Is America Mystery Babylon?

The view that Mystery Babylon is fulfilled in America is becoming more accepted, however it violates the prophetic/historical pattern that I discuss in the four kingdoms. Notably, Babylon is the first kingdom which establishes a new world order, not the last one that culminates the existing world order. Also in Rev 18:10 we are told of “that great city Babylon” and in Rev 17:18 we read “the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” We are further told in Rev 17:4-6 that Mystery Babylon is a woman dunk with the blood of the saints. While America does reign over many kingdoms of the earth, it is not drunk with the blood of the saints. Now we know from other texts, (that I won’t go into) that in prophecy a woman represents a religious entity, while a beast represents a political entity. This is why in Rev17:3 we are told that Babylon is riding a scarlet colored beast. We learn from this that while Babylon does contain a political dimension, it is predominantly a religious entity. Ultimately, Mystery Babylon represents a false church-state union: a state under the control of a church. This is not true of America with its separation of church and state. Lastly we are told that Babylon is the mother of all the abominations of the earth – this indicates that Babylon is not merely a novelty of the last two hundred years but has a very long and sullied history.

Now in talking about the religious dimension of Mystery Babylon we are referring not merely to external ceremonies and liturgies but to its religious character – its policies, morals and maxims; its underlying principles. Rev 17:2 refers this to this as her wine with which she has made the inhabitants of the earth drunk – these define the spirit of Babylon. Babylon is the origin of this spirit – she has nurtured, developed and refined it and made the earth drunk with it. Now while the political aspect of the Babylonian first kingdom in the cycle is always possessed by this same spirit, this character permeates beyond the temporal boundaries of the first kingdom. We can see this in that the spirit of antichrist (1 John 4:3) had already come under the 4th kingdom (Roman empire) even while the antichrist was yet to come under the holy roman empire. So too, the spirit of Babylon precedes and prepares the way for the political dominion of Babylon.

Politically, Mystery Babylon (the 1st kingdom) has always established a new world order and universal religion – of the man of sin upon the ruins of the 4th kingdom, which has not taken place yet. The 4th kingdom lays the groundwork for the rise of Mystery Babylon, it becomes infused with the spirit of Babylon foreshadowing what is to come. This is taking place right now. According to Rev13 the dragon (ie Daniel’s 4th kingdom) passes its power and seat and great authority to the reincarnation of the 1st (beast) kingdom. For example Assyria (the 4th kingdom in the 1st cycle) in its last years relocated its capital to Babylon for a time and adopted the Babylonian worship of Bel. The pagan Roman Empire (4th kingdom in the 2nd cycle) relocated its capital to Constantinople and adopted Catholicism. Towards the end of its time the 4th kingdom always changes its character and takes on the Babylonian attributes that will characterize the coming new world order. America (4th kingdom in the 3rd cycle) is in the process of doing this.

While America is becoming infused with the spirit of Babylon, it represents the tail end of the old world order which even though it is on its last legs, still remains. America may aspire to become master of the new world order, but it can not be, because it, like the Roman Empire and Assyrian empires before it, has lost its way, and wasted its economic and moral strength. What strength it still retains, is being directed for the benefit of outside interests, to make the way for the coming new world order and when that is established, America will be removed from the scene so that the real power behind the Babylonian new world order can ascend his prepared throne.

Now Paul tells us in 2 Thess 2:
3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
4 Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
5 Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

Almost all 1st and 2nd century Christians understood Paul’s meaning here to be that the coming new world order in that cycle of history (the holy roman empire – with its Babylonian man of sin) could not arise while the old Roman empire (“he that withholdeth”, “he that letteth”) remained and that when that finally collapsed, antichrist’s Babylonian new world order would arise. The same is true today.

While America stands, the Babylonian political new world order can not arise. However while the character and Spirit of Babylon may have so completely infused America today that it has a resemblance to Babylon and moves in step with the goals of Mystery Babylon, and has become part of Babylon in a spiritual sense, it is not Mystery Babylon in the ultimate sense. The more it assumes the spirit/character of Mystery Babylon, the closer it comes to having its political dominion taken away so that the man of sin may be revealed, ushering in his new world order – Mystery Babylon in its fullness.