The Spiritual Significance of Biblical Locations – Part 4

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The Spiritual Significance of Biblical Locations

Part 4 – Babylon; Religion In Rebellion To Christ

Gen 11:1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.
Gen 11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
Gen 11:3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men [Hebrew, Adam] builded.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.
Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Gen 11:9 Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

Introduction

The Tower of Babel was in the “plain of the land of Shinar”. That is a phrase which appears several times in scripture referring to Babel and to spiritual Babylon. The people of Babel used “bricks for stone, and slime… for morter”. Stones are made by God, while bricks are the product of the efforts of men who put clay through furnaces of their own construction. Slime is what the scriptures refer to as “untempered morter”. It represents the false doctrines which bind together all the man-made bricks, representing all the good works of men, who credit themselves with those good works, in rebellion against the knowledge that we live and move and have our very being in God, and that we can do nothing of ourselves. We cannot even sin, except the Lord has “made [us] for [our] day of evil… [and] made us to err from [His] ways, and hardened our hearts from [His] fear”.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

“The Lord has made all things for Himself, yes even the wicked for the day of evil” tells us that even Babylon is an integral part of the “all things [He is working] after the counsel of His own will”:

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Ezekiel tells us what spirit Babel has forever typified:

Eze 13:9 And mine hand shall be upon the prophets that see vanity, and that divine lies: they shall not be in the assembly of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and ye shall know that I am the Lord GOD.
Eze 13:10 Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall [or tower], and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter [with ‘slime’]:
Eze 13:11 Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it.
Eze 13:12 Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?
Eze 13:13 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it.
Eze 13:14 So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof [Lies like the doctrines of the trinity and of eternal torment, and spiritual flesh, and turning grace into lasciviousness, and killing your enemies, etc. etc.] shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye [Babylon within us all] shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am the LORD.
Eze 13:15 Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it;
Eze 13:16 To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning [physical] Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord GOD.

These words describe our own minds when we think we are serving God while living under the “strong delusion” He has placed over us. At this stage of our spiritual development we actually “think we are doing God’s service” when the Truth is that it simply is not yet given to us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Mat 13:9-15 and 1Co 3:1-4). That is the beginning of the sons of Adam (Gen 11:5), who we all are at the beginning of our walk.

It is not always understood that Abraham was not the first man with whom God had made a “covenant with you and with your seed after you”. Here is the covenant with Abraham that most ministers emphasize as they lie in telling us we must support the seed of Abraham who are “counted for the seed” through Isaac:

Gen 17:7 And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
Gen 17:8 And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Gen 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.

The fact is that all of mankind who have descended from Adam through Noah are in covenant with God because of this covenant God first established with Noah and his seed after him before and after the flood:

Gen 9:8 And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
Gen 9:9 And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;

Yes, it is true. The covenant with Noah after the flood was simply God’s promise to never again destroy the earth with water, as He had just done. The rainbow was the sign of this covenant still existing between God and Noah and Noah’s seed after him. Nevertheless we are told that the flood of Noah typifies baptism into death to the flesh:

1Pe 3:20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
1Pe 3:21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh [as was done in the flood of Noah], but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

God’s covenant with Noah and His children was actually made before the flood, and included their salvation from death in the flood:

Gen 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.
Gen 6:18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

It was the descendants of Noah’s children who had forgotten the lesson of the flood and were now attempting to “build a city and a tower whose top [will] reach unto heaven”, in direct rebellion against the commandment of God to ‘multiply and replenish the earth’:

Gen 9:1 And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Gen 9:7 And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.

We are all first the “sons of Adam” who have gone out from Babel thinking we have left Babel behind, when in reality we are doing nothing less that spreading Babel out over the whole earth as “carnal babes in Christ” with minds that are still “enmity against God”.

