Hill, Rome, but at Nicaea, Asia. It was called by the unbaptized Roman emperor, Constantine the Great, who held the unchristian religious office of Pontifex Maximus. As such, he presided over the Council of Nicaea and decided in favor of the Trinity teaching, namely, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, a three-in-one God. This is Babylonish. A close examination of Christendom’s basic doctrines and practices reveals that they are Babylonish, although they are covered over with names taken from the Holy Bible. It is not surprising, therefore, to find Christendom filled with the “spirit of the world.” She is now the leading member of religious Babylon the Great.

DRUNK WITH BLOOD

19. What was ancient Babylon’s course toward Jehovah’s people, and how does Revelation picture Babylon the Great as having the same spirit?

¹⁹ Ancient Babylon was against Jehovah God and his people. The Bible goes to great length in telling us of how the Babylonian world power persecuted the chosen people of Jehovah God. Likewise, Babylon the Great has ever been against His people. A vision pointing to this fact was given to the apostle John. In this vision he was shown just how wicked Babylon the Great is. John says: “And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” That was one of the main reasons for Babylon the Great to be destroyed, for Jehovah’s angel said to the apostle John: “Yes, in her was found the blood of prophets and of holy ones and of all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.” (Rev. 17:6; 18:24) Babylon the Great has shown the same bloodthirsty spirit as was shown by the founder of ancient Babylon, Nimrod, the “mighty hunter in opposition to Jehovah.” With whose blood, however, is Babylon the Great said to be drunk?

20. Against whom does the drunkenness of Babylon the Great show her to be, as illustrated in the case of the apostle John himself?

²⁰ Babylon the Great is plainly said to be drunk with the “blood of prophets and of holy ones.” That means the blood of the prophets and saints or holy ones of Jehovah God, who sent to the apostle John the prophetic vision of the judgment upon the world empire of Babylonish religion. John says that he saw the “woman” Babylon the Great to be “drunk with the blood of the holy ones and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” This Jesus is the one by means of whom Jehovah God sent the Revelation vision to John. As regards “witnesses of Jesus,” John says that he himself “bore witness to the word God gave and to the witness Jesus Christ gave.” (Rev. 1:1, 2) So the apostle John was one of those “witnesses of Jesus”; and at the time of receiving the vision from God through Jesus Christ he was suffering persecution at the hands of the Roman emperor and Pontifex Maximus. So Babylon the Great was not only against Jehovah’s people who lived before our Common Era but also against Christ’s true followers, his true witnesses.

21. As regards such drunkenness, how has Christendom proved herself a real “daughter” of Babylon the Great?

²¹ In this matter of being drunk “with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus,” Christendom has proved herself to be a real “daughter” of Babylon the Great. Christendom claims to be the realm in which Christianity is practiced, but during the past sixteen hundred years of her existence she has been guilty of shedding the blood of more true Christians than even those nations that do not claim to be Christian. By her religious persecutions, her religious inquisitions and crusades against “heretics,” and her religious wars she has killed off more professed Christians than so-called pagan nations have killed off. And what about the two world wars of our twentieth century? History discloses that both these wars were launched by the nations of Christendom, with enormous losses of life all around the earth. Truly Christendom has played a tremendous part toward realizing the angel’s words in Revelation 18:24 that in Babylon the Great was found the blood of “all those who have been slaughtered on the earth.”

22. Before whom does Christendom bear bloodguilt, and how must it be wiped out?

²² As a part of Babylon the Great, which is the world empire of Babylonish religion, Christendom bears a heavy bloodguilt before God. According to the just law of Jehovah God, life must go for life, soul for soul. So the bloodguilt of Babylon the Great must be wiped out by her destruction, including that of Christendom.

23. By her spirit whom does Babylon the Great show to be her god?

²³ By her very spirit Babylon the Great betrays who her god is, whom she worships. She shows she has the “spirit of the world.” This is actually the spirit of the one whom Jesus Christ called “the ruler of this world,” namely, Satan the Devil, the great fallen angel who is the chief opposer of Jehovah God.—John 12:31.

24. (a) How does Babylon the Great’s god blind the people? (b) How does she aid him and show his spirit toward Jehovah’s people?

²⁴ Satan is the one who blinds the minds of the people with false religion so that they do not accept the Bible truth about Jehovah and his Son Jesus Christ. It is just as the Christian apostle Paul wrote, saying: “If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through.” (2 Cor. 4:3, 4) Babylon the Great is a part of this system of things on earth, and the devilish “god of this system of things” is her god and she partakes of his spirit. She herself is deceived by him, and she aids him in deceiving and misleading the majority of earth’s inhabitants. Her god is the “one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth.” He persecutes those who belong to Jehovah the Most High God. Hence Satan makes war upon those “who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Rev. 12:9, 13, 17) Babylon the Great shows the same spirit of persecution toward these witnesses.

Avoiding the Plague upon the Spirit of the World

“They were one and all filled with the holy spirit and were speaking the word of God with boldness.”—Acts 4:31.

 1. What is Jehovah’s judicial decision regarding what Babylon the Great is to experience before her destruction?

RELIGIOUS Babylon the Great has the spirit of the world. She will be destroyed the same as ancient Babylon on the Euphrates was. God’s judicial decision is that before she is destroyed she must suffer plagues or blows from him. In ancient time he dealt Egypt a string of terrible blows or plagues because that ancient