Jerusalem is Babylon in John’s Revelation
I am convinced that Jerusalem is Babylon in the Book of Revelation. In biblical expression, Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel, is representative of Israel as a whole; Jerusalem is essentially Israel. We should note that the book of Revelation uses the spiritual character of Old Testament nations to identify the spiritual condition of Israel – “…the great city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:8). Where was our Lord crucified? This is clearly Jerusalem. Jerusalem “spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt!” Jerusalem is also spiritually called Babylon!
John writes of Babylon – “And on her forehead a name was written: Mystery Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of the Earth.” Israel was a harlot! And because she was the example and representative of God on the earth, the demonstration of righteousness and relationship with God, she was the “Mother of Harlots!” Instead of birthing and nurturing righteousness, this mother, by her example, made the world drunk, not able to walk or think straight.[1] Confusion as in a drunken stupor was induced by this mother, Jerusalem, Babylon. As a drunken man’s inhibitions are deadened, so Jerusalem deadened the senses of all she influenced; her example gave license to all who related to her and to all who saw her from afar.
Indeed, it is a great mystery how God’s chosen wife, Israel, turned herself into a harlot.[2] The Old Testament prophets marvel as John did at this wonder and mystery. She who was the “faithful city”, “full of justice”, “righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.”[3] She was “a noble vine, a seed of highest quality!” But she turned into the “degenerate plant of an alien vine.”[4] How mysterious this is!
This harlot, Babylon, “…sits on many waters” (Rev. 17:1). John is told plainly by the angel that, “The waters which you saw, where the harlot sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations, and tongues” (Rev. 17:15). Jerusalem exercised influence over the nations as no other nation could. Her influence was military; Rome possessed the military might. Jerusalem’s influence was spiritual![5] She claimed to represent the True and Living God. And because she had corrupted her spirituality and turned her faithfulness and righteousness into murder and harlotry, her witness to the world was corrupted, confused, and gave the nations freedom, like a drunken man, to engage in wickedness as would not be normal or natural. In the same way, this “great city…reigns over the kings of the earth” (Rev. 17:18).
God’s people are called to “Come out of her…lest you share in her sins…” This is the same warning Jesus gave in Matthew 24 when He said concerning those dwelling in Jerusalem.[6]
All of heaven is called upon to “Rejoice over her…for God has avenged you on her!”[7] In anticipation of this judgment, Jesus warned Jerusalem, “that on you [shall] come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Assuredly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.[8] For, says John, “In her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.”[9] Compare the words of Jesus – “…on you [shall] come all the righteous blood shed on the earth…” with the words of Revelation, “…and of all who were slain on the earth!” It is not Rome or any other nation that was held responsible for “all the righteous blood shed on the earth;” it was Jerusalem, Israel against whom it was accountable.
Prophetic Similarities in the Judgments of Jerusalem and Babylon
Isaiah prophesied of Babylon, “For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be darkened in its going forth, and the moon will not cause its light to shine.”[10] Jesus prophesied in a similar manner of Jerusalem, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”[11]
Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would be “…as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”[12] John’s Revelation says Jerusalem is spiritually “Sodom.”[13] Sodom is representative of a society or nation ripe for judgment.[14]
If you are able to receive that Jerusalem is Babylon, observe that Isaiah represents the king of Babylon as Lucifer the arch demon.[15] John says of Babylon in Revelation “…Has become a dwelling place of demons…”[16]
This study and these comments are not exhaustive and deserve further investigation. For this purpose I commend several books: “Days of Vengeance” by David Chilton; “Before Jerusalem Fell” by Kenneth Gentry; “Last Days Madness” by Gary Demar.
by Eugene Clingman
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[1] Rev. 17:2 (NKJV) – “with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
[2] Jeremiah 3:6 (NKJV) – “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.’”
[3] Isaiah 1:21 (NKJV) – “How the faithful city has become a harlot! It was full of justice; righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers.”
[4] Jeremiah 2:20-21 (NKJV) – “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. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?”
[5] Matthew 23:15 (NKJV) - “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
[6] Matthew 24:16-24. Note also Luke 21:20 which sets the context of this exit as prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 by the Roman armies.
[7] Revelation 18:20
[8] Matthew 23:35-36 (NKJV)
[9] Revelation 18:24
[10] Isaiah 13:10 (NKJV)
[11] Matthew 24:29 (NKJV)
[12] Isaiah 13:19
[13] Revelation 11:8
[14] Isaiah 3:9 (NKJV) – “…they declare their sin as Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to their soul! For they have brought evil upon themselves!”
[15] Isaiah 13:12
[16] Revelation 18:2
Tags: 70 AD, babylon the great, book of revelation, destruction of jerusalem, eugene clingman, granola, jerusalem is babylon, mother of harlots, mystery babylon, prophecy