Who is the Whore of Babylon?

How often have we all heard ill-informed people claim that the “Whore of Babylon” mentioned in the book of Revelation is the Vatican / Holy Catholic Church? Let’s look in the Bible and find out for ourselves, rather than conjecture with our personal opinions.

A Great City

In order to find out who the Whore of Babylon is, Catholics should read the entire bible in context. The Whore of Babylon is described in Revelation 17:18 as a “great city”:

Now we all have to ask ourselves if Vatican City has dominion over any kings of the earth today. There aren’t that many kings around anymore, for one thing, and even if you transpose the word “president” for “king”, it’s laughable to say that the Vatican has dominion over any president or ruler of a country today, with all of the legalized abortion, homosexual so-called “marriage,” pornography, contraception, divorce and remarriage, etc., that is going on in most countries today. And in countries that do have kings, like Saudi Arabia, certainly the Vatican has no dominion over Muslim countries.

So which “great city” is John talking about anyway? The seven hills that the whore sits on with the seven Kings gives us a clue. It cannot be Vatican City, because the Vatican does not sit on one of the seven hills of Rome, which are Aventine Hill, Caelian Hill, Capitoline Hill, Esquiline Hill, Palatine Hill, Quirinal Hill, and Viminal Hill. Vatican Hill sits across the Tiber River from ancient Rome, and was a crucifixion site (where Peter was crucified upside down). It was not made part of the city of Rome until the ninth Century, well after John wrote the book of Revelation. And since we know that five of the seven kings have already fallen in John’s time, one is alive and one is yet to come, the city had to exist in John’s time, first Century AD. This is all confirmed by Revelation 1:1, which says:

“Soon” would NOT be centuries later, for sure, but would indicate imminent events.

So this means that the Whore of Babylon is a great city that had to have existed in the first century. Which city might that be? Revelation 11:8 gives us the answer:

Jerusalem, the city where Jesus was crucified, seems to be the great city, or the Whore of Babylon! But wait a minute – Isn’t Jerusalem the Holy City? How in the world could anyone say that Jerusalem is the Whore of Babylon?

For the record, Jerusalem also sits on seven hills, namely, Scopus, Nob, Mount of Corruption, Old Mount Zion, Ophel, Rock, and New Mount Zion. And at the time of John, Jerusalem did have a lot of power over many kings of the earth (because Jerusalem was the worldwide center for worship of God), as well as being an international center of commerce.

Jerusalem the Harlot

Let’s look elsewhere in the Bible, and in the words of our Protestant brothers and sisters, we will let Scripture interpret Scripture. For example, in Isaiah 1, God is castigating Israel for its many sins, even referring to Israel as Sodom and Gomorrah in Isaiah 1:10:

In Revelation 11:8 previously mentioned above, we learned that the Whore, or great city, is allegorically called Sodom! And in Isaiah 1:21 below, God calls Jerusalem a prostitute, which is another word for whore:

And these abominations are described by God as being like a prostitute in Ezekiel 16:26-30:

God considered Jerusalem to be one with Him, as a man marries a bride. But Jerusalem and its people always seemed to going after pagan wives, worshiping false idols like the golden calf, and generally not being true to the covenant God had established with them during the time of Moses. And now, in John’s time, the leaders of Jerusalem were teaming up with pagan Rome (the beast) to not only kill the apostles and prophets, but also to murder the Messiah Himself.

Jesus Condemns Jerusalem

Here we see Jesus foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem by pagan Rome in 70 AD. Why? Because they killed the prophets and stoned the ones sent to them. This should sound familiar, because in Revelation 18:20, 24 we heard that

Apostles and Prophets

So here we see in Revelation that the Whore of Babylon killed apostles and prophets. Apostles were those that had actually been with Jesus, and prophets only existed up until the the death of John the Baptist, way before the Vatican was established. One trap that some fundamentalists fall into is their sincerely mistaken belief that the Catholic Church wasn’t started until Constantine came along in the 4th Century. While that isn’t true (we have the writings from the early Church Fathers that confirm that the Catholic Church began with Peter’s commissioning), the following questions have to be asked:

