The Destruction of Economic Babylon. Revelation 18:1-3

We come to the second of these two chapters on the future judgment of Babylon. In chapter seventeen we saw the woman riding the beast, a picture of the controlling influence of Babylon the Great. The word "abominations" (17:5) is always associated in Scripture with idolatry. That makes us realize that the focus in chapter seventeen is in the area of religious belief or disbelief. Any worldview, any philosophical system that ultimately answers questions related to reality, the nature of knowledge, of what is right and what is wrong, any kind of ethical system, is a religious system whether it sees itself as such or not. There are many philosophical systems that don't involve going to a church or going to a place of worship but the place of worship is inside the head of the individual because they are worshipping their own intellect, their own ideas, their own value system, and they have enthroned themselves upon the throne of God and are essentially worshipping themselves. So chapter seventeen focused on the woman in relation to the philosophical religious system that dominates the kingdom of man; chapter eighteen shifts into another direction.

There are basically three divisions to chapter eighteen. The first three verses show God sending another strong angel announcing the final doom of Babylon. The second division seems to be God the Father or perhaps an angel, the unidentified voice that comes from the temple as we have seen in the past, most likely the voice of God. This is God the Father announcing the final judgment on Babylon in vv. 4-20. In the third section God sends a second angel to pronounce this final judgment on Babylon. So there are three statements related to the judgment on Babylon and why it is being judged. 

Revelation 18:1 ^NASB "After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory." If we look back to 17:1 we see that this is one of the seven angels who poured out the bowl judgment—an unidentified angel. In 18:1 we have "another angel" – allos aggelos [a)lloj a)ggeloj]; allos is the Greek word for another of the same kind usually. So this is not the Lord Jesus Christ, it is an angel. The way he is described here as having great authority and then speaking mightily with a loud voice in verse 2 indicates that he is very similar to the angels in 5:2 and 10:1 called mighty or strong angels. This seems to be a particular class of angels.

Revelation 18:2 ^NASB "And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.'" The Babylon here is the same city that we see in chapter seventeen. In both of these chapters Babylon is described as Babylon the Great—17:5, 18:2. Other descriptions are identical. Both are guilty of infidelity. The city is guilty of espousing a worldview that seeks self-justification, living in complete independence from God, and breaking the creation covenant. Both the Babylon of 17 and the Babylon of 18 cause the kings of the earth and the earth dwellers to imbibe the wine of the city's infidelity—17:2; 18:3. The destiny of both is that they are to be destroyed by fire—17:16; 18:8, 9, 18. The city is going to be incinerated in an hour, a very short time. Both are destined for utter desolation—17:16; 18:17, 19. What we see as we go through these passages is that they are simply reiterating the prophecies given in Isaiah 13, 14; Jeremiah 50 & 51, as well as numerous other passages in the Old Testament that indicate that Babylon would be completely destroyed, never to be inhabited again. It is only in the future that this is going to take place because it has never ever happened historically. Both chapters refer to Babylon as the great city—17:18; 18:10, 16, 19, 21. It indicates that this city becomes the source of all economic activity in the kingdom of the Antichrist. It is part of the revived Roman empire, part of the Antichrist's kingdom, and it is resurrected either before the Tribulation period or in the early years. In both chapters Babylon has the trappings of a harlot, indicating that aspect of spiritual infidelity—17:4; 18:16. And in both believers are martyred. So both of these chapters are talking about the same event but looking at it from two different vantage points.

Chapter 17 is focusing on the destruction of the religious-philosophical framework, the worldview system that dominates the world during the Tribulation period. Chapter 18 focuses on something that is closely connected with it, the economics that take place during the time of that empire. We see from this an important principle and that is that Scripture does not isolate spirituality from economics; they are connected. This is one reason why again and again in the prophets the individuals, the Jews, are going to be condemned by the prophets because they are violating the Mosaic law in terms of their personal economics. In chapter 18 we see that the focus is on the merchants of the earth. There are three groups involved here. The first is the earth dwellers, the nations, involving the people. The second group is the political leaders under the nomenclature of "the kings of the earth," and the third group is the merchants of the earth. These three bear the brunt of the judgment in this chapter.

We have to be careful when we read the text not to put on our contemporary spectacles that are colored by modern anti-capitalist, anti-money socialism. We should recognize that the Bible sees nothing evil in money or profit but that money is used to the wrong ends. It is greed, materialism lust, putting an emphasis on things and things that money can buy as our source of happiness and value and meaning in life so that we become just characterized by constantly trying to gain acquisitions for their own sake, seeking to find meaning and value on that basis alone. What is seen here in this chapter is a condemnation of a material philosophy that sees value in accumulating tremendous amounts of possessions for their own sake. There is nothing wrong with accumulating tremendous amounts of possessions as long as we are working for those things and that is what some organization or corporation is contracted for. For someone to come along and make a judgment that that is wrong, it is not any of their business. Another difference between the two chapters is that by the end of chapter seventeen those in the kingdom of the beast are glad to see the woman destroyed because they see the uselessness and the helplessness of the religious philosophy that indeed becomes a source of bondage. In chapter eighteen the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over the destruction of Babylon because they lose their livelihood and all that they have placed their hope in.

