There are many beliefs and opinions as to what end-time Babylon comprises among those who study and examine end-time prophecy. They range from believing that Ancient Babylon will be rebuilt to that Babylon is a religious system to even that Babylon the Great is the United States of America. Some believe that Babylon represents a system, while others interpret it as being a literal city. Some of the views are somewhat odd, and others are Biblically sound (at least in their own right) and have points of validity. In light of current events and the various opinions surrounding what many believe end-time Babylon to be, it is important to examine key Scriptures that give us clues to its potential identity, and what we should be aware of as we examine the Last Days and what is to befall it.

We will discuss and examine three common aspects to the Babylon phenomenon, which many pre-millennial prophecy teachers will agree with, based on Scripture references from Revelation chs. 17 and 18:

1. Babylon as the end-time apostate religious system
2. Babylon as a literal city on Planet Earth
3. Babylon as the worldwide antimessiah/antichrist system

“And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua. When I saw her, I wondered greatly” (Revelation 17:3-6).

The most common view in evangelical Christian circles is that end-time Babylon is the apostate religious system of the antimessiah/antichrist. This certainly has merit, and is widely agreed upon by many Messianics as well. This interpretation is primarily based on Revelation 17:3-6 focused around the idea that this religious system is led by the Roman Catholic Church, and that “Babylon” is a symbolic representation of Rome. Rome being representative of “Babylon” is well-attested to in the Apostolic Scriptures (New Testament) and early Church writings. The Apostle Peter writes his first letter from Rome, stating, “She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son, Mark” (1 Peter 5:13). According to Christian tradition from the Second Century, the Apostle Peter traveled to the city of Rome with Mark, and it is from Peter’s account of Yeshua’s life to Mark, that Mark wrote his Gospel. This is substantiated by the Fourth Century historian Eusebius’ remarks in his book Ecclesiastical History:

“This account is given by Clement in the sixth book of his Institutions, whose testimony is corroborated also by that of Papias, bishop of Hierapolis. But Peter made mention of Mark in the first epistle, which he is also said to have composed at the same city of Rome, and that he showed this fact, by calling the city by an unusual figure of speech, Babylon…” (2.15.2).[1]

Historically, Christian exegesis of Revelation has usually equated any reference to “Babylon” as being associated with the city of Rome. The New Interpreter’s Study Bible Bible, noting on 1 Peter 5:13, indicates that “Babylon, a reference to Rome, identifies the letter’s probable city of origin and alludes to the letter’s exile motif.”[2] Ancient Rome was a symbol of great opulence, wealth, and corruption for the early Believers, and Peter’s usage of “Babylon” is likely a veiled reference to Rome to protect the Believers from the forthcoming persecution they would be facing. Understanding Rome’s position as one of decadence, but also one of spiritual evil, is important, because for a Jew of the First Century the only other thing that he knew to compare Rome to would have been Ancient Babylon.

The Prophet Jeremiah said to Ancient Babylon, “Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are going mad” (Jeremiah 51:7). John the Apostle writes in Revelation 17:6, telling us that he “saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Yeshua.” Here, Babylon is identified as “the woman,” which likely distinguishes it from Ancient Babylon in modern day Iraq, even though there remain parallels. Consequently, evangelical Protestants building on the belief that Babylon is Rome, associate it with being the Roman Catholic Church and the apostate religious system that it represents.

For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church, as a state church, has persecuted and killed true Believers for their faith. This occurred during the Reformation, the Inquisition, Holocaust, or otherwise. It is true that not all members of Roman Catholic clergy were responsible for heinous acts of aggression, because some have tried to be pious servants of God, but many Catholic cardinals, bishops, and priests have been responsible for terrible deeds against the saints. These deeds have had to be acknowledged in recent times as the Catholic Church has become more ecumenical, and has sought some limited reconciliation with Jews and Protestants.

Theologically speaking, Roman Catholicism is full of complete mystery. A great number of Catholicism’s practices and traditions, while claiming to be from the Bible, in actuality originate in pagan sun worship from Ancient Babylon via Rome. When the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal with the Edict of Milan in 313 C.E., Fourth Century Christian practice had to merge with religious practices in the Roman Empire, making the religion palatable to pagans. Some of this was already taking place in the Christian Church as early as the Third Century, as clergy sought to merge Biblical ideas with pagan practice, giving “Christian” meanings to pagan traditions, in an effort to convert the heathen. Tertullian, a mid-Third Century Christian leader, wrote:

“By us, to whom Sabbaths are strange, and the new moons and festivals formerly beloved by God, the Saturnalia and New-year’s and Midwinter’s festivals and Matronalia are frequented—presents come and go—New-year's gifts—games join their noise—banquets join their din! Oh better fidelity of the nations to their own sect, which claims no solemnity of the Christians for itself! Not the Lord’s day, not Pentecost, even it they had known them, would they have shared with us; for they would fear lest they should seem to be Christians. We are not apprehensive lest we seem to be heathens! If any indulgence is to be granted to the flesh, you have it” (On Idolatry 14).[3]

Some of the clergy, being ignorant of the Torah, did not know of the prohibition of not learning the ways of the nations (Deuteronomy 18:9), and no doubt participated in such things in ignorance. However, as the Protestant Reformation took hold in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, many had to recognize (1) the opulence of Catholicism, and how it could in no way be the original, simple faith as laid out by the Apostles, and (2) how many extra-, if not non-Biblical, traditions, practices, and theologies had swept into the Church and needed to be purged. Having limited information at their disposal, the Reformers eliminated as much Catholic opulence as could directly see opposed by the Scriptures. Of course, being humans they still made errors, but they did attempt to get Believers to return to the primacy of the Bible and we as Messianics are in their debt.