Bible Commentaries
Revelation 18

Verses 1-3

Rev 18:1-3

4. THE FALL OF BABYLON DESCRIBED

Revelation 18:1-24

The general idea of this chapter is that of a rich populous city being reduced to desolation. The fall of Babylon is the symbol by which is prophetically described the destruction of the apostate church. The vivid imagery, in the main, carries its meaning upon the surface. Only brief expressions from the text in 18:1 to 19:10 are given; hence, comparatively few notes will be necessary in explanation. The ideas of a wicked city and a dissolute woman are intermingled and carried to the end of the chapter.

(1) THE FALL ANNOUNCED

(Revelation 18:1-3)

After these things.--After the vision described in the last chapter John saw an angel in a halo of light descend from heaven. This is assurance that the announcement he made will certainly be fulfilled.

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon." This expression is borrowed from the Old Testament prophets who speak of ancient Baby-lon’s fall. (Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51:8.) The tense here is "prophetic past" to indicate the certainty that the event would take place. For another example consult Isaiah 9:2; Isaiah 9:6. The ruins of cities become the habitation of unclean and wild animals. Compare the language about literal Babylon. (Isaiah 13:20-22.)

All the nations are fallen.--This shows the reason for her fall----she made the nations drunk with her wine, and this will lead to their fall ultimately. By her perversion of the truth leaders have been seduced into sinful practices, here described as spiritual adultery.

Merchants of the earth waxed rich.--This includes all those who traffic in papal doctrines for gain. Those made the victims of this traffic will also fall when spiritual Babylon falls.

Commentary on Revelation 18:1-3 by Foy E. Wallace

(1) The angel’s announcement—Revelation 18:1-3.

This is another instance of a proleptic utterance by an angel, as the following verses of the chapter outline the successive stages of the fall and the desolation of the Babylon--Jerusalem.

The proclamation of doom was delivered by an angel having great power, a power commensurate with the magnitude of the proclamation and which signified the authority to pronounce a final doom. As a result of the proclamation the earth (land of Judea) was lightened with glory, as the heavens are aglow with lightenings attending the thunders. This was symbolic of the awe and terror of the appalling events impending.

The dirge of fallen Babylon in verse two, was an extension of the same vision in Revelation 14:8, and was substantially the same lamentation over the fall of the ancient Babylon recorded in Isaiah 21:9 : “Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.” The Babylon of this chapter was symbolic of Jerusalem, and the voice of verse two was crying a threnody--a dirge of lamentation--on the day of doom for the once faithful but apostate city.

The latter part of the verse describes Jerusalem as the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. The severance of all commercial affiliations by the siege of Jerusalem and the devastation of Judea, had reduced the city to a haunt, symbolized by the demoniac habitation of evil spirts, devils and vultures. The visions of the overthrow of Tyre and Babylon in the Old Testament were combined in these same symbols.

The repetitionin Revelation 18:3 of the harlot’s wine cup, representing her multiplied forms of seduction. The reference to the kings of the earth was used in the sense of the rulers and authorities of Judea and Palestine; and the reference to the nations was a designation for the heathen.

They were all particeps criminus, having drunk of the harlot’s seductive wine-cup of abominations. The language was symbolic of Jerusalem’s heathen affiliations. Thus the proud capital of the Jews, once the dwelling place of God and the depository of the Oracles and the center of Judaism, by apostasy had come to destruction and was reduced to a haunt of the demon-world of heathenism, the habitat of the diabolical agents of the satanic beast.

Commentary on Revelation 18:1-3 by Walter Scott

THE FALL OF BABYLON: LAMENTATION

ON EARTH;TRIUMPH IN HEAVEN.

THE ANGEL AND HIS CRY.

Revelation 18:1-2. — “After these things I saw another angel descending out of the Heaven, having great authority: and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a strong voice, saying, Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen.” Although the subject of Babylon is resumed in this chapter, yet it forms a distinct and subsequent revelation contained in vision. The phrase “after these things” (cp. Revelation 4:1; Revelation 7:1; Revelation 7:9) notes a new commencement, and introduces a new set of circumstances; it also serves to direct attention to the distinctive unity of the subject or subjects so prefaced. In this point of view the chapter is an interesting one. Babylon, of course, is in the forefront of both chapters 17 and 18, and we may also add in the first three verses of the following one. Here the Beast is not once named, nor the ten kings, so active in the destruction of Babylon. In this chapter the human agents disappear, and the ruin of that awful system of corruption is traced to God as the source. Babylon, neither as a woman in relation to the Beast nor as a whore in relation to Christendom, is mentioned in the vision — one as distinctive as that in the previous chapter. The fall of Babylon (Revelation 17:16) in its civil relations does not exhaust the judgment of God upon that organised system of evil (Revelation 18:4, last clause). But of this more anon.

Revelation 18:1 — “Another angel,” in contrast to the Vial angels (Revelation 17:1; Revelation 21:9). “Descending out of the Heaven” intimates the heavenly character of the action, and the deep interest there taken in the character and fate of Babylon. “Having great authority.” There are orders and degrees amongst the angelic hosts.(*See remarks on Revelation 8:2.) Some are more distinguished than others in service and in position. All are characterized by might (2 Thessalonians 1:7; 2 Peter 2:11), but on some is conferred special power to act for God in certain circumstances; others, again, have a defined authority within a circumscribed area, but universal authority is never ascribed to an angelic being. The Lord Jesus Christ as Man and Son is the appointed Heir of all things (Matthew 28:18; Matthew 11:27; Hebrews 1:2). As Creator, His claim to universal dominion is not a conferred one, but is sovereign and independent (Colossians 1:16), founded on the rights and glory of His Person as God.

The angel in our text has “great authority,” and is probably the angel to whom the judgment of Babylon is committed. Here he announces its fall, but as a preliminary to further and more awful dealing. The angel has ample authority conferred upon him to deal thoroughly with the subject on hand, namely, the most iniquitous religious system on earth. “The earth was lightened with his glory.” This is a testimony that God is in the scene, that it is He Who is acting in judgment. The fall of Babylon was a public event — the smoke of her burning (v. 18) as it darkened the heavens proclaimed this far and near; but the earth lightened, not by the reflection of the sun, but by the glory of the descending angel, witnessed to the fact that, whoever the actors and agents might be, yet God, as the Righteous Judge, judges Babylon. Probably the angel here referred to is none other than Christ, the same as in Revelation 8:3 and Revelation 10:1. Christ, the Angel-Priest, on behalf of His suffering remnant (Revelation 8:1-13). Christ, the Angel-Redeemer, taking possession of His inheritance (Revelation 10:1-11). Christ, the Angel-Avenger of His people, taking vengeance on Babylon (Revelation 18:1-24).

Revelation 18:2. — “He cried with a strong voice.” This is a quality in which angels excel (Psalms 103:20). (See remarks on Revelation 5:2.) The cry of the angel was the welcome proclamation of Babylon’s downfall, not anticipative, but as having actually taken place. “Great Babylon has fallen, has fallen.” The fall of that mighty system which, while guilty of falsehood and treason against Christ, yet bore His Name is here publicly announced. This in the previous chapter was executed by the western powers. There we had the Beast, to whom the power or civil authority had been entrusted, (Nebuchadnezzar received his appointment as chief of the world in civil power directly from God (Daniel 2:37-38), the succeeding powers only came upon the scene providentially, but in their case no formal grant of power or authority was directly bestowed. In the last days of the fourth empire Satan endows it with his authority and seat and power (Revelation 13:2). What a contrast between the two empires — the first and the fourth. God established the first! Satan establishes the fourth!) becoming for a time the willing slave of the woman. She sits upon it in pride, an object of wonder and of admiration to all, save to those whose eyes are opened through grace to discern her true character. But the power which is with the Beast, not with the woman, gets restless under restraint, and chafes under her intolerant sway. Her wealth, too, is eagerly coveted by the civil and apostate powers. The ten kingdoms and the Beast, the whole material strength of the empire, combine to effect her ruin. In this commission of vengeance upon the worst system of evil and tyranny the sun has ever looked down upon the confederate ten kings are even more active than the Beast himself, i.e., the little horn of Daniel 7:1-28. The woman is stripped of her possessions and wealth, which go to swell the respective treasuries of the great chiefs of the empire. The woman, or the system she represents, is brought down to the lowest depths of degradation, an object of scorn and contempt even to those who before sought her favors and courted her smile. She lies before us a wreck of her former self. The apostate civil authority has triumphed over her by brute force; then the ten kings yield themselves and their kingdoms up to the coarse and brutal will of the Beast. Bad as things are under the woman a worse condition will ensue under the unchecked will of the Beast satanically inspired.

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE MIGHTY ANGEL.

Revelation 18:2-3 — Babylon “has become the habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hated bird. Because all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication; and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have been enriched through the might of her luxury.” This is the condition of Babylon after and consequent upon her political downfall. She was overthrown, not destroyed. This latter is sudden. “She shall be utterly burned with fire” (Revelation 18:8) is subsequent to the burning noted in Revelation 17:16.

“Has become.” Babylon having lost her public place of supremacy, being torn to pieces by the very powers which once formed her strength, is reduced to a state of desolation described in language of unexampled force. The description is evidently borrowed from Isaiah 13:21-22, in which the grandest of the Hebrew prophets foretells the ruin of Babylon, once the proud mistress of the world, now the most debased of all cities; here we have the moral counterpart. This, then, is what the professed spouse of Christ “has become.” There are three parts in the description which in the aggregate constitute an awful moral horror.

(1) “The habitation of demons.” (We may remark that the word satyrs (Isaiah 13:21) is rendered in the LXX. demons.) Their proper home is the abyss (The reader who desires help on the demonology of the New Testament would do well to read “Critical Studies in St. Luke’s Gospel: Its Demonology and Ebionitism,” by Colin Campbell, B.D. (Blackwood & Sons).) (Luke 8:31, R.V.). Who demons are, whether lost angels or the souls of lost men, or a class of lost and miserable beings by themselves, to whom future torment is known and assured, we know not. (See an interesting paragraph, containing probably all that is known of demons, in “From Advent to Advent; or, The Outline of the Gospel according to St. Luke,” by C. E. Stuart.) What an amazing thought that the abyss in the underground world, and the professed spouse of Christ on earth, should both be regarded as the habitation of demons! We could readily understand the abyss as the dwelling of these emissaries of Satan, but that the professing Church should become that almost exceeds belief.

(2) “A hold of every unclean spirit.” Satan establishes his spiritual forces in the ruined Church system. He makes it a hold, or stronghold, which is the force of the word, and thither the uncleanness and foulness of the pit congregate. There the doleful cry is heard and wicked deed perpetrated, “every (foul or) unclean spirit” gathers to ruined Babylon as to a centre.

(3) “A hold of every unclean and hated bird.” We gather that demons and unclean spirits referred to in our text are personal beings. The unclean birds, birds of prey and of darkness, signify the many and varied agents of Satan (Matthew 13:4; Matthew 13:32; Jeremiah 5:27; especially Isaiah 34:11-15), those, of course, of a highly pernicious and destructive character. Thus is Babylon a very sink of corruption, an abomination in the sight of God.

GRAVE INDICTMENT AGAINST BABYLON.

The grounds of God’s judgment on Babylon are next stated. These are:

(1) “Because all the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication.” The peoples of the prophetic earth have drunk, and drunk eagerly out of her golden and intoxicating cup. She has seduced the nations from their allegiance to God and Christ, and established herself in the affections of the masses of mankind. The peoples of Christendom, if not of a wider geographical area, have been captivated by the splendor of her services, her high and ornate ritual, and general display of gorgeous vestments and millinery, all so fitted to act on the ignorant mind and unbridled imagination of the populations of our cities, towns, and villages. Add to this the easy terms on which she offers salvation to her devotees, with, on the other hand, the threat of no salvation outside the pale of her communion, and need we be surprised that the nations get morally intoxicated, or mad, over a system which offers such advantages, while blind to all true judgment as to her real condition before God! At the period contemplated in our chapter the Bible will have been dethroned from its place in public, as also from the conscience of the masses of even religious people. Hence they will fall an easy prey to the seductions of Babylon.

(2) With whom “the kings of the earth have committed fornication.” The personal heads of the ten kingdoms which form the territorial area of the empire, when revived, must be distinguished from the kings of the earth. The former are the destroyers and burners of the woman (Revelation 17:16); they turn to hate her. Not so the kings, or chiefs, of Christendom, they lament her fate (Revelation 18:9); they, not the ten western kings, a specific class and number, commit fornication with Babylon. Love of display, of which the Roman Catholic Church boasts, is her argument and appeal to the senses, and before this god the nations will bow, but the kings of the earth, or leaders, are more guilty, more sober, as befits their position; they yield themselves up to the blandishments of the woman. The Church hugs the world for what of numbers and wealth she can get, and the world gladly welcomes her embrace, for has she not promised to open Heaven to all comers who pay well? The keys of St. Peter are dangled before kings and people, and so the chair of “The Vicar of Christ ” and “Universal Bishop” will yet be exalted to a moral height far beyond that of the palmiest days of the papacy in either of the three centuries so renowned for Romish arrogance and pride, the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth.

