161. The Roman Catholic Bible, The New American Bible, St. Joseph Edition, 1970, states in a footnote about Babylon the Great in Revelation 17:1-6 - “Babylon, a symbolic name (v 5) of Rome, is graphically described as the great harlot.” And in a footnote for Rev. 18:3 this same Catholic Bible states: “Rome is condemned for her lewdness, symbol of idolatry (see note on Rv. 14,4) and for persecuting the church”. - (See footnote #148.) The footnote for Rev. 14:4 noted above in the NAB tells us about God’s chosen 144,000 that they are “pure: ... because they never indulged in any idolatrous practices, which are [figuratively] considered to be adultery and fornication.”
But Babylon the Great cannot simply be the pagan Roman Empire as the Catholic Church believes because, at Rev. 16:19, we find it is still in existence as a world-domineering power at the very end time after the gathering of the armies at Armageddon. The Roman Empire didn’t collapse until shortly after 400 A. D., and it had already been under the influence (“ridden by”) the Roman Church for nearly 100 years by then! So, if Babylon the Great really pictures some great power seated on the seven hills of Rome as Catholic sources tell us, then it cannot be the ancient Roman Empire which died about 1600 years ago! What power has been seated there since the time of Constantine? The seat of the most powerful and most populous religious organization the world has ever seen! What could be a more appropriate symbol for all of worldwide false religion?
Entire Study File
Trinity Index
No comments:
Post a Comment