I was indoctrinated with the view that Babylon the Great must be the empire of false religion. But the description of it was written for believers. False religion has no power over believers.
I have been led to understand the Bible, especially the 'New Testament,' provides the world with a view of the basis of what is right and what is wrong regarding man's will (selfish work) versus God's will (which is a lot of things that this thread is not about). So when Revelation was written it was a description of something already effective. (rev 17:6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.)
It is more than a little obvious to me that words of Revelation were changed sometime since they were written. It is because the world experiences what was warned at Rev. 22:18.
Might I suggest one word that was changed is "With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries". This one in red. It seems to have been written "porneias". But I think it means "waywardness" as in leaving what is true to go after what is not true.
Thoughts?
savagewind,
You were taught correctly, why then did you start to fall back to false religion??
The term Porneia, that is translated fornication, actuall means ANY illict sexual relation, not just fornication.
Allow me please, to reason with you for a few minutes.
If you stop and think about it, there seems to be only three entities that this whole world is diveded into: Politics, with their armies, Commerce, which takes in any of the buying and selling of almost anything, and Religion, which takes in both true and false religion. What other world wide entity can you think of that has such influence as these three???
At Rev 18:3, all three of these entities are mentioned, The Kings of the Earth, Commerce, and Religion, Babylon the Great.
Now, in order to be able to recognize exactly who Babylon the Great is, lets consider what is said about Her in the 17th chapter of Revelation.
Rev, chapter 17:1, starts with telling about this great Harlot that sits on many waters. Verse 15 tells us that these waters are peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues. In other words Babylon the great is made up of PEOPLE.
Verse 2 tells us that the Kings of the Earth committed fornication with her. Since the Kings of the Earth are the Political ones who have the authority and power, this means that Politics and Religion have had relations with each other, relations that should not be, therefore called fornication. Verse 3 tells us that this Harlot is sitting on a great scarlet colored beast with seven heads and ten horns. Beasts are mentioned in the Holy Scriptures as political powers, Dan 7:2,3,4,5,6. Then if you are not sure, Dan chapter 8 gives further proof, Dan 8:15-22. The reason the beasts are not liked by God is because of the way they have always treated their subjects, like beasts would, and because Satan is the one who gave these beast the power and authority, Rev 13:1,2.
Verse 5 tells us about HER NAME, and that Babylon the Great is the Mother of Harlots and of the disgusting things of the world. Babylon the Great is the world empire of false religion and her harlot daughters are all the many, many religions that have sprung from Her. Can you think of anything that would be more disgusting than all these many false religions???
Consider closely verse 6, where she is spoken of as being drunk with the blood of the saints, marytrs of Jesus. Now just consider; who is it that has always, all down through history, that has been the ones to persecute true believers of Jesus and God, Himself. If you have any knowledge of history you know it has been false religion. Inquisitions, crusades, murder of many who tried to get the Bible into the hands of the common people. Babylon the Great is definitely World Wide False Religion. Notice that Rev 18:24, put the blood of all people at the feet of Babylon the Great. Just think, if religious teachers were telling the truth about God and Jesus, the would have told their parisioners not to go to war, Matt 26:52, John 13:34,35, 1John 3:10-12.
Now look back at Rev 18:3, then read all of chapter 18, to get the full reason for her destruction, forever, 18:21. Neither of the other two will be destroyed forever, you need foof and goods, also politics is really the handling of people.
One real definitive verse is Rev 17:18, where Babylon the Great is said to be a great city who has a Kingdom over the Kings of the Earth. Nothing but religion can be thought of as riding on the back of the political powers, mainly so that she can retain her power. She has helped the Kings of the earth in all their schemes, especially in their wars, the Pulpits of the churches becoming recruiting agencies to send the young of each generation into the trenches.
