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Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Feb. 28, 1998
Update	: May 28, 2025
Parts	: 12

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part six, let me share that verse from the Book of Revelation one more time with you:

"And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men."


What I would like to call to your attention are the last six words of the verse which state "and slaves, and souls of men." In this phrase, the word "slaves" is derived from the Koine Greek word "soma" -- or σῶμα‭ -- which according to Thayer's Greek English Lexicon, the primary meaning of which is "the body both of men or animals‭". In that same phrase, the word "souls" is translated from the Koine Greek word "psuche", or "ψυχή‭" in Greek. Pronounced psoo–khay', this ancient word refers to the breath of life, or a living soul. In other words, we could say that Babylon the Great traffics in the bodies and souls of men. Do these words remind you of anything that Jesus said in the Gospels? How about this verse:

"‭‭And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.‭"


The previous verse uses the very same two Koine Greek words that we find in Revelation 18:13 above. So how is it possible for Babylon the Great to traffic in the bodies and souls of men? Well, believe it or not, but Jesus already told us in the twenty-third chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, when He accused the unbelieving Jews of the following wickedness:

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in ‭yourselves‭, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in . . . Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."


Do you see that? By soundly rejecting the Gospel of Jesus Christ, by preventing the Apostles and Disciples from being faithful witnesses of the truth, and by keeping people under the bondage of the Mosaic Law, the Jewish religious hierarchy was in fact trafficking in the very souls of men, preventing them from entering the Kingdom of God, and in fact leading them straight to hell, just like themselves. Wow! Talk about being held accountable!

As we have seen, that is exactly how Babylon the Great is described as well. She trafficked in slaves and the souls of men, or in the bodies and souls of men. The Apostle Paul was very straightforward regarding how those unbelieving Jews prevented people from hearing the Gospel, when he wrote the following in his first Epistle to the Thessalonian brethren:

"For ye, brethren, became followers of the churches of God which in Judaea are in Christ Jesus: for ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews: Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us; and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: FORBIDDING US TO SPEAK TO THE GENTILES THAT THEY MIGHT BE SAVED, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost."


As we saw in part six, it is interesting to note that in the Book of Revelation, when Babylon the Great is destroyed, we are explicitly told that the merchants -- who are "the great men of the earth" who are made rich by her -- weep and wail over her destruction. Let me share some of those key verses with you again:

"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies . . . And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more . . . The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,‭ And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!‭ ‭‭For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,‭ ‭‭And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What ‭city is‭ like unto this great city!‭ ‭‭And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate . . . ‭‭And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.‭"


While many Christians are aware of the fact that the Apostle John wrote of these things, I have come to believe that James likewise wrote of these very same events in his Epistle. Not only that, but James gave them a specific time frame as well. Consider the following verses, and notice how similar they sound to what John wrote regarding the destruction of Babylon the Great, and how the rich men weep and wail:

"Go to now, ‭ye‭ rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon ‭you‭.‭ Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten.‭ Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.‭ Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.‭ Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.‭ Ye have condemned ‭and‭ killed the just; ‭and‭ he doth not resist you."


Please notice how the Apostle James specifically writes "for the last days". So he is specifically writing about the great destruction of this wealth in the last days, and how it will serve as a testimony against the rich men of the Earth. The question is, when are these last days, and what will be the culminating event of these last days? We actually find a very clear answer to this question in what James writes next. It is "the coming of the Lord", which James says "draweth nigh", as we can determine by the following set of verses:

"Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.‭ Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.‭"


Please notice that the Apostle James is NOT writing to some future generation of Christians who will live two thousand years beyond his own time. He is writing to the brethren of his own time period, and telling them that all of this great wealth will be destroyed when Christ returns, which he says "draweth nigh". In fact, James very clearly writes "the judge standeth before the door". So again, I am convinced that both John and James are describing the very same events. That is, the great destruction of Babylon the Great and Jesus' Return. If you still do not understand the significance of what I've just said, then after completing this series, I encourage you to also consider reading the series entitled "Jesus Christ's Return: Have We Been Deceived?".

Returning to the issue of bondage, let me ask you something. Out of all the many names which could have been chosen, why is the code word "Babylon" used by both Jesus and John in the Book of Revelation? Likewise, why did the Apostle Peter apparently use Babylon as a code word for Jerusalem as well? In fact, the Apostle Paul alludes to the same thing, as you will see in a moment.

