When Babylon Comes to its End

The Bible is full of predicted "ends"! Some bring the deepest sadness; others, great happiness. The very first one came as a warning when the world was perfect, without sin or any sadness. Adam and Eve were told that eating of the Tree of Knowledge would lead to death (Genesis 2:17), an "end" they had never experienced. Adam sinned, and the record says he "lived ... and he died" (Genesis 5:5). That first couple was given a promise that they could be restored to their original favor. There would be a Savior, and He would bring an end to sin and death. When Jesus arrived He announced, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly" (John 10:10b). When He comes again He will bring that gift.

The very last prophecy of the Bible is: "Surely I come quickly. Amen" (Revelation 22:20). That will be the end of all adverse experiences from sin. He is the only hope of eternal life, which will be endless! Another "end" is forecast beyond the time of that parousia: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death [a final end]. ... And I saw a new heaven and a new earth [a beautiful beginning]: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away [the end]" (Revelation 20:14, 21:1a,b).

That terminus is the end of the line for sin and sinners. It is the point in time when the universe experiences closure of all wrong and rebellion.

Biblical cessations are usually the wrap-up of something allied to Satan. This takes on two forms: (1) God brings an end to a sinful event, experience or rebellion; (2) God terminates some freedom as punishment for a sinful act. As powerful as the devil is, God is always in control. He has the last word. At the "finish line" Satan loses.

Satan's Agents are Shattered

One of his dramatic failures comes during the seventh Vial, or Plague. This is where our story begins, right where there is a major end!

"And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath" (Revelation 16:19a).

"Babylon" is Satan's ally in the last conflagration. The antichrist, referred to by many symbols, is its earthly leader.

"and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath." (vs 19b)

God has great patience, but the time comes when He will act. The cue is when it says, "God remembered." Divine justice is often intimately linked with the expression of divine remembrance. The total destruction of Babylon is described in that Plague. Its end is complete.

Babylon was introduced to students of John's apocalypse in the second "flying in the midst of heaven" angel (Revelation 14:8). There it is identified as (1) "that great city" and (2) as "fallen." "Fallen" (epesen) is written in "prophecy perfect" language. That means it is presented as though it already happened but is actually still in the future as an event.

John's prophecy is a second application to that "city." "And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground" (Isaiah 21:9) – that was the first prophecy.

Literal Babylon fell to the Persian king, Cyrus, in 539 B.C. Belshazzar's apostasy against God and that city's military fall became a prophetic metaphor for the moral fall of apostate Christianity at the end of time. As God's people then came out of literal Babylon and journeyed to Canaan, so the cry goes up at the end to "come out of Babylon," "be not partakers of her sins." Prepare for the journey to the heavenly Canaan (cf. Jeremiah 51:9).

Babylon's fall, in this apocalyptic urgent warning to the world, informs us that its doom is imminent. It gives everyone a final chance to heed that ominous cry: "Flee the precincts of that influence. Judgment against Babylon is coming." Just as the Babylonian king was judged because of his defiance of God, so will the latter-day Babylon be punished for the same reason. This judgment predicted in the third angel's message of Revelation 14 is the same as when the "cup of the wine of God's wrath had come" (16:19c). That will be the beginning of its end.

"And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the [nations fell" (vs 19a)

The "splitting" of Babylon into three parts, in that seventh Vial, heralds that judgmental end. But why three...