Yes, Babylon is Rome. And Mystery Babylon was the mystery religions of the Roman Empire. The popular colours of the Romans were purple and red, and thats why Mystery Babylon wears those colours. Luther and the reformers thought that Mystery Babylon and the antichrist was the papacy. So do the SDA church.
Revelation predicts that Rome would be totally wiped out; as it says it has a millstone around it and is flung into the sea, if I remember rightly. Didnt happen, false prophesy. One of a whole book of false prophesies.
No one on this forum has addressed any of the points I made, which means that no one is interested, or that I am correct and have won the argument. I cant discuss anything on eschatology, as I dont believe that any of the scriptures that they are using are canonical, except for what Jesus said about it in the gospels.
Revelation makes use of Daniel, which was another apocalyptic writing, same sort of genre of that age, the intertestamental period. Daniel was written about 200 BC, during that time, when the prophets of Israel had long since gone quiet, for whatever reason.
The ten horns of Daniels fourth beast are the ten Greek kings of the Seleucid dynasty. Antiochus IV was the little horn, the 11 th king, who plucked up by the roots three other potential kings, in the line of succession. Thats the solution to the mystery; it works and is proved by history.
Revelation looks at Daniel, misreads it, and transposes those ten horns onto the mythical hydra beast. Revelation says that those ten horns rule for a while with the beast. So it was thought that Rome would have some sort of Decemvirate rule, with a demonic leader at the head, probably someone like Nero.
And then Jesus would storm in and settle everything; killing everybody so that they are all up to their necks in blood. That was Revelations solution for Daniel, because they didnt see what Daniel was about.
The fourth beast of Daniel cannot be Rome, because Rome did not crush and trample over the previous empire of the Persians. Rome did not conquer Parthia, so it cant be Rome. The fourth beast is the Greek Empire.
The statue of Nebuchadnezzar is part of a belief that there would be four great empires, before the end. There is no mention of the Islamic Empire, no mention of the British Empire; nothing about the domination of Palestine and Jerusalem for centuries by the Muslims.
Revelation makes use of practically every visionary prophet in the OT. The book of Joel is butchered in Rev. Chapter nine. This John, whoever he was, claims to be the greatest prophet ever, a combination of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and everyone else.
John, was probably a non-Christian Jew, (not Christianity as it became) who had been exiled to the island of Patmos, where the Romans put all the crackpots; that is a little known fact of history.
There is a little bit of evidence that he might have been John the Presbyter, once the pastor of a church, but I think it might have been written by a small team of people, as it is a big effort.
I think the book is heretical, (I know this is the unorthodox forum), but since when does the Holy Spirit have seven spirits? The Holy Spirit is one, not seven. But as no one is interested in discussing the matter, thats all.
