III. THE FUTURE (“THE THINGS WHICH SHALL BE HEREAFTER"), PART
2b--6:1-22:21
C. The Second Half of the Tribulation, Part
6--17:1-18:24
6. The Two Babylons--17:1-18:24
b. Babylon, The
City--18:1-24
(I)
The second angel's announcement--vv. 1-3
(A) This angel is different from that of chapter 17.
(1) May well be another of the seven angels
(2) Has great authority--this does not signify
Jesus Christ
(a) Christ is not just another
angel, but He is the Angel of Jehovah. Remember the word angelos
in
the Greek
means messenger.
(b) Christ does not have
just great authority, but all authority in heaven and on earth.
(c) Not to be confused with
our Lord's second coming in Revelation19:11-16 as some do.
(3) One writer has identified, this angel with
the one in 14:8 who announces the fall of Babylon.
(4) This angel being different from the one in
chapter 17 reemphasizes the fact that this Babylon is
different from the one in
chapter 17.
(B) The announcement--vv. 2, 3
(1) Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen.
(a) "The double use of
'fallen' emphasizes the fact which excellent expositors have found
here--that
of the
double overthrow of chapters 17 and 18." (Newell, 286; italics
is his.)
(b) This would also emphasize
that the two Babylons although separated by considerable distance
are definitely
related.
(c) This phrase would also
suggest that perhaps this is a development of the angelic
announcement
of 14:8.
(2) The habitation of devils, etc.--v.
2b
(a) As a habitation of
devils the whole place would be demon possessed.
(b) Remember this was the
beginning place of all idolatry.
(c) Cf. Isaiah 13:1, 19-22;
34:14ff.
(d) As a hold of every
foul spirit
((I)) The
word "hold" is "a place of detention: as it were an appointed
prison."--Alford, IV:714
((II)) Again,
this part emphasizes that Babylon, the city, is demon possessed.
((III)) Thus,
Babylon is seen as the jailhouse of demonic forces.
(3) "All nations have drunk"--v. 3
(a) This verse clearly indicates
that the two Babylons are interrelated.
(b) Although the harlot,
the Mystery Babylon, is physically separated from Babylon, the city, it is
nevertheless
related to it in that Babylon, the city (which city is the one that was and
shall be on
the River
Euphrates), was the original site of all idolatry.
(c) However, more is here
than religious fornication--that is, idolatry, for the verse speaks
commercialism.
(d) The word rendered
abundance is the dunimis, power. Thus the last part of
the verse can
read,
"through the power of her luxury." In other words, "Money will
talk."
(II)
The call to God's people--vv . 4, 5
(A) Another voice from Heaven--v. 4a
(1) This certainly is another angel.
(2) Some have construed it to be God the Father,
but no great necessity exists here for God to speak
Himself; an angelic messenger
would suffice.
(B) The call of warning--v. 4b
(1) Come out of her
(a) Isaiah 48:20 clearly
indicates that this refers to redeemed Israel.
(b) Spiritually, it may be
applied to believers in any age including ours--cf. 2 Corinthians
6:14-18
(2) Be not partakers of her sins.
(a) Cf. Isaiah 52:11
(b) Jeremiah 50.8ff.
(c) Jeremiah 51:6-9, 44,
45
(3) Or else you will receive of her
plagues.
(a) Those who partakes of
the sins of Babylon will suffer the judgment with Babylon.
(b) The word plagues here
does not have to refer to the seven plagues that have been discussed
under the
seven vials, although they could be.
(c) The word plagues here
probably simply refers to the destruction of commercial Babylon.
(C) The reason for Babylon's punishment--v. 5
(1) Her sins have reached unto heaven.
(a) This is not to say that
they have piled up so high as to reach heaven, but rather that they have
heaped up
to the point where heaven must take notice.
(b) Cf. Jeremiah 51:9
(2) God has remembered her iniquities.
(a) Not that God had forgotten,
but rather the time had come to complete His judgment upon them
for their
sin.
(b) In a sense there is here
Hebrew parallelism with the first part of the verse. This parallelism
is a
form of
Hebrew poetry.
(c) Cf. Revelation 16:19
(III)
The final character of Babylon's sin and its final overthrow--vv.
6-24
(A) The characteristic of Babylon's sin--vv. 12-17, 23b
(1) World commercialism is its nature.
(a) NOTE #1--The statements
to follow are not to suggest that commerce is in itself godless and
of
Satan.
(b) NOTE #2--The statements
to follow are not to suggest that those who are born-again and are
engaged in
some commercial enterprise are out of the Lord's will or are in great
sin. May this
writer cite
as examples: Lydia, a seller of purple; Dorcas, a seamstress;
Paul, a tent-maker.
