The Rise of Babylon

On her forehead a cryptic name was written: BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE VILE THINGS OF THE EARTH Then I saw that the woman was drunk on the blood of the saints and on the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was utterly astounded. - Revelation 17:5-6 HCSB

All my life I have heard multiple theories as to the nature of the “Whore of Babylon.” I have been told by good men that she is the Catholic Church and by other equally good men that she is New York City, Islam, the United Nations and the European Union.

I don’t know who she is. All I know is that she will be a wealthy city with a reputation for wickedness. She will rise and hold great influence over the population of the earth. She will be multinational in her reach and multicultural in her nature. She will be so powerful that she will hold sway over the kings of the earth and when she eventually dies, they will all mourn her passing.[1]

She will rule over an alliance of seven kings, each ruling a different “hill” or geo-political area as well as a group of ten other powers.[2] These ten powers are described as “landless kings” who receive their land as bribes from the Antichrist.[3]

Babylon will be the economic center of the world[4] and will build her empire primarily upon a merchant navy.[5] She will be a merchant city, drunk on the wine of sexual immorality that so often comes with success and power. Merchants will come from all over the planet in ships to trade and those who succeed will grow wealthy off of her excessive luxury.[6] In her markets, they will buy everything from precious metals and stones, to expensive woods, textiles, spices, cattle, and human slaves.

Her wealth will only be matched by her corruption. Her citizens will so debase themselves that their debauchery will be described as a form of drunkenness. She will be the “mother of prostitutes and vile things of the earth” and her sins will pile up to the heavens, [7] a phrase only used once before – for Sodom and Gomorrah. In fact, one of her greatest pleasures will be to persecute the saints to the point of death.[8]

In view of her tremendous power, wealth and influence, it will be easy for the saints of those days to feel as though there is no escaping her reach. It will be tremendously important for them to remember that her destruction will be sudden.[9] Apparently, she will be afflicted by plagues. Pestilence will begin her demise. Violent fires, the description of which resembles a nuclear strike, will end it. Her supposed friends will likely use her affliction as an excuse to destroy her and assume her place. [10]


[1] Revelation 17:1, 15, 18; 18:10, 16, 18-19
[2] Revelation 17:3-5, 18
[3] Revelation 17:12-13
[4] Revelation 17:18; 18:11, 19
[5] Revelation 18:17-19
[6] Revelation 18:3, 19
[7] Revelation 17:2, 4-5; 18:3-5, 9-19
[8] Revelation 17:6; 18:24
[9] Revelation 18:8, 10, 17-19
[10] Revelation 17:16; 18:8-10, 17, 21