Introduction
There is a tremendous amount of speculation and deliberate avoidance of the truth when it comes to the identity of Mystery Babylon but the truth must be told and hopefully accepted by those avoiding the truth as eternity is at stake. I will state up front that America is mentioned in Bible prophecy and plays a very important role but is not mystery Babylon but the second beast of Revelation chapter 13.
The Bible actually speaks of two Babylon's, with the first being literal and the second being spiritual which is the one relevant here, and spiritual Babylon is also synonymous with the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. This comes as a surprise to many that have not noticed that the identity of mystery Babylon can also be found by identifying the first beast of Revelation 13 and this makes the truth impossible to avoid. It is also this first beast that enforces 666 and the mark of the beast and persecutes the saints.
The excerpt following this paragraph is taken from the book All Roads Lead to Rome, by Michael de Semlyen. Dorchestor House Publications, p. 205. 1991. You will notice that it even includes the translators of the King James Bible, which is still the most popular and trusted Bible today. And not forgetting one of the most famous scientists that ever lived. None of these people speculated but just understood the unavoidable facts. One might ask why all these Churches that originated from the early Protestants have lost this truth? It should come as no surprise that Satan is doing everything he can to stop Christians from keeping or finding this once known truth and I am amazed that he has managed to steal this truth from so many Churches over that last few centuries. Never underestimate the enemy to steal the truth and keep it from the majority. Please note just a few famous people who knew the identity of spiritual Babylon and Antichrist.
“John Wycliffe, William Tyndale, Martin Luther, John Calvin, Thomas Cranmer; in the seventeenth century, Bunyan, the translators of the King James Bible and the men who published the Westminster and Baptist confessions of Faith; Sir Isaac Newton, [scientist and theologian] John Wesley, Whitfield, Jonathan Edwards; and more recently Spurgeon, Bishop J.C. Ryle and Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones; these men among countless others, all saw the office of the Papacy as the antichrist.” Parentheses are added.
Before continuing I would like to point out that there are millions of wonderful people in the Roman Catholic Church that have also done many wonderful works and these need to be acknowledged. It must also be noted that the many wonderful Christians in this Church are often not aware of these facts and it is of no reflection on their faith. It is the system that God applies this to and not the people in the Church.
So we have the Roman Catholic Church as mystery Babylon being synonymous with the first beast of Revelation and America being the second beast that is also called the false prophet, which is apostate Protestantism. So both Catholics and Protestants both have a negative role in Bible prophecy and no one is out to condemn anyone in hate but to just reveal the Biblical and historical truth so many will not perish. This truth is given in love to help as many into the kingdom as possible and for no other motive or reason.
As stated earlier, we are not going to speculate in any way whatsoever but are going to rely very heavily on scripture and historical quotes to prove why God calls the Papal Church Babylon. This is an extremely important topic as it is also related to the Battle for Armageddon and also tells us who it is that enforces the mark of the beast.
To provide the truth we are going to break down Revelation 17:1-6 into small sections and cover all the symbolism using other scripture from the Bible to make this issue very clear. Hover your mouse over this verse reference above anytime you need to make reference to it. So let's start from the beginning with all scripture from this passage being in light blue:
Revelation 17:1-6 “I will show unto you the judgment of the great whore”
Scripture teaches that Christ is the bridegroom and the Church is the bride of Christ and hence the Church is symbolically represented as a woman. A Church that prays to dead saints or bows down before statues and kisses the foot of such statues etc, is guilty of idolatry and is being unfaithful to what is supposed to be their one true love being God. So God refers to an idolatrous Church as a harlot and a whore which is guilty of adultery and fornication. This Babylonian woman who has “fallen” signifies that “Mystery Babylon” represents a globally supported Church that has fallen away from her true lover, Jesus Christ, and from Bible truth and God’s law. (Ezekiel 16:26-32; Jeremiah 3:1-25)
“that sitteth upon many waters:”
The following scripture reveals how this water is symbolic of an area with people from all nations and how literal Babylon was built over water. The Apostle John through Jesus is showing parallels between literal Babylon and spiritual Babylon. (Revelation 17:15)
“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.”
This refers to all her false doctrines that have spread to kingdoms all over the world that have become intoxicated (deceived) by these false doctrines. (Jeremiah 51:7)
“3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman”
A “woman” when symbolic in scripture ALWAYS represents a Church. You will see scripture frequently refer to a Church as “she” or “her” as in a woman. Remember that God's Church is His people regardless to if it is Old Testament or New Testament and so God's people in the Old Testament are His Old Testament Church. Here are a few scriptures demonstrating this very important point. Note that last one that reveals very clearly that the Church is the bride of Christ and hence a woman. See various scriptures.
