Revelation 13:18 says: "This is where it calls for wisdom: Let the one who has insight calculate the number of the wild beast, for it is a man’s number, and its number is 666."
I didn't give you "my interpretation", PetrW. I already told you I follow Christ. He is the source of wisdom. Revelation shows that it is only the Lamb who is qualified to unlock the seals and explain what is contained in them. Jesus is the one who has permission from God to pour out holy spirit and understanding in response to our requests. "Keep on asking, and you will receive" and "Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it," he said. Jesus is the Source of true Wisdom, not some old first century philosophers or Gnostics. But if you prefer the stuff old philosophers make up rather than what is revealed through the Word of God, that's between you and him.
You request to talk about Babylon the Great? As you wish...
Zechariah 5:5-11
"Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and said to me: “Look up, please, and see what is going out.”
"So I asked: “What is it?”
"He replied: “This is the eʹphah container that is going out.” He continued: “This is their appearance in all the earth.”
"And I saw that the round lid of lead was lifted up, and there was a woman sitting inside the container.
"So he said: “This is Wickedness.” Then he threw her back into the eʹphah container, after which he thrust the lead weight over its mouth.
"Then I looked up and saw two women coming forward, and they were soaring in the wind. They had wings like the wings of a stork. And they lifted up the container between the earth and heaven.
"So I asked the angel who was speaking with me: “Where are they taking the eʹphah container?”
"He replied: “To the land of Shiʹnar to build her a house; and when it is prepared, she will be deposited there in her proper place.”"
Shinar is Babylon. Babylonish practices don't belong among people who claim to represent God.
The very next chapter of Zechariah has four chariots (similar to the four horsemen in Revelation again) and has to do with returning from Babylon to restore and refine pure worship of God.
Chapter 51 of Jeremiah talks about Jehovah taking down Babylon back in the day. Verse 14 says:
"Jehovah of armies has sworn by himself,
‘I will fill you with men, as numerous as locusts,
And they will shout in triumph over you."
And verses 27-29...
"Lift up a signal in the land.
Blow a horn among the nations.
Appoint the nations against her.
Summon against her the kingdoms of Arʹa·rat, Minʹni, and Ashʹke·naz.
Commission against her a recruiting officer.
Make the horses come up like bristling locusts.
Appoint against her the nations,
The kings of Meʹdi·a, its governors and all its deputy rulers
And all the lands they rule over.
And the earth will quake and tremble,
For the thoughts of Jehovah against Babylon will be carried out
To make the land of Babylon an object of horror, without an inhabitant."
(Notice the "locust" theme? And the "earthquake" theme?)
The plagues of Revelation are on Babylon the Great. The religious institutions have wickedly misrepresented God and reproached His Holy Name and hurt His People. He is allowing the nations to devour the religious institutions, represented by Babylon the Great.
"He said to me: “The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues. And the ten horns that you saw and the wild beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her devastated and naked, and they will eat up her flesh and completely burn her with fire. For God put it into their hearts to carry out his thought, yes, to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished. And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:15-18)
"On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: “Babylon the Great, the mother of the prostitutes and of the disgusting things of the earth.”" (Revelation 17:5)
"...the great prostitute who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and earth’s inhabitants were made drunk with the wine of her sexual immorality..." (Revelation 17:1,2)
The religious institutions claim to be loyal to God, but they are unfaithful. They are not repentant for misrepresenting Him. They do not say "we're sorry for hurting people", or if they do say "we're sorry" they don't follow through with actions that match their words unless it's only for show and only say "we're sorry" for some personal advantage rather than true repentance. They continue in their spiritual "fornication" - claiming to represent God while teaching untruths about Him. Meanwhile, they are "in bed" with the government leaders in different ways, willing to compromise their integrity at times in hopes of getting some kind of kick-backs, tax-free benefits, protection, prominence, etc.
God is sick of their nastiness. He's going to let the nations completely strip all those religious institutions of their wealth. They will no longer have their religious "ceremonies"..."No light of a lamp will ever shine in you again, and no voice of a bridegroom and of a bride will ever be heard in you again; for your merchants were the top-ranking men of the earth, and by your spiritistic practices all the nations were misled." (Revelation 18:23)
Jehovah's Witnesses as an organization have brought intense reproach on Jehovah's Name. The Watch Tower will be torn down first when religious institutions are attacked, because even though smaller than many other denominations, she has claimed to have been "the closest to God" by name. The WTBT$ is a like skank harlot, a conniving whore, a two-faced murderous prostitute, like Jezebel. "Let her drop!"
"Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind."
Individual Christians, wherever they may be found, need to discard Babylonish practices, such as lording it over the flock, hiding abuse, teaching numerology-based doctrines, dividing the congregation through anti-christ Jezebel-like teachings such as disfellowshipping, and living in communes supported by tithes which is in opposition to the teachings of the Christ. The Pharisaical teachings of the religious institutions, including Jehovah's Witnesses, have stumbled many of Christ's little sheep.
"But whoever stumbles one of these little ones who have faith, it would be better for him if a millstone that is turned by a donkey were put around his neck and he were pitched into the sea." (Mark 9:42)
Pretty soon the Watchtower and other religious institutions, all part of Babylon the Great, will not be making money any more.
"And every ship captain and every seafaring person and sailors and all those who make a living by the sea stood at a distance and cried out as they looked at the smoke from her burning and said: ‘What city is like the great city?’ They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and mourning, and said: ‘Too bad, too bad, the great city, in which all those who had ships at sea became rich from her wealth, because in one hour she has been devastated!’
“Be glad over her, O heaven, also you holy ones and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced his judgment on her in your behalf!” And a strong angel lifted up a stone like a great millstone and hurled it into the sea, saying: “Thus with a swift pitch will Babylon the great city be hurled down, and she will never be found again.""
"Amen! Come Lord Jesus!"
