The word Babylon comes from the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, an event that occurred around 2200 B.C., shortly after the Flood, according to Bible chronology. The post-diluvian people of Babel/Babylon sought to make themselves into a great anti-God power. The project ended when God confused the language of the builders. He did not want these lawless rebels to control the entire Earth and stamp out God’s faithful people.
In the Bible, Babylon became an important symbol of spiritual confusion. And confusion is the key adversary in the doctrine of last things as understood by Bible writers. Babylon stands in stark contrast to the truth about the simple way of Jesus.
After the Tower of Babel experience, Babylon rose again during the Neo-Babylonian empire that flourished from 626 B.C. to 539 B.C. As recorded in the great apocalyptic book bearing his name, Daniel (and his three friends) were taken captive by King Nebuchadnezzar II in 605 B.C.
When Nebuchadnezzar demanded that his administrators (including Daniel’s three friends) worship a large golden statue, he inadvertently created an important Bible image. In the Book of Revelation, chapters 16 and 17, Babylon becomes symbolic of the vast conglomeration of fallen churches and religions: Catholicism, apostate Protestantism, and pagan Spiritualism.
Revelation 13 predicts that the beast power (Rome) would rise in authority again in the end of time after a deadly wound. A second power, the lamb-like beast, would force the world to worship the image of the first beast as a sign of allegiance. The second beast is the United States of America (apostate Protestantism). Babylon becomes a huge collection of confusing beliefs and manifestations that leads the whole world astray.
After 1798 and the French Revolution, the Roman Church lost its power as a persecuting power and became instead a nonthreatening Church of peace. This change has occurred especially over the last one hundred years. In our time, the Church is looked on as the greatest moral authority in the world, a dramatic shift, especially by Protestants.
But the Bible’s assessment of Rome differs from that of the world’s. Revelation warns those in the Roman Church who are true followers of Jesus to “Come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:4). Antichrist, the Great Prostitute, the Mother of harlots, the man of sin, and the beast from the sea–these and other expressions point to the same deceptive power, the Roman Catholic Church.
For the world now, a message of warning against the false system of Rome is incomprehensible. How could this religious body, so vast, grand, and wealthy, apparently dedicated to holiness, service, and worship, be a force for evil? What evidence supports the biblical view of Rome?
There are many lines of evidence, but this post will focus on just one–the problem of extreme complexity in Catholicism. Roman complexity/confusion is often passed off as godly mystery. But the complexity of Catholicism discourages rationality itself. Complexity causes confusion.
A recent communication from the Vatican illustrates the point. The Vatican website published a “Notice from the Office of Liturgical Celebrations” about a Eucharistic celebration and canonization to be held on September 7, 2025. The set of instructions is addressed to Patriarchs, Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and Priests–the full range of Catholic authorities, unknown in the New Testament Church.
The instructions are enlightening. Observers can sense the vast religious bureaucracy that is the Papacy. Authorities, powers, and offices are multiplied, each with centuries-old histories of development and refinement. In addition, Roman clergy are members of various religious orders such as Benedictines, Carmelites, Dominicans, Franciscans, Augustinians, and Jesuits, each with its own complex history of growth and development. The current pontiff is an Augustinian. Most Catholics have little notion of what this fact means. Is this pope significantly different from other popes, say Francis, who was a Jesuit?
Elements of the notice from the Office of Liturgical Celebrations allow observers to dig more deeply into the papal system. The Church divides time into various religious seasons related to the life of Christ, none of which is found in the Bible. That is, the apostolic church did not observe Advent (Nov-Dec), Christmas (Dec-Jan), or Lent, (40 days before Easter, which itself lasts 50 days from Easter Sunday to Pentecost).
The complex Roman liturgical calendar is not merely a matter of organizational efficiency. It claims to be kairos, or God’s time, as created by Him. And by claiming to celebrate kairos, the Church is claiming to know God’s mind in a way He has not revealed in the Bible.