(3) “The merchants of the earth have been enriched through the might of her luxury.” This third class has trafficked with her for gain. There has always been a numerous class of people who attach themselves to religion for what they can get, using the Church as a stepping-stone to advance their temporal interests. Babylon will offer a tempting bait to all such. The abundance of her luxuries will attract “the merchants of the earth,” who will enrich themselves thereby. Soon, however, the scene will change, and these same traffickers weep and wail over the ruin of that from which they enriched themselves.

Commentary on Revelation 18:1-3 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:1. The angel had great power which is from EXOUSIA, the leading meaning of which is "authority." The possession of that qualification is explained by the fact that he came down from heaven which is the seat of all authority. It is understandable also why his glory would light up the earth, for everything that pertains to that celestial region is glorious.

Revelation 18:2. The preceding chapter pictures conditions just prior to the revolution of the Reformation. The present chapter will extend the vision on through that period, showing the effects it will have among the nations of the world, and will predict the permanent end of the union of church and state. We should keep clearly in mind the truth that we are studying a book of symbols, and therefore we will not try to make a literal application of the symbols. However, even political and religious advantages may sometimes bring material gains to men of selfish character, hence we should not be surprised to see indications of that in some instances. The angel cried with a strong voice, which signified that his announcement was of interest to many. Babylon here means the institution formed by the union of church and state. That body had been in control since the time of Constantine, but now it is destined to be dissolved by the work of the Reformation. Babylon is fallen, is fallen; the repetition is for emphasis. The fall refers to the disolving of church and state through the influence of the Bible that had been given to the people by Luther and his fellow workers. Is become the habitation, etc. This is symbolic and the language is formed from what literally happened to the ancient city of Babylon after it was destroyed by its conqueror. The description of that destruction from which our verse gets its symbols may be seen in Isaiah 13:19-22 and Jeremiah 50:35-40.

Revelation 18:3. Wine of the wrath of her fornication. This combines several symbolical thoughts. Wine suggests drunkenness and that is used figuratively sometimes to mean being beside oneself through the influence of false doctrine, which certainly was an outstanding characteristic of Rome. It also stands for the wrath of God upon evildoers, and fornication refers to intimacy with unlawful organizations. Kings and merchants all reaped personal advantages from their subjects and customers, because they were duped into thinking they should submit to the wishes of their superiors.

Commentary on Revelation 18:1-3 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:1

The relationship of this chapter to the preceding one is generally admitted, although there are several views with regard to the exact nature of that relationship. That the judgment of the great whore is still under consideration seems certain; but Criswell thought that Revelation 18 deals with the particular "judgment of God himself upon Babylon,"^[1] as sharply distinguished from the judgment of Revelation 17, in which "the nations of earth, not by the intervention of heaven, but by something that mankind does, grow weary of her and destroy her."^[2] As we see it, this is a distinction without a difference. "God puts into their hearts to do his mind" (Revelation 17:17); therefore, it is still God’s judgment in both instances. The judgment of Jerusalem was nonetheless God’s, because it was executed by Roman armies (Matthew 22:7); nor is the destruction of the harlot any less the judgment of God himself because it was effected by multiple kingdoms of the earth who finally had enough of her.

In the great judgment scene of Revelation 16:20, the final overthrow of "Babylon the great" was briefly mentioned; and both Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 are a double recapitulation of that same event, Revelation 17 being given over to the revelation of "Babylon’s" identity, as indicated by the brief tie-in by another reference to her destruction in Revelation 17:17. Next, comes Revelation 18 with a particular close-up of conditions in Babylon on the eve of the final overthrow in the last judgment. One of the big expressions in this chapter is "one hour," that being the period of the ten kings (Revelation 17:12) who "burnt" the whore and ate her, not realizing in doing so that they also destroyed themselves. These are the mysteries cleared up in chapter 18. Thus it will be seen that the principal events here are what takes place against Apostate Christianity during the period of the ten kings and the eighth beast with whom they are surely identified and to whom they gave their mind and authority.

Ladd gave this analysis of Revelation 18 :

After foretelling the destruction of Babylon by the beast (the ten kings) and his vassal kings, a long section on the same theme depicts in greater detail the destruction of the once proud city.^[3]

Thus, both Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 are successive "close-ups" of the great judgment of Revelation 16:20. At the end of these (Revelation 18:21), the final judgment is again symbolized by the hurling of the mighty boulder into the sea, making both of these chapters another recapitulation ending in exactly the same place as the previous sections have ended; namely, in the final judgment of the last day. In our interpretation, the events of chapter 18 are future from our own times, because they belong to the period of the ten kings and the eighth beast which apparently have not yet been fully manifested upon earth. Still, there have been enough "partial" fulfillments to leave an element of uncertainty. Here is an outline of the chapter:

A CLOSE-UP OF BABYLON’S JUDGMENT

1. The announcement of her fall (Revelation 18:1-8).

2. Consequences of her fall for the world (Revelation 18:9-20).

3. The finality of her doom (Revelation 18:21-24).

THE IDENTITY OF THE HARLOT

Once more, it is incumbent upon us to explain our persistent identification of the harlot with Apostate Christianity, the great Roman Catholic Church itself being a conspicuous element of that apostasy, but by no means all of it. The extensive details in this chapter regarding business, commerce, merchandise, and trade have led some to make confident assertions limiting these references to pagan Rome, overlooking the fact, as Alford pointed out, that, "The difficulty of doing so is unsolved."^[4] Whatever may be intended by these elaborate commercial symbols:

One thing cannot be denied: the muddy Tiber flowing through Rome could never carry the enormous maritime traffic portrayed here. Pagan Rome was never famous as a center of selling and exchanging merchandise.^[5]

Despite all the insoluble problems of doing so, some scholars insist that the harlot is pagan Rome. "Babylon is a figure of the city of Rome."^[6] "The great harlot symbolizes the city of Rome."^[7] The destruction of the harlot is used here to picture "the destruction of the Babylon of the New Testament, Rome,"^[8] etc. Nevertheless, we are certain that this view is incorrect and that the elaborate commercial symbols which in no sense can properly symbolize pagan Rome have a far more appropriate meaning.

There are some who cannot see anything here except Papal Rome as the harlot; and, as Smith said, "There is much here to support their view,"^[9] but, as frequently noted in this commentary, we simply cannot thus limit it. Much more is involved than the Papacy, despite the undeniable truth that the Papacy must certainly be included in the meaning.

Morris rejected the inadequacy of applying this chapter merely to pagan Rome, thus:

John is thinking not of the fall of one city or empire but of the collapse of civilization. Final judgment means the overthrow of all that opposes itself to God.^[10]

This is correct as far as it goes, but it falls short of including the religious situation as it must be related to all this. In short, it leaves out the Papacy (as so many do); and without that nothing is explained.

Wilbur M. Smith believed that the fall here presented is that of the "Apostate Christianity, the world religion that has betrayed Christ, and is interlocked with pagan, godless governments."^[11] This too is correct as far as it goes, but it leaves unexplained the inconceivable grief in which the very people who destroyed the Apostate Christianity greeted the actual accomplishment of it. To understand this is to understand the passage. True, the destruction of the harlot was the destruction of Apostate Christianity; but that is not all it was. Merely getting rid of all religion would have been greeted with howls of glee all over the world if that had been all that the destruction of the harlot meant. We shall attempt to show the larger picture of what actually is prophesied as happening.

The limited views already noted, that "the great world-city," "cities everywhere," "urban civilization," etc., are what is meant by the harlot, is absolutely contradicted by one thing, the hatred of the ten kings (Revelation 17:17) who are the symbols of great world governments. We cannot imagine, nor can anyone else, that there can ever come a time when the great governments of the earth will "hate" urban civilization, the great world city, or cities everywhere, which have always been, are now, and shall ever continue to be the very essence and foundation of world governments. Could any government hate and willfully destroy its tax base? We cannot believe that Revelation prophesies any such thing. Is it not clear that it is the religious thing which will at last incur the wrath and hatred of the kings? This is the undeniable fact that absolutely requires that the Papacy and related phenomena be included in the understanding of who the whore is, and all that was involved in her destruction.

The ten kings, who are the executioners of God’s wrath upon the whore, will hate her, not the great populous cities of the world, either singly or collectively; but what they will overlook in their terminal assault upon the whore is that the whore herself is the principal element of stability in the whole civilized world, and that her fall will have fatal repercussions for themselves. Christendom, in a remarkable degree, is an edifice constructed by the harlot; and this is as good a place as any to take a look at the harlot’s contribution to the world structure in which she is yet the principal glue that holds the whole thing together.

ADMIRATION OF THE HARLOT

John himself wondered at the harlot "with great admiration" (Revelation 17:6 KJV), and there are ample reasons for our own very great admiration of her. Some of these are:

1. The stern, basic moralities advocated and taught by the Apostate Church are the principal foundation of all commerce, business, industry, and trade. Nearly half a billion Roman Catholics are basically honest, virtuous, sober, truthful, and diligent, opposed to violence, murder, theft, abortion, etc. Without such virtues, which the Apostate Church has effectively promulgated, no business, industry, or civilization can endure. To be sure, the Apostate Church has allowed, or even sold the right of violation of these principles, nevertheless her achievement in enforcing them generally cannot be denied.

2. The art, music, architecture, and culture of our whole civilization are, in large measure, the achievement of the harlot. Volumes could be written about any one of these.

3. The stability and sanctity of marriage and the home, which is the basic building block of all civilized order, are due, more than to any other single agency of their advocacy, to the accomplishments of the harlot. What will happen to any society when such things are no longer effectively advocated and promulgated? The incredibly dark scenes of this chapter which confounded the "smart" kings who decided to get rid of religion, with the sudden and unexpected result, when they had done so, of their glee being turned into howling misery - these scenes depict exactly what happened!

4. It is the Roman Catholic Church which alone is the worldwide Christianity, imperfect and apostate though it is; and there is not a church of any name on earth today that does not in some degree stand indebted to her accomplishments, which have been providentially used for the protection of the truly faithful. Nevertheless, "the true followers of Christ" on earth today are a dwindling minority with reference to the whole of mankind; and when the Apostate Christianity is destroyed, as it will be, that minority will either go underground or perish, thus reducing what little impact they have upon "all people" even further toward the vanishing point.

Here then, in Revelation 18, is the mystery of the ten kings hating the whore. They are blind to the truth that when they "burn her with fire" and destroy her, they will at the same time kindle the fires of their own destruction, remove the keystone from the arch of world order, and reduce the vaunted civilization of which they are a part to utter chaos and disorder. The foolish dream of modern humanist fools who vainly believe that they can produce a good society apart from its roots in the religion of Christ is an idiot’s nightmare. The fruits of a Christian world (imperfect as they are) will not be kept alive apart from their roots in the word of God. When "the kings" shall see what follows their removal of the whore, that is when the howling, the wailing, the cries, the mourning, and the casting of dust on their heads will take place. In America today, there are at the top intellectual level a horde of humanistic atheists who are paving the way for the "ten kings." "The 1955 Harvard Report on Education claimed that Western Civilization would never again utilize Christianity as the foundation of our social structure."^[12] This report rejected Christianity without ever knowing what it really is. The harlot has herself long resorted to war and cruelty as instruments of policy; and this fact colored their distorted view. They just overlooked other qualities of the harlot’s work.

"The mystery of iniquity" is in this (2 Thessalonians 2:7), and other theological questions of the utmost significance are also present.

When every church on earth has lost its tax status and the Christian religion is outlawed everywhere as it already is in Russia, the situation will be the beginning of what Revelation 18 describes. All enterprise, business, commerce, industry, trade, etc., will be slowed down, thwarted and halted, because the basic morality upon which such enterprise rests will have been destroyed. Human rights will no longer exist. The basic ethics of the harlot are Christian in many particulars; and when she falls, the disaster will be sudden, complete, and final. The sacred virtues of the holy faith in Christ will be unable to prevail afterwards, except in a beleaguered remnant. The reason for this is that the harlot taught such basic virtues as hers, existing through her authority, and enforced through her power, and not as Christ’s requirements. This was the fatal error. When she falls, as far as the world as a whole is concerned, all the hoops will be removed from the barrel of the world’s morality and order.

For these, and a multitude of other considerations, we must, through our tears, see the harlot as Apostate Christianity, most conspicuously represented by that form of it known all over the world in every village and hamlet of it, and the sole historical figure large enough to fit the description of it; namely, the Papal system and its derivatives.

