What is Babylon the Great? – ?⛪️???

[Bible Speaks]

What is Babylon the Great? 

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It is the global system of religion that bears the earmarks of ancient Babylon. (Revelation, chapters 17, 18)              Consider some of the similarities:
• The priests of ancient Babylon were deeply involved in the nation’s political affairs. That is true of much religion today.
• Babylon’s priests often promoted the nation’s warfare. Modern-day religion has often been in the forefront of those blessing soldiers as the nations have gone to war.
• The teachings and practices of ancient Babylon led the nation into gross immorality. When religious leaders today push the Bible’s standard of morality aside, immorality is rampant among both clergy and laity. Noteworthy also is the fact that because Babylon the Great prostitutes herself to the world and its political systems, Revelation depicts her as a harlot.
• The Bible also says that Babylon the Great lives “in shameless luxury.” In ancient Babylon, the temple organization acquired extensive landholdings, and the priests became prominent in commercial activities. Today, in addition to places of worship, Babylon the Great has vast commercial holdings. Her teachings and her holidays bring great riches both to her and to others in the business world.
• Use of images, magic, and sorcery were common in ancient Babylon, as they are in many places today. Death was viewed as a passage to another kind of life. Babylon was filled with temples and chapels in honor of its gods, but the Babylonians opposed worshipers of Jehovah. The same beliefs and practices identify Babylon the Great.

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In ancient times, Jehovah maneuvered powerful political and military nations to punish those who showed persistent disregard for him and his will. Thus Samaria was destroyed by the Assyrians in 740 B.C.E. Jerusalem was devastated by the Babylonians in 607 B.C.E. and by the Romans in 70 C.E. Babylon, in turn, was conquered by the Medes and the Persians in 539 B.C.E. For our day, the Bible forecasts that political governments, like a wild beast, will turn on “the harlot” and strip her naked, exposing her real character. They will completely destroy her.—Revelation 17:16.

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Will the world’s governments really do such a thing? The Bible states that ‘God will put it into their hearts.’ (Revelation 17:17) It will be sudden, surprising, shocking, not foreseeable or gradual.

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