And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
24. And in her ] St John passes from recording the angel’s denunciation to the impression made on his own mind by the judgement he witnessed.
of all that were slain upon the earth ] Cf. Jer 51:49, where however, if the A. V. be right, the sense is rather different. “The slain of all the earth” here seem to mean “the slain of (the spiritual) Israel,” there, the allies of Babylon who share in her fall.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And in her – When she came to be destroyed, and her real character was seen.
Was found the blood of prophets – Of the public teachers of the true religion. On the word prophets see the notes on Rev 18:20.
And of saints – Of the holy. See the notes on Rev 18:20.
And of all that were slain upon the earth – So numerous have been the slain, so constant and bloody have been the persecutions there, that it may be said that all the blood ever shed has been poured out there. Compare the notes on Mat 23:35. No one can doubt the propriety of this representation with respect to pagan and papal Rome.
In regard to the general meaning and application of this chapter the following remarks may be made:
(1) It refers to papal Rome, and is designed to describe the final overthrow of that formidable anti-Christian power. The whole course of the interpretation of the previous chapters demands such an application, and the chapter itself naturally suggests it.
(2) If it be asked why so much of this imagery is derived from the condition of a maritime power, or pertains to commerce, since both Babylon and Rome were at some distance from the sea, and neither could with propriety be regarded as seaport towns, it may be replied:
(a)That the main idea in the mind of John was that of a rich and magnificent city;
(b)That all the things enumerated were doubtless found, in fact, in both Babylon and Rome;
(c)That though not properly seaport towns, they were situated on rivers that opened into seas, and were therefore not unfavorably situated for commerce; and,
(d)That, in fact, they traded with all parts of the earth.
The leading idea is that of a great and luxurious city, and this is filled up and decorated with images of what is commonly found in large commercial towns. We are not, therefore, to look for a literal application of this, and it is not necessary to attempt to find all these things, in fact, in the city referred to. Much of the description may be for the mere sake of keeping, or ornament.
(3) If this refers to Rome, as is supposed, then, in accordance with the previous representations, it shows that the destruction of the papal power is to be complete and final. The image which John had in his eye as illustrating that was undoubtedly ancient Babylon as prophetically described in Isa. 1314, and the destruction of the power here referred to is to be as complete as was the destruction described there. It would not be absolutely necessary in the fulfillment of this to suppose that Rome itself is to become a heap of ruins like Babylon, whatever may be true on that point, but that the papal power, as such, is to be so utterly destroyed that the ruins of desolate Babylon would properly represent it.
(4) If this interpretation is correct, then the Reformation was in entire accordance with what God would have his people do, and was demanded by solemn duty to him. Thus, in Rev 18:4, his people are expressly commanded to come out of her, that they might not be partakers of her sins, nor of her plagues. If it had been the design of the Reformers to perform a work that should be in all respects a fulfilling of the command of God, they could have done nothing that would have more literally met the divine requirement. Indeed, the church has never performed a duty more manifestly in accordance with the divine will, and more indispensable for its own purity, prosperity, and safety, than the act of separating entirely and forever from papal Rome.
(5) The Reformation was a great movement in human affairs. It was the index of great progress already reached, and the pledge of still greater. The affairs of the world were at that period placed on a new footing, and from the period of the Reformation, and just in proportion as the principles of the Reformation are acted on, the destiny of mankind is onward.
(6) The fall of papal Rome, as described in this chapter, will remove one of the last obstructions to the final triumph of the gospel. In the notes on Rev 16:10-16, we saw that one great hindrance to the spread of the true religion would be taken away by the decline and fall of the Turkish power. A still more formidable hindrance will be taken away by the decline and fall of the papal power; for that power holds more million of the race under its subjection, and with a more consummate art, and a more powerful spell. The papal influence has been felt, and still is felt, in a considerable part of the world. It has churches, and schools, and colleges, in almost all lands. It exercises a vast influence over governments. It has powerful societies organized for the purpose of propagating its opinions; and it so panders to some of the most powerful passions of our nature, and so converts to its own purposes all the resources of superstition, as still to retain a mighty, though a waning hold on the human mind. When this power shall finally cease, anyone can see that perhaps the most mighty obstruction which has ever been on the earth for a thousand years to the spread of the gospel will have been removed, and the way will be prepared for the introduction of the long-hoped-for millennium.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 24. In her was found the blood of prophets, c.] She was the persecutor and murderer of prophets and of righteous men.
And of all that were slain upon the earth.] This refers to her counsels and influence, exciting other nations and people to persecute and destroy the real followers of God. There is no city to which all these things are yet applicable, therefore we may presume that the prophecy remains yet to be fulfilled.
Bishop Bale, who applies this, as before, to the Romish Church, has, on Re 18:22, given some information to the curious antiquary.
