The Harlot of Babylon - Revelation

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Greetings. Recently, I have had several doubts on the Harlot of Babylon that is mentioned in the book of Revelations, chapter 17. We all know our protestant brothers and sisters will tell us that the Roman Church is the Harlot. So far, the answer for this is that revelations is talking about a city, not a church or a religion. They also point out that the Vatican City is in Rome. To their surprise, it is at the other side of the Tiber river, meaning that it is not on the 7 hills upon which Rome was originally built upon. So that leaves me with two options: Imperial Rome and Jerusalem. We read in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezequiel that Israel, more specifically Jerusalem, acted as a harlot with the nations. In the N.T., Jesus said that Jerusalem will be judged. But, in the first letter of St. Peter, he writes from ‘‘Babylon’’, which the Church tells us was Rome. We also see in revelations the following: ‘’ 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city— figuratively called Sodom and Egypt— where their Lord was also crucified.’’, which seems to be pointing towards Jerusalem. When comparing the text of revelations, it can be applied to Jerusalem and to Rome. The problem is when we say it is Rome, protestants say: ‘‘See! It’s the Roman Church of the Antichrist!’’. But, if we say Jerusalem, then why do we still call it the Holy Land? Please, I really need to know. Any suggestions.
 
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I think it may refer to Pagan Rome and Jerusalem’s alliance with the Romans. Could be wrong.
 
@JoshuaHamm2004194

It’s not necessarily either/or. Both pagan Rome and Jerusalem fit the description pretty well for different reasons.

As far as the protestant argument: most protestants don’t say that the Whore of Babylon is the Catholic Church, but for those minority groups that do, it’s just one of those really bad arguments that gets repeated over and over:


Peace.
 
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And maybe the seven hills refers to the seven continents also.
St. Augustine speaks of 2 “cities” - the City of God (holy,good) and the Earthly City (evil,wicked). Both have been present, confronting each other, in various places and times throughout the ages.
 
Did you recently post a similar thread, what answers were given in that.
Posting 2 threads on the same issue, please speak to your priest, you could be scrupulous.
 
She originates from a real woman.

Mother of harlots.

All the blood ever shed on earth is on her hands.

Those two clues narrow it down to one woman.
 
In the preterist interpretation of the book of Revelation, the harlot is Jerusalem, drunk with the blood of both prophets and saints.
 
The harlot was definitely Jerusalem. It is called as much, several times throughout the OT. This is in large part due to their idolatry and relying on pagan nations and not on God.

It all comes to fulfillment when the Jewish hierarchy, who misleading the Jewish faithful, conspire to kill their own Lord and Savior. Which results in the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Effectively ending the Old Covenant.

The Holy land, as it stands today, is just a name in reference to the geographical location of where the bulk of our Salvation history took place. The Israel of today has nothing to do with any unfulfilled prophecies in Scripture.
 
JoshuaHamm2004194 said:
Greetings. Recently, I have had several doubts on the Harlot of Babylon that is mentioned in the book of Revelations, chapter 17.
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Just to say its not the Book of Revelations its the Book of Revelation ( singular ).
Chapter 1, Verse 1 states
" The revelation of Jesus Christ which God gave him, to make known to his servants the things that must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signiffied them through his angel to his servant John; who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ to whatever he saw.
The Book of Revelation ( the Apocalypse ) is primarily about Jesus.
 
The whole format of Revelation is to show who is on Christ’s side, and who is on the Devil’s side. The problem in every age is that the wheat and the tares grow together, and are impossible to distinguish until they do good or evil things and persevere in them.

But the even bigger problem is that individual Christians have the capacity to do both good and evil, and must choose with the Lord’s help.

So there’s Jerusalem. On the one hand, she’s Daughter Zion, home of the original Temple and the original Ark of the Covenant. She is like a mother to the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and Jesus loves her like a hen loves her chicks. She is a type for the Virgin Mary, and for the Church which is a continuation of the Qahal of all the Children of Israel.

