Who Is This Babylon? Podcast #004?
Who is This Babylon?
One topic of study in the Book of Revelation focuses on Zion in the Old Covenant and Israel’s relationship to God. The Zion motif shows the relationship of Jerusalem and Israel in contrast to the heavenly Zion found in Revelation 14.
In addition, the harlot is discussed as a major theme of the prophecy in Revelation. The identity and definition of a harlot in the Old Testament is not used of a mere immoral woman but of a wife who had become unfaithful and broken the marriage covenant. The identity of Babylon in Revelation is therefore a nation who has broken covenant with God.
The impact of this evidence on the harlot in Revelation precludes that the Harlot could be Rome, America, Iraq or even the Catholic church. It refers to a people who had broken covenant. See Jeremiah 31:31-34 and Hebrews 8:7-13.
None of the aforementioned, i.e. Rome, America, or Iraq were ever in covenant relationship to God. Therefore, the harlot in Revelation, as seen from comparisons in Galatians 4:21-31 and Revelation 11:8, and chapters 17-18 point to none other than the harlot city Jerusalem who persecuted the church.
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