THE WHORE OF BABYLON

 

THE HARLOT OF REVELATION

The chapter 17 of the book of Revelation speaks of a great harlot, who sins with all the nations and kings of the earth

(Revelation 17:1-2,15).

This character has been a point of discussion from different schools, about her exact identity. Today we will have a closer, but brief view, on this famous biblical character.

WHO IS THE HARLOT

The author of the book tells us straight, but in discreet language that the Harlot is imperial Rome:

“And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.”

Revelation 17:18

The problem is settled at once. It is not Jerusalem, as some medieval catholic theologians have put across, to distract the attention from protestant remarks about being Papal Rome (1). Only Imperial Rome had that level of power and influence over the whole known world at that time and nearly 1000 years pass that the time of the revelation. Jerusalem had stopped existing as capital of a nation from the year 70, and this revelation was received around the end of the first century; plus, Judea never had word-wide political and financial influence.

But is also more than that.

THE SEVEN HEADS

The seven heads of the dragon over whom the Harlot rides, are said to be two different things by the Angel explaining the vision:

1 – SEVEN MOUNTAINS

Revelation 17:9 says:

“The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated”

Those are clearly the seven hills over which the capital of the Roman Empire was settled, AVENTINE HILL, CAELIAN HILL, CAPITOLINE HILL, ESQUILINE HILL, PALATINE HILL (Where the city of Rome was born before extending over the other six hills), QUIRINAL HILL and VIMINAL HILL.

The claim that the Harlot is the Roman Church is contested here by the fact that VATICAN CITY is outside the perimeter of the seven hills, on top of the VATICAN HILL, outside the North-West of the city of Rome.

2 – SEVEN KINGS

The seven heads are also, seven kings, according to the explanation of the angel in Revelation 17:10:

“They are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come, he must remain only a little while”

From this point onwards, the Harlot is revealed to be a system, and not only a city or institution.

From these seven kings, five have already died, one is reigning at the time of the revelation, and one more is to come.

If we take these seven ‘kings’ as literal roman monarchs, we would have all emperors, from NERO to DOMICIAN or NERVA:

NERO, GALBA, OTTO, AULUS, VESPASIAN, and possibly TITUS, if we start with GALBA and not NERO. The reigning emperor would be either DOMITIAN or NERVA, as the sixth, and the seventh will have to be either TRAJAN or ADRIAN, and this would be impossible since there were 38^th emperors after that, and still the Roman Empire was standing with glory.

Therefore, there have to be seven KINGDOMS, not KINGS,

There have been seven ungodly empires in the known world that could fit this picture, all equal in power in their respective times, and all equally ungodly and corrupted:

EGYPTIAN EMPIRE, ASSYRIAN EMPIRE, BABYLONIAN EMPIRE, PERSIAN EMPIRE, GREEK EMPIRE.

At the time of the revelation, the ROMAN EMPIRE was reigning, the sixth kingdom, and there is a seventh to come, after the Roman Empire, that will be destroyed by the ANTICHRIST and his 10 allies (Revelation 17:12,17).

Finally. this last government, the ‘eight’ (Revelation 17:11), and the 10 countries that will support the government of the ‘Beast’ or Antichrist, will war against the holy men of GOD and his Messiah, to be finally be destroyed by JESUS in his second coming (Revelation 17:14).

CONCLUSION

The Harlot or Whore of Babylon, is a system of corruption, financial (Gold), religious (Purple) and Political (Red) (Revelation 17:4) mode of life that has controlled all big earthly empires in history, from the dawn of mankind, and will, until the end of time. This system of things is the cause of all poverty, interest rates, private ownership of natural resources, slavery, wars, pandemics, false religion, together with immorality, homosexuality, abortion and all perversions that destroy society.

It is identified with IMPERIAL ROME, because at the time of the revelation, pagan ROME incarnated this system of corruption on the planet, but it is not limited to it.

All identification with the PAPAL CHURCH or JERUSALEM, are false invention of men, with war agendas against each other.

At the end of time, however, this system will be engulfed by the government of the Antichrist and the ten most industrialized nations at the time of his government, the same that will persecute all believers, until they are destroyed in Armageddon, by our Lord JESUS CHRIST, in his Second coming.

Omar Flores.

 

(1)  Peter Gaskell, Is She Jewish? Is She Roman? The Identity of the Whore of Babylon in the Book of Revelation (2003).

 

Terry D. Bilhartz, Urban Religion and the Second Great Awakening (1986).