“But be certaine,” says he, “and sure, thou myserable Church, that thou shalt no longer enjoy the commodious pleasures of a free cittye.-The merry noyes of them that play upon harpes, lutes, and fidels the sweet voice of musicians that sing with virginals, vials, and chimes; the armony of them that pipe in recorders, flutes, and drums; and the shirle showt of trumpets, waits, and shawmes, shall no more be heard in thee to the delight of men. Neyther shall the sweet organs containing the melodious noyse of all maner of instruments and byrdes be plaied upon, nor the great belles be rong after that, nor yet the fresh discant, prick-song, counter-point, and faburden be called for in thee, which art the very sinagog of Sathan. Thy lascivious armonye, and delectable musique, much provoking the weake hartes of men to meddle in thy abhominable whordom, by the wantonnes of idolatry in that kinde, shall perish with thee for ever. No cunning artificer, carver, paynter, nor gilder, embroderer, goldsmith, nor silk-worker; with such other like of what occupacion soever they be, or have bene to thy commodity, shall never more be found so agayne.
“Copes, cruettes, candelstickes, miters, crosses, sensers, crismatoris, corporasses, and chalices, which for thy whorishe holines might not somtime be touched, will than for thy sake be abhorred of all men. Never more shall be builded for marchants of thi livery and mark, palaces, temples, abbeys, collages, covents, chauntries, fair houses, and horcherds of plesure. The clapping noise of neyther wyndmil, horsemil, nor watermil, shal any more be heard to the gluttenous feeding of thy puffed up porklings, for the maintenaunce of thine idle observacions and ceremonies. For thy mitred marchaunts were sumtimes princes of the earth, whan they reigned in their roialty. Thy shorn shavelinges were lordes over the multitude whan they held their priestly authority over the soules and bodies of men. Yea, and with thy privy legerdemain, with thy juggling castes, with thy craftes and inchauntmentes of thy subtile charmes, were all nacions of the world deceyved.”
This is very plain language, and thus on all hands a monstrous system of superstition and idolatry was attacked by our Reformers; and with these unfurbished weapons, directed by the Spirit of the living God, popery was driven from the throne, from the bench, from the universities, and from the churches of this favoured kingdom. And by a proper application of Scripture, and by the universal diffusion of the word of God, it may be soon driven from the face of the universe. And when the inventions of men are separated from that Church, and it becomes truly regenerated, (and of this it is highly capable, as, among its monstrous errors and absurdities, it contains all the essential truths of God,) it will become a praise and a glory in the earth. Protestants wish not its destruction, but its reformation.
Some there may be, who, in their zeal for truth, would pull the whole edifice to pieces; but this is not God’s method: he destroys what is evil, and saves what is good. It is reformation, not annihilation, that this Church needs.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In the rubbish of Rome, when destroyed, will be found the blood of all those holy servants of God, whether ministers of the gospel, or professors of it, who ever since the year 606, when the pope came first to his power, have been put to death for the testimony of Christ, and a faithful adherence to the purity of doctrine by him delivered, the purity of worship by him prescribed and directed, or the purity of discipline by his direction set up. As it is storied, that upon the dissolution of abbeys, and monasteries, and nunneries here in England, there were found in holes of walls, and ponds, the skulls and bones of many infants, the supposed bastards of those fathers: so, though men cannot or will not see it now, yet when the papacy shall have its period, men shall understand, that no prophet nor righteous man hath violently been put to death for the truth out of Rome, that is, out of the jurisdiction and influence of Rome; but though it may be they have been no professed papists that have been the cause or instruments of their death, yet they have done it as influenced from that bloody city; and the principles have been perfectly popish and antichristian which madly hurried them on to such cruelties. It was one of Luthers reasons why he would have none put to death for heresy, (as they call it), because he would have this particular character reserved for that antichristian synagogue.But ah, Lord Jesus! When shall these things be? Or who shall live when the wise providence of God shall effect them, to join with the whole church, both triumphant and militant, in the song which we have prophesied of upon this occasion in the next chapter.
