Every city has a nickname
Every city has a nickname. Rome was “The Eternal City” and today New York is “The Big Apple”, “The City That Never Sleeps” and “The Empire City”. Brisbane is Brisvegas, Sydney The Harbour City, Adelaide “The City of Churches” and so forth. You get the idea. This is important because in Bible prophecy in Revelation 17:9 John has the vision of the woman sitting on seven hills and in Rev. 17:18 we are told that the woman is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth. Now in 96 A.D. when John had his vision on Patmos Island this great city that rules over the kings of the earth could really only be one city–Rome! There simply is no other city that was known to be sitting on seven hills. In Caroline Vout’s book, “The Hills of Rome,” she concludes that the seven hills are not merely an attribute of Rome but indeed Rome’s very signature.1 She backs this up with numerous examples from Roman authors and poets such as Virgil, Varro, Horace and Ovid and Roman statesmen such as Cicero who claim Rome to be the city on the seven hills. Modern Biblical scholars and prophecy teachers claim that this Revelation reference does not refer to Rome because the word in Rev. 17:9 is “oros” meaning “mountain” whereas it should be “bouros” meaning hill if actually referring to Rome. Rome’s seven traditional hills are merely that–hills and not mountains. But in my opinion this is getting too logical, technical and picky. Vout demonstrates that many words were used for these hills of Rome including the Latin, “montes” (mountain) and “colles” (hill) whereas several Greek authors used “lophos” meaning the crest of a hill. Virgil preferred “arces” meaning citadel to describe the seven hills. So in effect, many of these terms were interchangeable and coterminous (having the same meaning).
Furthermore “oros” is translated in the New Testament sometimes as hill and sometimes as mountain so we should not try to be more exact than Bible translators themselves. The city is set on a hill (oros) in Matt. 5:14 NKJV whereas oros is mountain in Rev. 17:9 NKJV.
Rome is the city which sits on seven hills
“The seven hills of Rome” is a cliche just as “all roads lead to Rome” or “Rome wasn’t built in a day” are in use even today. It’s important to realise this because the prophecy of Revelation 17 and 18 about Mystery Babylon is the longest prophecy in the New Testament and it is important to try and ascertain its correct meaning and to figure out which city is being referred to. The dilemma comes because when reading Revelation 18 it seems as though the text is referring to a completely different city to Revelation 17 as I discussed in my previous article “Who is Mystery Babylon?” I concluded that Mystery Babylon in Rev. 17 seems to be referring to Rome which is a metonym for the Vatican or the Roman Catholic Church. In other words, the harlot or prostitute is the Roman Catholic Church which is the same conclusion that Dave Hunt comes to in his 1994 book, “A Woman Rides the Beast”.
Rome is beyond question that city which is the "Mother of Harlots" of Revelation 17, having created them around the world and down through history literally by the millions. No other city on earth even comes close to rivaling her in this regard.
New York is the new Babylon
In contrast, my conclusion was that Revelation 18 however did not fit Rome. The cliche, “the city which sits on seven hills” is in Revelation 17 and can only be Rome however Revelation 18 seems to fit modern-day New York. Indeed New York has several monikers today but we do not see a cliche type nickname in Revelation 18 to seal it beyond all doubt. Rather a lengthy description is given talking about the commercial and financial attributes of this great city. The link between chapters 17 and 18 is that both cities are referred to as Babylon. Babylon was the original idolatrous city set up by Nimrod where its people built a tower reaching the heavens so its an archetype of the mystery Babylons to come. Peter referred to Rome as Babylon so there we have a tangible and Biblical link.2 But what of New York?
Interesting quote by the singer John Lennon comparing New York to Rome. I believe that Babylon can be many cities. Two thousand years ago it was Rome and in chapter 17 the harlot represents the Roman Catholic Church. In chapter 18 Mystery Babylon is the great financial and political capital of the world, the largest city in the most powerful country in the modern world just as Rome was the most powerful city in the ancient 1st-century world. America is where the great men (the merchant billionaires) live such as Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, George Soros, and Mark Zuckerberg. These are the men who control what goes on and lead the charge in pharmaceutical sorcery.3
Escaping Babylon
What does this mean for us living now? According to Rev. 18:10,17, it means that New York will be destroyed in 1 hour and it is doomed. America and its role as the hammer of the world4 (policeman of the world) will come to an end and the devil through the Antichrist will be freed up to totally control humanity. The world will be dismayed and shocked but the instruction and warning is clear enough. John writes, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins.”5 This is a quote from the prophet Jeremiah and history is being repeated. Perhaps even more generally it means that Christians in the end times are being urged to leave their homes and to come out of the Babylonian beast system. It has us in her vice and soon I believe we will have no choice but to participate in its financial grip with the upcoming and imminent CBDCs.
Conclusion
There is now no doubt in my mind that the woman that sits on seven hills/mountains, the great city that rules over the whole earth in Revelation 17:18 is referring to Rome. I wasn’t 100% sure before but after reading Caroline Vout’s book on the history of the cliche there is no doubt in my mind. All the ancients referred to it as such. Even Caroline commits herself by saying that the Revelation reference best fits Rome. But equally, I also see that Rome can’t be the great city referred to throughout Revelation 18. The best fit is the new Rome–New York just as John Lennon so pertinently put it. Hope that dispels some of the mystery surrounding this longest prophecy in the New Testament.
4 Responses
Interesting read of your blog Steve. I enjoyed it. And have often thought about what goes on in New York as it’s quite depraved more so & in more ways than lots of other places on this earth. I’ve often wondered?….what’s going to become of those ppl in the last days. So yes, interesting read for me. Thankyou.
I was thinking the same thing Tanya
What does the acronym CBDCs mean?
Hi Tanya,
CBDC stands for central bank digital currency. 87 countries (representing over 90 percent of global GDP) are exploring a CBDC. In May 2020, only 35 countries were considering a CBDC.
Nine countries have now fully launched a digital currency. Nigeria is the latest country to launch a CBDC, the e-Naira, the first outside the Caribbean. The latest cross-border payment test is Project Dunbar – a partnership between South Africa, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia. It’s coming and we will all have to comply. See CBDC tracker.