From: littlejs@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu (Jeffrey S Little) Subject: Re: Revelations - BABYLON? Reply-To: littlejs@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu (Jeffrey S Little) Organization: Computer Science Department at Rose-Hulman Lines: 38 In article JBUDDENBERG@vax.cns.muskingum.edu (Jimmy Buddenberg) writes: > > Hello all. We are doing a bible study (at my college) on Revelations. We > have been doing pretty good as far as getting some sort of reasonable > interpretation. We are now on chapters 17 and 18 which talk about the > woman on the beast and the fall of Babylon. I believe the beast is the > Antichrist (some may differ but it seems obvious) and the woman represents > Babylon which stands for Rome or the Roman Catholic Church. What are some > views on this interpretation? Is the falling Babylon in chapter 18 the same > Babylon in as in chapter 17? The Catholic church? > Hate to step on toes. > thanks An interesting interpretation of Revelation 17 and 18 has been given by evangelist David Wilkerson. I am not saying that I totally agree with his interpretation, but it is certainly believable and good food for thought. He interprets the Babylon of Revelation 17-18 as being none other than the good old U. S. of A. That's right, America. He supports his claim in several ways. The Babylon of Revelation is THE world leader in trade and commerce, and the WHOLE WORLD wept when Babylon fell. The American dollar, despite the Japanese success of the 20th century, is STILL the most sought after currency in the world. If the U.S. were destroyed, wouldn't the whole world mourn? The bible also talks about Babylon being a home of harlots, sin, and adultery (I am paraphrasing, of course). Babylon's sin affected, or should I say, infected, the whole world. It doesn't take much looking to see that the U.S. is in a state of moral decay. Hasn't the American culture and Hollywood spread the "do it if it feels good" mentality all over the world. I think, though, that what Mr. Wilkerson uses as his strongest argument is the fact that Revelation calls Babylon "Babylon the Great" and portrays it as the most powerful nation on earth. No matter how dissatisfied you are with the state of our country, I don't think you would have too much trouble agreeing that the U.S. is STILL the most powerful nation on earth. Again, this interpretation is not NECESSARILY my own, but I do find it worthy of consideration. Jeffrey Little