The ANTICHRIST & MYSTERY BABYLON the GREAT

REVELATION 17:1-5  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:  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.  3 † 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.  4 † 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:  5 † And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

Disclaimer: I Love all of God’s people and He has people in every church, I am against the lies and deceit being taught by the church denominations.  So this is the reason I have put these truths forth.

What is this great mystery of Revelation Chapter 17?

Has this mystery been revealed to this last day people?

1.   Mystery Babylon is a CHURCH: In the Bible a WOMAN symbolizes a CHURCH. This is an extremely important point that must absolutely not be overlooked as it proves beyond all shadow of a doubt that this “WOMAN” with mystery Babylon written upon HER head and riding a Beast (Kingdom) has to be a “Church.” Below are several scriptures that prove this is undeniable fact. The only question that then remains is which Church? Note that an unfaithful Church commits spiritual adultery. 
God’s true Church is frequently represented as a Woman

•   Isaiah 54:5-6 “For your Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For the LORD has called you as a WOMAN forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when you were refused, saith your God.”

•   2 Corinthians 11:2 “For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

•   Ephesians 5:31-32 “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning CHRIST AND THE CHURCH.”
Christ is represented as the Bridegroom and the Church is the bride which of course is a “Woman.”

•   Matthew 9:14-15 “Then came to him the disciples of John, saying, Why do we and the Pharisees fast oft, but your disciples fast not? 15 And Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast.”

•   Revelation 19:7-8 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE has made HERSELF ready. 8 And to HER was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”

2.   Mystery Babylon is a CORRUPT Church: Just as a pure woman represents a pure Church, a corrupt woman represents a corrupt Church. The woman in white is Christ’s bride, the true Church. But Revelation 17:1, 15-16 and 19:2 call this second woman a “WHORE” or “HARLOT”, a fallen Church teaching false doctrines.

3.   Mystery Babylon is a RICH Church: This symbolic wicked woman, this corrupt Church is a rich one with gorgeous display. Revelation 17:4 says she’s “decked with GOLD and PRECIOUS STONES and PEARLS, having a GOLDEN cup in her hand.” Which Church would you say is the richest in the world?

4.   Mystery Babylon is a Church built on SEVEN HILLS or MOUNTAINS: This identification given in Revelation 17:9, is impressive and clear, for ROME is proverbial as “the city built on seven hills.” Webster’s large unabridged dictionary says this under the entry “seven-hilled”: “as, the SEVEN-HILLED CITY, that is, ROME, Italy.” Furthermore, Revelation 17:18 tells John, “The woman whom you saw is that GREAT CITY which reigns over the kings of the earth.” John wrote this using the present tense for the word “reigns” and he knew as well as anyone else that “that great city” was ROME.

5.   Mystery Babylon is a LARGE, WORLDWIDE Church: She sits on “many WATERS,” explained as being many “peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.” Revelation 17:1 and 15. The very word catholic means “universal,” and the Papal Church has the largest, most widespread membership in Christendom.

6.   Mystery Babylon is a Church that revives BABYLON’S pagan teachings: “On her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT...” Revelation 17:5. Long before John wrote the Book of Revelation, the ancient city of Babylon had been completely destroyed and never rebuilt. For centuries it lay in ruins and had faded into insignificance.

The apostle Peter could not have been referring to literal Babylon when he wrote in 1 Peter 5:13 that: “She who is in Babylon ... greets you.” For there was no Church or any other human institution in the desolate ruins of ancient Babylon. He was referring to ROME as all authorities agree. It is easy to see why early Christians used “Babylon” as a code word or nickname for Rome, for there are many striking parallels between the twin cities of literal Babylon of ancient times and figurative “Babylon” or Rome.

Consider just a few: Babylon was the dominant warring power of its day and Rome was the dominant warring power of its own era. Babylon conquered Israel and centuries later, Rome also conquered Israel. Babylon destroyed the first Jerusalem Temple and Rome destroyed the second. Each carried sacred vessels from the Jewish Temple back to Babylon in the east and Rome in the west; each completely destroyed and devastated the city of Jerusalem; each carried away surviving Jews into captivity. Rome was Babylon all over again.