It is not for us to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power, Act 1:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Applied by Christ (Mt23:35) to apostate Jerusalem, which proves that not merely theliteral city Rome, and the Church of Rome (though the chiefrepresentative of the apostasy), but the WHOLEof the faithless Church of both the Old and New Testament is meant byBabylon the harlot; just as the whole Church (Old and New Testament)is meant by “the woman” (Re12:1). As to literal city, ARINGHUSin BENGEL says, Pagan Romewas the “general shambles” for slaying the sheep of Jesus.FRED. SEYLERin BENGEL calculates thatpapal Rome, between A.D.1540 and 1580, slew more than nine hundred thousand Protestants.Three reasons for the harlot’s downfall are given: (1) The worldlygreatness of her merchants, which was due to unholytraffic in spiritual things. (2) Her sorceries, or jugglingtricks, in which the false prophet that ministers to the beast in itslast form shall exceed her; compare “sorcerers” (Rev 21:8;Rev 22:15), specially mentionedamong those doomed to the lake of fire. (3) Her persecution of (OldTestament) “prophets” and (New Testament) “saints.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,…. Such as before mentioned, in Re 18:20 this is another reason of her destruction, besides her luxury and idolatry, namely, her shedding the blood of the saints, with which she is said to be drunk, and therefore blood is now given her to drink, Re 17:6 for she will now be found guilty of slaying the witnesses, who are meant by the prophets and saints, that have been from the beginning of the apostasy:
and of all that were slain upon the earth: not only of those that have been slain in the city of Rome, but of all those that have been slain throughout the empire; they being slain by her order, or with her consent, and she conniving at it, encouraging it, and therefore will be justly chargeable with it all; see Mt 23:31 the Ethiopic version adds, “for the name of Christ”.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
In her ( ). In Rome.
Was found (). First aorist passive indicative of . See Rev 16:6; Rev 17:6 for the blood already shed by Rome. Rome “butchered to make a Roman holiday” (Dill, Roman Society, p. 242) not merely gladiators, but prophets and saints from Nero’s massacre A.D. 64 to Domitian and beyond.
Of all that have been slain ( ). Perfect passive articular participle genitive plural of , the verb used of the Lamb slain (Rev 5:9; Rev 5:12; Rev 13:8). Cf. Mt 23:35 about Jerusalem.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
1) “And in her was found,” (kai en aute heurethe) “And in her there was found,” discovered, disclosed, uncovered, or revealed,”
2) “The blood of prophets and of saints,” (haima propheton kai hagion) “Blood of prophets and saints,” called and dedicated, committed, true martyrs of God’s worship and service, who gave their lives for his work. This city-woman-whore, and her whoring mistress daughters, who fornicated with ten kings and merchants in idolatrous union, had shed blood of God’s prophets and saints, Rev 13:15; Rev 16:6; Rev 17:6.
3) “And of all that were slain upon the earth,” (kai panton ton esphamenon epi tes ges) “And (even) a retribution (judgment because of) all the blood of all those prophets and saints that had been slain upon the earth,” for their fidelity to truth, Jer 51:49.
From righteous Abel who sealed his testimony of faith with his blood, till the blood of the final redeemed of the earth has been slain for his faith, God has kept a record for judgment, in reserve, for the great day of his wrath upon Babylon, and, then, thereafter the wicked of all ages, Gen 4:10; Heb 11:4; Heb 12:24; Psa 79:1-3; yet there is a victor’s hour for the redeemed, Rom 8:11; 1Co 15:57-58.
The city of Babylon and the Beast Government Babylon, having now been plagued to doom, a joyful hour of triumph is just ahead in the marriage of the Lamb, and coming of the King, Rev 19:1-21.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(24) And in her was found . . .It is not by seductiveness only that her guilt is measured: her hands are defiled with blood: the blood of prophets, who had witnessed against her: of saints, whose holy lives were a protest against her sins, and so hateful to her; and of all who have been slain on the earth. (Comp. Rev. 17:6, and Note there.) It is not meant that literally all the blood shed by violence had been shed by Rome, or any other single city of which Babylon is type: all that is meant is that Babylon, the world city, is founded on those principles, the logical outcome of which is violence, bloodshed, and hostility to the highest right: those who die by her hands, few or many, are the evidence that the whole tendency of her power is against holiness and truth. In the earthly view, we are guilty of the acts we do: in the heavenly view, we are guilty of all that the spirit and sin of our conduct tends to do. The spirit of transgression is seen in one act as well as in many, and as it is the attitude of the spirit that God looks upon, so in a single act may be gathered up the transgression of the whole law. (Comp. Rev. 17:6, and Note there; see also Jas. 2:10). It is the fatal failure to perceive this which leads man to make light of sin, and to undervalue the Cross of Christ.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Prophets The prophets were slain by Rome only as she is identical with the antichrist of the Old Testament ages, with Babylon, and even with the antichrist in the material, literal Jerusalem. And this is transparently true of the last clause all the good that were slain upon the earth. And the fact that the Romish Babylon is type and inheritress of all the great antichristic systems, being the complete beast of all the seven in one total eighth, explains the commercial figures imported into this bold chant. The city is figure of the profane, spiritual, and secular antichristic world-power. The theological and moral debauchery of all the antichristic ages was identical with all their pomp and trade and commercial intercourse. Prophecy mingles them all in one, and consigns them to the same ruin.
Then shall a new system arise, in which righteousness and purity shall reign.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘And in her was found the blood of prophets and of the people of God (saints) and of all who have been slain on the earth.’
