What is going on with the term "Mystery Babylon" in Revelation 17:5? There is a lot of confusion about this expression. The word "mystery" is a noun and not an adjective. It was Tertullian in the second century who first called Babylon, Rome. Babylon means Babylon and nothing else. Also, in verse 1, the wilderness means the desert and is inapplicable to Rome but fits well with Babylon on the Euphrates, or certainly the Saudi Arabian Peninsula. Saudi Arabia is the largest nation in the Middle East. It is a huge country! The cities of Mecca and Medina in that nation.
This opens the door for Babylon being Islam today. Islam came out of Saudi Arabia and the city of Mecca. Many of us are coming to this position, in fact, I'm now working on a book on The Olivet Discourse and Islam. If you would like to have it, it will be $17 and be ready in about five weeks.
In Revelation 17-18 the woman's name is "Babylon the Great" not "Mystery Babylon the Great." Thomas writes: "This along with the fact that 'myserron' seems to have a parenthetical independence here brings a decision favoring the appositional relationship. This gives the sense, 'a name written, which is a mystery.'"
Thomas adds: "[Babylon] was a city where false religion began (Gen. 11:1-9) that has continually plagued Israel, the church, and the world. It will once again become the world's leading city religiously as well as commercially and politically as the end draws near. … So the metropolis that functions as headquarters for the beast's empire has a long reputation for its anti-God stance. It is a city, but it is also a vast religious system that stands for everything God does not tolerate."
All of this fits well with Islam. —Dr. Mal Couch(9/11)
