Governments (lords) govern in the world. They can incline now to Satan or to Jesus Christ. However, the time will come when the world will have only Jesus Christ as its lord. Therefore, let us look at the world in climax order.
The Red Dragon having seven heads and ten horns (Revelation 12:3) maintains her spiritual orientation. When a man exists who may serve as a tool to this Dragon, she grants him spirituality to be more powerful; she sits on this beast, and is dressed in scarlet as the beast. She is his goddess.
Certainly, this spirituality wants to have its bastion where there is a world power, so it should reside in a capital city or in a capital state of a world kingdom. Therefore, her title is "Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes and of the abominations of the Earth." Then the Lord speaks: "The woman you saw is the great city that rules over
the kings of the earth," and "The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits."
These lead to Rome and the spirituality coming from this city.
The spiritual orientation of this city is toward defeating The Woman, so she can destroy those Christians testifying about spiritual rebirth. Hence John sees her "drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus."
The peak of such action occurs in the times when Rome ruled over the kings of the Earth. This occurred during the Roman Empire, when the beast (Emperors) sat there. Julius Caesar enshrined her as Venus Genetrix, the ancestor of his own family. She was also worshiped in imperial Rome as Venus Felix, bringer of good luck; Venus Victrix, bringer of victory; Venus Verticordia, protector of female chastity; and Venus Libentina, patroness of sensual pleasure. Emperors killed Christians because they did not worship them as gods,and so they neither worshiped any goddess.
Then she ruled that world through the Roman Catholic Church as the queen of Heaven. Mary, also called Madonna, was goddess of Rome. The cult of Mary persecuted people just for being the offspring of The Woman (Revelation 12:17).
Revelation tells us, "they are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction." I believe this means that the world has had seven ruling kingdoms (Empires), and that the last one will bring the beast into the world.
But this notion of seven kingdoms conflicts with the book of Daniel. Daniel tells of four empires rising in the world before the saints receive their kingdom (Daniel 7:16-18). They should have been the Babylonian, the Medians and Persians, the kingdom of Alexander III, King of Macedonia (which split into four kingdoms; Daniel 7:6), and the Roman Empire. If the inhabitants of the Earth will be astonished when they see the beast, because he once was, now is not, and yet will come, then the Roman Empire would be the last kingdom. Afterward, the saints will take the reins of power. So Daniel is correct that Roman Empire will be the last.
The Book of Daniel compares the world kingdoms next, after the explanation of the Seventy (see chapter 11). Then there is a big jump, a long black hole, and back to the Light. He speaks of the final victory over Satan, and the taking up of power by the saints.
The black hole in the Book of Daniel, which covers thousands of historical years, testifies Biblically that Daniel did not prophesy anything about the history of Christianity. However, Daniel's words about the Seventy serve to bridge the historical years not covered in the book (Daniel 10:14). Yet he did not cover the years between the Crucifixion (the end of the 69 x 7) and the beginning of the last seven introduced in Revelation 10. So explaining the New Testament's Revelation by Daniel is a dark and difficult job.
Therefore the world can easily have more empires than Daniel speaks of. Daniel did not see them, because were in a blank spot in his view. Historically, in the world of Christianity there was the Roman Empire; the Holy Roman Empire; then Napoleon of France, who tried to be an Emperor, and then Hitler of Germany. But Hitler lived in the times of the White Power -- the times of the Heavenly Book -- and failed.
When Daniel saw the final destruction of the last empire, he noticed "the rest (first three) of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time." (Daniel 7:12, where a season could be as in Revelation 12:6 and a time as in Revelation 12:14). Must we believe that those three kinds of empires occurred in the age of Christianity, before the End Times? If yes, then the first, which is like a lion having heart of a man, could refer to the Roman Empire of the Emperor Constantine (Christians were not persecuted, for he was considered a Christian). The second, like a bear holding three ribs, could refer to the Holy Roman Empire, which was dominated by kings of German, French and Spanish extraction. And then a leopard: Napoleon was defeated by four heads (the Russian, Austrian, Prussian and Anglo-Dutch armies). Austria, France, Spain and Great Britain became powerful kingdoms thereafter.
