COMMERCIAL BABYLON UNDER FIRE
Revelation 18
The last chapter shows the awful ending of the satanic religious system that we refer to as “The Great Harlot”. Now we will be observing the fall of the same system, but in a different facet. The political, the commercial, and the religious are so very tightly intertwined that they must be dissected individually. The tentacles of each are wrapping each other so tightly that they seem as one. The political and the religious have long been recognized as being together, but not as closely recognized, as being together, are the religious and the commercial. This chapter will show how devastating it will be to the world when the commercial program of Satan is completely destroyed and it will be. That is what this chapter is about.
I. THE JUDGMENT OF BABYLON IS DECLARED. (Vv. 1-8)
A very impressive announcement is about to be made concerning the fall of Babylon the great. The heavens will be brightened by the angel’s glory. The glory of God is being transferred by the mighty angel to the earth. This brightness will be seen upon the earth. This is to be such an impressive event that it will be attended to in a most impressive way. The glory of God rested upon Moses as he came out of the mount with the tables of the law still in his hand. This same glory of God is apparently what is being described here when the angel makes the announcement concerning the fall of Babylon. With this announcement we will learn in greater detail concerning her wickedness.
A. She Was Wicked. (Vv. 1-3)
There is no where in the Scriptures that you can recognize the presence of Satan any more than when Babylon the great had fallen. Notice how this brief portion of Scripture describes the wicked environment immediately after Babylon’s fall, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird”. In my minds eye, I can see how the traumatic force of God’s judgment has left its indelible mark on commercial Babylon. Can you smell with me the ruin of such a total judgment; do you smell the awful smell of sulfur and the more awful smell of death as the buzzard like birds are perched on the shredded carnage that remains? The green, misty vapor settles like a damp fog with the glimmer and the glitter of such a proud city forever gone. Her bright lights, along with her tensile flickering thoroughfares will be seen no more; for judgment has fallen! Only the smell of death remains and that smell can be only described as a suffocating smell unlike any smelled before.
No matter how impressive the interchanging of ideas may have been when the business entrepreneurs would gather in their closed coffers; it will no longer be so. The Wall Street mentality is forever gone… For the proud business owners who may have survived, they now see only the shredded remains of their empire lying in the smoldering ruins with only a charred sign to remind them of what was once a part of commercial Babylon. Countless souls will be seen sobbing and weeping knowing that all of their dreams were flawed. They had been deceived by the Great Harlot into thinking that they were invincible and that their empires would last forever. They now can only see failure. Instead of seeing a beautiful enticing harlot, as she once appeared, they see her as the burnt out, despicable creature that she always was. Her perfume now is repulsive; her breath is to be avoided, for she has the foul smell of death all about her. For Babylon the great has been judged.
B. Saints Were Warned. (Vv. 4-8)
It is very easy for me to become confused with the chronology of all that is happening in Revelation, but one thing that I am not confused about is that the Lord is constantly doing all that He can to warn the wicked to come out of their wicked system. God is giving such warning in regards to this Babylonian system. For those of us who now live, we may rest assured that as believers that we will not be called upon to go through the Great Tribulation of sorrow. We may also know that the lost person has a present day opportunity of coming to the Lord to avoid any chance of having to go through tribulation.
The Lord is mercifully warning us that the sins of this wicked system called Commercial Babylon has reached up to heaven. I personally think that there is more to this than a statement of His omniscience. I believe that it is referring to those who died and went to heaven that were under the oppression and the martyrdom of this system. The greed and the murder that she was capable of caused many a poor soul to die prematurely. This is a passage that says that God not only knows about the persecution that fell upon the believers for refusing to take the mark, but that He is also going to do something about it. In verse number six, we are told, “Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”
It may be clearly noted from this passage that the Lord is going to double the punishment according to the crime that was committed against His followers. Those who are partakers of commercial Babylon’s deeds will be punished with her.
