11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Vatican as the Harlot of Babylon: Debunked

By Theodore Shoebat

Is the Vatican the Hatlot of Babylon? Where did this idea originate from? Most will be shocked to find that some of
the greatest enemies of Christianity were the ones who developed or supported this idea: Joseph Smith, founder of
Mormonism; Muhammad, founder of Islam; John Huss, founder of the Hussites; and many of the most depraved
heretics in Church history.

So why do many Evangelicals believe them? The shocking truth from history should help us rethink one of the most
tainted ideas in Protestant theology. Many Protestant and Evangelicals think that it was first said by the Protestant
Reformers, such as Luther or Zwingli. But this is false. This idea actually can be traced all the way back to the
Middle Ages, from a gnostic sect in southern France called the Albigensians. These held a doctrine first contrived by
one heretic from the third century, named Mani. He lived in Mesopotamia and started a cult called Manichaeism,
which heldamongst numerous beliefsthat they were two gods, one of evil and one of good; that Christ never came
in the flesh and that the crucifixion was a fantasy.

In other words, they were an antichrist, and so dangerous were they that St. John warned:

And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that [spirit] of
antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. (I John 4:3)

They also believed that the Incarnation of Christ never occurred; the sufferings of Christ and the Eucharist were an
illusion, and even life itself was considered by Mani to be an abomination from which all of humanity should seek to
be free.

This antihuman doctrine spread to Armenia where its subscribers called themselves Paulicians, and then this sect
made its way to the Balkans where it influenced a man in Bulgaria named Bogomil, who would start his own cult in
his country. Though Bogomilism went underground, it continued to grow like bacteria growing stronger in static
murky water in the summer heat. It spread to Italy and by the twelfth century it made its way to France where its
followers would call themselves Cathars, from the Greek word pure.

In a council conducted in Toulouse in 1119, presided by pope Calixtus II, the Cathars were anathematized as
heretics. By 1165 the Cathars had become so numerous that they began to preach in the open, with the Catholic
bishops too fearful to protest. They soon commenced to form their own church separate from Roman Catholicism,
establishing as their own bishop one Barthelemy in their city of Albi, where they built the Cathar communitythe
strongest in southern France. It was because of this community in Abli that these heretics were called Albigensians.
(1)

It was these Albigensians who affirmed the belief that the Roman Church was the Harlot of Babylon spoken of in the
Book of Revelation. Because of this belief, the Albigensians sought out ways to utterly uproot Christianity from

about:blank Page 1 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Europe. But for the sake of brevity I cannot describe all of their crimes, so I will mention one of the most significant.
The head of this heretical group, Raymond of Toulouse, wanted the Muslims to destroy all of Christendom, and so
sent his emissaries to the king of Morocco to give this request. (2)

We have heard many a time that it was the Catholic Church who collaborated with Muhammad, but the reality is that
it was the Catholics who combated Islam while the heretics worked with the Muslims.

Who else taught that the Harlot of Babylon is the Catholic Church? There was another sect that came about in
Bohemia in the 15th century called the Hussites, or followers of John Huss.

John Huss

The Hussites rejected the Catholic Churchs authority, denounced the use of holy water, oils, the chalice, priestly
vestments, all fasts, all feast days accept Sunday, open confession, prayers to the saints, reverence of holy images
and all other Catholic rituals. (3)

These beliefs sound all well and good to the common Evangelical pastor, but lets look into their actions in order to
see their intentions, for by their fruits you shall know them.

When Pope John XXIII issued a Bull declaring Huss a heretic, his followers seized it and placed it on the breast of a
local prostitute and paraded her to represent her as the whore of Babylon, before casting it into the flames. (4)

A major faction within the Hussite heresy were the Taborites, who were founded when numerous Hussites ascended
Mount Tabor to receive Communion. These shunned the Church Fathers, denied purgatory, prayers for the dead,
and missals.

about:blank Page 2 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

The Hussites established their own hegemony in Bohemia, where they would greatly persecute Catholics for not
accepting the teachings of John Hus, their founder. Hussite professors in the University of Prague established a
tyrannical council which would rule Bohemia; thus the university became the new Vatican. Hussite Lord Chenek of
Wartenberg arrested the bishop Hermann of Prague and compelled him to appoint radical Hussites as priests. The
archbishop Conrad condemned these actions and nullified the ordinations of these heretical priests. The committee
of tyrants of the university more fervently connected themselves with Hussite doctrine and even imprisoned one of
its own professors, Peter of Unichov, a sharp critique of Hussite thought. They tortured him and threatened him with
death if he did not proclaim John Hus as a teacher of God.

The Hussites published their own manifesto in which it reads that the faithful should repress all public sins. It was a
jurisprudence akin to Sharia, with anybody not agreeing with John Huss being deserving of punishment. A Taborite
army under the command of John the One Eyed, captured the castle of Sedlec, killed its owner Ulrich and all of his
retainers, and then cruelly told a group of six that if one of them wanted to be spared he had to decapitate the other
five (and one of them did in fact comply).

The One Eyed was ruthless and pitiless; he captured priests and monks and burnt them alive, for he saw them as
the ones who persecuted John Hus. Divisions broke out within the Hussites and the One Eyed saw to it that
dissenters were also put to the flames. When Sigimunds commanders executed four hundred Hussite prisoners, the
Hussites responded by massacring one thousand four hundred Catholics. Twenty four priests were kidnapped and
told that their lives would be spared if they accepted the Hussite manifesto, and no less than twenty one refused and
were bunt alive. (5) A bloody war was fought between Catholic and Hussite, with the Catholics being the victors in
the end.

Even the heathen Mongols wished to destroy Rome and all of Christendom. The emperor of the Mongols, Cuyuc
Khan, had even wanted to war against the Church of God and the Roman Empire, and against all the states of
Christendom and the people of the west. (6)

Moreover, a most damaging fact to the belief that the Catholic Church is the Harlot of Babylon, is that Joseph
Smiththe founder of Mormonismhimself adopted this view.

about:blank Page 3 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Joseph Smith

The Book of Mormon directly attacks the Catholic Church, having the prophet Nephi declare that the Catholic
Church was founded by Satan and was the mother of harlots:

And the angel said unto me: Behold the formation of a church which is most abominable above all other churches,
which slayeth the saints of God, yea, and tortureth them and bindeth them down, and yoketh them with a yoke of
iron, and bringeth them down into captivity. And it came to pass that I beheld this great and abominable church; and
I saw the devil that he was the founder of it. And I also saw gold, and silver, and silks, and scarlets, and fine-twined
linen, and all manner of precious clothing; and I saw many harlots. that abominable church, which is the mother of
harlots (I Nephi 13: 5-7, 34) (7)

Latter Day Saints president, George A. Smith, promulgated this belief in 1870:

If you talk with the various Protestant denominations about these points they will tell you that the Catholic Church
had degenerated, that it had gone into darkness, was anti-Christ, and all this sort of thing, which doubtless was
correct; and according to modern revelation this must be true; and being true, we are urged to the conclusions that
all the sects and parties of the religious world are wandering into darkness. (8)

The Albigensians and the Hussites agreed that the Catholic Church was the whore of Babylon, and before you
begin to have a liking for these groups because of this belief, there is another heretic that you should know about
who also saw the Catholic Church as the archenemy: Muhammad himself.

about:blank Page 4 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Muhammad

Muhammad even prophesied that the Muslims would first conquer Constantinople and then Rome. At the time of
Muhammad, Christianity was Catholicism, since Islam was founded centuries before the Reformation or even before
the Eastern Orthodox schism from the Roman Catholic Church. The Quran, essentially, is a direct attack against the
Catholic Church. Surah V in the Quran actually misconstrues the Catholic doctrine of Mary and accuses Catholics of
worshipping Mary, a claim which Evangelicals accept and Catholics deny:

And [beware the Day] when Allah will say, O Jesus, Son of Mary, did you say to the people, Take me and my
mother as deities besides Allah ?' He will say, Exalted are You! It was not for me to say that to which I have no
right. If I had said it, You would have known it. You know what is within myself, and I do not know what is within
Yourself. Indeed, it is You who is Knower of the unseen.

This is why in 846 the Muslims made invaded Rome. It was in this glorious city where Saint Peter and Saint Paul
preached, and it was now here where the Muslims sacked their sepulchers. They saw such profound monuments as
idols, and when they entered the tomb of Peter they stripped away a silver altar, and overran Saint Peters church in
the name of Allah and for their hatred of the Gospel. (9) They were not going to leave; they did not come for a
vacation to Rome on cruise ships and decided to leave after a comfortable tour to the Vatican for Palermothey
were sticking around and a leader was needed to crush them. Pope Leo IV arose as the defender of the city.

about:blank Page 5 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Pope Leo IV

When he first became pontificate he consecrated entire days to prayer and religious processions to render hope
unto the people and to kindle the fire of Christian zeal after it had been blown away by the Islamic barbarians. He
had the citys walls repaired; fifteen towers were built or renewed, and an iron chain was drawn across the Tiber
river to hinder any enemy naval ships from sailing into Italy. Before the Muslims returned to Rome Leo made a
powerful prayer, that the God who had protected Saint Peter and St. Paul on the confounding waves of the sea
would fortify the hands of his warriors who were about to fight the enemies of Christ. The Muslims made their
maddening prayer to Allah and advanced for a naval attack. Strong winds came upon the seas and merciless waves
crashed right into their ships; Muslims were dashed to pieces on rocks and those who survived shipwreck received
no quarter from the pursuing Italian Christians. The remaining survivors were forced to labor for the repairs of the
churches they vandalized, and thirteen silver bows found amongst the Arabs were used to ornament the altar of
Christ. (10)

The Muslims till this day wish to destroy Rome, hence why in 2009 Yusuf Qaradawthe most respected scholar in
the Sunni Muslim worldstated:

So Constantinople has been conquered and now the second part of the prophecy remains, which is the conquest of
Rome.

This hatred for Rome as an institution of the devil, was agreeable to the Protestant Reformers. The Muslimsunder
the Ottomansstill aspired to take Rome and destroy the Catholic Church in the days of Luther, and it was he and
his followers who were willing to help.

Luther and his followers saw the Catholic Church as an institution of Satan that needed to be destroyed.

about:blank Page 6 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

Why, said Luther, if men hang the thief upon the gallows; or if they put the rogue to death,why should not we,
with all our strength, attack these Popes, and Cardinals, these dregs of the Romish Sodom? Why not wash our
hands in their blood? (11)

For this reason, Luther favored the Muslims and saw them as the tool of God to punish Europe for its sins, and
hence the same reformer condemned crusading against Islam. John Foxe, a famous Protestant leader, claimed that
he could not be certain as to whether the sultan of the Turks or the pope hath been the more bloody and pernicious
adversary to Christ. (11.5)

The Protestant bishop of Salisbury John Jewel wrote this in 1571:

The Turk, they say, is now hovering upon Italy. He will at least bridle the ferocity of antichrist [the pope]. (12)

about:blank Page 7 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

John Jewel

Zwingli, another major Protestant reformer, held the Turks as Protestant allies. (12.5)

England and other Protestant powers even provided the Turks with war material, specifically tin which was essential
for the Turkish cannons.

In 1529, once Luther realized that his own life was on the line, since the Turks were approaching Vienna, he wrote
that war needed to be done, but not by the Pope, (13) as though he was now to be dictating who should and who
should not lead battles.

It is stated repeatedly that Babylon is the mother of all idolatry. But my research shows that the mother-land of
idolatry is not todays Iraq, but Arabia, and that therefore Islam, with its Arabian origin, is the antichrist system.

WHAT IS THEN THE ANTICHRIST SYSTEM?

In order to understand the antichrist system, one must comprehend the Tower of Babel, its religious system and its
origins.

The Tower of Babel is known to have been built by Nimrod, (14) a son of Cush, the founder of Ethiopia.

Many have hastily identified Nimrod with a Sudanese or Ethiopian African, but my research shows that once
Scripture and historical records are closely examined, Nimrod is found to be geographically a Southern Arabian. The
most explicit biblical evidence for Arabias identity with Cush is Habakkuk 3:7:

about:blank Page 8 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

Cushan, or Ethiopia, is clearly identified here as Midian, or a part of Arabia. (15)

Genesis 10:10 recounts that Nimrod founded a city in Mesopotamia called Akkad, which means that when Nimrod
reigned in Mesopotamia there were Akkadians in existence in that region. In my whole research page I have shown
how Akkadians, archeologically, have been found to be originally South Arabs, being related to the Sabaeans, a
powerful South Arabian people.

Also in Sudan there were Sabaeans who affirmed that their place of origin was a region called Meroe (originally
called Saba), and according to the ancient writer Juba, the entire Nile Valley from the city of Aswan in Egypt to
Meroe was inhabited not by Ethiopians but by Arabians. This then helps shed light on the Arabian identity with
Nimrod.

In my research I show that because of the south Arabian identity of both the Akkadians and Nimrod, it is conclusive
that the pagan religion of ancient Arabia was followed in Shinar, where Nimrods kingdom was founded. Therefore
the religion on which the Tower of Babel was based, had to have been Arabian. Who were then the deities of this
religion?

We know that in both the Akkadian pantheon and language there is reference to a deity named Alla. I was the first
point out that in the Atrahasis epic, which was written in Akkadian, there is mention of the god Alla, and that this god
had to be equal to the Islamic Allah.

When the Akkadians traveled from south Arabia to Mesopotamia, they brought along with them their gods Athtar
(Venus) and Shamash (the sun), both deities native to south Arabia. Athtar is really a south Arabian equivalent to
Allah, and the image of Allahthe Blackstone in Meccaoriginally was dedicated to Allat or Athtar (Venus). Allat, in
pagan religion, was both male and female, and thus equal to Allah.

With all of this said, we can now bring the connection between Allah and the Tower of Babel. In my research I show
that several assyriologistssuch as Budge, G. Rawlinson, and Stephan Langdonhave written on a certain tower
discovered in Iraq called the House of the Seven Lights of the Earth, which has been identified with the Tower of
Babel since after Nebuchadnezzar repaired it he wrote:

[T]his edifice, the House of the Seven Lights of the Earth, the most ancient monument of Borsippa:a former king
built it (they reckon 42 ages), but he did not complete its head. Since a remote time people had abandoned it
without order expressing their words. Since that time the earthquake and the thunder had dispersed its sun-dried
clay; the bricks of the casing had been split; and the earth of the interior had been scattered in heaps. (16)

The Seven Lights refer to the towers seven stages, each of which was dedicated to a particular planet or deity. For
this summary article, we will only focus on the fifth stage which pertains to the subject at hand, because it was

about:blank Page 9 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

dedicated to Venus or Ishtar or Athtar. (17) According to Strabo Borsippa was dedicated to Artemis, (18) which
would have been this very goddess, who was worshipped as Allat since a Greek engraving from 6 B.C. reads Allat
who is Artemis. (19) This has a direct connection with Allah since he was the same as Allat, thus bridging the gap
between the Islamic Allah and the Tower of Babel.

Thus when Isaiah speaks about the destruction of Babylon, he describes it geographically as Arabia, citing areas
such as Seir, Teman, Dedanim, and Kedar:

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. O my threshing, and the corn
of my floor: that which I have heard of the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have I declared unto you. The burden of
Dumah. He calleth to me out of Seir, Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? The watchman
said, The morning cometh, and also the night: if ye will enquire, enquire ye: return, come.The burden upon Arabia.
In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim. The inhabitants of the land of Tema
brought water to him that was thirsty, they prevented with their bread him that fled. For they fled from the swords,
from the drawn sword, and from the bent bow, and from the grievousness of war. For thus hath the Lord said unto
me, Within a year, according to the years of an hireling, and all the glory of Kedar shall fail: And the residue of the
number of archers, the mighty men of the children of Kedar, shall be diminished: for the LORD God of Israel hath
spoken [it]. (Isaiah 21:9-17)

Theodore Shoebat is the author of the book, For God or For Tyranny

Follow him on Facebook

Twitter

REFERENCES

(1) *Carroll, A History of Christendom, vol. iii, ch. v, pp. 164-165; Moczar, Seven Lies about Catholic History, ch. iv,
p. 89-91*

(2) *Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, History of the Albigensian Crusade, 12, 394, trans. W.A. Sibly and M.D. Sibly*

(3) *See Carroll, A History of Christendom, vol. iii, ch. xii*

(4) *Garvie, The Christian Preacher, p. 120*

(5) *See Carroll, A History of Christendom, vol. iii, ch. xii, pp. 508-511*

(6) *Carpini, The Story of the Mongols Whom We Call The Tatars, ch. 8, p. 86, trans. Erik Hildinger*

about:blank Page 10 of 11
 11/7/17, 12'55 PM

(7) *That this verse is directed against the Catholic Church, see Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History, ch. iv,
p. 60*

(8) *Remarks by President George A. Smith, Reported by David W. Evans, Journal of Discourses, 13*

(9) *See Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. v, ch. lii, p. 973*

(10) Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. v, ch. lii, pp. 973-975*

(11) *See the Rev. John Fletcher, notes to the fourth letter of Maistre on the Spanish Inquisition*

(11.5) *See Jonathan Harris, The Ottoman Threat, in Thomas F. Madden, The Crusades, ch. viii, p. 193*

(12) *Bishop Jewel to H. Bullinger, in Hastings Robinson, The Zurich Letters*

(12.5) Scott H. Hendrix, Recultivating the Vineyard, p. 165, 2004

(13) *See Jonathan Harris, The Ottoman Threat, in Thomas F. Madden, The Crusades, ch. viii, p. 193*

(14) *That Nimrod was the king in Shinar during the building of the Tower of Babel, see Faber, Pag. Idol., vol. i, b. i,
ch. i, p. 75. The ringleader in this rebellion was Nimrod: for the city, writes Faber, which engaged in building, was
called Babel or Babylon; and the beginning of Nimrods kingdom is said to have been Babel and three subordinate
towns: their city also was built in the land of Shinar; and Nimrods Babel is likewise said to have been situated in the
land of Shinar. There can be no doubt, therefore, that Nimrods Babel was the identical Babel.*

(15) *See R. Jamiesons commentary on Habakkuk 3:7*

(16) *Quoted in Philip Smith, Ancie. Hist., ch. x, pp. 200-201. Brackets and ellipses mine.*

(17) *See G. Rawlinson, The Religions of the Ancient World, ch. ii, p. 71.*

(18) *Strabo, Geography, 16.1.7*

(19) *See Javier Teixidor, The Pantheon of Palmyra, ch. iii, pp. 61-63.*

Share this:

Facebook Twitter Google Email

about:blank Page 11 of 11