"The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast." I suggest that the ten kings acquiring power refer to a union, so let us assume that this is the EU. Although the budding empire in Europe is a union of more than 10 states, I still think that the final Empire will be EU. I think ten refers to the ten lost tribes of Israel, which were taken into Assyria and then went on across the mountains and migrated to the west, so as to populate central and western Europe.
This empire led by the beast "will make war against the Lamb (the Messiah), but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings -- and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers." Then the angel said, "the beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire."
This happened historically in the years 1848-1870, when the European states rejected Rome influence on their national governments. Between 1860 and 1870, the Papal States of central Italy were incorporated into the new Kingdom of Italy. Vatican City, lying within the Italian capital city of Rome, has become the central government of the Roman Catholic Church. Yet the Vatican does not rule over the kings of the earth.
An angel shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!" The capital city of democracy fell. One might suppose that it fell because it was not needed anymore. The next logical thought could be that it fell because the workers for the Gospel were taken -- that is, raptured. Therefore, it is now a dwelling place only "for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird."
Calling "Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to Heaven, and God has remembered her crimes" could be the calling of the Rapture. Or it could be the last call for repentance. Whoever repents will be raptured. Some might believe that this is a call to move out of the USA. Still, where can they go if the whole globe is going to suffer? Only if they belong among the 144,000 must they move.
If the just are taken from a territory, then the wicked remain. Or, if the wicked should die, then their spirituality remains. Hence, the spirituality of many Americans is demonic and full of animal desires (a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird). For instance, if gays or lesbians were to open their eyes to see the parasitic beings giving them desires for their unclean deeds, they would have been shocked at the awful creatures that haunted their bodies.
The main sin of Babylon is that "all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the Earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the Earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries." Zechariah showed a woman in a basket (Zechariah 5:5-11). This basket went to Babylonia, where she had a house, a bastion for her activities. This woman used the air to spread her wickedness. She used two more women as well (i.e., womanly characteristics). They were her woman's beauty and woman's voice (image and voices).
I conclude that the center for the making new gods, idols, and wickedness is in the United States. We may specify Hollywood or Los Angeles as her city or house. Filmmakers produce films with unreal beings and worlds, and broadcast them from there. A basket might represent a television. People watch these baskets for pleasure; they go to sleep and get up by its pictures and sounds. People are full of her. Their brains and souls are washed or filled with her. If people are full, they are not free for other things, and so they are not free to receive God's spirit.
Many sects have their bastions there. They attempt to change what a person thinks and believes systematically. One proclaims that Mary is his queen of Heaven, while others say Jesus is God the Father, or that Jesus is not God, but a human. Others say that there is not any god because god is just a word, or that the rider on the White Horse is the Antichrist. People spread unreal pictures and blasphemy from America into the world, and make money from it. ("The merchants of the Earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.")
The world pays them for their films, pictures, books, and CDs, and now God's reward comes. "Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself." USA is also the world's economic superpower. But merchants will lose their incomes, as it is said, "the merchants of the Earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more."
From the words, "then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again," it can be understood that the sea will swallow some part of the Earth's surface. A common expectation is that California should suffer so. Also, the words "The music of harpists and musicians, flute players and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again," might point in the direction of Hollywood.
Only the last verse brings any doubt about this identification of Babylon. The words are: "In her was found the blood of prophets and of the saints, and of all who have been killed on the Earth." This does not fit the USA, if we think only symbolically. Blood means lives, and symbolical meaning is, if believers return to the evil they are lost, killed; they are not able to live for Heaven. Demonic practices and porno pictures have already killed many believers.
Or, it could be that the evil ones performed their deeds elsewhere, but built their pagan and Satanic bastions in American territory. We know that many cults and sects have arisen in the USA. Their teachings have been used to foment hate against Jews and Christians and the governments in favor of them. Certainly they hate the government of the USA, because it does not allow the persecution of Christians. To them, the government of the USA is the Antichrist, or Satan.
I think the best understanding of this verse would be if we were to consider that the world has still another superpower, and so another capital city. I suggest that Babylon in that time will be the capital city of the EU also. If the Lord's wrath punishes the USA, then the EU should be punished more. Many people of the Early Church were killed in Europe.
Here, then, is the final judgment of God's wrath. The last bowl of God's wrath will be to punish every country fighting against Jerusalem.