“Mystery Babylon”

Mystery Babylon (Revelation 17:5; Genesis 11:9)

We presently are living in an era that is unprecedented in the history of the world. An era where even the people in the congregations have little tolerance for religious concepts and principles taught in the Bible. It is an era where people do not want to know the Gospel of Jesus Christ as it is given to us in the Bible. It is an era where people do dot consider the Bible as the Word of God, God speaking. It is an era where congregations are discarding religious practices used for centuries, for a more suitable form of religion that will unite the masses into one watered down and totally ecumenic religious order. It is an era where tolerance for other religions is held as a primary doctrine that may not be violated.

Indeed we are living extremely close to an era that may very well be called
“The Abomination of Desolation”.

The only remedy for the errors of the congregations in this era is the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But this light is rapidly fading because the congregations do not want a Christ who is totally sovereign and righteous as the Bible describes Him, especially here in Revelation. His sovereignty and His righteousness scares them, and thus they are bowing down to a different Christ, who is more a servant than a sovereign God.

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

This messenger showed John a woman, who is a whore. A whore, or a harlot, is a woman who sells her body for fornication. But in Biblical language a whore, or a harlot, is someone who commits spiritual fornication. It is someone who goes after other gospels, worships other gods, or engages in other kinds of idolatry. We must understand that especially here in the Revelation of Jesus Christ God uses symbolic language. Therefore these chapters must be understood in accordance with their symbolism the way those symbols are used throughout the Scriptures.

The name of this woman as written upon her forehead is “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT”. The first word is “Mystery”.

What is a mystery?

In the Bible a mystery is not something mysterious, as in the English language, but it is something that has been hidden in the Scriptures throughout the centuries, and it is made known only by Divine intervention at an appointed time, and is revealed only to those whom God through His Holy Spirit desires to give this knowledge. And thus a “mystery” is something hidden, but it will be revealed. Secondly, the word “Mystery” is not found in the Old Testament.

It is a word that is found 27 times in the New Testament. And from the New Testament verses we learn that this word is strictly associated with the many secrets and mysteries of God, already written in the Old Testament, but now revealed in the New Testament as mysteries of God, and mysteries of the Gospel, and mystery of Christ with His assembly, and mystery Babylon, just to name a few.

Thirdly, in all these 27 times where the word “mystery” is found the spirituality of the things of God are addressed. Therefore, when we read in the title “Mystery, Babylon” we realize immediately that this Babylon could not possibly refer to anything outside the church of God. It must have to do with the church.

The name Babylon derives from an earlier city which was named Babel in Genesis 11:9, where we read, “Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.”

The name “Babel” or “Babylon” means “confusion”. God confused their language and scattered them upon the face of the whole earth. Man’s purpose for the city of Babel was to have their own gods, even heaven itself, and yet maintain their own destiny. Instead God sends them confusion. As we track Babylon throughout Scripture we can expect to see this character of confusion and apostasy remaining with her down to the last mention of her as the great whore in Revelation 19:2.

Throughout Scripture Babylon is associated with pride and rebellion against God. God condemned Babylon for her pride. Babylon of old was destroyed and became a desolation and a dry land, and became uninhabited until this very day. This, however, is falling far too short of being God’s final outcome and teaching of Babylon. God has much more in view than a history lesson of a city that was destroyed because of her pride toward God. All the nations of the earth fall under this category. All nations as a whole are proud toward God. There is only one nation that is truly humble and God-fearing, and that is the nation consisting of all those whom God shall save, which is the remnant chosen by grace from all the nations of the world.

A superficial reading of Revelation 17 and 18 may leave the impression that these chapters are describing the destruction of a large city of this world, like New York, which would be code named “Babylon”.

But this is not the case.

There is a spiritual and symbolic teaching concerning Babylon which runs throughout Scripture like a thread, culminating in Revelation 18. All the Old Testament prophecies concerning Babylon will in the spiritual sense only be fulfilled in the confines of the end time Babylon. But there is more.

