"The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air, and there came a great voice out of the Temple of heaven, from the throne saying, "It is done!" {18} And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings, and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great, {19} And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give to her, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. {20} And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found {21} And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent (about 75 pounds), and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague thereof was exceedingly great."

Thus closes the 16th chapter of Revelation. It is the final culmination of the wrath of God, and that wrath is focused on, poured out on what John calls, Great Babylon. But Babylon has been a ruin for thousands of years and had been for a long long time, at the time, John wrote it. How could Babylon be a player at the very time of the end?

It's interesting that someone could build a hotel at Babylon so tourists could go there can see the ruins of the city and people send me clippings and say, "See there, Babylon is being rebuilt!"

It seems as though some people seem to think, that the old ancient city of Babylon, its ruins or where it sits and the things that would be built up on the spot where it used to sit, that this would be the Babylon of prophecy of the time of the end. I don't think so!

Babylon was more than a city, it was a city-state which at one time was the power over the known world. It was all the power that there was, but it was even more than that. Babylon was a religious system.

Every ancient city-state had its gods and Babylon having conquered all, absorbed all their gods as their own. The result was a conglomeration of gods great and gods small and an interconnection between all of them that it would take of mythologist to sort out.

I want you to understand this, that Babylon had their god, and Nineveh had their god, and the other great cities of the time had their god, and in the eyes of all these people, the god of Jerusalem was just another city-state god, and so out went Babylon to conquer this city and that city and the idea was, that, you know, Babylon conquers my city, then obviously the god of the Babylonians was a bigger god, a stronger god than my god, and therefore, my god, must submit to the Babylonian god as my city must submit to the city of Babylon and so the gods submitted, it did not go away, they just became a part of the Pantheon of the broad scope of gods that were somehow connected with what was Babylon.

What a system it turned out to be, the Babylonian system of gods found expression in Greece, and finally in Rome. The gods' names were different but the spirit, was the same!

If you do a little study on mythology, it's fascinating to see how that you find a god in Greece and you find an exact equivalent in Rome, it is just that the name is different. Names move from Greek to Latin, or maybe a little different approach in the use of the language, but again it's the same idea. Adonis and Apollo and all the different pantheon of gods, who found expression in that way.

Rome Is Referred To As Babylon the Great!

Now about the time John got his vision about Babylon, the Babylonian spirit was so dominant in Rome that both Jews and Christians universally referred to Rome as, guess what? Babylon the Great! Because all the Babylonian gods were there, the dominant god of Rome was the Sun god, but that didn't mean he was the only one.

The Romans were really quite tolerant of other gods. They had their own god who was supreme or who was over the other gods, and as long as that submission was there, there was no particular problem, toleration was everywhere.

So when John identified Babylon as the city on seven hills, no one who originally heard what he said had any doubt whatsoever about the identity of Babylon. They just thought, when John said Babylon, "O that's Rome!" It's a codeword for Rome, maybe not even so much of it as a codeword, it is just the imagery he chose to use.

So when John identified Babylon as a city on seven hills, no one who originally heard what he said had any doubt about the identity of Babylon. They would've nudged one other in church, look backwards, and said, "That's Rome!" Rome is on seven hills, you have heard of the seven hills of Rome, haven't you? John is talking about Rome.

But John's vision does not merely deal with first century Rome, the imagery is all wrong. Let me show you what I mean.

In chapter 17, continuing now, in the book of Revelation, "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying to me, "Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great whore that sits 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.""

Now, at the time this prophecy was given, no one would describe Rome as a whore. The imagery is all wrong. Rome was not a seductress. Rome was dominant. Rome dominated the world. Whores, pardon me, prostitutes, I don't want to offend the children. Maybe it would be good for the children to leave the room.

Some of the modern translations here use the word prostitute. I guess it sounds a little better but the King James version says, "I want to show you the judgment of the great whore," and it really does make a statement, doesn't it?

But how can it be Rome? Throughout the prophets, whoredom is a symbol for religious corruption, drunkenness is a symbol for intoxication with false doctrine or false religious systems, that they had been drinking of these false prophets and false gods in the way these false gods go, and as a result, they are staggering blind drunk, God says!

Nations Were Known By Their Gods

So nations, you understand, were known by their gods, they were consistent in the worship of their gods, if you made a treaty with an ancient city-state, you also made a treaty with their god.