Babylon, or pagan Rome, did, in 70 AD, with the destruction of Jerusalem. Remember, Babylon (Rome) and its whore, (Jerusalem) teamed up to kill Christ. (In an ironic twist, everything that the High Priest Caiphas said would happen to Jerusalem if Christ lived (the destruction of the nation of Israel), did come to pass, precisely because they killed Christ!) Babylon is an apocalyptic code name for Rome, which symbolized sexual and immoral excess. Revelation 17:16 says that the ten horns (symbolizing the ten rulers of pagan Rome) will destroy the whore by fire, which is exactly what the Romans did to Jerusalem in 70 AD. Revelation 17:14 says that the Lamb will conquer them both. The complete conquering of Rome by the Christians happened in the 4th Century of Catholicism, when Constantine became the first Christian emperor of Rome, and who stopped all of the religious persecutions of Christians with the Edict of Milan in 313 AD. And just as King David conquered pagan Jerusalem and turned it into God’s headquarters, just so, Jesus, David’s successor and the King of Kings, conquered pagan Rome and turned it into God’s headquarters, thus fulfilling the prophecy of Daniel 7:27.

Who is 666?

In numerology, each letter is assigned a value. In Greek, the language of the New Testament, the name Caesar Nero, the emperor alive at the time Revelation was written, adds up to 666. Nero killed his own brother and mother, and was generally known as the most decadent of all the emperors of Rome. John was trying to give the Christians who were alive at the time hope, by telling them that Jesus would eventually triumph over wicked Jerusalem and pagan Rome. The stubborn Jews of that day, like the murderous Saul, were turning in Christians to the Roman authorities to be tortured and murdered. Thankfully, on his way to Damascus, Saul saw the light of Christ (“the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light,” Isaiah 9:2) and became the saintly Paul. But there was a price to be paid, as Nero not only killed Peter for preaching the truth, but also Paul, who died by being beheaded (he was a Roman citizen, and therefore escaped crucifixion).

Who is the Antichrist?

For the record, the word Antichrist appears nowhere in the book of Revelation! St. John does describe who the antichrist is in 1 John 2:22 – An antichrist is someone who denies that Jesus is the Messiah. For the record, no Pope has ever denied that Jesus is the Messiah. However, this reference does mean that today we do have many secular antichrists among us.

The Vatican is across the Tiber from the seven hills of Rome. Where are you getting this misinformation?

Common knowledge available in multiple reliable historical sources. http://europeanhistory.boisestate.edu/westciv/reformat/luther/08.shtml

Which only says that Luther "took to referring to Rome as the Whore of Babylon," not as the Vatican sitting on one of the 7 hills, which it does not.

But which itself does not disqualify it from being the Whore of Babylon, as Vatican Hill found its location for over 1100 years within the walls and city limits of Rome. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Hill

Moreover, the cathedral church of Rome and the official ecclesiastical seat of the Roman Pontiff is not St. Peter's in the Vatican, but the Basilica di San Giovanni, commonly known as St. John Lateran Archbasilica, St. John Lateran Basilica, St. John Lateran, or just The Lateran Basilica, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbasilica_of_St._John_Lateran) in Laterano, located near the edge of one of the seven hills, the Cælian) Hill within the old walls of ancient Rome.

I am not even arguing for the church of Rome being Babylon, which is interpretive, but that she is the largest deformation of the NT is abundantly manifest .

Also of interest.

The ancient Romans had several opinions about the derivation of the Latin word Vaticanus.[1] Varro (1st century BC) connected it to a Deus Vaticanus or Vagitanus, a Roman deity thought to endow infants with the capacity for speech evidenced by their first wail (vagitus, the first syllable of which is pronounced wa in Classical Latin). Varro's rather complicated explanation relates this function to the tutelary deity of the place and to the advanced powers of speech possessed by a prophet (vates), as preserved by the later antiquarian Aulus Gellius:

We have been told that the word Vatican is applied to the hill, and the deity who presides over it, from the vaticinia, or prophecies, which took place there by the power and inspiration of the god; but Marcus Varro, in his book on Divine Things, gives another reason for this name. "As Aius," says he, "was called a deity, and an altar was built to his honour in the lowest part of the new road, because in that place a voice from heaven was heard, so this deity was called Vaticanus, because he presided over the principles of the human voice; for infants, as soon as they are born, make the sound which forms the first syllable in Vaticanus, and are therefore said vagire (to cry) which word expresses the noise which an infant first makes".[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Hill

From an old source.

