Intro to the End Times is a series walking through some of the key themes of the story of Jesus’ return from a historic premillennial perspective, with special focus on knowing the heart of Jesus as we partner with God through the most dramatic chapter of human history.

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The subject of the end-time Harlot Babylon is HUGE in Scripture. The longest Old Testament prophecy (Je. 50-51) and the longest New Testament prophecy (Re. 17-18) are both about Babylon. It’s also called a mystery. Although we have a ton of biblical information, there are still many aspects that are veiled. No doubt many of these details will become more clear as we see them unfold!

Like we did with the timeline of end-time events, I think the simplest way to lay out what we know about the Harlot Babylon is some Q&A.

What is the Harlot Babylon?

The entity we call the Harlot Babylon is described in many places in the Bible, but we get her name most clearly from Revelation 17:

“Then one of the seven angels… 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.’ …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…”
(Revelation 17:1-6)

This brief introduction tells us several key things, which the rest of chapters 17 and 18 develop:

• She is luring people worldwide into sin (“prostitute”, “dwellers on earth have become drunk”, “cup full of abominations”)
• She is global (“many waters”, “dwellers on earth”, “kings of the earth”)
• She is connected to government (“kings of the earth”)
• She is connected to the antichrist (“sitting on a scarlet beast”)
• She is economically prosperous (“gold and jewels”)
• She is complex and difficult to understand (“mystery”)
• She is the absolute height of wickedness (“mother of prostitutes”)
• She is martyring the Church (“drunk with the blood of the saints”)

The Harlot Babylon is a prosperous, global system of wickedness with anchors in every area of society that seduces the earth into the fullness of sin.

We also see that she is described as Babylon, the ancient enemy of Israel whose roots go all the way back to the tower of Babel (Ge. 11:1-9). Just as the geographic region of Jerusalem has been dear to God’s heart since long before it was recognized as His city (Ge. 14:18), so Babylon has an ancient history of rebellion against God. God has always known its end time destiny.

Why is she called a harlot?

Throughout the Bible, “prostitute/whore/harlot” (in various translations) is used to symbolize idolatry, because Israel is supposed to be married to God. The primary meaning of the term “harlot” here is that she is drawing people away from God, but that will also involve a lot of literal sexual immorality. In fact, in the ancient world the two often went hand in hand, as people would go to pagan temples to have sex with prostitutes as a form of worship. Spirituality and sexuality are closely intertwined.

The Harlot Babylon is the ultimate contrast to Jesus’ bride, the church, who is identified with the New Jerusalem (Re. 21:2, 9-10). The end time storyline is really a tale of two cities– Babylon and New Jerusalem, the harlot and the bride, each with both literal and symbolic dimensions.

So is it a city, system, or culture?

All of the above! The Harlot Babylon is based in the literal, rebuilt city of Babylon as its capitol. It’s also a worldwide system of government, commerce, etc. It’s also a culture of wickedness where a the fullness of sin is not only tolerated but celebrated. And let’s not forget that in the middle of all of this is a demonic religion, probably with elements of many major religions that is able to unite the earth together.

This quote from Peter Herder’s book Babylon sums it up well: “Imagine a single city possessing the economic power of New York, the political power of Washington DC, the cultural influence of Hollywood, and the religious influence of Jerusalem.” (Babylon, page 29)

Is the Harlot Babylon super tolerant, then? Or is she persecuting the church?

The Harlot is SUPER tolerant of sin! Not so much of righteousness. If the church is refusing to dance to the Harlot’s tune, the Harlot will absolutely persecute her. Remember, Revelation 17:6 says she is “drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” There absolutely will be many martyrs as we stand up for truth and refuse to bow to Babylon’s system.

So Babylon is comfortable for everyone but the church?

Um, no. Remember all that wealth and luxury the Harlot has? That didn’t come without corruption and exploitation. Revelation 18:11-13 lists the merchandise that has made her wealthy, and concludes with this chilling phrase: “and slaves, that is, human souls.”

I often think of the Harlot Babylon like the Capitol in The Hunger Games. On the surface, it’s bright, shiny, flamboyant, wealthy, and excessive– but it’s built on a dark web of oppression, slavery, and murder.

How is the antichrist involved?

