By Dan Maines

Babylon WAS Jerusalem. Following are scriptures to prove it!

1. Revelation 17:18 The woman whom you saw is the GREAT CITY, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

2. Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies will lie on the street of the GREAT CITY which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

a. The GREAT CITY is Jerusalem and we know this because that's where Jesus was crucified.

3. Jerusalem is the only city referred to symbolically in the Bible as Sodom see Deuteronomy 32:28-33; Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14, and Ezekiel 16:46-57.

So, we know that the GREAT CITY is where the Lord was crucified. We also know this same place is called Sodom and Egypt, all from Revelation 11:8

4. Revelation 14:8 And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that GREAT CITY, because SHE has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of HER fornication.”

5. Revelation 18:20 “Rejoice over HER, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on HER!”

a. This is saying: God has punished HER, Jerusalem because of what she did to the apostles and prophets . Notice the past tense of what this is saying.

b. Every time we read Jerusalem is disloyal to God, Babylon is referred as Her/ She. She is mentioned as a "harlot" or "adulterer" See also Ezekiel 16 She played harlot with the Egyptians and the Assyrians (Ezekiel 16:26, 28). Both Israel and Judah played the harlot with the idolatrous nations surrounding them Jeremiah 3:6-9.

6. Revelation 18:24 And in HER [Jerusalem] was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on the earth.”

a. Babylon could not refer to any other city in any other time period.

7. Luke 13:33 Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish outside of Jerusalem.

a. All prophets die in Jerusalem

8. Matthew 23:29-39; Luke 11:49-53 - Jesus said that the blood of all the prophets in history would fall upon Jerusalem in His own generation

9. Revelation 17:1, 15; 19:2 - Babylon is described as being a harlot.

a. Revelation 17:1 The Scarlet Woman and the Scarlet Beast 17 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters,

b. Revelation 17:15 Then he said to me, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues.

c. Revelation 19:2 For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.”

10. SHE/HER is described as being arrayed in purple and scarlet (Revelation 17:4). These were the colors of the clothing for the high priest and the colors that made the Temple more attractive. Exodus 28:5-6; 39:1-2.

a. Revelation 17:4 The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication.

b. Many think this is Rome or the Catholic church because they say the woman is the church. Did the Catholic Church kill the prophets? NO!

c. Babylon is referred as Her/ She. She is mentioned as a "harlot" or "adulterer" She played harlot with the Egyptians and the Assyrians (Ezekiel 16:26, 28). Both Israel and Judah played the harlot with the idolatrous nations surrounding them. (Jeremiah 3:6-9).

11. Mystery Babylon are those that killed the prophets, Jerusalem! (Matthew 23:27-38, Revelation 17:5, 18:24)

a. Babylon of Revelation is the Old Covenant Jerusalem which was destroyed in AD 70.

b. Revelation is the judgment of Babylon. The first century Christians knew Babylon was in their geographical location. It would mean nothing to them if America, Russia, China or even Iraq, Iran etc. would be described as Babylon.

There are over 30 passages in the book of Revelation that it's fulfillment was about to happen. Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6-20. Revelation is NOT about events of the 21st century. The events take place around the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. This is regarding Babylon.

REVIEW

Let's review a few passages Revelation 18:10b; 19b, 20, 24; 19:1, 2, 11, 16

The GREAT CITY Babylon is judged at the coming of the Lord. Where is this taking place. Where are these events to take place? What city is Jesus telling his disciples to flee from and go to the mountains. What city takes the fall for killing the prophets? What city is about to be destroyed? Come on!

The Bible tells us that Babylon is the old covenant Jerusalem.

In Revelation 11:8 who is the GREAT CITY? it's Jerusalem. John tells us it's the city where Jesus is was crucified. That GREAT CITY Babylon is Jerusalem. It's clearly identified.

Revelation 18:21-23 Then a strong angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the GREAT CITY, be thrown down with violence, and will never be found again. 22 And the sound of harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; and no craftsman of any craft will ever be found in you again; and the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again; 23 and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again; for your merchants were the powerful people of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.

a. From this verse we're told Babylon is the GREAT CITY which is Old Covenant Jerusalem, thrown down never to be found again. Many think it cannot be Jerusalem because Jerusalem is still here on earth. The problem with that thinking is Old Covenant Jerusalem is NOT Jerusalem of today. Josephus writes, "There was nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited."17 The Babylon of Revelation 18 is old-covenant Jerusalem. Babylon was "never found again" because old-covenant Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD and rebuilt both physically and spiritually under a new covenant.

