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PART
II
THE IDENTITY OF BABYLON
THE
OLD TESTAMENT SOURCE
There
is a remarkable parallel between Jeremiah, chapter 51, and
the 17th and 18th chapters of the Revelation. The words of
Jeremiah are a denunciation not of Israel but of Israel's
great enemy and conqueror, the historical Babylon. The Spirit
through John uses identical expressions in describing the
judgments to come upon the latter day Babylon. Babylon is
the antithesis of God's people: first, against natural Israel
in Old Testament times, and then as the antagonist of spiritual
Israel- from the apostolic era to the return of the Master.
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JEREMIAH
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REVELATION
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| Flee
out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his
soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the
time of the Lord's vengeance; he will render unto her
a recompense (v. 6). |
And
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of
her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues (18: 4). |
| Babylon
hath been a golden cup in the Lord's hand, that made all
the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine;
therefore the nations are mad (v. 7). |
I
will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that
sitteth upon many waters: With whom the kings of the earth
have commited fornication, and the inhabitants of the
earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication
... thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for
by thy sorceries were all nations deceived (17: 1-2). |
| Babylon
is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her. O thou
that dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures,
thine end is come (v. 8, 13). |
Alas,
alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in
one hour is thy judgment come ... and the merchants of
the earth shall weep and mourn over her (18: 10). |
| Thus
shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that
I will bring upon her (v. 64). |
And
a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone,
and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall
that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found
no more at all (18: 21). |
The judgment
upon Babylon in each case has a finality about it. The opposer
of God and His people is being taken out of the way, and in
the Revelation it is to give place to the righteous reign of
the Lord's Christ. Whatever punishments Israel must bear, she
is to be restored and redeemed. Babylon has no promise of redemption
but is to be destroyed utterly.
The fact
that John conforms so closely to the description of Jeremiah
in his portrayal of Babylon must clue us in to its meaning
in the Apocalypse. Like Babylon of old it is a political and
religious system which defies the Deity and persecutes His
people, and as such it is doomed to destruction.
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