Two thousand years ago as the Apostle John was given revelation of the end of the end times, he heard angels proclaim these words: Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality (Rev. 14:8).
After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. 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. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion 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’ (Rev. 18:1-3).
Just prior to the return of Jesus, Babylon will fall. To understand the meaning of this, we need to begin in Genesis chapter eleven: It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there (Gen. 11:2). The phrase as they journeyed refers to the pulling up of tent pegs. The Lord had commanded Noah and his family, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth (Gen. 9:1). In order to fill the earth they needed to continue moving.
As they journeyed east they settled in the land of Shinar. This was in the vicinity of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, a land of rich soil for grazing and cultivation. No doubt the families prospered there but they were disobeying the command of God to fill the earth. It may be that the more godly descendants of Noah obeyed the Lord and were continuing to migrate. But many families settled into rebellion.
In Genesis 10:8-12 we read of a man named Nimrod and his aggressive empire building in the land of Shinar. This rebellion against God’s command to disperse across the earth may have been under the leadership of Nimrod.
They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.’ And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar (Gen. 11:3). Bricks made from baked clay and set with tar can result in a building of great permanence. This was their goal — having settled in the land they now desired to build something that would endure. Maybe this was a reaction to the destructive impact of the Great Flood. Knowing that the previous civilization had been swept away, they wanted to build something that seemed to be indestructible.
However, the proper response to the judgment of God is to submit to the will of God, not rebel again. Humanity is not capable of building anything that will withstand divine wrath. How vain this attempt to circumvent the revealed will of God. We would hope that so soon after God had judged a wicked world, the descendants of those few survivors would possess a heart to please and serve God. Yet, though God’s judgment had only recently decimated the human race, the depravity of the human heart is such that immediately many fell into sin and disobedience.
They said, ‘Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth’ (Gen. 11:4).
Notice their ambition — to build a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven. This is not simply a reference to its height — there is a religious sense to this. They want to build a tower that attains equality with heaven. They are aspiring to enter the realm of God but there is no mention of God. So what was their motive?
Here is their motive — let us make for ourselves a name. They were seeking to glorify themselves, not God. They were not seeking to make God’s name great or celebrate the justice of a God who judges sin or the mercy of a God who spares the righteous. They wanted to build an empire united in rebellion against God. The same sinful rebellion against God which infected the human race before the flood, still corrupted the heart of these empire builders. They were seeking immortality on an earth where everything is dying, passing away, while forgetting heaven, where all is eternal. In rejecting the true Shepherd of their souls, death would be their shepherd.
But even people who reject God need some form of religious expression. Nimrod, or whoever was in leadership, needed to substitute some system of worship which would be compelling enough to overcome the memory of God’s recent activity on earth — His judgment through the flood and His mercy through the ark. That generation could not possibly question the existence of God. They could only exclude God from their society. In order to do that, there needed to be something that would capture their hearts and minds, something that would satisfy their instinctive need to worship something.
Some commentators suggest that stars were mounted on top of the tower or the representation of some newly invented deity. That must be true for it is inevitable, as the Apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 1:18-32, that when people reject the true and living God, they invent false gods. Humanity is wired to worship something or someone.
Whether this movement was under the leadership of Nimrod or someone else, secular empire builders must always devalue the true God and establish either an atheistic state which worships the state as god or a deistic state which worships the tyrant as god or a state with new gods, named by the leader. So it was that the Roman emperors declared themselves to be gods. Joseph Stalin, in establishing the godless communist state of the Soviet Union, declared atheism to be the religion of the people. Adolf Hitler, on the other hand, did not abolish Christianity in Germany. He simply forced the church to submit to his principles and practices, creating an apostate church which knelt before Hitler. This is portrayed for us in the end time state of the Antichrist, the final dictator, who will build an altar to himself in the rebuilt Jerusalem temple.
