October 31, 2017: Day 72 – Revelation 17

The heading for this section on BibleGateway is: “Babylon, the Prostitute on the Beast.”  I have this huge TV set up as my screen for my computer since my computer screen is a bit on the fritz.  With that heading in bold I was afraid that a member of the church just might walk into my office while I’m typing this.  I promise, I’m studying Revelation.  It is shocking and John the author states that he was shocked by what he saw.  I’ll never forget when I was a junior in college and was studying in Rome I took a Spring Break trip through Europe and went to Amsterdam for a few days.  I met up with a student from South African and another from New Zealand.  I was shocked by what we were offered when we went into a cafe.  I was equally shocked by what I saw when we walked into the red light district.  I imagine John felt the same shock.

But in that semester in Rome this was my view from my window.  

I was staying in a convent on the Aventine Hill.  It was one of the seven hills of Rome.  Did you hear what I just said and were you able to put it into the context of Revelation 17:9-11 and then again vs.18?  You see Rome is known as the city of the seven hills, even though it is not mentioned by name in this Scripture.  This chapter to me is definitive proof that John was speaking about the Roman Empire when he spoke about the Beast and the prostitute.  We can absolutely be sure that John had a current event in mind when he spoke about Babylon and that event was the Roman Empire.

Oh, and by the way, that field is the Circus Maximus which is where they had chariot races in Rome.  It was the scene of Ben Hur and the Coliseum is right over the hill on the right side of the picture.  Rome is the most amazing city in the world, even if John does call it a prostitute.