The two Babylons. Introduction. Revelation 17-18.
There is a book on the market by Alexander Hislop entitled "The two Babylons" and I believe this book is very much in line with scripture revelation. Immediately when we come to Revelation chapter 17&18, it is evident we are backtracking in order to expand on a major biblical theme, namely the destruction of Babylon. This is made clear from chapter 17v1 "And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me saying unto me, come hither I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters." This is a flash back into one of the scenes enacted during the outpouring of the seven vials in chapter 16. The fall of Babylon has already been mentioned twice in the book, chapter 14v8 and chapter 16v19. This indicates the importance of this event in the mind of God for His people and now he devotes two whole chapters to the subject. Babylon occurs some two hundred and sixty times in holy scripture, and is second only in importance to Jerusalem of the cities of the world. The clear indication in these chapters is that the city of Babylon will be rebuilt, and will become the very hub of world trade.
What we have here in these two chapters is the downfall of two different aspects of Babylon. In chapter 17 we have the fall of religious Babylon; in chapter 18 we have the fall of political and commercial Babylon. The prediction of their fall is indicated three times in scripture under the phrase "Babylon is fallen, is fallen." (Isaiah 21v9; Revelation 14v8; and Revelation 18v2). The fundamental principal behind Babylon, as already discussed, is that of globalisation; a one world religion coupled with a one world government. That there are two aspects to Babylon is seen by the fact that two different angels introduce each of these aspects in chapter 17v1 and chapter 18v1. Indeed these two events are probably separated by several years.
All this raises the question as to the union between the church and thee state, between the religious and political aspects of life. It is clear that world thinking is that both should be married. The motivation of such thinking is that of human control without God. In Genesis chapters 9-11 God had made it clear that He favoured nationalism and the tower of Babel was built in defiance of that order of things toward globalisation. Jesus made it clear in Matthew 22v15-21 that there should be separation between the things of the state and the things of God. The Pharisees asked Him "is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar or not?" His answer is unequivocal, "render to Caesar the things which are Caesar and unto God the things which are God's." Clearly He is marking a separation between the church and the state. There are things which are Caesar's and there are things which are God's. The Apostle Peter made it clear in Acts 5v29 that when a conflict came between the two the things of God must take priority. There will be times when both will compliment each other, but fundamentally they must remain separate. In the third century AD the emperor Constantine attempted to make Christianity popular by wedding civil rules to church practice. Under him the Roman empire embraced Christianity. This had the effect of bringing to an end years of persecution, but it was contrary to the mind of God and was ultimately detrimental to both the church and the state. Clearly in a future day the world will adopt the marriage of the church and the state in a global unification. We will see that both cannot live together permanently and so the story of the fall of both is unfolded in these two chapters. The present thinking of the world is toward global unification, and the world of Revelation 17&18 will be the end result!
Amazon bookshelf George Neilly
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