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BABYLON IS NOT ROME NOR THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

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BABYLON AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Babylon

By Ken Blue

“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Revelation 18:4.

The standard teaching is that the Catholic Church is Babylon, and that God is calling for believers to come out of it. However, nothing could be further from the truth. I have always wondered why those who are opposed to spiritualizing Scripture take such liberty in the book of Revelation, especially with chapters 2, 3, 17, 18.

When the Jews flee in the Tribulation, it will be safer for them in the city of Babylon than in Jerusalem; many will go there for protection. Two things were necessary for this to happen. One, Israel had to be back in their land as a nation, and the City of Babylon had to be rebuilt. Both have happened.

When God said, “Come out of her, my people…” He is speaking a literal city and a specific time. Look at the context of:

  • Jeremiah 51:6 “Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompense.”
  • Jeremiah 51:6. “Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies.”
  • Micah 4:10. Be in pain, and labour to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in travail: for now shalt thou go forth out of the city, and thou shalt dwell in the field, and thou shalt go even to Babylon; there shalt thou be delivered; there the LORD shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies. (Read context.) 

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Although the Catholic Church practices much of Babylon’s religion, she is but one of the many offshoots.[/pullquote]

  • Jeremiah 50:4-9 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. 5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten. 6My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. 7All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers. 8 Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks. 9For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain.
  • Jeremiah 51:5-8 For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel. 6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD’S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence. 7 Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’S hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. 8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
  •  Jeremiah 51:45 My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD.

Therefore, there is no doubt that the Lord is speaking of literal Jews, and He is calling them out of the literal city of Babylon just prior to its destruction as described in the above text. There is absolutely no thought of the Catholic Church in these verses. The idolatry and wickedness of Babylon was in full existence long before Rome ever existed. If you don’t know that, you haven’t read the Old Testament, or of her influence on all the nations, including Israel. Although the Catholic Church practices much of Babylon’s religion, she is but one of the many offshoots. Babylon is not the Catholic Church.

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About Ken Blue

Pastor Ken Blue was born in Boswell, Ark. In 1955 he accepted Christ as his Savior. He and his wife Joyce were married in 1955. They have 5 children. He graduated from Midwestern Baptist Bible College in 1969 and started the Open Door Baptist Church in Lynnwood, Wa. where he pastored for 39 years. Because of health issues (ALS) he was forced to resign as pastor. It is his desire to continue to be used of God to help pastors and believers through this ministry.