wingnut-

Unless everyone intends to walk around in masks for the rest of their lives it really makes no difference, at some point we will all be exposed to it if it is as contagious as has been suggested. Viruses don't just go away, once a person has been infected with a virus they will always be infected with it, and thereby can infect others with it. For example, once an individual is HIV positive ( a well known virus), they are always HIV positive. There are many viruses, which over time mutate into different strains and create new challenges. While some viruses have been treatable over time, treatments only manage the symptoms of the virus for infected individuals, they are not cured. This entire thing stinks of nothing more than a method of conditioning, and quite frankly the only thing alarming to me from the outset is how easily people fall into the panic mode and surrender their own freedoms without batting an eye. Churches should have never closed their doors, businesses should have never been forced to shut down. It is hard to fathom any circumstance in which healthy people need to be quarantined.

Yes. The fall of Babylon occurs when the armies take the city and set it on fire. It is at this point that Jesus appears in the sky, gathers the elect, and begins His descent to the Mt. of Olives. Jeremiah 50:2 “Declare among the nations and proclaim, set up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not, and say: ‘Babylon is taken, Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to shame, her idols are dismayed.’ 3 “For out of the north a nation has come up against her, which shall make her land a desolation, and none shall dwell in it; both man and beast shall flee away. Jeremiah 50:15 Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen; her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done. To me, this represents the fall of Babylon, the city is taken, the false worship within it has been destroyed, and there is no more fight left. The city is still there and burning when the Lord touches down on the Mt. of Olives, then we get the earthquake that opens the passage for the people to flee. It also must align with the 7th bowl/vial according to John, and that is confirmed by Jeremiah as well. Jeremiah 50:12 your mother shall be utterly shamed, and she who bore you shall be disgraced. Behold, she shall be the last of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Yes, it has to be. The day of the Lord is described repeatedly in prophecies as a day of absolute darkness, in which the sun never rises and the moon or stars give no light. At the 7th trumpet His sign will appear in the sky, and the sign will be the light of His glory as He approaches. This is why every eye will see Him coming. He is the only light, and from that moment on He will literally be the light of the world. Zechariah 14:6 On that day there shall be no light, cold, or frost. 7 And there shall be a unique day, which is known to the Lord, neither day nor night, but at evening time there shall be light. Evening is the beginning of the new day going back to Genesis and the creation account, and in this case it is the beginning of the 7th day, the Millennial kingdom. I'm not sure how you reach that conclusion, it is really not complicated at all. Considering we agree that Babylon is already attacked by the army from the north prior to His return I'm not sure what the issue is. Babylon can only fall once, so it really comes down to accepting that fact and that all the mentions of its fall are speaking to the same event.

I don't believe it does, the battle of Armageddon does come after as I said earlier, but the battle of Armageddon is after the 70th week and the beginning of the Millennial reign where He is ruling with the iron scepter. Revelation 19:15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords. His reign begins at the 7th trumpet, these two passages are intertwined as far as timing goes. What these later chapters in Revelation do is break down specific events and what we see at the beginning of chapter 19 is the information that gives us the timing in the overall picture. The gathering of the elect at the 7th trumpet happens in the sky, or heaven in Greek, at that point He is very near to setting down on the Mt of Olives. Revelation 19:6-8 depict the gathering in the great multitude, and also the resurrection and changing into our glorified bodies with the information about being clothed in fine linen. This is exactly why the Babylon of Revelation must be Jerusalem, because that is where the nations have gathered and attacked the city. It is this assault on Jerusalem that leads to the Jewish people calling out for Him, which is what He is waiting for. There are two important aspects regarding the fall of Babylon as well that tell us the armies from the north are God's instrument, and also include the Lord as being directly involved at the fall. Jeremiah 50:9 For behold, I am stirring up and bringing against Babylon a gathering of great nations, from the north country. And they shall array themselves against her. From there she shall be taken. Their arrows are like a skilled warrior who does not return empty-handed. Jeremiah 50:14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. 15 Raise a shout against her all around; she has surrendered; her bulwarks have fallen; her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; do to her as she has done. And from Revelation 18, the Lord's direct involvement at the announcement of the fall of Babylon. Revelation 18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. Scripture tells us that the earth is made bright by the glory of Jesus at His return, and that is what the passage above from Revelation 18 displays, Jesus announces the fall of Babylon and it is at the hands of the armies from the north, His instruments for destruction. We also know that He touches down on the Mt. of Olives and immediately proceeds to Jerusalem where He fights against these armies that are gathered. It simply does not allow for Him to be in literal Babylon when everyone, including Him, is in the vicinity of Jerusalem. I agree with you, and I suspect that is why the expositors say that it is happening all over the world as opposed to just a specific region. I think in regards to this it depends on where in heaven you are referring to. At this point Jesus is very near to the earth, still in the clouds (heaven), but on His way to Jerusalem.

