This Fourth Angel Gives Impetus to the Third Angel’s Message.
After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with his splendor. He gave a mighty shout:
“Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen!
She has become a home for demons.
She is a hideout for every foul spirit,
a hideout for every foul vulture
and every foul and dreadful animal.” – REV 18:1-2. NLT
This fourth angel is different because, “the earth is illuminated with his glory,”(NASB) showing that his message has worldwide polarizing implications. The three angels of Revelation 14 have sounded with distinct messages of warning to the inhabitants of the earth. Now this angel comes to give impetus to the third angel’s message, proclaiming with a voice loud enough for the whole world to hear.
We must not lose sight of the fact that Babylon is the woman riding the beast, a religious power made up of Catholicism, apostate Protestantism, and spiritualism.
Babylon is more than just an End-time power. As the “great city” it symbolizes all the evil powers that have ever dominated the earth. In the Greek of Rev 17:18, Babylon “is” the great city which “has rulership” over the kings of the earth. This combination of a present tense verb with a present participle (“has rulership”) is one of the most continuous expressions possible in the Greek. It means that Babylon rules continuously over the kings of the earth. The principles of Babylon lie behind all the powers in earth’s history that try to coerce and exploit people.
Babylon can rear its ugly head in surprising places.
Israelite law required slave holders to provide freed slaves with resources so they could build their own lives (Deuteronomy 15:13-14). However, like the freed slaves in America, the Aboriginal people of Australia were placed in a kind of economic slavery. Freed slaves in America never received what was promised. While the Northern states ended slavery through the Civil War, the freed slaves themselves lacked the land to become self-sufficient in the agricultural South. Many freed slaves became virtual debt slaves on the same estates where they had once worked in bondage. As they flocked North to find work, white people fled and that established the black ghettos.
Regarding Aboriginal mistakes we could ask, “Am I responsible for the sins of my ancestors?” The Bible seems to answer “yes” (Revelation 18:4-7; Matt 23:29-36). To ignore these disparities because “I had nothing to do with it” is like a soccer team cheating in the 1st half and then saying, “OK, we’ll play fair for the rest of the game!” Christians must be willing to do something, but what is it?
Revelation 18 contains a graphic description of the demise of spiritual Babylon. Its despair is depicted in poetry. Babylon and the woman are now synonymous as Babylon is referred to in the feminine ‘she’. Both are filled with blasphemy. Both kill God’s people. Both indulge their sexual fantasies (metaphorically) with kings. This metaphor illustrates the mixing of the pure gospel of love and grace with worldly desires for power and wealth. This fourth angel gives impetus to the third angel’s message of Revelation 14, and finally both are judged and destroyed.
Good Morning Ross,
According to Ezekiel 18 we are guilty of the sins of our ancestors if we do not repent of those sins and change our ways, but if we do repent of those sins committed by former generations their guilt does not pass on to us. Inter-generational righteousness or guilt is entirely dependent upon whether succeeding generations follow the same course. Do I mourn and abhor the treatment of our Indigenous people over 200 odd years? Yes, absolutely. I’m horrified by it. Am I personally guilty of those sins? No, I am not. As disciples of Jesus we are to seek justice and mercy for all people and always eschew the mistreatment of others.
Well said Alan. You are right on the money!
Thanks Ross for the great work you do each day.
I agree with the above comment, we acknowledge the passed wrong done by our ancestors but we are not personally responsible, unless we follow the same path. Have seen it happen where next generation wanted revenge for what was done to their ancestors end up in useless war , innocent lives lost just for revenge.