The Babylon harlot of Revelation 17 is the "great city" mentioned there, NOT the "churches of Christendom" like you are implying.
What you are implying against Christ's Church on earth is a working of the "spirit of antichrist".
NOTHING can destroy Christ's Church, the difference is that those who fall away from it are 'cut off', pruned.
The churches of Christendom are
not "Christ's Church", for these have apostasized and that Jesus said would fully blossom after the death of the apostles, "while men were sleeping".(Matt 13:25)
These have set up a clergy-laity class that the apostle Paul wrote of at 2 Thessalonians 2, in which he wrote, saying that before "the presence (Greek
parousias meaning "presence" and
not the Greek word
erkhomenon meaning "coming" as at Matt 24:30) of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him....Let no one seduce you in any manner, because it will not come unless the
apostasy (Greek
apostasia meaning "deflection from the truth",
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, G646) comes first and the man of lawlessness gets revealed, the son of destruction. He is set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called “god” or an object of reverence, so that he sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god."(2 Thess 2:1, 3, 4)
Not only have the churches promoted falsehood, such as the trinity, hellfire, immortality of the soul, veneration of saints, worship of Mary as the "mother of God", idol worship, etc, but have exalted themselves by means of a clergy class that "sits down in the temple of The God, publicly showing himself to be a god." This clergy class Paul calls "the man of lawlessness", which has been explicitly revealed during Jesus (invisible) "presence" that began in 1914 when he was installed as king of God's kingdom.
This clergy class opposes Jehovah God, attacking his faithful servants and discouraging anyone from critically examining the Bible, being "set in opposition and lifts himself up over everyone who is called "god" or an object of reverence". Thus, following the death of the apostles, there has been an apostasizing of true Christianity. Ignatius of Antioch fostered the idea of a clergy-laity class, but it was Cyprian (200?-258) that built upon this false religious idea.
Augustus Neander, in his book
The History of the Christian Religion and Church, During the Three First Centuries, explains what happened: “In the second century . . . , the standing office of president of the presbyters must have been formed, to whom, inasmuch as he had especially the oversight of every thing, was the name of [
e·pi´sko·pos, from which some have rendered as "bishop"] given, and he was thereby
distinguished from the rest of the presbyters.”
The groundwork was thus laid for a clergy class gradually to emerge. About a century later, Cyprian, “bishop” of Carthage, North Africa, was a strong advocate of authority of the bishops—as a group separate from the presbyters (later known as priests), the deacons, and the laity. But he did not favor the primacy of one bishop over the others.
Side note: The English word “priest” derives from
pre·sby´te·ros (“older man,” or “elder”) as follows: from Middle English
pre(e)st, from Old English
prēost, from Vulgar Latin
prester, contracted from Late Latin
presbyter, from Greek
pre·sby´te·ros.
As bishops and presbyters ascended the hierarchical ladder, they left below it the rest of the believers in the congregation. This resulted in a separation between clergy (those taking the lead) and laity (the passive body of believers). Explains McClintock and Strong’s
Cyclopedia: “From the time of Cyprian [who died about 258 C.E.], the father of the hierarchical system, the distinction of clergy and laity became
prominent, and very soon was universally admitted. Indeed, from the third century onward, the term
clerus . . . was almost exclusively applied to the ministry to distinguish it from the laity. As the Roman hierarchy was developed, the clergy came to be not merely a distinct order . . . but also to be recognised as the only priesthood.”
Thus, within 150 years or so of the death of the last of the apostles, two significant organizational changes found their way into the congregation: first, the separation between the bishop and the presbyters, with the bishop occupying the top rung of the hierarchical ladder; second, the separation between the clergy and the laity. Instead of all spirit-begotten believers forming “a royal priesthood,” the clergy were now “recognised as the only priesthood.”(1 Pet. 2:9)
Such changes marked a defection from the Scriptural method of governing the congregations in apostolic days. Hence, just as Jesus had illustrated, the one true religion that he had established had become apostate, setting up a clergy class that dominated over the laity, in contrast to Jesus words that "all of you are brothers".(Matt 23:8)
This clergy class in the past has had "the power of life and death", putting the death those who even had a Bible in their possession and placing on thrones individuals, such as Charlemagne (Charles the Great) who was crowned king by Pope Leo III in 800 C.E., as well as disposing kings. But the harlotrous Babylon the Great required payment, so that "Charles . . . reiterated, in St. Peter’s Basilica, his father’s promise to transfer to papal rule large sections of Italy.” The same source adds: “In his politically conditioned religiosity, the empire and the church grew into an institutional and spiritual unit.”(
The New Encyclopædia Britannica) These "scratched" each others back.
In these "last days" however, the
one true religion would be reestablished. Isaiah was inspired to write: "And it must occur in the
final part of the days [that] the mountain of the house of Jehovah will become
firmly established above the top of the mountains, and it will certainly be lifted up above the hills; and to it all the nations must stream. And many peoples will certainly go and say: “Come, you people, and let us go up to the
mountain of Jehovah, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will
instruct us about his ways, and we will
walk in his paths.” For out of Zion law will go forth, and the word of Jehovah out of Jerusalem. And he will certainly render judgment among the nations and set matters straight respecting many peoples. And they will have to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning shears. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, neither will they learn war anymore."(Isa 2:2-4, Micah 4:1-3)
Thence, "Christ's Church" are
not the churches of Christendom but those "doing the will of the Father" (Matt 7:21), those who are "no part of the world", not mingling with the political elements, but remaining politically neutral, "touching nothing unclean".(2 Cor 6:17) "Christ's Church" is at the forefront of the preaching of "the good news of the kingdom" (Matt 24:14), going to all the nations, making disciples, ' teaching them to observe Jesus words '.(Matt 28:19, 20) These assist others to heed the call: "
Get of out her (Babylon the Great), my people, if you do not want to share in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues."(Rev 18:4)
