In his Revelation, the Apostle John gave us this description: "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.' And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: 'Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.' And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly" (Revelation 17:1-6).
This woman is identified in various ways, according to the interpretive system of the interpreter. Futurists may take the reference to Babylon literally, and claim that it refers to a future restoration of the city of Babylon. Others take it as a coded reference to Rome, and claim that there will be a future restoration of the Roman Empire. And yet others believe it refers to Rome, but in her ecclesiastical manifestation, rather than political. Even the Westminster Confession, to which I hold, identifies the Papacy as the Anti-Christ, and head of the great Whore.
In contrast, those who hold that the Revelation refers to events in John's time, either in part, as I do, or in its whole. We hold that Babylon is used as a code word, not for Rome, but for unbelieving Jerusalem. And in this post, I wish to point the reader to an Old Testament parallel which supports that interpretation.
Let us look at a series on verses in the Book of lamentations, which was written by the Prophet Jeremiah to mourn the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
"How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave!...Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore, she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away. Her uncleanness was in her skirts; she took no thought of her future; therefore, her fall is terrible; she has no comforter. 'O Lord, behold my affliction , for the enemy has triumphed!'... Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them...'I called to my lovers, but they deceived me; my priests and elders perished in the city, while they sought food to revive their strength'... All who pass along the way clap their hands at you; they hiss and wag their heads at the daughter of Jerusalem: 'Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?'" (Lamentations 1:1, 8-9, 17, 19; 2:15).
Read the rest of the passages to get proper context. However, what I have quoted here is plainly parallel. The Holy Spirit inspired John to see the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians as a preview of the soon-coming destruction by the Romans in 70AD. He even mentioned Babylon in the passage to reinforce the parallel!
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