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#52.
The End of Babylon (18:).
pp. 121 - 124
The whole of the xviiith chapter is devoted to the record of the destruction of
Babylon. The fall of Babylon has been spoken of in earlier chapters, but the actual
narrative is reserved until the last because it is the great tragic climax of the history of
man on earth. When Babylon falls, the end has come, and the long-prayed-for kingdom
of righteousness dawns.
"Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of demons, and a hold of
every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird" (Rev. 18: 2).
There is a fulfillment here of the prophecy of Isa. 13: 21, 22:--
"Wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses shall be full of doleful
creatures; and owls shall dwell there, and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of
the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces."
Jeremiah says of Babylon:--
"It is a land of graven images, and they are mad upon the idols, therefore the wild
beasts . . . . . the owls shall dwell therein" (50: 38, 39).
"And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for dragons, an astonishment, and
an hissing, without an inhabitant" (51: 37).
Isaiah and Jeremiah both speak of dragons; Revelation speaks of demons and unclean
spirits. In Rev. 9: 14 we learn that at the river Euphrates were bound four angels, and
upon their being loosed a demon army of two hundred thousand thousand was let loose
also. Babylon is to be the prison house (phulake) of every unclean spirit and the
habitation of demons. The time for judgment does not come immediately at the
destruction of Babylon, and here at this spot will be gathered and held all the unclean
spirits and demons that have worked such mischief and ruin among men, while the
thousand-year reign of Christ shall run its course. Behind the idols of the Gentiles were
the demons, so taught the apostle Paul:--
"The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God"
(I Cor. 10: 20).
The fall of Babylon and its fate just described is because of its effect upon all the
nations of the earth. There appears to be need for a revision of the text of Rev. 18: 3.
Instead of reading as the A.V. "For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication", we read "Because all nations have fallen by reason of the wine of the fury of
her fornication". Compare:--
"The nations have drunken her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is
suddenly fallen and destroyed" (Jer. 51: 7, 8).
As Babylon has caused the ruin of all the nations of the earth, so Babylon shall fall as
a consequence. As Babylonianism has robbed the nations of their wits and their morals