And what are those derivatives? Practically all of Protestantism is included in this. What church is free of the guilt? This writer has experienced in his own ministry bulls of excommunication, anathemas, and denunciations just as bitter as any ever issued by any Pope, and which came from little popes and agents of Diotrephes from within his own communion. Where is the church that does not have its synod, conference, presbyter, president, moderator, chairman, or some other substitute for a pope? And if these are not found, some college, publication, preacher, or other functionary is allowed to serve the same end. Christendom itself is apostate; and we freely confess that we do not know any patent solution of the problem. Freely admitting this still leaves us no escape from reading the harlot as the one most conspicuously identified as the historical church and its papal apparatus. If there is any solution of the apostasy, it must be allowed as the one proposed by Reuel Lemmons, distinguished editor of the Firm Foundation: "Let us be sure that those whom we convert are truly converted to Christ."^[13]

When God used Rome to destroy apostate Israel (Jerusalem), as revealed in Matthew 22:7, the true Israel (the church) was also nearly annihilated at the same time; and from this we may suppose that when the new Israel turned harlot receives the wrath of God from the "ten kings," that the righteous remnant of the true faith will suffer their greatest test. We pray that in our understanding Roman Catholicism as the harlot, that this extended explanation and definition of it will also be considered. There is nothing narrow, sectional, denominational, or vindictive in this. It is a tragedy that reaches all the way to heaven, and the shadow of the apostasy, in one form or another, falls upon every Christian upon earth. For some, it is in the innovations with which they worship God; for others it is the totalitarian organization of their church; for some it is the perverted form of the baptism they receive; for many it is the secularization of their faith; for yet others it is the false idea that the church is the dispenser of salvation; for still others it is their acceptance of tradition instead of the word of God; and many have elevated a "priesthood" between themselves and the Lord, etc.

^[1] W. A. Criswell, Expository Sermons on Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1962), IV, p. 16.

^[2] Ibid.

^[3] George Eldon Ladd, A Commentary on the Revelation of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1972), p. 235.

^[4] Alford as quoted by Wilbur M. Smith, Wycliffe Bible Commentary, New Testament (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 1089.

^[5] Ibid.

^[6] J. W. Roberts, The Revelation of John (Austin, Texas: R. B. Sweet Company, 1974), p. 145.

^[7] Albertus Pieters, Studies in the Revelation of St. John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1954), p. 250.

^[8] Ray Summers, Worthy is the Lamb (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1961), p. 193.

^[9] Wilbur M. Smith, op. cit., p. 1089.

^[10] Leon Morris, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries, Vol. 20, Revelation Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969), p. 214.

^[11] Wilbur M. Smith, op. cit., p. 1089.

^[12] James D. Strauss, The Seer, the Saviour and the Saved (Joplin, Missouri: College Press, 1972), p. 225.

^[13] Reuel Lemmons, Editorial, Firm Foundation (Austin, Texas: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1978), Dec. 12,1978.

After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. (Revelation 18:1)

Another angel coming down out of heaven ... This angel does not mean that another vision is being introduced. "The Babylon of Revelation 18 is identical with the Babylon of Revelation 17 ... the theme of great Babylon’s downfall is continued."^[14]

Having great authority ... This together with the glorious appearance of the angels emphasizes the eternal truth of what would be revealed.

ENDNOTE:

^[14] F. F. Bruce, A New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1969),p. 659.

Verse 2

And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird.

It should be noted that it is not merely the fall of Babylon (a symbol of pagan Rome) that is announced, but of "Babylon the great," the symbol of something far more extensive.

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great ... "Here is portrayed not merely the doom of an ancient city, but the sure collapse of all human organization, commercial and otherwise."^[15] See chapter introduction for an elaboration of this. "Mystical Babylon is the representative of religious degeneracy, not wickedness."^[16] This announcement is not made so that the earth will know it; the earth will already know it when this occurs. "Babylon is in ruins and does not need to be told. The announcement is because the destruction is so vast and terrible."^[17]

That the actual city of Rome is in some way to be identified with Babylon cannot be denied. "There can be no doubt that the preterists are right in asserting this; but the historicists may be right in applying it to the Papacy."^[18] They are both right. Just as Jesus’ prophecy had reference to: (1) the fall of Jerusalem, and also to (2) the end of the world, this prophecy also is big enough to take care of both events. Rome is properly identified both as the pagan city and also as the later headquarters of the harlot. It is the vain effort to nullify and discard this second meaning that we reject.

And is become a habitation of demons ... The pagan city made "demons" of its dead emperors and worshipped them; but the papal city did exactly the same thing with its dead "saints," making them objects of worship and invoking their names in the public worship.

And a hold of every unclean spirit ... This also was true both of the pagan city with its sorcery, witchcraft, and savage cruelty exhibited daily in the Coliseum, and likewise later of the apostate Christianity with its inquisitions, persecutions, and vicious politics.

And a hold of very unclean and hateful bird ... "This probably alludes to the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-32), indicating the demonic forces at work in the apostate system."^[19] See our exegesis of that parable in my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 192-194. Hendriksen’s view that "hold" here should be understood in the sense of a prison, with the meaning that, "The unclean spirits and hated birds consider it a prison,"^[20] does not appear to be correct. "This meaning as a place where unclean spirits are confined seems hardly appropriate."^[21] It merely means that "they have built their nests in the church," after the analogy of the parable. "It is their natural and fitting stronghold, rather than a place where they are involuntarily confined."^[22]

^[15] Ibid.

^[16] Charles H. Roberson, Studies in Revelation (Tyler, Texas: P. D. Wilmeth, P.O. Box 3305,1957), p. 134.

^[17] R. C. H. Lenski, The Interpretation of St. John’s Revelation (Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsburg Publishing House, 1943), p. 515

^[18] Ralph Earle, Beacon Bible Commentary, Vol. 10 (Kansas City: Beacon Hill Press, 1967), p. 598.

^[19] Charles Caldwell Ryrie, Revelation (Chicago: Moody Press, 1968), p. 105.

^[20] William Hendriksen, More Than Conquerors (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1956), p. 207.

^[21] Isbon T. Beckwith, The Apocalypse of John (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book House, 1919), p. 713.

^[22] A. Plummer, The Pulpit Commentary, Vol. 22, Revelation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1950), p. 431.

Verse 3

For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness.

By the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen ... This places the blame squarely upon the harlot herself for the universal disaster about to fall. How is this so? The essence of this wine that at last intoxicates all mankind, especially the "ten kings" who are the executioners of this judgment, is that man himself is the supreme authority. In the elevation of a human being as the head of God’s church and by giving his word precedence and greater authority than the word of the Son of God himself, this harlot established the prototype of the ultimate and final rebellion of mankind against all that God said. If a man is really supreme, people can logically dispense with the whole system of Christianity; and the tragedy unfolded in this chapter is what takes place when "the kings" at last catch on to this and decide to act in accordance with the very principles the harlot herself established. This was prefigured, of course, in the pagan city, by the cult of emperor worship; but it would issue ultimately in the savage, atheistic humanism of the last days, thus applying appropriately to both situations.

And the kings of the earth committed fornication with her ... They presumed to rule by "divine right." They accepted the principle of the supremacy of a man; but, in the episode of the "ten kings" they decided themselves to be "the man," leading to their rejection and hatred of the whore through their acceptance of her principles. It is totally inadequate to view the seduction of "the kings" as being derived solely from "the vast luxury trade bringing widespread prosperity."^[23] Something far more significant is indicated.

And the merchants waxed rich ... This enters into the ultimate disaster, because the proliferation of a rich class indicates a loss of spiritual values. "The English word waxed comes from the German word, "wachsen", to grow or increase."^[24] The implication is that the rich, borrowing the principles of the harlot, grew selfish and unmindful of other duties.

Up through this verse, the prophecy views the fall of Babylon as in the past, having already happened, as announced in Revelation 16:19; but there were still some things to be related concerning the "hour" leading up to this; therefore, the next verses, beginning with Revelation 18:4, retrogress in order to relate it. "In Revelation 18:2-3, by means of aorists, Babylon’s fall is viewed as having occurred; but the imperatives of Revelation 18:4 ff present her as still standing with all her seduction."^[25] Not merely by the use of different tenses, but by the introduction of another "voice from heaven" (Revelation 18:4), the transition is indicated.

^[23] G. B. Caird, The Revelation of St. John the Divine (New York: Harper and Row, 1966), p. 223.

^[24] James D. Strauss, op. cit., p. 223.

^[25] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 517

Commentary on Revelation 18:1-3 by Manly Luscombe

1 After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. An angel comes down from heaven. This angel has great power. The angel has power to announce. He also has power to act and judge.

2 And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! Babylon is one of the terms studied in the previous chapter. This announcement from the angel adds some information about Babylon. She has already been called the “mother of harlots” and guilty of fornication. Notice the terms added to this description: She has become a dwelling place of demons. She is a jail for foul spirits. She is a cage for every unclean and hated bird. Those are strong terms. Demons, foul spirits, unclean, hated are used here. Babylon is also described with terms of confinement - Dwelling place, prison, and cage.

3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” People of all nations have fallen at the feet of immorality. All nations have participated in fornication. They have committed fornication with her. The second part of this verse makes reference to the control of world wealth. The great harlot has, in promoting immorality, made many people rich. Think about pornography for a minute. Many are made rich in the filming, production, and sale of such pictures. The same is true with gambling, prostitution, alcohol and many other immoral matters.

Verses 4-5

Rev 18:4-5

(2) GOD’S PEOPLE TOLD TO FLEE

(Revelation 18:4-5)

Come forth, my people.--This is not the language of John, but the command of an angel of heaven. It is the same com-mand that was given Israel regarding literal Babylon. (Isa. 48 20; Jeremiah 50:8; Jeremiah 51:6.) The angel’s command means that people should abandon all false doctrines taught by the mother of harlots, or any of her daughters. This is nothing less than a command to abandon sectarian teaching and practice. If any who have obeyed the gospel have wandered into human churches, they should come out at once. "My people" here probably do not mean Christians, but that noble, honest number that really want to obey God--hence, by anticipation, called God’s people. (Com-pare Acts 18:10.) That means they could become God’s people in fact by coming out. Two reasons are assigned for their coming out: to prevent partaking of her sins and to escape the punish-ment sure to come.

Reached even unto heaven.--Her wickedness is known to God and he will not forget properly to reward her.

Commentary on Revelation 18:4-5 by Foy E. Wallace

(2) The call to the faithful—Revelation 18:4-8.

The voice from heaven introducing verse four was a call to the faithful saints to depart from the doomed city before the calamity struck. It is manifestly parallel with the Lord’s exhortation in Matthew 24:15-16 for his faithful disciples to flee Jerusalem when the signs of the impending destruction appeared.

The same call was spiritually applied by Paul to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:14-18), beseeching them to cut all the ties that would bind them to heathenism or in any way maintain affiliation with the heathen world and its temple of Belial. Its derived or applied meaning was to abandon all that both Judaism and heathenism represented.

The enormity of Jerusalem’s sins which reached unto heaven are underlined in Revelation 18:5-6 in the exercise of the prerogatives that belongs only to God--“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord”--He remembered her iniquities, and rendered due reward double unto double, according to her works. Again, it was Lord’s answer to the altar cry of martyrs in Revelation 6:10, “how long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.”

Commentary on Revelation 18:4-5 by Walter Scott

A CALL FOR SEPARATION.

Revelation 18:4-5. — “And I heard another voice out of the Heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye have not fellowship in her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues: for her sins have been heaped on one another up to the Heaven, and God has remembered her unrighteousnesses.” An angel descending from Heaven (Revelation 18:1), and a voice heard in Heaven (Revelation 18:4), express different actions. The latter is the expression of the mind of God, in which all in Heaven are in unison.

Revelation 18:4 — The call, “Come out of her, my people,” (Compare with Jeremiah 51:6 : Isaiah 48:20.) is, of course, applicable at all times, and is never out of season wherever Babylon in principle is found. But the exhortation has its special force after the overthrow of Babylon from its commanding greatness (Revelation 17:1-18) and before its final doom (Revelation 18:1-24). The call is imperative. Babylon as a system cannot be remodeled on scriptural lines, and hence there is ever but one course open to the faithful — one of thorough separation from that which falsely bears the Name of Christ. No doubt some real believers will be found in Babylon, even in her worst and most corrupt condition, probably to avoid persecution and death. These adherents must make a complete severance from Babylon, or if they remain in it become partakers of her plagues. (These plagues are death, mourning, and famine (Revelation 18:8).)

4. — The call is based on two grounds: (1) “that ye have not fellowship in her sins.” By remaining in it they would become partakers of her guilt. (2) “That ye do not receive of her plagues.” The warning here is on account of consequences — judicial and governmental. Eternal security is in no wise imperiled by the divine threat. The guilt and punishment of all remaining in Babylon are here predicated. God is about to overwhelm the whole apostate ecclesiastical system with utter and irremediable ruin, and in view of this final downpour of wrath, here termed “plagues,” the last call is heard, “Come out of her, my people.” We would naturally conclude that the exodus of saints from Babylon is accomplished ere the last stroke falls, crushing her to powder. As another has said, “The full judgment comes after God’s people are come out of her.”

