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 its glory. And he cried out with a strong voice, saying: 'She has fallen! 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, it significance is emphasized by the magnificence of the heavenly angel, for his glory lights up the whole earth!  Who can it be?  Centuries earlier the prophet Ezekiel, reporting on a heavenlyy  vision, stated that "the earth 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 exact representation of his very being." (Hebrews 1:3)   In 1914, Jesus became a 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 hearalding such amazing news before mankind?  Why, it is the very people that are released as 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  [Arahamic]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  bloodguild 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 judgmentl nor any other part of Babylon the Great merit God's approval. - Compare Isaiah 13:1-9. 

So by 1919 Babylon the Great has 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 Great Darius and the Greater Cyrus, had maneuvered matters so that false religioun 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 harlotlike Babylon the Gret is doomed and the vindication of Jehovah's sovereignty is at hand! - ISAIAH 45:1-4; DANIEL 5:30, 31. 

Next time: The Great City Devastated - Babylon the Great Takes a Tumble - Conclusion

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