The tower was a declaration of independence from God and we surely may assume that Satan was involved in this movement. Just as he seduced Eve and Adam and Cain, so he seduced humanity on the plains of Shinar through their proud, godless leaders.
The Lord God responded by confusing their languages and dispersing them. Why was God so concerned about this tower? Because as we said, it represented the attempt of humanity to develop a civilization to the exclusion of God. The tower was a symbol of the unity of the people in their desire to rebel against God. But unity in rebellion against God is fatal to any society. Common language only served to enhance the goal of unified rebellion.
Although the pre-flood world was evil, this is humanity’s first recorded attempt to establish a secular society devoid of God. And, as we have said, since humanity is instinctively religious, this is the first record of people building a religious monument in celebration of false gods.
Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of the whole earth (Gen. 11:9).
The place was called Babel, a word derived from the Hebrew word confuse. In Aramaic (an ancient Mid-eastern language related to Hebrew) Bab-el means the gate of God. Both reveal truth about the tower. It was an attempt by man to build a stairway, a gateway into the presence of false gods, while denying the true God. The motive was to build a gateway to counterfeit deity and self glory. The result was confusion. The worship of false gods always ends in confusion.
Though the people were scattered from that place, eventually a city and an empire arose there — Babylon. In Revelation 17:5 the final world empire of the Antichrist is referred to as Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. Babylon is not only the end point of false religion, it is also its mother, its beginning.
Therefore, throughout the Bible, Babylon is a symbol of rebellion and idolatry and in the end times symbolizes the entire world system in rebellion against God. Babel was the birthplace of idolatry. False religion began on the plains of Shinar.
Later, Babylon became a powerful city and the Babylonian Empire, for a season, was a dominating force in that region. All Bible students are familiar with the story of King Nebuchadnezzar, used by God as an instrument of judgment over the nation of Judah. In time, ancient Babylon was conquered and destroyed. By the time John was writing near the end of the First Century AD, Babylon was a desert ruin, abandoned for centuries.
When John speaks prophetically of Babylon in the Revelation, it is possible that he is seeing a literal, rebuilt city. But it is more likely that he speaks of Babylon as a philosophical / religious, political / economic and artistic / cultural pattern which has repeated generationally throughout history and will be present and active into the final days of the end times. It is the God-rejecting, humanist mind set that has endured throughout history. The angel of Revelation cries out, For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion 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 (Rev. 18:3).
Babylon represents the City of Man established in proud separation from and in opposition to the kingdom of God in every generation. Babylon represents the rebellious, idolatrous, immoral, demonically anointed values of secular society, values established and enforced by proud, sinful, depraved humanity living in submission to and worship of the powers of darkness and in rebellion against God and His holy, redeeming purpose on earth.
Though these societies appear to be so imposing in the day of their splendor, power and luxury, and though their idols and false gods seem so glorious and though their blasphemy sounds so sophisticated and intellectually brilliant, nevertheless, they have all fallen into rubble and ruin. John heard this shout 2,000 years ago and it has echoed through the centuries, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
The Babylonian mindset has infected all the nations with its corruption. Nations have drunk / ingested the wine of her immorality. Throughout the centuries, world leaders have become drunk through the worship of gods that are not gods, drunk on their arrogant presumption of god-like status. Rulers have been intimate with the Babylonian world order, have shared in her spiritual adultery which has resulted in a downward spiral into every expression of personal and social corruption.
Politically, Babylon is expressed through the dominance of the state over the sovereignty of God, authority exercised in rebellion against God. The result is always tyranny which exalts the state while enslaving and diminishing the human soul.
Economically, Babylon is built on greed, lust for profit and luxury built on the corruption, seduction and enslavement of human souls in the name of profit. It exalts wealth as a god and the gathering of wealth as the ultimate good.
Babylonian religion is based on the intoxicating worship of false gods invented by blind prophets, an idolatrous system of beautiful lies, counterfeit miracles and false teaching which in its sophisticated nonsense appeals to the fallen human soul but in fact is the product of dark and depraved minds.