Revelation 18:5. — But why such stern judgment? Why such awful dealing both from man and God? “For her sins have been heaped on one another up to the Heaven.” Of the first Babel confederacy without God we read, “And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower, whose top may reach unto Heaven” (Genesis 11:4). They would build an enduring monument of their folly, one of stone. But here the sins heaped up reach “the Heaven,” the monument of her shame if she only knew it. What a striking picture is here presented, a Babel tower, not of stones but of sins; not simply sin on earth calling for judgment, but sins so aggravated, so numerous, and so bold and impious that Heaven itself is outraged. (See Ezra 9:6; also Jeremiah 51:9; there the LITERAL Babylon; here the MYSTICAL, the one being the counterpart of the other.) “God has remembered her unrighteousness.” Judgment, stern and unsparing, must take its course.

Commentary on Revelation 18:4-5 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:4. Come out of her my people. Even after the work of the reformers was well under way, and the institution of Babylon as a body had fallen, there were still some individuals connected with the church part of the former institution who were honest and at heart were desirous of serving God. They are the ones who are called my people because the Lord considered them true to the testimony of Christ as far as they had been permitted to learn it- Now if they will heed the call to come out and line up with the workers of the Reformation they will be received by Him. If they refuse to heed this call they will have to receive of her plagues.

Revelation 18:5. Sins have reached unto heaven means the corruptions of Rome were an offense to heaven, and also had become notoriously public so that God remembered (took unfavorable notice of) her iniquities.

Commentary on Revelation 18:4-5 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:4

And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues:

Another voice from heaven ... See under the preceding verse for the reason behind this.

Come forth, my people, out of her ... Amazing! Does God have people in the harlot church? Yes, nor should this surprise us. There were also saints in Sardis (Revelation 3:14), and much people who belonged to God even in pagan Nineveh (Jonah 4:11). Even of wicked Corinth, God said to Paul in the night by a vision, "I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to harm thee: for I have much people in this city" (Acts 18:10). We shall leave it to others to edit these words out of the New Testament. The very fact of God’s having people in the apostate church itself points to his having people, in one sense or another, in all the harlot daughters as well; and there is no way to harmonize this with any classification of people by denominations or groups as either saved or lost, on the basis of blanket judgments of the evil accepted by any group. Salvation is an individual matter; and Christ has specifically warned his people against "’judging." That was the great sin of the great harlot herself who arrogated to herself alone the right of deciding who is saved or lost, and then enforcing that decision even through the gates of the cemetery. "The Lord knoweth them that are his" (2 Timothy 2:19); and we consider it unchristian to meddle with this question in any manner. We have the commission to teach what the New Testament says, but not the right to bind our deductions from it upon others. That God’s people in the apostate church are in mortal danger is clear enough, for they are ordered to "Come out!"

That ye have no fellowship with her sins ... "Through history, God is always calling his people to cut their connection with sin and to stand with him and for him."^[26] "Persecuted and harried as they were, God’s people must have been tempted to come to terms with the city; for she could make their lives rich and comfortable."^[27] This call to "Come out" was the call of God to Abraham (Genesis 12:1), and to Lot (Genesis 19:12-14), to Moses (Numbers 16:23-26), to Israel (Isaiah 48:20), and to Christians (in this verse, and in 1 Corinthians 6:15-16). "This precept is obeyed by standing aloof from evil in the very heart of the world’s traffic."^[28]

That ye receive not of her plagues ... This is a warning that God’s people, by their very association with apostasy, may also incur its penalties.

^[26] William Barclay, The Revelation of John (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1976), p. 151.

^[27] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 215.

^[28] Charles H. Roberson, op. cit., p. 138.

Revelation 18:5

for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.

For her sins have reached even unto heaven ... There is something resembling the quality of "glue" in the metaphor here. As Beckwith said, "The thought is not that the sins cleave to the skies, but that they cleave to each other, forming a mass reaching to heaven."^[29] Moffatt saw it as a "gluing together of the leaves comprising a roll";^[30] Rome’s sins would make a roll reaching all the way to heaven! No catalogue of these could be complete.

And God hath remembered her iniquities ... God remembers all sins, unless they are forgiven, in which case they are forgotten. This indicates that the harlot church was not only powerless to forgive the sins of her followers, but that she was also utterly unable to procure forgiveness even for her own sins. As Spurgeon once admonished his church:

Therefore, if some shaveling priest shall lift his hand to absolve thee, even upon thy deathbed, lift thy bony hand and absolve him; thou hast the same right!

^[29] Isbon T. Beckwith, op. cit., p. 714.

^[30] James Moffatt, Expositor’s Greek New Testament, Vol. V (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1967), p. 457.

Commentary on Revelation 18:4-5 by Manly Luscombe

4 And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. God expects his people to be separate from sin. Baptism puts us on the other side of the river. The water of baptism separates us from our former life of sin. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 is a clear passage in which Christians are commanded to “come out from among them.” We are commanded not to participate (touch) things that are unclean. If you don’t participate in the unclean activity, you will not suffer the plagues. If you refuse to engage in homosexual activity or share drug needles, you will not get AIDS. If you do not involve yourself in fornication, then STD is not a threat.

5 For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. God knows who has shared a role in immoral activity. God will remember their sins. Men will be judged by the deeds done while here on earth, good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Verses 6-8

Rev 18:6-8

(3) VENGEANCE PRONOUNCED

(Revelation 18:6-8)

According to her works.--Render to her double is language addressed to whatever powers God will use for administering punishment to the apostate church. It will be what her works deserve.

Mingle unto her double.--As her dupes drank from the cup of her false doctrines, so she must drink the cup of punishment. Her glorying in wantonness will be matched with torment and mourning.

n one day.--The harlot’s boast "I sit a queen" finds its fulfillment in the papal claim of infallible authority, but her arrogant claims will end in one day--that is, suddenly. Paul represents the coming of Jesus as a "thief in the night." The plagues mentioned in verse 8 are such as naturally would come upon a city being destroyed; typically, they represent the com-plete overthrow and end of the apostate church.

Commentary on Revelation 18:6-8 by Foy E. Wallace

The enormity of Jerusalem’s sins which reached unto heaven are underlined in Revelation 18:5-6 in the exercise of the prerogatives that belongs only to God--“Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord”--He remembered her iniquities, and rendered due reward double unto double, according to her works. Again, it was Lord’s answer to the altar cry of martyrs in Revelation 6:10, “how long, 0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth.”

The description of the proud, and presumptuous city of David, which for centuries had enjoyed the admiration expressed in verse seven, to sit as queen, employed symbols of glory. The old city declared that she was no widow and would see no sorrow (of widowhood), for she was the Jerusalem of the Israel which was wedded to the God of the Jews. But Revelation 18:8 bluntly decreed that destruction would come upon her in one day, as suddenly as the Lord’s statement in Matthew 24:16-18 : “Then let them which be in Judea flee . . . let him which is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house: neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.” Hence, the expression one day symbolized the suddenness of the impending judgment against Jerusalem and the shortness of time for the faithful to respond to the call to come out of her. The extended application, as in 2 Corinthians 6:17, meant to come out of the evils and the errors of Jerusalem’s apostasies and of heathendom’s idolatries. The last line of Revelation 18:8, for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her, meant that God’s word was inexorable, and without change of purpose he would destroy the apostate city.

Commentary on Revelation 18:6-8 by Walter Scott

RIGHTEOUS RETRIBUTION.

Revelation 18:6. — “Recompense her even as she has recompensed; and double (to her) double, according to her works. In the cup which she has mixed, mix to her double.” On textual considerations the “you” in the Authorized Version is omitted in the Revised Version, while as a matter of interpretation its introduction unduly narrows the sense of the passage. The previous verse directly addresses itself to the people of God, but in that before us it is for saints. Then, as now, the principle is asserted that God acts in retributive justice. It is a statement of the principle on which God acts towards nations, as Matthew 7:2 shows its application to individuals. Jewish law demanded “an eye for an eye,” but the vengeance here demanded goes far beyond that — the measure is doubled.

PRIDE BEFORE DESTRUCTION.

Revelation 18:7-8. — “So much as she has glorified herself and lived luxuriously, so much torment and grief give to her. Because she says in her heart, I sit a queen, and I am not a widow; and I shall in no wise see grief: for this reason on one day shall her plagues come, death, and grief, and famine, and she shall be burned with fire; for strong (is the) Lord God Who has judged her.” The principle of retributive judgment is next shown in the first part of Revelation 18:7, not in relation to what Babylon has done (Revelation 18:6), but because of what she is in herself. Having been degraded from her public place by the kings of the Roman world she yet maintains her pride. Her spirit is unbroken. Her haughtiness is asserted in spite of the fact that she sits in the dust of her former grandeur, and that her final end is at hand. The kings of the earth may lament over her, but help her they cannot. Her boasting is within; she says in her heart, “I sit a queen.” Her public downfall had already taken place, hence the assertion of her queenly state would be out of keeping if openly expressed. “I am not a widow.” Does she expect that her fortunes are to be retrieved? That she will once again mount the throne? “I shall in no wise see grief,” and this while the clouds lower and the tokens on every hand presage her immediate and final judgment at the hand of God. Utter destruction is signified in the words, “she shall be burned with fire.” This goes beyond the more historical scene in Revelation 17:16. The fire here makes an utter end of Babylon. The mighty God is Babylon’s Judge. (We quote from another, “Rome means strong, but her strength is nothing. Strong is the Lord Who judges her.”)

Commentary on Revelation 18:6-8 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:6. The pronoun you refers to "my people" in the preceding verse. Human beings cannot bring judgment upon a universal body of corruption by mere human strength. But if they will come out and then use their influence to expose the harlot (which many people did as shown in various histories of the Reformation), they will bring about a chastisement of her that is figuratively described as making her drink a double measure of her own wine.

Revelation 18:7. The leaders in Rome or Babylon had been living a selfish life at the expense of their helpless dupes. Now that they have been undeceived by the workers in the Reformation, they are urged to make their condemnation all the more severe upon her. A queen would be in good circumstances in that she would have one on whom to depend for support and would have no sorrow or anxiety.

Revelation 18:8. One day cannot be restricted to a period of 24 hours, but the things predicted of her will come on the same day or by the same cause. That will be the effects of opening the eyes of the nationsthat have been oppressed by her. The mourning will be literal and it will be over the loss of her former power- Utterly burned with fire denotes that the fire of God’s jealousy will bring utter (complete) destruction to the combination of church and state--not to each separately, but the combination will be dissolved for ever.

Commentary on Revelation 18:6-8 by Manly Luscombe

6 Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for her. The great harlot will be rewarded as she rewarded those who worshiped her. Those who thought of immorality as their god, were rewarded with AIDS, STD, poverty, sickness, disease, broken homes, shattered lives and ruined reputations. God has always promised that all will be judged and rewarded according to their works. Galatians 6:7-9 teaches the principle of sowing and reaping. We will reap what we sow. If our sowing was in fleshly (immoral) things, we will reap corruption. If we sow to the spirit, we will reap eternal life. God promises a double portion of punishment. The reason is this: When man chooses to sin, he will suffer. When man leads, persuades, and encourages others to sin, there is greater responsibility for leading others into sin. James 3:1 shows that the teacher who leads others astray will suffer “greater punishment.”

7 In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ In this life immorality seems to “live it up” in luxury. Many immoral sins are seen by the world as good, exciting, fun and normal. There is a concerted effort, for example, on the part of homosexual groups to make their sinful lifestyle acceptable and normal. Many lived in luxury on the profits from such sins. Think about Hugh Hefner and the “Playboy Mansion.” God pronounces that in the same measure that they enjoyed the luxuries, they will suffer the greater torment. Immorality thinks that it is invincible. People who act upon these immoral impulses never think they will get caught.

8 Therefore her plagues will come in one day-death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. There is a payday. There is a day of reckoning. She will suffer the plagues that she has caused on others. Babylon will suffer death, mourning and famine. Just as she lived in luxury, now she will suffer torment. The final end will be a burning with fire, because God is the one who judges.

Verses 9-19

Rev 18:9-19

(4) EXTENT OF BABYLON’S RUIN

(Revelation 18:9-19)

Shall weep and wail.--Those who have been deceived by false doctrines shall weep and wail when in fear they look upon her destruction. They will be amazed at the sudden punishment of a city so great and proud. Those who have made gain trafficking in human practices in religion will mourn because their source of income has been cut off. There will no longer be anyone to be deceived. The articles of merchandise mentioned symbolize every kind of religious device used to deceive those ignorant of God’s word. The things desired by the religious merchants are gone forever. Naturally such characters will cry, "Woe, woe," when spiritual Babylon falls. The smoke and blaze seen in a burning city are a weak but fitting emblem to indicate what will happen when apostate religion is forced to end its wicked work.

Commentary on Revelation 18:9-19 by Foy E. Wallace

(3) The three-fold threnody over the ruined city—Revelation 18:9-19.

