Revelation 18

 God’s Verdict on Babylon

 Lorraine Day, M.D.

 

“John’s vision of Revelation 18 further expands the judgment of Babylon by dwelling on its significance for the ecclesia (God’s true followers) in the end-time.  It contains a special message that focuses on the central message: of the execution of God’s judgment.  The opening and closing sections focus first on heaven’s charges and verdict on Babylon (vv 1-3) and then on the future disappearance of Babylon ( vv. 21-24).

“Within this outer circle, two voices from heaven cry out messages of paramount importance for the saints and incite them to action.  The first message has immediate relevance; it urges the people of God to flee from Babylon (vv. 4-8); the second voice calls on the saints in heaven and on earth to rejoice because of heaven’s verdict on Babylon (v. 20).  The central portion (vv9-19) describes the moment of execution of judgment, “in one hour” (vvs. 10, 17, 19).”  LaRondelle, Hans, End-Time Prophecies pg. 419

Concordant Bible Literal Translation of
Revelation 18:

1 After these things I perceived another messenger descending out of heaven, having great authority.  And the earth is illuminated by his glory.

The earth is filled with truth of the TRUE Gospel - and other types - political, medical, historical, etc., - of truth, as well.

2 And he cried with a strong voice, saying, “It falls!  It falls! Babylon the great! Babylon (the One World Religion has disintegrated)  And it became the dwelling place of demons and the jail of every unclean spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird,

Babylon is the One World Religion.  The organized “Christian church” has become the dwelling place of demons and everything unclean and hateful.  As a result of the prostitution (whoring after false gods and false religion) of this One World Religion, ALL nations have fallen.

3 For as a result of the wine of the fury of her prostitution have ALL the nations fallen.  And the kings of the earth commit prostitution with her,

 

(The kings of the earth = the political power = the New World Order, combines intimately with the Harlot of Babylon, the One World Religion:  The amalgamation of Church and State)

            and the merchants of the earth are rich as a result of her power to indulge.

“Three groups are distinguished as Babylon’s partners: the nations, the kings of the earth, and the merchants of the earth.  The charges against them are basically: the drinking of the intoxicating wine of Babylon’s adulteries and the excessive economic enrichment, the “idolatrous worship of Mammon.”  These charges imply that ecclesiastical Babylon (the One World Religion) is held responsible not only for her own sins but also for the crime of corrupting others in the civil world.”  Ibid, pg 422

The “merchants” of the earth obviously include the international bankers and the multi-national corporations, which are virtually all owned and run by the Zionist Jews.  Jewish Zionism is the First Beast of Revelation 13, and THE beast of Revelation 17 on which the Harlot (Zionist Christianity/Evangelical Christianity) rides.

In verse 20, three other groups, “saints and apostles and prophets,” are summoned to rejoice over Babylon’s fall, as the counterpart of the three partners of Babylon.

4 And I heard another voice out of heaven, saying, “Come out of her (Babylon - the One World Religion) My people, lest you should be joint participants in her sins, and lest you should be getting of her calamities, for her sins were piled up to heaven, and God remembers her injuries.

This corresponds to God’s ancient exodus call in Jeremiah 51:6-9:  “Flee from Babylon!  Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins.  It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; He will pay her what she deserves.  Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk.  The nations drank her wine; therefore they have now gone mad.”

The “sins” of end-time Babylon are listed in chapter 18, verses 3, 23, 24 and 17:2-6. 

They consist of:

*Adulterous relations with the kings of the earth (the joining of Church and State)
*Spiritual Intoxication of the inhabitants of the earth through her “wine”;
*Deceiving the people by her “magic spell” or sorceries (including drug medications) and witchcraft
*Persecution of the prophets and saints, “who bore testimony of Jesus”
*Boasting arrogantly in her wealth, luxury, and self-sufficiency.

There is a thematic correspondence between this final state of Babylon and Jerusalem of old, who rejected and killed their Messiah.

6 Pay her as she also pays, and double the doubles, (Repayment by a factor of four?), in accord with her acts. In her cup in which she blends, blend double for her.

They will reap what they have sown.  Babylon has brought a malicious accusation against the martyrs, which has resulted in their death.  But the case has been carried ‘before the Lord,’ to the court of final appeal, where judgments are true and just.  There, Babylon has been found guilty of perjury, and God has therefore required from her the life of her victims, exacting from her the penalty she exacted from them.

