In this blog article I’ve first printed extracts from ‘Whore of Babylon’, a Wikipedia article.
Wikipedia articles can be helpful although at times people publish propaganda on Wikipedia.
The article below is a well-balanced representation of the Biblical definition and historical context of the topic of The Whore of Babylon.
Whore of Babylon
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Whore of Babylon or Babylon the Great is a Christian figure of evil mentioned in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. Her full title is given as “Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and Abominations of the Earth.” (Greek: Βαβυλὼν ἡ μεγάλη, ἡ μήτηρ τῶν πορνῶν καὶ τῶν βδελυγμάτων τῆς γῆς; transliterated Babylōn hē megalē, hē mētēr tōn pornōn kai tōn bdelygmatōn tēs gēs.)
Passages from Revelation
The “great whore” of the biblical book of Revelation is featured in chapters 17 and 18.
17:1 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:
17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. [“Fornication” is interpreted/translated as “idolatry” in the Amplified Bible (AMP), the New American Bible mentions “harlotry”]
17:3 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.
17:4 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:
17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. [King James Version; the New International Version uses “prostitutes” instead of “harlots”].
17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
17:9 And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. [King James Version; the New International Version Bible and the New American Bible use “hills” instead of “mountains”].
17:10 And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space.
17:11 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goes into perdition.
17:12 And the ten horns which thou saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
17:15 And he said unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.
Revelation 17:4–18
The Whore is associated with the Antichrist and the beast of Revelation by connection with an equally evil kingdom. (The word “Whore” can also be translated metaphorically as “Idolatress”). The Whore’s apocalyptic downfall is prophesied to take place in the hands of the image of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. There is much speculation within Christian eschatology on what the Whore and beast symbolize as well as the possible implications for contemporary interpretations.
Preterist interpretations
Rome and the Roman Empire
Many Biblical scholars believe that “Babylon” is a metaphor for the pagan Roman Empire at the time it persecuted Christians, before the Edict of Milan in 313: perhaps specifically referencing some aspect of Rome’s rule (brutality, greed, paganism). Some exegetes interpret the passage as a scathing critique of a servant people of Rome who do the Empire’s bidding, interpreting that the author of Revelation was speaking of the Herodians – a party of Jews friendly to Rome and open to her influence, like the Hellenizers of centuries past – and later, corrupt Hasmoneans, where the ruler of Jerusalem or Roman Judea exercised his power at the pleasure of the Emperor, and was dependent on Roman influence, like Herod the Great in the Gospel according to Luke.
In 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch and the Sibylline oracles, “Babylon” is a cryptic name for Rome. Reinhard Feldmeier speculates that “Babylon” is used to refer to Rome in 1 Peter 5:13. In Revelation 17:9 it is said that she sits on “seven mountains”, typically understood as the seven hills of Rome. A Roman coin minted under the Emperor Vespasian (ca. 70 AD) depicts Rome as a woman sitting on seven hills.
According to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, “The characteristics ascribed to this Babylon apply to Rome rather than to any other city of that age: (a) as ruling over the kings of the earth (Revelation 17:18); (b) as sitting on seven mountains (Revelation 17:9); (c) as the center of the world’s merchandise (Revelation 18:3, 11–13); (d) as the corrupter of the nations (Revelation 17:2; 18:3; 19:2); (e) as the persecutor of the saints (Revelation 17:6).”
Pre-Reformation (Catholic) view[edit]
For medieval Spanish Catholics, the Whore of Babylon (Revelation, 17.4-5)[30] (a Christian allegory of evil) was incarnated by the Emirate of Córdoba.
Dante equated the corruption and simony in the office of the Papacy with the Whore of Babylon in Canto 19 of his Inferno:
Di voi pastor s’accorse il Vangelista,
quando colei che siede sopra l’acque
puttaneggiar coi regi a lui fu vista…
(Shepherds like you the Evangelist had in mind when he saw the one that sits upon the waters committing fornication with the kings.)
Historicist interpreters commonly used the phrase “Whore of Babylon” to refer to the Roman Catholic Church. Reformation writers from Martin Luther (1483–1546) (who wrote On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church), John Calvin (1509–1564), and John Knox (1510–1572) (who wrote The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women) taught this association.
Most early Protestant Reformers believed that in Bible prophecy a woman represents a church. “I have likened the daughter of Zion to a lovely and delicate woman.” (Jeremiah 6:2 nkjv) A harlot, it is argued, is representative of a church that has been unfaithful:
“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the LORD.” (Hosea 1:2 nkjv)[35]
They also believed that the primary location of this unfaithful church is stated in the same chapter.
