My Thoughts

Revelation 17

For awhile I was not looking forward to writing about Revelation 17. Too much of it was a mystery. Who was or is the prostitute? Where is Babylon? How does this all fit together? Well I prayed and read again. I have no idea how often I have read Revelation since I started this series. I lost count.

I do not believe there are any of God’s people in Revelation 17. Whether you believe in pre-trib or mid-trib, I believe we’ll be gone. But what if we’re taken away pre-trib and more people come to be believers when the anti-Christ is here? I believe they maybe gone too by now. (However I hope it’s possible that a few more people will turned to God, even after this.) I wonder if Revelation 17 is so hard for me to understand, is because it’s not about us.

Babylon will be a place where God’s people have been murdered. And if they haven’t been murdered there, then at least the orders or the permission came from there. Revelation 17:5-6 A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.” I could see that she was drunk – drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement.

Anyway as I was reading Luke the other day, when I came across Luke 13:33-34 where Jesus says: “Yes, today, tomorrow, and the next day I must proceed on my way. For it wouldn’t do for a prophet of God to be killed except in Jerusalem! O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me.” But is Jerusalem really Babylon?

Revelation 18:24 was talking about Babylon when it says “In your streets flowed the blood of the prophets and of God’s holy people and the blood of people slaughtered all over the world.” This doesn’t sound like it could be Israel. To be honest, Babylon could be anywhere.

Isaiah 1:21 See how Jerusalem, once so faithful,
has become a prostitute.
Once the home of justice and righteousness,
she is now filled with murderers.
But, this was a long time ago and many nations have prostituted themselves against God today. They have strayed from God’s true word and started following false teachings.

Revelation 17:9 the seven hills and also seven kings. I looked up cities with seven hills and was amazed of how long the list was.

So where is Babylon and who is the Great Mother of All Prostitutes? I don’t know. But I do not believe it is Jerusalem or any where in Israel. It can’t be Jerusalem because Revelation 18 talks about Babylon as being a seaport. Jerusalem is not a seaport.

It cannot be Israel itself because Babylon will be destroyed, never to be found again.

USSR Cold War Missiles

In Amos 9:14-15 God said He would bring the people of Israeli back from exiled, which He did back in 1948. He also said that the people of Israel would never be up rooted from their land again. But watching the news, you know that many people would like Israel to be gone.

Many people would like Israel destroyed by any means possible. Isaiah 54:16 says “I have created the blacksmith who fans the coals beneath the forge and makes the weapons of destruction. And I have created the armies that destroy.” Only since WWII has there been weapons of destruction.

Also in Isaiah, this is what God says about the future of Israel: But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. Isaiah 54:17

I don’t know where Babylon is or where it will be; but it’s not Israel.