Good evening and welcome to EBible Fellowship's Bible study in the Book of Revelation.  Tonight is study #15 of Revelation, chapter 14, and we are continuing to look at Revelation14:8:

And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.

We were discussing last time that we can read in the Bible a few times that “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  He “doubles” it to indicate that it is certain and will shortly come to pass.  And, of course, we are living in the time when it has already come to pass.  Babylon, the kingdom of Satan, has fallen.  Historically, there is no getting around the fact that Babylon did not fall at the beginning of the period that they came against Judah in 609 BC; and they did not fall at any point when King Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians were assaulting Judah and destroying Jerusalem and taking the Jewish people captive into Babylon.  That was also not the fall of Babylon.  That was the time of their ascension and great power and authority and the king of Babylon was becoming greater and greater as Babylon captured many nations of that day.  They became the greatest power on earth during the seventy-year period.  As far as Judah’s tribulation, it began in 609 BC and concluded in 539 BC, which was the year in which Babylon fell. 

Babylon fell at the hand of the Medes and the Persians, led by King Cyrus who was also known as Darius.  They took the Babylonians captive in one night, when they were suddenly taken and caught by surprise.  It is a very accurate historical figure of Christ coming as a thief in the night.  The king and his lords were having a party.  They were drinking wine and celebrating when, without any forewarning, their kingdom was taken by the Medes and the Persians.  It is then that the Bible emphasizes that Babylon fell.  We know the seventy-year period was a type and figure of the Great Tribulation at the end of time.  God gives us details of the fall of Babylon in Daniel, chapter 5, concerning the very end of Babylon’s reign when it fell.  The fall of Babylon represents the end of the Great Tribulation and the beginning of Judgment Day.  It is the only thing that fits and it is the only thing that harmonizes with other Scriptures.

I have mentioned this several times as we have gone through the study of Jeremiah, but there may have been some people that did not follow that study, but they have been following the Revelation studies.  Let me go back to Isaiah, chapter 13, and this is a chapter that goes into much discussion about Judgment Day at the end of the world.  There is no question about that.  Let me read just a couple of verses in Isaiah, starting with Isaiah 13:6:

Howl ye; for the day of JEHOVAH is at hand…

Then it says in Isaiah 13:9:

Behold, the day of JEHOVAH cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger…

It says in Isaiah 13:10-11:

For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity;

And, in Isaiah 13:13:

Therefore I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall remove out of her place, in the wrath of JEHOVAH of hosts, and in the day of his fierce anger.

Now when we look at all these statements, there is absolutely no doubt that Isaiah 13 is a chapter focused on the judgment of this world.  The “wrath of God” and “the day of the Lord” are all familiar phrases found throughout many Books of the Bible that always indicate that it is the day of God’s wrath upon all the unsaved people of the earth.  God could not make it clearer than He does in Isaiah 13:11: “And I will punish the world for their evil.”  It is not punishment on the churches, but on the world.  You are probably saying, “Okay, I agree with that, but I do not see where you are going with this in relation to the fall of Babylon, but okay.”  Well, then we have to go back to Isaiah 13:1, where it says, “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.”  Then it goes on in the following verses to include much of what I just read which clearly describes the judgment at the end of the world.  It followed in the context of the “burden of Babylon,” according to Isaiah 13:1.   Some might think, “Well, maybe it started off that way, but maybe God just shifted gears as He is prone to do in the Bible.”  Well, I read verse 13 where it said that God will “shake the heavens and the earth shall remove” and this leads right into what we read in Isaiah 13:17:

Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall not regard silver; and as for gold, they shall not delight in it.

Now why does God refer to the Medes?   It is because, historically, at the end of the seventy year-period, it was the Medes and the Persians that God raised up to conquer Babylon and in this context which can be nothing other than a description of the final judgment of this world, God suddenly reverts back to talking about the Medes being stirred up “against them,” which has to be Babylon, because it goes on to give us confirmation of that in Isaiah 13:19-20:

And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation:

Babylon is mentioned again by name.  We must get this clear in our minds if we are going to understand Revelation 14:8, where it says, “Babylon is fallen.”  And that phrase comes up again in Revelation, chapter 18, and if we are going to understand Jeremiah, chapter 50 and chapter 51, we have to understand that God is using types and figures to picture Satan and his kingdom as “Babylon” and when they are victorious, they conquer Judea and that is Satan coming against the churches.  He overcomes the church and the two witnesses are killed and lie dead in the streets of that great city Jerusalem – that is a picture of judgment beginning at the house of God.  Every time we read of Babylon being victorious, or of Babylon conquering and overcoming and being triumphant, it typifies the judgment on the churches.  But when God switches from the topic of judgment on Judea to the topic of judgment on Babylon and when He begins to speak of Babylon’s fall, now we understand that it would point to the end of the seventy years.  That is the only time that Babylon fell and it was at the end of seventy years, which typifies the Great Tribulation, and that means Babylon falls in the Day of Judgment.