Time between the major events in the religious calendar is called Ordinary Time. Thus, the announced celebration was to take place on September 7, 2025, the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, and would involve the Eucharist and the Rite of Canonization of two Blesseds, Giorgio Frassati and Carlo Acutis.
A Blessed is a deceased Catholic who has reached stage three of the four-stage process of creating a Saint. Stage one occurs when a local bishop declares a dead Catholic to be a “Servant of God,” a person who lived a particularly holy life. When the Pope recognizes the Servant of God as worthy, then the Servant of God becomes a Venerable (qualified for individual veneration, but not public veneration).
When a miracle occurs as the result of a prayer to a Venerable, then the deceased person is Beatified and becomes a Blessed. When a prayer to a Blessed leads to a second miracle, then the Blessed can be declared a Saint and be venerated by the world Church.
Each stage of this process involves close investigation by Church authorities. Of course, for this process to proceed, individual Catholics have to begin to pray to a Venerable, hoping for a miracle. What if the hierarchy decides that a Venerable is actually a fraud? A demonic delusion? This would mean that individual Catholics have prayed to a demon.
At the root of this process is the awesome claim by the Church that an individual dead Catholic is holy and living in heaven. Such knowledge is possible only if the Church is equal to God Himself. The Church is not merely in on the judgment; the Church is the Judge.
Papal Roman law is based on pagan Roman law. The Church employs thousands of Canon lawyers to interpret the law, just as the United States employs legal experts and courts to interpret the Constitution of the United States. (The “Constitution” is, therefore, much larger than the one approved in 1787. The Constitution is the original document plus all subsequent interpretations of the original. This explains how the Bible and Tradition are connected in the Roman Catholic Church.)
No lay Catholic can possibly understand all Catholic laws, rules, and requirements. In contrast, the Bible comes to each reader as a fully accessible guide to truth and salvation. A child can gain a greater knowledge of the truth than a thousand churchmen who labor over the proper interpretation of Church law.
Such a situation has a dramatic effect on the Catholic mind. As with Pharisees of old, the Roman system has added Traditions that are more important than the original document, the Bible. Human traditions are burdens on the souls of the faithful, who are never sure of their standing before God and who depend upon priests for the rules and regulations of salvation.
Catholic Tradition has no real value to the individual heart since it is not really understood, only blindly obeyed. Jesus observed of the Jewish religious leaders, “They worship me in vain: their teachings are but rules taught by men. You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men” (Mark 7:7-8, NIV).
Spiritual confusion in Catholicism is resolved for lay Catholics by the intercession of other humans, be they popes, priests, or Saints. This is why the Virgin Mary is so important to Roman Catholicism. The Mother of the Church is the great heart of pure understanding and sympathy. She cares about her children in the precise way that countless mothers over the centuries have stood between their children and the tyrannical father or other authority figure who was stern and demanding.
The world away from the warm bosom of the Mother is the realm of every insecurity, threat, and misunderstanding. The Church makes the rules, and Mary says, in effect, “Everything will be fine, my child. I know that my son Jesus is impossibly pure and holy, and that you are weak and helpless and can never be like him or any other saintly person. I’ll make it all better. I’ll make Jesus understand.”
Disturbingly, a believer in the Roman system is liable to accept falsehoods without realizing it. The believer becomes a victim of distraction and sensory overload. All of that beautiful architecture and statuary, music, ritual and clerical garb, are substitutes for a full Christian experience in direct relationship with God. It is God who explains His laws and precepts. Jesus Christ came from heaven to teach the people. And he condemned the complexity of the Pharisees, who loaded converts with burdens they themselves could not bear (see Matt. 24:4).
It is the heavenly method of salvation that fulfills the longings of the human heart for acceptance, forgiveness, and righteousness in Christ alone. There is no confusion in biblical Christianity. God calls His faithful Catholic children to come out of communion with the confusing, mysterious force that overshadows His Son. This system is destined to be destroyed very soon.