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The type and shadow of spiritually carnal-minded ‘Babylon’ all began in the “plain in the land of Shinar” in what is modern day Iraq. The people who remained in Babel came to be known as the Assyrians and then later as the Babylonians. The Assyrian Empire, whose capitol was Nineveh, were the people who the Lord used to carry away into captivity the ten northern tribes of Israel about 720 B.C. The northern kingdom of Israel had begun in the apostasy of “Jereboam the son of Nebat” in about 930 B.C. So that kingdom lasted only about 210 years after it split off from the southern kingdom which became known as ‘the kingdom of Judah’. This northern kingdom was also called the kingdom of Samaria to distinguish it from the southern kingdom of Judah, which was spared captivity by the Assyrians. But almost 145 years later, in about 585 B.C., the southern kingdom of Judah was also carried away captive to the city of Babylon which during that time had conquered the Assyrian Empire.

Biblical scholars all realize that that Assyrians and the Babylonians are both the same peoples who were simply dominated first by the city state of Nineveh and then later by the city-state of Babylon. Both are recognized by Biblical scholars as the same peoples by whom God corrected His apostate people of Israel:

Isa 10:5 O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
Isa 10:6 I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

The Assyrian kings used Babylon as one of their chief cities:

2Ch 33:11 Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon.

It is not all that well known, but God had prophesied, both by the prophet Jeremiah and the prophet Hosea, that His people Israel would be taken captive into Assyria and Babylon. It is even less recognized that this captivity was by God’s own design as an integral type of how God had, from the beginning, intended to deal with His people in every generation. It all “happened unto them and it was written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come”:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [Greek: tupos, ‘types’ of us]: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

No one who comes to Christ comes to Him untainted with the spirit of Babylon which must, in time, be burned out of us all.

Jeremiah went so far as to tell the people of Judah that they should submit to the conquering Babylonians and seek the peace of that city:

Jer 38:2 Thus saith the LORD, He that remaineth in this city shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth forth to the Chaldeans shall live; for he shall have his life for a prey, and shall live.
Jer 38:3 Thus saith the LORD, This city shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which shall take it.

Just like the people of Jerusalem, we are not at first aware that we are living in rebellion to God and that we are subject to His wrath, nevertheless that is the circumstance of all who are born in Adam:

Joh 3:36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The same is true of us when we are the multitudes who come to Christ to eat of His loaves and His fishes and to hear His parables.

Mat 13:9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [the multitudes who come to Christ] it is not given [to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven].
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

But when we do become aware of our apostatized condition and we are led to “come out of [Babylon]”, we still must learn that we are not to seek revenge against those who have taught us lies for so long. In time we are to seek to live in peace with Babylon and her people:

Jer 29:7 And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.

Lest the words “pray unto the Lord for it” be misunderstood, this verse ends with the words, “for in the peace thereof you shall have peace”. It is clear that Christ is not commanding us to pray for the conversion of Babylon in this age when He Himself did not do so:

Joh 17:9 I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.

The sum of God’s word demonstrates that “it is not given to [the multitudes of Christians] to understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and that our prayers for the “kings and all that are in authority” is simply so “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” while our heavenly Father is keeping us from the evil all around us:

Joh 17:15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

1Ti 2:1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2 For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Babylon rules over all the kings of this world, because Babylon is all religion which is in rebellion against the commandments of our Lord. Rebellion against the commandments of God is what the first Adam is born into as the story of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden so graphically demonstrates.

Gen 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat [All in direct rebellion against the commandment of God].

But Adam and Eve were doing only what they were made to do as marred creatures in the hand of the Almighty Potter who is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11):

Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked [“first man Adam”] for the day of evil.

What this demonstrates is that even though we are commanded to “come out of her my people”, Babylon is as much a part of our walk as is “the first man Adam”:

2Co 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.

But Christ and the prophets all made it clear that while we are commanded to spiritually and doctrinally “come out of her”, we are still to do all in the power He gives to us to live at peace within her sinful world. That is what “pray unto the Lord for it [Babylon]” means. We are to seek with all that lies within us to live at peace with all men (1Ti 2:1-2).

