Are You a Babylonian, Seduced by This World?

There is a divine rhyme and reason to the ebb and flow of history, because history is His story, the story of Messiah. The drama of redemption and restoration is unfolding according to God’s sovereign plan. John tells us we need wisdom to unravel the mystery of “Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes [i.e., a whore who gives birth to more whores] and of the vile things of the earth” (17:5).

There is no unanimity among Bible interpreters on verses 9-12. Godly men and women understand the details differently. The fact that we need wisdom is an understatement! Now, most agree that the phrase “the seven heads are seven mountains” is a reference to Rome in the first-century context. The city was known as “the city on seven hills.” Seven would also communicate great power and authority, something that is true of every coming of the beast. Verse 10 adds another interpretive challenge: The seven heads “are also seven kings: Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he comes, he must remain for a little while.” Efforts to identify these seven kings with seven Roman emperors have not worked. Viewing them as seven secular empires similar to Daniel 2 and 7 is more promising in my judgment, though I hold my view with great tentativeness. In Israel’s history five kings or kingdoms had fallen and passed off the scene: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, and Greece. The one who “is” would obviously be Rome. And the one that “has not yet come” is the future kingdom of the antichrist. His kingdom will draw from the characteristics of the previous six. Once again the number seven would communicate completeness or perfection in power. The manifestation of this kingdom “will remain only a little while.” Yes, the beast as a man and kingdom will embody the brutality, greatness, splendor, strength, and wickedness of these great empires. But like all other worldly empires, it will have its day and come to an end. Brilliantly organized and with a plan for world domination, it will be impressive for a time, a very brief time, as it stands in pale comparison to the eternal and everlasting kingdom of God. The world has a plan, but God’s plan will endure forever.

REVELATION 17:11-13

Verses 11 and 12 extend the explanation of verses 9-10. The beast is said to belong to the seven kings, particularly the seventh in my view, but he is also an eighth king himself. But as we were also told in verse 8, the beast goes to destruction. Again, his kingdom will not last. It cannot deliver on its false promises. Perhaps it is at the midpoint of the tribulation, following its apparent death and resurrection, that the beast achieves its lust for worldwide conquest and domination. MacArthur says, “The Antichrist’s kingdom is said to be both the seventh and eighth kingdoms because of his supposed demise and resurrection. He is the seventh before and the eighth king after his ‘resurrection’” (Study Bible, 2016). However, what all interpreters of Revelation can agree on is this: This king and his kingdom are going down. They will be destroyed. The beast will be beaten.

Verse 12 adds an additional detail and explanation: the 10 horns (17:3,7) are 10 future kings yet to receive their royal authority. However, when they do, we are again informed it will be for a short duration, described as “with the beast for one hour.” These 10 kings, whoever they are, will serve alongside the beast. Verse 13 informs us they will actually “have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.” Later they will have one purpose in carrying out the will of God in the destruction of the prostitute.

Isaiah 40:8 reminds us, “The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.” This world system, Babylonianism, will come again and again to seduce, attack, and destroy the people of God. It is influential and powerful. It is intimidating and prosperous. It is enticing and persuasive. It gives every appearance of the promise of victory, of the winning team: Get on board or get crushed. Join the team or be called a fool. Worship the beast and whore with the prostitute, or live a wasted life.

However, the Bible makes clear that “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die” is a satanic lie! Tomorrow, we will stand before the King of kings and Lord of lords and give an account for the life He gave each one of us—the life many will waste. The world lasts only a little while (17:10), for one hour (17:12), and it is headed for destruction (17:8,11). This is not the winning team. It is headed for devastating defeat.

REVELATION 17:14

This world chooses the wrong opponent. It takes on the wrong adversary. Verse 14 is an interjection that anticipates the second coming of Jesus described in 19:11-21 (see esp. 19:16). It is also a simple summary of Armageddon (16:16) and the final battle. The beast and his kingdom, in a spiritual suicide mission, attack the warrior Lamb, the Lamb who is also a Lion (Revelation 5). It is no contest! The Lamb will conquer them, for “He is Lord of lords and King of kings.” The title is well known, pointing back to Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalm 136:2-3; Daniel 2:47. It is a title reserved only for God. In 1 Enoch 9:4 our God is called “Lord of lords, God of gods, King of kings, and God of the ages.” There is no God like our god, and this world has played the fool in opposing Him and His kingdom.

