“And the seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done.
And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath.
And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
“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: 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.
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. 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: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. 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.
And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
And here is the mind which hath wisdom.
The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.
And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.
And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. 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.
And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
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. 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. Rev 17:18
And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. “ Rev 16:17-21, Rev 17:1-6 (KJV)
The last Bowl (vial) has been poured out, signaling the end the sequence of the events (7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 bowls) that started with the Apostle being transported to Heaven in the Spirit. This is echoed and punctuated by a Voice that resounds from the Temple – saying “It is Done!” Now that decreed, will be accomplished.
We see a final cataclysm, a great hail, and an earthquake so violent it levels everything! This, on top of the six plagues, that have already inflicted, hail, sores, blood, heat and darkness on humanity!
This is been the punishment of Man, and we will see the final scene soon, but before then, we are privileged to peek behind the curtain to see everything that has led up to this moment....
The apostle is transported in the vision now, to be shown a spiritual insight.
A movie, within a movie..... "So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness:....." , ...and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,.". We are now, away from the throne room, and looking at a picture.....
Let us turn to what the Apostle sees and what it could mean. The meaning of what he sees is given to us by the angel that shows him the vision in Revelation 17, another example of the principle of the whole book that, if anything symbolic is being shown, it is EXPLICITLY explained in the text.
A woman is shown/described as, sitting on many waters (Peoples, Nations, Tongues) seven mountains, = 7 heads/kings/empires of a beast, with 10 horns signfiying the 10 LAST KINGDOMS, which will fight AGAINST ... the woman. She is furtherexplained as a CITY that dominates these heads (Empires), and horns(Kings) , as she is depicted sitting on them,. "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: And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:" What a picture of immorality of all kinds! More than a city, her title is "THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." ... If Adultery is turning away from God, this city is the eiptome of it! Immorality for Profit, for what else is a prostitute,other than one using her body for money , pleasure, cruelty (wine of abominations, & filthiness of fonrnications in a golden cup, drunk on the blood of martyrs) and not the love of God!
The 10 kingdoms therefore are one that will hate the concept of a definite city's rule over their power --- they owe their kingdoms to the beast, and have to do his, and Gods bidding to hate Babylon, AND Fight against God & the Lamb, for the Beast ! The beast itself is the same one the Apostle saw earlier – the only additional detail added is that it is mentioned as being Scarlet. The 7 empires mentioned can be readily identified -Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, and the Last Empire). At the time of the Apostles writing, 5 had passed, Rome was current, and the last empire was yet to come. The antichrist is the "11th little horn" seen by Daniel, but owes his origin to these ancient empires. This woman therefore straddles the ages of human history. It is also clear, that this woman is not a political figure (as that is what is signified by the beast) but she is supported by governments. Karl Marx once said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses”. There is a unique and incestuous relationship between ecclesiastical and political power that is brought to our view here.
In particular, one item is worthy of note. The angel says that the 10 horns (which we have seen refers to the 10 kings of the last empire) will hate this woman and burn her with fire. We can therefore be sure that this is a literal city, the originator of both commerce and pagan religion, which is used by the beast to come to power, but once power has been established, is replaced by the beast with a religion focused on himself as God. If we think back to Daniel, the first instance of king worship we see in the Bible is in the city of Babylon.
The fact that the woman is described as a harlot, and the mother of harlots identifies her as False/Pagan religion. Adultery/fornication and harlotry are the terms used to describe Israel’s behavior in going after other Gods, with abominations resulting from such practices. There is also a contrast between the chaste Bride of Christ, and a harlot. Lastly, there is a contrast between the City of God (the New Jerusalem) and this great city which rules over the kings of the earth.
All of this has caused commentators to identify this city as one of the following :
- Rome (and the Roman Catholic Church) - "How many armies has the Pope?" ... is a question once famously asked, and Rome has been guilty of hiding the gospel in Latin, Crusades and the Inquisition, the dominance of religious over other political power, pagan syncretism for adultery, religion for money... the shoe fits. But Popery is a recent invention, shouldn't we have to go back earlier?...to the sins of the Romans slaughter against the Christians, Greek desolation of the second Jerusalem temple.... to...
- Jerusalem... Jerusalem committed adultery against God, crucified His Son... and this takes us back from Abraham to.... however we have a distinction in the text --" And the great city was divided into three parts, and cities and Nations fell," and GREAT BABYLON. The great city, is undoubtedly Jerusalem, identified as such,and distinct from BABYLON where she was led captive! ...
