reference to the great city is therefore not to a single city (polis: the city in which one lives; an abode) that will one day appear. She isn’t Rome or Brussels as many have claimed over the years. Neither is she New York, Amsterdam, Paris, a rebuilt Babylon, or any other known contemporary city.

Revelation 18:16 puts her prophetic picture in perspective with the caption: “Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls.”

She lives today in New York, Amsterdam, Paris and everywhere the great population centers of the world are located, because she is the great city.

She is a picture of every “dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird” on earth (18:2).

Revelation 18:3
3  “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

babylon_insetShe is the immoral spirit of the world (kosmos) in all its carnal trappings that sets itself up and over against the biblical truths of God John warns of in his first epistle.

1 John 2:15-16
15  Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

And if you are a Christian, the prophet’s warning to come out of her midst rings as true today as it did in John’s first-century church.

Revelation 18:4
4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues”

Drunk with the Blood of the Saints

Revelation 17:6
6  And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.

The blood of the saints she drinks in her snapshot speaks of more than physical martyrdom. Babylon the Great murders marriages and destroys churches through her elusive, seductive ways.

The churches in Pergamum and Thyatira both succumbed to her deceptive temptations.

Revelation 2:14
14 “But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.”

Revelation 2:20
20  “But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”
Her influence was so formidable along Paul’s church-planting paths that he had to address the harlot’s power in both Corinthian letters (1 Cor. 6:15-20; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).

“She” Is Hollywood Humanism

It was she who guided America’s ’60s wave of “free love” and Eastern mysticism. And if you don’t believe Hippiesher impact has been lasting, take a look around the church. As I write, one in two Christian marriages are failing commensurate with the statistics of the world, because she is the master covenant breaker. Ministerial adultery and fornication ruin churches regularly. Following their lead and prescribing to the Great City’s prevailing philosophy, the laity follows suit. God forgives of course.  But the spirit of Mystery Babylon has infected the church today with a relaxed tolerance that embraces moral failure as a “modern fact of life.”

Today the Babylonian harlot lures the world and church from her great city of the media. You’ll find her shouting her message of unbridled sex and sorcery in film, on television, and over the Internet as she guides their sensual work.  Today she is pummeling her mass media with the twisted perversity of homosexuality that earned Sodom and Gomorrah’s destruction and was surely partially responsible for Noah’s flood. It’s not hard to imagine a regional prophetic snapshot of her riding a multi-headed MGM lion with the names of the major studios written on its heads. The sorcery of her narcotic goos has ripped the heart out of thousands since her heady, hippy days. Two generations have kneeled at her altar of drug induced stupor, wasted and vain.

illuminati_123The deepest of Mystery Babylon’s mysteries is her secret manipulation. Today her gratuitous sex scenes on premium channels no longer offend the desynthesized believer. Pastors and laity struggle with clandestine Internet pornography. And because illegal drugs are pushed in the public schools and the marketplace, drugs are in the church.

John’s revelation was given to inform and warn. So receive the Spirit’s revelation of her symbolic snapshot and rethink your eschatology if you, church member,  place her prophetic presence in the future or the past.

“BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” is not coming; her city is here today.

Understand her ways.

Give her no place on your Internet.

Turn the channel.

Read.

Think.

Pray.

Repent.

Revelation 18:3-24
3  “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”
4  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues;
5  for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.
6  “Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her.
7  “To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’
8  “For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.
9  “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning,
10 standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’
11 “And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes anymore;
12 cargoes of gold and silver and precious stones and pearls and fine linen and purple and silk and scarlet, and every kind of citron wood and every article of ivory and every article made from very costly wood and bronze and iron and marble,
13 and cinnamon and spice and incense and perfume and frankincense and wine and olive oil and fine flour and wheat and cattle and sheep, and cargoes of horses and chariots and slaves and human lives.
14 “And the fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them.
15 “The merchants of these things, who became rich from her, will stand at a distance because of the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning,
16 saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls;
17 for in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!’ And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor, and as many as make their living by the sea, stood at a distance,
18 and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning, saying,’ What city is like the great city? ‘
19 “And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’
20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
21 And a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer.
22 “And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer;
23 and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

Eschatology Today Publisher, Mark Norris, MA

 

 

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