There is something incomprehensible, something of amazement and astonishment to all who come to a more clear understanding of these passages in Revelation 17 and 18.

Babylon is far more than just a wicked city. And Babylon is in these two chapters being judged at the end of the Final Tribulation Period, at the height of wickedness. Therefore these two chapters in Revelation with regard to Babylon are speaking of the worst conditions possible: There in Babylon spiritual degradation exists to the highest extent. She, Babylon the great harlot, is being judged. And this judgment seems to take place immediately before the coming of Christ. Now let us take a close look at this city, which is here described as a woman.

The Woman in the Wilderness (Revelation 17:3, Revelation 12:1-2, Revelation 12:14, Psalm 2:7, Malachi 4:2, Revelation 1:20, Ezekiel 16:8-22)

Revelation 17:3
So 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.

Babylon, the woman, is pictured as sitting upon the beast that has ascended out of the Bottomless Pit. And in verse 6 we read that John was amazed and wondered with great amazement at the sight of this woman. John was astonished.

Why was John astonished?

He had seen this woman before. Her general features were still the same, but now she is allied with the scarlet colored beast that carries her.

When had John seen this woman before?

Revelation 12:1
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:

Revelation 12:2
And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

As we have seen in Revelation 12, this woman represents the Old Testament cingregation, the Old Testament body of believers all the way from righteous Abel to John the Baptist. The Old Testament congregation was travailing and in pain of persecution until Christ was delivered from the power of the grave in AD 33.

God says in Psalm 2:7, “Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee”.

On that day the Old Testament church transitioned into the New Testament church, which began in earnest 50 days later on Pentecost. She is clothed with the sun, for Christ, who is known as the Sun of Righteousness, has covered her (Malachi 4:2).

She has the moon under her feet, where the moon represents the Word of God, which means that her foundation is the Word of God. She has a crown of twelve stars, indicating that God has blessed the church with a full assortment of pastors and teachers of the Word of God, for God said in Revelation 1:20: “The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches”.

This woman was under heavy persecution from the Devil. But God came to her aid in Verse 14:

Revelation 12:14
And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.

She found refuge in the wilderness of this world, where God protected her from Satan’s relentless attacks on her faith. She was not altogether free from persecution, but it was by God’s grace that she was nourished with the Scriptures without being hindered in this by Satan. There she was, the woman in the wilderness, who was lavished with so many blessings from God.

But look at her now in Revelation 17:3, this same woman in the wilderness of this world, but now she is allied with the beast with seven heads and ten horns. This is the same beast of Revelation 13:1, which is Antichrist. Yes it is the same woman, the church, after having experienced the great apostasy in the time of the end. This Babylon has embraced a full and complete fellowship with the religious and counterfeit attributes of Antichrist.

The great Final Tribulation Period has arrived, because the woman and the beast are now intimately together. The woman is no longer faithful to Christ. Instead she commits spiritual fornication with the beast, and that is why she is called a harlot. And she drags all her spiritual children into the same judgment with her.

Why does she do this?

Because it feels so good.

And is it not true that all these other gospels that have been brought into the church all in the category of “feel good gospels”?

The Arminian Free-Will gospel is far more rampant in our day, and the Charismatic gospel, and the Prosperity gospel, and the Self-esteem gospel, and the sacramental gospel, and the Purpose Driven Church gospel are all appealing to people because they feel so good, and they make them feel so righteous, and they make them feel so blessed and they make them feel so secure because they now have done something for their salvation. It is true that this woman is not a picture of the true church, but of the false church, the counterfeit church, which has apostatized from her former husband Christ and is now committing fornication with the enemy. She is the unfaithful woman, the deceitful woman, who has broken the most sacred pledge.

In Ezekiel 16:8-22 we read of Israel as the wife of Jehovah, prepared and blessed by Him, but whoring after other gods. This is a complete picture of the spiritual harlot.

And how is she described here in Revelation 17 and 18? As a woman and as a city. Satan is a great imitator.

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Alfred J. Chompff