Resurrection and Mystery Babylon go together like chocolate and peanut butter.  They are inseparable in Scripture. We endeavor in this writing to show that the identity and judgment of Mystery Babylon corresponds to the time of the resurrection.

Mystery Babylon and the Last Trumpet

In Revelation 11:8-18, Mystery Babylon is identified as the city which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. This clearly marks Jerusalem as the subject of the mystery. Jesus was crucified in Jerusalem outside the gates, (Heb. 13:12). During His ministry he stated that it could not be that a prophet perish outside of Jerusalem, (Lk. 13:33).

Jerusalem had been likened to Sodom, a city noted for harlotry in the past, Isaiah 1:21; Ezk. 16:48-49, 53-57. In the Revelation text, 11:8, it is now spiritually called Sodom, i.e. Sodom in the spirit.  Paul, also calls Jerusalem Egypt who was in bondage with her children, Gal. 4:24-25, echoing the words of Christ, (John 8:32-35).

The context of Revelation 11:8-18, places the fall of Mystery Babylon, i.e. Jerusalem at the same time of the sounding of the last trumpet, the coming of the kingdom and the resurrection of the dead. “Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’…The nations were angry, and your wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that you should reward your servants the prophets and the saints, and who fear your name, small and great, and should destroy those who destroy the earth.”  (Rev. 11:15–18)

Mystery Babylon, the great city of Revelation (11:8; 17:5; 18; 18:2, 10, 18, 20-21, 24) is judged at the time the angel sounds the last trumpet. Mystery Babylon, is judged in A.D. 70 at  Jerusalem’s fall. Therefore, the seventh angel sounds in A.D. 70 in connection with the fall of Jerusalem.

Mystery Babylon and Resurrection 1 Corinthians 15

The sounding of the last trumpet of Revelation 11:15 corresponds to the time of the resurrection, per v. 18. That makes the event parallel to the last trump of 1 Corinthians 15, which also is the great resurrection chapter of the New Testament. Since the identity of Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem and its focus the destruction of the city, (Rev. 11:2), then we have an inseparable link between the fall of Babylon (Jerusalem) in A.D. 70 and the resurrection of the dead.

The resurrection of the dead occurs at the sounding of the last trumpet. But the sounding of the last trumpet occurs when Jerusalem or Mystery Babylon is judged. Therefore the resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15 corresponds in time to the judgment upon Jerusalem.

Mystery Babylon and the Last Trumpet in Matthew 24:31

The sounding of the last trumpet also corresponds in time to the gathering of God’s elect from the four winds at the sound of the trumpet per Matthew 24:31. This means that this text is parallel to both 1 Corinthians 15:50 and Revelation 11:18. There cannot be two last trumpets, one at the fall of Babylon and one yet future. Since both mark the time of the resurrection and the parousia (coming) of the Lord, they are one and the same.

The key point here is that Jesus said this event would take place before that first century generation passed, Matt. 24:34. This confirms the historical context of Mystery Babylon or Jerusalem, which fell in connection with the overthrow of the temple. See Matthew 24:3, Luke 21:20-24; Rev. 11:2.

Mystery Babylon and the Last Trumpet in 1 Thessalonians 4:16

This brings us to the last correlation for this time, that of 1 Thessalonians 4:16. Paul yet speaks of the Lord descending from heaven with a shout and the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God. His context is the resurrection of the dead. That means he speaks of the time of the last trumpet. The text must therefore correspond in time to Revelation 11:15-18, the time of the fall of Mystery Babylon.

That means it is not a future text of an alleged Rapture, but one which depicts the past fulfillment of the resurrection of the dead. The trumpet corresponds in time with that of Matthew 24:31-34, which occurred within Jesus’ own generation at the fall of the temple, per above, and the demise of Mystery Babylon per the Revelation text.

There can be no mistake that the resurrection and Mystery Babylon are united in Scripture. Once the identity of Mystery Babylon is established as Jerusalem in the first century, the timing of the resurrection in A.D. 70 cannot be refuted.  There are many more points to be made here, but these must suffice for the brevity sake.

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