Christ, as our example, prayed for Peter, but He did not pray for Judas, simply because He knew what was predestined for the rebellious “first man Adam” in all of us.

Luk 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
Luk 22:32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

On the other hand, this is how Christ handles those of Babylon who are not granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God in this age (Mat 13:9-13):

Joh 13:27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

God has turned Babylon, and all those who must first be destroyed, over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh for the express purpose of saving the spirit in the day of the Lord:

1Co 5:1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
1Co 5:2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
1Co 5:3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
1Co 5:4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
1Co 5:5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.

There is a reason why this Corinthian fornicator was a man with his father’s wife instead of a woman with her mother’s husband. Lest we become puffed up thinking we are not the person in consideration in these first five verses of 1Co 5, let us remember that it is we who are “chief of sinners” (1Ti 1:15), and it is we who are first “made… wicked for [our own] day of evil” (Pro 16:4), and that 666 is the number of all mankind (Rev 13:18), and that it is we who must ‘live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God’ (Mat 4:4), and that it is we who must also “keep the things written therein, for the time is at hand [to do so] (Rev 1:3). It is the spirit of Babylon which places all these things on someone else, and it is the spirit of those who “come out of her” who acknowledge their part in every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

It is we who are all first in Babylon before any of us “come out of her…” (Rev 18:4). As such we have all taken our father’s wife, and we are all puffed up for having done so before we are brought to repentance and before we “come out of her”, out of our father’s unfaithful wife.

So we are told in advance that God determined “after the counsel of His own will” that we will not go back to living in the less religious world, but we will be carried away captive with the more insidious lies of Assyria and Babylon, and it will be in Babylon that we will crucify our own Lord thinking we are doing God a service.

Hos 11:5 He [God’s own people, Israel] shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.
Hos 11:6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
Hos 11:7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

“Because of their own counsels” is the occasion the Lord gives Himself for taking away our ability to try the spirits and to discern the voice of a stranger. No one in Babylon is sitting in the pews of the churches of this world thinking, “Wow! I am being deceived by the great whore of Revelation 17-18!” When we become that perceptive, we repent of believing in her lies, and we “come out of her”, but until that time we are of this mind:

Joh 16:2 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

Peter thought he was doing Christ a service when he totally forgot that Christ had taught him to love his enemies, and he pulled out his sword to fight for Christ. Christ had to remind Peter “all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword”:

Mat 26:52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.

The scriptures reveal that, in spiritual language, Christ was crucified in Babylon:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

When we go back to find which city is in question, and when we go to the scriptures which give this verse its power and force, this is the city which we find to be “spiritually called Sodom”:

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Who does Isaiah reveal Jerusalem to be spiritually?:

Isa 1:4 Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

“Jerusalem… [has] forsaken the Lord”, and what does that make Jerusalem?

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Isa 3:1 For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

Those who claim to be God’s people are called “ye rulers of Sodom”, and we are informed that they have spiritually “become an harlot” because “they have forsaken the Lord” to this extent:

Isa 3:9 The shew of their countenance doth witness against them; and they declare their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Woe unto their soul! for they have rewarded evil unto themselves.

So those who claim to be God’s chosen physical people, are labeled as spiritual Sodom and are called a harlot who has absolutely no spiritual bread or spiritual water with which to sustain herself. But if we think that Babylon is physical Jerusalem, then we are comparing spiritual things with physical things, and we are missing the spiritual message of who Babylon is, just as we miss the spiritual meaning of who Jerusalem if we think physical Jerusalem is the subject of these verses:

Gal 4:21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
Gal 4:22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren [Gentile Galatians], as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Jerusalem in these verses is physical to the natural man, but to the man of the spirit, ‘Jerusalem’ in these verses refers to the Jews of Roman 2:

Rom 2:28 For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
Rom 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

These words are just as applicable to Christians today as they were of Judaizing Christians in Paul’s day. It is just as true spiritually today that ‘He is not a Christian which is one outwardly, but he is a Christian which is one inwardly, and conversion is that of heart, in the spirit and not in letters to churches, whose praise is not of men but of God’.