“And the woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:18)
The connection noted above on the seven hills of Rome is argued to locate the church.
Identification of the Pope as the Antichrist was written into Protestant creeds such as the Westminster Confession of 1646. The identification of the Roman Catholic Church with the Whore of Babylon is kept in the Scofield Reference Bible (whose 1917 edition identified “ecclesiastical Babylon” with “apostate Christendom headed by the Papacy”).
My comments:
Donald Elley of Bellingen, Australia. On holiday at Bondi Beach this January.
The Father’s of the Christian Reformation, Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox lived during times of great violence by the Church of Rome and by all the Nation States and fiefdoms that existed in those days. There were Jesuits, militants and mercenaries hunting down Protestants throughout Europe and Protestants being genocided, tortured, disembowelled, imprisoned in hellish goals, their Holy Scriptures confiscated and burned, they were hounded and harassed. These valiant Protestants were akin to the valiant heroes of our Great and Pure Christian faith as listed in the Hall of Fame in the Book of Hebrews chapter 11 in the New Testament of the Holy Bible.
To them the notion of the Church of Rome as the Anti-Christ Church, the Great Whore of Babylon of the Book of Revelation, was very real and immediate.
It has not been until the twentieth century that notions of freedom of religion have been enshrined in the Constitutions of Enlightened Nations. The current Islamic State Caliphate in Syria and Iraq is the diametric opposite of a State where Freedom of Religion is practiced.
The modern Pentecostal Church, which traces it’s roots to the Welsh Revival in 1904-5 and the Azusa Street Revival in Los Angeles in 1905-6, has over the past 110 years completely lost it’s fire. What started as a pure Holy Spirit movement has been reduced to ashes by successive compromises, lack of prayer and lack of commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ultimate betrayal of our Protestant ancestors, who strived, even to the shedding of their own blood, for the purity of Protestant Truths, which at their most pure are simply exegesis of simple New Testament Truths, is to fellowship with members of the Roman Catholic Church or to pay homage to the Pope. The Church of Rome is still as chock full of idols and heresies as it was in the sixteenth century at the time of the Reformation.
The world-wide Church of Rome is one of lucifer’s veils to stop mankind knowing the simple truths of the Bible and particularly of the Teachings of the Lord Jesus, the Teachings of the Mighty Apostle Paul and all the Great Truths of the New Testament in the Holy Bible.
donaldelley 
The similarities to Hillsong was the reason why Darlene is anesthetised to the truth about the Roman Church and felt so comfortable in the presence of the Pope.
1. One man at the top making decrees.
2. Only believe what you are taught and don’t study the scriptures yourself to get your own views.
3. Embrace the heretical traditions established by the founders.
4. Grand displays of visuality to depict God and create atmosphere. The Catholics used stained glass windows, statues and idols, the technology of the day, all of which the early Protestants threw out and burned. Hillsong uses sparkly lights, smoke machines and loud thumping music, crazy shouting and shrill wailing banshees, all the same parallels and more to distract people from finding God.
Every time all over the world they turn the lights on and crank up the rock n roll they are trampling on the graves of the great reformers, mocking the millions of precious martyrs who shed their blood for us in a binge fest of sacrilege, in worship to the enemies of Christ.
All presided over and sanctioned by the pervert of Pentecost, Brian’s father Frank.
Dave
With Darlene Zschech I think a reason she went and paid homage and sang for the Pope is her great ego.
In Darlene’s mind to sing for the Pope is the ultimate and she may have hoped she would become famous. Like Madonna, who was raised a Catholic but now is bisexual, who has a desire for an audience with Pope Francis according to a Vatican Insider magazine interview.
It’s like singing for the Queen or The US President. Narcissists like Darlene Zschech get off on the laud and praises of men.
Brian Houston is the same. He pretends he hates the media coverage of his dad’s pedophilia but inside he loves the attention. Then he goes back to Hillsong and says what a wonderful witness his time at the Royal Commission was for his jesus. Its like the tale of the Emperor who had no clothes on. No one at Hillsong dares to tell Brian he’s made a complete goose of himself and Sydney is laughing at him at the Royal Commission. Brian has many enemies out there but he can’t see them.
Darlene was indignant and overwhelmed by the negative reaction to her paying homage to the Pope. In her mind it was her greatest day on earth but she didn’t see the fall-out coming.