The Harlot and the antichrist have an interesting relationship. One the one hand, the Harlot comes first, gradually building over decades before the rise of the antichrist and in full strength during the first three and a half years of the tribulation. On the other hand, she is riding on the beast (Re. 17:3), which means that he’s supporting her in some way and she’s relying on him to carry her. However, later on the antichrist is the one to overthrow the Harlot Babylon system to install his own governmental system (Re. 17:16). It’s likely that the antichrist is a rising political star within the Harlot Babylon system, loudly singing her praises, while secretly planning to overthrow her for his own benefit.

From a spiritual perspective, the Harlot Babylon is what unites the world and dulls its discernment to make them ready to receive the antichrist. Satan uses the Harlot to hand the world to the antichrist on a silver platter. By the time the antichrist sets up the abomination of desolation in the temple and demands worship (Mt. 24:15, 2Th. 2:3-4), the world is already so far under the sway of darkness that it’s easy to accept. Plus, there’s already united global infrastructure in place.

How will God judge the Harlot?

When the antichrist overthrows Babylon, that’s actually God using the antichrist to judge the Harlot for her wickedness–and then He later thoroughly judges the antichrist too. Wait, what? God uses evil to judge evil, and then judges that evil for being evil? Yep, that’s totally a thing in scripture (Je. 25:8-14).

Revelation 18 describes the earth in shock and mourning over the sudden and dramatic fall of Babylon. Overnight she will be struck with fire and plagues that completely shatter her prosperity and power. This is God’s judgment against her.

Is the Harlot Babylon happening now?

In my opinion, here in 2022, we’re currently in the “birth pains” phase of the story (Mt. 24:4-8). We’re beginning to see escalating crisis and wickedness, and we may speculate over what developments might evolve into that system, but we’re not in full-blown Harlot Babylon mode yet. But that is the next step on the end-time agenda, so stay tuned!

How should the church be preparing?

When the disciples asked Jesus about the signs of His coming, the first thing He said was “See that no one leads you astray.” (Mt. 24:4) Deception will be the church’s primary enemy. A few verses later, Jesus also warned, “Because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold.” (Mt. 24:12) Sin and deception lead to once-fiery love growing cold. In my opinion, this is the scariest part of the entire end time drama.

There will be a great falling away (Mt. 24:10-12, 24; 1Ti 4:1; 2Th. 2:3) and we cannot suppose we are automatically immune to it. I’m speaking for myself– there is no guarantee that I will be faithful to Jesus through the Harlot Babylon if I don’t keep actively pursuing Him.

There are four primary challenges for the end-time church that will lead many down this path:

• Fear (because of the crises)
• Offense (at God and others)
• Lust (to dull fear and indulge the flesh, not only sexually)
• Deception (away from God’s Word)

So what’s the remedy? Luckily, the Holy Spirit has abundant grace to help us stay steady if we keep leaning into Him. The way we do that is simple– not easy, but simple: fiery first commandment love for Jesus.

“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”
(Mark 12:30)

Keep abiding in Him.

Keep a vibrant and consistent prayer life.

Keep close to the fellowship of believers.

Keep studying and praying the Word.

Keep check on anything that would draw you away from Him.

“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy…”
(Jude 24)

He’s able to keep you. We don’t have to be afraid that we will accidentally lose our salvation, but we also “have need of endurance” (He. 10:36). Let’s keep pressing into Him and keep “first love” (Re. 2:4) alive so that we can be part of the victorious bride that triumphs over Babylon!

Further Resources

For further study, I recommend the book I mentioned earlier, Babylon: The Resurgence of History’s Most Infamous City by Peter Herder with Benji Nolot.

For a slightly different take on the Harlot Babylon with some really interesting insights, check out Joel Richardson’s book Mystery Babylon: Unlocking the Bibles’ Greatest Prophetic Mystery, which is also offered as a free ebook.

For solid teaching resources on the Harlot Babylon, you can find a long series and a short series at tprdfw.com.

Finally, I really love the way Babylon is portrayed in the film Ballads of the Revelation by Frontier Alliance International. You can watch it free online, and here’s their delightful foot-stopping ode to the fall of Babylon (the lyrics of which I currently have as a poster on my wall):