Who or What is "Babylon"?

"The church 

---was represented as a chaste virgin, espoused to Christ.  

2 Cor. 11:2. 

---She became a harlot by seeking the friendship of the world.  

James 4:4. 

It was this unlawful connection with the kings of the earth that constituted her the great harlot of the Apocalypse. Rev.17. 

The Jewish Church, represented as espoused to the Lord (Jer.2; 3; 31:32), became a harlot in the same manner. Eze.16. 

Even the term Sodom, which in Rev.11 is applied to "the great city," is in Isa.1 applied to the Jewish Church thus apostatized from God. 

 

*The fact that Babylon is distinct from, though unlawfully united with, the kings of the earth, is proof that Babylon is not the civil power. 

*The fact that the people of God are in her midst just before her overthrow, proves that she is a professedly religious body.  

We think it must be apparent, that the Babylon of Rev.17 symbolizes the professed church unlawfully united to the world."  

J.N. Andrews