Revelation
14:8 almost seems to stand alone.
Revelation
14:8 NASB
And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, “Fallen,
fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink
of the wine of the passion of her immorality.”
If
we try to define the Babylon we see in Revelation we have to ask,
what is it and what are the implications for us; and, can we obtain a
clue from the passage itself??
God
had used Babylon to punish Israel for ignoring the Shemittah (times
of rest and restoration), because of this they went into captivity
for 70 years and might play a role in its utter destruction. Thanks
to the interactions we have between Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar, we
know that during the reign or Nebuchadnezzar Babylon was great.
Daniel - in explaining the statue dream to Nebuchadnezzar - told him
that he, as representing Babylon, was the head of gold.
Daniel
2:37-38 ESV You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the
God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and
the glory, (38) and into whose hand he has given, wherever they
dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of
the heavens, making you rule over them all--you are the head of
gold.
Considering
that Nebuchadnezzar had threatened to kill all the wise men if no one
could tell him the dream and what it meant; it was probably the wiser
choice to say, you
are the head of gold.
Does
Babylon exist anymore?
The
answer is no.
Can
we make the connection between a Babylon that was once great and the
modern day world?
No,
so greatness carries a different connotation these days. Babylon,
having served its purpose, was to receive God's wrath.
Jeremiah
51:29
ESV “The land trembles and writhes in pain, for
the LORD's purposes against Babylon stand,
to
make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
When
you read this it is easy to say, “that happened and therefore does
not apply to today.” We see this same logic applied to the temple
of the last days. Jesus predicted the destruction of the temple and
Israel saw that happen in 70 A.D.; yet his words also applied to a
time in the distant future in which there would be a third temple.
Therefore these words about Babylon could just as easily apply to a
future time, a time which I happen to believe is upon us now.
You
might not be aware that Saddam Hussein was attempting a restoration
of Babylon. He built one of his fortress-like residences on a hill
just outside of Babylon along the Euphrates. Chuck Missler told us
that while active combat missions in Iraq were still ongoing, the
military was running high speed communications cables into Babylon.
Does
any of that literally mean that Babylon, as a city, would be
resurrected to greatness?
No,
therefore we should be looking for something else, something more
symbolic. I believe the key phrase here is “her
sexual immorality”.
Clearly
Revelation 14:8 is speaking about a sensuality, and there is nothing
sensual about the region in which Babylon was built. So the context
has more to do with something spiritual. Bel Marduk might fit that
bill.
“...she
who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual
immorality."
Since
things seemingly went well for Daniel, we assume that all went well
for Israel. We also assume that Babylon was just a beautiful, fun
loving place, but that was not the case. If you think about the fact
that they threw Daniel's companions into the fire, then its easier to
understand that evil
lurked in the background.
Babylon was conquered by successive empires, of which two are clearly
defined: The Medo-Persian,
and the Grecian
empires. It is clear that something happened.
Now,
what do we do with this cryptic sentence - “...she
who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual
immorality”?
Apparently
we know far too little about Babylon because Revelation focuses,
rather intently, on the words sexual immorality.
The prophet Jeremiah spoke a word against Babylon:
Jeremiah
50:1-2 ESV The word that the LORD spoke
concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah
the prophet: (2) "Declare among the nations and proclaim, set
up a banner and proclaim, conceal it not, and say: 'Babylon is taken,
Bel is put to shame, Merodach is dismayed. Her images are put to
shame, her idols are dismayed.'
Commentary
from the IVPBBC:
Bel
and Marduk. “The
title Bel was applied to the supreme god of the Akkadian pantheon,
which until the beginning of the second millennium B.C. was Enlil
(the patron of the city of Nippur). After the emergence of Babylon as
the chief city of Mesopotamia, the title was transferred to its
patron deity, Marduk. Evidence of this succession to divine supremacy
can be seen in Marduk's prominent place in the Babylonian creation
epic Enuma Elish
and in the prologue to the Code of Hammurabi. In both instances,
Marduk is said to have achieved the rank of chief god through his
combative powers and the will of the other gods. The
name Bel Marduk then continues to be used by the Assyrians and the
Neo-Babylonians, and his New Year's festival is the celebration of
the renewal of fertility and life
(see comment on Isa_46:1).
Even the Persian king Cyrus looked at his own accession to power and
the capture of the city of Babylon as having been achieved through
the assistance of Bel Marduk. Connections in the northwest Semitic
pantheon with Bel are to be found in the name Baal, also translated
as “lord.”
Now
again, the question is, how do I perceive and apply this information?
Mark
Hitchcock, in his book The
Second Coming of Babylon, states rather simplistically,
“The city and the tower (of Babel) represent the
two aspects of Babylon that continue today: political power balanced
against rebellion and apostasy.” Mark Hitchcock continues, “The
city they built represents the political unity of the city of
Babylon. Babylon was a literal place, ruled over by a literal king
who exercised political power over all the inhabitants of the world.”
I
had to think about Mark Hitchcock's comments for a moment.
So,
is Babylon,
a lasting, global, political power?