The location is about Jerusalem, yes, that is where everyone is gathered prior to the fall of Babylon.

I misread the original post of yours, for some reason I thought you said long gone but you did not say that, you said already gone, so I apologize for the confusion on my part. As far as your questions above, I agree with what you are saying, God most definitely does not have to physically be there to destroy something. However, the OT passages regarding Babylon point to Him using other means to do so, as in the armies from the north, the Medes. What I need to figure out I guess is what you consider to be the final act, or what final act are we talking about. Is your definition the end of the 70th week the final act, or does your definition of final act extend into the Millennial reign? This is why I ask. Revelation 16:17 The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” 18 And there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a great earthquake such as there had never been since man was on the earth, so great was that earthquake. 19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell, and God remembered Babylon the great, to make her drain the cup of the wine of the fury of his wrath. 20 And every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. 21 And great hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, fell from heaven on people; and they cursed God for the plague of the hail, because the plague was so severe. This being the final event written in Revelation as far as wrath is concerned, and being connected to when God remembers Babylon, narrows down the timing a bit. This also creates serious issues in the narrative if it is speaking of Babylon literally, and the reason is because of how God judges them in the OT passages and that this is done in a single day. If it is the last day, which the 7th bowl/vial suggests, then there are logistical problems, because all the nations are gathered against Jerusalem, not Babylon. Revelation 16:12 The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, to prepare the way for the kings from the east. 13 And I saw, coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs. 14 For they are demonic spirits, performing signs, who go abroad to the kings of the whole world, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty. 15 (“Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!”) 16 And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon. Now the armies of the whole world are assembled at Armageddon at the 6th bowl, Babylon falls at the 7th bowl, so there are no armies to march to a different place. Armageddon is laid out in chapter 19, and none of those armies escape that battle. Once these armies assemble at Armageddon, they attack Jerusalem. Zechariah 14 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. This must all take place in a single day according to the scriptures, so as I have been pointing out there is a contradiction. Everyone, including the Lord, cannot be in Jerusalem and someone be in Babylon afterward. Either the prophets are wrong about all the nations being gathered against Jerusalem, or the city in the OT passages cannot be literal Babylon. Everything mentioned above in Zechariah 14 (except for the Lord on the Mt. of Olives) is prophesied about in those OT prophecies regarding Babylon.

I think when we break them down and look at them line by line it is clear they are about more than one nation. I have no doubt that the Lord is going to judge the land of the Chaldeans just as He will judge the whole earth, but the passages themselves speak to something bigger than just the land of the Chaldeans. In response to our other conversation here I am going to touch on some of what I mean.

I am having a hard time understanding your view of things here. You indicate Babylon is long gone by the time the Lord sets down on the Mt. of Olives, so you believe He destroys Babylon before He returns to earth?

So what you believe is the first four verses are about one time, and everything that follows is unrelated?

