A Woman Rides the Beast

Revelation 18 (lightly paraphrased) 

Fallen is Babylon the great... it has become a cavern of demons, and the home of every unclean spirit, and every unclean and hateful bird and every unclean and hateful beast of prey. All nations have drank the wine of her wrath and the kings of the earth have practiced whoredom with her... the merchants of the earth have been enriched by the abundance of her luxuries.

We are warned to 'come out of her' so as not to participate in her sins, which have reached high heaven, nor should we partake of her plagues because Yahweh has remembered her wickedness.

This Babylon was pleased with herself and her lusting, thinking of herself as a queen who will see no sorrow. But in one day Yah judges her and along with her plagues will be death and mourning and famine, as she burns. She was one of the biggest importers of goods, which makes the merchants sad because now they cannot sell their inventory: 

gold; silver; precious stones; pearls; fine linen; purple; silk; scarlet; aromatic wood; ivory; precious wood; brass; iron; marble; cinnamon; cardamon; aromatics and unguents; frankincense; wine; oil; fine flour; wheat; beast of burden; sheep; horses chariots; and the bodies and souls of men.

Those who had gotten rich off her, every pilot, navigator and sailor, will stand far away for fear of her torment. They cry and say "Alas! that great city which was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and gilded with gold and precious stones and pearls, because in one hour such riches are laid waste." She will be thrown down and never found again. In her was found the blood of prophets and Set Apart believers and of all those that have been slain on the earth.

(As of 01/27/2017 The USA is the largest importer of goods, although this may change according to plans Mr. Trump has about 'making America great again'...)

Mystery Babylon

A woman sits upon a red beast of prey which has 7 heads and 10 horns. This beast is full of blasphemous names. The woman appears to be either in control of the world's governing system or extremely influential in its decision making process, but the others end up hating her. We are told she will be totally destroyed. Could this represent the status of the Roman Catholic Church and the power it wields over the world? Or is Trump positioning the U S of A into position?

This final world system would need to be in place in order for the woman to control it. This woman is also referred to as "Babylon the great which made all nations drink of the wine of the rage of her whoredom." 

We are all familiar with 'types and shadows' contained in Scripture: people and events which occurred then and point towards what will happen later. It occurred to me to look at Babylon, which was one of the greatest cities on earth at one time, from an historical context to help define our perception of Mystery Babylon. We might have to use some outside sources to discover more about Babel as Genesis 11 is a short reference but sets the ground work:

Everyone on earth had the same language and the same words. And as they migrated from the east they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said, "Let us make hard bricks and build a city and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves..." When Yahweh came down to take a look, He said, "If these people of one language can come up with an idea like this, then there is nothing that they set their mind to that will be out of reach. Lets go down and confound their speech so they won't be able to understand each other" (thus putting an end to such behavior). Yah scattered them from there over the face of the earth and they stopped building the city. It is called Babel (Babylon) because it was there Yahweh confounded their speech and scattered them.

Notice, out of their pride and arrogance they came together for the sake of their own glory... they wanted to make a name for themselves. Not only did Yahweh confound their speech but He scattered them. Years later the House of Israel was scattered, part of which was exiled to Babylon in Nebuchadnezzar's day. During those seventy years many bad habits were picked up by those dispersed Israelites, and brought back with them to Judea whence they returned.

Nimrod 

Nimrod's name is from the verb "let us revolt." He is said to be a mighty hunter (gibbor tsayidh) in the sight of Yahweh, but the language has a dark meaning. He becomes a tyrant or despot leading an organized rebellion against the rule of Yahweh. He hunts not animals, but rather the souls of men. Cain, a condemned murderer had started the first cities before the Flood. Nimrod builds the first post-Flood cities.

More from the website of L. Dolphin:

Nimrod is the founder of both Babylon and Nineveh, the two great cities of antiquity which became, ultimately, enemies of Israel. Nimrod evidently gained a great reputation as such a hunter, but he was more than a hunter of wild animals. By the founding of Babylon and Nineveh we have a hint given of the nature of this man. We are told here that he was "the first mighty man on earth," i.e., after the flood. That phrase, "mighty man," takes us back to Genesis 6 where, in that strange story of the invasion of the "sons of God" into the human race, there resulted a race of giants called Nephilim. We are told that "these were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown." This demonic invasion of the race, with sexual overtones, brought into being a race of giants that were morally degraded. These also appear later on in the Canaanite tribes. We have found this suggestive line of thought running through the Scriptural account up to this point. Nimrod apparently was one of these "mighty men," and therefore introduced a perverted, degraded form of religion into the world. It began at Babylon, spread to Nineveh, and can be traced in history as it subsequently spread throughout the whole of the earth. Thus, in this man Nimrod, we have the seed of idolatry and false religion coming in again after the flood... In the Babylonian religion, Nimrod (false god Marduk) held a unique place. His wife was Semiramis. Marduk and Semiramis were the ancient god and goddess of Babylon. They had a son whom Semiramis claimed was virgin-born, and they founded the mother and child cult. This was the central character of the religion of ancient Babylon, the worship of a mother and child, supposedly virgin-born. You can see in this a clever attempt on the part of Satan to anticipate the genuine virgin birth and thus to cast disrepute upon the story when Yahshua would later be born into history.  

This ancient Babylonian cult of the mother and child spread to other parts of the earth. You will find it in the Egyptian religion as Isis and Osiris. In Greece it is Venus and Adonis, and in the Hindu religion it is Ushas and Vishnu. The same cult prevails in various other localities. It appears in the Old Testament in Jeremiah where the Israelites are warned against offering sacrifices to "the Queen of Heaven." This Queen of Heaven is Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, the original mother of the Mother and Child cult. The cult has also crept into Christianity and forms the basis for the Mariolatry that has prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church, where the Mother and Child are worshiped as joint redeemers. This idolatrous religion culminates at last in the Bible in the book of Revelation. There, a "great harlot" appears, whose name is "Mystery Babylon the Great," the originator of all the harlotries and false religions of earth. The essence of Babylonianism, as we understand from Scripture, is the attempt to gain earthly honor by means of religious authority. That is Babylonianism, and it has pervaded Christian churches, Hindu temples, Buddhist shrines, and Mohammedan mosques. Everywhere it is the element that marks falseness in religion - the attempt to gain earthly power and prestige by means of religious authority. That is what Nimrod began and what YHWH will ultimately destroy, as we read in the book of Revelation.

Babylon was founded by Nimrod.  He was considered a Babylonian god.  His wife was Semiramis, goddess of Babylon. They had a son whom Semiramis claimed was virgin-born, and they founded the mother and child cult. This was the central character of the religion of ancient Babylon, the worship of a mother and child, supposedly virgin-born. 

Many moons later, reported in the Book of Revelation, she, the Queen of Heaven, Mystery Babylon, a city full of evil, is characterized by the same old false religious system, propagated by the Roman Catholic Church who has gained earthly honor by religious authority via the Pope.

Let that sink in for a moment.

... the merchants of the earth have been enriched by the abundance of her luxuries and she was one of the biggest importers of goods... she is described as that great city which was clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet and gilded with gold and precious stones and pearls (that attire represents royalty, wealth). The blood of all slain believers was found in her... Who is responsible for a multitude of deaths? the inquisition? or Islam? Does the RCC import goods? 

Mystery Babylon is most likely the final world religious system, totally devoid of YHWH  and dismissing His Son, attempting to negate the Kingdom to come.  We can see it promoted now as 'all religions lead to 'God'.  I think even the pope said something like that.