I
already pointed out that God decreed devastation upon Babylon. Common
sense then should tell you that Babylon's ability to persist has to
first be spiritual. Many
years after its establishment by Nimrod, and after the reign of
Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon is captured by Cyrus, but this line from the
IVPBBC is very telling:
“
Even
the Persian king Cyrus looked at his own accession to power and the
capture of the city of Babylon as
having been achieved through the assistance of Bel Marduk”
We
are introduced to the beginnings of Babylon in Genesis chapter 10,
when we are told about the generations of Noah. The son of Ham was
Cush, and Cush fathered Nimrod.
Let's
explore this lineage of Ham for a minute.
Genesis
10:8 ESV Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the
first on earth to be a mighty man.
“He
was the first on earth to be a mighty man”
???
The
word mighty
in the Hebrew is: gibbôr it means powerful;
and by implication warrior, tyrant.
Another
instance of the word gibbôr
is used to depict a mighty man, comes before the flood, and describes
the Nephilim upon the earth.
Genesis
6:4 ESV
The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward,
when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore
children to them. These were the mighty
men who were of old, the men of renown.
Most
do not believe Nimrod to have been a giant as much as he was of a
reckless ferocity.
Reckless
ferocity – What names come to your mind when you think about the
words reckless ferocity?
Og,
the king of Bashan who may have been 13 feet tall; how about Ghengis
Khan, or Vlad the impaler.
How
did Nimrod become the first on the earth to be a mighty man when
clearly the earth was filled with violence and there were giants or
mighty men prior to the flood?
Genesis
6:10-13 ESV And Noah had three sons, Shem,
Ham, and Japheth. (11) Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight,
and the earth was filled with violence. (12) And God saw the earth,
and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on
the earth. (13) And God said to Noah, "I have determined to
make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence
through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
Genesis
9:9 ESV "Behold, I establish my
covenant with you and your offspring after you,
Genesis
10:1 ESV These are the generations of the
sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after
the flood.
So
Noah, and his generations are the fresh start. It only took three
generations for everything to go sour again. Nimrod
was the controlling authority and driving force behind the tower of
Babel. That may or may not be the case, but
it is clear that all known inhabitants were of the same mind and
direction.
Genesis
10:8-10 ESV Cush fathered Nimrod;
he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. (9) He was a mighty
hunter before the LORD. Therefore it is said, "Like Nimrod a
mighty hunter before the LORD." (10) The beginning of his
kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar.
Genesis
10:8-10 fills in a few blanks, for it tells us that Nimrod founded
the towns of Babel, Erech, Accad (the Accadian race) and Calneh. All
in the land of Shinar.
Genesis
11:1-4 ESV
Now the whole earth had one
language and the same words. And as people migrated from
the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there.
And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks, and
burn them thoroughly." And they had brick for stone, and bitumen
for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build
ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us
make a name for ourselves, lest
we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth."
I
want to you to see something before we move on.
Genesis
11:4 LITV
And they said, Come, let us build a city and a tower with its head
in the heavens, and make a name for ourselves, that we not be
scattered on the face of all the
If
you are anything like me you would have read a verse like this, for
years, and said, how nice, and never grasped the depth of what is
happening here. It is not as simple as it looks and requires that you
dig a little.
God
has yet to state that he will scatter them, but they almost seem to
be prophesying over themselves by declaring: “that we not be
scattered on the face of all the earth.” As you know that
happened.
If
we hear of someone who made a name for himself there are generally
admirable thoughts that go along with that, like having a beautiful
park named after that person. However there are those that were not
so admirable, like: John Wayne Gacy, Charlie Manson, or Ted Bundy.
They certainly made names for themselves.
Here
in America we have Donald Trump – the business mogul. He ran for
President and won for one term. As a notable person he has his name
plastered on the many things he has built. The height and design are
not necessarily the issue, and there is something more implicated in
Genesis 11:4.
let
us build us a city H5892
- (a
place guarded by waking
or a watch)
and
let us make H6213 - accomplish
for
ourselves a
name H8034,
- the Name (as designation of God)
I
get the sense that they were trying to make their own name a god.
“Babylon also represents false religion.”
According
to Mark Hitchcock:
“The
first organized false religion has passed down from Babylon into all
other false religions of the world. Their tower symbolizes the
religious unity that dominated Babylon.”
The
IVP Bible Background Commentary on the Old Testament tells us:
“The
central feature of these early cities in southern Mesopotamia was the
temple complex. Often, the temple complex was
the city. The temple complex in this period would have been comprised
of the temple itself, where the patron deity was worshiped, and, most
prominently, by the ziggurat. Ziggurats were structures designed to
provide stairways from the heavens (the gate of the gods) to earth so
that the gods could come down into their temple and into the town and
bring blessing. It was a convenience provided for the deity and his
messengers. These stairways were featured in the mythology of the
Sumerians and also are portrayed in Jacob's dream.”
By
the way, The Hadron collider, often called CERN, has two major goals:
“Two
of the major goals for CERN is to collapse and break apart the God
Particle that creates and maintains our physical world and to tear a
hole through the veil that is the barrier protecting our physical
universe from the unknown, non-physical universes and other
non-physical dimensions believed to be located outside our physical
universe.”
