Babylon and the Beast — Growing Christians Ministries
Devotions for Growing Christians Babylon and the Beast Revelation 14:8 - A second angel followed and said, "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries." Revelation 16:19 - The great city split into three parts, and the
Babylon and the Beast Devotions for Growing ChristiansBabylon and the BeastRevelation 14:8 - A second angel followed and said, "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries."Revelation 16:19 - The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath.Revelation 17:3-5 - Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES, AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.Revelation 17:16 - The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire.Revelation 18:2 - With a mighty voice he shouted: "Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird."Revelation 18:11 - The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes any more.Revelation 18:19 - They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out: "Woe! Woe, O great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour she has been brought to ruin!"Revelation 18:20-21 - Rejoice over her, O heaven! Rejoice, saints and apostles and prophets! God has judged her for the way she treated you. Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said: "With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again." Background NotesThe first book of the Bible gives the account of the building of the Tower of Babel. In the last book of the Bible we read about the fall of Babylon. Is there any connection? To miss the obvious would be spiritual blindness! The Tower of Babel in Genesis was the effort of mankind, in defiance and disobedience, to exalt themselves above their Maker. The fall of Babylon in Revelation will be the final judgment of God upon mankind for their continued refusal to recognize the supremacy of his Creator.The book of Revelation is “apocalyptic literature” - literature that contains a prophetic vision of the future. Apocalyptic literature is highly symbolic (although not entirely symbolic). Because it’s highly symbolic, the book of Revelation is not easy to interpret - and it’s especially difficult to interpret when the events have not yet taken place! But the book of Revelation is part of the inspired Word of God, and the Lord expects us to read it and try to understand it. So let’s discuss the prominent figures of “Babylon and the Beast” in this vision of the future.Babylon is first mentioned in Revelation 14:8, where her coming judgment is anticipated. End-time Babylon is judged under the seventh “bowl judgment” in Revelation 16, and chapters 17 and 18 are a detailed description of the fall of Babylon.In the book of Revelation, who or what is “Babylon”? In brief, Babylon is the name that is used for the evil system of the end times that seeks to enforce a one-world government and a one-world religion. It is not an empire like the ancient Babylonian empire. Rather it is a system - an evil religious / economic / commercial / political system that will be centered in a great city (17:18; 18:10, 16, 18, 21). Just as the name “Hollywood” refers to both a city and an industry, so Babylon refers to both a city and a system of the last days. The religious side of end-time Babylon is seen in Revelation 17, and the commercial side is seen in Revelation 18.As we seek to interpret Revelation, a major question arises: Is the “Babylon” of Revelation the literal city on the Euphrates River in Iraq, where ancient Babylon was located? Will this same city rise again to become a world religious and commercial center? Or is Babylon just one of many symbols used in the book of Revelation? In ancient times, Babylon was the focus of the religious and commercial culture of a world that was opposed to the one true God. Is the Babylon in Revelation a symbolic name for a great end-time city - the “home base” for global religion and commerce, as the world continues its opposition to the God of the Bible?If the name “Babylon” is only symbolic for anti-God religion and commerce in the end times, many commentators believe the literal great city that “reigns over the kings of the earth” may be Rome. When the true Church leaves at the rapture, Rome is a place for apostate Christendom may be centered. Rome has always been known as th...