Babylon's Disgraceful Fall

Let us examine in more detail the circumstances surrounding the disgraceful fall of Babylon the Great. The angel here tells us that "Babylon the Great. . . made all the nations drink of the wine of the anger of her fornication." What does this mean? It relates to conquest. For example, Jehovah told Jeremiah: " Take this cup of the wine of rage out of my hand, and you must make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it. And they must drink and shake back and forth and act like crazed men because of the sword that I am sending among them." (Jeremiah 25:15, 16) In the sixth and seventh centuries B.C.E., Jehovah used ancient Babylon to pour out a symbolic cup of tribulation for many nations to drink, including apostate Judah, so that even his own people were taken into exile. Then, in her turn, Babylon fell because her king exalted himself against Jehovah, "the Lord of the heavens." -Daniel 5:23.

Babylon the Great has also made conquests, but for the most part, these have been more subtle. She has "made all the nations drink"by using the wiles of a prostitute, committing religious fornication with them.
She has enticed political rulers in to alliances and friendships with her. Through religious allurements, she has schemed political, commercial and economic oppression. She has fomented religious persecution and religious wars and crusades, as well as national wars, for purely political and commercial reasons. And she has sacrificed these wars by saying that they are God's will.


Religion's involvement in the wars and politics of this 20th century is common knowledge -as in Shinto Japan, Hindu India, Buddhist Vietnam, "Christian" Northern Ireland and Latin America, as well as others-not to overlook the army chaplains' part of both sides of the two world wars in urging young men to slaughter one another. A classic example of the p;philandering of Babylon the Great is the share she had in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39, in which at least 600,000 people were killed. This blood spilling was provoked by supporters of the Catholic clergy and their allies, in part because the wealth and position of the church was threatened by Spain's legal government.

Since Babylon the Great is the religious part of Satan's seed, she has always made Jehovah's "woman," "Jerusalem above," her main target. In the first century, the congregation of anointed Christians was clearly identified as the woman's seed. (Genesis 3:15; Galatians 3:29; 4:26) Babylon the Great tried hard to conquer that chaste congregation by seducing it into committing religious fornication. The apostles Paul and Peter warned that many would succumb and a great apostasy would result. (Acts 20:29, 30; 2 Peter 2:1-3) Jesus' messages to the seven congregations indicated that toward the end of John's life, Babylon the Great was making some progress in her efforts to corrupt. (Revelation 2:6, 14, 156, 20-23) But Jesus had already shown how far she would be permitted to go.

Next time: The Wheat And The Weeds.