Chapter 17
Babylon is the second most mentioned city in the Bible after Jerusalem and in the book of Revelation 10% of the verses are focused on how God is dealing with Babylon. Like we have discussed before, Revelation is the faithful conclusion to all things that God has promised For Babylon, that means encountering the end in the battle that has been waged against God, His holy city Jerusalem and His people.
To understand chapters 17 and 18 we first need to look back to the beginning. In Genesis 11 we first get introduced to Babylon through a religious monument called a ziggurat but what the Bible calls, the Tower of Babel. The city was indeed physical but its impetus was a spiritual removal of God in favour of humanism. Demonically inspired, the goal was to access the heaven’s, or other dimensions. The fact that God took notice of them means they were well on their way to doing so. Babel was the ultimate act of rebellion and has ever since been synonymous with warring against God, His chosen people and His city, Jerusalem, which literally means city of peace.
As the narrative of the Bible unfolds, we see that the birthplace of humanism is also always synonymous with idolatry and worldly spirituality. It is suggested that Nimrod’s wife was a priestess of occultic worship and Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon was famous for its religious advancements.
In the end-times Babylon is no different. There is a religious Babylon that is dealt with in chapter 17 and a political Babylon dealt with in chapter 18.
John receives a vision of a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns (17:3). She was arrayed with precious garments and stones and on her was a name ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH’.
The angel gives a somewhat perplexed John an interpretation of what he is seeing saying that the beast that she sits with has the same description as the beast out of Revelation 13. This is the end times one-world government that comes to power. Seven heads and ten horns.
The picture is typical of how Babylon works ever since Genesis 11. The woman is sitting on the beast in a dominant position and yet is carried by and supported by the beast. In other words, false religion is what has given authority to the political power but the political power of Babylon is what supports the authority of the beast.
In the end, there will be a worldwide religion that will gain support from the globalist government. The interest that the globalist government will have in this is that the authority to rule will come from false religious leaders. This is much like a picture of how the antichrist and the false prophet will work arm in arm. The antichrist gets his authority from the false prophet telling everyone to worship him and the false prophet remains in place, supported by the antichrist.
In addition, this false religion will be drunk on the blood of the saints and be demonically inspired by satan himself (17:6, 8). The end goal? To make war with the Lamb. The end goal of the demonically inspired Tower of Babel? To remove God from His throne in Heaven and to receive worship from humanity.
Although the foundations of Babylon are humanism and political aspirations, it always ends up in the worship of satan and war with God and His people. Likewise in the Tribulation, the 10 kings strip the harlot, devour her and give all their political power to the beast.
Chronologically, the beast will allow the woman to ride him in the first half of the Tribulation, but at the midpoint, satan will want the worship for himself and will set himself up as god in the temple (2 Thess 2:4). Part of the reason why a worldwide false religion can be instituted in the first place is because of the rapture of the true Church leaving behind an apostate church (1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 13; Jude 1:1-16) which will harlot herself to the kings of the earth (17:1-2).
False religion has always been the enemy of God’s truth and of God’s plans on the earth and once again history will repeat itself in the end with a worldwide religion which God describes as an idolatrous, fornicating, harlot. As part of God’s plan, however, she ends up being destroyed by the very leaders that she empowered and once again we see worship as a very central part of the battle that satan wages.
God has always been interested in pure, unadulterated, intimate worship in spirit and in truth and will judge in order to bring down the false ideology of humanistic worship which is intrinsically focussed and demonically inspired.
Then, He likewise will also bring down the Babylonian Political system.
Here’s what we can live from these verses:
- Babylon Has Been at War With God Since Genesis 11. Babylon is the birthplace of rebellion. It is the demonically inspired idea that humans can sit in the place of God and we have no need of Him. This has made Babylon the enemy of God, God’s city Jerusalem, and God’s people since the beginning. God will deal with this false ideology in the end bringing it down and exposing it. Today you can have confidence that all the lies of false religion will be exposed by God in the end.
- Worship is at the Core of Satan’s End-Time Plan. Satan uses humanism as a trojan horse to receive worship. Every time you see humanism you will eventually see an increase in occult practice and worship of pagan concepts. This is true of the end times as well. This worldwide religion will be open to interpretation due to the salt and light of the true Church being raptured. In its stead, you will see a gradual leaning towards state-sanctioned worship which ultimately leads to the full-blown worship of satan and the beast. Today, treasure the fullness and the beauty of the worship that we have been invited into by the true and living God. Intimacy and truth is our invitation as opposed to the invitation of deceit and submission from Babylon.
- God Judges the Persecution of the Saints. The harlot Babylon is pictured as being drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus (17:6). False religion has always persecuted God’s people whether they be Jewish or Christian. Not only can we be confident that the end times saints will receive their reward because He is faithful, but we can also be confident that anyone who belongs to God will be avenged by God Himself as He pours out His judgement on Mystery Babylon. God hears the blood of the martyrs and He is faithful in His justice. Today, let us pray for the persecuted Church and that their persecutors will find God before He finds them because God hears every one of the martyrs’ prayers and will ultimately answer them in swift justice.