Note These Points From these scriptures, we have the following definite points: 1. The beast has a NUMBER, and may be identified, if we have wisdom, by this number. 2. The number is 666. 3. We are told to COUNT this number — that is, add it up. The same Greek word is used elsewhere only in Luke 14:28: COUNT the cost. 4. This number, 666, is the number of the BEAST. The only BIBLE interpretation of this symbol, "beast," is a kingdom or the king who rules it, and therefore, really IS the kingdom (Dan. 7:17, 18, 22, 23, 24, 27). Therefore 666 must be the number of the KINGDOM, or GOVERNMENT, or EMPIRE, as well as that of the king who founds or rules it. 5. The expression "the name of the beast, or the number of his name" makes plain that the number 666 is the number of the NAME OF THE KINGDOM OR EMPIRE. 6. The expression "it is the number of a man" shows we must also count this number in the name of the king, or ruler, over the kingdom identified as the "BEAST." The Beast Is Not the Woman In the 17th chapter of Revelation we find a beast, and a woman — a great, wealthy woman called "a whore" — who was riding the beast. The Bible describes the symbol "woman" to mean a CHURCH.See II Cor. 11:2; Rev. 19:7; Eph. 5:23-27. On the other hand, "beast" is a symbol of a KINGDOM, or EMPIRE. The woman of the 17th chapter is described beyond possibility of doubt as the church which did reign over the kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire. Let us be consistent. The beast of Revelation 13 is not the WOMAN who rode the beast — the beast is the GOVERNMENT, and the woman is the CHURCH. The beast of Revelation 13 is THE ROMAN EMPIRE ! This beast had a DEADLY wound (Rev. 13:3). That means the beast ceased altogether to exist or function as it had since 31 B.C. Yet its deadly wound was later healed, after which (verse 5) it continued to exist another 1260 years! Those who believe the Catholic Church is the beast say this deadly wound came in 1798. But the pope was not forced into exile that year. The Catholic Church did not die, nor for one day did it cease to function. The popes did live in VOLUNTARY exile, beginning some sixty years later, as a protest against the Italian government until the agreement with Mussolini. But that could in no sense be called a wound TO DEATH. And those who teach this do not expect the Catholic Church to continue on another 1260 years. The Founder of Rome The founder and first king of Rome was ROMULUS. The Roman Empire was named after him. His name, the name of a MAN, also is the name of the KINGDOM. And every citizen in the kingdom bears the same name — a ROMAN. When John wrote this Revelation, telling us to COUNT the number of the Beast, he wrote in the GREEK language. Consequently, we should look for this name, and the number 666, in this language recognized in the BIBLE, not in the Latin. We are all familiar with the Roman numerals, where letters are used for numbers. All understand that I is 1, V is 5, X is 10, etc. But many do not know that the Greek language, in which the book of Revelation was written, also uses letters for numbers. In the Greek, the language in which Revelation was written, this name is "LATEINOS." It signifies "Latin man" or "the name of Latium," from which region the Romans derived their origin and their language. This word, too, signifies "ROMAN." L is 30, A is 1, T is 300, E is 5, I is 10, N is 50, O is 70, S is 200. Count these figures. They count to exactly 666! It is indeed no coincidence that the name of the KINGDOM, its founder and first KING, and of each man in the kingdom, counts to exactly 666! Certainly THE BEAST stands identified! And Mussolini, Too But the same numbers also branded in Latin on the man who dominated the puny 6th head of the symbolic beast. Mussolini called himself "Il Duce." Italians shouted "Viva Il Duce !" which means "LONG LIVE THE CHIEF." Everywhere in Italy was the printed sign, "VV IL DUCE." The "VV" is the abbreviation used for "Viva." A "V" is used instead of the "U" as is very commonly done. While this is a greeting, or title, Mussolini actually employed "Il Duce" as a NAME. It is in LATIN. Count it.V is 5, V is 5, I is l, L is 50, D is 500, V is 5, C is 100, E has no number. Now count them, and you have exactly 666! Thus this number 666 is indelibly BRANDED upon THE ROMAN EMPIRE! But, some will ask, does not this number apply to the POPE ? Some teach "the words 'VICARIUS FILII DEI' are on the pope's triple crown." And these Latin words, in the Roman numerals, count to 666! The pope does, on some occasions, wear a triple crown, BUT THESE WORDS ARE NOT ON IT ! We should be careful to PROVE all things. The denomination which teaches