Now it may seem kind of silly to a person, in the 21st century, especially 21st century countries where there is something of a separation between church and state, where the church over here and the state is over here, as it is here in America. We have that distinction to where the government is not supposed to be influenced by the church and vice versa. This has not always been true. In fact, we are something of an anomaly in the history of mankind, because mostly, religion and church were inseparable. So if you're in Babylon and your god is Bel and you're making a contract with Moab whose god is Dagon, well then that's a treaty between our gods, there's an agreement or understanding here.

I think you have to understand what God is saying to ancient Israel through the prophets when He condemns them for their relationships with other nations. It is not like the United States entering into a trade agreement with Great Britain or Canada or Mexico, at the secular level about how much we are going to charge for imported goods. That's not what's going on here!

In olden times, it was because of the deities involved and the alliances or the interaction between the gods of the nations that God said you are not supposed to have anything to do with these people. So if you can understand that aspect of it, maybe a few things will begin to fall into place in your mind, about why God uses this imagery of whoredom with these other nations and of drunkenness in dealing with their doctrines and the doctrines of their gods.

"He carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns" (Revelation 17:3).

My this is an ugly picture. Now the woman is pictured as sitting on this beast, Ancient Babylon had her kings and princes, they formed the power of the state, but she also had her priests and priestesses. I think it is in this religious side of Babylon that we get the woman sitting on the beast, because in fact, oddly enough, there were times when the harlot was the real power. When the priests and the priestesses could actually bring enormous pressure to bear on kings and on princes, because of the beliefs of the people, the superstition of the people or maybe the superstition of the king himself, whatever you may call it, but the fact is, that the religions of these ancient cities were very powerful and had a great deal of influence on what the kings and princes did.

And so here's this woman who, is pictured sitting on a scarlet colored beast, full of the names of blasphemy, I presume the beast is full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Verse 4, "And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, 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.'"

Wow, a very ugly picture isn't it? An ugly picture, but there's a lot in here. Mystery, Babylon the Great is the Mother of Harlots, which simply means that she's the Mother Goddess. She has actually managed to pull all these other religions under her, and has made them her own, and has created this great, what shall we say, conglomeration of gods and religions and put them all together in something of a system, logical, workable, system of religions, which enables a kingdom to dominate all sorts of other kingdoms, and those other kingdoms' gods.

"And" {6} "I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, and when I saw her, I wondered with great wonder and admiration."

Now we don't know what the first Christians thought about this but they could hardly have avoided Rome, in this equation. But they must've wondered about the woman. The beast, that's Rome.

But what about this woman? {7}"Well the angel said to John, "Why are you wondering? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. {8} The beast you saw was, and is not, and shall ascend out of the pit, and go into perdition.""

That description I think is of something that might fit the Roman empire, which was, but then at a time in history, is not, that comes back out of the abyss, out of nowhere, as it were, and then finally will go into perdition. It works.

Continuing in verse 8, "And they that dwell upon the earth shall wonder, whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they beheld the beast that was, and is not, and yet is."

So the whole world except for the people, who are knowledgeable, the people who are, well, who have their names written in the Lamb's book of life, who are the saints of God. These are the people who will look at it and will understand what they see, where is the rest of the world, they will just sit there in open mouth amazement at this great empire, this great power which comes back again, after having died completely.

Verse 9, "And here is the mind," John says, "who has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits."

This I think is probably a little more than seven hills in the city of Rome. Mountains, generally speaking, in the Bible are talking about nations and there are seven kings, that matches the nations, doesn't it?

Verse 10, "And there are seven kings, five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come, and when he comes, he must continue a short space."

"Five are fallen, one is, the other has not yet come." So we go through a sequence of seven kings, not seven contemporaneous kings, so that's not too hard to understand. There's one that is not yet come, and when he comes, he will continue a short space. so the last one of these is a relatively short time.

Verse 11, "And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition."

Now, this is a little hard to follow. He is the eighth power, coming after the seventh power, and yet he's one of them. He fits the same mold, he is the same type of thing.

Verse 12, "And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet, but receive power as kings one hour with the beast."

This is a very short period of time in which there are ten contemporaneous kings, kingdoms, dictators, rulers, whatever you might want to call them.