I specifically said the Babylon of Revelation. Every year the people of the earth will be required to come to His kingdom, this explains why people will have to walk past it and lament it, because it is in close proximity. Ancient Babylon is outside the boundaries of the Millennial kingdom and since it is on the Euphrates river that would not be an area anyone would be trying to cross to get into the land. I agree that the land was left desolate after the Babylonian exile, and that is in large part the proof of what I'm saying here. People, as you point out, make typological arguments about what constitutes "desolate" by their definition of desolate, but isn't it God's definition that matters? I mean, when God said Jerusalem was desolate after the Babylonian exile, and later scriptures from the prophets define the conditions that existed as desolate, then that is God's definition of desolate which would also apply to the state of Babylon. First, to avoid an overload of information, we should probably just stick to the argument I am making, which is in regards to the Babylon of Revelation and the proofs for that being Jerusalem. Because for example, there is nothing in the prophecies regarding ancient Babylon where God assigns them a double portion. There is only one city in scripture that is told they will get a double portion, and that is Jerusalem.

Isaiah 29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. 2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. 3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you. 4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, 6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night.

I couldn't say for certain that it is going off OT boundaries, or if what is in view are the new boundaries given in Ezekiel for the Millennial kingdom. The most specific I can get is from the Zechariah 14 passage where only Judah territory is in view, from Geba in the north to Rimmon in the extreme south. As mentioned in another part of the conversation, it appears to me this is done in stages, the restoration of the land, and scripture states that He begins with Judah. Zechariah 12:7 “And the Lord will give salvation to the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem may not surpass that of Judah. 8 On that day the Lord will protect the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them on that day shall be like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the angel of the Lord, going before them. 9 And on that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem." Ok, so you said this is response to the passage from Isaiah 29 I posted, citing that it was related to a historical event. However, this prophecy speaks to the future and I just didn't post more of it for the sake of longevity, but I will show you now why this is not a historical event. Isaiah 29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. 2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. 3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you. 4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper. 5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, 6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. There are 2 problems with associating this with history. One, the Assyrians never made it to Jerusalem to set up siege works, God destroyed their army in their camp before they ever reached the city. Two, the Babylonians were not destroyed, they won the battle for Jerusalem. As far as who it is that sets up siege works against Jerusalem I would say it is clearly the nations that come up against her in the last days. We are talking about an apocalyptic time so having to resort to historical means to take a city is completely plausible if modern technology is stifled by lack of electricity and other such technologies being available. As for how long, I can't say, scripture does not tell us one way or the other at what point the enemies encamp all around Jerusalem, it just tells us that they do. It wouldn't appear to be for too long of a period to me though, but that is just my best guess.

I would say he sees things nearly the same as I do.

No problem, let's just slow it down and focus on one thing, works for me. Ok, so I'll just give a brief summary from scripture of how this reads to me and how I understand it. Zechariah 12:10 [ Him Whom They Have Pierced ] “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. This is the emotion from the Jewish people that is going on, and Isaiah I believe addresses that in the first 2 verses by how the Lord responds to His people. Verses 3-5 are speaking to the restoration of the land, most expositors take the Zechariah 14 passage and make it a worldwide thing, despite the specifics Zechariah gives. While I tend to agree with them that this is a global event and not just a regional one, I am not willing to agree that Zechariah states that because he does not. Perhaps the cleansing of the whole earth is done in stages because the Lord says His kingdom begins the size of a mustard seed, and clearly His reign begins in the land promised to Abraham's seed. I believe He is speaking to the survivors at Jerusalem, words of comfort.

I understand completely, that is why I held the position myself for my entire life up until a few years ago. I understand exactly why there is an issue. What I said before is that there are contradictions, and when that happens only one of the two can be true. Where my understanding begins and ends on this are specifics regarding the Babylon of Revelation, and that there is only one city that fits all of those areas.

Yes they take the city, it tells us in verse 2 the city will be taken. They do not completely destroy the city though, there is going to be a massive earthquake when the Lord sets down on the Mt. of Olives, this is where the people who flee go. Whether the forces remain in the city or not remains to be seen.

