Chapter Thirty-Six -The Great City Devastated

Babylon the Great Takes a Tumble

John continues the account, telling us: "After these things I saw another angel descending from heaven, with great authority; and the earth was lighted up from his glory. And he cried out with a strong voice, saying:  'She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen.' " (Revelation 18:1, 2) It is the second time that John hears that angelic announcement.  (See Revelation 14:8)  This time, however. its significance is emphasized by the magnificence of the heavenly angel, for his glory lights up the whole earth!  Who can he be? Centuries earlier the prophet Ezekiel, reporting on a heavenly vision stated that 'the earth itself shone because of his [Jehovah's] glory."  (Ezekiel 43:2) The only angel to shine with glory comparable to Jehovah's would be the Lord Jesus who is "the reflection of [God's] glory and the exact representation of his very being."  (Hebrews 1:3) In 1914, 'the Son of man arrived in his glory,'  and since that time, Jesus, installed "on his glorious throne' in the heavens, has been exercising  authority over the earth as Jehovah's associate King and Judge. It is fitting, then,  that he should announce the fall of Babylon the Great. -Matthew 25:31, 32. 

Whom does this angel with great authority use in heralding such amazing news before mankind?  Why, it is the very people that are released as a result of that fall, the remaining anointed ones on earth, the John class. From 1914 to 1918, these suffered greatly at the hands of Babylon the Great, but in 1918 the Lord Jehovah and his "messenger of the [Abrahamic ] covenant," Jesus Christ, began judgment with "the house of God," those professing to be Christians. Thus apostate Christendom was brought to trial.  (Malachi 3:1; 1 Peter 4:17)  Her tremendous bloodguilt incurred during the first world war, her complicity in persecuting Jehovah's  faithful witnesses, and her Babylonish creeds did not help  her in the time of judgment; nor did any other part of Babylon the Great merit God's approval. -Compare Isaiah 13:1-9. 

So by 1919 Babylon the Great had fallen, opening the way for God's people to be released and restored, in one day as it were, to their land of spiritual prosperity.  (Isaiah 66:8)   By that year, Jehovah God and Jesus Christ the greater Darius and the Greater Cyrus, had maneuvered matters so that false religion could no longer keep a hold on Jehovah's people. No more could it prevent them from serving Jehovah  and making known  to all who might hear that harlot-like Babylon the Great is doomed and the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty is at hand! -Isaiah 45:1-4;  Daniel 5:30, 31.  

True, Babylon the Great was not destroyed in 1919-any more than the ancient city Babylon was destroyed in 539 B.C.E. when it fell to the armies of Cyrus the Persian. But from Jehovah's viewpoint, that organization had fallen. She was judicially condemned, awaiting  execution, therefore, false religion could no longer hold Jehovah's people in captivity.  (Compare  Luke 9:59, 60) These were released  to serve as the Master's faithful and discreet slave in providing spiritual food at the proper time.  They had received a judgment of "Well done" and were commissioned to get busy again in Jehovah's work. -Matthew 24:45-47; 25:21, 23; Acts 1:8.

Millenniums ago Jehovah used other prophets  to foretell this epoch-marking event. Isaiah spoke of a watchman who "proceeded to call out like a lion:  'Upon the watchtower, O Jehovah, I am standing constantly by day, and at my guardpost I am stationed all the nights.' "  And what event does that watchman discern and proclaim with lionlike boldness?  This "She has fallen! Babylon has fallen, and all the graven images of her gods he [Jehovah] has broken to the earth!"  (Isaiah 21:8, 9)  This watchman well foreshadows the wide-awake John class today, as it uses the Watchtower magazine and other theocratic publications to sound abroad the news that Babylon has fallen. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Six -The Great City Devastated - Decline of Babylon the Great

From the book of Revelation