I Have two Questions:

1) Is it true that the “Babylon” in the book of Revelation is really referring to America?

2) Are the chosen people now those who believe in Jesus and not the Jewish nation?

Question 1: Revelation 1:1b “… He sent this revelation by way of symbols…” (NET)  The Babylon that your question refers to in the book of Revelation is also pictured there as FALLEN, so I assume you are suggesting that St. John the Divine (the writer) might be predicting the fall of America because of its gross immorality.

The Old Testament Babylon had long ago been destroyed (had fallen) when St. John penned the words of Revelation 14, 16, 17, and 18. But for the Jews in John’s day, that Babylon still represented the epitome of evil and destruction. Even then they remembered it as having been a threat to the existence of God’s people before its final destruction. The Babylonians of the Old Testament had demolished the Temple, incinerated their Holy City Jerusalem, and carried the people into captivity.  Therefore, for God’s people, it symbolized all things evil in this world.

I do not believe that the City of Babylon in the Book of Revelation should be seen as representing some single city or nation (i.e. America), but rather for New Testament people it represents (symbolizes, if you will) the hideous wickedness seen everywhere in the world. Read through Revelation 18 to get a glimpse of how this Babylon deceives, allures, and entices God’s people to, “drink the wine of her adulteries.” It represents a huge threat to the church of Christ. The picture of evil depicted here and the subsequent judgment should serve as a warning to God’s children today.  The call from heaven (Rev. 18:4) to come out of her and not to partake of her sins is similar to Paul’s exhortation to the Corinthians, and to us, in 2 Corinthians 6:17, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. And will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

God has not only called us out, but he has brought us out through the waters (baptism) in which our enemies were drowned.  He has given us a new life, he nurtures and nourishes us through word and sacrament, and he’s the one who will see to it that we reach his Promised Land.  Any attempt by the Church to join with earthly powers to defeat the forces of “Babylon” is worse than futile, it is an affront to the “Valiant One” whom God himself elected. Jesus Christ is not only fighting for us, but has already won the battle. “He holds the field forever.”

Question 2: 1 Peter 2:9, “But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar (God’s  own) people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The people to whom Peter addressed these words are described in the first chapter of 1 Peter v.1 as “strangers” scattered throughout provinces in Asia Minor and he calls them God’s “chosen” people, “elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father…”   In Romans 2:28-29 Paul says, “A person is not a Jew because he was born of Jewish parents or because he has been circumcised outwardly. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is of the heart, by the Spirit whose praise is not of men but of God.”

It is evident from the above passages that the Jews as a nation are not God’s chosen people. Jews are saved in the same way as everyone else, by faith in Jesus Christ. Believers are God’s chosen people. So you are correct, the chosen people now are those who believe in Jesus and not the Jewish nation.

By the way, the passages above are only a few of many others which could be used to prove the same thing.