Damascus is destroyed in these first battles. Yeshua fights the beast, not Mystery Babylon, IMO. The beast is the one world government formed after Mystery Babylon is out of the picture, probably with major Islamic influence.
This ties in with Muslim end of the age beliefs. I don't see a Caliphate forming / existing with the US remaining the most powerful nation.
Not saying with 100% certainty that the US (or cities) is Mystery Babylon, just leaning in that direction. I'm more certain that it is a place, not church / religion, etc.
Couldn't pay me enough to live in NYC or DC...
Lets look at what we know of MB:
Isa 21:9
And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, [with] a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.
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Rev 14:8
And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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Rev.17
[1] And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
[2] With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
[3] So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
[4] And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
[5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
[6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
[7] And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.
[8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.
[9] And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.
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The description given in Revelation for MB is distinctly the British royal family, and does not fit the US or any other nation at all:
“[12] The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
[13] And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.”
I’ve heard many say that it also fits the Vatican, but my knowledge of the Vatican is not sufficient to affirm that.
Finally, is the fact that no differentiation is made between the “Beast” and Mystery Babylon. Rev 17 appears to say that they are one and the same.
The accusation WRT the blood of the prophets would appear to point to the Sanhedrin, but certainly not to the US.