Chapter Thirty-Six/The Great City Devastated

 It is therefore appropriate that Revelation should confirm the doom of false religion by giving us two detailed descriptions of her fall and subsequent events leading to her total desolation. We have already seen her as "the great harlot" that is finally devastated by her erstwhile lovers of the political realm. (Revelation 17:1, 15, 16) Now, in still another vision, we are to view her as a city, the religious antitype of ancient Babylon.

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Chapter Thirty-Six/The Great City Devastated

 SUDDEN, shocking, devastating-such will be the demise of Babylon the Great! It will be one the most catastrophic events in all history, making the start of the "great tribulation such as not occurred since the world's beginning until now, no, nor will occur again." - MATTHEW 24:21.

False religion has been around for a long time. It has existed without a break since the day of bloodthirsty Nimrod, who opposed Jehovah and set men to building the Tower of Babel. When Jehovah confused the tongues of those rebels and scattered them over the earth, Babylon's false religion traveled with them. (Genesis 10:8-10; 11:4-9) Since then, political empires have risen and fallen, but Babylonish religion has endure. It has taken many shapes and forms becoming a world empire of false religion, the prophesied Babylon the Great. Its most prominent part in Christendom, which grew out of fusion of early Babylonish teachings with apostate "Christian" doctrine. Because of the long history of Babylon the Great, many people find it hard to believe that will ever be destroyed.

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Carrying Out God's Thought - Conclusion

 As if to emphasize the certainty of Jehovah's execution of judgment on the world empire of false religion, the angel concludes his testimony by saying: "And the woman whom you saw means the great city that has a kingdom over the kings of the earth." (Revelation 17:18) Like Babylon of Belshazzar's time, Babylon the Great has "been weighed in the balance and found wanting." (Daniel 5:27, The New English Bible) Her execution will be swift and final. And how do Jehovah's Witnesses respond to the unraveling of the mystery of the great harlot and of the scarlet-colored wild beast? The show zeal in proclaiming Jehovah's day of judgment, while answering "with graciousness" sincere searchers for truth. (Colossians 4:5, 6; Revelation17:3, 7) As our next chapter will show, all those who desirous of surviving when the great harlot is executed must act, and act quickly!

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Chapter Thirty-Fivc/Executing Babylon the Great - Carrying Out God's Thought - Continue

 Yes, the nations will use the scarlet-colored wild beast, the3 United Nations, in destroying Babylon the Great. They do act on their own initiative, for Jehovah puts into their hearts "even to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast." When the time comes, the nations will evidently see the need to strengthen the United Nations. They will give it teeth, as it were, lending it whatever authority and power they possess so that it can turn upon false religion and fight successfully against her "until the words of God will have been accomplished." Thus, the ancient harlot will come to her complete end. And good riddance to her! 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Carrying Out God's Thought - Continue

 Again Jehovah uses human rulers in executing judgment: "For God put into their hearts to carry out his thought, even to carry out their one thought by giving their kingdom to the wild beast, until the words of God will have been accomplished." (Revelation 17:17) What is God's thought"? To arrange for the executioners of Babylon the Great to band together, in order to destroy her completely. Of course, the rulers' motive in attacking her will be to carry out their own "one thought." They will feel that it is in their nationalistic interests to turn upon the great harlot. They come to view the continued existence of organized religion within their boundaries as a threat to their sovereignty. But Jehovah will be maneuvering matters; they will carry out this thought by destroying his age-old adulterous enemy at one stroke! - Compare JEREMIAH 7:8-11, 34. 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Carrying Out God's Thought