OTOH, even though the Church Herself is spotless, it’s pretty clear that the Church’s members on earth are sometimes shady. Sometimes we’re Mary and sometimes we’re Jezebel. All the seven churches have to watch their step, so it’s not surprising that Jerusalem is both a holy city that foreshadows His Bride, and a harlot when she works closely with Imperial Rome (“riding the beast” whose heads are kings) and does not fight pagan ideas and Herod’s bad version of Judaism, or support God’s prophets. Herod’s Temple was truly beautiful, but it was also bad enough to be torn stone from stone.

So that’s what we’re dealing with. Judaism and the Jews were not the harlot, and heck, even plenty of residents of Jerusalem weren’t the harlot. Certain specific people who historically were running the Temple into the ground were the Harlot, and very likely the finger is being pointed directly at the Sadducees who were high priests, and who worked closely with the Herods and the Roman procurators. These same sort of people were quite willing to persecute Christians and faithful Jews, and even a lot of the Pharisees got along with them enough to persecute Jewish prophets and various Christians throughout the Roman world. Jesus was the way to escape the bad tendencies that had crept into God’s people; and the Church was the way that Gentiles could get included in the qahal and the Covenant instead of being left out.

But because it wasn’t everybody, Christians stayed physically in Jerusalem as long as they could, even being financially supported by other churches in the Roman world (as Paul raised money for them) until they saw the signs predicted by Our Lord (at which point they fled to Pella and survived all the Roman destruction). There was going to be a time when they would have to “come out of her,” but until then, Christians tried to save all the little chickens, and to convince Jerusalem to repent.
 
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But in every age, we face the same kinds of problems that the earliest Christians did. Until the end of the world and the Judgment, we are always going to face temptations to ride the Beasts, to listen to the False Prophets, to worship the Antichrists, to take instruction from the Jezebels. The paired figures of good and evil in Revelation are supposed to help us remember that.

Jesus and the Church are always calling us and we can always answer and persevere. And that’s what we should worry about most. Babylons and Beasts are a given; but we need to focus on being the ones who overcome the world, and persist until the end.
 
In Revelation 20-21 we see the new Jerusalem descend from heaven as a virgin bride after the harlot city is destroyed. Notice the contrast one a whore, the other a virgin bride. One Jerusalem replaces the other.
Also - Jerusalem is " allegorically called Sodom and Egypt " says John. What is it that these places held in common ? They were centers of opposition to the plan of God. Sodom stood in the way of God’s covenant plan with Abraham. Egypt stood in the way o f His covenant plan for Moses and Israel. Now its Jerusalem’s turn to oppose God as its leaders persecute the Apostles and the Church. Thus Jerusalem, like Sodom and Egypt had to fall ( from the Lamb’s Supper
The Mass as Heaven on Earth } by Scott Hahn
 
This passage throws some people off.

“the great harlot who is seated upon many waters …”

It is a metaphor.
It is a reference to Jerusalem.
But to see that, we need to understand how Jerusalem understood herself.

See.
The Whore of Bablon in Revelation
 
JoshuaHamm2004194 said:
Greetings. Recently, I have had several doubts on the Harlot of Babylon that is mentioned in the book of Revelations, chapter 17. We all know our protestant brothers and sisters will tell us that the Roman Church is the Harlot. So far, the answer for this is that revelations is talking about a city, not a church or a religion. They also point out that the Vatican City is in Rome. To their surprise, it is at the other side of the Tiber river, meaning that it is not on the 7 hills upon which Rome was originally built upon. So that leaves me with two options: Imperial Rome and Jerusalem. We read in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezequiel that Israel, more specifically Jerusalem, acted as a harlot with the nations. In the N.T., Jesus said that Jerusalem will be judged. But, in the first letter of St. Peter, he writes from ‘‘Babylon’’, which the Church tells us was Rome. We also see in revelations the following: ‘’ 8 Their bodies will lie in the street of the great city— figuratively called Sodom and Egypt— where their Lord was also crucified.’’, which seems to be pointing towards Jerusalem. When comparing the text of revelations, it can be applied to Jerusalem and to Rome. The problem is when we say it is Rome, protestants say: ‘‘See! It’s the Roman Church of the Antichrist!’’. But, if we say Jerusalem, then why do we still call it the Holy Land? Please, I really need to know. Any suggestions.
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