Rome and Babylon...
james.wa...@elf.mcgill.ca
I was thinking about this a while back... I haven't finished thinking
on it but I thought I'd send it out anyway.
1) we know in Revelation that Babylon is associated with the city of
Rome: the great harlot (vs. 1) of ch. 17 called "Babylon the Great"
(vs. 5) is
a) "the great city that rules over the kings of the earth" (vs. 18) and
b) she/the great city sits on seven hills (vs. 9).
The great city that ruled during John's time was Rome and Rome was
referred to at the time as "the city of seven hills".
2) we know that Satan is behind both Rome and Babylon:
a) in Isaiah 13:1 Isaiah starts to give a prophecy about the fall of
Babylon (and thus a fall of it's king) but by 14:12 this turns into a
discussion of the fall of Satan, changing back to Babylon sometime
before 14:23. Ezekiel does the same thing in Ezekiel 28:1-19 but, in
his case he talks of the fall of the king of Tyre (and thus Tyre
itself) which turns to discussion of the fall of Satan in vs. 12. Both
of these seem to indicate that the true king behind Babylon is Satan.
b) in Revelation 12:3 we are introduced to a dragon with seven heads.
We are told in 12:9 that this is Satan but the actions of the Dragon in
12:4,5 indicate that the Dragon is also Rome. In 13:2 the Dragon gives
his power to the sea beast and the land beast in 13:11 starts to speak
like a dragon. This leads one to believe that Satan is behind all three
of these beasts: the dragon or Pagan Rome or Paganism/Atheism, the sea
beast or Papal Rome or Roman Catholicism, and the land beast or USA or
Apostate Protestantism. (Babylon prior to 1798 consists of just the
land beast but at the end of time will consist of these three powers:
dragon, sea beast and land beast. see Revelation 8:6-9:21;16:1-21 esp.
vs. 13,19)
3) both Babylon and Rome has similar interactions with the Jews and Jerusalem.
a) the Jews and Babylon
i) Judah becomes vassal of Babylon (605 BC)
(2 Kings 24:1)
ii) the Jews rebel (601 BC)
(2 Kings 24:1)
iii) rebellion ended (597 BC)
(2 Kings 24:10-12
(2 Kings 24:12-17)
iv) the Jews rebel (588 BC)
(2 Kings 24:20)
v) rebellion ended (586 BC)
(2 Kings 25:1-4)
- temple destroyed
- Jerusalem emptied of Jews
(remaining Jews taken into captivity)
(2 Kings 24:4-21)
b) the Jews and Rome
i) Judaea subdued (the Romans help one faction to end a civil war)
and becomes a client kingdom (63 BC)
ii) the jews rebel (66 AD)
iii) rebellion ended (70 AD)
- the temple destroyed
iv) the jews rebel (132 AD)
v) rebellion ended (135 AD)
- Jerusalem emptied of Jews
(Jews forbidden entrance to Jerusalem)
4) both Babylon and Spiritual Babylon drink from God's cup(s)
a) Belshazzar and his nobles and wives drink wine from cups from
God's temple (Daniel 5:2-4)
b) "God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with
the wine of the fury of his wrath." (Revelation 16:19)
I'll finish the rest later...
In Christ,
James