These all are, for one hour with this beast, given power. Most commentators tend to associate this with the ten toes of the vision in Daniel two, which are ten divisions, ten final very brittle divisions of the old Roman Empire at the very end time, which are crushed at the return of Christ.

Verse 13, "These have one mind, and they shall give their power and strength to the beast,{14} These shall make war with the Lamb (Jesus Christ), and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords, and King of Kings, and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful."

So the resurrected saints are with Him (Jesus Christ) now, and they are a part of this judgment that is going to take place, of those who, with whom the beast shall make war.

"And the angel said to me," {15} ""The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are peoples, and multitudes and nations, and tongues."

So this woman is influential in nations and among peoples and tongues, and languages. This is a worldwide phenomenon.

"And the ten horns," {16} "which you saw upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh and burn her with fire."

So as we come down to the very end time, this religious system, which has so dominated the beast, that is the state, and the states, the physical states which are a part of it, in which the woman has used, are going to be resentful of what has happened and the way they have been treated, and they're going to burn this woman with fire.

The symbolism, I'm sure is, total destruction. Eating her flesh kind of makes my flesh creep to think of it.

"For God," {17} "has put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled."

So all this is there, to fulfill prophecies of long ago, but also including these prophecies right here.

"And the woman," {18} "which you saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth."

The great city that reigns over the kings of the earth, whom they finally get enough of and decide to destroy. So who is this woman and what does she represent?

The imagery of this section that we just read in Revelation suggests a religious system that rides upon, perhaps has the reins of, guides, influences, directs, what have you, an empire. The power is enormous and widespread, and she seems to use the power of the states, uses the power of the state to kill her enemies, and among her enemies are the people of God. Now historically there have only been two religious systems that have had that kind of power over a really broad geographical area in the world, and they are Islam and the Vatican.

Now a lot of people seem to think, I think they derive it from the idea that the forces of the power is anti-Christian. And since it's anti-Christian where do you look in the world to find a large, powerful force that is anti-Christian. Well you look at Islam, nobody else seems to be concerned. Buddhism can hardly be called anti-Christian, or are out there fighting against Christians.

I think this comes about because people simply do not understand Islam. They have not really read about it. They have not gone to learn the history of it. They haven't studied the beliefs of Islam. Islam does not fill the bill of being the mother of all kinds of idolatrous religions and practices. Islam is rigidly monotheistic. Although it mixes religion and state and has conquered all kinds of nations in the name of Allah. For example, if you're sitting down in India somewhere and there's a great Muslim warrior standing in front of the sword at your throat who says, "Accept Islam or die!" You know that method made a lot of converts back during the spread and the real power of Islam in the world, but they looked upon Jews and Christians as what they call 'People of the Book.’ Christians and Jews were not infidels in the sense that, let's say followers of Buddha or Confucius or people who had no god at all would have been considered.

So when Islamic people look at the United States and perhaps to some extent to other European nations, but looking at the United States, in particular, how can they look at a Christian nation like us and call us the great Satan. The answer is really very simple, it is because we are not a Christian nation. We have been very much at pains not to be a Christian nation, and in recent years, more and more, we have been declaring that we are not, and trying to separate any idea from religion, from that of the state.

So a Muslim will look upon you, perhaps as a Christian, going to church every Sunday morning, or every Sabbath afternoon. They look upon you, not as an infidel, but as one of the 'people of the book.' You're in a different category from someone who doesn't believe in God, but when they look at Washington D.C., when they look at the government of the country which declares itself not to be religious or connected to any religion, well, the government of that country is an infidel.

Now understanding the rigid monotheism of Islam, you have to understand that their anti-idolatry approach, would prevent them from fitting any aspect of the description of the beast or the prostitute or of anything having to do with this, because other gods are anathema to them.

Any Muslim leader who even suggested that he might be God would be garroted (a weapon or method of capital punishment) in the night in his sleep and he would not survive.

Now there are Protestant preachers who declare that the Roman Catholic Church is the great whore, but they do a great disservice to themselves and good Catholic people everywhere. Preaching like that is served as a justification for some terribly unchristian acts on the part of non-Catholic (quote) "Christians" (end quote).

Now some of the greatest examples of self-sacrifice in the service of man have been carried out by Catholics. People who devoted their entire lives, have been celibate throughout their lives, and have taken vows of poverty and have actually lived out their vows of poverty in the service of mankind, of orphans, of the poor, of leper colonies, of helpless people here and there and everywhere.