 How does Jehovah execute this judgment? This may be illustrated by Jehovah's action against his apostate people in ancient times, concerning whom he said: "In the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things, committing adultery and walking in falsehood; and they have strengthened the hands of evildoers in order that they should not return, each one from his own badness.  To me all of them have become like Sodom, and the inhabitants of her like Gomorrah." (Jeremiah 23:14) In 607 B.C.E., Jehovah used Nebuchadnezzar to 'strip off the garments, take away the beautiful articles, and leave naked and nude' that spiritually adulterous city.  (Ezekiel 23:4, 26, 29) Jerusalem of that time was a pattern of Christendom today, and as John saw in earlier visions, Jehovah will administer to Christendom and the rest of false religion a similar punishment. The desolated, inhabited condition of Jerusalem after 607 B.C.E shows what religious Christendom will look like after being stripped of her wealthy and shamefully exposed. And the rest of Babylon the Great will fare no better. 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Devasting the Harlot -Conclusion

 Why would the nations treat their former paramour so outrageously? We have seen in recent history the potential for such a turning against Babylonish religion. Official government opposition has tremendously reduced the influence of religion in lands such as the Soviet Union and China. In Protestant sectors of Europe, widespread apathy and doubt have emptied the churches, so that religion is practically dead. The vast Catholic empire is torn by rebellion and disagreement, which the itinerant pope has been unable to calm. We should not, though, lost sight of the fact that this final, all-out attack on Babylon the Great comes as an expression of God's unalterable judgment on the great harlot. 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great -Devastating the Harlot - Continue

 Certainly, the immense material wealth of Babylon the Great will not save her. It may even hasten her destruction, for the vision shows that when the wild beast and the ten horns vent their hated on her they will strip off her royal robes and all her jewelry. They will plunder her wealth. They "make her . . . naked, "shamefully exposing her real character. What devastation! Her end is also far from dignified. They destroy her, "eat up her fleshly parts," reducing her to a lifeless skeleton. Finally, they completely burn her with fire."  She is burned up like a carrier of the plague, without even a decent burial! It is not the nations alone, as represented by the ten horns, that destroy the great harlot, but the "wild beast," meaning the UN itself, joins them in this rampage. It will give us sanction to the destruction of false religion. A majority of the 150-and- more nations within the UN have already displayed, by their voting pattern, a hostility toward religion, especially that of Christendom. 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Devastating the Harlot

 God's people are not the only objects of the enmity of the ten horns. The angel now draws John's attention back to the harlot: "And he says to me: 'The waters that you saw, where the harlot is sitting, means peoples and crowds and nations and tongues.  And the ten horns that you saw, and the wild beast, these will hate the harlot and make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshly parts and will completely burn her with fire.' "- REVELATION 17:15, 16. 

Just as ancient Babylon relied on her watery defenses, Babylon the Great today relies on her huge membership of "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues." The angel appropriately draws out attention to these before telling of a shocking development: Political governments of this earth will turn violently upon Babylon the Great. What will all those "peoples and crowds and nations and tongues" do then? God's people are already warning Babylon the Great that the water of the river Euphrates will dry up.  (Revelation 16:12) Those waters will finally drain away completely. They will not be able to give the disgusting old harlot any effectual support in her hour of need. - ISAIAH 44:27; JEREMIAH 50:38; 51:36. 37. 

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Chapter Thirty-Five/Executing Babylon the Great - Ten Kings for One Hour - Conclusion

 Of course, there is nothing that the rulers of this world can do against Jesus himself. He is in heaven, far out of their reach. But Jesus' brothers, the remaining ones of the woman's seed, are still on earth and apparently vulnerable. (Revelation 12:17) Many of the horns have already demonstrated bitter hostility toward them, and in this way have battled with the Lamb. (Matthew25:40, 45) Soon, though, the time will come for God's Kingdom to "crush and put an end to these kingdoms." (Daniel 2:44) Then, the kings of the earth will be in a fight to the finish with Lamb, as we shall soon see. (Revelation 19:11,12) But here we learn enough to realize that the nations will not succeed. Though they and the UN scarlet-colored wild beast have their "one thought," They cannot defeat the great "Lord of lords and King of kings" nor can they defeat "those called and chosen and faithful with him," which includes his anointed followers still on earth.  These too have conquered by keeping integrity in answer to Satan's vile accusations. - ROMANS 8:37-39; REVELATION 12:10, 11. 

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