Well, let me answer that question with yet another question. At the time the Books of the New Testament were written, what had the Jews of the First Century associated with Babylon for hundreds of years? In my mind, the answer can be summed up in one word: captivity. Slavery. As I amply point out in other articles such as "The Fruits of Disobedience", due to their ongoing, blatant apostasy during the Old Testament era, the city of Jerusalem and the temple compound were both destroyed by the forces of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar around 587 BC. Furthermore, the Jews were led captive to Babylon for a period of seventy years, as had been prophesied by Jeremiah. Consider the following set of verses which confirm this point:

"Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldees, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or maiden, old man, or him that stooped for age: he gave them all into his hand. And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king, and of his princes; all these he brought to Babylon. And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof. And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS."


"And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon SEVENTY YEARS. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished, that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make it perpetual desolations."


"For thus saith the LORD, That after SEVENTY YEARS be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place."


"In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, which was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans; In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish SEVENTY YEARS in the desolations of Jerusalem."


"Speak unto all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying, When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh month, even those SEVENTY YEARS, did ye at all fast unto me, even to me?"


So the Seventy Years of Captivity were etched into the minds and hearts of all Jews after that. But how does that relate to Jerusalem of the First Century? Again, I likewise explain this in a number of my other articles, such as "Dead to the Law: God's Laws Written on Our Hearts" and "Free From the Fear of Death: Law and Works vs Grace". I hope you will take the time to read them, as your time permits.

As I explained to you a moment ago, the religious leadership of Jerusalem purposely kept the people under the bondage of the Mosaic Law. Religion was just as powerful a force during the First Century, as it is today. Being one of the heads of the Church in Jerusalem, I have no doubt that the Apostle Peter was fully aware of this reality. He, as well as the other Apostles, were constantly in conflict with the crafty, legalistic religionists of Jerusalem, just as Jesus had been. Furthermore, the city was pretty much Satan's seat at that time. Let us not forget what Jesus said of those false, unbelieving Jews in John chapter eight:

"Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it."


So because Peter was obviously very aware of how the people of Jerusalem were kept captive under the harsh mandates of the Mosaic Law, I strongly suspect that this is why he may have referred to the Jerusalem Church as being "at Babylon" at the end of his first Epistle, as we see by the following verse:

"‭‭The ‭church that is‭ at Babylon, elected together with you‭, saluteth you; and ‭so doth‭ Marcus my son.‭"


To reiterate, Babylon symbolized bondage and slavery to the Jews; so it is only fitting that Peter would use this name in a symbolic sense. If you are familiar with the writings of the Apostle Paul, then you will know that he waged a very long battle when it came to the contentious issue of Grace versus works and the Mosaic Law. This is likewise something I discuss in the aforementioned articles. As I said earlier, there are indications in Paul's writings, that he too viewed Jerusalem as the spiritual Babylon, because her people were in bondage to the Mosaic Law. In particular, in the fourth chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians, we find the Apostle writing the following to the Galatian brethren, who it seems had also fallen back under the mandates of the Mosaic Law:

"‭‭My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,‭ I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for I stand in doubt of you.‭ Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?‭ For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.‭ But he ‭who was‭ of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman ‭was‭ by promise.‭ ‭‭Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.‭ For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.‭ But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.‭ For it is written, Rejoice, ‭thou‭ barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.‭ Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.‭ But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him ‭that was born‭ after the Spirit, even so ‭it is‭ now.‭ Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.‭ So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.‭"


Notice that Paul specifically says "For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children." Can it be any clearer than that? Paul viewed Jerusalem as being in bondage, just as Babylon represented bondage to the Jews. Thus, between everything that Jesus said, and Peter's closing remark in his Epistle, and what the Apostle Paul writes above, I am convinced that the name "Babylon" was chosen as a code word for Jerusalem.

In addition to everything I have already stated, there is one other possible reason regarding why God symbolically refers to Jerusalem as Babylon the Great in the Book of Revelation. In case you are not aware of it, during their Seventy Years of Captivity, the Jews adopted a lot of the traditions and religious beliefs of both the Babylonians, and likewise the Zoroastrianism of the Persians. Some of these beliefs were later incorporated into what became known as the Babylonian Talmud -- or Talmud Bavli -- from about the 3rd to the 6th Century AD. The Babylonian Talmud consists of the Mishnah, and the Babylonian Gemara. It was compiled by the rabbis in Babylonia, which today corresponds to Iraq.

Jewish orthodoxy -- which is likewise known as Talmudism or modern-day Pharisaism -- is based upon this ancient set of books, which are basically the Jewish interpretation of the Old Testament Scriptures known to Christians. However, it is important to point out that the rabbinic interpretations are viewed as being superior to the actual Scriptures themselves. As you may know, orthodox Jews literally worship the words of their ancient rabbis, who wrote their interpretations in the margins of the Scriptures. While many Christians are not aware of it, to this day, the Babylonian Talmud is regarded as the most sacred book of the Jews. Furthermore, it is the teachings of these volumes, upon which all Jewish dealings with the modern world are based. Please read my series "The International Jew and the Protocols of Zion", as well as "Welcome to Greater Israel, USA!" for more details. You may be shocked.