If all information is not taken into account, then the right conclusion can never be arrived at. I am also not spiritualizing vast swaths of scripture, the passage begins speaking of comfort for the people, then says speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Of course the most important aspect that has been completely overlooked is that Jerusalem receives the double portion. Isaiah 40:Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. The reason both the people and the city are mentioned is because everywhere in prophecy it is sectioned off specifically as Judah and Jerusalem. Ephraim is given different prophecies regarding this time, as are other peoples. Judah and Jerusalem though go hand in hand together, this is consistency. Nearly 200 times in scripture the two are said interchangeably. The first 5 chapters of Isaiah are regarding judgement against Judah and Jerusalem. In many of the occasions these two are said together in scripture it specifies Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The reason the people are being comforted and it says speak tenderly and cry to her is because they believed earthly Jerusalem was sacred to the Lord, which it was at one point, but that city has been destroyed and rebuilt several times over now. What exists there in the end times is flat out blasphemy and direct worship of satan from within what is supposed to be God's temple. This is what God has in store for her, per Isaiah. Isaiah 29 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. 2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. 3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you. 4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

It is important to take into account everything that happens throughout these last seven years. Revelation 6:7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, “Come!” 8 And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. Most likely this is where it begins, but anything that follows I am not claiming in any particular order. Starting with the fourth seal, 25% of the earth is subject to this, that doesn't mean 25% of the earth's population is killed, just that they are subjected to the possibility from this horseman. Bottom line, a lot of people are going to die. Revelation 8:10 The third angel blew his trumpet, and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. 11 The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the water, because it had been made bitter. No idea how many, but a lot of people die here. Revelation 9:13 Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God, 14 saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” 15 So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released to kill a third of mankind. One third of mankind is killed by this trumpet, and in my view this is very near the end. On top of all the deaths in this aspect you also have all the deaths resulting from the war on the saints, so suffice it to say by the time we get to the end the population of the earth is going to be greatly diminished. So by the time we get to the 6th trumpet, remember it is one third of however many are left alive. Besides all this death that has been occurring, we also have a lot of gathering going on at the end. Everyone it would seem is being drawn to this area, whether for good or evil. The unholy trio is gathering people to fight at Armageddon, and God is gathering people as well, some for resurrection, and He is also gathering the Jewish people. Deuteronomy 30 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. In Revelation chapter 11 we are told that Jerusalem is overrun and trampled by the gentiles, scripture indicates that the majority of the remnant will flee at that time. According to Revelation 12 they flee to the wilderness, which is confirmed by both Isaiah and Hosea. When we come to the very end, the day of His return, there appear to be many Jews in the city of Jerusalem to me. So, did those that fled earlier return at some point near the end, or did other Jews from around the world just come because they were drawn there? If you're asking me to completely understand everything that God is doing at this time, I can't, and neither can anyone else. Verse 7 from the Deuteronomy passage though clarifies that this gathering of the Jews does not just happen at the end, but prior to when He takes the cup from them, and turns it on their enemies. I would imagine that His faithful remnant will find themselves back in the land before it is over. Jerusalem becomes a magnet at the end, a cup of staggering for the wicked.

Yes. The entire land is made desolate and then God restores it, with a new landscape.

Daniel 5:30 That very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. 31 And Darius the Mede received the kingdom, being about sixty-two years old.

The city is still there when Jesus returns to the earth. The beast and the kings do not destroy it, they attack it and set it on fire and assault the people, Jesus is the one who purifies the land with His wrath. Revelation 11 tells us that the city is split in two, and Zechariah tells us this. Zechariah 14 Behold, a day is coming for the Lord, when the spoil taken from you will be divided in your midst. 2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations as when he fights on a day of battle. 4 On that day his feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives that lies before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall be split in two from east to west by a very wide valley, so that one half of the Mount shall move northward, and the other half southward. 5 And you shall flee to the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azal. And you shall flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. So the question is, half the city goes out into exile, is that half of the city or half of the people? Because it says the rest (which would have to be the other half of the people) shall not be cut off from the city. At the very least, half of the city is still standing.