These verses form the threnody of kings, merchants and seamen--their song of lamentation, as a dirge over Jerusalem, the fallen city. They were represented in Revelation 18:9-10 as having thrived on her harlotries, but cut off from the lucrative revenues of her commerce they were envisioned as standing afar off, offering no help but bewailing the plight of besieged Jerusalem: Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

The statement of Revelation 18:11, that the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her was parallel with Revelation 1:7 : “Behold, he cometh with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” This coming referred to the destruction of Jerusalem, as in Zechariah 14:1-21; and the declaration that every eye shall see him referred to the universal knowledge of what was happening to Jerusalem; and all the kindreds (tribes) of the earth shall wail denoted the mourning of all Jewish families in all parts of the world over the destruction that had befallen their beloved city.

The rulers, merchants and mariners of Palestine bewailed the calamity for no man buyeth their merchandise any more. The valuables of the merchandise in which this trade consisted were listed in Revelation 18:12-14. The description of gold, purple and spice were symbols of the flow of commerce which characterized Jerusalem’s prosperity. But with the severance of all trade, deprived of all commerce, the authorities of Judea, the merchants and the shippers, once associated with Jerusalem in all of her luxury and wantonness, then stood aloof as witnesses of the destruction, deploring the devastation; but only to bewail her plight.

The extensive traffic in thirty articles specified by John represented the affiliations of the Jewish capital with allthe heathen world. Included in this commercial revenue was the traffic in slaves, and souls of men--meaning the lives of men. There was no source of revenue from the heathen world not included in the coalition between Jerusalem and the merchants of the earth, as described in Revelation 18:15-16.

In continuation of this resplendent description Revelation 18:17-19 recorded the lamentations of the merchant--men because the luxuries and revenues in which they had shared had come to nought and were no more at all. In unison they cried: What city is like unto this great city . . . alas, alas, that great city . . . she is made desolate. Thus the traffickers of the heathen world lamented the ignominious end of the once glorious city of Jerusalem.

Commentary on Revelation 18:9-19 by Walter Scott

THE DIRGE OVER BABYLON.

Revelation 18:9-10. — The lamentation over Babylon is taken up by all classes, for all are affected by it. The general bearing of the whole passage is so simple that detailed exposition is needless. The articles of merchandise specified in which Babylon trafficked are twenty-eight in number. The first in the list is gold, the last is souls. The ruin of Babylon will seriously affect the whole commercial and social life of the world, and it is on this account that her judgment is so deplored by those who shared in her wealth and profited by intercourse with her.

Revelation 18:9-10. — “The kings of the earth” lead in the general mourning. They were the most intimate with her, and hence more than others feel her loss. These kings, or chiefs, must not be confounded with the ten kings who hate the woman. The former mourn over her, and are unable to prevent her ruin, whereas the latter are the prime movers in her political downfall (Revelation 17:16). The kings of the earth, or, in other words, the distinguished leaders in Christendom, as apart from the ten kings of the Roman empire, are in fear. Standing afar off they witness the awful conflagration of that mighty system of evil with which they had been so closely identified, and in which they had lived and rioted in luxury. They tremble and fear at the awfulness and suddenness of the judgment, “for in one hour is thy judgment come.”

Revelation 18:11-13. — “The merchants of the earth” sorrow over Babylon, not because of any love they bear the system, but simply because their trade and wealth are ruined. Babylon, besides her religious character, is here viewed as the center of vast commercial interests. The varied character of the merchandise — the product of all countries — shows the wide influence of Babylon, and how she attracts to herself as to a center the world’s riches. Think of this gigantic combination of the secular and religious trading, amongst other commodities, with the bodies and souls of men (v. 13) — named last, as of least account. In the enumeration of Babylon’s merchandise she is simply the world’s storehouse, or universal emporium, embracing all that is most esteemed down to that which is regarded as of least value. There are seven departments under which the various articles are classified. (1) Valuables and ornaments, as gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls. (2) Costly array, as fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet. (3) Sumptuous furniture, as vessels manufactured from the most precious woods, ivory, and metals. (4) Rich odors, as cinnamon, frankincense, and ointments. (5) Abundant living, as wine, oil, flour, wheat, beasts, and sheep. (6) Triumphal pageants, as horses and chariots. (7) Infamous traffic in the bodies and souls of men.

The lamentation of the merchants is interrupted by an episode narrated in Revelation 18:14, and the mournful strain is resumed in Revelation 18:15. The complete ruin of the merchandise of Babylon, that which selfishly bound to her king and peasant, leaves her a wreck. All her resources are gone; she is utterly despoiled of her former means of self-indulgence; her sources of enjoyment are dried up; and, in fact, all that ministered to her pride, and everything essential to her existence, perishes in the unexpected and sudden blow from the divine hand. She is directly addressed by a voice from Heaven (v. 14).

Revelation 18:15-17. — Then the strain is resumed, but on a wider basis. Merchants in general, which is explained to mean those “who had been enriched through her,” take up the lamentation expressed in words similar to that of the kings (Revelation 18:10). There is one difference, however, which may be noted. The kings in their lament say “In one hour is thy judgment come,” whereas the merchants say “In one hour so great riches have been made desolate.” Uniting the two statements we gather that the judgment of Babylon involves the destruction of her temporal prosperity, and, further, that the stroke of vengeance from the hand of the Almighty is sudden and unlooked for.

Revelation 18:17-19. — Shipmasters, sailors, and all seafaring interests suffer equally with those already named. The past greatness and riches of Babylon are remembered and mourned over in the pathetic dirge from the sea (see Ezekiel 27:1-36).

The judgment of Babylon takes effect in full sight of kings, merchants, and sea traders, the various classes enriched through connection with her. Her torment is their fear. (We have the fall of Babylon distinguished, I think, from the destruction of Babylon. Her fall includes moral degradation, and being the dwelling place of unclean spirits. This is judgment on her; and she falls because of her making the nations drink of the wine of her fornication (Revelation 14:8). This we find in the ecclesiastical course, so to speak, of closing facts. Her final judgment we find in the close of the filling up the wrath of God (Revelation 16:19). The connection of the former seems to be with Revelation 18:2; of the latter with Revelation 18:21.” — “Notes on the Book of Revelation,” in loco. This little work, by the late J. N. Darby, of 172 pages, is an invaluable aid, not in details, but in masterly unfolding of the great principles and truths contained in the Apocalypse.)

Commentary on Revelation 18:9-19 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:9. Kings of the earth had been protected in their defrauding of the uninformed people. Committed fornication. Rome has been called a harlot hence those who have been intimate with her are guilty of fornication. It is natural for them to lament seeing her burning (under the fiery judgments of God.)

Revelation 18:10. The symbols are changed from a woman to a city. But it means the same thing for the mother of harlots had her seat where she carried on her adulterous practices in the city of Babylon. Of course to see her "red light district" going up in smoke means the end of her trade. One hour is used here to mean the same period as one day in Revelation 18:8.

Revelation 18:11. The merchants were the prominent leaders in Rome who had been reaping much gain (both political and material) by imposing their false doctrines on them. There will now be no demand for such "wares" for the customers will have learned that they had been defrauded.

Revelation 18:12-13. All of the articles named in this paragraph are literal products, and doubtless the leaders in the corrupt institution dealt in such property for their own selfish enjoyment, but the literal articles are used as symbols of the selfish enjoyments they had by being able to extract the services of the dupes under them.

Revelation 18:14. This virtually continues the same prediction that is made in the preceding verses, but I will call attention to the words about these gains that thou shalt find them no more at all. That means the advantages once enjoyed by Babylon (church and state) were never again to be enjoyed by her as before because she will never exist again to enjoy them.

Revelation 18:15. This is virtually the same lament that is described in Revelation 18:9-10, because of their loss of unlawful privileges at the expense of the people. For the fear of her torment denotes that the sight of such a burning will give them a feeling of horror. Lest the reader gets lost in all this array of figurative judgments, I shall again state that it is a symbolical picture of the political and religious revolution that came upon the old wicked institution of Rome, after the work of the Reformation broke up the great conspiracy.

Revelation 18:16. The items mentioned are used symbolically, but there is some special appropriateness in the materials named. The formalities of the old Pagan Roman ceremonies were copied by the clergy of Papal Rome. Linen was used for the official robes in the services, and purple and scarlet were the royal colors. The garments were decked literally with gold and precious stones. The city is said to have all these decorations because the scarlet woman was located in the city for her corrupt practices.

Revelation 18:17. One hour calls for the same comments that are offered at verse 10. The chapter as a whole is a vision in symbolic form, yet the institution of Babylon or Rome was so widespread, that it was logical to include many of the activities of the members of it. Hence the people interested in the traffic of the sea are brought into the picture, among those whose selfish practices were to be cut off by the downfall of the city.

Revelation 18:18. What city is like means a general statement of her greatness as of the past, for now she is very low and worthless ince she is being destroyed by fire.

Revelation 18:19. There is not much change in the significance of the symbols of this verse. Casting dust on their heads was an ancient custom to give expression to feelings of mourning and dismay (Joshua 7:6; Job 2:12; Lamentations 2:10). One hour is the same figurative phrase that is in Revelation 18:10. Made desolate means that Babylon the Great as the union of church and state was to be deserted and cease to be.

Commentary on Revelation 18:9-19 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:9

And the kings of the earth, who committed fornication and lived wantonly with her, shall weep and wail over her, when they look upon the smoke of her burning,

Here is the great paradox, without the understanding of which there can be no explanation of these passages.

And the kings ... shall weep and wail ... Commentators have really struggled with this, for these are exactly the ones who did the burning and the eating of the harlot’s flesh. How can this be? The best explanation, short of the true one, is by Lenski:

They cooled their vengeance upon the whore and then grieved that they had done so. Let the paradox remain. There is no reason ... The lover of a whore strangles her, and then weeps like a fool.^[42]

Interesting as that comment is, there is nevertheless a reason, and a very good one. The humanistic kings simply failed to realize that it was the true Christianity, imperfectly taught by the harlot, that actually formed the foundation of their world. The evil, atheistic, humanist kings proudly imagined that they could get along without any religion whatever, having finally rejected even the apostate forms of it; but their stupid action in burning up the whore destroyed everything, for not even the harlot ever went as far away from God and the truth as did those kings, or governments, of the final age. Their philosophy was dogmatically stated by a member of one of the great theological seminaries fifty years ago, by Dr. George Albert Coe, who wrote:

The sovereign for this universe, that is, the sovereign for us, is just ourselves when we cooperatively assist in providing ourselves with what we want.^[43]

Coe’s hometown, New York city, is today virtually bankrupt; and the rising tide of violence, corruption, and irresponsibility may yet cause its utter ruin, unless there is a repudiation of the type of humanistic philosophy which has caused the decline. Clearly, it is exactly this type of thinking that will lead to the "ten kings’" destruction of the whore.

Shall weep and wail ... when they look upon the smoke of her burning ... It is of prime significance that there is prophesied here the "burning" of the harlot.

In Moses’ Law (Leviticus 21:9), burning appears to have been the form of punishment for fornication only in the case of a priest’s daughter, another indication that Babylon is a wicked religious person.^[44]

They look upon the smoke ... Smoke is the result of fire; and that is what put the disaster upon them. There were the most diabolical repercussions which ensued when the last visible support of religion crumbled into ashes in the flames of their hatred, repercussions of such a vast and terrible nature that they bankrupted and destroyed civilization. That is the absolute climax of the present dispensation, as prophesied here! Of course, those wailing and weeping kings were not at all concerned about the whore; they made no move to assist her; they were screaming only about their business and their profits (Revelation 18:11), and the precious fruits that perished (Revelation 18:14), the desolation of so great riches (Revelation 18:17), and the loss of jobs (Revelation 18:17). Disasters such as these were indeed the sorrow of kings. No wonder they wailed.

When Babylon perishes, the economic chaos is complete. The world of the unbeliever upon which he pinned his hopes and built his trust collapses.^[45]

Do we have to point out that such a complete ruin of the whole world could not be conceived of as the result of the total ruin of any single city? Berlin collapsed, but nothing like this occurred, nor did this happen even when pagan Rome fell. Those who attempt to interpret this as the fall of pagan Rome are refuted by every word in this chapter.

^[42] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 522.

^[43] George Albert Coe, Educating for Citizenship (New York, 1932), p. 143. (Coe was Professor of Education at Columbia University until 1928, and Professor of Religion in Union Theological Seminary for many years thereafter.

^[44] Frank L. Cox, Revelation in 26 Lessons (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1956), p. 107.

^[45] William Hendriksen, op. cit., p. 210.

Revelation 18:10

standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

Standing afar off ... They make no move to help Babylon; they do not wish to be involved; it has not yet dawned upon them that all things rest upon divine authority (even as inadequately taught and delivered by the harlot), and they still do not see that in burning her they have burned down their own kingdoms. They still seem to think that they shall escape the holocaust.

