“John was saying that the “Great City” (Jerusalem – the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified – Rev 11:8) had become Babylon. And he develops this theme in Revelation 18.”
Good! Most people miss (or willfully deny) the obvious connection between “Babylon the Great” in Revelation and Jerusalem. When Jerusalem is faithful, she is portrayed one way, but when she is unfaithful, then she is given a very different description by God.
“Sadly, by 70 AD, having been given 40 years to repent, Jerusalem was sacked, burned, and utterly destroyed just as this prophecy had warned.”
And, disappointingly, he goes off the rails in the very next sentence. It’s simply impossible for this prophecy to have been fulfilled in 70 A.D., because the fate that befalls Babylon in Revelation is tied intimately to the return of Christ, which has not happened yet. It’s sad to see Catholics falling into preterism, I didn’t think they went in for that silliness.
I’ve always been taught that Babylon in Revelation was John’s code word for Rome.
Msgr. Pope's not saying the WHOLE prophecy or that ALL prophecies were fulfilled in 70 AD. That would indeed be silly. He IS saying that at least one part of the dread prophecy was fulfilled: Jerusalem was smashed, the Temple destroyed, and not one stone was left upon another.
That’s not preterism, and preterism is not Catholic doctrine.
“John was saying that the “Great City” (Jerusalem – the great city which is allegorically called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified – Rev 11:8) had become Babylon. And he develops this theme in Revelation 18.”
Jerusalem was not a power of any kind for almost two thousand years
Rev 17 describes the great whore as one which sits upon many waters
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rome is the only power over all that could fit the description because it has and have had power over the entire world, over many waters which are nations.