The very first verse says "comfort, comfort my people", I am not sure how you can remove them from the equation.

Not really, it is simply following what is written, the verse you posted tells us that this is the case. Revelation 18:2 And he called out with a mighty voice, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast. The scripture I posted tell us that the beast, the false prophet, satan, wicked people, and fallen angels all are put into the lake of fire, this becomes their permanent habitation, their dwelling place for eternity. Everything unclean will be thrown into the lake of fire. We also know that right now, at this moment, there is no lake of fire here on earth. The verse tells us that fallen Babylon becomes this habitation that presently does not appear on the planet, but is certainly here at the conclusion of Armageddon.

Revelation 17:8 The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come. 9 This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated; 10 they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while. 11 As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction. Mountains are symbolically used to represent kingdoms in scripture, for example, God refers to His kingdom Zion as His holy mountain. Psalms 48 Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the city of our God! His holy mountain, 2 beautiful in elevation, is the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion, in the far north, the city of the great King. 3 Within her citadels God has made himself known as a fortress. Babylon itself is described as a mountain. Jeremiah 51:24 “I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea before your very eyes for all the evil that they have done in Zion, declares the Lord. 25 “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, declares the Lord, which destroys the whole earth; I will stretch out my hand against you, and roll you down from the crags, and make you a burnt mountain. 26 No stone shall be taken from you for a corner and no stone for a foundation, but you shall be a perpetual waste, declares the Lord. There were 7 heads, so 7 kingdoms, and 5 of them were fallen kingdoms, one existed at the time John wrote Revelation, and one more would rise after it but would be brief. Then the angel tells us that the beast is an eighth but it belongs to the seven. So, kingdoms have everything to do with it because that eighth kingdom of the beasts will be Babylon of Revelation. This is displayed in the passage from Jeremiah, God will repay Babylon for all the evil they have done in Zion, and also speaks to this destructive kingdom as destroying the whole earth. All the evil that is done in Zion is referring to the desolation of the temple, the erection of the image of the beast, the worship of the beast, and the war on the saints which are all carried out from this city. Belshazzar was a Chaldean, like his father before him and those before him, the Chaldean kingdom came to an end, Babylon. As of that night it became the kingdom of Darius the Mede, later shared with the Persians, an entirely separate kingdom. Their kingdom would later fall to the Greek kingdom, which would later fall to the Roman kingdom. When Babylon conquered Assyria the Assyrian kingdom was done as well, this is how we have 5 fallen kingdoms. It was no longer Babylon, it was now part of the Mede/Persia kingdom. Ancient Babylon is one of the 5 fallen kingdoms represented by the 7 heads in Revelation, just like Assyria which it conquered.

I don't think we do honestly, 2 years ago I also believed it would be Babylon based on the same literal understanding you are using today. The difference really comes down to how we view what happened to ancient Babylon and whether or not it can be restored as a kingdom. Based on what we are told in Daniel 5 I don't believe it is possible for a restored Babylon. God said their days were numbered, and that very night a Mede took over the kingdom. I just don't see how that can be undone. Because of that fact, there must be another explanation. I agree that it leaves open other possibilities, the purpose was to establish that Jerusalem does in fact qualify, not that no one else does. From Ezekiel 16 itself we see that Samaria and Sodom both qualify, but Sodom was eliminated of course, and Samaria has not been a kingdom since the Assyrian invasion. If there are other mother of harlots in scripture, we can certainly consider the possibility. The mother of harlots designation is just one thing that points at Jerusalem though. Isaiah begins this in verse 1 though as referencing His people, so in this instance based on context it does not appear to apply to the city itself, but moreso the kingdom. Isaiah 40 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. 3 A voice cries: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. 5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”