As Babylon’s “carbon copy,” Rome provides a perfect example of history repeating itself! But more to the point, this woman who sits on seven hills which is this Church located in Rome, has revived the same pagan teachings that ancient Babylon taught ages ago. She baptizes them, sanctifies them, and brings them into the Christian Church. Ages ago, when presumptuous men tried to build the Tower of Babel at Babylon, God confused their language.

Genesis 11:1-9. So here in the last book of the Bible, “Babylon” is a spiritual term referring to confusion, not the confusion of languages in the Old Testament but religious confusion as the Church drifted away from God’s Word.

7.   Mystery Babylon is a RELIGIOUS power dominating the CIVIL powers: Revelation 17:3 and 7 tell us the harlot, or fallen Church, is RIDING the beast. Daniel 7:17 and 23 tell us a beast represent a king or kingdom. When we ride a horse, we direct it and control it, so the picture God gives here is of a Church dominating the civil power.

For centuries, the Papacy dictated to kings. When she wanted to punish or execute any who dared to question her teaching, she would often call on the police power of the state. Revelation 17:2 describes this harlot: “with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication.” She has influence over the kings of the earth, great influence over heads of state. Today, unlike other Churches, the Vatican exchanges ambassadors with every major nation on earth.

They come to her city on seven mountains, and they bow before her, having “lived luxuriously with her.” Revelation 18:9

8.   Mystery Babylon is the Mother of Harlots: They are referred to as daughter Churches because they originally came from the Catholic Church and they are called her harlots, because they have taken some of her creeds, dogmas, and doctrines with them.  eg: Martin Luther, who had been a Catholic priest established the Lutheran Church, who kept many of the creeds, dogmas and doctrines of the false church.
She has had many daughter churches who have taken her false doctrines (committed spiritual adultery). Remember, it only takes one false doctrine to become an adulterous. An example of one of her false doctrines is the Trinity doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, but one God, that came straight from the many gods of Rome and Babylon, (paganism).  Also after that she changed Correct Baptism to her false baptism.  Almost every church under the sun has accepted the trinity doctrine as the truth or some of her other false doctrines.

9.   Is Mystery Babylon America?
a.      America is not responsible for the “blood of the saints, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Revelation 17:6 The proponents (most coming against the obvious truth would be Catholics) claim it cannot refer to them based on Revelation 18:24 that says “And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.”

They say the blood of the prophets would have to refer to a time before the Catholic Church existed. This erroneous idea however does not take into account that the Roman Catholic Church while being referred to as Babylon in scripture is shown as being the culmination of the entire Babylonian system. For example: The first beast of Revelation 13 which is synonymous with the little horn of Daniel 7, is shown as a composite beast as it was “like unto a leopard, [Greece] and his feet were as the feet of a bear [Medo Persia], and his mouth as the mouth of a lion [Babylon]: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.”

Revelation 13:2. So the Catholic Church is being shown to be the culmination of all these previous powers in the same sense. Jesus also says the Pharisees have the blood of the prophets on their hands. Obviously they are not directly responsible for all the blood of the prophets and this again is in the same scenario as Revelation 18:24. So this reasoning to exclude the Roman Catholic Church is a nice try but wrong. Matthew 23:29-35 says, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous. And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.

Wherefore you be witnesses unto yourselves, that you are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill you up then the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you generation of vipers, how can you escape the damnation of hell Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them you shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall you scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom you slew between the temple and the altar.”

b.      America is not a Church. Revelation 17:3 “I saw a WOMAN sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy… 5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON the great, the MOTHER OF HARLOTS.” A “Woman” symbolically in Bible prophecy as we have already seen is “ALWAYS” a Church and this point cannot be debated.

The woman [Church] is the bride of Christ. Revelation 19:7-8 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his WIFE has made HERSELF ready. And to HER was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.” Jesus is not returning for America as His bride for example to make this point clear.

c.   How do you come out of America? Revelation 18:4 says come out of HER my people. You can of course come out of an apostate Church and her daughter Churches. Revelation 18:4 “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues.”

d.   America is the false prophet being synonymous with the second beast of Revelation 13 and so cannot be both the first and second beast.

e.   America is NOT represented by the colors purple, scarlet and gold but these are Papal Church colors. Revelation 17:4 “And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold…”  Purple, scarlet and gold are the colors of the Catholic Church, which is missing the color blue which represents the law of God. Blue is excluded as they believe they can change the law of God and so are lawless in God’s eyes.

