Revelation 18:1-3 - Babylon is Fallen, Is Fallen

Today we celebrate the 246th Anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence! We recognize this day as the birth of our great nation, America. I’m convinced that because our founding forefathers based the principles on which they wrote this document and the constitution, on the Bible, God’s Word, that God Himself blessed this great land. America is more than a nation, country or land. America is an idea! And it was a new idea of self-government. Our founding fathers gave us a republic, a nation of laws, which would only work if the people in it would be responsible for their own self-government under God. Psalm 33:12 says, “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD…”. And we have been a blessed nation like no other in the history of the world besides Israel. It is definitely sad that over the past 70 years we have slowly removed God, and the foundation of His Word, out our government and public life. As a result, we are facing tremendous challenges with anarchy, crime, violence, corruption, and confusion. I don’t write this to discourage you or to despair America, but to encourage you to know that God is still on His throne in heaven, and He knows the affairs and state of our great country. And I believe everything that is happening is only setting up the whole world for the end time events that we are studying about in Revelation. So, don’t give up on praying for our country (1 Timothy 2:1-5), and living for eternity rather than the temporal pleasures and things of this world. The world is setting up for a political and economic Babylon that will be ruled by the Antichrist in the Tribulation. Revelation 18:1-3 is the announcement of coming judgement upon this world system. This announcement was anticipated in Revelation 14:8. There is a definite reference here to Jeremiah 51-52, where the prophet saw the fall of historical Babylon. But here John saw the destruction of spiritual and economic Babylon, the world system organized by "the beast." It was no ordinary angel that made this announcement, for he had great power and a glory that radiated throughout the whole earth. The phrase "is fallen, is fallen" not only adds dramatic effect to the announcement, but suggests a dual judgment: ecclesiastical Babylon, "the harlot," in Revelation 17, and political Babylon here in Revelation 18. This thought is amplified in Revelation 18:6 when God announces that Babylon will receive "double" for her many sins. The church, the bride of the Lamb, is the habitation of God (Eph. 2:22); Babylon, on the other hand, is the habitation of Satan (Rev. 18:2). This parallels the judgment on ancient Babylon (Isa. 13:21; Jer. 51:37). Furthermore, John called the city "a cage of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18:2). In Christ's Parable of the Sower, He also used the birds as a picture of Satan (Matt. 13:31-32). This judgment has come because the Babylonian "system" has polluted the whole world. As in the judgment of "the harlot," the sin is that of "fornication" or idolatry. The system intoxicated the people of the world with all the riches and pleasures it had to offer. It catered to those who were "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God" (2 Tim. 3:4). Christians in every age have had to heed the warning of 1 John 2:15-17. How easy it is to become fascinated by the things the world has to offer. And when we get them, we want more! The world system that opposes Christ has always been with us, and we must beware of its subtle influence. The world system satisfies the desires of the earth-dwellers who follow "the beast" and reject the Lamb. But worldly things never permanently satisfy or last. The love of pleasures and possessions is but an insidious form of idolatry, demonic in its origin and destructive in its outcome. Yes, today we need to be careful not to get caught up in this “Babylonian” system of materialism!