Woe, woe, the great city, the strong city ... "The imagery here is from Ezekiel 26-27."^[46] Barclay quoted a number of Old Testament passages called the dirge songs of Tyre, Nineveh, Edom and Babylon;^[47] but John’s words here do not come from any of them. The terrible judgments of the Old Testament do, however, have one utility; they show that, "God looks upon worldly wickedness at any time according to the same principles with which he regarded Babylon and Tyre of old."^[48] Regarding the terrible judgments here predicted, Eller commented that, "In spite of the propriety of evil’s collapse, the event itself nevertheless carries overtones of tragedy."^[49]

For in one hour is thy judgment come ... "Three times we are told that the desolation is to be accomplished in one hour, and we are reminded of the ten kings’ reign with the monster."^[50] This makes it certain that these events are prior to the actual judgment day; they are the last act, we might say, leading up to it. Of course, the judgment is already done (Revelation 18:1-3), and thus this is a playback showing some of the antecedent particulars connected with it. Beasley-Murray thought the kings of this passage were different from the "ten kings" (Revelation 17:16-17); but we view them as positively identical.

^[46] James D. Strauss, op. cit., p. 222.

^[47] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 150.

^[48] J. R. Dummelow, Commentary on the Holy Bible (New York: Macmillan Company, 1937), p. 1087.

^[49] Vernard Eller, The Most Revealing Book of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1974), p. 171.

^[50] G. B. Caird, op. cit., p. 225.

Revelation 18:11

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no man buyeth their merchandise any more;

And the merchants weep and mourn ... Why? "For no man buyeth their merchandise any more." The economic ruin is total. If they have any goods left, they will be looted or stolen, not bought.

Revelation 18:12

merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stone, and pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet; and all thyine wood, and every vessel of ivory, and every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble;

There is no point in commenting upon this inventory, which is but a partial catalogue of all the precious goods of the world. The extensive nature of this list prompted the great scholar Alford to say that, "Certainly the details of this far more nearly suit London than Rome of any assignable period of her history."^[51]

ENDNOTE:

^[51] Alford as quoted by Wilbur M. Smith, op. cit., p. 1089.

Revelation 18:13

and cinnamon, and spice, and incense, and ointment, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and cattle, and sheep; and merchandise of horses and chariots and slaves; and souls of men.

This is more of the same inventory, but there are a couple of items of special interest:

And slaves ... The mention of these in connection with "the souls of men" is intriguing. "Slaves" is clear enough, as "There were 60,000,000 slaves in the Roman empire when this was written."^[52] So much for pagan Rome; now what is the spiritual counterpart of this in the apostasy?

And the souls of men ... How were these sold? By means of the doctrine of purgatory, in which the souls of the departed are "sold" to their living relatives for money to get them prayed out of purgatory. We are looking for a better explanation of this, but where is it?

ENDNOTE:

^[52] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 162.

Revelation 18:14

And the fruits which thy soul lusted after are gone from thee, and all things that were dainty and sumptuous are perished from thee, and men shall find them no more at all.

The fruits ... all things dainty ... men shall find them no more at all ... The recurrence of this ominous refrain, "no more at all," some five times in the final paragraph has prompted some scholars to suppose that this verse belongs there instead of here; but Beasley-Murray skillfully refuted this: "This verse does not suit the final paragraph, but it is related to the paragraph of the merchants,"^[53] where it is found. See further word on this in the final paragraph,

ENDNOTE:

^[53] G. R. Beasley-Murray, The Book of Revelation (Greenwood, South Carolina: The Attic Press, 1974), p. 268.

Revelation 18:15

The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning; saying, Woe, woe, the great city, she that was arrayed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and previous stone and pearl!

The wail of the merchants is like that of the kings, for they too stood "afar off." The ancient prejudice of businessmen that they are not concerned with religion will at last be confounded when there is none, or so little that it hardly counts on any effective scale.

Woe, woe ... They shall cry not for lost faith, but for lost profits. Caird confused the present tense of these supplementary and recapitulatory views of an end that has already occurred, saying, "After it has happened, men are still able to stand afar off and watch the smoke of their burning."^[54] The events here are not after the end; they are before it. See under Revelation 18:3. "There is something almost pathetic about these laments. In every case, the lament is not for Rome, but for themselves."^[55]

^[54] G. B. Caird, op. cit., p. 227.

^[55] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 164.

Revelation 18:17

for in one hour so great riches is made desolate. And every shipmaster, and every one that saileth any whither, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood afar off,

For in one hour ... The triple mention of this (Revelation 18:9; Revelation 18:17; Revelation 18:19) makes it imperative to relate these events to the brief ascendancy of the final "ten kings" (Revelation 17:12-17). See comment there.

"It is the loss of the wealth, not any concern for people, that the merchants express."^[56]

ENDNOTE:

^[56] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 220.

Revelation 18:18

and cried out as they looked upon the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like the great city?

And cried as they looked upon the smoke of her burning ... The repetition of "smoke of her burning" is of interest. It does not seem that the kings, merchants, etc., were much concerned about the "burning" of the harlot, but the smoke of it, indicating that it was the subsequent consequences of her destruction which confounded them. No! They did not care at all about the harlot being burned, but they certainly got the message from the smoke!

Revelation 18:19

And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, Woe, woe, the great city, wherein all that had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.

Note that it is not for the harlot that all of the weeping and wailing and mourning and crying and casting dust on the heads comes about, but for "the great city." This is the great world-city, the complex of urban civilization, so identified in earlier chapters. Even at this late hour, the mourners cannot see the connection that the harlot had with all this.

Cast dust on their heads and cried, etc. ... "The awful woes that are sure to come upon mankind when they turn completely away from God and burn even the apostate version of holy religion, which is all that they know, will issue in the wholesale destruction of all that is worthwhile on earth. In a pale little epitome of what is yet to happen upon a far more vast scale, Hitler and his peers burned the Bibles at Nuremburg; and what followed? The most awful slaughter in nineteen centuries! When the liberal theologians, atheistic humanists and insane Marxists have finally dismantled the last vestiges of religion, even in its apostate forms, the true and final holocaust will suddenly appear. God be merciful and delay that day.

As Morris pointed out, it is the working class, the sailors, who carry their mourning the furthest by casting dust on their heads.^[58] And, as in the case of the other mourners, it is not weeping for lost faith, but for lost jobs. There is here the evident truth that laboring humanity will suffer first and longest. The godless labor unions that have led the world in their defiance of true religion as well as every other form of it shall suddenly discover that the society which they helped to kill was their own. It will be too late for dust on the head to do any good.

What all this means is that a working coalition between a watered-down, apostate Christianity and the unbridled forces of the devil will one day be terminated, and the final prejudgment wreck of the whole social order will reach its roaring climax.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT

Again, the Book of Revelation shows us the judgment, particularly as it comes to human civilization: there will be a summary end of it. Before depicting it, as usually throughout the prophecy, the vision will first show us a scene of rejoicing in heaven, for the purpose of showing that the wreck of all things shall not in any manner hurt God’s people.

ENDNOTE:

^[58] Leon Morris, op. cit., p. 221.

Commentary on Revelation 18:9-19 by Manly Luscombe

9 “The kings of the earth who committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when they see the smoke of her burning,…The kings (civil governments) lived in luxury. They, the kings, made an alliance with Babylon. They passed laws that allowed immorality to become legal and acceptable. They will see the results. They see the smoke of her torment. They will weep because, if immorality goes out of popularity, they will suffer loss.

10 standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.’ These kings now seek to distance themselves from her. They were responsible for her success. Now that she is being punished, they try to say, “It is not my fault.” Babylon was a mighty city, but now it has been judged.”

11 “And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise anymore: All the merchants of immorality are in mourning. The source of their income is going up in smoke. The filth shops, the drug dealers, and the porno sales on the Internet are exposed for the filth and corruption they have been selling. But, it is too late.

12 merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory, every kind of object of most precious wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 and cinnamon and incense, fragrant oil and frankincense, wine and oil, fine flour and wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and bodies and souls of men. All the fine gold chains of the pimp, all the fancy cars of the drug dealer, have become the souls and bodies of men. The fine mansion of Hugh Hefner has become the lost souls of all the lives he has corrupted. What was glitter, gold, jewels and material things, now is disease, filth, corruption and death.

14 The fruit that your soul longed for has gone from you, and all the things which are rich and splendid have gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all. There is an old proverb, “The chickens have come home to roost.” We need to be reminded that sometimes we think the wicked are getting away with their sins. Not true. God will punish them. They will suffer. The entire splendor is gone. All the gold and silver is tarnished. All the material things do not exist.

15 The merchants of these things, who became rich by her, will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing, 16 and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city that was clothed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls! Just as the kings sought to distance themselves, so do the merchants. The people, who got rich because of the immorality of the world, are now seeking to remove themselves from her. They see the torment. They hear the weeping and wailing. They know that punishment has come upon the mother of harlots.

17 For in one hour such great riches came to nothing.’ Every shipmaster, all who travel by ship, sailors, and as many as trade on the sea, stood at a distance 18 and cried out when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like this great city?’ The term “merchants” includes all who trafficked in this immorality. This would include the movie theaters that showed the films. It includes the truck drivers that distribute the alcohol and the airplane pilots that fly the drugs into the country.

19 “They threw dust on their heads and cried out, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘Alas, alas, that great city, in which all who had ships on the sea became rich by her wealth! For in one hour she is made desolate.’ All the profiteers are in mourning. The source of their gain is gone. “In one hour” all the gain is gone. She is made desolate. All who supported her, promoted her immorality, and all who profited by the evil products she produced are going down with her.

Verse 20

Rev 18:20

(5) AN OUTBURST OF PRAISE

(Revelation 18:20)

Rejoice over her.--This language is in direct contrast with the preceding description of the effect on those who made gain out of similar practices. The number of the righteous who will rejoice at the end of spiritual Babylon will include apostles and prophets and all other Christians. The meaning is that God’s judgment in the case will be what the suffering of saints will demand as a just reward.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20 by Foy E. Wallace

See Comments on Revelation 18:20-24 by Foy E. Wallace as presented in the next group of Verse notes.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20 by Walter Scott

HEAVEN REJOICES.

Revelation 18:20. — We have had the voice from Heaven heard first in Revelation 18:4, and last in Revelation 18:20. In this latter reference Heaven is called upon to rejoice. If there is lamentation on earth there is rejoicing in Heaven. The place and inhabitants unite in the song of triumph. There are three classes: saints, apostles, and prophets (R.V. of Revelation 18:20). The first term is a general one, and includes believers both of Old and New Testament times; the second refers to those of Christian times (Ephesians 4:11), and “the twelve” as well; the third is, of course, the prophets of old. All the three classes mentioned are in Heaven, and there rejoice. “God has judged your judgment upon her,” that is, the righteous judgment passed upon Babylon by saints, apostles, and prophets — for all had suffered at her hands — is now executed by God Himself.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:20. The speaker is still the voice from heaven (Revelation 18:4) which is bidding the apostles and prophets to rejoice over the downfall of Babylon (union of church and state). It was especially appropriate to congratulate these great servants of God, because they had been foremost in defending the lawful church of the Lord against the encroachments of the apostate church. Now that the conspiracy formed by the union of church and state was thrust down, they had great and just reason to rejoice.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:20

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and ye apostles, and ye prophets; for God hath judged your judgment on her.

Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints ... Of course, the saints and apostles are not yet in heaven, but they will be; and the vision is to encourage all who may yet die in the fires of persecution. The reason for the rejoicing is that, after all, God’s word has been proved true; the righteous shall be saved and the wicked punished, and the universe itself will finally be demonstrated as just. No greater cause of rejoicing could be imagined.

"This is not a song of gleeful rejoicing, but an announcement of the vindication of God’s justice and righteousness."^[59] "How can there be anything but rejoicing when wrong is righted and truth justified?"^[60] There comes a time to rejoice over the defeat of evil. When the heartless, bloody Robespierre was finally overthrown in Paris, and he lay wounded, bleeding, and dirty with his jaw shattered by a bullet and hanging down upon his chest, someone approached and after gazing a long time said, "Yes, Robespierre, there is a God."^[61]

"The analogy of this passage shows that this verse is not directed to saints in heaven - nothing is implied as to where these are, or whether they are living or dead."^[62]

And ye apostles and ye prophets ... The thought of the martyrdoms of Paul and Peter which had probably already occurred when this was written seems to be in the background here. All of the apostles recognized what their fate at the hands of Rome would be.

