8.1 Two Babylons

DIGRESSION 8.1:  THE TWO BABYLONS

“MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” (Rev.17:5)

It should be recognised that Revelation relates the fall of two Babylons.

The first Babylon, is “the great city”, spiritually called Sodom and Egypt. It is the city of Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified. (Rev. 11:8)

(see digression 12.4 A TALE OF TWO CITIES; JERUSALEM VERSES ROME)

It is destroyed by the ten kings, who betray her, they then give their kingdom to the beast. (17:12-18)

The second Babylon, is the beast empire, it emerges from the Euphrates region and has the characteristics of the old Babylonian, Persian and Greek Seleucid empires.(13: 1-7) It oppressed both Israel and the saints (6th trumpet) and is judged in the 6th vial. (16:12-17) during the events of Armageddon, where it is defeated by Christ and his army. (19: 11-21)

The winepress (19:15) is trodden outside the city (of Jerusalem 14:20)

It is a scriptural principle that God uses the nations to punish his people, but the nations themselves, who are used as instruments of divine retribution will themselves be judged. This principle is expounded in Jeremiah 30: 11-16; “I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished……..therefore all that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.”

This happened in Hezekiah’s day when God used the Assyrian to punish his people (Isaiah chpt.10):

“O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge..” (v.5)

The attitude of the Assyrian, however was one of superiority (of their gods) against God’s people and against God himself;

“Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith?” (v.15)

The outcome was therefore the punishment of the Assyrian:

“The Lord of Hosts shall send among his fat ones leanness.” (v.16)

The same principle is established in Jeremiah chpt.51, first the punishment of Israel by Babylon for her sins (v.5) then the Lords vengeance against Babylon herself. (v.11)

Does this principle hold true in the first century?

(1) – first ; punishment of the Jewish nation.

(2) – then ; punishment of Rome.

Babylon was used as a pseudonym for Rome by Peter (1 Pet.5: 13) and Nero was the “devil”, who, like a “roaring lion”, sought to persecute the Christians by throwing them to the lions.(5:8)

That Rome was used as the instrument of divine punishment against the Jews is beyond dispute. But what happened to Rome itself? Was the city left unpunished?

Rome itself was severely punished at the same time as Jerusalem was punished!

This happened on December 19 to 21 in 69A.D. The storming and the burning of the Capitol by the foreign mercenaries of Vitellius, and the subsequent capture and sacking of the city by the infuriated Flavian army under Mucianus and Antonius Primus is described by the ancient Roman Historian Tacitus and also by Josephus. In Tacitus own words:

“Close by the fighting stood the people of Rome like the audience to a show, cheering and clapping this side or that in turns as if this were a mock battle in the arena. Whenever one side gave way, men would hide in the shops or take refuge in some great house. They were then dragged out and killed at the instance of the mob, who gained most of the loot, for the soldiers were bent on bloodshed and massacre, and the booty fell to the crowd. The whole city presented a frightful caricature of it’s normal self: fighting and casualties at one point, baths and restaurants at another, here the spilling of blood and the litter of dead bodies, close by prostitutes and their like – all the vice associated with a life of idleness and pleasure, all the dreadful deeds of a pitiless sack. These were so intimately linked that an observer would have thought Rome in the grip of a simultaneous orgy of violence and dissipation. There had indeed been times in the past when armies had fought inside the city, twice when Lucius Sulla gained control, and once under Cinna. No less cruelty had been displayed then, but now there was a brutish indifference, and not even a momentary interruption in the pursuit of pleasure. As if this were one more entertainment in the festive season, they gloated over horrors and profited by them, careless which side won and glorying in the calamities of the state.” Tacitus: The Histories.[83] see also Josephus: Wars of the Jews. Book IV.XI.4

Tacitus also mentions that, “Lamentation was heard from every quarter, and Rome was filled with cries of despair and the horrors of a city taken by storm.”

“And the Kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning.” (Rev 18: 9)

The language of Rev.18: 17-18 seemingly reflects the burning of the port of Ostia. Ostia was strategically located at the mouth of the Tiber, fifteen miles down river from Rome. In the fourth century it became known as Portus Romae, and was at the hub of Romes empire and wealth.

“And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying what city is like unto this great city?” (18:17,18)

Revelation chapter 18 has therefore an application to both Rome and Jerusalem (the two Babylons) – in the first century – and the prophecy is still not exhausted.

It must be recognised that Revelation 18 uses Babylon and Tyre as a model. These were trading city-states. Babylon was situated on the Euphrates and traded her wealth, similarly Jerusalem should have dispensed her wealth – living waters, but she had become a source of poison. Jerusalem was judged by the instrumentality of Rome, this was predominantly for the way she had persecuted Christ and his apostles (witnesses).

Similarly, Rome was also judged by God for the way she had treated the Jews and the saints. The association of Jerusalem with Babylon is not as strange as it may seem, for, it was from Babylon that the Jews had returned from their seventy years of exile.

It was at Jerusalem that the punishment accorded to Babel, should have been reversed (Acts 2:5 cp.Gen.11: 7-9 confounded – same word used in LXX) but was not, for the nation did not fully repent. Babylon was also the place from which a renaissance of Jewish thought and religion would emerge.

(see digression THE ESTABLISHMENT OF INIQUITY ON IT’S BASE)

Babylon became therefore a symbol for apostasy and persecution and it is fitting that it is a pseudonym for both Jerusalem and Rome.

This does not mean that I advocate a preterits view, on the contrary, a divine pattern has been established – the first century events will be repeated.

(1) – first Jerusalem (Babylon) will be judged

(2) – then God will judge the empire (Babylonian) that replaces Jerusalem

The latter day destroyer of Jerusalem (The beast and ten kings) is, however, not Rome. We will establish the characteristics of this empire in chapter 13. Suffice to say that the final overthrow of Babylon by Christ and his army will have world wide consequences;

“And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came into remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the fierceness of his wrath.” (16:19)

NOTE :

The “great city” Babylon is a pseudonym for Jerusalem. In this context she is the capitol of the beast empire, this happens after she has been destroyed by ten kings as divine retribution for her treatment of the witnesses. It was in the days of Peleg that the earth was divided (Gen.10:25) – this was the tower of Babel incident when a theophany, “confounded the language” and “scattered them abroad.” (Gen.11: 9). It is not just the beast empire and it’s capitol that has become “Babylon” for she represents the whole world.

Mans ever increasing drive to globalisation and human rights epitomises the Babylon principle. Consider the following:

(1) 500 corporations control 33% of global GNP (gross national product) and 75% of global trade.

(2) A dozen huge corporations will soon control all food production.

(3) The internet is globalising the world. (w.w.w. world wide wickedness)

(4) One trillion dollars is now turned over each day on global currency markets.

(5) Six international crime syndicates are believed to gross $1.5 trillion dollars annually from crime.

(6) Man will soon be able to write his own “Human book of life” enabling manipulation of DNA to produce ever increasing life spans. (for the rich)

We all dwell in Babylon at the moment, and we are all exhorted to “come out of her.”