 7 As much as she glorifies herself and indulges, so much torment and mourning be giving her, for she has said in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and I shall see no sorrow.’

This wording in Revelation corresponds to the words of Isaiah (Chapter 47) about the literal Babylon:  “You said, ‘I will continue forever -- the eternal queen!’ (vs 7) . . .Saying to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.  I will never be widowed or suffer the loss of children’ (vs 8).

8 Therefore in one day shall her calamities be arriving; death and mourning and famine.  And she shall be burned up with fire, for strong is the Lord God Who judges her.

9 And the kings of the earth (the Ten appointed Kings of the Ten Kingdoms of the world) who commit prostitution and indulge with her, will be lamenting and grieving over her whenever they may be observing the smoke of her conflagration,

10 Standing afar off because of the fear of her torment, saying, ‘Woe! Woe! That great city! Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judging came.’

11 And the merchants of the earth (the multi-national corporations) are lamenting and mourning over her, for no one is buying their cargo any longer:

12 A cargo of gold, and of silver, and of precious stones, and of pearls; and of cambric, and of purple, and of silk, and of scarlet; including also every kind of citron wood; and every ivory utensil, and every utensil of most valuable wood and of copper and of iron and of marble;

13 Also cinnamon, and ginger, and incenses, and attar, and frankincense; and wine, and oil, and flour, and grain; and beasts, and sheep, and made up of horses, and coaches, and of bodies, including also human souls.

The multi-national corporations will control the sale of EVERYTHING, including human beings: 

*Precious metals: Gold, silver,
*Jewels:  precious stones,
*Yardgoods for all clothing - cambric, purple, silk, and scarlet
*Building materials:  citron wood, marble,
*Materials to make utensils:  ivory, iron and copper
*Perfumes:  incenses: attar and frankincense
*All food - including spices:  cinnamon, ginger, wine, oil, flour, grain, - and meat (beasts and sheep)
*All vehicles of transportation (horses and coaches)

**AND they will OWN ALL PEOPLE (“bodies, including also human souls”).

They will own and patent everyone’s DNA, the state will own ALL the children, they will have everyone under mind control, and many will be actual slaves.  They will also have control of everyone’s organs and order anyone they choose to donate an organ to someone else.  They will claim to own all unborn children and order abortions when they please and of whomever they please - then use the aborted babies for donor parts.

Please note that the list of Babylon’s imports which describes her immense luxury represents the items used in the worship services of Jerusalem’s temple.  Thus the merchants in Rev l8:11-17 may well have been those in association with Jerusalem and the luxury described may have been that enjoyed by Jerusalem and their leaders.

We must recognize that the list of materials in Rev 18:12,13 is modeled after the riches of Tyre in Ezekial 27:12-25.  The most striking item is the “bodies and souls of men” (18:13), which is mentioned in the list of Ezek 27:13 as “souls of men.”

Among the making of Babylon’s jewelry, precious stones and pearls appear in the vision of the New Jerusalem (21:11.19.21).  This heightens the contrasting parallelism between the two cities, Babylon the Great and the New Jerusalem.

Author Roy Naden (The Lamb Among the Beasts) gives this thought-provoking application of the catalogue of materials required for building a temple in Rev 18:9-19:

“The (temple) symbols show that while those in Christ are looking to the heavenly temple, where He sits on the throne, Babylon is bent on building and maintaining its opposition temple, where men and women will come to worship the dragon who wants to be God.”  Pg 254.

This describes the new physical temple that the Jews are planning to build in the city of Jerusalem, as well as every Masonic Temple in the world. (Freemasonry, the eventual One World Religion, is Satan’s counterfeit of Christ’s true Gospel.)

14 And the fruition of your yearning soul passed away from you, and all that is sumptuous and splendid perished from you, and they will be finding them no longer under any circumstances. 

15 The merchants of these things, who are rich through her (Babylon) will be standing afar off because of the fear of her torment, lamenting and mourning,

16 Saying, ‘Woe! Woe! The great city clothed in cambric and purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stones, and pearl,

17 for in one hour was desolated so much riches!’  And every navigator, and every one who is sailing at the place, and mariners and whoever are working on the sea, stand afar off,

18 And observing the smoke of her conflagration, they cried, saying, ‘Is there any like this great city?

19 And they cast soil on their heads, and cried, lamenting and mourning, saying, Woe! Woe! The great city, by which all who have ships on the sea are rich as a result of its preciousness, for in one hour it was desolated’.