this sent Prof. C. T. Everson to Rome, where he gained access to, and made diligent search in the Vatican archives, but he could find no crown or record of such a crown containing these words. Furthermore, these words are in the LATIN, not a BIBLE language. This is not a NAME, but a TITLE, and it is THE NAME of the BEAST, and the number of the name of the MAN of the beast we are told to count. Further, this Latin title does not apply to a kingdom, or empire, but alone to a MAN. However, while "VICARIUS FILII DEI" is not among the acknowledged titles of the pope (see Cath. Encycl.), he does claim to be VICAR OF CHRIST on earth. Also, for 1260 long years the popes did reign and rule over the BEAST. They were, in effect, the religious heads of the empire, ruling over the emperors, as well as over the church. And so is it indeed significant that this title, too, counts 666 ? And so this number is branded on the ROMAN EMPIRE, on the founder and first king of the Latins, on every ROMAN, and even on MUSSOLINI. Could anything be more conclusive? The "Two-horned Beast" Satan has his civil government on earth. He gave it "his power, and his seat, and great authority." He also has an ecclesiastical organization — a CHURCH — as his instrumentality in deceiving the world. In 2 Corinthians 11:14, we find Satan is transformed into an "ANGEL OF LIGHT." According to Revelation 12:9 and 20:3, he has DECEIVED the whole world. How? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 11:13-15,Satan has HIS ministers who pretend to be the ministers of righteousness, but are actually false apostles, deceitful workers,calling themselves the ministers of Christ! Therefore they claim to be CHRISTIAN ministers. They are the MANY, not the few, because all prophecies say it is the MANY, not the few, who have been DECEIVED. Satan's main labor for six thousand years has been the deceiving of the world. Now turn to the 13th chapter of Revelation, beginning with verse 11: "And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a LAMB, and he spoke as a DRAGON. " Who — what — is this "beast" ? Some say it will be the United States aligned with the papacy. Some believe it is a federation of Protestant churches. Others declared it the Pan-American Union. MOST church organizations ignore this very vital subject completely, or say frankly, "WE DO NOT KNOW !" Why this ignorance, when the answer is so plain? Yes, why indeed? The Bible Interpretation Remember, first, THE BIBLE INTERPRETS ITS OWN SYMBOLS ! When men put their OWN interpretation on Bible symbols, their conclusions are always false! Notice, after John saw one BEAST, which we have proved to be the ROMAN EMPIRE, he now sees ANOTHER — a different — beast rise up. We have learned that "BEAST" is a symbol for a kingdom, or government (Dan. 7:17, 23), and the term represents either the kingdom or its leader, as the case may be (Dan. 7:17, 23). So this other beast with the two horns is the prophecy of another kingdom or government. In these prophecies, God pictures to us the earthly Gentile governments as the wild beasts whose characteristics describe them. This two-horned beast appeared as a Lamb. But actually it spoke as a DRAGON — its true characteristic — for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh" (Matt. 12:34). What does the word "Lamb" symbolize, in the Bible ? The answer is, CHRIST (John 1:29; Rev. 17:14). And Rev. 12:9, 20:2). So here is some kingdom or government masquerading as that of CHRIST, or the KINGDOM OF GOD, but actually being a government of SATAN! Christ did not set up a government (kingdom), at His first appearing on earth. After His resurrection the disciples asked Him if He would at that time restore the KINGDOM (Acts 1:6); but He did not. The Church is not the Kingdom. Because some thought it was, Jesus spoke the parable of Luke 19:11-27 to show thatHe first must ascend to His Father's throne in heaven to receive the royal power to become King of kings, to set up the world-ruling Kingdom of God. But Satan is a deceiver, and he has deceived the world into supposing his (Satan's) CHURCH, and system of churches, is the Kingdom of God. Now notice carefully Revelation 13:12: "And he exerciseth ALL the power of the first beast before him." The first beast is the Roman Empire. Here is ANOTHER government, also controlled by Satan,pretending to be CHRIST'S government, the Kingdom of God, taking, exercising, using, employing, ALL the power of the first kingdom, the Roman Empire. Now when?"He exerciseth ALL the power of the first beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to WORSHIP the first beast,whose deadly wound was healed" (verse 12). So, it was AFTER