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    Fr. Joseph Jenkins

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References to Pagan Rome Used Against the Church

Revelation 18:2-8;24 is often misapplied to the Roman Catholic Church. The great harlot Babylon symbolizes the Rome of pagans not of Christians. Despite persecution and martyrdom, Christians of the first century are urged not to surrender their precious faith in Christ.

What is a Christian?

Since anti-Catholics often renounce the Christian nature of Catholicism, we would do well to look at the sober and rich definition of this question in the universal catechism:

[CCC #1694] Incorporated into Christ by Baptism, Christians are “dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” and so participate in the life of the Risen Lord (Romans 6:11 and cf. 6:5; cf. Col. 2:12). Following Christ and united with him (cf. John 15:5), Christians can strive to be “imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love” (Ephesians 5:1-2) by conforming their thoughts, words and actions to the “mind . . . which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5), and by following his example (cf. John 13:12-16).

For more such reading, contact me about getting my book, DEFENDING THE CATHOLIC FAITH.

One Response

  1. I tend to agree with that. Babylon refers to the world system and false regions which have killed the people of God throughout history.

    Revelation 2 and 3 discuss the major church groupings or types in the context of then existing churches, and the RC is found in these chapters, as are all the other churches.

    FATHER JOE: The original Babylon was a city-state just a few miles south of present-day Baghdad. The name Babylon in the Book of Revelation is used allegorically for pagan Rome. It is a false distortion to associate it with Roman Catholicism. Such a mentality reflects the anti-Catholicism which I have been discussing. It looks as if you are one of those critics who would also expand it to include other churches and a counterfeit Christianity. Other fundamentalists would further read into it allusions of a future world order.

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