Revelation 17 and 18 are absolutely fascinating, culturally and politically!
They show how part of Satan’s final push will be the emergence of a vast economic-religious system that Revelation refers to as ‘Babylon’, the `Great Prostitute`. Reggae fans may recognise the use of ‘Babylon’ to describe Western civilisation; as we read these chapters we may wonder if, one day at least, the reggae musicians will be right. Even today we feel discomfort when we see evil coming from the soulless machinery of our godless economic systems, in their blindness, and heartlessness; sometimes knowing no ethics but profit and luxury, destroying the physical environment, defiling the moral environment, grinding down the poor throughout the world. (Lord, teach me to be perceptively holy, help me know how to be radical …) Revelation shows us our discomfort may be justified; the devil can be underneath the system.
If that is so, then history’s final battle may not be between the Christian gospel and marxism, or the Christian gospel and Islam. Possibly the final, most dangerous foe of Christian faith may be what has been termed ‘McWorld’: the deceptive, seamless global dominance of our own finally-apostate Western system, denying all gods except money, pleasure and luxury. (It’s striking how luxury is repeatedly emphasised here: 18:3,7,12. As Lennox notes about these chapters, it can be beauty, the world’s `nice` things that intoxicate us (17:2) and seduce us away from God; especially right when there’s starvation elsewhere (Rev 6:3-8). `For her attractiveness [Babylon] must be feared`, writes Wilcock; `We know what it is to be like the bird held by the glittering eye of the snake.`) In short, then, in the terms of Matthew 6:24: a key part of history’s final conflict may be between the two old adversaries, God and Money (Matt 6:24).
And the point is clear in these chapters that a godless economic system won’t be ethically clean. Babylon trades not only in `gold, silver… silk and scarlet cloth… articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood… wine and olive oil`, but also in `the bodies and souls of men` (17:13, NIV as usual). (What comes to mind as we read that? underpaid labour? sexual trafficking? populations brainwashed into handing over their efforts and money for the imported second-rate?) And then comes 18:24, `In [Babylon] was found the blood… of all who have been killed on the earth`; because of unjust wars and foreign/economic policies utterly careless of the conflicts they cause? the arms trade? media that foster violence in cultures to which it’s hitherto been alien? (When anyone who contributes to the `artistic freedom` of violence is responsible for women and children being raped and tortured; it is impossible to see why the demand for the indulgence of artistic freedom is worth the agony of one girl with her teeth knocked out with a hammer, or one woman sexually assaulted and set on fire – `Whatever made you think of doing that to her? ` `It’s those films, innit?` A friend told me of how the flood of western pornography into his country had led to a massive rise in the rate of gang-rape. `The bodies and souls of men` – and, most surely, women?)
There’s still more for us to learn here. In ch18 the Babylon system is presented primarily in terms of economics, luxury, and trade. But in the old testament the image of the prostitute `is commonly used to denote religious apostasy` (Mounce), and the `Mystery` reference and the contrast with the Bride the Church imply that ingredient here too. Then 17:5 – `Mystery, Babylon the Great; the mother of prostitutes and abominations` – implies that Babylon also generates false religions; and of course false religions (whether New Age, Catholic, Orthodox, prosperity-Protestant) are often tied into, or even produced by, financial greed. But `religion` here would be a total Babylon life-system, a `modern way of life` (eg 18:22) embodying and reinforcing Babylon’s values; a culture united (like Genesis’ Babel) without, and therefore opposed violently (17:6) to, the true God. These chapters are about the future (and if you are a `pre-tribber` you’ll see the removal in the rapture of God’s people who are the preservative `salt of the earth` (Matt 5:13) as the crucial step in the process): but the Babylon principle is already present. We (yes the UK!) may slowly be turning into Babylon now! I’ve tried to explore elsewhere how this totality is expressed and reinforced in our media (see https://petelowmanresources.com/if-theres-a-god-why-dont-people-notice-media-the-loss-of-god/ ); we may see it indeed even in our architecture. (In a medieval city, cathedral spires used to point the cityscapes they dominated towards heaven; but the massive bank spires dominating our cities today point to nothing but themselves, reinforcing the sense of the absence of God.)
