At the end of the Great Tribulation, the full number of 144,000 martyrs have gone to glory in heaven because of their testimony to the gospel of Christ (Rev. 6:9-11; 7:1-4; 14:1-5). Yet an angel remains to preach the gospel to every people group on earth (Rev. 14:6-7). Another angel announces the fall of Babylon (keyword: Babylon end-times):
“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality.” (Rev. 14:8).
Babylon fell once before, after arising as the first of four great empires which ruled over Israel (Dan. 2:31-43). Jews suffered exile in Babylon until God brought a small remnant back to Jerusalem in the 6th century BC.
At that time, most of the rest of the Jews stayed ensnared in Babylon’s idolatry and immorality. Since then she has represented the sinful kingdom of the world as opposed to the holy kingdom of God.
The harlot drunk with the blood of the saints
In the end times Babylon will rise again. An angel reveals her to John as a great party animal drunk with the blood of the saints, and getting the whole world drunk on her lavish abominations.
“’Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns.
“The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’ And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus.” (Rev. 17:1-7).
The harlot Babylon will be an end-times economic culture that is “sitting on”—that is, being supported by—the Antichrist. Only those who take the mark of the Antichrist will take part in it. We see how extensive this economic culture is in Revelation 18:11-20. For “all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth” (verse 19).
Many who take the mark will not do so to honor the Antichrist or his vassal kings. They take it to get rich and indulge in all kinds of debauchery and lewd virtual realities.
The kings’ envy of Babylon’s power
The Babylon economy gains so much power that it “reigns over the kings of the earth.” The Antichrist’s vassal kings will grow to hate Babylon’ reign over them. They decide to destroy the economy and burn it up (Rev. 17:12-18), while the other kings and merchants of the earth lament (Rev. 18:9-20).
Why do the vassal kings burn Babylon? So they can force its intoxicated subjects to sober up and join in their war against Christ—who begins His return at the end of the Great Tribulation.
Even then a voice from heaven says to those in Babylon, “Come out of her, My people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues…” (Rev. 18:4). God’s still offers salvation right up until the moment of the Second Coming!
ETG articles related to Babylon end-times:
3 1/2 Years of Great Tribulation
Tribulation for saints, wrath for unbelievers
Is there hope for those who are left behind?
Related sources for Babylon end-times:
Affirming Israel’s borders: Scripture & history.
Bible supports Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
Keyword: Babylon end-times
What will happen in the Babylon end-times?