For God hath judged your judgment upon her ... Rome had burned the saints for the false reason that they had burned Rome; but now God would execute the judgment upon her which she had falsely imposed upon them. The Greek reads literally, "God has judged (upon Rome) your judgment from her."^[63] Of course, this is the primary and immediate application; but it also applies equally well to the end of the age situation when the wicked humanist kings shall burn all religion in their vain destruction of the harlot, only to find their own kingdoms burned as a consequence.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20 by Manly Luscombe

20 “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!” God promises that vengeance belongs to Him. Our God will repay the evil that we suffer. Heaven (angels and martyrs) rejoice. They are not rejoicing because someone is suffering. They are rejoicing because their faithfulness has been vindicated. These Christians remained faithful. They suffered ridicule and scorn for speaking out and objecting to the immorality in the world. Now, their faith in God has been proven to be valid. The Christians have been justified in their faith.

Verses 21-24

Rev 18:21-24

(6) SUDDEN AND COMPLETE END SYMBOLIZED

(Revelation 18:21-24)

Cast it into the sea.--John next sees an angel cast a large stone into the sea. A similar act was performed to indicate the fall of ancient Babylon. (Jeremiah 51:63-64.) The sinking of the stone represents the sudden and complete fall of the apostate church; not by a slow decline, but because of a violent force against it.

Shall be heard no more.--Music which is the natural sign of joy will cease; no one in the city will have anything to produce gladness. All kinds of crafts will have no chance to operate, and machinery will cease to be heard. Lights will go out and social events will no longer occur

All the nations deceived.--The reason for such desolation and ruin will be that false religion has deceived the nation with sorceries--all kinds of tricks, impositions, and false claims to divine power. Another reason is that in bloody persecutions this spiritual Babylon has slain saints and prophets of God. The word "all" here is used in an accommodated sense, meaning that a multitude had been slain in perpetuating the papal system.

Commentary on Revelation 18:20-24 by Foy E. Wallace

(4) The anthem of rejoicing over the fall of Apostate Jerusalem—Revelation 18:20-24.

It seems unnecessary to follow the order of line by line comments on these verses, which would involve so much repetition. This last section of the chapter, Revelation 18:20-24, represented John’s own rhapsody of rejoicing over the avenging judgment of God on Jerusalem, the once faithful city which had turned harlot. In contrast with the wailing of the associates in the harlotries of the city, John was joined in vision to the witnesses and apostles and saints who had been victims of Jerusalem’s murderous wantonness--a united chorus in celebration of the end of the abominations of Jerusalem and the obstructions of Judaism. The Lord foretold this fulfillment in Matthew 23:29-38 : “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, and say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell? Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. 0 Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

This anticipated fulfillment of the Lord’s predictions received and written by John in the Neronic period and represented the Lord’s words, “fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” In the symbols of this chapter Revelation 18:21, the angel casts a great millstone into the sea as a sign of irretrievable doom for Jerusalem. The same symbolism was adopted in Jeremiah 51:63-64 to signify the end of old Babylon: “And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.”

Commentary on Revelation 18:21-24 by Walter Scott

THE UTTER RUIN AND EVERLASTING

DESOLATION OF BABYLON.

Revelation 18:21-24. — “And a strong angel took up a stone, as a great millstone, and cast (it) into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall Babylon the great city be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.” The action is significant and prophetic, and sublime withal. A similar dramatic proceeding pointing to the overthrow of Babylon of old is described in Jeremiah 51:60-64; there, however, Seraiah was the actor; here an angel of might. Both the literal and mystical cities were to be utterly and suddenly destroyed by violence. The two chapters, Jeremiah 51:1-64 and Revelation 18:1-24, should be carefully studied and compared. Then follows in verses 22 and 23 a beautifully descriptive and touching account, poetically expressed, (Compare with Jeremiah 25:10.) of her utter desolation. How complete the ruin! Joyless, dark, and silent, Babylon stands out as a monument of the utmost vengeance of God. Wickedness had sat enthroned in the midst of that professedly bearing the Name of Christ; but at last, when she had filled to the full her cup of iniquity, God rises in His fierce anger, His indignation burns, and Babylon falls to rise no more. Her destruction is irremediable. The chapter closes with a reiteration of the bloody character of the system (“Alas! she has erected the prisons, and prepared the rack, and lighted the fires of what she calls the holy office of the Inquisition in Italy, Spain, America, and India. She lauds one of her canonized Popes, Pius the Fifth, in her Breviary as an inflexible Inquisitor. She has engraven the massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day on her papal coins, and there represents it as a work done by an angel from Heaven. And the Roman Pontiff of that day went publicly to Church to return thanks to God for that savage and treacherous deed.” — Wordsworth The term “blood” is literally bloods, a Hebraism, of course, but does it not point to the fact that all the blood so wantonly shed on earth in its numerous and varied ways is at the last found in Babylon? — a system sometimes governmentally curbed and checked, but never improved, and never repentant.) (see Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:24).

Commentary on Revelation 18:21-24 by E.M. Zerr

Revelation 18:21. Mighty angel is said to indicate the size or weight of the stone that was to be handled. The stone was like great millstones which were heavy, and their weight was such that if they were thrown into the water they would most assuredly sink; nor would such an object float back up to the surface. That is doubtless why Jesus used it in his comparison of the irreparable fate of certain sinners (Matthew 18:6). After this mighty angel had cast the stone into the sea he made his explanation of the symbol; it represented the casting down of Babylon. We know it does not mean literal Babylon for that city had not been in existence for centuries (Isaiah 13:19-22). We know also it does not apply to the religious part of the corrupt institution (though it also was known as Babylon), for that apostate church is not to be destroyed until Jesus comes (2 Thessalonians 2:8). Hence this can apply only to the Babylon that was composed of church and state. When the stone that represented it was cast into the sea, the angel said that it shall be found no more at all. From the foregoing evidences we are given the divine assurance that there will never be another world-wide union of church and state.

Revelation 18:22-23. The enterprises and activities of human interest that are mentioned in these verses have all been considered in this chapter and understood to have a symbolical meaning. In this paragraph they may be used in both symbolical and literal senses. In either sense the announcement is made that they will never be done again. However, this is not true until we apply it in the light of a proviso that is stated as follows. The phrase in thee is used five times in these two verses, and that is the key to the subject. There is not an interest mentioned that will not continue to be practiced as long as the world stands. But they will not be done "in thee" (Babylonas the union of church and state), for that institution will have gone down never to rise again.

Revelation 18:24. This short verse is merely a summing up of the crimes that have been committed by Babylon, on account of which she was doomed to complete overthrow.

Commentary on Revelation 18:21-24 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:21

And a strong angel took up a great stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.

A strong angel ... stone ... cast into the sea ... This is the final judgment of Babylon, the great city, the latter words showing that more than just pagan Rome is meant; this is the final day, the ultimate judgment of the great day of God at the Second Advent of Christ. The Biblical background of the figure is in Jeremiah 51:59-64 :

Jeremiah instructed Seriah who was traveling to Babylon to take a scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, and upon his arrival in Babylon to read it to the city, and then to throw this scroll, weighted with a stone, into the Euphrates river. As it sinks, he is to prophesy that thus shall Babylon sink to rise no more (paraphrase).

The significant thing is that the prophecy was literally and summarily fulfilled; the old Babylon sank into oblivion, and even the ancient site of it is today not certainly known. A similar finality of the overthrow of mystical Babylon is indicated by the employment of the same imagery here. The choice of the figure demands this conclusion; therefore, this is not merely a temporary judgment. The final end at the last judgment is indicated. The placement of the verbs in the Greek indicates "the final act of judgment."^[64] This verse is a reiteration of Revelation 16:19-20.

And shall be found no more at all ... The ominous phrase "no more at all" occurs six times in this chapter, five times in these last verses, indicating the absolute finality of the judgment. It is impossible to limit the application of this merely to pagan Rome. "This judgment is sudden, complete and final."^[65] Let those who deny that such a thing as this will take place show us the site of the old Babylon. Where is it? Earth knows not even the place. Exactly the same word of God that doomed the old one, doomed also the one in view here.

^[64] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 530.

^[65] Frank L. Cox, op. cit., p. 109.

Revelation 18:22

And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in thee;

This verse merely catalogues the phases of city life that shall perish forever when judgment falls.

No more at all ... This is the refrain. "Civilization is as though it had never been."^[66] Was the fabled city of Atlantis a historical type of this?

ENDNOTE:

^[66] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975), p. 66.

Revelation 18:23

and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived.

The light of a lamp ... the voice of the bridegroom ... of the bride ... shall be heard no more at all in thee ... The marriage business has always been a big thing with churches; and thus there would seem to be in this litany of the doomed and destroyed city a religious coloring, even in the catalogue of her eternal silence.

Thy merchants were the princes of the earth ... "Princes of the Church" they are sometimes called, an incongruous title for followers of a crucified Saviour who had nowhere to lay his head. That something like this is meant appears in the fact that this is stated as a "reason why" of the fall.

With thy sorcery were all the nations deceived ... This is another "reason why" of the fall. Truth was forsaken and deception practiced.

Revelation 18:24

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth.

And in her was found the blood ... prophets ... saints ... and of all that have been slain upon the earth ... Is this mere hyperbole? No! If the religious wars promulgated to advance the harlot’s designs are remembered, the figure appears appropriate enough. Furthermore, the murder of one is, in principle, the murder of all. There is no single literal city of earth that answers to this, not even Rome. It is the spirit of lawlessness and apostasy from the truth, spectacularly represented in the harlot; it is that whole religious apparatus moving throughout history and responsible for wholesale deaths all over the world. Also, there is something else in it.

Jesus told Jerusalem that in their murder of the Messiah all of the blood shed from Abel until that very day would come upon her. (See pertinent comment on this in my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 373,374.) In exactly that same way, the system that murdered the Christians, the true spiritual body of Christ, was chargeable with all the blood ever shed on earth. The two cases are exactly parallel.

This concludes the awful picture of the final judgment in this sequence.

Commentary on Revelation 18:21-24 by Manly Luscombe

21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. A powerful angel stands up with a great stone. This huge stone is thrown into the sea. The symbol of throwing a large stone into the sea shows - the speed with which this doom comes. It will not happen slowly or quietly. It will happen like a huge splash. The great city is thrown down. God has judged immorality and all connected with it.

22 The sound of harpists, musicians, flutists, and trumpeters shall not be heard in you anymore. No craftsman of any craft shall be found in you anymore, and the sound of a millstone shall not be heard in you anymore. All the “pleasure” associated with evil and immorality has been stopped. No more music or celebrations. No one is getting rich. Small businesses fail. All the skilled craftsmen (all who used their skills to produce these immoral products) have no place to use their skills.

23 The light of a lamp shall not shine in you anymore, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall not be heard in you anymore. For your merchants were the great men of the earth, for by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. All the glitter is gone. The candle has been blown out. All who are “married” to the immoral activity are gone. All who made a profit from the immoral activity have disappeared. All who were deceived are also punished.

24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.” Immorality is NOT a victimless crime. When a person commits fornication - a spouse, children, extended families, friends, the church, are also harmed. One person’s immoral activity can, in fact, cause death to the saints. God does punish the immoral.

Sermon on Revelation 18:1-24

The Fall of Babylon

Brent Kercheville

Revelation 17 showed us the fall of Rome. Revelation 17:16 showed the great prostitute made desolate and naked. She is stripped of her power and authority and is burned up with fire. God is the one who purposed this fall to occur. Revelation 18 describes the impact and meaning of the fall of Rome.

Fallen Is Babylon (Revelation 18:1-3)

Another angel comes down from heaven, carrying great authority and full of glory. He calls out the message of judgment. Babylon is fallen because of its great immoralities. Once again the angel speaks with prophetic certainty. Though Rome has not fallen yet at the time of the writing of Revelation, the angel declares its fall in the past tense to show how surely Rome and her empire will fall. Rome has become a dwelling place of wickedness and evil. Not only has Rome been the heart of wickedness, but the nations “have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality.” The nations are not innocent. They also have been participants in the immorality of Rome. The merchants of the earth has prospered through the immorality of Rome. History reveals the luxurious living that took place in Rome over the centuries because of its extensive trade routes. Trade extended well past the border of Rome’s empire, which was millions of square miles. Trade routes also existed to India and China. Archaeology has found many pottery sherds from the far east. The merchants were made rich by buying, selling, and trading goods with Rome.

Call To God’s People (Revelation 18:4-8)

Another voice calls out from heaven for God’s people to come out from her. This is a prophetic reference from Jeremiah and Isaiah’s ministries.

Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The LORD has redeemed his servant Jacob!” (Isaiah 48:20 ESV)

Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her; purify yourselves, you who bear the vessels of the LORD. (Isaiah 52:11 ESV)

“Flee from the midst of Babylon; let every one save his life! Be not cut off in her punishment, for this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance, the repayment he is rendering her. Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, making all the earth drunken; the nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations went mad. (Jeremiah 51:6-7 ESV)

The call of the voice from heaven is for the people of God to remove themselves from the ways and immoralities of Rome. Do not participate in the sinfulness of that world. Otherwise, you will share in the plagues that are coming upon Rome and her empire. The judgment of the seven bowls showed seven plagues being poured out on the beast and its throne. God gives an important warning. If you act like the world, you will be judged with the world. Come out from the world and separate yourselves from the Roman ways and sins. They have heaped up their sins as high as the heavens and God has remembered those sins. God is going to pay her back. God is going to pay her double for her deeds. This is just because its sins were so severe that it not only affect them, but also carried the whole world into sinfulness with its idolatry and paganism. God calls for a double portion to be mixed for her in the cup. Recall that we saw this cup as the cup of God’s anger poured full strength (Revelation 14:10). The voice from heaven says that we need to make it a double. Double up the portion in the cup of God’s anger.

