Mystery Babylon

Recently at Bible Study I pointed out the similarity of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and the destruction of Babylon in Revelation Chapter 18. I meant this only as a similarity and not as Biblical prophecy or fact. Perhaps the WTC attacks were a foreshadowing that God provides us with on occasion. Quite frankly I do not know.

Three important facts are below.
1) You can connect the Scriptural dots and come clearly and directly to Babylon in Iraq, not New York City.
2) There’s not a shred of Biblical evidence to support the New York City view vice Babylon.
3) there’s no compelling reason to spiritualize the Biblical passages on Babylon.

The late Dr. David L. Cooper advised, “Where the plain sense of Scripture makes common sense, seek no other sense; therefore take every word at its primary, ordinary, usual, literal meaning unless the facts of the immediate text clearly indicate otherwise.” It’s come to be known as the Golden Rule of interpretation. We’ll apply it to see what the Bible says about Mystery Babylon.

The first place to look is the only place it’s mentioned, Revelation 17. There the words “Mystery Babylon the Great” appear, written on the forehead of a symbolic woman seated atop a symbolic beast with seven heads and ten horns in a vision John was given. We know they’re symbolic because in the passage the angel describing them says so, and tells us what they symbolize. This fits with Dr. Cooper’s rule.

The angel explained to John that the beast symbolized Satan, who would become the object of worship in the world and manifest himself in one we call the antichrist. The seven heads were seven hills and also seven kingdoms. Five of these had fallen when John was writing (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, and Greece) one was currently in power (Rome) and one was still to come (hold that thought). The ten horns were ten kings who didn’t yet have a kingdom but would each receive one for the purpose of serving the antichrist and making war against the Lord. And finally, the woman was the city, Rome, that in John’s time was ruling over the world.

So far we have three references to Rome.
1. It sits on seven hills
2. It was the kingdom currently in power
3. It was the city from which the world was ruled.

Most scholars accept the fact that in John’s time, when the Revelation was written, the vision of the woman on the beast represented Rome, and that’s why she was called Mystery Babylon.

(In the Greek language, the word we translate mystery literally means a revealed secret. The pagan religious system first practiced in Babylon had been transplanted to Pergamus/Pergamum in Biblical times (see Rev. 2:12-17) but in the 4th century AD would be merged with Christianity in Rome.
That’s the secret John was revealing.)

Now consider what God via John wrote about Pergamum To the Church in Pergamum (Rev. 2:12-17)

“To the angel of the church in Pergamum write: Pergamum means mixed marriage and represents the merger of pagan and Christian practices in the 4th century when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

(Title) These are the words of him who has the sharp, double-edged sword. In Hebrews 4:12 the double-edged sword is used to describe God’s Word, the source of Truth.

(Commendation) I know where you live—where Satan has his throne. Yet you remain true to my name. You did not renounce your faith in me, even in the days of Antipas, my faithful witness, who was put to death in your city—where Satan lives. With the establishment of Baghdad as the major distribution center between the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea following Alexander’s death, Babylon had gone into decline so the original mother/child cult religion (mystery religion or mystery Babylon) moved its headquarters from there to Pergamum. (It eventually settled in Rome.) The reference to Satan’s home there shows the true source of this false religion.

(Criticism 1) Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. (Criticism 2) Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. These pagan practices crept into the church at Pergamum, just as they had in Ephesus.

(Call) Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. The truth of the Gospel has always been the best defense against the cults.

(Challenge) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.There are still plenty of idols in the church. Maybe you parked yours in the parking lot, or shaved its face this morning, or keep it in a bank downtown.

(Promise) To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. Just as the black ball was a vote against someone, a white stone was a sign of trust. When an important businessman had to complete a transaction in a distant city, he didn’t travel there. It was too dangerous. Instead he sent a trusted servant empowered to act on his behalf. The servant carried a coin like form of identification made of baked white clay. The seal of the businessman being represented was pressed into the clay as was a secret name, known only to the other party in the transaction. By the presentation of the white stone, the servant authenticated himself as being entitled to all the rights and privileges of his master. In this way, our Lord Jesus will identify us as being entitled to all the rights and privileges due Him, when we enter into the Presence of our Father in Heaven.

