Focus On Jerusalem

Title

Demystifying Mystery Babylon
by: Mark Norris, Sr. Editor Eschatology Today





     When President George H.W. Bush mobilized American forces to liberate Kuwait from Sadam Hussein's Iraqi army in 1990 I wrote the President (a thing I rarely do) to thank him for returning the respect to American Armed Forces they deserve. Coming from a military family I was ecstatic to see the burden of mistrust placed on the Viet Nam era military finally removed.

     The week it became clear the President wouldn't finish the job by toppling Hussein, I fired up my computer to voice my concern. But the Holy Spirit stopped me. “Mark, don't waste the time,” He said. “I'm in control of that.” I was then reminded of Daniel's words to Belshazzar when the hand of God wrote out the king's doom on his palace wall: “…the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind, and He sets over it whomever He wishes” (Dan. 5:21). Iraq and Iran share the ancient land space of Persia, which according to Ezekiel 38 will accompany Gog's Israeli invasion. So some of God's hand writing seemed to appear in Ezekiel during my search.

     Anyone who reads my website understands I am not at all unconvinced that Gog and the antichrist aren't one and the same. If Gog of the land of Magog is representative of the European Caucasian races that have evolved over the past 2500 years, Hussein could have been spared to lead his armies to the plane of Megiddo. The same time compression is necessary in interpreting Gog's antiquated weapons. And every name breathed in Ezekiel's prophecy can be found in Japheth's Genesis 19 genealogy.

     This is a compelling subject for another editorial, especially since coalition interests for Hussein's political survival run as high today in the midst of America's current war on terror as they did twelve years ago. Where you place the Battle of Gog is very compelling stuff.

     Food for thought I offer in this commentary has to do with another eschatological perspective considered while contemplating Hussein's Gulf War survival. Could his efforts in rebuilding Nebuchadnezzar's Babylon play a prophetic role in fulfilling Revelation's Mystery Babylon prophecy in Revelation 17 and 18?

     Revelation 17:18-18:3

     18 "And the woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth."      1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory.

     2 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.

     3 "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."


     Many believe the "great city" the Babylonian harlot is said to represent at the end of chapter 17 will be a singular geographical location. Some believe the specific naming of the city of Babylon equates to an original rebuilt city. So I looked into this and came to the conclusion that both views are wrong. Here's why.

Demystifying the Babylonian Harlot

     Identified in her prophetic snapshot as the mother of all whores, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth appears dressed in the wealth of the world and holds a golden cup "full of abominations (“bdelugma”: idolatry) and the unclean things of her immorality."

Revelation 17:3-6,10

     3 And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.

     4 And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality,

     5 and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

     6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.

     10 and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.


     Staying true to her visual parable, the corrupting figure seen in John's prophetic movie is an ancient demonic presence. She is seen riding above and guiding the affairs of the world. The beast she rides is a prophetic picture of the world's governments her presence has corrupted from antiquity. (Egypt's Old Kingdom; Nebuchadnezzer's Babylon; Sennacherib's Assyira; Cyrus and Darius' Persia; Alexander's Greece; Nero's Rome, and an eschatological European empire that will resemble the dominion of Rome). But she has never been confined to those kingdoms. She was corrupting the earth before the first Pharaoh was born, and will remain until God destroys her stronghold at the end of the age.

Lights, Camera, Action!

     Revelation 17:5
     5 and upon her forehead a name was written, a mystery, "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

     Her name comes from the infamous 2300 BC city of Babylon disrupted by God for the demonically inspired witchcraft of its infamous tower.

     Genesis 11:9
     9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth. Both history and archaeology have proven Nimrod's infamous tower built on the plain of Shinar (11:2) to be more than a prideful edifice on which rebellious men shook their fists at God. It was a high place of satanic worship. Archaeology has unearthed many similar towers, called ziggurats on the Sumerian plain. The harlot's pagan cycles of worship that originated there have always included fertility sex rites to appease the “gods of harvest.” The ministry of Elijah was raised up to deal with her presence in Baal and the fertility goddess Asherah (Astarte) that corrupted the nation of Israel. The first thing successive good kings did when they rejected the immoral gods of the surrounding nations was tear down the high places of Baal (Num. 22:41; 2 Kings 18:1-4).

"She" is the Great City

     Mystery Babylon's Revelation 17:18 reference to the great city is therefore not to a single city (polis: the city in which one lives; an abode) that will one day appear. She isn't Rome or Brussels as many have claimed over the years. Neither is she New York, Amsterdam, Paris, a rebuilt Babylon, or any other known contemporary city. Revelation 18:16 puts her prophetic picture in perspective with the caption: “Woe, woe, the great city, she who was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls…”. She lives today in New York, Amsterdam, Paris and everywhere the great population centers of the world are located, because she is the great city. She is the a picture of every "dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird" on earth (18:2).

     Revelation 18:3
     3 "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality."

She is the immoral spirit of the world (kosmos) in all its carnal trappings that sets itself up and over against the biblical truths of God John warns of in his first epistle.

1 John 2:15-16
     15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

     16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.


     And if you are a Christian, the prophet's warning to come out of her midst rings as true today as it did in John's first-century church.

     Revelation 18:4
     4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues…

Drunk with the Blood of the Saints

     Revelation 17:6
     6 And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.


     The blood of the saints she drinks in her snapshot speaks of more than physical martyrdom. Babylon the Great murders marriages and destroys churches through her elusive, seductive ways.

     The churches in Pergamum and Thyatira both succumbed to her deceptive temptations.

     Revelation 2:14
     14 'But I have a few things against you, because you have there some who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit acts of immorality.

     Revelation 2:20
     20 'But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.

     Her influence was so formidable along Paul's church-planting paths that he had to address the harlot's power in both Corinthian letters (1 Cor. 6:15-20; 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1).

"She" Is Hollywood Humanism

     It was she who guided America's '60s wave of "free love" and Eastern mysticism. And if you don't believe her impact has been lasting, take a look around the church. As I write, one in two Christian marriages are failing commensurate with the statistics of the world—because she is the master covenant breaker. Ministerial adultery and fornication ruin churches regularly. Following their lead and prescribing to the Great City's prevailing philosophy, the layity follows suit. God forgives of course. But the spirit of Mystery Babylon has infected the church today with a relaxed tolerance that embraces moral failure as a "modern fact of life." Today the Babylonian harlot lures the world and church from her great city of the media. You'll find her shouting her message of unbridled sex in film, on television, and over the Internet as she guides their sensual work. It's not hard to imagine a regional prophetic snapshot of her riding a multi-headed MGM lion with the names of the major studios written on its heads.

     The deepest of Mystery Babylon's mysteries is her secret manipulation. Today her gratuitous sex scenes on premium channels no longer offend the desynthesized believer. Pastors and layity sturggle with clandestine Internet pornography. John's revelation was given to inform and warn. So receive the Spirit's revelation of her symbolic snapshot and rethink your eschatology if you place her prophetic presence in the future or the past. "BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH"is not coming; her city is here today.

Copyright©2002~Mark Norris, Sr.












Share this page with your friends.



Articles Grace

Links Email Introductin

Subscribe Books Subscribe

Map Library Home

Study Webmaster

About

Questions





AngelHearts