I understand your eschatological position but do not accept it. Jerusalem was not the city reigning over the kings of the world when John wrote (Rev. 17:18) - Rome was....
And the woman whom thou sawest is
the great city,
which reigneth over the kings of the earth. Rev 17:18 ('The great city' is clearly identified in 11:8)
.....for
she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning. Rev 18:7 (of course she's no queen and is indeed a widow; she killed her husband, Christ the King)
...but she had authority over the kings of the land:
1 Then spake Jesus to the multitudes and to his disciples,
2 saying,
The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses seat: Mt 23
And hath
made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Rev 1:6
But ye are a elect race,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God`s own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: 1 Pet 2:9
...and that authority was removed from her and she was cast out:
11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven:
12 but
the sons of the kingdom shall be cast forth into the outer darkness:
there shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. Mt 8
Neither can Jerusalem fit the economic prosperity described in chapter 18.
The fact is there was an incredible thriving international economy of the Jewish religion with huge amounts of riches being sent to Jerusalem. Edersheim delves somewhat into this and also writes quite extensively on the influence and connection and close relationship between the Jews in Babylon (who far out numbered those in Palestine, most stayed under Cyrus) and the Jews in Palestine. Josephus refers to the immense wealth of the Jews several times. Here's an excerpt from 'The Parousia' by James Stuart Russell:
“After this follows a solemn and pathetic dirge, if it may be so called, over the fallen city, whose last hour is now come. The kings or rulers of the land, the merchant-traders and the seamen who knew her in the plentitude of her power and glory, now lament over her fall. The royal city, the mart of trade and wealth, is wrapt in flames, and the mariners and merchants who were enriched by her traffic stand afar off, beholding the smoke of her burning, and crying, ‘What city is like unto this great city?’ The description given in this chapter of the wealth and luxury of the mystic Babylon might seem scarcely appropriate to Jerusalem were it not that we have in Josephus ample evidence that there is no exaggeration even in this highly-wrought representation.
More than once the Jewish historian speaks of the magnificence and vast wealth of Jerusalem. It is very remarkable that the inventory of
the spoils taken from the treasury of the temple contains almost every one of the articles enumerated in this lamentation over the fallen city,---‘Gold, silver, precious stones, purple, scarlet, cinnamon, odours, ointments, and frankincense.”
Titus to the Jews at Jerusalem, 70 AD (from Josephus, Wars of the Jews):
“.... It can therefore be nothing certainly but the kindness of us Romans which hath excited you against us; who, in the first place, have given you this land to possess; and, in the next place, have set over you kings of your own nation; and, in the third place, have preserved the laws of your forefathers to you, and have withal permitted you to live, either by yourselves, or among others, as it should please you: and, what is our chief favor of all
we have given you leave to gather up that tribute which is paid to God (27) with such other gifts that are dedicated to him; nor have we called those that carried these donations to account, nor prohibited them;
till at length you became richer than we ourselves,....”
I understand you spiritualize it.
!?!? See verse 1:1; the entire book is 'signified'.
Neither is Jerusalem riding the back of the beast when Christ returns but Rome will.
him, being delivered up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,
ye by the hand of lawless men did crucify and slay: Acts 2:23
She rode the back of Rome to have Him murdered.