1) Babylon is described as a GREAT CITY...
Revelation 14:8 And another angel followed, saying, "BABYLON is fallen, is fallen, that GREAT CITY, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
Revelation 16:19 Now the GREAT CITY was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great BABYLON was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Revelation 17:18 And the woman whom you saw is that GREAT CITY which reigns over the kings of the earth."
Revelation 18:10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, 'Alas, alas, that GREAT CITY BABYLON, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'
Revelation 18:16 and saying, 'Alas, alas, that GREAT CITY that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls!
Revelation 18:18 and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, 'What is like this GREAT CITY?'
Revelation 18:19 "They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, 'Alas, alas, that GREAT CITY, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.'
Revelation 18:21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence the GREAT CITY BABYLON shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.
The following verse REVEALS the answer to what GREAT CITY is Mystery Babylon...
Revelation 11:8 And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the GREAT CITY which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, WHERE ALSO OUR LORD WAS CRUCIFIED.
In what GREAT CITY was Jesus crucified?
New York or Rome or Jerusalem?
It was Jerusalem. This is a definite reference to Jerusalem being "THE GREAT CITY."
There's only 1 GREAT CITY where our LORD was Crucified and that's Old Covenant Jerusalem which was DESTROYED in 70 AD!
2) Babylon is called SODOM...
Other than the literal city of Sodom, Jerusalem is the only city referred to as Sodom in the Bible...
Isaiah 1:9 Unless the LORD of hosts Had left to us a very small remnant, We would have become like SODOM, We would have been made like Gomorrah.
Isaiah 1:10 Hear the word of the LORD, You rulers of SODOM; Give ear to the law of our God, You people of Gomorrah:
Isaiah 1:11 "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices to Me?" Says the LORD. "I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams And the fat of fed cattle. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, Or of lambs or goats.
Jeremiah 23:14 Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like SODOM to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Ezekiel 16:46 "Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who dwells to the south of you, is SODOM and her daughters.
3) Babylon is described as a HARLOT...
Revelation 17:1 Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, "Come, I will show you the judgment of the great HARLOT who sits on many waters,
Revelation 17:2 with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication."
Revelation 17:5 And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Before Moses died the LORD told him that his people would play the HARLOT by worshipping other gods...
Deuteronomy 31:16 And the LORD said to Moses: "Behold, you will rest with your fathers; and THIS PEOPLE WILL RISE AND PLAY THE HARLOT WITH THE GODS OF THE FOREIGNERS OF THE LAND, WHERE THEY GO TO BE AMONG THEM, AND THEY WILL FORSAKE ME AND BREAK MY COVENANT WHICH I HAVE MADE WITH THEM.
Moses told his people what would happen to them in their LATTER DAYS...
Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And EVIL WILL BEFALL YOU IN THE LATTER DAYS, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands."
Deuteronomy 32:5 "They have corrupted themselves; They are not His children, Because of their blemish: A PERVERSE AND CROOKED GENERATION.
Deuteronomy 32:20 And He said: 'I will hide My face from them, I WILL SEE WHAT THEIR END WILL BE, FOR THEY ARE A PERVERSE GENERATION, Children in whom is no faith.
Deuteronomy 32:28 "For they are a nation void of counsel, Nor is there any understanding in them.
Deuteronomy 32:29 Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this, THAT THEY WOULD CONSIDER THEIR LATTER END!
Old Covenant Israel and Judah and Jerusalem playing the HARLOT is a constant theme in scripture...
Judges 2:17 Yet they would not listen to their judges, but THEY PLAYED THE HARLOT WITH OTHER GODS, AND BOWED DOWN TO THEM. They turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.
Judges 8:33 So it was, as soon as Gideon was dead, that THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL AGAIN PLAYED THE HARLOT WITH THE BAALS, AND MADE BAAL-BERITH THEIR GOD.
1 Chronicles 5:25 And they were unfaithful to the God of their fathers, and PLAYED THE HARLOT AFTER THE GODS OF THE PEOPLES OF THE LAND, whom God had destroyed before them.
Isaiah 1:21 How THE FAITHFUL CITY HAS BECOME A HARLOT! It was full of justice; Righteousness lodged in it, But now murderers.
Jeremiah 2:20 "For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, 'I will not transgress,' When on every high hill and under every green tree You lay down, PLAYING THE HARLOT.
Jeremiah 3:1 "They say, 'If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he return to her again?' Would not that land be greatly polluted? But YOU HAVE PLAYED THE HARLOT WITH MANY LOVERS; Yet return to Me," says the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:6 The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: "Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there PLAYED THE HARLOT.
Jeremiah 3:8 Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and PLAYED THE HARLOT ALSO.
Ezekiel 6:9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which PLAY THE HARLOT AFTER THEIR IDOLS; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations.