(I compared Babylon above with our `Western system`: for what it’s worth, there’s a fascinating parallel between the image John, or God, chooses for Babylon, of a woman riding an animal (17:3), and what the Greeks called ‘Europa’, a woman in their myths also usually pictured riding an animal. This Europa image has been used in various ways in European Union contexts; for example it became the theme of a sculpture outside the European council building in Brussels. Anyway it may do us no harm, and is probably justifiable, to envisage the violent fall of Babylon in chapter 18 as that of a future godless Europe; just as corrupted ancient Rome fell eventually to the tribal hordes.)
Yet another striking aspect of these chapters is the interplay between economics, religion, and political power. The Animal, the final satanic dictator (17:11-13) who we’ve been reading about since ch13, provides crucial support to the Babylon system (17:3), meanwhile no doubt using religion as a means to his own image and power, as has happened so often in history. The alliance of Animal and Prostitute combines the political and the commercial, power and pleasure. But evil often turns on its allies; so there comes a time in 17:16 when the Animal and his allies turn on the Babylon system with all the viciousness of a beast. (That is, the satanic (13:2), even the overtly demonic (18:2?), takes Babylon over, whereas up to that point it had at least the pretence of religion. An unwanted end; maybe unsurprisingly, just as occultists play with evil powers but hope it won’t go too far. There comes a point when the demons have control and the payoff in terms of pleasure or power suddenly stops; demons have no affection for their tools.) Perhaps this is what 2 Thess 2:4 describes: the Animal-dictator taking over everything religious, demanding now that every religious impulse be channelled into worshipping himself (see also 13:8,15); perhaps assaulting any remnant of Christianity in the Babylon system, and burning its “churches”? (Another example of all shades of grey being replaced at the End by black and white?) Wilcock’s IVP Bible Speaks Today commentary sees here `evil powers, which for a short period (v12) will promote the beast’s cause with such fanatical singlemindedness (v13) that even the historic alliance with false religion will be forsworn (v16) as serving no further useful purpose: the iron hand is revealed, there is no more need for the velvet glove.` But of course Babylon is primarily an economic system, as we see in chapter 18, and ch18 makes clear that the financial consequences of this dramatic action are heartbreakingly catastrophic for everyone linked to or invested in the Babylon system (18:9,11). Of course Satan will be happy at all this misery. (Just possibly this financial collapse is why the global powers that have supported the Animal into worldwide dominance (13:7, 17:13) seem finally to turn against him; in 16:12-16 and 9:15ff we are presented with huge international conflict as an aspect of the End.)
