MYSTICAL BABYLON
She is also called MYSTERY, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH (Rev. 17:5). Alluded to here is a great religious system with which the kings of the earth have had an illegitimate relationship, and with which the merchants of the earth have become rich.
A system that has become guilty of shedding the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. He is compared to a woman clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, with a cup in her hand, full of abominations and filth from her fornication.
A reference to Christendom without Christ that will be the culminating result of the great apostasy, and that will be ruthlessly judged by God: the anti-church, whose spirit has manifested itself in various ways throughout history, and that will openly materialize in the last days.
Heaven, the apostles and prophets, are called to rejoice at the assured destruction of this seductive, soul-destroying system (cf. Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17:1-18; 18:1-24; 19 :1-3).