Chapter 16 of Ezekiel uses the word HARLOT 10 times! I will only quote 1 verse...
Ezekiel 16:30 "How degenerate is your heart!" says the Lord GOD, "seeing you do all these things, THE DEEDS OF A BRAZEN HARLOT.
Hosea 1:2 When the LORD began to speak by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea: "Go, take yourself a WIFE OF HARLOTRY And children of harlotry, FOR THE LAND HAS COMMITTED GREAT HARLOTRY BY DEPARTING FROM THE LORD."
Hosea 4:12 My people ask counsel from their wooden idols, And their staff informs them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, And THEY HAVE PLAYED THE HARLOT AGAINST THEIR GOD.
4) Babylon SHED THE BLOOD of GOD's people...
Revelation 16:6 For THEY HAVE SHED THE BLOOD OF SAINTS AND PROPHETS, and thou hast given them blood to drink; for they are worthy.
There are NO REAL PROPHETS around today, just WANNABES (False Prophets) trying to Make a Profit, so the aforementioned verse could not be referring to the present time!
Revelation 17:6 I saw the woman, DRUNK WITH THE BLOOD OF THE SAINTS AND WITH THE BLOOD OF THE MARTYRS OF JESUS. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.
Revelation 18:24 And IN HER WAS FOUND THE BLOOD OF PROPHETS, AND OF SAINTS, AND OF ALL THAT WERE SLAIN UPON THE EARTH.
Remember this description. When we can find a city guilty of SHEDDING THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, then we can know for sure to what city this refers!
Luke 11:47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.
Luke 11:48 In fact, you bear witness that you approve the deeds of your fathers; for they indeed killed them, and you build their tombs.
Luke 11:49 Therefore the wisdom of God also said, 'I WILL SEND THEM PROPHETS AND APOSTLES, AND SOME OF THEM THEY WILL KILL AND PERSECUTE,'
Luke 11:50 THAT THE BLOOD OF ALL THE PROPHETS WHICH WAS SHED FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD MAY BE REQUIRED OF THIS GENERATION,
Luke 11:51 From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who perished between the altar and the temple. Yes, I say to you, it shall be required of THIS GENERATION.
Luke 13:33 Nevertheless I must journey today, tomorrow, and the day following; FOR IT CANNOT BE THAT A PROPHET SHOULD PERISH OUTSIDE OF JERUSALEM.
Luke 13:34 "O JERUSALEM, JERUSALEM, THE ONE WHO KILLS THE PROPHETS AND STONES THOSE WHO ARE SENT TO HER! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing!
Luke 13:35 SEE! YOUR HOUSE (The Temple) IS LEFT TO YOU DESOLATE; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!' "
5) GOD's People were told to leave Babylon before she was destroyed...
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
Jesus told his people to leave Jerusalem before it was destroyed!
Luke 21:20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then KNOW THAT ITS DESOLATION IS NEAR.
Luke 21:21 Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, LET THOSE WHO ARE IN THE MIDST OF HER DEPART, and let not those who are in the country enter her.
Luke 21:22 FOR THESE ARE THE DAYS OF VENGEANCE, THAT ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN MAY BE FULFILLED.
The Destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 was the WRATH OF GOD and NOTICE THIS: Those were the days in which "ALL THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN MAY BE FULFILLED"!
6) Babylon was JUDGED by GOD...
Revelation 16:5 And I heard the angel of the waters saying: "You are righteous, O Lord, The One who is and who was and who is to be, Because YOU HAVE JUDGED THESE THINGS.
Revelation 16:6 FOR THEY HAVE SHED THE BLOOD OF SAINTS AND PROPHETS, And You have given them blood to drink. For it is their just due."
Revelation 16:7 And I heard another from the altar saying, "Even so, Lord God Almighty, TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS ARE YOUR JUDGMENTS."
Revelation 18:8 ...And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is THE LORD GOD WHO JUDGES HER.
Revelation 18:20 "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for GOD HAS AVENGED YOU ON HER!"
Revelation 18:21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence THE GREAT CITY BABYLON SHALL BE THROWN DOWN, AND SHALL NOT BE FOUND ANYMORE.
Revelation 19:2 For true and righteous are His JUDGMENTS, because HE HAS JUDGED THE GREAT HARLOT who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and HE HAS AVENGED ON HER THE BLOOD OF HIS SERVANTS SHED BY HER."
MYSTERY BABYLON in Revelation is NOT a Mystery...
It was Old Covenant Judah/Jerusalem and it was DESTROYED in 70 AD.
It is FINISHED!
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Nailing Down the Identity of Harlot Babylon - Don K. Preston
Who Was Babylon, i.e. Sodom? - Don K. Preston