That is the spirit of both Rom 2 and Gal 4. An outward Christian whose ‘Christianity is based upon the lies of the churches whose hearts are not converted to the doctrines of Christ, like “resist not evil… love your enemies, [and] the words that I speak unto you are spirit”, will insist that ‘He is a Jew which is one outwardly’, and mere profession of Christ is all that is required to be a Christian. Those are just a few of the doctrines of the harlot, who “spiritually is called Sodom…”

But there is one more vital point concerning this spiritual harlot who spiritually is called Sodom which we must consider and understand, and that point is the fact that she is called “Mystery [Secret] Babylon The Great the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth”.

She is revealed to us in Revelation 17:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

This woman is called “mystery [Greek: secret] Babylon the great”. She is called “the great whore… with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication”. But it is verse three which explains why the true identity of this woman is a mystery and a secret to this very day. A ‘secret’ is information to which only very few are privy. Babylon is a ‘secret’ because this woman is only seen “in the spirit” by the few who have been granted spiritual eyes and ears.

Christ did not come to give spiritual eyes to but a select, chosen few. This is the Truth of what Christ did and what He is doing to this day:

Mat 13:2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Mat 13:3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

Mat 13:9 Who hath [been given, verse 11] ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them [the multitudes, verse 1] in parables?
Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Christ is not backward about telling us that he came to blind the multitudes who think they see:

Joh 9:39 And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.
Joh 9:40 And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words, and said unto him, Are we blind also?
Joh 9:41 Jesus said unto them, If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth.

Since Christ does not give spiritual eyes to see or spiritual ears to hear to the multitudes who come to Him, it is therefore only the “chosen… few” who are given spiritual eyes and spiritual ears who are granted to clearly and plainly understand the secret identity of who is this “great whore” called “mystery Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of abominations of the world.

How many of the kings of the earth and how many of the inhabitants of the earth have been deceived by this unfaithful woman? I remember well when this was a great blind spot for me. I had not yet been “carried away in the spirit”, so I had neither spiritual eyes nor ears to the extent that this verse was a great mystery for me:

Luk 13:33 Nevertheless I must walk to day, and to morrow, and the day following: for it cannot be that a prophet perish out of Jerusalem.

I had seen that the blood of the saints was found in this great city of Babylon:

Rev 18:24 And in her [Babylon the great] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Christ had stated “…it cannot be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem”, but here is John saying “the blood of the prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth… was found in [Babylon], not in Jerusalem. It took a long time, but in His mercy our Lord eventually opened my eyes to see what we read above in Isa 1-3 where He calls Jerusalem a harlot, spiritual Sodom, and He even says she is full of murderers.

Isa 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Remember this was “the city where also our Lord was crucified”:

Rev 11:8 And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

When the Lord opens our eyes to see that “Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth” is all religion in rebellion against the commandments of Christ, from the tower of Babel to this very day, then it becomes very clear how it is that:

Rev 18:24 And in her [Babylon the great] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

The rant of many atheists that “More people are killed in the name of religion than anything else” has a bit of a Biblical backing to it. But any ‘religion’ which advocates killing one’s enemies is not the religion of Christ and His Father. Jerusalem above advocates “resist not evil… love thine enemies”.

As is the mother, so is her daughter

Secret Babylon is called “the mother of harlots”. So she has many daughters, and those daughters are of course all sisters one to the other. If you belong to any of these daughters or sisters, then you are accepted by the world, but if you claim to be capable of having a relationship with Christ without the sanction of Babylon and her daughters, then you are labeled a cult. Our Lord was definitely outside the realm of Babylon or any of her accepted daughters.