What a dramatic picture. But now let’s be practical as to the challenge precisely this poses to ourselves. We see here, very clearly and very practically, the emergence of an opposition – two cities, two systems – that shapes the whole final six chapters of Revelation. On the one hand, we read, ‘Come’ (17:1) and see the godless system, the ‘great city’ with its sins ‘piled up to heaven’ (18:5), Babylon, the Great Prostitute. On the other hand, ‘Come’ (21:9) and see the ‘Holy City’ ‘coming down out of heaven’ (21:10), New Jerusalem, the Bride. We may even wonder if this is the climax of something going on right through the Bible; maybe as far back as Genesis 11 and 12 – the long alternative between the powers of Babel/Babylon (the city built on human pride, ‘reaching to the heavens’ by brute human strength, see Gen 11:4), and God’s people on their faith-full way to His promised heavenly ‘city that is to come’ (Gen 12:1-2; Heb 11:8-10,13-16; Heb 13:14; Gal 4:26; Col 3:1-3). (Then please help me get my day-to-day loyalty right, Father; please help me see which system I’m investing in (Matt 6:20), and spending my life for!) There may be horizons beyond horizons here…
And in that case we need to look out prayerfully, in various areas of our lives (our jobs; our media consumption; our investment), for the point where 18:4 may become relevant to us: ‘Come out of her … so that you will not share in her sins.’ This is not an easy issue, because sometimes we are called to be Christ’s ‘salt’, resisting satanic dominance and bringing transformation into some very difficult places. But there can come a stage where involvement in a system is impossible without sin; it is (or should be) impossible to be a Christian mafioso or pimp, for example. And then we have to ‘come out’. So here is God’s practical question for us, as we read in ch18 of the merchants and sailors, all who became part of the Babylon system and grew affluent (v19) through it, then were broken in its downfall: how close can we let our connections – unequal yokes (2 Cor 6:14?) – be with the forerunners of Babylon? When do we reach the `Come out` point, where we cannot partake of the benefit without partaking of the sinfulness, and therefore (18:4) the judgments? We remember the price Lot eventually paid for his decision to live in Sodom; first becoming a victim in Sodom’s wars (Gen 14:12), and then a casualty in Sodom’s judgments (Gen 19:15-38). We’re told in 1 Timothy 2:2 to pray for those in authority so that `we may live… lives in all godliness and holiness`; some systems and authority-structures make it very hard to live in holiness. (For example without bribery.) But there can come a time for complete withdrawal (`Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins!`, Jer 51:6), for prophetic avoidance from the system altogether. This seems to have been the stance John the Baptist pointed to by his clothes and diet (Matt 3:4); then again, in Jesus’ time both approaches (withdrawal, and staying in to be `salt`) had value and were used by God (Matt 11:18-19). How then do we know when a system has reached the `Come out` point? God’s historic norm is not for us to separate from everything like the Amish (see 1 Cor 5:10): indeed Genesis 18:32 shows us how sometimes just ten righteous people and one person of prayer can be enough to save a culture from catastrophic judgment. But the crucial issue seems to be when involvement in a system inevitably involves sharing in sin. (Eg the mafia – but has much of western cinema, and not a few areas of business, internationally especially, reached this point?) And what are the sins that arise in our personal area of life or career that we must avoid `sharing in`, to avoid sharing in God’s eventual judgment? (Eg again ch18’s emphasis on Babylon’s luxury (vv3,7,12) in a world of need?)
Lord, these are major life-issues; please guide me, please help me hear, help me not evade, Your voice…
PS If what is said above is correct about the choice of the two alternative cities/systems, Babylon and Jerusalem, being a theme right through from Genesis 11 to Revelation 21, then it sheds an interesting light on the old testament; where at least five books – 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations and Ezekiel – can be viewed as helping us understand the astounding occurrence when the holy city of Jerusalem (at least as partially manifested in the OT) is overthrown by Babylon. And Daniel, of course, teaches us how to live for as long as we must in Babylon, and to experience that ultimately God is sovereign even there.
PPS As throughout Revelation, what we’re shown here is something finding expression in the Rome of John’s own time; any educated person at that time would have made the link between the `seven hills` of 17:9 and imperial Rome, famously built on seven hills. But chapter 19 – and indeed 16:17ff – show us that this final embodiment and destruction of Babylon also takes place very close to the End. That combination – an expression in John’s own time; permanent principles throughout subsequent history; and culmination in an ultimate expression at the very End – is something we find throughout Revelation. (And, I believe, in the gospels’ classic prophetic expressions, eg Matthew 24.)
(Minor question: 17:7,9 tells us that one meaning of the seven heads is `seven hills on which the woman sits`: will the final economic-religious Babylon system have some link with the city of Rome? And might the most likely understanding of Daniel 9:26, which prophesies Jerusalem’s destruction after Christ’s death by the Romans, and describes them as `the people of the prince who will come`, likewise link the Animal somehow with Rome? Possibly?)
