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Revelation 17:5 And upon her forehead [was] a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. This is one of those verses I'm inclined to take less literal because of the addition of mystērion to the name Babylon. This means a hidden thing, a secret. To say this is literally talking about the ancient city of Babylon seems counter to that, an obvious thing. Another thing I've been dwelling on lately are the identities of the 10 horns, not so much the literal identities, but more generally. I believe this is relevant to proper identification because, to your point, who controls the city helps define the city. The 10 horns are first introduced by Daniel in relation to a little horn that comes up among them. Daniel 7:2-3, 7-8 Daniel spake and said, I saw in my vision by night, and, behold, the four winds of the heaven strove upon the great sea. And four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse one from another. ... After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it [was] diverse from all the beasts that [were] before it; and it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn [were] eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. As opposed to John's vision in Revelation 13 where these same 3 animals are combined with the 10-horned beast as part of the Dragon, Daniel's vision has them separate and diverse from each other. Additionally, the word "before" used in relating the 4th beast to the first 3 is not temporal in nature, qŏḏām is spacial in nature as in front of. Given that they are united with the Dragon in John's vision describing the kingdom of the false christ and his false prophet, Daniel's vision must be showing a time before this uniting. We even see described after the destruction of the 4th beast at Christ's coming, that the other 3 beasts lose their dominion but are allowed to continue. This is after they were united with the 4th terrible beast as part of the Dragon. Daniel 7:12 As concerning the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. To me this would seem to depict likely the first sign we will see of the end, the quartering of power in the world through political agreements such that global governance is consolidated. This is evident in the fact that the 10 horns are 10 kings of kingdoms, yet they are depicted as the 4th beast. So this would be a region of the world with political alliances of 10 nations, just as the leopard with 4 heads could be an alliance of 4 kingdoms or even groups of kingdoms. With the 10-horned beast taking center stage in the prophetic narrative, it seems to me like this is talking of the region of the Middle East since Jerusalem and Israel is central to this narrative. Furthermore, there is a declared ratio of 10:1 in this region, where 10 distinctive horns separate from each other but not dissimilar in size, have a little horn rise up among them. This would seem to indicate in the Middle East region there will be 11 kingdoms involved in this time period. The fact that the little horn plucks 3 of the 10 horns indicates it is more powerful than the 10 and the alliance between the 10 is not destroyed by the little horn plucking 3 of their members. So the question is, if Babylon is supposed to be a mystery, does it make sense for it to be literal Babylon? Given what Daniel says, it would seem not. A political alliance of 10 kingdoms in the Middle East will exist where a smaller kingdom will subdue 3 of the surrounding larger kingdoms. This won't destroy the alliance or cause the other 7 horns to destroy the little horn, they will give their power to him. This fits with the idea that the harlot is a city and that city is Jerusalem because this is made the seat of the false christ when he takes over the temple there. And the inhabitants, the majority of them, will follow after this other god playing the harlot. Indeed they will make the city the center of their false messianic kingdom, believing that prophecy about the Messiah of Israel is being fulfilled in their lifetimes. It is, just not the prophecies they want to be associated with for eternal life. This smaller kingdom than the surrounding 10 kingdoms has a capital and in Revelation 17, this woman (Jerusalem) is hated by the 10 horns, but because of the power of the beast (little horn) with which they are associated, they give their power to him to receive power as kings with him for a short time. Revelation 17:11-13 And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. The beast represents the political power while the woman would seem to represent the religious power, but during the false christ's kingdom, these two are one. The 10 horns hate the woman, they always had, and they give their power to the beast because they have no choice, he is undefeatable. So they bide their time and God puts it in their hearts to give their power to the false christ kingdom until God's will is fulfilled at the conclusion of His wrath. Then that great city is destroyed by the 10. Revelation 17:16-18 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Now if we take all this prophetic data from scripture and place it on the political landscape as it is today, some things seem very clear. The little horn is a king of a smaller kingdom than its neighbors, which in the Middle East points straight to Israel as that kingdom and the surrounding Islamic nations as the 10 horns. These 10 have reason to try and unite, indeed a Caliphate is one of their goals. When confronted with an enemy they can't seem to defeat, they may be pushed into this kind of shaky and ultimately powerless alliance with each other. The little horn is able to defeat 3 of the 10 larger horns and the other 7 do nothing. Since October 7, 2023 we have seen Israel caution about inflaming the region thrown off and the kind of strength to defeat all her enemies amidst the protestations of the global community. It's a righteous retaliation to an unrighteous attack by her neighbors. There is a divide in Islam between Sunni and Shia where we've seen in the Abraham Accords that the former is more ready for peace and the latter is antagonistic against the existence of Israel. I think this combined with the strength by which the 3 horns are plucked will be why the 7 don't retaliate for the 3, because it will be another October 7-style antagonism against Israel that will cause her to retaliate back and defeat the 3 kingdoms, or at least their kings. The 10 horns remain throughout, so a new king will likely be installed to replace those plucked. Then all 10 will give their power to the little horn, who is king of the little kingdom centered in Jerusalem. This fits with the expectations of Orthodox Judaism in the fulfillment of prophecy. They expect a king from the line of David to turn the hearts back to God, rebuild the temple, change the times and laws of the land to conform to the statutes of the Mosaic Covenant, which will be brought back and strengthened. They are looking for a king to fight their battles and win for them. Revelation 6:2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. The rise of the little horn is the breaking of the first seal, when he doesn't take the kingdom, a crown is given to him, the people offer the king of their little kingdom reign over them. And what does he do? He goes forth conquering. I believe the reason for this is the same reason October 7, 2023 happened in part because of the red heifers. The surrounding Islamic people cannot tolerate a return of temple worship and just as the red heifer is the first step to that happening, the Messiah is said to build the temple. He will go out conquering as a response to attacks for taking a stand for Israel and bringing back the temple perceived by a blinded people as necessary for relationship with God and redemption for the people. His conquering would seem to be continued in seals 2 and 4 leading up to 5. I believe Daniel 11-12 also give insight to this time, the result of Israel's neighbors attacking her. Daniel 11:40-12:1 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over. He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many [countries] shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, [even] Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians [shall be] at his steps. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him. And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation [even] to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book. The previous verses of Daniel 11 showed the king of the south and north pushing at each other. Now suddenly at the end they are both pushing against a 3rd party. Note that there are 3 enemies of Israel explicitly shown as defeated, Egypt, North, and East. This person the north and south come against is the false christ and in this passage he defeats 3 enemies and comes back to Jerusalem where he comes to his end and is immediately followed by unparalleled tribulation. All of this sounds not like an Islamic false christ that would attack his fellow Muslim nations, not to say they don't fight each other, but rather a false christ from the line of David who poses as a king of Israel and they accept him. He builds their temple, defeats their enemies and dies and is resurrected at which point he declares himself god in the temple at Jerusalem and the great tribulation begins. With a ratio of 10:1, if we're going to define who the false christ is when there are 10+ Islamic kingdoms and 1 Jewish kingdom and the little horn is that one king over the kingdom, it seems to me that everything points to Jerusalem and Israel, as most prophecy does. The fact that Jerusalem is the center of the false christ kingdom and is also depicted as a harlot city going after false gods and hated by the 10 horns just seems to fit together very well from a plain reading of scripture and a clear view of the political and religious state of the region today. That's not to say I'm right, it is just the most logical understanding I have come to see clearly to date.

