After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. 2 And he called out with a mighty voice,
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
3 For all nations have drunk
the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,
“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
6 Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
and repay her double for her deeds;
mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
7 As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’
8 For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”
9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. 10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,
“Alas! Alas! You great city,
you mighty city, Babylon!
For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, 12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.[b]
14 “The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”
15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
16 “Alas, alas, for the great city
that was clothed in fine linen,
in purple and scarlet,
adorned with gold,
with jewels, and with pearls!
17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.”
And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off 18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning,
“What city was like the great city?”
19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out,
“Alas, alas, for the great city
where all who had ships at sea
grew rich by her wealth!
For in a single hour she has been laid waste.
20 Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her!”
21 Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,
and will be found no more;
22 and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,
will be heard in you no more,
and a craftsman of any craft
will be found in you no more,
and the sound of the mill
will be heard in you no more,
23 and the light of a lamp
will shine in you no more,
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more,
for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slain on earth.”
Revelation 18 (ESV)
Not trusting God is an insult to Him. As a matter of fact, the Bible tells us that without faith; without full trust in God, is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). I see many believers falling apart every time they are facing any problem; no matter how big or small the problem may be; that should not be. We serve a mighty God; there is no god like Him. There is no other power that can even come close to the power of our God.
All through Scripture we have seen the Adversary come against God, His people and His creation. We have seen nation after nation revolt against God; but we have also seen God’s mighty power over and over. Through Moses and his battles against Egypt, through Joshua as he conquered the promise land, through the righteous judges, through the prophets, through King David and, through the righteous kings, God’s power to deliver His people has always been evident. However, God is about to show up His power like never before in the history of humanity. This secular world is run by seven powerful establishments according to Revelation 18.
- The politicians: (v.9) There are no Godly governments on this earth. You can find godly politicians, but they are operating in a wicket system.
- The businessman: (v.11) There are obviously good people in business; but the focus here is on the powerful businesses that control the world. Look at, for example, Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc. Each one of these businesses have real progressive agendas; and this is just to mention a few. You add the Drug Industry (Legal and Illegal), you can add pornography and the list goes on and on.
- Shipmaster (v.17) This is all business and trades that takes place over the seas.
- The Music Industry (v.22) Do I have to make the point of how corrupt the music industry is? Take the top artist today and study the lyrics of their songs and you will know the wickedness of their agenda.
- The Designers Industry of any kind (Craftsman) (v.22) This is the business of trading everything, including human trafficking, sex trafficking, etc.
- The Food Industry (The mill is grinder) (v.22) Over 80 percent of the products in any supermarket are process. We have a food crisis! The focus of the food industry is not our health is making money. The focus of the god of this world is to kill us.
- The Drug Industry (Legal and Illegal) (v23) The word “Sorcery” is the Greek Word pharmakeíameaning “A drug, which in the Gr. writers is used both for a curative or medicinal drug, and also as a poisonous one. Pharmakeía means the occult, sorcery, witchcraft, illicit pharmaceuticals, trance, magical incantation with drugs (Gal. 5:20; Rev. 9:21; 18:23; Sept.: Ex. 7:22; Is. 47:9, 12).”[1]
I believe that like a spiderweb social media and the media in general connects all these faces of the secular world. The Babylonian agenda is communicated to the world through social media and the press.
This secular world or Babylon has specific characteristics: 1) they are a home of demons (v.2) and 2) all the nations of the world are guilty of embracing it. (v.3) That is why the cry of God has always been for us, His people, to come out of this system. Revelation 18:4-5 tells us,
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
“‘Come out of her, my people,’
so that you will not share in her sins,
so that you will not receive any of her plagues;
5 for her sins are piled up to heaven,
and God has remembered her crimes. (NIV)
The main point of this article is this, God is going to bring this Babylonian or Secular system down not in one generation, not in one decade or one year, but in one hour. That’s how powerful our God is. Is going to take him one hour to bring down all these powerful groups that are controlling the world. Revelation 18:10 and 18:19 tells us,
“‘…Woe! Woe to you, great city,
you mighty city of Babylon!
In one hour your doom has come!’ (NIV)
“…In one hour, she has been brought to ruin!’” (NIV)
Beloved, why worry? Why concern ourselves with the way of the world? Why concern ourselves with how bad things are? Why concern ourselves with the downfall of the nations of the world, including the USA? God will destroy this whole system in one hour. Think about this for a moment, God will destroy this system faster than what it took him to liberate the children of Israel out of the most powerful nation of that time… Egypt. This will truly be the last hour.
What then, should we do? Watch the clock and wait for that last hour? No, Jesus our Lord has given us specific instructions; we have a divine assignment, our marching orders are clear. Jesus told us,
“…All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
All the nations of the world betrayed God in the Tower of Babel; they all chose their own gods to worship. God raised his own nation to reveal Himself to the world. Through Abraham who He brought out of Babylon (Genesis 11:27-32) God created the nation of Israel. Later, Israel also betrayed God (Deuteronomy 32). After all the bad news in the Old Testament, Jesus came into the picture 2,000 years ago. Through Christ we received the Gospel. Finally good news!
The focus of every born-again believer MUST be 1) the preaching of the Good News (the Gospel) and 2) the making of disciples. In Mark 16:15 Jesus tells us, “…Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (NIV) Notice that we are told to preach the Gospel to “all creation.” The word creation is the Greek word ktísis; “… the sum total of what has been created.”[2] We are called to proclaim the gospel into all creation; to proclaim good news into everything created by God. This is the message of reconciliation and restoration of God’s creation that was corrupted and continue to be corrupted from the 3 rebellions in Genesis 3, Genesis 6 and Genesis 11.
In Genesis 3 sin was introduced into humanity. In Genesis 6 was the introduction of the corruption of spiritual and physical genetics. This was the iniquity of all iniquities and, in Genesis 11 was the open rebellion and betrayal of all the nations of the world and the gods God place to rule them.
As the countdown continues to the last hour of this secular system… lets proclaim the gospel to all creation. Jesus came to redeem us from all these mess. Jesus has ALL authority; he establishes that right before given us the great commission so that we know we can go forward in confidence. Let’s go and preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations… In Jesus name!
[1] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).
[2] Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament (Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers, 2000).
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