What Dose It Mean, “Come Out of Babylon”?

A study Outline

I. God commands the ecclesia to “Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:4). What dose it mean to “come out of her [“Babylon the great, verse 2]?”

II. First, what is “Babylon the great”?

Revelation 17

A. See Revelation 17:1-18. Mystery Babylon the Great is called “The Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth” (verse 5).

B. This Babylon is feminine in gender, a woman, and id called a “great whore” (verse 17), sitting on a beast having seven heads and ten horns (verse 3).

C. This whore has spilled the blood (killed) the saints of the Most High and of Jesus Christ (verse 6).

D. This beast, and the whore who rides on it, will be “marveled” at and “wondered” at and worshiped by those not among the ecclesia (verse 8). This implies that the Church will know clearly who this beast and whore are, while the uncovered world’s population will not!

marvel  and wonder (Strong 2296) = thawmazo, “to wonder, by implies. to admire.”

E. The seven heads are “seven mountains in which the woman sits” (verse 9). Mountains in prophecy oftentimes refer to governments, and verse 10 confirms this: seven kings are associated with seven mountains, five of which (at John’s time) were fallen, one existed then, and one was yet to come; the last king would exist fo but a short time. An eighth beast is “seven, but goes into perdition” (verse 11).

perdition  (Strong 684) = apologia, “ruin or loss (physical, spiritual, or eternal).”

F. The ten horns are ten kings that receive power as kings for “one hour” with the beast (verse 12).

G. These ten kings make war with the Lamb [Christ], and the Lamb will overcome them (verse 14). The implication is that “they that are with Him are called and chosen and faithful” refers to the elect coming on white horses to defeat the Beast power in Revelation 19.

H. The great whore rules among many peoples, tongues, and nations over the earth (“many water”, verse 1).

I. The ten kings will hate the whore and eventually destroy her (verse 16), but these kings will be influenced by God to give their kingdoms to the best for a little while.

J. The woman is “that great city reigns over the kings of the earth” (verse 18). What city on earth is noted for having seven “mountains” or “hills”?

Revelation 18

K. Revelations 18 illustrates the nature of Babylon, a system filled with demonic spirits (verse 2).

L. All nations (verse 2) = (Strong 1484) ethos, “a race or tribe”.

M. The merchants of the earth have grown rich through the abundance [power] of Babylon’s delicacies (verse 3).

merchants = (Strong 1713) emporos, “a tradesman”.

delicacies = (Strong 4764) strenos, “straining, strenuousness, or strength, i.e.(fig) luxury (voluptuousness).”

N. This system glorified itself, not God (verse 7), and the nations committed fornication with it and “lived deliciously with her” (verse 9).

O. Merchandise of every sort was traded in this world-wide system based upon merchandising (emporos), and the merchants were the “great men of the earth”, who deceived the nations (ethos) by the sorceries of the whore [Babylon].

sorceries = (Strong 8331) pharmakia, “medication” (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (lit. or fig.).”

Are not the majority of Americans now taking drugs, legally or illegally, and is not our own government subsidizing the distribution of drugs to citizens through recently initiated legislation?

P. As for point C above, the spilling of the blood of prophets and saints was attributed to this whore, but moreover the blood of all who have been killed on the earth … in wars, murders eat. This shows that wars and murders also have originated through the activities of this Babylonian system … and Satan is the originator and promoter of murder (John 8:44).

Q. It is thus apparent that the whore that rides this beast is a world-wide Satan-worshipping system (the whore) that controls the nations of the world, and the merchandising (buying and selling) and the economic system of them. This system may very well be the United Nations with its ten world regions (the ten kings) that give they power and direction to the whore (a worldwide religious system) for a short time, as much as thy hate to (Revelation 17:15-17). The worldwide religious system appears to be the Roman Catholic Church, whose roots are in all nations, whose goal it is to control nations and destroy the true saints (because it is Satan-controlled, and Satan is out to destroy the saints if he can), and whose headquarters is situated in Rome, the city of “seven mountains”.

In ancient times, this Babylonian system literally existed for a short time as well, when Nimrod and others, under Satan’s influence, in the land of Shinar (where Babylon is located) built a tower that stretched into heaven, and which served as a unifying symbol for one-world government (all of one language). See Genesis 11:1-6.

III. Scriptures defining what it means to come out of this Babylonian system all around us. 

A. We cannot leave the midst of this system, since it encompasses the entire earth. Rather, we are not to keep company with those are in the ecclesia (or pretend to be) who are habitual sinners (I Corinthians 5:9-11). Otherwise we would have to leave this world entirely, because sinners exist all around us (verse 10). 

world = (Strong 2889) kosmos, “orderly arrangement”, or culture. 

B. This is what Jesus Christ related to the apostles in John 17:15: “I prey not that you should take them out of the world (kosmos), but that you should keep them from the evil [one].” The John said,”We know that we are of God, and the whole (kosmos) lies in wickedness” (I John 5:19). This indicated that our behavior follows the spirit of God (Galatians 5:22-26), which stands in sharp contrast with the wicked world around us. Thus we are to be “… blameless and harmless, the sonf soft God, without rebuke, is the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom you shine as lights in the world (kosmos)” (Philippians 2:15). “You are the light of the world (kosmos) … Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 5:14, 16). 

C. There is no special refuge fo bus in the world apart from Almighty God Himself living within us. This dose not mean that sometime in the future the saints — at least some of them — will not be physically removed from the rest of society as the end of the age approaches and all flesh could potentially be destroyed (see Revelation 12:14).