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 strong voice, saying: Babylon the Great has fallen." (Revelation 18:1, 2a) 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, Jesus became the heavenly King, and since that time, he has been exercising his 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.

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.  (note: Christendom is includes all religions except Jehovah's Witnesses)  (Malachi 3:1; 1 Peter 4:17)  Her tremendous bloodguilt incurred during the first world warm her complicity in persecuting Jehovah's faithful witnesses, and her Babylonish creeds did not help here in the time of judgment, nor did any other part of Babylon the Great merit God's approval. - ISAIAH 13:1-9.

So by 1919 Babylon the Great gad 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 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-an more than the ancient city of 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 judicially condemned, awaiting execution; therefore,  false religion could 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 my guardpost 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: The Great City Devastated - Decline of Babylon the Great

 From the jw.org pulications