Revelation 18:1-24: The Fall of Babylon

Outline

• Babylon is judged
• Babylon is mourned
• Babylon is no more

Introduction

What will become of the vast amount of sinful humanities accomplishments? What will become of the Tower-of-Babel-like pile of godlessness we have produced since the Garden of Eden? What will become of that world system that builds itself up at the cost of the church and humanity? Chapter 18 is the answer! Although 18:1 begins with the words, ‘After this I saw…,’ this is not an indication of what happened next chronologically after 17:18, no this is an indication of a new vision that looks at the same content of chapter 17 from another perspective. God is not content to show the downfall of sinful humanities greatest accomplishment as a casualty of the devil’s divided house, He goes on in this chapter to take up the prose and pictures of the OT judgements against other city-states; He seeks to show that this final fall of Babylon will be the cataclysmic fulfilment of which all other falls have been a mere shadow and type. This chapter uses powerful imagery to dramatise the final judgement on the city of man; it makes clear our duty in light of this judgement; and it clarifies the reasons for the judgement.