(c) The character of
commerce (via Newell, 281-283)
((I)) "It
is not of God--especially world-commerce, but is of man and of
Satan." This will be
particularly true in its final and last stages.
((II)) "God
placed His nation, Israel,in a land where commerce with other nations was
very
nearly impossible."
((A)) Ironic, to say the least, that the Jew today is virtually the
hub of commerce.
((B)) Note the conditions of Israel for commerce, particularly
in Old Testament days.
((1)) No harbors
((2)) Deserts on East and South
((3)) Mountains with only narrow passes to the North.
((C)) God had forbidden the Israelites to multiply horses (one of
the sins of Solomon and a
subsequent cause of his downfall) and to
multiply gold and silver (another sin of
Solomon and a subsequent cause of his downfall).--cf.
Deuteronomy 17:16, 17
((III))
"North of Israel" was "the city of Tyre on the Mediterranean
coast" which "became the
great maritime center of the earth and upon it, was pronounced
the terrible judgment of
Ezekiel 26-28."
((IV))
"Israel's commercial dealings corrupted her both in the days of Solomon
and
Jehoshaphat."
((V)) Concerning
international commerce
((A)) "Enables man to avoid as far as possible God's command to till
the earth and to live by
the sweat of his bow."
((B)) "Tends to unify the humanity that God has definitely divided
into 'nations," and that, this
writer might add, apart from God's plan to unify the
world through faith in Jesus Christ.
((C)) "Enables individuals, cities and nations to become unduly swollen
with riches" which
"begets universal covetousness, which is idolatry."
((D)) "The nature. of commerce is very simple. You take
your products . . . where, you can
get the highest price; fill your ship there and again
sail where you get the high price, and
again load your ship at a low cost with wares desirable
in other countries. "This is not
tilling the ground and living quietly." "God
wants us to live beneath our own vine and
fig-tree" and to be "content with such things" as we
have.
((VI))
"'Business’ is an excuse most common in the thoughts of men for
not serving God."
((A)) Strange is it not that a man is too tired or ill to attend church
for one hour or two on
Sunday, but can, if necessary, spend all day at
their place of business.
((B)) Rome 12:11, some say, if correctly rendered does not have
the word business in it.
They say if correctly it should read "In diligence
not slothful; fervent in spirit; serving the
Lord." The not being slothful is concerned with
spiritual things. However, if the word
"business" is understood to be spiritual business, the
Authorized Version stands.
((VII)) Satan
will use commerce to further the power of the beast--cf. Revelation
13:17.
((VIII)) God's
dear saints are increasingly experiencing difficulty on account of
"business."
((A)) Witness some of the advertising on TV and in magazines.
((B)) Some Christians have difficulty obtaining jobs because of
being required to work on
the Lord's day; or if they have positions, many
times they are required to work Sundays
at the peril of losing their positions.
((C)) Newell’s footnote, 283: "In what, indeed, does the
mightiest and farthest reaching
power on earth now already center? A power which
looms up in all lands, far above all
individual or combined powers of church, or state,
or caste, or creed? What is it that
today monopolizes nearly all legislation, dictates
international treaties, governs the
conferences of kings for the regulation of the
balance of power, builds railways, cuts
ship canals, sends forth steamer lines to the ends of
the earth, unwinds electric wires
across continents, under the seas, and around the world,
employs thousands of
engineers, subsidizes the press, tells the state of
the markets of the world yesterday that
everyone may know how to move today, and has here living
organizations in every land
and city, interlinked with each other, and coming daily
into closer and closer combination
so that no great government under the sun can any longer
move or act against her will. or
without her concurrence and consent?
"Think for a moment, for there is such a power; a power
that is everywhere clamoring for
a common code, a common currency, common weights and
measures; and which is not
likely to be silenced or to stop till it has secured
a common center on it own independent
basis, whence to dictate to all countries and to
exercise its own peculiar rule on all the
kings and nations of the earth. That power
is COMMERCE." A collaboration of this
very power of commerce is the joining of several
steel companies in several European
countries--our allies?--to build steel mills in Communist
China.
(2) Full of merchandise--vv. 12, 13
(a) Jewelry and fine clothing--v.
12
(b) Rich in woods, ivory,
brass, iron, and marble.
(c) Finest of spices
(d) Wines and oil
(e) Fine grains
(f) All sorts of cattle,
sheep and horses
(g) Chariots
(h) Slaves--literally bodies--and
souls of men.
(3) These were things the soul lusted after--v.
14
(4) Merchants made rich by this city--v. 15
(5) City beautifully decked out --v. 16
(6) The merchants of this city were the
great men of the earth--v. 23b.
(B) The mode of Babylon's final overthrow--vv. 8, 19.
21
(1) Catastrophic--v. 8
(2) In one hour
(a) Idea is suddenly.
