You are correct. It must be interpreted correctly.
However, one of the possibilities — and the best one because of the 7 hills explanation — remains Rome.
I, however, don’t think that any actively proclaiming believers in Jesus Christ will be the Mystery Babylon religious system based in that city that has 7 hills.
It will be a mock-up of the Bride of Christ that will go along with the False Messiah and His False God and their False Herald. (Satan, Beast, False Prophet)
Is there any sense in which NYC rests on "seven hills"? I ask, because that quoted above sounds to me like something the UN would come up with.
However, one of the possibilities — and the best one because of the 7 hills explanation — remains Rome.
I, however, don’t think that any actively proclaiming believers in Jesus Christ will be the Mystery Babylon religious system based in that city that has 7 hills.
It will be a mock-up of the Bride of Christ that will go along with the False Messiah and His False God and their False Herald. (Satan, Beast, False Prophet)
Could be. Along these lines, though, I think it will be not necessarily "Christian" per se, but something that seems to bear the promises of Christianity - peace, eternal life, abundant blessing, and a benevolent supreme being.
Consider: the secular world is steeped in these pursuits -
1. peace (tolerance, relativism);
2. eternal life (health at any cost; embryonic research, cloning, genetic manipulation and screening);
3. abundant blessing (materialism, comfort, gluttony, sexual freedom);
4. a benevolent supreme being ("me").
The way I see it, Christianity in its entirety will be rejected. The Catholic Church - by far the biggest target -will, by its teachings, be seen as the enemy of eternal life, the enemy of abundant blessing, then enemy of the peace, the enemy of the supreme being. Christians will have to choose either the secular idea of salvation, or the Church's.
All of this dovetails into the number of the beast - "666".
1. "6" being the number of man (created on the 6th day)
2. "7" being the number of perfection - or "God".
3. "6" iterated three times at once emphasizes something of intensely human (thus, flawed) characteristic striving after "7" (God, perfection).
4. Therefore, the Mystery Babylon is that which mimics the qualities of the Gospel by all appearances, but is woefully, intensely short of perfection.
IMHO, secularism is that which is the Beast, that which is Mystery Babylon, and that which will crucify the Church. It is the all-powerful city on the seven hills...
Islam?
Seattle has 7 hills also, but all we rule is the coffee kingdom :>)