the deadly wound (of A.D. 476) was healed. It was healed when Justinian brought about the restoration of the Empire in the West in A.D. 554. Consequently this RELIGIOUS government took over, exercised, by ruling, all the power of the Roman Empire AFTER A.D. 554when it was called the Holy Empire and, later, the Holy Roman Empire. Did a Church Government Rule Rome? So here we have pictured a government — a RELIGIOUS government — appearing as CHRIST'S government, masquerading as the KINGDOM OF GOD, actually ruling the civil Roman Empire, AFTER A.D. 554. Was there such a government? Indeed there was! And only ONE ! Prior to 554, Justinian had written a letter to the pope, acknowledging his supremacy in the West. And when he restored the empire in the West in 554, the popes dominated the Western Empire from Rome. The Roman Empire, thus restored to continue until 1814 (1260 years), became known later as "The HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE." We read in history that the popes were accepted as the "Vicars of Christ," which means "IN PLACE OF Christ." The teaching was thatthe Second Coming of Christ had occurred — Christ had returned to earth, as KING of kings and as LORD of lords,in the person of the popes. The millennium had begun. For the entire 1260 years, the emperors accepted the popes as such, ruling the nations with a "rod of iron" as Christ is to do WHEN He really comes. Consequently they acknowledged the supreme religious power of the popes. The Church was organized as a GOVERNMENT —as a dual, two-fold government (symbolized by its TWO horns or kingdoms — for "horns" symbolize kingdoms also — see Dan. 7:24). It embodied CHURCH government, and it also was a STATE, or civil government,always occupying a certain amount of territory over which it, alone, ruled as an independent sovereign state —in addition to actually ruling over the vast civil kingdom called the Holy Roman Empire. Even today, it is a separate, independent, sovereign STATE. Most nations send ambassadors to the Vatican, just as they do to the United States, or to Italy, Britain or the USSR. Notice, this second beast was to wield power over ALL THE EARTH, because it was to CAUSE the earth, and them that dwell therein, to WORSHIP this first beast "whose deadly wound was healed" after 554. In most any encyclopedia, under article "MILLENNIUM," you will read the history of this very event — of how the "Holy Roman Empire" was called the "Kingdom of God upon earth." They claimed the MILLENNIUM had arrived! Notice [in Revelation 13] verse 14:"And DECEIVETH them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast." Verse 13 says "he doeth great wonders." So notice these three points: (1) This beast performs miracles. (2) He performed them "in the sight of" the Holy Roman Empire, or the first beast. (3) With them he DECEIVED all nations. All Nations Deceived Where else, in the Bible prophecies, do we find these same identical facts? First, note Rev. 17. Here is pictured a woman. In II Cor. 11:2, Eph. 5:22-27, and elsewhere, we learn that "woman" is a symbol for CHURCH. This woman is a fallen woman — an apostate church — and a great one, called "the great whore," pictured as ruling over many nations, verses 1, 15. In verse 3, this great false church is pictured sitting on a beast "having seven heads and ten horns." A woman riding a horse guides, controls, the horse. It does her bidding. It is well known by ALL who understand Bible prophecy that this 17th chapter of Revelation pictures the Roman Catholic Church ruling over the so-called Holy Roman Empire. Notice, verse 18, she is "that great city which reigneth over the kings of the earth." Notice, verse 2, the inhabitants of the earth have been DECEIVED by this great false church. Also Rev. 18:3, she has deceived all nations. Next, notice II Thes. 2:3-4. The day of Christ — and the coming of Christ — shall not come, until there be a falling away, and a "MAN OF SIN" be revealed. He exalts himself above all that is called God. As God, he sits in a temple claimed to be the temple of God, showing himself to deceive people into accepting him AS God. God is our HOLY FATHER. This man, then, would claim the same title. This wicked man is to be DESTROYED at, and by, Christ's coming (verse 8). Notice verses 9-10:"even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with ALL POWER and SIGNS [miracles] and lying WONDERS, and with all DECEIVABLENESS of unrighteousness ...." Here is the head of a vast ecclesiastical empire, performing miracles and lying wonders, with which he DECEIVES people everywhere. For more,read the all of the article here.

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