Numbers 15:38:40 “Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a ribband of blue: And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that you seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you use to go a whoring: That you may remember, and do all my commandments, and be holy unto your God.”

Note also that purple, scarlet, gold and blue were the colors of the robes of the Levi priests. Exodus 28:4-6 “And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office. And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen. And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.” 

f.   Mystery Babylon is described in Revelation 17:5 as the “Mother of Harlots,” which means by Bible symbology that SHE being a WOMAN is the mother Church that other Churches came from that are hence HER daughters. These other Churches originated from the Protestant Reformation but in ignorance took on some of HER Babylonian pagan practices. America is not a Church and does not have daughters that came from it.

Note that the Catholic Church also claims to be the mother of all the churches. At the entrance of St. John Lateran Cathedral in Rome there is a very large Latin inscription that says, “Sacrosancta Lateranensis ecclesia omnium urbis et orbis ecclesiarum mater et caput.” which translated in English reads, “Sacred Lateran Church. Church mother and head of all the churches of the city and the world.” The Catechism of the Catholic Church also calls the Church, “Mother and Teacher.” The “Dominus Iesus” faith declaration says, “It must be always clear that the one, holy, catholic and apostolic universal church is not the sister, but the mother of all the churches.”

10.   The Pope sits in the temple of God and showing himself that he is God.
II THESSALONIANS 2:3 † Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;  4 † Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.  The Pope claims to be: Vicarius Filii Dei, which is in Latin, Vicar (instead, in place) of the Son of God.  So he is a man that sits in the house of God, trying to take the place of God.

11.   REVELATION 13:18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.  There is only one person that sits in his so called house of God and controls the people of every nation.  One comes and is replace with another one and then another one, just like REVELATION 17:8 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. 

Now let us look at his number. VICARIVS
FILII DEI = 5+1+100+1+5+1+50+1+1+500+1 = 666, where 'U' is taken as 'V' (two forms of 'v' developed in Latin, which were both used for its ancestor 'u' and modern 'v'). 
It has been said that many names would come out to 666, but I submit to you that no one but the Pope fits the scriptures as a whole.

12.   Through Bible commentary, a little study of history and we will further demonstrate that this woman riding a beast is in fact a Church and can be no other than a Church that ruled as Church and State.

A study of history and the inquisition would also reveal who this persecuting Apostate Church is. You will observe that a large percentage of Revelation deals with this woman that persecutes the saints and God’s resulting judgment. The word “Babylon” denotes confusion and originated from the Tower of Babel where God confounded their language so that they could not understand each other. God calls this woman Babylon also because of her unholy blend of truth and error which causes “the inhabitants of the earth” to be “made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”

13.   Mystery Babylon is very much a mirror image of ancient Babylon with its manmade system of religion and there are also many Protestant daughter Churches who have inherited the many empty traditions of their Catholic forebears. Some of the most popular doctrines have roots in ancient Babylon which are inundated by pagan influences.

These are rampant all through this man made Papal system of religious confusion which is based heavily upon man’s tradition rather than God’s Word.  If one performs an internet search on “mystery Babylon” to find what people are speculating who or what mystery Babylon is, you will find that mystery Babylon is identified as anything from Islam to New York.

Since mystery Babylon is a woman and a woman in prophecy is beyond all doubt a Church, this rules out most of these speculative theories from the beginning. To accomplish the task of proving this woman is an Apostate Church, we will need to cover a little bit of the symbolism used in prophecy in order to understand the many references in Revelation and this Church’s part as Mystery Babylon.

14.        About 1500 year period of Persecution, (The Dark Ages):  From AD 354 to AD 1850, according to the history there were sixty-eight million Protestants put to death recorded on the Roman martyrology for disagreeing with the pope of Rome, tortured and murdered as heretics.  (from Schmucker's "Glorious Reformation”) 

See TRINITY (from man or God)        See WATER BAPTISM