Revelation 18:7-8 continue to explain why God’s wrath is so violent against Rome and her empire. Rome glorified itself and lived in luxury. No one gave glory to God for their prosperity. They elevated themselves and glorified themselves. Further, they think they will never fall. They think that these times will never change. They think this prosperity will never end because they think they did it all. They rule and think that rule will never end. God says in Revelation 18:8 that this is the reason that they will be struck down suddenly. Rather than life and prosperity, the empire will crumble into death, mourning, and famine. Revelation is not predicting that Rome fell in one day, just as the scriptures are not predicting other nations falling in one day (cf. Isaiah 47:9). It is a symbol of the suddenness of the loss of power and authority. It would seem that the empire would never end and suddenly the empire will be in trouble. It will lose its power and be destroyed. This is the imagery of the fire. Revelation is not predicting Rome literally burning (cf. Isaiah 47:14). The fire is a symbol of judgment. Its time of glory and rule is over. The empire has fallen. Rome has lost her power.

Before we leave Revelation 18:4-8 we must see this paragraph contains very important messages for our country. The parallels are very strong. We are full of prosperity and wealth just like Rome. Most live in wasteful, luxurious living just like Rome. Our country shows the same arrogance in thinking that it is the world power that will never fall. Certainly the sins of our nation are heaped as high as heaven. The more this nation turns people away from the true God to worship false gods and religions, the closer we come to meeting the same judgment that Rome met for its sins.

The Lament of the World (Revelation 18:4-8)

We saw in Revelation 17:16 that the world turned against Rome. Rome deteriorated from the inside as the empire turned against the rule of Rome. However, they do not realize the massive impact of Rome’s fall. They do not understand that Rome’s fall will be the end of the prosperity of the world. The world will end up wailing at the fall of Rome. The merchants of the earth will mourn because all of those trade routes will be lost. No one will be buying and selling across the earth any longer. The goods listed in Revelation 18:12-13 are a sampling of the many goods that traded through the might of the Roman Empire. Their economy is crushed. All the luxuries and splendors that the people enjoyed are gone.

Not only are the merchants and traders devastated by the fall of Rome, but the shipmasters and seafaring men who worked on the sea will also lose their wealth and business. While Rome does not sit on the coast, it had built an amazing trade city called Portus just west of Rome that did sit on the sea. The Tiber River runs between Portus and Rome and archaeologists have found the massive amount of trade that went through Portus on its way to Rome. There was also a Roman road from Portus to Rome. I encourage you to go online and read about the findings about Portus particularly under Trajan who made this port massive for all the trade that Rome was engaged in. All the captains no longer have a business. All the sailors no longer have work. Their cry is an accurate description of the greatness of Rome. “Where is there another city as great as this?” (NLT) The great city where all the ships of the sea grew rich is now gone. The same three groups wail at the fall of Babylon in Ezekiel 27:29-36. It is the end of the empire.

The Faithful Rejoice (Revelation 18:20-24)

The holy people of God, the apostles, and the prophets are called to rejoice over the judgment of Rome. They are called to rejoice because they have been killed by Rome. Chapter 13 showed us that the beast would kill those who did not worship it. Judgment has come and it is time for the people of God who suffered and died to rejoice. God has given judgment for you against her. God has brought his holy judgment for the sake of his people.

A great symbolic act is revealed. A mighty angel takes a stone like a great millstone and casts it into the sea. While doing this the angel says that Babylon has been thrown down with violence and will never be found again. The Roman Empire will never rise again and will never be a world power. Those who know the timeline of world history know that the collapse of the Roman Empire led into a time period that would be called the Dark Ages. The world was completely changed with the fall of the Roman Empire. This language is the same as what Jeremiah did concerning the judgment against Babylon.

When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates, and say, ‘Thus shall Babylon sink, to rise no more, because of the disaster that I am bringing upon her, and they shall become exhausted.’” Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. (Jeremiah 51:63-64 ESV)

The end of the Roman Empire has been set by God who has purposed its collapse because of its sins.

Application

The call for the people is to come out from the nation and be separate. Do not engage in the sins of the nation. Do not be like the world. That call was not exclusive for those Christians to come out from Rome, but it is a truth for Christians for all time. Note Paul’s words to the Corinthian Christians.

For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Corinthians 6:16-18 ESV)

Do not dress like the world. Do not act like the world. Do not think like the world. Do not live like the world. Do not love the world. God is in fellowship with you. You cannot be in fellowship with the world and be in fellowship with God. Act like the world and you will be judged with the world in eternal punishment. Come out from the world and be separate. Then God will be your father and you will be his child. God is not our father and we are not his children we look, act, think, and live like the world around us. Come out and be separate!

Commentary on Revelation 18:21-24 by Burton Coffman

Revelation 18:21

And a strong angel took up a great stone as it were a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with a mighty fall shall Babylon, the great city, be cast down, and shall be found no more at all.

A strong angel ... stone ... cast into the sea ... This is the final judgment of Babylon, the great city, the latter words showing that more than just pagan Rome is meant; this is the final day, the ultimate judgment of the great day of God at the Second Advent of Christ. The Biblical background of the figure is in Jeremiah 51:59-64 :

Jeremiah instructed Seriah who was traveling to Babylon to take a scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecy of the destruction of Babylon, and upon his arrival in Babylon to read it to the city, and then to throw this scroll, weighted with a stone, into the Euphrates river. As it sinks, he is to prophesy that thus shall Babylon sink to rise no more (paraphrase).

The significant thing is that the prophecy was literally and summarily fulfilled; the old Babylon sank into oblivion, and even the ancient site of it is today not certainly known. A similar finality of the overthrow of mystical Babylon is indicated by the employment of the same imagery here. The choice of the figure demands this conclusion; therefore, this is not merely a temporary judgment. The final end at the last judgment is indicated. The placement of the verbs in the Greek indicates "the final act of judgment."^[64] This verse is a reiteration of Revelation 16:19-20.

And shall be found no more at all ... The ominous phrase "no more at all" occurs six times in this chapter, five times in these last verses, indicating the absolute finality of the judgment. It is impossible to limit the application of this merely to pagan Rome. "This judgment is sudden, complete and final."^[65] Let those who deny that such a thing as this will take place show us the site of the old Babylon. Where is it? Earth knows not even the place. Exactly the same word of God that doomed the old one, doomed also the one in view here.

^[64] R. C. H. Lenski, op. cit., p. 530.

^[65] Frank L. Cox, op. cit., p. 109.

Revelation 18:22

And the voice of harpers and minstrels and flute-players and trumpeters shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft, shall be found any more at all in thee; and the voice of a mill shall be heard no more at all in thee;

This verse merely catalogues the phases of city life that shall perish forever when judgment falls.

No more at all ... This is the refrain. "Civilization is as though it had never been."^[66] Was the fabled city of Atlantis a historical type of this?

ENDNOTE:

^[66] Michael Wilcock, I Saw Heaven Opened (Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press, 1975), p. 66.

Revelation 18:23

and the light of a lamp shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the princes of the earth; for with thy sorcery were all the nations deceived.

The light of a lamp ... the voice of the bridegroom ... of the bride ... shall be heard no more at all in thee ... The marriage business has always been a big thing with churches; and thus there would seem to be in this litany of the doomed and destroyed city a religious coloring, even in the catalogue of her eternal silence.

Thy merchants were the princes of the earth ... "Princes of the Church" they are sometimes called, an incongruous title for followers of a crucified Saviour who had nowhere to lay his head. That something like this is meant appears in the fact that this is stated as a "reason why" of the fall.

With thy sorcery were all the nations deceived ... This is another "reason why" of the fall. Truth was forsaken and deception practiced.

Revelation 18:24

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that have been slain upon the earth.

And in her was found the blood ... prophets ... saints ... and of all that have been slain upon the earth ... Is this mere hyperbole? No! If the religious wars promulgated to advance the harlot’s designs are remembered, the figure appears appropriate enough. Furthermore, the murder of one is, in principle, the murder of all. There is no single literal city of earth that answers to this, not even Rome. It is the spirit of lawlessness and apostasy from the truth, spectacularly represented in the harlot; it is that whole religious apparatus moving throughout history and responsible for wholesale deaths all over the world. Also, there is something else in it.

Jesus told Jerusalem that in their murder of the Messiah all of the blood shed from Abel until that very day would come upon her. (See pertinent comment on this in my Commentary on Matthew, pp. 373,374.) In exactly that same way, the system that murdered the Christians, the true spiritual body of Christ, was chargeable with all the blood ever shed on earth. The two cases are exactly parallel.

This concludes the awful picture of the final judgment in this sequence.

LESSON 22.

THE FALL OF BABYLON
Read Revelation 18

1. Tell of the angel that was seen after the vision of chapter 17. Ans. Revelation 18:1.

2. He announced the fall of what? Ans. Revelation 18:2.

3. Babylon would become the habitation of what? Ans. Revelation 18:2.

4. For whose sins was this Babylon responsible? Ans. Revelation 18:3.

5. What did another voice from heaven urge God’s people to do? Ans. Revelation 18:4.

6. Give two reasons why they should come out of Babylon. Ans. Revelation 18:4.

7. Who knew all her iniquities? Ans. Revelation 18:5.

8. By what was Babylon’s punishment to be measured? Ans. Revelation 18:6-7.

9. Of what had she boasted? Ans. Revelation 18:7.

10. What can you say of the suddenness of her destruction? Ans. Revelation 18:8.

11. What would her destruction cause kings to do and say? Ans. Revelation 18:8.

12. Why would merchants weep and mourn over her? Ans. Revelation 18:12-16.

13. How would the men of the sea express their grief at her destruction? Ans. Revelation 18:17-19.

14. But the destruction of Babylon would be a cause for rejoicing for whom? Ans. Revelation 18:20.

15. How did a strong angel illustrate the fall of Babylon? Ans. Revelation 18:21 (See Jeremiah 51:63-64 regarding ancient Babylon).

16. Name five things which would never appear in the great city again, and tell why these things would be there no more. Ans. Revelation 18:22-23.

17. Whose blood was found in her? Ans. Revelation 18:24.

E.M. Zerr

Questions on Revelation

Revelation Chapter Eighteen

1. After this what did John see?

2. How was the earth affected by him?

3. State the announcement he made.

4. Tell what all nations had done.

5. What had the great city become?

6. What had the kings of earth done?

7. How had the merchants fared through her?

8. From where did John hear another voice?

9. What call did it make?

10. That they might not receive what?

11. What had reached unto heaven?

12. Tell what God remembered.

13. How must she be rewarded?

14. In what proportion must it be done?

15. Of what cup must she drink?

16. On whom had she bestowed glory?

17. Tell how she had lived.

18. What boasts had she made?

19. What were to come to her?

20. Over what space of time would they come?

21. How will she be destroyed?

22. By whom will she be judged?

23. Who shall bewail her burning?

24. Tell what they had enjoyed with her.

25. State the comment of these kings.

26. Why will the merchants of the earth mourn?

27. Of what had the merchandise consisted?

28. Did it include any living beings?

29. What fruits had departed from her?

30. When were they to be returned?

31. Where will these patrons stand looking on?

32. Why stand thus?

33. What had happened in one hour?

34. Who else stood afar off?

35. For what comparison did they inquire?

36. What did they place upon their heads?

37. What were they doing at the same time?

38. Who is bid to rejoice over her?

39. Because of what could they rejoice?

40. What personage then appeared?

41. Tell what he took up.

42. What did he do with it?

43. This was to represent what city?

44. For how long will she be down?

45. What will not be heard any more?

46. Tell what trades will be discontinued.

47. What provisions will be cut short?

48. Tell what will no longer shine.

49. How will the bride and groom be affected?

50. Who were her merchants?

51. By what were many deceived?

52. What blood was found in her?

Revelation Chapter Eighteen

Ralph Starling

Now this announcement: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen!"

And has become the habitaton of all that is spoiling.

For her sins have reached unto God’s Haven,

And God has rewarded her for her misbehaving.

The cry went up: "Reward her double, reward her double"

For she has cause so much sorrow and so much trouble.

So her plagues came in "one day"

Death, famine, fire without any delay.

The Kings of the earth rejoiced at her burning,

For this for many years they had been yearning.

But the merchants who became rich by her

With weeping and wailing could not conquer.

In heaven there was great rejoicing

Harpers and pipers were sounding their blessing,

For Satan and his army had been defeated.

Again God, the Saints, and the Lamb had succeeded.