We are told He brings with Him those who “are called, chosen, and faithful.” This is the army of 19:14. This description highlights the biblical balance of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. Called and chosen is God’s part; faithful is our part. Thankfully, even our faith and faithfulness are kept by the power of God (Jude 24-25). Interestingly, we are not designated a role or assignment. I suspect it is because we are only spectators in the final conflict. Our Lord and King won the battle without our help in His first coming; I believe it will be the same at His second!

REVELATION 17:15-18

The transitory nature of this world system, Babylon, has been alluded to several times in chapter 17. Now the truth is driven home in graphic finality. When a man is finished with a prostitute, he does not marry her or take her home to his mother. What we see in the movie Pretty Woman (1990) is a dishonest myth. Men do not go to prostitutes to love them but to use them. In Revelation the prostitute has had a massive influence that covers the earth, as verse 15 makes clear. But suddenly it is over. She is finished. An abrupt turnabout will be made by the “10 horns” (17:16) who are the 10 kings. The language recalls the words of Ezekiel 23:11-35.

They will awaken from their drunken stupor with the woman, whose charm and seduction will have lost its lure. They have a new love in the antichrist. Love for the woman will turn to “hate” from the 10 kings and the beast (17:16). They will strip her of all the wealth she has confiscated throughout the world. They will make her “desolate and naked” (17:16). The beast and his kings will turn on her. Evil will attack evil once more but with the greatest ferocity the world will ever see. They tear away her personal support, position, power, and prestige, and expose her moral corruption. They will “devour her flesh” (17:16) like dogs devoured the corpse of Jezebel (see 1 Kgs 21:23; 2 Kgs 9:30-37). They will “burn her up with fire.” In a moment she is old news never to be seen again. Her demise will be greatly lamented by those who have loved and whored with her, as chapter 18 plainly teaches.

This hostile action, her destruction, will be initiated by God: “For God has put it into their hearts to carry out His plan” (17:17)—that is, to rid the world of “the world.” The kings believe they are carrying out their own program for conquest, but actually they will accomplish God’s providential program. Having destroyed the woman, the antichrist will unite the world’s religious, economic, and political systems under his control. The 10 kings will agree to “give their kingdom to the beast until God’s words are accomplished” (17:17). God’s prophetic program will reach its intended goal as He sovereignly allows the kingdoms of this world to come under the beast’s control until the end of the tribulation. The angel concludes his revelation by identifying the woman simply as “the great city that has an empire over the kings of the earth” (17:18). For obvious reasons, the early church believed the verse was speaking of Rome.

A great anti-God system will continue, both as power (economic and political) and cult (religion), united in one figure, the antichrist. The woman is the “great city,” Babylon in its religious, political, economic, and social significance. It refers to a diabolical worldly system. Babylon cannot be confined to a city in the past or future, such as Rome or Babylon, Washington or London, Moscow or Beijing. It is a trans-historical system of satanic evil, an extension of ancient Babylon, forming an evil world system throughout history and during the tribulation. After the destruction of the woman, all its power will reside in the antichrist, who will manifest all of its satanic evils in its fullness. Evil devours evil because God puts it in their heart. It is inevitable.

My friend C. J. Mahaney has well said, “Today, the greatest challenge facing [evangelical, Bible-believing] American [Christians] is not persecution from the world, but seduction by the world” (“Is This Verse,” 22). The Christian apologist C. S. Lewis would add,

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who goes on making mud pies in the slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are too easily pleased. (Weight of Glory, 25–26)

Babylon offers mud pies in the slum. The new Jerusalem ruled by the King of kings and the Lord of lords offers a glorious holiday at a crystal sea that will last forever. Do not be too easily pleased. Do not be seduced by a world that can never deliver what is truly lasting and ultimately satisfying.