It is very interesting to note that the phrase “for in ONE HOUR” is used three
times in Revelation 18, in verses 10,17,19  .  Obviously, it could be a repeat of the same “One Hour.”  On the other hand, because it is repeated three times under slightly different circumstances, it may mean three additive periods of one hour each = three hours.

An “hour” in prophetic time is 15 literal days.  (If a day is a year in prophecy - 1 prophetic year = 360 days, and one day is 24 hours, then an “hour” in prophetic time is 1/24th of a “day” - or 1/24th of a year, which is 15 days (360 divided by 24 = 15 days).

Three hours in prophetic time would be 3 X 15 = 45 days. 

In Daniel 12:8-13, we read the following:

“And I heard, but I understood not; then said I, O my Lord, what shall be the end of these things?  And He said, Go thy way, Daniel; for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end.

“Many shall be purified, and made white, and refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

“And from the time that the daily (temple sacrifice) shall be taken away, and the abomination of desolation set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days. (1,290 days)

“Blessed is he that waiteth, and cometh to the thousand three hundred and five and thirty days. (1,335 days)

“But go your way until the end is: for you shall rest, and arise to your inheritance at the end of the days.”

This passage speaks of two time periods: 1,290 days and 1,335 days.  The two time periods differ by 45 days.  It appears that the “end of days” occurs at the end of the “1,335” days. 

This “45 day” period may be the 45 days right before Jesus comes, when the devastation of the One World Religion of “Babylon” will occur.

20 ‘Rejoice over her, O heaven, and ye saints and apostles and prophets, seeing that God judges by passing YOUR sentence upon HER.”

This is a repeat of the story of Esther when Haman was hanged on the gallows built for Mordecai, and then the followers of the true God were delivered from their enemies.

 21 And a might angel lifts a stone, as large as a millstone, and casts it into the   sea, saying that “Thus, Babylon, the great city, will be hurled down and nevermore be found in it.”

This corresponds to the Stone carved out without hands that smashed the statue of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2 (which represented the Five - one world governments of the world:  Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome and the presently forming One World Government of World-wide Jewish Talmudic Zionism under the umbrella of the United Nations).

22 And the sound of lyre singers and entertainers, and of flutists and trumpeters should be heard in you nevermore:

Jewish Talmudic Zionism (the controller of the harlot Babylon - the One World Religion) controls ALL of the entertainers (Hollywood), professional singers and professional musicians (Recording companies)

And every artificer of every trade may be found in you nevermore: And the sound of a millstone should be heard in you nevermore;

Jewish Zionism controls all the trade unions.

23 And the light of a lamp may be appearing in you nevermore;

Everything throughout the earth will be spiritual and intellectual darkness just as it was in the “Dark Ages” - - or even worse!

And the voice of the bridegroom and bride should be heard in you nevermore;

Will it be that marriage between a man and a woman will be outlawed?  Total destruction of the family?  It is possible that eventually the New World Order will mandate that the only sexual unions allowed must be homosexual or lesbian unions.

For your merchants were the magnates of the earth (the multi-national corporations, including the pharmaceutical companies), for by your drug medications (pharmakeia (pharmacy) = sorceries and witchcraft) all nations were deceived.

ALL nations will be deceived because EVERYONE (except God’s true followers) will believe everything they see on TV, everyone will be on drug medications, and everyone will be under mind control!

24 And in her the blood of prophets and of saints was found, and of ALL those slain upon the earth.

This language shows an allusion to Isaiah’s prophecy about Tyre in Isaiah 23:8,9 and reveals the answer to the question, Who was responsible for Tyre’s downfall?

“The Lord Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth” (Isaiah 23:9). 

So God is responsible for Babylon’s downfall (see Rev 16:19; 18:6-8)

The same group, Jewish Talmudic Zionism, has been responsible (often from behind the scenes) for “ALL those slain upon the earth” - EVERY war, EVERY riot, EVERY death from street drugs, EVERY death from doctor-prescribed drug medications (pharmakeia = pharmacy = sorceries and witchcraft, EVERY abortion - “ALL those slain upon the earth.”