Understanding the Fulfilled View The Judgment of Babylon Was the Judgment of Jerusalem Part 6 of 10

By Dan Maines

Understanding the Fulfilled View
The Judgment of Babylon Was the Judgment of Jerusalem
Part 6 of 10, all posted same day, links at bottom

Revelation 11:8
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.

† This identifies Babylon directly. The great city is the place where the Lord was crucified. That is Jerusalem. Scripture interprets scripture. There is no guesswork. Revelation uses covenant imagery, but it points to a real covenant city.

† Jerusalem is called Sodom and Egypt because she had taken on the character of the nations. The covenant people had become the persecutors. This was not Rome. Rome never crucified the Lord in their city. Only Jerusalem matches this description.

† The prophets consistently condemned Jerusalem for covenant rebellion. Revelation continues that pattern. The great city is the covenant city under judgment for rejecting her Messiah.

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

† The city guilty of killing the prophets and the saints is Jerusalem. Jesus said that all the righteous blood would fall on that generation in Jerusalem. Revelation is not redefining that truth. It is applying it in the final covenant judgment.

† Babylon is not Rome. Rome killed some Christians, but Rome never killed the prophets. Revelation says the harlot had been drunk with the blood of the prophets long before the first century church. Only Jerusalem fits that biblical history.

† Revelation shows the culmination of that guilt. The harlot had filled up the measure of her sins. The judgment was the destruction of the old covenant world in AD 70.

Matthew 23:29-37
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets. So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

† Jesus Himself identifies the city that kills the prophets. It is Jerusalem. He declares that all the covenant blood would fall on that generation. Revelation simply shows the fulfillment of what Jesus already said.

† The guilt was not symbolic. It was covenantal and historical. The leaders of Jerusalem filled up the measure of their fathers. The judgment Jesus promised fell on them in the destruction of the city.

† Jesus connects the judgment directly to that generation. This matches perfectly with Revelation's timeline. The harlot's fall is the fall of Jerusalem.

Luke 13:33-35
Nevertheless I must journey on today and tomorrow and the next day, for it cannot be that a prophet would perish outside of Jerusalem. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.

† Jesus taught plainly that Jerusalem was the city that killed the prophets. Revelation does not give a new city that holds this identity. It continues the same covenant accusation.

† The desolation of the house is the destruction of Jerusalem. Revelation presents that judgment with apocalyptic imagery, but the fulfillment is the historical fall of the city in AD 70.

† The covenant house was left desolate because the people rejected their Messiah. The new covenant world could not begin until the old covenant house fell.

1 Thessalonians 2:14-16
For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved, with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

† Paul confirms the same pattern. Those who killed the Lord and the prophets were the Jews of Jerusalem. He says wrath had come upon them. This is the same wrath Jesus predicted and Revelation describes.

† Scripture consistently identifies the persecuting city. There is no biblical basis for shifting Babylon to Rome. The inspired writers all point to Jerusalem as the covenant breaker.

† The wrath that came upon them is the covenant judgment that culminated in AD 70. Paul saw the process unfolding. Revelation shows the final act.

Historical References
Early Christian writers recorded the destruction of Jerusalem as the fulfillment of Jesus words. These writings do not create doctrine, but they acknowledge the historical reality of the judgment that scripture already promised.

How It Applies To Us Today
Jerusalem's fall shows the faithfulness of Christ. He kept His word, brought an end to the old covenant world, and established the new covenant kingdom. We live in that kingdom. We live in the world where righteousness dwells. The judgment of Jerusalem was not the end of hope. It was the beginning of the new creation in Christ. The covenant promises stand fulfilled, and the kingdom continues to increase without end.

† This is the fulfilled perspective we proclaim at Fulfilled Prophecies †
© Fulfilled Prophecies - Dan Maines.

Source Index
† Revelation 11:8, Revelation 17:6, Matthew 23:29-37, Luke 13:33-35, 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16

Series - Understanding the Fulfilled View

01 The Time Statements Mean What They Say Website

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1349070089314462/posts/1894198244801641/

02 Audience Relevance, Their Generation Website

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1349070089314462/posts/1894198808134918/

03 The End of the Age Was Not the End of the World Website

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1349070089314462/posts/1894199314801534/

04 The Last Days Were Their Last Days, Not Ours Website

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/groups/1349070089314462/posts/1894199971468135/

05 The Coming of the Son of Man Was a Judgment Coming Website