In the new covenant. Babylon will "never be found again". After the Law was fulfilled and wicked old-covenant Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD. New covenant Jerusalem was then rebuilt from the ashes of the old city both literally and spiritually and given a new name in Revelation 21 and 22, the New Jerusalem.

The fact that the voice of bride and bridegroom were not to be heard again in apostate Jerusalem, the whore of Babylon, appears to also have symbolic significance. The bride and bridegroom mentioned in Revelation 18:23 could also be said to signify Jesus and His church as indicated later in Revelation 21:2: "I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband [Christ]." The voice of the bridegroom was not heard again in apostate Jerusalem because apostate Jerusalem killed Jesus Christ. Similarly, the voice of the bride of Christ, the Christian church, was also never to be heard again in apostate Jerusalem before her destruction because the Christian church left Jerusalem a few years before its fall in 70AD

The same message is conveyed at the beginning of v. 23: "The light of a lamp will never shine in you again." This lamp, like the bride and bridegroom, also represents the Body of Christ, Jesus and His church, as illustrated in Revelation 1:20 and 21:23: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches [emphasis mine] (Revelation 1:20)." "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb [Jesus Christ] is its lamp [emphasis mine] (Revelation 21:23).

Revelation 17 Jerusalem the whore of Babylon

Revelation 17 Jerusalem is not just called the whore of Babylon she is also depicted as a whore in highly suggestive sexual imagery illustrating Jerusalem, the whore of Babylon, in the act of adultery. In Revelation 17:3 the whore of Babylon is shown sitting on the beast representing Rome which is also identified as the seven hills of Rome and seven kings in Revelation 17:9-10. (Note: The fact that the whore of Babylon sits on the beast in v. 3 and the city of seven hills in v. 9 doesn’t mean she is Rome it just implies that the beast is the city of seven hills (i.e. Rome)) The fact that Jerusalem, the whore of Babylon, is called a whore and is depicted sitting on Rome and its seven Caesars in Revelation 17:3; 9-10 is sexual imagery illustrating her as a whore in the act of sexual intercourse.

According to Isaiah 54:5, Israel was in a marriage covenant with God. However, Jerusalem committed adultery against her God, spiritual husband and king by killing the Messiah and His people and declaring Caesar, the beast, her king instead during Christ’s crucifixion: “We have no king but Caesar!” (John 19:15). This rejection of Christ, Jerusalem’s spiritual husband, in favor of Caesar is depicted as an adulterous affair between the beast, representing Rome and its Caesars, and Jerusalem in Revelation 17 and 18. Because of this illicit sexual union between Rome and Jerusalem, Jerusalem is called Babylon. Babylon was the Jews’ nickname for Rome as explicitly stated in 1QpHab of the Dead Sea Scrolls which dates between 1 and 30 B.C. This nickname became especially appropriate after the Jewish War because both Rome and Babylon literally destroyed the physical temple in Jerusalem (6th century B.C. and A.D. 70) and exiled Jews throughout their respective empires. However, Jerusalem is called Babylon, Rome’s epithet, because both cities became one in the same way that when a man has relations with a whore the two become one flesh: “[T]he one who joins himself to a prostitute is one body with her[.] For He says, “The two shall become one flesh (1 Corinthians 6:16).” Thus Jerusalem, the whore or prostitute of Babylon (Rome), is spiritually called Babylon, Rome’s epithet, throughout the Apocalypse because these two cities became one flesh as a result of their adulterous affair–like a wife taking the name of her husband. In Revelation 11:8 Jerusalem is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. In Revelation 17 she is also spiritually called Babylon, Rome’s nickname.

Just as ancient Babylon destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem, first century Jerusalem and Rome each destroyed the spiritual temple of God. The spiritual temple of God is the body of Christ which represents both Christ and His people. In John 2:19-21 Jesus refers to His body as a temple: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The saints are also called the temple of God in 1 Corinthians 3:16: “Do you not know that you [the Christian saints] are a temple of God . . .” Obeying the will of the religious elite of Jerusalem, Rome enacted the execution of Jesus in A.D. 33. Thus Jerusalem and Rome both took part in the unjust death of Christ. Shortly after Jesus’ crucifixion, Jerusalem also persecuted the early Christian saints in her midst according to Acts 8:1. Then during the reign of Nero Caesar, Rome persecuted the Christian saints in A.D. 64. Here one can see how both Jerusalem and Rome are called Babylon in the Book of Revelation because both cities destroyed the temple of God.