There is another excellent verse which, in just one verse, lays out God’s judgment program beginning at the house of God and then concluding on the world.  It does so with the typology of Judah, Jerusalem and Babylon.  It says in Jeremiah 51:49:

As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

Here, God indicates that Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall and “Israel” would be pointing to those in the churches.  Babylon came against Judea, historically, but Satan came against the churches and slew many people, according to the wrath of God when God’s judgment came on the house of God. 

But notice the second part of Jeremiah 51:49:

… so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.

Now there is transition.  The “cup” was first given to the people called by God’s name, according to Jeremiah 25:29: “For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished.”  But He will give Babylon the identical cup of wrath.  Just as the city called by His name drank of His cup at the hand of the Babylonians, as God utilized them as an instrument of judgment and God says, “So at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth.”  All the unsaved people in the Day of Judgment will fall at “Babylon,” and so it says, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen,” and we have abundant evidence that God is speaking of the kingdoms of the world which includes the churches that became a part of Babylon when Satan overcame them.  We need to understand this.

Let us look at just one more verse regarding, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  It says in James 5:12:

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.

The word “fall” is the same Greek word translated as “fallen” in our verse.  Falling into condemnation is what God has in view when He says, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  They are now under the wrath of God.  They had been used by God as a means to bring His wrath upon the people within the churches, but now the “table is turned.”  Now they are the object of the wrath of God; they have fallen into condemnation.

There is double emphasis in the phrase, “is fallen, is fallen.”  God does double up the language of the cup of His wrath, in Revelation 18:6:

Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.

Babylon is fallen into condemnation: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen.”  It is a double condemnation.  Of course, there is another solution to what God means here because, as it says in verse 6, “in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double,” and that is that Babylon filled the cup and gave it to the churches; the churches drank of the wine of her fornication, as it says in Revelation 14:8: “because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”  It is interesting how God phrases that as the wine of “her wrath” and we will discuss that later, but Babylon made the people within the churches and congregations drink of the wrath of her fornication and then God says, “in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double.”  So Babylon will drink twice as much as those in the churches and congregations of the world. 

By God’s grace, He has opened up our understanding to see exactly what He means by filling the cup “double.”  When God brought judgment upon the churches, as judgment began at the house of God, He likened it to judgment on the “third part.”  We read about this, again, and again, in Revelation, chapter 8.  It says in Revelation 8:9-10:

And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

It goes on and on referring to the “third part” because the “third part” identifies with God’s elect.  The “third part” was to be in the churches, as that is where God wanted His people to be during the church age of almost 2,000 years.  That is where you would have found the true, elect people of God and, therefore, the corporate church took upon itself identification with the “third part.”  But when God brought judgment on the churches, He eventually brought His people out of the churches, commanding them to depart out and leaving only the unsaved; He left the tares and removed the wheat by the end of the Great Tribulation.  But the judgment fell on the “third part” and the cup of the wrath of God was given to that “third part.” 

On the other hand, Satan, the beast, and his kingdom identify with the number “666,” as we read in Revelation 13:18:

Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.

If you write “one third” as a decimal, it would be “.333” and if you write “two thirds” as a decimal it would be “.666” and, therefore, we could say that judgment begins at the house of God (.333 or the “third part”), but when judgment transitions to the world and those that have the number of the beast, all the unsaved people that inhabit the nations of the world, it is as though it is “doubled.”  Now it is the “two thirds” (.666) that has the mark of the beast and is the unsaved people of the world.  It is a doubling of the cup of wrath, so we can understand what God is saying here.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study, we are going to look a little more closely at the phrase, “the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” because it is unusual.  Normally,  we read of “the wine of the wrath of God” or “the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.”  So, concerning Babylon, why does God say, “the wine of the wrath of her fornication”?  It is similar to “the wine of the wrath of God,” but it is different in an unusual way.  We will take a closer look at that, Lord willing, when we get together for our next Bible study in the Book of Revelation.