II. THE JUDGMENT OF BABYLON IS DESCRIBED. (Vv. 9-19)
These next verses will spell out the horrendous effects of the judgment that will befall the awful harlot. Do not even begin to pity the harlot. She deserves everything that will happen to her. The Scriptures personalizes the harlot to the extent that we begin thinking of her as though she was a real singular person. This is not so, but for us to understand this system we need to relate to it. God saw fit to personify this monster system. When the people begin to weep over her fall, they are actually weeping over the fall of this system. When we see this system being described as a city, it is much more than just a city. When this commercial Babylonian city is burning, it is more than just a city burning; it is the destruction of a system. In these chapters the Lord described this system by using both the symbolism of a harlot and that of a city so that we can even see the wretched smile upon her face. We can also see the smoldering ruins of the city.
It is very possible that an actual city is involved that is to serve as the seat of the beast. He obviously will have a seat to espouse his government. Thus, the term stands for both a city and a system.
A. Her Peril During The Judgment Is Described. (Vv. 9-11)
Those observing the destruction of commercial Babylon are overwhelmed by the suddenness of what is happening. They are standing “afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour is thy judgment come.” The Word of God talks about the kings of the earth who have lived deliciously with her and now they are seeing her destruction. There is a very strong, practical lesson that can be gained from this study. Anything that is not of God that you put your trust in will one day go up in smoke. Only the eternal will last. Some who will either hear this message or read the words that I speak, who have been greatly blessed, at least by the world’s definition of what constitutes blessings, will invest much time an much effort to be successful and finally wake up one day realizing that they missed out on the true values of life. They will realize that they left God out of their plans, or at least they put Him “in the backseat” of their plans. I read of successful engineers and Doctors who leave their practices and go into the ministry. It is not that what they were doing was not important; they just realized that there is a much higher calling.
While the destruction is going on, the spectators are both sorrowfully watching and sadly weeping during her destruction. It will be a most emotional time during the fall of the system. It likewise will be very distressing times when those who have made materialism their God see all of their worldly investments go up in smoke. The peril of such an awful event is unparalleled. There never has been a time like the time being described here. The entire economic system will go into total collapse. We can but fathom in our minds such an event. Hurricane Katrina that struck New Orleans is only a “drop in a bucket” compared to what will take place during the time described in Revelation 18.
B. Her Poverty From Judgment Is Described. (Vv. 12-17)
The Word of God lists many valuable commodities that will be destroyed in just a moment of time. Everything that Commercial Babylon was capable of producing and selling will no longer be available. Her end has come. There are religious organizations today that are heavily involved in commerce. The Catholic Church is such a church. The Catholic Church has its own post office and the Vatican has its own government. Its government is ecclesiastical with the Pope being its governmental head and the cardinals working within the framework of that government. It is called a city-state. The Catholic Church has its own winery and owns properties all over the world. Its wealth is staggering. Here is a lengthy quote showing just how the Catholic Church can very well be the commercial Babylon that is described in our Text:
"The Vatican has large investments with the Rothschild’s of Britain, France and America, with the Hambros Bank, with the Credit Suisse in London and Zurich. In the United States it has large investments with the Morgan Bank, the Chase-Manhattan Bank, the First National Bank of New York, the Bankers Trust Company, and others. The Vatican has billions of shares in the most powerful international corporations such as Gulf Oil, Shell, General Motors, Bethlehem Steel, General Electric, International Business Machines, T.W.A., etc. At a conservative estimate, these amount to more than 500 million dollars in the U.S.A. alone.
"In a statement published in connection with a bond prospectus, the Boston archdiocese listed its assets at Six Hundred and Thirty-five Million ($635,891,004), which is 9.9 times its liabilities. This leaves a net worth of Five Hundred and Seventy-one million dollars ($571,704,953). It is not difficult to discover the truly astonishing wealth of the church, once we add the riches of the twenty-eight archdioceses and 122 dioceses of the U.S.A., some of which are even wealthier than that of Boston.
