There are over 30 passages in the book of Revelation that it's fulfillment was about to happen. Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6-20. Revelation is NOT about events of the 21st century. The events take place around the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in AD 70. This is regarding Babylon.
REVIEW
Let's review a few passages Revelation 18:10b; 19b, 20, 24;
19:1, 2, 11, 16
The GREAT CITY Babylon is judged at the coming of the Lord. Where is this taking
place. Where are these events to take place? What city is Jesus telling his
disciples to flee from and go to the mountains. What city takes the fall for
killing the prophets? What city is about to be destroyed? Come on!
The Bible tells us that Babylon is the old covenant Jerusalem.
In Revelation 11:8 who is the GREAT CITY? it's Jerusalem. John tells us it's the city where Jesus is was crucified. That GREAT CITY Babylon is Jerusalem. It's clearly identified.
Revelation 18:21-23 Then a strong angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "So will Babylon, the GREAT CITY, be thrown down with violence, and will never be found again. 22 And the sound of harpists, musicians, flute players, and trumpeters will never be heard in you again; and no craftsman of any craft will ever be found in you again; and the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again; 23 and the light of a lamp will never shine in you again; and the voice of the groom and bride will never be heard in you again; for your merchants were the powerful people of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your witchcraft.
a. From this verse we're told Babylon is the GREAT CITY which is Old Covenant Jerusalem, thrown down never to be found again. Many think it cannot be Jerusalem because Jerusalem is still here on earth. The problem with that thinking is Old Covenant Jerusalem is NOT Jerusalem of today. Josephus writes, "There was nothing to make those that came thither believe it had ever been inhabited."17 The Babylon of Revelation 18 is old-covenant Jerusalem. Babylon was "never found again" because old-covenant Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD and rebuilt both physically and spiritually under a new covenant.
In the new covenant. Babylon will "never be found again". After the Law was fulfilled and wicked old-covenant Jerusalem was destroyed in 70AD. New covenant Jerusalem was then rebuilt from the ashes of the old city both literally and spiritually and given a new name in Revelation 21 and 22, the New Jerusalem.
The fact that the voice
of bride and bridegroom were not to be heard again in apostate Jerusalem, the
whore of Babylon, appears to also have symbolic significance. The bride and
bridegroom mentioned in Revelation 18:23 could also be said to signify Jesus and
His church as indicated later in Revelation 21:2: "I saw the Holy City, the new
Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully
dressed for her husband [Christ]." The voice of the bridegroom was not heard
again in apostate Jerusalem because apostate Jerusalem killed Jesus Christ.
Similarly, the voice of the bride of Christ, the Christian church, was also
never to be heard again in apostate Jerusalem before her destruction because the
Christian church left Jerusalem a few years before its fall in 70AD
The same message is conveyed at the beginning of v. 23: "The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again." This lamp, like the bride and bridegroom, also
represents the Body of Christ, Jesus and His church, as illustrated in
Revelation 1:20 and 21:23: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven lampstands are the seven churches [emphasis mine] (Revelation
1:20)." "The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the
glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb [Jesus Christ] is its lamp [emphasis
mine] (Revelation 21:23).
Revelation 17 Jerusalem
the whore of Babylon
Revelation 17 Jerusalem is not just called the whore of Babylon she is also
depicted as a whore in highly suggestive sexual imagery illustrating Jerusalem,
the whore of Babylon, in the act of adultery. In Revelation 17:3 the whore of
Babylon is shown sitting on the beast representing Rome which is also identified
as the seven hills of Rome and seven kings in Revelation 17:9-10. (Note: The
fact that the whore of Babylon sits on the beast in v. 3 and the city of seven
hills in v. 9 doesn't mean she is Rome it just implies that the beast is the
city of seven hills (i.e. Rome)) The fact that Jerusalem, the whore of Babylon,
is called a whore and is depicted sitting on Rome and its seven Caesars in
Revelation 17:3; 9-10 is sexual imagery illustrating her as a whore in the act
of sexual intercourse.
According to Isaiah 54:5, Israel was in a marriage covenant with God. However,
Jerusalem committed adultery against her God, spiritual husband and king by
killing the Messiah and His people and declaring Caesar, the beast, her king
instead during Christ's crucifixion: "We have no king but Caesar!" (John 19:15).
This rejection of Christ, Jerusalem's spiritual husband, in favor of Caesar is
depicted as an adulterous affair between the beast, representing Rome and its
Caesars, and Jerusalem in Revelation 17 and 18. Because of this illicit sexual
union between Rome and Jerusalem, Jerusalem is called Babylon. Babylon was the
Jews' nickname for Rome as explicitly stated in 1QpHab of the Dead Sea Scrolls
which dates between 1 and 30 B.C. This nickname became especially appropriate
after the Jewish War because both Rome and Babylon literally destroyed the
physical temple in Jerusalem (6th century B.C. and A.D. 70) and exiled Jews
throughout their respective empires. However, Jerusalem is called Babylon,
Rome's epithet, because both cities became one in the same way that when a man
has relations with a whore the two become one flesh: "[T]he one who joins
himself to a prostitute is one body with her[.] For He says, "The two shall
become one flesh (1 Corinthians 6:16)." Thus Jerusalem, the whore or prostitute
of Babylon (Rome), is spiritually called Babylon, Rome's epithet, throughout the
Apocalypse because these two cities became one flesh as a result of their
adulterous affair-like a wife taking the name of her husband. In Revelation 11:8
Jerusalem is spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. In Revelation 17 she is also
spiritually called Babylon, Rome's nickname.
Just as ancient Babylon destroyed the temple of God in Jerusalem, first century
Jerusalem and Rome each destroyed the spiritual temple of God. The spiritual
temple of God is the body of Christ which represents both Christ and His people.
In John 2:19-21 Jesus refers to His body as a temple: "Destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up." The saints are also called the temple of God
in 1 Corinthians 3:16: "Do you not know that you [the Christian saints] are a
temple of God ..." Obeying the will of the religious elite of Jerusalem, Rome
enacted the execution of Jesus in A.D. 33. Thus Jerusalem and Rome both took
part in the unjust death of Christ. Shortly after Jesus' crucifixion, Jerusalem
also persecuted the early Christian saints in her midst according to Acts 8:1.
Then during the reign of Nero Caesar, Rome persecuted the Christian saints in
A.D. 64. Here one can see how both Jerusalem and Rome are called Babylon in the
Book of Revelation because both cities destroyed the temple of God.
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Revelation 16:19
Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations
fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the
wine of the fierceness of His wrath.
Verse 19: It should be noted that the city was broken up into three parts. This can only mean Jerusalem. This is a reference to Ezekiel 5:1-12, when the prophet was required to shave his head and divide it into three parts, and was told by God: "This is Jerusalem" (Ezek 5:5). One third was burned, one third was chopped up by the sword, and the last third was scattered into the wind. This happened in 586 B.C. (some were burned inside the city, some were slain by swords by the Babylonians, and the remaining were scattered among the nations). The city was again divided like this in 70 A.D. Josephus, and also the early church writer Eusebius, tell us that at least 1.1 million Jews were killed in the burning of the Second Temple and Jerusalem, some due to the fire, and some due to the sword Just as in 586 BC, those who survived were sold into slavery: