Babylon; Babylon the Great

The identification developed through several distinct stages. In 1880-1905 Babylon was consistently associated with apostate or nominal Christian church systems: first apostate sects generally, then the great apostasy from Rome through Protestantism, and finally nominal Christendom as Babylon, with Rome as the mother and Protestant systems as her daughters. In 1918 the united denominational systems were still Babylon, mother and daughters. In 1921 Papacy was specifically called Babylon the Great in a contextual application, while in 1922 the term was contextually applied to the worldly nations collectively. In 1924 the standing identification remained modern Christianity. In 1926 Babylon was more precisely placed as the ecclesiastical wing of the Devil's organization. In 1930 the earlier apostate-church interpretation was explicitly rejected and replaced by a much broader identification: Babylon was the Devil's organization itself. This broader view was repeated in 1935, 1944, 1946, 1947, and 1950, with the 1944 and 1947 statements explicitly including Satan's entire visible and invisible organization. In 1963 the identification was narrowed to the world empire of false religion, including both professed Christian and pagan religion. That religious-empire identification remained stable in 1965, 1970, 1976, 1977, 1979, and 1980.