Babel signifies confusion and in the Hebrew, Babel and Babylon are the same. Ancient Babylon was a city of great size having twenty-five gates on each side. Its walls were said to be seventy-five feet thick and about three hundred feet high. Nebuchadnezzar said, "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built?" Dan. 4:30. Its destruction was fully prophesied in Isaiah and Jeremiah and its downfall came unexpectedly in one night. (Dan. 5:30.) The moral features of Babylon were idolatrous corruption and worldliness.
Six times in Revelation, Babylon is mentioned and always it is great. In the New Testament the name Babylon, still meaning confusion, is used again and applied to the false Church. Its moral features are the same as Babylon of the Old Testament. Also her destruction is sudden with the kings of the earth bewailing her and saying. "Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come." Rev. 18:10. In Rev. 17 she is "the great whore that sitteth upon many waters" and "the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth." She is the woman that rides the beast that "was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition." What picturesque language to describe false, apostate Christendom. For a short time after the true Church is raptured to heaven, she is in control of the revived Roman empire.
There is a pleading call that applies now to true believers to: "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:4.
The recent anxiety and uproar over the hijacking of the cruise liner, Achille Lauro, and then the sudden apprehension of the hijackers, resulted in a downfall in the Italian government. The Prime Minister, Bettino Craxi resigned. First the resignation was accepted but then it only became provisional and a short time later it was rejected. One of the statements about this was that it should not be surprising that a government that disappeared can be reincarnated. Although this is only a small happening, yet its similarity to the coming revival of the Roman empire which ruled the earth when Christ came the first time is very remarkable.
These events, as rays of light, ought to point every true Christian to the coming of Christ as the Bright and Morning Star. After this He will cleanse the earth with judgments and then come as the Sun of righteousness with healing. (Mal. 4:2.) He will be "Kings of Kings, and Lord of Lords." Rev. 19:16. Ed.