You know God is bound by His own word to reward people who make that kind of a sacrifice in his name, and I'm not prepared to say that these people have done anything different.

So the Roman Catholic Church, if you take it as a huge body of people, certainly could not be described in any of this. But of course, the Roman Catholic Church is not and never has been a single monolithic entity.

Many people look at it and sort of talk about it as though it's is united and its like your local Baptist church down on the corner. They seem to be united and they get along just fine and they meet together every week.

The Catholic Church is not like that, there are very deep divisions in the Catholic Church. The church in the United States is a totally different, what shall I say animal, bad vernacular, but it is totally different from the European church, and then when you go to the Latin American Catholic Church, you have something entirely different altogether. The differences in the Catholic Church and the stress lines that go from here to there. The fracture points, if you will, are many and varied, and so when you understand that the church, that is, the Roman Catholic Church has had deep divisions historically and that there been terrible schisms between one faction and another, one should never paint an entire church organization or tar them with the same brush they might another.

There have been times when there were two popes, each of them excommunicating the other, and each one calling the other, believe it or not, "The Great Whore of Babylon."

And so it was not Protestants who began to call the Vatican a Whore. It was Catholics who first did it, because you have to understand when this first was being done, there weren't any Protestants. Protestants came along much later, and very naturally, many of them, not all of them, adopted similar terminology when describing the Papacy, because they were literally, I guess in some ways, at war with the Vatican, not with the Roman Catholic Church everywhere, but with the Vatican.

During these times, when the church was split like it was, the revenue of the church was split, and the Papacy was reduced to selling anything and everything to raise money. It was a time of incredible corruption and with all the division and all that took place somehow during this long period of time there, simply was no reform worth calling reform.

Barbara Tuchman in her book "The March of Folly" analyzes, I believe, '"The Four Renaissance Popes" and marvels at what they did and particular marvels, why none of them ever called a halt or instituted a reform or tried to turn things back and she basically says "They could not see it, they just could not see it," and finally it provoked the Protestant Reformation.

Malachi Martin in a very fine work entitled of the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Church" traces the corruption that took place really in the time of the Reformation, traces that corruption all the way back to the endowment of Constantine. Now if you know your history, you will recall that very early in the fourth century, a man named Constantine showed up on the doorstep of the Bishop of Rome and presented himself here as a brand-new convert to Christianity, and Constantine endowed the church with power and with wealth. He took the onus (one's duty or responsibility) away from being a Christian and going from one time when the church is totally persecuted, fled, meeting in the catacombs until in a matter of months, the church were powerful and strong and can actually call the shots in an earthly empire must've been very heady stuff.

Martin makes an interesting distinction. He believes that what he calls 'the church' will survive because he sees 'the church' as something other than the Papacy. He sees the Catholic Church as a spiritual body, and composed of saints and Christian people everywhere and he believes that even though the Vatican can go into total corruption or collapse or come completely unstuck, divides, get involved in schisms, that 'the church' will survive.

I think he bases that on Jesus' promise that He would build His church and the 'gates of hell' would not prevail against it.

There is very little in the Roman Catholic Church today to suggest the imagery of Revelation 17 and 18.

But what if the church is put under stress by division? What if once again out of the stresses that exist between the Latin American Church and the American Church and the European Church and the Vatican? What if the church once again suffers schism? What if we once again have two rival popes? It can't happen you say? Well it's happened before.

While the Pope today does not have the power that popes once had, he has considerable influence over great parts of the world.

Imagine that power in the hands of one who has sold out to the devil! Impossible? Well, what if there are two popes, one with miraculous power and one without it! What then do you do? What if the miraculous power is the lying wonders that one has spoken of here in Revelation. Who are people to believe? What direction will they go?

Now I'm not suggesting we draw any conclusions on this today. I want to say that no one knows the exact outcome of this prophecy. My objective is not to tell you what's going to happen. My objective is, that you will know it is here and that you will know what to watch for.

Pray to God that you will not be deceived when the time comes.

Until next time, this is Ronald Dart reminding you, "You Were Born To Win!

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This article was transcribed with

minor editing from a Born to Win Radio Program by: Ronald L. Dart

Titled: The Book of Revelation -Program #23

Transcribed by: bb 03-3-25

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