- Babylon (literal city) . We believe the wheel is going to come full circle back to the city of Babylon again. Mesopotamia is where all this started, and we see Syria (Assyria) still in the news today. Pagan religion has fathered many “Baby”-lons ( :-) forgive us) – including the syncretism we see in the Roman Catholic church, but we think that there is going to be a final gasp and rebuilding of a city that once ruled the earth. Eden, the Tower of Babel, the Fertile Crescent, the oppressor of Israel (Assyria, Babylon), the releasing of 4 angels bound at the Euphrates, the drying of the Euphrates – everything points back to that region being the epicenter of the world again, with a focus on the plain of Har-Megiddo..
Yahshua on the cross cried out “It is finished” just before He gave up His Spirit, and here we see the absolute end of what He started. The start of His earthly ministry signaled the beginning of the “Last Days” where YHVH would now speak to Mankind via His Son. The end of His earthly ministry kicked off the Age of Grace, where we see the Holy Spirit today, ministering to humanity. Now, our God is going to wrap up His Plan, and tie off all loose ends that date back to the beginning of human history.
That history is associated with a place, and that place is in and near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The Garden of Eden was watered by them, and the earliest civilizations began there. Assyria, Egypt and - Babylon.
The rebellion of man that started at the Garden of Eden continued in the form of Nimrod, Son of Cush who was the grandson of Noah. Nimrod (his name means rebel) founded the system of kingdoms, and was the father of the Assyrians (Ashur) and Egyptians (Mizraim). You can read about him in Genesis 10:8-14. The founding of the city of Babel, and the building of the tower of Babel is also attributed to him – it was an act of defiance against God. The scattering of the nations at Babel took the story of Nimrod, his wife Semiramis, and his son Tammuz, and enshrined it into a Trinitarian myth that became the root of all pagan religions we see today.
There are plenty of videos and articles on the Internet on Nimrod and the origins of paganism – we will just point out that the central feature of these myths is a virgin birth. After Nimrods death, his wife Semiramis became pregnant again, and she claimed that her son Tammuz was actually Nimrod (Who became the Sun God) reincarnated. This myth propagated into the Egyptian religion (Osiris, Isis, & Horus), Greek , and Roman religions in various forms, and other so-called gods (Baal, Ashtoreth). The myth of Osiris is alive and kicking in our modern world today, in the form of an Obelisk (a phallic symbol) found all over the world, notably in the Vatican (in St. Peters Square!) & Rome, Washington DC, New York City & London to name a few prominent locations. This is just one of many other symbols (an Eye , a Pyramid etc.) that have come down to us from these civilizations and are prominent in many cults today.
Civilization as we know it is characterized by several things. There is a division of labor, stratification of society, government and military, a system of laws that govern the civilian population, a ruling class headed by a king or leader, and one or more religious systems. All of these are underpinned by commerce & technology, and the reason for its existence has been occasioned by the need for man to work for his food (the Genesis curse!). The concept of a king is also a human concept. When YHVH gathered a people for Himself out of Egypt, He did not want them to appoint a king over themselves. This was something the children of Israel demanded, when they saw how other nations around them had a king that would fight their battles for them. (1 Samuel 8:1-22 has this story). The persisted in this demand even though they were plainly warned that this constituted a rejection of His Kingship, and would bring woe to them.
The area of Babylon is also the genesis of ultimate redemption. The patriarch Abraham came from a city state there called Ur of the Chaldees. Abraham was of Assyrian descent living in the area of Babylon. “And thou shalt speak and say before the LORD thy God, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, and he went down into Egypt, and sojourned there with a few, and became there a nation, great, mighty, and populous:” – Deut 26:5 Israel comes out from Babylon, and we trace our blessedness back to it! ("Come out from her my people....???")
The headwaters of human history start in Babylon! That is the root of paganism, and a rebellious system that infected Israel, and continues to infect the church to this day. The worship of Mary is pagan. The roots of going to church on Sunday instead of the Sabbath is pagan (that day was chosen by Constantine – a pagan Roman emperor). Easter is a pagan holiday (originally dedicated to the pagan goddess Eostre) - which is why it is no longer linked to the Passover. Christmas celebrates the return of the Sun (winter solstice), and is of Roman origin (called the Saturnalia), and the tree is a fertility symbol. Other disgusting myths – e.g. Mary Magdalene being the wife of Jesus – have been responsible for deaths – Merovingian intrigues, Rosicrucian sects, the Crusades etc. All of this material has been amply documented elsewhere so we will not dwell on it - other than to marvel at the deception that is leading Christians to participate in worshipping these golden calves by ascribing to themselves the intention that they are actually worshipping the one true God - even though they KNOW that these holidays have no bearing on the reality and are actually opposed to the Law of God - Sabbath and idols!
Will we see the city of Babylon, still existing today in modern Iraq, come back to the worlds stage soon? We might....
Hallelujah!