Babylonian culture is an interweaving of arts and laws and values birthed out of the seductive splendor of false philosophies, artists who think they are priests but are only clowns and legislators blinded by their corruption, all drunk with the wine of Babylon’s immorality.
Merchants have made great wealth by sharing in Babylon’s sensuality (also translated luxury). Wealth gained through immoral, unjust and oppressive means, wealth that leads to self-indulgent luxury is evil and God promises to judge such wealth (Jere. 22:3-5, 13-19, Micah 3:9-12, Mal. 3:5, Zech. 7:8-12, James 5:1-6, Luke 12:18-21, Eph. 2:3).
But it is not just the kings and the merchants who have been intoxicated by Babylonian wine. The nations have drunk of the wine of Babylon. The entire world has been corrupted. People are not forced into Babylon by raw power — they are drawn in by false beauty and false truth.
The empires of Babylon fall in every generation but the mourners are not weeping over the loss of souls. John saw the fall of the final Babylon and recorded this, And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more (Rev. 18:9-11).
They weep over the loss of profit, empire, luxury and economic dominance, —no one buys their cargo anymore. The judgment of God is experienced as a loss of profit. In every generation the Babylonian world system has been enslaving to many, profitable for a few who measure the judgment of God in lost income. And in every generation, those who profited most were least able to hear the warning of judgment, see the corruption and enslavement and access the offer of grace.
John had an obvious reference point in his day — the Roman empire. Roman religion was built on the worship of false gods and demonized Caesars. Roman commerce stretched across the Mediterranean basin into west Asia, north Africa and modern day Europe. But it was an economy built on slaves and characterized by incredible self indulgence for a few.
But Babylon in the Revelation is more than just a backward glance at Rome. It is a portrait of human society in every generation, in all generations and therefore of a time yet to come.
Regarding the time yet to come, the fall of Babylon is presented alongside Christ’s return, the end of this age and the inauguration of the age to come. The final fall of God-rejecting human society is the prelude to the birthing of the new age in which all false kings are deposed and Christ alone reigns in righteousness.
A significant difference between Rome and the Babylon of Revelation is that Rome required centuries to degrade, hollow out and collapse, whereas the fall of Babylon in Revelation is sudden and complete. In one hour your judgment has come may not be literal but surely speaks of suddenness. But the fall of Babylon in Revelation is the final fulfillment of a pattern which we have witnessed in the collapse of the Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman Empires and in the past century, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. They rise and they fall.
As we have said, Babylon is a philosophical / religious, political / economic and artistic / cultural system that inhabits and defines every empire in the history of humanity. The names of the gods and the kings change but the Babylonian spirit is the same — the core values remain the same. The seduction in every generation does not need to impose itself on the heart of humanity, rather, it is embraced.
And yet the same human soul that embraces Babylon is itself just another commodity to be bought and sold, oblivious to the reality that the spirit of Babylon wears whatever uniform or mask or costume is convenient for that time and place, whatever is expedient for the enslavement of that generation.
Identifying a specific city in the future is irrelevant. Rather, identifying the presence of Babylon in our generation — that is the relevant task. Identifying the spiritual corruption and idolatry, the moral decay, the dehumanization of the soul, the exploitation of others in the name of profit, the willing acceptance of all of this — these are signs of the presence of Babylon in our day which we must identify.
Signs of the presence of Babylon in our day — for instance, spiritual corruption and idolatry — are not merely revealed in the false religion of false gods but in the decay of traditional Christianity, in its loss of truth which transcends its generation; the laying aside of the call to repentance of sin, indeed, in the redefining of sin to allow the blessing of almost any personal choice; the morphing of true spiritual worship into mere and shallow entertainment; the denial of the absolute necessity of submission to the Lordship of Jesus. These are signs of the presence of Babylon in our day.
We see the presence of Babylon in the lies, corruption and propaganda of political systems which seek not to govern justly but to seize and hold power. We see the presence of Babylon in the overheated lust for profit that dominates economic systems.
