Chapter Thirty-"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!"

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 2:15, 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, 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 into 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 sanctified these wars by saying 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 chaplain's part on both sides of the two world wars in urging young men to slaughter one another.  A classic example of the 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 spilling of blood 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 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  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, 15, 20-23) But Jesus had already shown how far she would be permitted to go.  

Next time: Chapter Thirty - "Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" -The Wheat and the Weeds 

From the book of Revelation