Some people think that the angel in 18:1 is Christ because he has great authority and the earth is illuminated with his glory. But this is not his own glory but is the same idea as in the Old Testament when Moses would go into the tent to have a meeting with God and then when he came out his face still radiated the glory of God. The people would see that and so he had to wear a veil so that the reflection of God's glory would not be a distraction. Remember that after the third and fourth seals there was darkness, the sun was darkened and the moon didn't give forth its light, it is a darkened cosmos. So as this angel comes from the throne of God it is still an angel of light, his essential makeup is a creature of light and he is reflecting the glory of God illuminating a darkened universe. This angel has great authority because he comes from God. His authority is not in himself, it is the one who sends him on the mission, and he cries out an announcement in verse 2: "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird." The word "prison" indicates they are not there of their own volition, but we can imprison ourselves by virtue of our own decisions. The language here speaking about demons and spirits and the unclean suggests that Babylon, the great center of the Antichrist's kingdom, also becomes a domain for demons. It is believed that just as God sends holy angels to announce the gospel in chapter fourteen, and they are visible and can be heard, demons are also visible after Satan and the fallen angels are ejected from heaven—Revelation chapter twelve. There activity intensifies on the earth and it seems from language like this an in other places that they become visible, much as the angels and demons were visible before the flood. This is why we see this intersection of God's judgment on both the demons and fallen humanity, the earth dwellers, at the end of the Tribulation. He is bringing to a conclusion His judgment upon evil.  

When we look at the verbiage that is here, "Babylon the great is fallen," this is reminiscent of language that was used in the Old Testament. The statements that are made from verse three through verse eight are ones that draw heavily from Old Testament prophecies. For example, in Isaiah 13:19-22 ^NASB "And Babylon, the beauty of kingdoms, the glory of the Chaldeans' pride, Will be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited or lived in from generation to generation; Nor will the Arab pitch {his} tent there, Nor will shepherds make {their flocks} lie down there. But desert creatures will lie down there, And their houses will be full of owls; Ostriches also will live there, and shaggy goats will frolic there. Hyenas will howl in their fortified towers And jackals in their luxurious palaces. Her {fateful} time also will soon come And her days will not be prolonged." Cf. Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51:8. In these verses there is a connection between Old Testament prophecy and fulfillment during the Tribulation period.

Next we have the explanation of why Babylon is falling. Revelation 18:3 ^NASB "For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion [or, wrath] of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed {acts of} immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality." In Revelation 17:2 we have the phrase, "…those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality." So the element of wrath has been introduced in 17:2 and that indicates judgment. In 18:3 a better translation would be "… the kings of the earth have been unfaithful toward God with her." They have been unfaithful to God with the thought system and the economic system of Babylon the great city. Then "…the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth [power, dunamis, dunamij] of her sensuality." The condemnation isn't on money for money's sake or wealth for wealth's sake, it is the love of money that is the root of all evil, not money. It is not possessions or wealth that is being judged here, not capitalism in the sense of being merchants, it is the use of all of this for one's own personal comfort and greed, and seeking to build a life of happiness and meaning without being under God's authority. That is the thrust of the whole section here. The problem with Babylon is that man is seeking to define reality on his own terms. The original covenant that God made with man (Genesis 1:26, 27) was that man was to rule over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, and then man was to govern and rule over the planet. But when Adam sinned Satan became the defacto ruler of the planet, according to 2 Corinthians 4:4 which calls him the god of this age, and John 12:31 which calls him the ruler of the world, and Ephesians 2;1 which calls him the prince of the power of the air. As a result the earth came under the dominion of Satan and man in sin sought to define reality on his own terms, sought to run the world on the basis of his own ideas independently of God, and sought to find meaning and happiness and hope apart from God. The result will lead to the extreme perversion and depravity and greed in its most unbelievable form. Nothing that we have seen yet comes close to what it will be in the end time kingdom of the Antichrist and all of that is the result of man's independence from God.

Robert Thomas in his commentary on Revelation: "The city has promoted herself by instilling an unquestioning faith in her supposedly inexhaustible resources, thereby discouraging any sense of a deeper need for God." It is the idolatry of money and material things.

Illustrations