At Revelation 17, an angel says to the apostle John: "Come, I will show you the judgment upon the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, whereas those who inhabit the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.”(Rev 17:1, 2) This "harlot" is later given a name, a "mystery: "Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” (Rev 17:5)
Who is this mystic "Babylon the Great", that (1) "sits on many waters", (2) commits ' fornication with the kings of the earth', (3) has made ' those who inhabit the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication', (4) is "drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" (Rev 17:6), (5) and is "sitting upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns" (Rev 17:3), (6) that has misled ' all the nations with her spiritistic practices' ?(Rev 18:23)
Revelation 17:18 says that Babylon the Great "has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.” Thus, she wields tremendous power and authority over even "the kings of the earth", greatly influencing how they use their authority, and forming political policy. Since this "harlot" is named "Babylon the Great", then ancient Babylon provides clues as to her identification.
At Jeremiah 50, it calls ancient Babylon "a land of graven images".(Jer 50:38) Isaiah 46:1 names two of its gods - Bel and Nebo. At Daniel 5:4, it says concerning Belshazzar and his "grandees", that "they drank wine, and they praised the gods of gold and of silver, copper, iron, wood and stone." Furthermore, some 70 years earlier, Belshazzar's grandfather, Nebuchadnezzar used divination concerning Jerusalem, for Ezekiel 21:21 says that "the king of Babylon stood still at the crossways, at the head of the two ways, in order to resort to divination. He has shaken the arrows. He has asked by means of the teraphim; he has looked into the liver."
In addition, archaeologists has unearthed the ruins of ancient Babylon, finding out that the fertility goddess Ishtar had at least 180 altars devoted to her alone, notwithstanding all the other gods. An ancient cunieform inscription was unearthed that revealed that there were in Babylon 53 temples of the chief gods, 55 chapels of Marduk, 300 chapels for the earthly deities, 600 for the heavenly deities, 180 altars for the goddess Ishtar, 180 for the gods Nergal and Adad and 12 other altars for different gods.(The Bible as History, W Keller, 1964, pg 301) Thus, ancient Babylon was extremely religious, and in which no decisions were made without looking to one of their gods.
The "harlot", Babylon the Great, "sits on many waters" or "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues"(Rev 17:15), as a "mother of the harlots" or individual religious denominations and sects over the earth, such as Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhist, Shintoism, as one survey identified 19 major religious faiths and some 10,000 smaller religions worldwide.
She has ' committed fornication with the kings of the earth', having made intimate alliances with many of the nations on earth. For example, on July 20, 1933, the Catholic church made an alliance with Hitler, with Cardinal Pacelli (who later became Pope Pius XII) signing the Reichskonkordat or treaty between the Catholic church and Nazi Germany. This one step made it possible for Hitler to attain to world power and gave thrust to Hitler starting World War II.
In his book Satan in Top Hat (1941), Tibor Koeves writes of this, stating: “The Concordat was a great victory for Hitler. It gave him the first moral support he had received from the outer world, and this from the most exalted source.” The concordat required the Vatican to withdraw its support from Germany’s Catholic Center Party, thus sanctioning Hitler’s one-party “total state.”
Babylon the Great has made all the earth "drunk with the wine of her fornication."(Rev 17:2) A drunken person cannot reason rationally, but often makes illogical decisions, being influenced by alcohol. Likewise of those who are under the "harlot's" influence, these being "drunk" or under her control, closely following what she dictates in the form of false religion, promoting such false religious doctrines as the trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, worship of Mary and the "saints", having a clergy-laity distinction, calling the religious leaders by such titles as Holy Father, Father, abbott, priest, Reverend, Most Right Reverend, Monsignor (meaning "my Lord"), Eminence, Cardinal, Lord, etc.
This notorious "harlot" also is "drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus."(Rev 17:5) Jesus told the Jewish religious leaders that they were part of this global false religious empire, saying: "Serpents, offspring of vipers, how are you to flee from the judgment of Ge·hen´na? For this reason, here I am sending forth to you prophets and wise men and public instructors. Some of them you will kill and impale, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; that there may come upon you all the righteous blood spilled on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zech·a·ri´ah son of Bar·a·chi´ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar."(Matt 23:33-35)
Jesus placed responsibility for the deaths of all the righteous ones, from Abel to Zechariah, at their feet, and putting them as part of the "harlot", Babylon the Great, for "in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.”(Rev 18:24) Through her making all the nations "drunk" with her false religious teachings and practices, she has been found guilty of "all those who have been slaughtered on the earth." What monumental shedding of blood for which she will pay with her life, especially "the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus" !
She sits "upon a scarlet-colored wild beast that was full of blasphemous names and that had seven heads and ten horns."(Rev 17:3) This "scarlet-colored wild beast" is a political institution that is granted "breath" or life by means of "another wild beast ascending out of the earth, and it had two horns like a lamb, but it began speaking as a dragon."(Rev 13:11)
The "wild beast" that looks like a "lamb", but speaks as a "dragon" is the Anglo-American dual world power. In 1920, America with the assistance of Britian, set up the League of Nations, that continued on until 1939, when it went defunct. Thus, Britain/America gave "breath" or life to it.(Rev 13:15) Hence, initially, the League of Nations is the "scarlet-colored wild beast", but it became ' as not' in 1939 with the outbreak of WWII, yet ascended "out of the abyss" in 1945 as the United Nations, that now has 194 members.
Why is the "scarlet-colored wild beast" noted by Jehovah God as "full of blasphemous names" ? Because, as Revelation 17: 8 further says, that "those who dwell on the earth will wonder admiringly" concerning this "image of the wild beast" (Rev 13:14), giving accolade upon accolade to it, praising it, with it replacing God's kingdom as the only hope for peace on earth in the eyes of the nations, including those who are part of Christendom.
Before the League of Nations came to reality, as early as December 18, 1918, the body now known as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in America adopted a declaration that declared in part: “Such a League is not a mere political expedient; it is rather the political expression of the Kingdom of God on earth. . . . The Church can give a spirit of good-will, without which no League of Nations can endure. . . . The League of Nations is rooted in the Gospel. Like the Gospel, its objective is ‘peace on earth, good-will toward men.’”
On January 2, 1919, the San Francisco Chronicle carried the front-page headline: “Pope Pleads for Adoption of Wilson’s League of Nations.” Thus, Babylon the Great has had great influence in the political arena, swaying political leaders in this or that direction.
By her "spiritistic practices" she continues to mislead "all the nations". However, in the last few years, there has been a change toward her, for many are turning against religion, with some seeing her corruption. Her "waters" or the "peoples and crowds" that are her support, are ' drying up '.(Rev 16:12)
This makes the way "for the kings from the rising of the sun", Jehovah God and his appointed king, Jesus Christ. In the near future, her destruction will be by the very "beast" she is riding, the United Nations, in which, at its behest, direct the "ten horns" or all the political governments on earth, to "hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire."(Rev 17:16)
This order to destroy the "harlot" does not originate with either "the scarlet-colored wild beast" or the "ten horns", but "God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished."(Rev 17:17)