Babylon is Fallen

Photo by Tom Robertson

“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 the Great is fallen, is fallen; she has become a den of demons, a haunt of devils and every kind of evil spirit. For all the nations have drunk the fatal wine of her intense immorality. The rulers of earth have enjoyed themselves with her, and businessmen throughout the world have grown rich from all her luxurious living.’ Then I heard another voice calling from heaven, ‘Come away from her, my people; do not take part in her sins, or you will be punished with her. For her sins are piled as high as heaven, and God is ready to judge her for her crimes’” (Revelation 18:1–5 TLB).

There is an old story about a group of young seminary students who would meet after class to play basketball at the gym of a nearby college. One day, a custodian was sitting in the corner of the gym, reading the Bible. The sight of this man reading the Bible intrigued one of the students.

So he approached the custodian and asked: “What are you reading?” The custodian answered: “The book of Revelation.” A bit surprised by his answer, the student then asked in a subtly condescending tone: “Do you understand it?” The custodian responded matter-of-factly: “Yes, I do.”

On the verge of laughter by the custodian’s seemingly naïve claim, the student retorted: “Oh really? Well, then, what does it mean?”

The custodian replied: “God wins.”

Indeed, Revelation is a difficult book to understand. It is mostly written in an ancient literary style that modern scholars call “apocalyptic”—a term derived from the Greek word apokalypsis, which means “revelation” and appears in the very first verse of the book bearing this name: “The revelation (apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place” (Revelation 1:1 NIV).

Apocalyptic literature includes a number of similar Jewish and Christian writings that date from around 200 BCE to 200 CE. These texts commonly depict a seer who experiences special visions and/or an otherworldly journey, usually guided by an angel who serves as an interpreter of what he sees. In other words, for fans of the Matrix movies, the seer takes the “red pill.” The proverbial curtain is thus pulled back and he is made privy to the spiritual realities that lay behind the course of this world.

Apocalyptic texts are also characterized by their heavy use of symbolism, complex metaphor, and evocative imagery. Not least because of these literary elements, Revelation scholars debate much of what the author intended to communicate to his audience. Nevertheless, there are a few central assertions arising in the book that seem abundantly clear.

One of these is that the present age is wholly caught up in a cosmic, spiritual battle between good and evil. There are those who stand with God and there are those who have aligned themselves with forces seeking to ultimately thwart God’s good purposes for the world. There is no “in-between.”

The view presented in the book of Revelation offers a sobering reminder to the church that there are non-negotiable boundaries for who we are, or claim to be, as God’s people. There can be no legitimate compromise with the idolatrous systems and agendas of the world that fundamentally contradict God’s revealed will to all creation (see Revelation 14:6–13; also 1 John 2:15–19).  

A refusal to participate in what Revelation calls “Babylon” may be quite costly (see Revelation 6:9–11). It will certainly incite division (see similarly Matthew 10:32–39). But it is the only option for those wishing to remain faithful.

Of course, whatever penalty brought to bear on those standing with God is only temporary. Once everything is said and done, in the end, God wins. And, therefore, we do too.