Mystery Babylon Study – Intro – Revelation 17: 3 from Chris White on Vimeo.

This will be a multi-week study on Revelation Chapter 17-18, widely considered to be some of the most difficult chapters in Revelation. I hope that you will make an effort to go through the whole study, which is available in multiple formats, such aids veo, mp3, or text, all available at the website versebyversebibleteaching.com

Why do such an in depth study on this issue?

In addition to the study of “The Woman that Rides the Beast”, we will also be studying the beast itself in depth, which is widely considered to be the Anti-Christ.

This section of Scripture offers so many opportunities to study other events in prophecy, such as Daniel and the timing of the events in the Book of Revelation.  Therefore, it’s a great study of all things prophecy.

There is so much confusion about the identity of Mystery Babylon. Some of these interpretations not only lead to bad doctrine, but put the church in danger of being deceived in the end times.

It’s also important to study prophecy in general, because a major portion of the Bible consists of prophecy. Thus, if we neglect prophecy, we are neglecting a major portion of the Bible.  The Scriptures cannot be rightly understood or unfolded if the prophetic sections are neglected.

Even among dedicated Bible scholars and teachers, there is a huge variety of views about the identity of Mystery Babylon, yet the angel in Rev 17:18 actually tells John what it is he has just seen.  That angel tells John that it is a city.

Rev 17:18: “And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.”

It is referred to as a city eight times in Revelation, and all the things that happen to it seem to be talking about a literal city.  For instance, the city is burned down, and the smoke can be seen from the nearby sea.  This, and many other factors cause most Bible scholars to believe that it is talking about a literal city.

There are many candidates proposed for the identity of the city by Bible scholars, including Rome or Vatican City.  Many early reformers saw it as Rome.  Somewhat ironically, the Catholic church also teaches that it is Rome in their new American Bible commentary on the Vatican website, though it is referring to ancient pagan Rome, where the protestant reformers would say that it was the Rome of the Catholic church.

Some suggest the actual city of Babylon in Iraq. In this scenario, they say Babylon will be rebuilt in the future. In our study, we will look at this possibility in depth, as well as the other possibilities.

Mecca, or some other Arab cities have been proposed. This view has been especially popular very recently.

Jerusalem is also suggested, and this is one of the oldest viewpoints of Christians, and is held by many different groups.  It probably has the widest range of proponents.

There is a long list of other less popular candidates, New York included.

Some other very popular viewpoints assert that the Bible is metaphorical, and say it’s not referring to an actual city, but is symbolic of something else entirely, possibly, a world pagan religious system, and/or a world a world financial system.

There is no reason that there should be this much confusion. I have counted the characteristics given to Mystery Babylon. In the three chapters that deal with her, over ninety characteristics are mentioned. That’s an astonishing amount of detail given for her.  In this study, I will show that there is explicit Biblical evidence for most, if not all, of these ninety characteristics.  There is no need to guess, because the Bible has made sure we can know for certain, simply by comparing Scripture with Scripture.  I’m sure you will agree that the answer to this age-old question of the identity of Mystery Babylon (MB) is found within the pages of Scripture.

Before I go any further, I am going to tell you what I think scripture teaches that Mystery Babylon is.  Wh[...]