Babylon is fallen. Revelation 14v8.
"And there followed another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
There is little point in reading on in scripture unless we understand the meaning of the words before us; so we have to investigate the biblical meaning of Babylon. It is important that we do this because Babylon occurs 260 times in scripture. The fall of Babylon is repeated twice in three separate scriptures (Revelation 14v8, Revelation 18v2, Isaiah 21v9). there are two Babylons existing side by side, one religious Babylon and the other commercial Babylon. It is indeed "a tale of two cities" namely Rome and Babylon. The nature and fall of them both are discussed in full in Revelation 17-18. Chapter 17 the fall of religious Babylon; chapter 18 the fall of commercial Babylon. The fall of the first Babylon (religion) takes place at the commencement of the great tribulation. The fall of the second Babylon (commercial) takes place at the end of the great tribulation immediately prior to the return of Jesus Christ to the earth.
We now trace the biblical revelation of this world system. Babylon was a city some fifty miles south of Baghdad in Iraq and was the hub of a vast world empire. In the Syriac language it is called Babilii which means "the gate of God." In the Hebrew language it is called Babel which means "confusion." Claiming to be near to God they were in fact anti-God. Babylon embodies the one great satanic world system in opposition to God. There is a progressive revelation of it in holy scripture.
- The first mention of it is in Genesis chapter 10 & 11. There we see the first meaning of Babylon which can be described as "globalisation" in rebellion against the command of God. In Genesis chapter 8&9 God had made the clear commandment that all people on the earth should spread abroad over the whole earth and "replenish the earth" on the back of which commandment He established the system of nations, so God proclaimed nationalism and not globalisation. In rebellion against this the man Nimrod whose name means "he will rebel" proposed a unification of all peoples who would gather round a tower and would combine commercial enterprise with religion, against the wishes of God. So the first revelation of Babylon is that it seeks to alter the purposes of God for mankind.
- The next occurrence of Babylon is in Genesis chapter 14 where it says in verse 1 that it was "in the days of Amraphel king of Shinar" (Persia or modern day Iraq) led an invasion against the land that God had promised to Abraham and his people. Thus the second revelation is, they would covet the promised land not content with God's provision.
- We read no more of Babylon until we come to the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel (notably Daniel) where we find that Babylon has taken into exile all the people of God. The third revelation of Babylon is that it destroys the liberty of the people of God.
- We next read of it here in the book of Revelation and the details are expanded in chapters 17 & 18 there we see Babylon in its true colours. Still proclaiming to be godly, they are in league with the blasphemous rulers of this world and they depend on the ungodly commerce of this world. There she is described as "the great whore" and her religious tyranny extends to the mass murder of the people of God.
Globalisation in defiance of the clear will of God; Invasion of the land God gave to His people; The enforced captivity of the people of God and their possessions; the corruption of the truth of God in the pretence of godliness with a vicious streak. This is Babylon!
Babylon the city may have disappeared for a while, but the system has always been present in the world, we are today on the verge of commercial globalisation. We are today being called to compromise our beliefs to accommodate all religions therefore creating a one world religion. The doctrine of the present day can be described as "syncretism" which means the unity of all theological and philosophical positions in a new synthetic religion which is based on compromise. Christianity is a dogmatic assertion of things we know to be the truth. Anything less than this is Babylon.
Just like God visited Babylon in Genesis chapter 11, and brought to nothing the pride of Babylon in the times of Daniel, so in the end times the futility of Babylon will finally be seen when God brings to nothing a religious and commercial system in defiance against His will. The destruction of Babylon is revealed first in Isaiah 13, and finally in Revelation 18.
Babylon is fallen, is fallen.
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