If Revelation 17 is a description of Babylon—the corrupt ecclesiastical system Rome—Revelation 18 gives us its doom. That the destruction of Babylon—this false bride—is of vast moment, preparing the way for the true bride to have her rightful place, is proved by the full way her doom is predicted and the joyful relief experienced when it is carried out.
Revelation 14:88And 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. (Revelation 14:8) gives us the announcement of the angel that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.” Likened to a city there, it is easy to identify it with Babylon the woman, the mother of harlots, as our verse tells she made all nations drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Revelation 17 describes Babylon the woman, and foretells her doom in verse 16.
Revelation 18:1-31And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. 2And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. (Revelation 18:1‑3) tells us again at the mouth of a mighty angel, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen”; verse 4 bids the saints come out of her, and the rest of the chapter describes her doom.
Revelation 19:1-71And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honor, and power, unto the Lord our God: 2For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. 3And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. 4And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. 5And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. 6And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 7Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. (Revelation 19:1‑7) gives us the unrestrained joy of the inhabitants in heaven at her fall, and in the introduction of the true Bride. This all shows how immensely important the subject is.
The unutterably wicked history of Rome, her persecution, her killing the saints of God, her depths of corruption, her harlotry, her subtlety, her arrogance, her attempt to subjugate the world, should ever be borne in mind. No words can paint too black her spiritual wickedness.
Let us now examine briefly Revelation 18 in detail.
A mighty angel comes down from heaven, the earth lightened with his glory, announcing that Babylon is fallen, is fallen. He tells us in one brief pregnant sentence that that which professed the name of Christ had become so corrupt as to be the very dwelling—place of demons, the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.
He tells us these three things concerning her—
(1) The nations became drunk with the wine of the wrath of her fornication;
(2) The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her;
(3) The merchants of the earth have waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
But before her doom is carried out, God's people are called upon to separate from her. It may be wondered how true saints could be found in such a system. In answer it must be noticed that it is not the angel having great power, who mightily with a strong voice proclaims that Babylon is fallen, but John says: “ I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (vs. 4). It is this voice from heaven addressing God's true people that carries on the narrative. This heavenly voice describes generally the unspeakable wickedness of Babylon, her sins reaching to heaven, culminating in her sudden and dramatic doom; and viewing these things as a whole, that is, from start to finish of her history, the saints are invited to clear themselves of such corruption.
When the Lord comes for His Church, we rejoice to think that many, who have not known the depths of Satan in connection with Rome, will be taken out of it, and not one true Christian will be found in this idolatrous system. Rome will then become apostate.
We believe, then, that verse 4 must be a general statement, having a voice for all God's true people from the day John penned the words to the present, and as long as there are true Christians connected with the system.
But better far to have heard the exhortation, and responded to it, than that the Lord's coming should find any of His own connected with it.
The voice from heaven calmly, but with tremendous power of vivid statement, describes the doom of Babylon. The persecutor is to get paid back double for all her persecutions. The terrible cup she made others drink is filled double for her to drink. She had been complacent, glorifying herself, and living deliciously. But in one day, suddenly, her plagues come; death, mourning, famine, fire, utter destruction overtake her.
The ten horns of the beast, we are told, shall hate the woman, strip her naked and burn her flesh with fire. Whilst they are the instruments of her doom, the kings of the earth will bewail her doom. Hating her with a deadly hatred because of her unspeakable pretensions to rule, and determined to bring them to an end, on the other side they will mourn that no longer will she minister to their sinful pleasures.
The merchants, also, weep and mourn over her. There is a commercial money—making side to Rome. Indeed, if you take the money—making out of religious schemes, such as Christian Science, Millennial Dawnism, they would assuredly fall to the ground. Rome holds the palm preeminently for this unholy commerce in spiritual things.
The list of her merchandise is illuminating. First gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls, all for super-adornment; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet, again for adornment in clothing; vessels of ivory, of precious wood, of brass, of iron, of marble, speaking of luxury; cinnamon, odors, ointments, frankincense, of voluptuous worship; wine, oil, flour, wheat, beasts, sheep, of good living; horses and chariots, of ease and style; slaves [bodies] and souls of men—traffic in all that a man has—wind up the awful list. Rome traffics in souls, keeps men in slavish bondage by the fear of purgatory and the like. The twin sisters—fear and superstition—exact money from the rich and poor alike in truly rapacious style.
The merchants afar off, shipmasters and sailors afar off, weep and wail as they see in the smoke of Babylon's burning the end of their profiteering.
But if men mourn, heaven rejoices. The mighty angel takes a stone like a great millstone, and casting it into the sea, says, “Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all,” reminding us of Jeremiah binding up his prophecy against the actual city of Babylon to a stone, and casting it into the river Euphrates, and pronouncing its irrevocable doom.
It is important to see that the actual city, Babylon (= Babel, confusion), began in independence of God, was characterized by idolatry (the golden image) and the persecution of God's people (the Hebrew children in the fiery furnace), and was utterly and suddenly overthrown in the midst of her feasting (Belshazzar's feast and overthrow by Darius the Median). Thus it stands as a type of Rome in her idolatry, her persecutions, and her sudden and irrevocable doom.