Changed my mind (but still no apologies necessary, dear Searcher (peace to you!)), as there ARE new folks to update all the time. So, I offer the following (and yes, Christendom would be an accurate culprit, but a particular PART of Christendom):
Babylon the Great is not the "world empire of false religion" as taught by the WTBTS." She is the combined entities of Israel (including but not limited to Judaism) and "christianity" (the world of christendom)... including Judeo-Christianity... which is actually pretty easy to see when you look at her description:
1. She is an adulteress. In order for her to be an adulteress, she had to be a WIFE. And she was, indeed, the wife of a KING, as she states, "I sit a QUEEN." She is a woman, then, who perhaps once sat as a queen but due to her adultery no longer does but only thinks she does - because she is unwilling to acknowledge her adultery and thus the loss of her "place." In this, she is those who once professed a union to the Highest King, the MOST Holy One of Israel, JAHVEH, and so His “wife”... and thus Israel... and later who professed the same union with His Son and appointed king, the HOLY One of Israel, JAHESHUA, the Chosen One of JAH (MishaJah). Both of these, rather than remaining true to their husbandly-owners, and so follow THEIR law, which a wife is BOUND to do ALL the days HE is alive... turned to following the laws of other “men.” (1 Corinthians 7:39)
Both Israel (and particularly Judaism) and christianity committed "adultery", when... thinking their husband dead... they took up with other "men," so as to commit fornication and thus “join” themselves to these... which men are “the kings of the earth,” her paramours.
Israel did it a few times. First, when, having run out of patience when Moses delayed coming back down the mountain, they built a golden calf and began calling IT their "husband" when they began to bow down to and worship IT... rather than remaining "faithful" to their TRUE husbandly-owner, the MOST Holy One of Israel JAHVEH. They did this in their haste to be UNDER LAW. They did so again when they rejected JAH as their king and asked for a king "like the nations" to rule over them (and so, became subject to HIS, the king's, laws, making HIM their "husbandly-owner"). Again, in their haste to be UNDER LAW. They did it AGAIN, when they rejected JAH for the Ba'al and other false idols of the nations and began worshipping them, so as to adhere to THEIR laws (those idols, which required things like passing one's children through the first, which is something that never even came up into JAH's heart). In their haste to be UNDER LAW. And they did it again, when they (predominantly Judaiam) rejected the king HE sent to them, to become "married" to them, His Son, the HOLY One of Israel, JAHESHUA, the Chosen One of JAH (MiscaJah)... because of loving the law of another, Moses. They rejected a releasing from THAT law... for a “better” law... pursuant to a better “husband.”
[NOTE: To help those who might not understand why a woman would want to BE bound to a husband and his law, I need to explain what that means. We, today, consider “husband” as being the male part of a marriage union. This is true. But the word “husband” comes from the term “husbandry”... which is NOT related to marriage... but to cultivating/gardening... and caring for livestock. For example, animal husbandry. A “husband” is one that CARES for, in the sense of taking care OF, the thing(s) in his charge: a garden, field, vineyard, herd, flock, etc. And so the LAW of a “husband,” is that which he engages in order to CARE for the things under his care. Hence, if a sheep does not obey the LAW of its husband (i.e., shepherd, caretaker) it COULD become vulnerable to all manner of dangers, including but not limited to wolves, lions, deep pits/ravines, etc. So, when you see the statement of women being “bound” to the law of their husbands, keep in mind that, during these times, husbands were responsible for and had to CARE for their wives. Given things like marauding bands, hunger, etc., it was sometime imperative for a man to take the lead... and a wife to submit to his law: for them BOTH... and perhaps others in the household... to stay alive.]
2. She is the "mother of the harlots."
Because her children are harlots, they are, by definition, also women, the “women” described in Revelation 14 as those with whom the 144,000 (sons of Israel) did NOT “defile” themselves with. THEY are children she births... not the kings of the earth. Indeed, the kings are those who FATHER her “children,” those “women.” We know that these harlots and women are the same because one can “defile” themselves by having relations with these “women.” One does not defile oneself by having relations with one’s wife, who is considered a “clean” woman (1 Corinthians 6:15, 16). What are these “women”? They are the religious sects that are “born” of the fornication/adultery of those who WERE (or claimed to be) joined to God/Christ... with the “kings of the earth,” the leaders/fomenters of the HUMAN authorities you mentioned.
3. In HER is the blood of the prophets.
Only two entities are responsible for the blood of God’s prophets: Israel (and, after a time, primarily Judaism) and “Christianity”. In THESE two are found “all the righteous blood spilled on the earth.” From the blood of righteous Abel, to the blood of Zechariah, to the blood of Christ, to the blood of the holy ones and faithful ones in union WITH Christ. These have been responsible for killing ALL those sent to them by the Word of God, the HOLY One of Israel. While there are other religions that may have put a servant of the True God to death, they were never His wife or Christ’s Bride. So while they have some responsibility for blood of righteous ones, it is not as the entity Babylon the Great.
Babylon the Great, then, is the composite of those adulterous people who either once belonged to God and/or Christ... or claimed to... and yet, in committing fornication with human authorities... killed the prophets sent to her to warn her of her adultery. She includes the GB of the WTBTS, the leaders of the Lutheran and Catholic faiths who killed Jews during WWII, the leaders of the Protestant movement that called for the death of and/or killed in witch hunts and under other false pretenses those who opposed them as false christs and false prophets, those of the Church who killed, by burning at the stake and other heinous means, those who opposed them for the same reasons, those of the Jewish system who called for and/or put the death Christ, and his followers during the 1 st century and up to the establishment of the Church, and those of Israel and Judah who called for/put to death the Prophets sent to her.
I hope this helps.
Again, peace to you!
A doulos of Christ,
SA