We often read the phrase “and her daughters” throughout the scriptures of the Old Testament, as these verses demonstrate:

Eze 16:44 Behold, every one that useth proverbs shall use this proverb against thee [Jerusalem], saying, As is the mother, so is her daughter.
Eze 16:45 Thou art thy mother’s daughter, that lotheth her husband and her children; and thou art the sister of thy sisters, which lothed their husbands and their children: your mother was an Hittite, and your father an Amorite.
Eze 16:46 And thine elder sister is Samaria, she and her daughters that dwell at thy left hand: and thy younger sister, that dwelleth at thy right hand, is Sodom and her daughters.

Eze 16:53 When I shall bring again their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, and the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, then will I bring again the captivity of thy captives in the midst of them:
Eze 16:54 That thou mayest bear thine own shame, and mayest be confounded in all that thou hast done, in that thou art a comfort unto them.
Eze 16:55 When thy sisters, Sodom and her daughters, shall return to their former estate, and Samaria and her daughters shall return to their former estate, then thou [Jerusalem] and thy daughters shall return to your former estate.

In these verses we have “Sodom and her daughters… Samaria and her daughters… and Jerusalem and her daughters”, and we are told that Jerusalem, “the mother of harlots… shall return to [her] former estate… when [her] sisters Sodom and her daughters return to their former estate, and [when] Samaria and her daughters return to their former estate”.

What this demonstrates once again is “the dream is one”principle of Genesis 41:

Gen 41:26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

The daughters of Sodom, with Sodom, the daughters of Samaria, with Samaria, and the daughters of Jerusalem, the harlot of Isaiah 1 and Revelation 17-18 are all one and the same “Babylon the great the mother of harlots and of abominations of the earth”, where the blood of prophets, and of saints and of all that were slain upon the earth” is to be found:

Rev 18:24 And in her [Babylon the great] was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

The power given the words of Revelation 17-18 is drawn from Jeremiah’s prophecy against Babylon in Jeremiah 51 where we read…:

Jer 51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;
Jer 51:2 And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about.

…Which corresponds to this verse in Revelation 17:

Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.

Compare these verses in Jer 51 with their parallels in Revelation:

Jer 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.
Jer 51:7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Jer 51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
Jer 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.

Jeremiah 51:6 corresponds with Revelation 18:4; Jeremiah 51:8 corresponds to Revelation 18:2; The golden cup of Jeremiah 51:7 corresponds with Revelation 17:4. Drinking her wine in the last part of Jeremiah 51:7 corresponds to the first part of Revelation 18:3, and it goes on and on.

Rev 18:2 And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
Rev 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.
Rev 18:5 For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

God has the ability to keep Babylon a secret even now. He has used the nation which carried away His people for their sins against him to become the spiritual symbol of His people who are against him in every age. Isaiah 1-3 reveal Jerusalem and Judah to be the harlot who has turned her back on God. But that is only in type and shadow. The real harlot is you and me before we see the religions and churches of this world for the harlots, harlot daughters and harlot sisters they all are. These things all really did happen to Israel when she played the harlot with her savior, but that all “happened to them, and it is written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come”:

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

This is the spiritual definition of who is Babylon:

Jer 51:1 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

With eyes incapable of seeing the contradiction of telling those in her charge to go out and fight for God and country is in direct contradiction to the saying of Christ “resist not evil… love thine enemies”, Babylon will never in this age, see herself for who she is. Religion in rebellion against Christ will continue to “rise up against Me”, and will continue to be “mystery Babylon”, a secret known by very few, until she is destroyed and is burned out of all men of all time. That goal will be accomplished as sure as the rising of the sun, and when it is, it will be accomplished by Christ through the few chosen who are granted know the secret of who Babylon is, and who will “come out of her” in this age.

I will close with reading an e-mail from a sister:

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