"Some idea of the real estate and other forms of wealth controlled by the Catholic Church may be gathered by the remark of a member of the New York Catholic Conference, namely ’that his church probably ranks second only to the United States Government in total annual purchase.’ Another statement, made by a nationally syndicated Catholic priest, perhaps is even more telling. ’The Catholic church,’ he said, ’must be the biggest corporation in the United States. We have a branch office in every neighborhood. Our assets and real estate holdings must exceed those of Standard Oil, A.T.&T., and U.S. Steel combined. And our roster of dues-paying members must be second only to the tax rolls of the United States Government.’
"The Catholic church, once all her assets have been put together, is the most formidable stockbroker in the world. The Vatican, independently of each successive pope, has been increasingly orientated towards the U.S. The Wall Street Journal said that the Vatican’s financial deals in the U.S. alone were so big that very often it sold or bought gold in lots of a million or more dollars at one time.
"The Vatican’s treasure of solid gold has been estimated by the United Nations World Magazine to amount to several billion dollars. A large bulk of this is stored in gold ingots with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank, while banks in England and Switzerland hold the rest. But this is just a small portion of the wealth of the Vatican, which in the U.S. alone, is greater than that of the five wealthiest giant corporations of the country. When to that is added all the real estate, property, stocks and shares abroad, then the staggering accumulation of the wealth of the Catholic Church becomes so formidable as to defy any rational assessment.
"The Catholic church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator and property owner in existence. She is a greater possessor of material riches than any other single institution, corporation, bank, giant trust, government or state of the whole globe. The pope, as the visible ruler of this immense amassment of wealth, is consequently the richest individual of the twentieth century. No one can realistically assess how much he is worth in terms of billions of dollars." (The Vatican Billions by Avro Manhattan)
C. Her Predicament After Judgment Is Described. (Vv. 18-19a)
The dejected business people of the world view what is taking place as an unprecedented depressing sight. It is so much so that the merchants are lamenting their awful plight by casting dust on their heads. During the depression, I recall reading how people upon learning that their great fortunes had been wiped out would commit suicide rather than having to deal with their loss. The depression during this time will be many times greater. They will witness this great loss taking place not in the period of months, but within an hour. They will see that their ships are destroyed and everything else that was connected with the interchange of their commerce being suddenly destroyed. While the godless tears are being shed upon the earth, there will be great rejoicing up in heaven.
III. THE JUDGMENT OF BABYLON IS DELIGHTFUL. (Vv. 20-24)
Yes there is going to be rejoicing in heaven and rightfully so. God promised that He would bring vengeance against all that had wronged His servants. It will be a total vindication. He will not only put their lights out, but will also shut down their music. Music is such an identifiable part of the world today every since the curse was pronounced upon the earth. There has been since that time both a godly and an ungodly music. Music carries a message and teaches that message to the listener. Satan very well knows this to be true and for that reason he will get to you by the music that you listen to. Do not think that it is an accident that the music goes in such a satanic direction. Much of the music is either sending an awful vulgar message or a message of violence. We must be very selective in the music that we listen to.
A. To Those Who Suffered By Her. (Vv. 20-23)
While upon the earth all activity is ceasing because of the judgment that has fallen upon the earth. The music has ceased; the lights have gone out and the factories are no longer in operation. While all these difficulties are upon the earth there is rejoicing in heaven, because of this same judgment. In verse 21, we are told that an angel took a great stone like a millstone and cast it down and used that as a parallel to the casting down of Babylon. The heavens were rejoicing because of this taking place.
B. To Those Who Were Slain By her. (V. 24)
The last verse in our study indicates that there were saints, and prophets and others whose blood was shed that was found in the ruins of Babylon. The events that are taking place here are taking place just before the Lord comes back to fight the Battle of Armageddon. The Battle of Armageddon will take place just before the Lord sets up His kingdom. What a glorious day that will be! These studies should cause us to be very much prepared for the coming of the Lord. We should be mindful every time that we read or hear the Revelation Prophecy that there is a warning for the lost and an encouragement for the believer.