(b) Cf. verse 17
(3) Direct
(a) From God's hand
(b) Verses 20, 21, 8b
(4) Cf. Isaiah 13:18ff.
(C) The mourning of the kings and merchants--vv. 9-11
, 15-19
(1) The kings bewail her--v. 9.
(2) They stand afar off for fear of
being destroyed by its destruction-v. 10.
(3) The merchants weep for her.
(a) Not because of its
destruction
(b) Because of the
loss of business
(c) These merchants also
stand afar off for fear of being destroyed with her.--v. 15
(d) Note again that they
do not bewail the loss of the city as such but rather her riches--vv.
16, 17
(e) Even the ship owners
and sailors stood afar off bewailing the city for the loss of the
riches to
themselves--vv.
17b-19 (note particular the latter part of verse 19)
(D) The perpetual curse upon Babylon--vv. 2, 22, 23
(1) It is fallen and become the habitation of
devils and unclean spirits.--v. 2
(2) City destroyed and found no more (for a city
to be so destroyed that not a trace is left sounds like
the use of a hydrogen
bomb or worse).
(3) No more music; no more craftsmanship; no
more milling; no more light; no more weddings in this
city--vv. 22, 23
(E) The cumulative guilt of Babylon--v. 24
(1) The blood of prophets and saints and
of all that were slain upon the earth was found in her.
(2) This verse shows that the spirit of Babylon
exists now although the actual city is at present
non-existent.
(3) All that were slain is very inclusive and
can include all that died an untimely death for any reason
whatsoever, whether under the
guillotines of France or whether literally worked to death by some
unreasonable, un-principled,
unChristian employer.
(F) Her judgment decided by Heaven's saints--v. 20
(1) A solemn fact indeed
(2) God is the avenger.
(3) His judgment is to avenge the saints--note
that many a saint has cried to the Lord, "How long, O
Lord, holy and true, dost Thou
not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?"--
Revelation 6:10
(4) Heaven's saints are to rejoice over this judgment
on Babylon--Rev. 19:1-3 sets forth this rejoicing
in greater detail.
(G) The time of this judgment
(1) Nowhere indicated as such.
(2) Certainly follows the destruction of the
Mother of Harlots
(3) Newell (probably 290-291, but not certain)
suggests that this Babylon is destroyed shortly before
the close of the Great
Tribulation.
(a) Mystery Babylon, The Mother
of Harlots destroyed at the end of first 3 1/2 years of the
Great
Tribulation.
((I)) The
Antichrist (if this writer's interpretation of the white horse
of chapter 6 is correct)
comes on the scene in the guise of holiness. This being the case
there is no need to
overthrown the Mystery Babylon, Mother of Harlots.
((II)) Proof
of "comes on the scene in the guise of holiness" is seen
in Chapter 17 where the
woman is found to be riding the beast--the Antichrist.
((III)) Apparently
the Antichrist with Rome's consent makes a pact with the Israelites.
((IV)) In the
middle of the tribulation, i. e., after 3 1/2 years the
Antichrist breaks the pact; sets
himself up as God in the temple; and destroys Rome and its religious
system, the remnants of
apostate protestantism and.Roman Catholicism.
((V)) Remember
"Rome's motto is 'semper idem.' [Always the same] She cannot deny the
Father and Son, as the Antichrist does and exist." (Newell, 290; italics
are his.)
((VI)) Therefore,
he must destroy her.
(b) Babylon the city, which will
be the great commercial center as well as Satan's world-capital, will
thus be destroyed
at the end of the tribulation.
((I)) Chapter
19 sets forth the coming of Christ to reign and these events are said
to be after the
destruction of Babylon, that great commercial city.
((II)) Furthermore,
this city is said to be destroyed by a great earthquake under the seventh
vial--
16:19.
((III)) Cf.
Isaiah 13:18ff.
(H) Proof that the two Babylons are not the same.
(1) They are related, but not identical.
(2) The time of destruction is different:
the woman, Rome, is destroyed at the middle of the tribulation;
Babylon the Great City of
commerce, is destroyed near the end of the tribulation just before
the
coming of Jesus Christ.
(3) Mystery Babylon "was destroyed by man's
hand--by the Beast and his ten kings."--cf. 17:16
(Newell, 291; italics are his.)
(4) Literal Babylon, the city on the River Euphrates,
"with its minstrels, flute-players, trumpeters,
craftsman," etc. (vv. 22, 23) "will
be overthrown, and in an instant, swallowed up into the bowels of
the earth, and with a burning like
Sodom and Gomorrah." Thus, it is destroyed by God. (Ibid.)
(5) Hatred is the emotion of the day when
Mystery Babylon is destroyed; fear, weeping, and wailing
will be the emotions of the
day when literal Babylon is destroyed.
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