So
one might say, that CERN, in a sense, is just another tower, in the
attempt to bring the gods down to earth.
John
Walvord summarizes the Babylonian religious system:
“Nimrod,
who founded Babylon,
had a wife known as Semiramis who founded the secret religious rites
of the Babylonian mysteries, according to accounts outside the bible.
Semiramis has a son with an alleged miraculous conception who was
given the name Tammuz and
in effect was a false fulfillment of the promise of the seed of the
woman given to Eve
(Gen 3:15).”
“Various
religious practices were observed in connection with the false
Babylonian religion, including recognition of the mother and child as
God and of creating an order of virgins who became religious
prostitutes. Tammuz, according to the tradition, was killed by a
wild animal and restored to life, a satanic anticipation and
counterfeit of Christ's resurrection.”
Walvord
adds:
“Babylon
then, is the symbol of apostasy and blasphemous substitution of
idol-worship for the worship of God in Christ.”
As
to this last quote. Nimrod probably had no concept of Christ, so I do
not think it is fair to pin that on him. However, since God found
Noah to be favorable (there is a tremendous mystery about this man
having to do with the heritage that might intrigue you, but I do not
have the time here) you might assume that Noah had a strong
concept of who God was. Keep in mind that any knowledge of God had to
be verbally passed to the next generations. As the generations begin
to rebuild something very dark creeps in and Noah curses one of his
sons. It did not take that long for one generation to essentially
move away from God. Project this idea three generations ahead and we
have Nimrod.
The
worship of Baal
Isaiah
21:9 LITV And, behold, here comes a chariot
of a man, a pair of horses. And he answered and said, Babylon has
fallen, has fallen! And He has smashed the graven images of her gods
to the earth.
There
is a clear sense of multiple gods. The prophet Jeremiah
identifies two of them: Merodach and Bel.
Jeremiah
50:2 LITV Declare among the nations, and
make them hear, and lift up a banner. Make them hear, do not hide it;
say, Babylon is captured, Bel is put to shame, Merodach
is broken in pieces, her images are put to shame, her idols are
broken in pieces.
From
John Gill's commentary:
“Bel
boweth down, Nebo stoopeth,....
These are names of the idols of Babylon. Bel is by some thought to be
the contraction of Baal, the god of the Phoenicians, called by them
Beel; so "Beelsamin" (h),
in the Phoenician language, is Lord of heaven: but rather this is the
Belus of the Babylonians, who was a renowned king of them, and after
his death deified; whom Nebuchadnezzar, according to Megasthenes (i),
calls Belus his progenitor, and by whom Babylon was walled about.
This idol is, no doubt, the same with Jupiter Belus, who had a temple
in Babylon with gates of brass, and which was in being in the times
of Herodotus (k),
as he reports. This name is sometimes taken into the names of their
kings, as Belshazzar or Beltesbazaar. Nebo was another of their
idols, an oracular one, from whom, by its priests, prophesies of
things future were pretended to be given out...”
Back
to Mark Hitchcock's book The Second Coming of Babylon.
“From
the beginning then, Babylon was both a town and a tower, a city and a
system, a place and a philosophy. We will encounter this same
twofold depiction of Babylon later when we look at Babylon in
Revelation 17 and 18.”
From
the very beginning Satan has been at war. Sometimes it is hard to
tell who he hates the most – God, or those that follow after him.
After
Satan deceives the woman we have God saying:
You
and this woman will hate each other; your descendants and hers will
always be enemies. One of hers will strike you on the head, and you
will strike him on the heel." (Genesis
3:15 CEV)
Hitchcock
defined this epic struggle like this:
“The
situation at Babylon in Genesis 10-11 played right into Satan's plan.
While he is not mentioned by name, we can be certain that the old
serpent introduced in Genesis 3 was working feverishly to energize
this rebellious plan. In this setting he could influence and direct
world affairs through one man.” …. “He could be 'god' in the
eyes of all men, through occult worship and practices. After all,
this is his desire.” ….. “The masses could also be converted to
his false religion, with little to stand in his way.”
Make
no mistake, God is, and has always been in control. Man, living in
the illusion that he is in control, found out differently, for God
came down and confounded their language, and scattered man across the
face of the earth. Thus ended the first global community.
As
Mark Hitchcock puts it:
“Globalism
was put on hold.
But
Satan wasn't finished.
He
set out immediately to bring the world back together so he could
control all of it once again.
In
a sense, human history is the story of Satan working to bring man
back to Babylon under his rule.”
More
and more every day, I am convinced that we are witnessing Babylon the
great – the harlot that rides the beast (they
are one and the same)
plays its hand by manipulating the economy, the food chain, and worst
of all, the population of the earth through propaganda and this phony
immunizing agent – as though it has some benefit in dealing with a
flu virus (which happens to be humanly designed to fuel their desires
to bring about a severe population reduction and global governance.
So
in trying to understand what Babylon is, keep this passage in mind.
Jeremiah
51:29 ESV
“The land trembles and writhes in pain, for the LORD's
purposes against Babylon stand,
to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
We
are looking at power structures, guided by the gods of greed and
sensuality.
i
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible; Dr. John Gill (1690-1771)
