Babylon Will Fall

5 min read

6 Then I saw another angel flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth—to every nation, tribe, language and people. 7 He said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

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 14:6-8

The gospel of Jesus Christ is for “every nation, tribe, language and people.” And the central point of the eternal gospel is that “every nation, tribe, language and people” will “Worship Him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water.”

It is futile and self-destructive to worship the idols of the world. The idols of the world are symbolized by “Babylon the Great.” In the Bible, Babylon always represents human ambition and achievement that is contrary to God’s design and purpose.

The first time we encounter Babylon in the Bible is at the Tower of Babel in the plain of Shinar (that is, Babylonia). The reason that the people built the tower is given in Genesis 11:4,

Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”

In other words, their ambition was to stay right where they were and to focus all of their energies on personal glory.

But even though that story is the first time we hear of Babylon, the self-sufficiency, self-determination, and self-righteousness that Babylon represents is first seen in Genesis 3:6 in the Garden of Eden,

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Basically, Adam and Eve wanted what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil offered, and so why would they ever leave the Garden and leave behind their hope of personal glory?

But God’s purpose for humanity had always been to fill the earth with the glory of God in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families, the church (Genesis 1:28).

Pursuing Babylon is the opposite of pursuing God’s glory. And that is the tension in humanity that we find throughout the Bible and in our lives. But in the end, there is no doubt: Babylon will fall.

We should use the common sense and intelligence that God has given us so that we do not fall with it.

Father, You have revealed to us the very center of the struggle that every human faces. Why do we so easily choose death over life? Bad over Great? Babylon over You? Open the eyes of our hearts. Help us to see and understand and respond to Your eternal gospel and glorify You and You alone. In Jesus’s name. Amen.