“sit upon a scarlet”
The colour scarlet represents sin (Isaiah 1:18) as she is a sinful kingdom that is guilty of idolatry and fornication and thought to change the law of God that defines what sin is. (Daniel 7:25) She thought that she had the authority to change the law of God and I am really surprised that anyone would think that they could change the law of God that defines what sin is (1 John 3:4) and why Jesus died for us. See quotes.
“coloured beast,”
Many are not aware that a beast symbolically in scripture simply represents a kingdom just as many nations today have an animal that represents them. So a scarlet coloured beast is a sinful kingdom. (Daniel 7:17; 7:23]
“full of names of blasphemy,”
She has many blasphemous practices and claims. (See Quotes and Adam Clarke's Commentary on Daniel 7:25)
“having seven heads and ten horns.”
For seven headed beasts in ancient mythology see Isaiah 27:1. See Daniel 7:24; Revelation 12:3; 13:1; Daniel 7:7 and Revelation 12:3 in regards to the ten horns.
“4 And the woman [Church] was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold”
These are the official Vatican colours. Note that the robes of the Old Testament Priests also had the colour blue which represents God's law. Remember that God says this is a sinful kingdom and so the colour blue was very interestingly excluded. (Exodus 28:4-6; Numbers 15:38-40) It is understood that the tablets of the Ten Commandments were cut from the clear blue sapphire seen on mount Sinai (Exodus 24:10), which makes up the very throne of God (Ezekiel 1:26, 10:1). So, the Ark of the Covenant in the most holy apartment of the sanctuary, the throne of God's presence (the Shekinah glory), contained the blue sapphire tablets of the Ten Commandments.
“and precious stones and pearls,”
It is a well known fact that the Vatican is filthy rich unlike America that has a mounting and out of control debt.
“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,”
There are very few people who understand what originated from this mystery Babylonian religion and where many of the traditions of the Papal religion really started.
“BABYLON”
We find God calls the Papal Church Babylon because she has a tremendous amount of paganism that has come from literal Babylon. See the origin of sun worship for detail. There will be of course those who find it hard to acknowledge the truth here and will deny that paganism is in their Church but the Roman Catholic Church themselves even acknowledge that this is the truth. Note the following Catholic quotes.
“THE GREAT, THE MOTHER”
The Catholic Church calls herself the Mother Church because most of the main stream Churches today originated from the Protestant reformation when these Protestants discovered from scripture that the Papal Church was the antichrist power. Some claim that mystery Babylon represents all false religion but not so as she is a mother as in “one” and those that came from her are the daughters. Together they would represent many false religions with paganism but the mother is one. Note the following quotes.
“OF HARLOTS”
She is the mother of harlots since there were many Churches that came from the Catholic Church from the Protestant reformation that ignorantly took on some of her idolatrous pagan practices such as worshipping on Sunday in place of worshipping on the Sabbath day according to the Commandment that came from pagan Sun worship. Jesus emphasized very strongly that those who put traditions in place of His Commandments are Hypocrites. (Mark 7:6-9) View a shocking re-enactment video of what the Catholic Church typically did to those who kept God's Sabbath rather than Sunday, which they implemented.
“AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH”
The Papal Church is guilty of some of the most abominable and evil crimes in history. See Catholic Church error for more.
“6 And I saw the woman [Church] drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus:”
The Catholic Church murdered and tortured over 50,000,000 Christian saints. Look up the Spanish inquisition for an example or read Foxes Book Of Martyrs. See quotes.
It is not hard to see that the mystery Babylon referred to in the Bible is a Church even without the history and main Biblical evidence. This site was written with the purpose of trying to help those who are not aware of these facts to see the truth but is quite brief in detail, so for those who want extremely detailed information on the history and the rest of the Biblical evidence, you can find it on the following site who is the Antichrist or who is mystery Babylon the great for more specific information on this topic.
Did you note that history and Daniel chapters 2, 7 and Revelation 13 alone reveal conclusively who mystery Babylon is also by identifying who is the antichrist today being the Catholic Church, which was one way the early protestants also discovered the truth.
Is Mystery Babylon America?
