Breaking Babylon

For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”

Revelation 18:17-18

Where is Babylon in the end days context of Revelation? There have been a lot of theories put forth over the course of the last two thousand years, and we receive more information daily as we approach the end of the age.

Is Babylon code for a current nation, such as the United States or Israel, or is it a religious institution such as the Catholic Church? I have heard arguments for all of these. It could also be the world system which encompasses all of these mentioned. The statue spoken of by Daniel predicts the Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman empires. It also could include the democracies and republics of today if one considers the mixing of iron and clay to be the people having a voice with their oppressors. The iron and clay could also represent the mixed seed of Genesis six returning in a big way. It would be folly to point our finger definitively at any country or institution and claim it to be Babylon because we simply do not know. However, there are some really good clues.

The fact that there are sailors lamenting the destruction of Babylon in Revelation 18, indicates that it is a very real place and not just a world system alone.

Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning.
Rev 18:10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,
Rev 18:12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,
Rev 18:13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.
Rev 18:14 “The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!”
Rev 18:15 The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud,
Rev 18:16 “Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!
Rev 18:17 For in a single hour all this wealth has been laid waste.” And all shipmasters and seafaring men, sailors and all whose trade is on the sea, stood far off
Rev 18:18 and cried out as they saw the smoke of her burning, “What city was like the great city?”
Rev 18:19 And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, “Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.

Babylon appears to be a place that sailors could see burning from “afar off”. There are also kings that will “see the smoke of her burning”. This place was also a hub of sexual immorality that corrupted the world.

Rev 18:3 For all nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”
Rev 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;
Rev 18:5 for her sins are heaped high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.

Echoing Jeremiah, the voice from heaven says, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins”.

Jer 51:45 Come out from her midst, my people, and save each one his life from the burning anger of Yahweh.

Mystery Babylon, as it is called by John, has polluted the world with sexual immorality. From the false gospel that is delivered to the world, to the arts and entertainment, one place seems to come to mind that currently could be responsible for all of these abominations, but there are more.

This place also deceived the world with its “sorcery”. This has really come into play over the last fifty years, especially the last two years.

Rev 18:21 And one powerful angel picked up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “In this way Babylon the great city will be thrown down with violence, and will never be found again!
Rev 18:22 And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute players and trumpeters will never be heard in you again! And every craftsman of every trade will never be found in you again! And the sound of a mill will never be heard in you again!
Rev 18:23 And the light of a lamp will never shine in you again! And the sound of a bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again! For your merchants were the most important people of the earth, because with your sorcery they deceived all the nations.
Rev 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all those who had been slaughtered on the earth.

Sorcery is Strong’s G5331, pharmakeia. It is the use or administering of drugs, poisoning and idolatry.

G5331
φαρμακεία
pharmakeia
Thayer Definition:
1) the use or the administering of drugs
2) poisoning
3) sorcery, magical arts, often found in connection with idolatry and fostered by it
4) metaphorically the deceptions and seductions of idolatry

Revelation 18:23 could be translated as follows:

Rev 18:23 And the light of a lamp will never shine in you again! And the sound of a bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again! For your merchants were the most important people of the earth, because with your large pharmaceutical companies they deceived all the nations.

Prescription drugs, illegal drugs and poison have affected every part of the world. There are even places in the world that will deny medical treatment or employment unless a person be injected with a particular poison, or “drug” of the day. People idolize these drugs as the only solution to their problems, when in fact they are actually much of the cause of the problems. If we could find the single source of these poisons, we could easily identify Babylon. Pharmaceutical companies are based all over the world. Germany exported the most pharmaceuticals in 2021 with the United States ranking sixth. The United States and China were the two highest exporters of pesticides (poison), and the United States produces the most biotech crops. Coming out of Babylon could be using plant based medicine and eating local organic food, void of gmo’s and pesticides, if that is even possible any more.

The list that is given of goods that come from Mystery Babylon even contains “human souls” or slaves. Slavery has been abolished and many of the statutes of former slave owners have been torn down, so that should be all behind us, should it not?

Rev 18:10 They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say, “Alas! Alas! You great city, you mighty city, Babylon! For in a single hour your judgment has come.”
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore,
Rev 18:12 cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble,
Rev 18:13 cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

It is so comforting to know that statues of dead slave owners are being removed from the landscape, yet according to the following article from foxnews.com, we may have more problems in front of us.

The United States is again ranked as one of the worst countries in the world for human trafficking. According to a recently released report by the State Department, the top three nations of origin for victims of human trafficking in 2018 were the United States, Mexico and the Philippines. “We have a major issue here in the United States” Geoff Rogers, co-founder of the United States Institute Against Human Trafficking (USIAHT), said in an interview with Fox News. “The United States is the No. 1 consumer of sex worldwide. So we are driving the demand as a society.”

Some of the people that point to Jerusalem to be the “great city” use this verse. Revelation 18:24, “And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints and all those who had been slaughtered on the earth”. Jesus himself accused the leaders of His day with these crimes all the way back to the killing of Abel.

Mat 23:29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous,
Mat 23:30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
Mat 23:31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.
Mat 23:32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
Mat 23:33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?
Mat 23:34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
Mat 23:35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
Mat 23:36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

How could these “serpents” and “vipers” be responsible for killing Abel? It all comes from a mixed seed. Genesis 3:15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”.

Jesus was calling these Pharisees out as children of the serpent who would deceive the whole world.

Rev 12:7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,
Rev 12:8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven.
Rev 12:9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
Rev 12:10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God.
Rev 12:11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.
Rev 12:12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”

One one hand, it is a great event to have the accuser thrown out of heaven, “But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!”.

Unfortunately, we still cannot positively identify Mystery Babylon. There are a few contenders as we look around the world, and it will be clearer as time moves forward.

The featured image is by Patrick Reichboth on Unsplash.