“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” Revelation 14:9-11. (NASB)

Babylon, drinking wine, immorality; what are these symbols? According to Genesis 10:8-10 Babylon was the first city to be built. Babel came to mean ‘confusion’ because it was here that God confused their tongues (languages). Under king Nebuchadnezzar the Neo-Babylonian empire reached the height of its glory. Under his grandson, Belshazzar, the city sank to its depths and fell. (Read the story in Daniel 5).

God uses the term “Babylon” symbolically in Revelation to represent a system that opposes His kingdom and people. This verse is expanded in Revelation 17 and 18. The phrase “Babylon is fallen,” is in the past tense, meaning it has already taken place. She has fallen in the eyes of God, but not necessarily in the eyes of man. This verse announces her falling, but the actual destruction does not take place until Revelation 18.

Babylon refers to that spiritual confederacy made up of the dragon (Rev 12), the sea beast and the land beast (Rev 13) – the trinity of evil. This worldwide organization will control the world in the end and will deceive men with a mixture of three beliefs, and all the world will follow. The dragon of Rev 12 is paganism, the sea beast of Rev 13 is papal Rome or Catholicism, and the land beast of Rev 13 is the false prophet, or apostate Protestantism under the American banner. This power makes an image to the first beast. This belief system is the wine that the world will be made to drink. The unholy alliance (sexual immorality) is the nations forming partnerships with her. Combined with the imagery of Revelation 17:2 we see the kings of the earth committing fornication with her, we see the uniting of church and state, which is the image to the beast, to enforce her beliefs, making the world drunk with her wine. The “wine of her fornication” represents the false teachings that deceive the world, therefore it must represent something the vast majority of the world believes – something contrary to the teachings of the Bible.

One common belief common to spiritualism, Catholicism and the false prophet is the concept of the immortality of the soul. While this was the devil’s first lie in Eden – when you die you don’t die – it came to Christianity via Greek mythology. However, the Bible is clear on this “the soul that sins shall die.” Ezekiel 18:4. Only God has immortality Paul said in 1 Timothy 6:15-16. “The dead know nothing” said Solomon in Ecclesiastes 9:5-6. The Bible repeatedly refers to death as a sleep e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:51 and John 11:11-15. After this sleep, which knows no passing of time, comes the resurrection constantly referred to in scripture e.g., 1 Thessalonians 4:161, Corinthians 15:51-55.

Closely related to this is the doctrine of eternal punishing, where God is transformed into a monster who will roast and torment people for eternity if they don’t submit to Him. This doctrine, not taught in scripture, is one of the abominations invented during the middle ages to scare people into submission. It has made many an atheist.

Babylon’s wine cup is full of false teachings, and we must compare all of them with scripture to make sure we are not being lead astray. The doctrine of salvation by works as opposed to the Biblical teach of grace is another of her false teachings found in every false religion, including false versions of Christianity.

Sunday sacredness is another belief that comes from paganism, adopted by the Catholic Church and bequeathed to Protestantism. The greatest argument for the sabbath (as opposed to keeping Sunday, the first day of the week holy,) is that there is no argument in the Bible for the change. The early church debated many things, had Paul or any disciple advocated a change of day there would have been a huge debate; but there is none. That is because the change came a lot latter.