But Babylon has fallen. Babylon is falling and Babylon will fall. In Revelation 18:11 we read, And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, because no one buys their cargoes any more.
The economic powerbrokers mourn, because no one buys their cargoes anymore. They don't weep for the sinful way by which their wealth was created — through blasphemy and immorality, through injustice and corruption, through the oppression and enslavement of millions of human lives. They don't even weep for Babylon. They weep because the judgement of God is bad for business. It threatens their livelihood, flattens their market, depresses their portfolios.
In Revelation 18:11-13, an inventory of their cargo is listed. Wealthy Romans of John's day bathed in silver tubs, ate dinner on tables of the rarest wood, ate delicacies from ivory dishes, dressed in silk. So it has been and so it will be in the last days of history for the privileged few. No pleasure will be denied, no extravagance will be too extreme. But note the final items on the list — cargoes of … slaves and human lives (18:3).
The word lives is psyche — the soul, heart, mind, the immaterial and eternal part of our being. That is the cost of the economy of Babylon and the cargo which brings the most damning condemnation — lives enslaved, souls seduced, entrapped, bought and sold.
This speaks not merely of human trafficking and the exploitation of the powerless, though that will surely take place on a world wide scale in the last days as it has throughout the centuries. But more ominously, it speaks of human souls intoxicated by the wine of self indulgence, sensuality and the unrestrained feeding of every appetite — these also make slaves. We surely see this today — the continuous pursuit of entertainment, pleasure and every form of self indulgence. Both the powerful and the powerless, rich and poor — all alike become slaves in Babylon. What the wealthy powerbrokers of Babylon do not understand is that they are both slave makers and self-enslaved.
In Revelation 18:14 the lament continues, The fruit you long for has gone from you, and all things that were luxurious and splendid have passed away from you and men will no longer find them. The words no longer translate a double negative, indicating the irretrievable loss of something. The self indulgent, desire of the Babylonian soul will not be regained, not ever.
They don’t mourn the grace they have rejected or the mercy that has gone from them or the lost opportunity for everlasting salvation. They do not mourn the eternal condemnation in the torment of hell that will surely be theirs, of which they have been repeatedly warned. They don't mourn the millions of lives that have been seduced by the beast and lost for all eternity. They don't mourn the slaughter of the righteous saints of God.
They mourn only the loss of their delicacies, their wealth and all the luxuries their wealth purchased. How completely, irreversibly seared and condemned are their souls!
And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer (Rev. 18:22,23). The destruction of Babylon will be total. There will be no sound of music, for the musicians and artisans of Babylon who used their creative gifts to glorify themselves, their false gods and their godless philosophies are now dead.
Whatever else Babylon represents, it surely symbolizes the center of the world’s selfishness. No one grieves the wasting of lives, families, nations, the opportunity for eternal salvation. They grieve only the loss of power, privilege and possessions.
In the day of Babylon’s fall, the kings of the earth — the political and financial powerbrokers — stand at a distance, from their various perspectives around the world and weep and mourn over the destruction of the financial and governmental complex of Babylon. This is true in every generation and will surely be true at the end of the age as the empire of the Antichrist collapses.
These kings are the ruling elite who made their accommodation with the whore of Babylon, got in bed with her and as a result, lived in luxury. They are the arrogant elite, spiritually and morally bankrupt but secure in their wealth and their power and in control, or so they thought.
Then in one hour — suddenly, unexpectedly — Babylon, the political and commercial center of the world system, is swept away and they weep. These mighty men do not mourn for their sin. Throughout the generations and in the final days of history, the Gospel has been and will be proclaimed, yet those possessed by the spirit of Babylon steadfastly refuse to repent, to express any sorrow or contrition for their offenses against God. Indeed, they continue in arrogance, blasphemy, sensuality, immorality and greed, continue to pile their sins up before God. They don't mourn the millions of lives that were destroyed in the seizing and maintaining of power and wealth. They don't mourn the millions whose exploitation produced the luxurious beds in which the kings have whored their lives away. They don't really even mourn for Babylon itself. They mourn what they are losing — a share of the power, wealth, privilege and luxury which they have enjoyed.
