^18:24"And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth."

(Continued from the previous verse)
3. Babylon's Persecutions:

"And in her was found THE BLOOD

The BLOOD, especially His Son's BLOOD, is special to God. Instructions to the Levites indicate how it should be treated. The BLOOD is where life meets atonement; it is identified with the life of the flesh (Leviticus 17:10-16).

But Babylon's purpose for shedding THE BLOOD wasn't for forgiveness or cleansing (Hebrews 9:15-22) but rather for greed and lust for power to the point of idolatry (Revelation 13:4). In his own power grab, the devil has/had to kill mankind to keep them from becoming believer's in Christ. In other words, humans should never be able to accept the atonement that Christ's BLOOD brings.

• of PROPHETS and

  The scriptural PROPHETS are Jewish and thus they are the first of Babylon's martyrs (Jeremiah 51:49-51). Then the BLOODLETTING expanded to the non-Jewish PROPHETS, of which there have been many over the centuries.

  The PROPHET, by definition, is a spokesman of God. He spoke in God's name and by His authority (Exodus 7:1-2). The PROPHET is a "forth-teller" of God's will and since God is timeless, a PROPHET'S word are not time constrained, i.e. limited to only the past or to only the future.

• of SAINTS and

  A SAINT is one who is separated from the world and consecrated to Christ. It is the proper name for a believer in Christ. Like PROPHETS, SAINTS are attuned to God's will (Romans 8:26-27-30)

• of ALL WHO HAVE BEEN SLAIN ON THE EARTH."

  This statement is so broad that one can say that ANYONE, believer in Christ or not, who dies an unnatural death is included. This makes sense in light of the argument that the devil will try to kill anyone before they are able to make a decision to accept Christ as Lord and Savior.

  The "ALL" includes the tiny fetus whose BLOOD has just started to flow to promote the growth of life. We, adults, do not know or understand the spiritual nature of a fetus or even what pleasure and fellowship God has with that spiritual entity. That is a mystery kept hidden from us. But God knows what he breathed into mankind (Genesis 2:4-7-9) and doesn't want him or her to perish (2 Peter 3:8-9-13).

  The "ALL" includes the spiritual man in adults too. Only God knows how many people are pretending to be believers (Christians) through church attendance or even performing miracles (Matthew 7:21-23). They have never done the will of God (see how PROPHETs and SAINTs are doing God's will above). In a sense, they have experienced a spiritual death (SLAIN) ON THE EARTH.