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We believe that the English translators have misled many by printing (on their own authority) the word 'mystery' in large capital letters, thus making it appear that this was a part of 'the woman's name.' This we are assured is a mistake. That the 'mystery' is connected with the 'Woman' herself and not with her 'name' is clear from Rev. [[17:7|bible.87.17.7]]+, where the angel says unto John, 'I will tell thee the mystery of the Woman, and of the Beast which carrieth her.'1
A better translation would be, "And on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, 'BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH'" (Rev. [[17:5|bible.87.17.5]]+, NASB95). Her true title lacks the term "MYSTERY," but is merely "Babylon the great" (Rev. [[18:2|bible.87.18.2]]+). The incorporation of "MYSTERY" as her title has led many to identify two Babylons, one commercial and one spiritual. Yet aspects of the Harlot and the city Babylon are virtually identical--both involving a merger of both spiritual and commercial. See Mystery Babylon?BABYLONThus says the LORD God to Jerusalem, . . . "Indeed everyone who quotes proverbs will use this proverb against you: 'Like mother, like daughter!' You are your mother's daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children; your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.'" (Eze. [[16:3|bible.26.16.3]], [[44-45|bible.26.16.44-26.16.45]]) [emphasis added]
Jerusalem is said to have the Hittites as a mother and the Amorites as a father. She herself is a daughter. Since Israel did not even exist as a nation until the time of Jacob, it is obvious that she cannot be the mother or originator of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. This dubious distinction must go to an older empire: Babylon in the sense of its origination under Nimrod as Babel (Gen. [[10:8-10|bible.1.10.8-1.10.10]]). See Babylon is Jerusalem? See Babylon of Old.Neither does the ever-popular interpretation of the Harlot as Roman Catholicism meet the description of this verse:The name was the name, not of a woman, but of a city, "that great city," even Babylon. But it signified not merely the material city as such, but the vast system of idolatry connected with it. That is why the explanation of the secret sign follows "the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth." Not merely of Rome, or even Babylon (as a city), but "of the earth" : i.e., the mother, or fountain head of all the systems of idolatry which have since flooded "the earth" from that one great source; and of which Romanism is only a part. This is the secret or "mystery of iniquity" referred to in 2 Thessalonians [[2:7|bible.74.2.7]]. Babylon was the fountain-head of all idolatry.2
To say that [the Harlot] is either Rome or the Roman Catholic Church is to grossly underestimate the agelong global impact of this great mystery. Babylon the Great. Babylon is the mother of all harlots and abominations of the earth. From her have come ancient paganism, Chinese Confucianism, Asian Buddhism, Indian Hinduism, Shamanism, Taoism, Shintoism, animism, astrology, witchcraft, spiritism, Sikhism, and all the world's vast complex of "gods many, and lords many" (1 Corinthians [[8:5|bible.67.8.5]]). Of more direct concern in twentieth-century America is the direct descent of modern scientism and evolutionary humanism from this ancient mother of harlots. As noted before, modern evolutionism is in no way scientific, being contradicted by all true facts of science, but is merely a revival of ancient Greek (and ultimately Babylonian) evolutionary pantheism.3
See The Great HarlotNotes
1 Arthur Walkington Pink, The Antichrist (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, 1999, 1923), s.v. "Antichrist and Babylon."
2 E. W. Bullinger, Commentary On Revelation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 1984, 1935), Rev. 17:5.
3 Henry Morris, The Revelation Record (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 1983), Rev. 17:5.
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