I added the evidence in another post or at the bottom via an edit, I forget which atm. God calls Rev. 16:19 the 7th Vial Great Babylon's Destruction via His Wrath. And they are called in Vial #6 the Kings of the WHOLE WORLD. Of course, Babylon is Satan's Dark Rule of CONFUSION over Mankind, his rule is taken away at the 7th Vial when God/Jesus defeats his henchman the Anti-Christ & False Prophet and their Armies then locks him up for 1000 years and that equals Babylon has Fallen. The world being Judged is a part of this, as is Satan being cast down to earth for the last 1260 days, but it all comes to a head when he gets cast into the bottomless pit and can not deceive the masses anymore for a 1000 years.  Yes sir, and it all goes back to the 7th Vial's lingo, who takes us back to the 6th Vial to see who is defeated. Rev. 16:19 And the great city was divided into three parts(Jerusalem/Earthquake), and the cities of the nations fell:(Jesus defeats his enemies at Armageddon, but who are they? Lets see in Vial #6) and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. Rev. 16:14 For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. SPOTON ........SEE ABOVE All the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her immorality(Babylon the CONFUSED MASSES have drunk the wine of Satan's leadership of excess, Greed, Adultery, Murder, Hate, Rape, Lying etc. etc. ). The kings of the earth were immoral with her,  (Satan was their PREFERED god, they choose and loved Greed, Sexual Perversions, Money and Lust over God) and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from the extravagance of her luxury.” The Merchants of Babylon are simply those who chose THE WORLD's Luxuries over the one true God holy word and Jesus. The Kings of the WHOLE WORLD fight God why? Because they choose THIS WORLD & Satan over God. Might want to under how God uses prose at times, He s not giving us actual men's reactions and lives, but THE HEART OF MANKIND in prose. Babylon is the WHOLE WORLD, the Kings of the WHOLE WORLD fight Jesus at Armageddon. Woe, woe woe the the WHOLE WORLD (Babylon) God calls 7 Kingdoms a Beast with 7 Heads, He calls False Religion a Harlot Woman, he calls the 5 million (1/3) Jews who repent the 144,000 via a code, He calls Demons Locusts in Rev. 9 etc. etc. Its prose man. God is going to Judge the WHOLE WORLD which followed Satan and not God, who loved Money, Greed, Lust, over God and hos word and his beloved Son Jesus.  God shows us the TWO SIDED COIN in Rev. 17 (False Religion) and in  Rev. 18 (False Governance meaning they follow Satan, not God).

This is aggressive.  He and Musk are acting like they are already in office. https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-says-he-might-demand-panama-hand-over-canal-2024-12-22/

Hi, Kind of a funny thing, people up there ( Maine)  and throughout the USA feed deer, won't hunt them, then wonder why their house yards are ruined, their young trees killed and their flowers chewed. They complain to their township councils, who meet and then hire an archery team crew that  live at Maine to  set up and just take out all the deer in  one night, clean up before dawn,  butcher them, and provide the meat to local needy and charities.  This company goes all over the USA,  township after township, taking out the nuisance deer that locals have not been willing to shot but want gone, except to be able to see them in their yard, except when the deer then eat their yard and kill their young trees.  The team make a fine full time living doing what locals throughout the USA should be doing  for themselves. Humans are nutsy as can be. That team of archers also take out hogs/boar from one end of the country to another including Catalina Island, Ca.   

Try Maine.