The answer to this question I hope will now be obvious. The theory of America cannot be lined up with scripture at any level. To begin with, America is not responsible for the “blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Revelation 17:6. It was towards the end of those 1260 dark years of persecution that these Christian saints fled to America, giving them refuge and where the USA had its beginnings. This is the reason that America put in their constitution that the Church and state should remain separate so that such a time of persecution would never happen again.
America is also not a Church to state the obvious. (Revelation 17:3) Jesus is not returning for America as His bride for example that I hope makes this point clearer.
Revelation 18:4 says come out of HER my people, but how does one come out of America? it is possible to come out of an apostate Church or one of her daughter Churches.
America is also the false prophet being synonymous with the second beast of Revelation 13 and so cannot be both the first and second beast. See The Antichrist and America in Bible Prophecy for details.
The colours purple, scarlet and gold are the official colours of the Catholic Church, which are missing the Old Testament Priest robe colour blue, which represents the law of God. Blue is excluded since, as seen earlier, they believe they can change the law of God and hence are lawless in the eyes of God. America is not represented by the colours purple, scarlet and gold and belong to the Papal Church alone. (Revelation 17:4)
America is not the “Mother of Harlots,” as described in Revelation 17:5. It was in fact where all the daughter Churches fled to in order to escape persecution from the Papal Church. Hence this mother Church was in another country and America is not a Church and does not have daughters that came from it.
Is Israel mystery Babylon?
There are some in the Catholic Church that have pointed the finger at Israel as a means of avoiding the truth saying she is the woman. But again this is not possible for the same reasons America cannot be. Israel did not persecute the saints for 1260 years and you cannot come out of Israel. (Revelation 18:4)
Israel is also not the first beast (or second beast) of Revelation 13, and Israel is not entrenched with pagan practices, and Israel does not have the entire world intoxicated with false doctrines, and Israel does not have the colours purple, scarlet and gold that belong exclusively to the Papal Church. There are many more points but I am sure you will agree this is more than enough.
And here is a point that is not understood by the majority and I fail to understand why as it is just so clear. The fact is that Israel today is the New Testament Church. Firstly, the New Covenant was “only” made with Israel and so if we are not Israel then we cannot even be part of the New Covenant. (Hebrews 8:10) We have to be Israel or we are out in the cold well and truly.
Now how many people know that the Bible describes two Israel's? (Romans 9:6-8) It speaks of an Israel of the flesh (1 Corinthians 10:18) and an Israel of God (Galatians 6:16) and it is this second one we need to belong to now.
Did you notice in Romans 9:6-8 that Paul said “literal” Israel is NOT Israel anymore? Paul even further confirms this by stating that the children of the flesh (literal Israel) are NOT the children of God. This is very hard to miss for anyone who studies scripture and is paying attention. So if literal Israel is not Israel any more than who is Israel now? Read Romans 9:6-8 until this becomes clear as it important for the correct answer.
The correct answer and further clarity is found from Paul in Galatians 3:28-29 that says if we are Christ's then we are Abraham's seed and hence the Israel of God, that is, the children of Israel. Note also Romans 2:28-29.
It is the failure in understanding the above facts that causes so many to get so much Bible prophecy wrong today in regards to Israel in the book of Revelation.
Conclusion
So the story in brief of mystery Babylon in Revelation 17:1-6 is that we have an adulterous sinful Church in control of a kingdom (which they were for 1260 years called the dark ages) that changed God's law and so is a scarlet (sin) coloured kingdom further reinforced by the fact that the colour blue is missing that represents God's law. Is it significant that most Churches worship on SUN-day today because they nearly murdered the Seventh day Sabbath out of existence? What is the meaning of this Commandment? Revelation 13:2 says that the dragon (Satan) gave his power to this Church. Why? Satan said he wanted to be like the most high and he wanted to be worshipped as God. Could Satan have pulled of a major deception on Christians here? Which Commandment defines who and what we should not worship? What Commandment defines who we worship? And which two Commandments did the Roman Catholic Church change?
Watch Prophecy Seminars online
If you would like to watch an online Bible Prophecy Seminar that reveals who mystery Babylon is by identifying antichrist, which is the little horn of Daniel 7 and the Beast of Revelation 13 that changed the Sabbath to Sunday, you will find Revelation Reveals the Antichrist truth very enlightening. You may want to start about 17.5 minutes in to bypass singing items etc. You can also watch Histories Greatest Hoax on the truth about the Sabbath and ideally should be watched first. There is also an episode covering 666 and the mark of the beast. If you would like to watch more from this and other Prophecy Seminars you can find the menu here.
