At Home in Babylon
Could it be that we are already at home in Babylon? All Christians know that Babylon is the city of evil, the home of error, which is plainly stated in Revelation, "And on her forehead was the name having been written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." (Revelation 17:5). It would then seem totally impossible for a Christian to be at home in Babylon, but what determines the makeup of Babylon? Is it not the policies it holds, the doctrines it promotes, just as the churches are determined by the doctrines that they hold as their spiritual personality? What would it mean to you as a Christian if some, or any one doctrine overlaps with both Babylon and your trusted personal church? Of course, this would be impossible and ridiculous, but does not this possibility warrant a study, knowing Satan's abilities to deceive and his desperation in his last days to unite as many souls as possible to join with him in the "Lake of Fire" for an eternity?
From the name that was given to Babylon in the above verse, we see that it
should be well known because it is labeled as "great". Babylon is also labeled as
"her", and a woman in Bible prophecy is considered to be a religious figure, good
or bad, plus in this case a great leader of harlotries. In a religious context "harlots"
must be ones that disregard the teachings in God's word and have gone adrift or in
search for another god, as a harlot does when she disregards her honor, her husband
and seeks sexual pleasure outside of her marriage. The mother of the "abomination
of the earth" indicates that Babylon is contrary to human survival, but what about
"mystery" does this not suggest departure from reality and is promoting confusion?
Truth is the design of Jehovah God, all that He does and says is truth. How can all
these negative traits of Babylon seep into a respected religious origination? The
character and names presented in Revelation 17:5 was displayed on the forehead of
a "mother" denoting a religious institution, and a further description states, "And
the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and being gilded with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand, filled with the abomination and
unclean things of her fornication." (Revelation 17:4). What religious institution
or leader can fit the first part of this description, "clothed in purple and scarlet,
and being gilded with gold and precious stones and pearls"? The second part of verse
17:4 displays what is not seen by the public "having a golden cup filled with the
abomination and unclean things of her fornication", her fornication is her departure
from Jehovah's word. Verse 6 explains further, "And I saw the woman being drunk with
the blood of the saints and from blood of the witnesses of Jesus..." (Revelation
17:6). To answer this, one needs to look into the history books to see what is being
described as, "the blood of the saints" which has been recorded about the "Dark Ages"
of European history, a time in history when the church of Christianity controlled
their flock, their congregation with fear, making martyrs of those who opposed her
rule, this church in the forth century was also given secular authority in Rome for
a time, when Emperor Constantine was away from Rome establishing Constantinople.
The church had control of church doctrine and it had control of the original New
Testament writings, plus most of the copies. The beginning of this time period is
when Sunday worship was introduced as Biblical, and the Trinity doctrine was also
given to the church by Constantine, which was borrowed from the pagan religions,
in an effort to merge all his domains religions into one, who were under his rule.
Those in opposition to the church rule were dealt with harshly and this lasted for
some time, ending with the reformation period, which was introduced by Wycliffe,
Huss and Luther, who discovered errors in what the church was teaching and proceeded
to expose their false teaching and attempted to correct the church's departure from
God's truth, which opened the door to other reformers, who found other departures
from God's word, ending this age of spiritual darkness, but not completely and certainly
not without a struggle. The point is, Babylon has been clearly identified with not
just a few departures from God's truth, but with a multitude of other deviation from
Jehovah's pure word, even to the point of changing God's Ten Commandment, discarding
Jehovah's second commandment and splitting the tenth into two. The question should
be for every Christian, is your church holding onto any of these contrary doctrines,
originated by the fourth century established church, or do they hold to Bible purity?
The variety of new Christian denominations when leaving the mother church, carried
with them some of these non-
It is up to each member of a congregation to search God's word, and only God's word to confirm that they are holding to doctrines that are Biblically sound; meaning, consistent with the originals of Jehovah's word, the Hebrew text and the original New Testament text, and later assembled into a book labeled, "The Bible". We also need to understanding that the many Bible translations and versions, into many other languages of this perfect Book are the product of imperfect man, who by the nature of their duty, need to make many judgment calls, which is impossible to avoid in their work. It is also logical to realize that ones personal understanding of God's word can play a part in their translation work, plus one can also assume that there can be deliberate mistranslated verses, which are unacceptable.
Can I prove to you without much effort that there are alterations from the
truth in most every Bible? According to the Hebrew text, God's personal name appears
6746 times and has been replaced by the actions of man approximately 6742, depending
on which Bible you read. This is easily confirmed by looking at the Strong's listing
for "Lord" and "God" and counting every #3068 and #3069, then look in the Strong's
Hebrew dictionary section in the back to see the definition: (the) self-