All of this just adds to the picture of an adulterous bride who has become a whore in God's eyes, and who has constantly persecuted and killed the Lord's true children, since the pages of the Old Testament, exactly as Jesus said. Not only did Israel go a whoring after the false gods of the pagan nations around her, but as we have now seen, eventually, she was enslaved by Babylon. Then, once the Jews were allowed to return to Israel following their Seventy Years of Captivity, they brought back some of the Babylonians' pagan beliefs and took themselves strange wives from amongst the people of the land. You will find this discussed in the final chapter of the Book of Ezra.

We also know that Babylon the Great engages in fornication with the Beast. In the Book of Revelation, John informs us that she symbolically rides the Beast which rises up out of the sea of the world's people, and that she commits sexual infidelity with it, just as the whores of old had sexual intercourse with wild beasts. Consider the following verses which describe her fornication, as well as her appearance:

"And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."


"And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters . . . So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication . . . And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues."


"The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!"


Before delving into Babylon the Great's relationship to the Beast, let me first address her physical appearance, because this is very important being as it also helps us to identify exactly who Babylon the Great is. Among other things, we are informed that this proud, haughty woman is "clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls". As I mentioned to you in part one, the Seventh Day Adventists -- and many other Christians -- are firmly convinced that Babylon represents current-day Rome, or more specifically, the Roman Catholic Church.

One proof such people attempt to use to validate their claim, is the fact that Babylon is arrayed in the colors purple and scarlet. For those of you who may not know much about Roman Catholic practices and traditions, allow me to inform you that purple and scarlet happen to be the primary colors of the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The usual attire of bishops is purple, while cardinals dress in red. Furthermore, purple is also used during Lent and Advent as well. Now on the surface, this fact may seem like very convincing evidence to some of you. However, the problem, in my view, is that it finds no support whatsoever in the Bible. Absolutely none.

As far as I'm concerned, this connection to Roman Catholicism is a misguided doctrine of men, which can be traced at least as far back as the Reformers of the Sixteenth Century. If you are familiar with the 1560 Geneva Bible, then you will know that it is filled with notes which are quite anti-Catholic in nature. Yet at the same time, if we consider how terribly the Reformers suffered under the RCC's cruel hand -- including being tortured and being burned at the stake -- then it would seem that their animosity towards the Pope and his church was justified.

Please note that I am NOT defending the Roman Catholics. If you have read enough of my articles, then you will already know that I'm no friend of that corrupt religious system. In fact, I expose its sins and misguided doctrines quite a bit in some of my writings. Closer to our current time -- I will probably offend some people by even daring to say this -- it seems that in addition to believing in Jesus, the Seventh Day Adventist belief system centers around three basic tenets.

The first of these -- which is also embraced and promoted by a number of other churches, organizations and cults -- is that the SDA church is the only church that is recognized by God as fulfilling His Will at this current time. As I explain in the series entitled "Elijah: Where Are the True Prophets of God?", this extreme spirit of exclusivity is misguided and just plain wrong. Yet so many people today have made this same boast. If you doubt that this belief has been taught to members of the SDA church, allow me to share with you a direct quote from their founder, Ellen G. White:

----- Begin Quote -----

"There is but one church in the world who are at the present time standing in the breach, and making up the hedge, building up the old waste places . . . God is leading out a people. He has a chosen people, a church on the earth, whom He has made the depositaries of His law. He has committed to them sacred trust and eternal truth to be given to the world."

----- End Quote -----

The second core tenet of the Seventh Day Adventist church is that Christians are required to observe the Sabbath, not on Sunday, but on Saturday, in accordance with Jewish tradition. If you are a regular member of any of the social networks, then you will already know that Adventists like to push this belief extremely hard, even to the point of appearing rather self-righteous and condescending. For my own views regarding this topic, I invite you to read my two-part article entitled "Are Christians Obligated to Keep the Sabbath?". You'll find it listed at the end of this same series.

Lastly, the Seventh Day Adventist faith seems to emphasize their hatred of the Roman Catholic Church. Perhaps "hatred" may seem like a very strong word to some of you. However, if you take the time to visit enough SDA websites, or the pages of SDA members on the social networks, I think you will see what I mean. Please note that while I have said these things, I personally do not harbor any ill feelings towards the SDA church. To be honest, over the years, I have discovered that there are sweet, loving and even sincere people in probably all of the different branches of Christianity. However, that does not mean that I agree with all of their doctrines and practices. After all, some people are indeed very sincere, but they are also sincerely deceived with regards to some of their doctrines.

Please go to part eight for the continuation of this series.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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