In Revelation 18:20 we read, Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.
While the earth mourns, the glorified church and all of heaven are invited to rejoice over the manifesting of God’s righteous judgement. We are not to rejoice over the suffering of the wicked or their eternal damnation. Rather, we give thanks to God for judging evil, for destroying the rule of evil over the earth, for vindicating His church and establishing His kingdom of justice and righteousness and peace on the earth. The Antichrist will be defeated and the true Messiah will reign on the earth, fulfilling the salvation purpose of God. This is surely reason to rejoice.
And now, in this day, how shall we respond to the presence of Babylon? The command to the covenant people of God is the same in all generations: Come out of her, My people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues (Rev. 18:4). The command is not to the merchants or the kings — it is to My people. This does not mean disengagement with every aspect of the world, rather, disengagement from corrupt religion, corrupt economics, corrupt political and artistic systems.
This is also a word of warning for the church in every generation. If we share in the sins of this world then we will share in the plagues, the judgements of God on those sins. If this is so, how will we be a prophetic voice speaking life and truth? Therefore, in every generation, Come out.
Two reasons are given to come out of Babylon, in the last days and in every age: so as not to share in her sins nor in her judgement. The economic system of Babylon is rooted in selfishness, self-indulgence, sensuality, greed, oppression, idolatry and injustice. The government is founded on the arrogant, blasphemous rejection of the transcendent God whose holiness, truth and righteousness stand in judgment over the kingdoms of the world.
While we are alive, we cannot physically separate ourselves from this world but we can refuse to participate in the demonically infected aspects of the world’s economic systems. We participate in the economy as workers but we must not gain wealth through oppression or injustice or by prostituting ourselves before false gods. We must not gain wealth so we can live selfish, self indulgent lives.
We participate in political process but refuse to bow before Caesar, choose to discern the lies and propaganda, choose to speak truth with love.
Jesus prayed to His Father, I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world (John 17:15,16). We live in the world but we are not to partner in its sin.
Abraham’s journey with God began with the words, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house (Gen. 12:1). His journey with God began only because he obeyed and went out from the idol-worshipping society in which he had lived. Isaiah called out to the people of his day, Depart, depart, go out from there. Touch no unclean thing (52:11). The Apostle Paul quoted these words after reminding the church that we must not be bound with unbelievers, ‘Therefore come out from their midst and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘And do not touch what is unclean’ (2 Cor. 6:14-18).
The call to spiritual separation has always been issued to the people of God. Spiritual separation sometimes results in physical separation, as with Abraham. He left an idol worshipping culture and family to follow the Lord. Before Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 AD, prophets warned the church to flee. Those who heeded the warning were saved. But typically, we remain in physical or geographical proximity to the world while remaining spiritually separate. There is always the temptation to compromise. The flesh would say, “We are living in a hostile environment, we have to make some concessions.” “No,” the Lord God says, “Come out. No compromise.”
A common New Testament word for followers of Christ is saint, hagios. Hagios means holy, consecrated, set apart. A consecrated person or object is set apart for service unto God. We cannot be set apart unto God and Babylon. So the Apostle Paul exhorts the church, And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2). James reminds us to keep ourselves unstained by the world (James1:27). John warns us, If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him (I John 2:15). We are in the world but not conformed to the values of the world.
Implied in the words Come out is the real possibility that we may be further in than we thought we were. We must see Babylon not as a future reality but as a present temptation to compromise.
Notice that heaven does not mourn the fall of Babylon — it celebrates. The fall of Babylon in every generation can result in the advance of the command of God. And surely we may celebrate this, that the final fall of the final Babylon will precede the return of Jesus and the establishing of His kingdom on earth.