Why the Catholic Church cannot, in any way, be the Whore of Babylon

To explain why it is impossible for the Catholic Church to be the Whore of Babylon is really quite a simple matter – one in which simple reasoning and a little geography will do.

First, we have to start with explaining a word – the word “criteria”.  There are two kinds of criteria.  There is what I call “or” criteria and “and” criteria.  Its fairly straightforward.  “Or” criteria is like the criteria needed to get a handicapped sticker for your car so you can park in the handicapped spots in parking lots.  If you are in a wheelchair, or need assistance walking, or are allergic to sunlight, you meet the criteria to park in the handicapped spots.  One does not need to be in a wheelchair AND allergic to sunlight to do so.  This is “or” criteria – where one only needs to meet one, or a few of, the criteria for something.

“And” criteria is what you think it is – criteria in which all applicable statements must apply.  To be president of the United States, one must be at least 35 years old AND born in the United States, AND have lived in the United States for the last decade.  If you were born and raised in the United States and have never even left the country, but are only 34 years old, you cannot be president.  Likewise, if you were born on the Mexico side of the border while actually at the border, and immediately taken over to the U.S., where you lived for 65 years, you still cannot be president.  This is because you must meet ALL of the criteria to be president.

What is the relevance of this to the Whore of Babylon and the Catholic Church?  It is the kind of criteria to be the whore that is the relevance.  That criteria is “and” criteria.  The entity in question must meet ALL of the criteria in question to be the Whore.  What does this mean for us?  It means something very important – that we need only prove that only one of the criteria does not apply to the Church.  Because it is “and” criteria, if the Church is even off by just one criteria, it cannot (I repeat, CANNOT) be the whore.  It does not matter how evil the Church may be, or how many people they have killed, or even if it openly claims to actually be the whore – if it does not meet EVERY criteria, it is, by definition, not the Whore of Babylon.  This means that we need only show that just one of the criteria for the Whore fails to apply to the Catholic Church to prove conclusively that the Church is not the Whore as described in Revelation.

The one criteria we are going to cover here is that the Whore is supposed to be a city on seven hills.  While there are dozens of cities throughout the world that sit on seven hills, one is mentioned more than any other – Rome.    Its constant mention is often found in the assertion that the Catholic Church is the Whore and is based in Rome.  But there is a serious problem with this, and that is simply that the Catholic Church is not actually based in Rome, nor did it necessarily originate there.  The Catholic Church, it could be argued, isn’t actually based anywhere.  It’s members live all over the world.  The Catholic Church is based on Earth – this is as specific as we can really get without bending truth a bit.  Still, no one would doubt that the Catholic Church, if based in any specific place on Earth, is based in Vatican City because that is where the top of the Church hierarchy lives and works.  This is where the geography comes into play.

As any topographical map of Rome and the surrounding area will show, the Vatican actually sits on only one hill.  Normally I would not recommend wikipedia, but it does currently have a nice, clear, and easy to read map of the area found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Seven_Hills_of_Rome.svg  Of course, this is not a topographical map, but you would probably find it far easier to make sense of than one.   You can see from the map that there are seven hills of Rome way over on the east side, and Vatican hill way over on the left end.  Not only is the one hill that the Vatican sits on quite distinct from the seven of Rome, but there is even a fair amount of land and the Tiber river between it and those other hills.  So we see clearly that the Vatican does not sit on seven hills, but rather only one, that one of which is not part of the seven that give us Rome.

Now the red line bordering Rome on that map is ancient Rome.  The city has grown quite a bit since then – so much so that Vatican city is now encompassed on all sides by Rome.  Still, it is not Rome itself, nor even part of Rome, but it’s own very distinct city.  And even so, that does not matter.  If one wanted to include the Vatican as part of Rome because one wants it to fit the criteria for the Whore, one actually runs into a bit of a problem – that in the desire to include the Vatican in Rome, one must also include the hill on which the Vatican sits, along with any other hills that fall in the current confines of Rome, totaling the hills that make up Rome eight at the very least.

So one can see with a little reasoning and a good map that no matter how you might try to spin it, the Vatican, and thus the Catholic Church, does not in any way sit on seven hills.  And since this is one of the “and” criteria for the Whore of Babylon, then this also means that it is quite literally impossible for the Church to be said Whore.

Advertisement