Yeshua instructed the Disciples to go into all the world (Matt 28:19-20), but in Pergamus the world came into the church. In the 4th century the Edict of Milan made Christianity legal and ultimately the official religion of the Empire. When that happened, pagan festivals became Christian holidays. The Feasts of Saturnalia and Ishtar became Christmas and Easter. This explains why such pagan symbols as the Yule log and evergreen tree, which symbolized the sun dying and being born again at the winter solstice, are associated with Christmas, while fertility symbols like rabbits and eggs are connected with Easter. Ishtar was the Babylonian goddess of fertility.

The impressive ruins on a hill 1000 feet above the surrounding valleys near modern Bergama are markedly pagan with remains of great temples to Roman gods and emperors but only faint traces of the church that was there.

The parable of the Mustard Seed tells of a small seed that grows into something it was never intended to be and is a prophecy of what can happen when the world and the church are mingled. And Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, the worldly church, is an obvious parallel.

Children Of A Mixed Marriage
It’s my belief that the churches in Ephesus, Smyrna, and Pergamus have all disappeared, symbolically and in reality. But the marriage of pagan and Christian beliefs in Pergamus produced 4 offspring that all survive to this day

Remember it was Nimrod who directed the building of the Tower of Babel. The Tower was to be the pinnacle of human reason or humanism. It was Nimrod's expression of faith in man rather than in God. God was so angered by this expression of human revolt that he divided mankind by inflicting a variety of languages on the people present at Babel. These languages both confused and bewildered the builders of the Tower.

Nimrod comes from the Hebrew verb marad, meaning “rebel.” Adding an “n” before the “m” it becomes an infinitive construct, “Nimrod.” (see Kautzsch 1910: 137 2b, also BDB 1962: 597). The meaning then is “The Rebel.”

“Nimrod” in a generc sense is also a derisive term of a type, a representative, of a system that is epitomized in rebellion against the Creator, the one true God. Rebellion began soon after the Flood as civilizations were restored.

Through out much of church history Mystery Babylon has been a euphemism for Rome.

The chart (a brief, incomplete history) below is the historical progression of Mystery Babylon pagan religions from Nimrod the god of fortresses, the zodiac and his wife Semiramus down to presnt day One Word Govt., The Environmental Movement, global warming and Islam.

NOAH begat HAM
HAM begat CUSH
CUSH begat NIMROD means Rebel; 6 = the number of man; Nimrod corrupted the true Jewish Mazzaroth (based upon the Bible) and created the false man based zodiac
From NIMROD came the god of fortresses, the centaur, NINUS & the false Jewish sect Kaballah
SEMIRAMUS was Nimrod's wfe; she became a Babylonian goddess; the following pagan religions
flowed down from her:
CYBEL - The Cave Dweller
SIBYLS - The great goddess of Asia Minor including Turkey, Thrace, Phrygia and Greece
SIBURI - Divine Barmaid, she held the keys to descend into the underworld
HOLY TAVERN HARLOT
SIBELU - Celestial Virgin, sexually promiscuous
SIBYL - Holy Taverns
CYBELE - worship centered in Phrygia in Western Turkey
CYBELE became TITAN which became the earth goddess RHEA
MEDEA, the first wife of JASON was a SIBYLLAE
CIRCE - falcon goddess
DIONYSUS - wine cult
BACCHUS - goat like man
The SIBYLS of Thrace became Sabazius which became Zeus
INANNA - Sumerian goddess
HATHOR - Harlot, Egyptian goddess
ISHTAR - Easter
LILLITH (Sumer)
ASHTORETH
ASTARTE (Canaan) Easter
EGYPT OSIRIS (son) ISIS (mother) animal heads with human bodies
ROME (Cult of the Virgin & Child) JUPITER; DIANA - Temple at Ephesus
MOLOCK head of bull hands of a man
INDIA ISI ISWARA
ASIA CYBELE DEOUS
Japan - DAIJO-SAI Great Thanksgiving Festival & Sun Goddess of Japan AMATERASU OMIKAMI
Roman Empire CULT OF THE VIRGIN & CHILD
VATICAN VIRGIN MARY & BABY JESUS
ISLAM = PAGAN GODDESS EARTH = COLOR GREEN FLAGS = MOTHER EARTH & MOON GODDESS
ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT MOTHER EARTH COLOR GREEN
ONE WORLD GOVT. FORTRESS EARTH (Back to Nimrod) Security for everyone

As you can see the ancient pagan mystery religion started by Nimrod in Babylon flows down to us today and will reach its culmination in the Great Trib when pagans will exchange gifts when the two witnesses are murdered and the antichrist desolates the Jewish temple by claiming he is God.

God Bless

Alan