Chapter Thirty -"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!"

Endurance for the Holy Ones

Now the third angel speaks.  Listen!  "And another angel, a third, followed them, saying in a loud voice: 'If anyone worships the wild beast and its image, and receives a mark on heir forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the anger of God that is poured out undiluted into the cup of his wrath.' "  (Revelation 14:9,  10a)  At Revelation  13:16, 17, it was revealed that during the Lord's day those who do not worship the image of the wild beast would suffer-even be killed. Now we learn that Jehovah has determined to bring to judgment those "having the mark, the name of the wild beast or the number of its name."  They will be forced to drink a bitter 'cup of wrath' of Jehovah's anger. What will this mean for them,?  In 607 B.C.E., when Jehovah forced Jerusalem to drink "his cup of rage,' the city experienced "despoiling and breakdown, and hunger and sword" at the hands of the Babylonians.  (Isaiah 51:17, 19) Similarly, when idolizers of earth's  political powers and their image, the United Nations, get to drink the cup of Jehovah's wrath, the result will be a calamity for them.  (Jeremiah 25:17, 32, 33) They will be utterly destroyed. 

Even before that happens, however, those with the mark of the beast have to undergo the tormenting effects of Jehovah's disapproval.  Speaking of the wild beast and its image, the angel informs John:  "And he shall be tormented with fire and sulphur in the sight of the holy angels and in the sight of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever, and day and night they have no rest, those who worship the wild beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name." -Revelation 14:10b,11. 

Some have viewed the mention here of fire and sulphur ("fire and brimstone,"  King James Version)  as a proof of the existence of a hellfire.  But a brief look at a similar prophecy shows the real import of these words in this context.  Back in the days of Isaiah, Jehovah  warned the nation of Edom that they would be punished because of their enmity toward Israel. He said:  "Her torrents must be changed into pitch, and her dust into sulphur, and her land must become as burning pitch.  By night or by day, it will not be extinguished; to time indefinite its smoke will keep ascending. From generation to generation she will be parched; forever and ever no one will be passing across her." -Isaiah 34:9, 10. 

Was Edom hurled into some mythical hellfire to burn forever?  Of course not. Rather, the nation completely disappeared from the world scene as if she had been totally consumed with by fire and sulphur.  The final result of the punishment was not everlasting torment but "emptiness . . . wasteness . . . nothing." (Isaiah 34:11, 12)  The smoke 'ascending to time indefinite' vividly illustrates this.  When a house burns down, smoke keeps coming from the ashes for some time after the flames have died, providing onlookers with evidence that there has been a destructive conflagration. Even today God's people remember the lesson to be learned  from the destruction of Edom. In this way 'the smoke of her burning' is still ascending in a symbolic way. 

Next time:  Chapter Thirty -"Babylon the Great Has Fallen!" -Conclusion of Endurance for the Holy Ones 

From the book of Revelation