Chapter Thirty-Six/The Great City Devastated - Decline of Babylon the Great

 Ancient Babylon's fall in 539 B.C.E. was the start of a long decline that ended in her desolation. Similarly, since the first world war, the influence of Babylonish religion has declined remarkably on a global scale. In Russia, the Bolshevik Revolution has continued to stifle the influence of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Japan, Shino emperor worship was proscribed following the second world war. In China, the communist government controls all religious appointments and activity. In Protestant northern Europe, most people have become indifferent to religion. And the Roman Catholic church has recently been weakened by schisms and internal dissent in its global domain. -Compare Mark 3:24, 26. 

All these trends are doubtless part of the 'drying up of the river Euphrates' in preparation for the coming militaristic attack on Babylon the Great. Thos 'drying up' is reflected, too, in the Pope's announcement of October 1986 that the church must "again become mendicant'-because of huge deficits. (Revelation 16:12) Particularly since 1919 has Babylon the Great been exposed to public gaze as a spiritual wasteland, just as the mighty angel here announces: "And she has become a dwelling place of demons and lurking place of every unclean exhalation and lurking place of every unclean and hated bird!" (Revelation 18:2b) Soon she will be literally such a wasteland, as desolate as Babylon's ruins in 20th century Iraq. - See also JEREMIAH 50:25-28.

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