But she was also responsible for the martyrdom and murder of the countless millions who have died by violence through the ages. This could not be said individually of Babylon or of Rome, for neither could take the blame for all, and the great city Jerusalem had to bear the blame for some (Mat 23:35; Luk 11:50). Thus this condemnation can only be seen as applying to the great cities of the earth as a whole, whose influence was responsible for such atrocities. This confirms what we have seen, that the idea of Babylon the Great includes all cities who through her influence and example control empires and nations in a Godless fashion, wherever they may be. It is this control that will be taken over by the scarlet beast and Satan himself. This whole description of the destruction of Babylon the Great, as with so much in Revelation, is to be an encouragement to the church as it faces persecution.
So we see here a reversal of Genesis 1-11. In Genesis 1-11 we have creation, Paradise, the intervention and success of Satan, the building of a city and the establishment of Babel, in Revelation we have the destruction of Babel, the intervention and defeat of Satan, the heavenly Paradise and the new creation.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
REFLECTIONS
BLESSED be the Lord! the destruction of the whore is come! One hour, when the time all along predicted arrives, is enough, and all her traffic in hunting souls, and ruining the world, is done away forever. Of what avail as all her pomp, and sitting as a queen among the nations!
Precious Lord Jesus give thy redeemed grace to hear thy love-calls, and to come out from among her! How many of thy dear ones are now hidden where the seat of the beast is! How many more, yet to be called, are found therein! Oh! bring them out, and house them in thy little Zoar, when thou makest the awful overthrow.
Methinks I would hail the Church, whoever lives to see it in the view of the blessed event. The very prospect of it is blessed. With what joy, will the redeemed welcome the day. Yea, heaven itself will take part in the felicity of it. The Apostles and Prophets, gone before, will rejoice over her, when God hath avenged his people on her. Lord! be thou eternally and everlastingly praised, in the total overthrow of thine enemies, and the salvation of thy people!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
Ver. 24. And in her was found ] Rome hath ever been the slaughter house of the saints, as Jerusalem was before her, Mat 23:34-39 .
And of all that were slain ] For she hath a hand in all the wars of Europe, besides all the Christian blood shed by her instigation, in those holy wars, as they called them, for the recovery of the land of Canaan.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rev 18:24 . Again, as at Rev 18:20 , the change of style (here from an apostrophe to a description) and spirit (Rev 17:6 ) marks an insertion by the final editor, unless the verse originally lay after Rev 18:3 . The triple rhythm corresponds to that of Rev 18:20 . Rome has now succeeded Jerusalem (Mat 23:35 , etc.) as the arch-enemy of the faithful. The climax of her iniquities is couched in terms of the primitive Semitic idea (Gen 4:10 ) that exposed and discovered blood is a cry for vengeance [ 2Ma 8:3 f.]; blood violently shed wails till it is appeased by the punishment of the murderers. By a natural hyperbole, Rome is held responsible for the murders, judicial and otherwise, of saints and prophets and the slain of Israel in general substituted here for the “apostles” of Rev 18:20 , probably to include the Jews killed in the recent war as well as pre-Christian martyrs like the Maccabees of whom Augustine finely says: nondum quidem erat mortuus Christus, sed martyres eos fecit moriturus Christus (Heb 1:11 to Heb 12:1 ). Rome here is the last and worst exponent of persecution. Her collapse is attributed to their blood drawing down God’s utter retribution. “My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say” (Jer 51:35 , imprecating successfully the divine revenge, Jer 51:36 ; Jer 51:49 ). As Chrysostom called Psalms 109. a prophecy in the shape of a curse, this vehement, sensitive oracle against Rome’s insolence and cruelty may be termed a curse in the form of a prophecy. A similar idea underlay the view of certain pious people who, according to Josephus ( cf. Eus. H. E. ii. 23. 20 21), considered the fall of Jerusalem a retribution for the foul murder of James the Just nearly ten years before.
The doom-song is followed by an outburst of celestial triumph (Rev 19:1-8 ) in answer to Rev 18:20 . The conclusion as well as the commencement of the victory (Rev 12:12 f.) is hymned in heaven. The stern, exultant anthem, which is morally superior to the delight voiced by En. xlvii. 4, forms an overture to the final movement of the Apocalypse, as well as (like Rev 7:9 f., Rev 14:1-5 ) a relief to the sombre context. 8 b is a prosaic editorial gloss, probably due to the liturgical use of the book, and the last clause of 10 ( ) might be the same ( cf. 1Co 15:56 ), as many editors think, were it not for the genuinely Johannine ring of the words. In any case it is an after-thought, probably (so Baljon, Barth, etc.) added by the author himself, in order to bring out here what is brought out in Rev 22:9 by the explicit mention of the prophets, since . . . alone would mean Christians in general. The presence of 9b 10 here, however, is not motived as at Rev 22:8-9 , where it comes in naturally at the final of the revelations and after a distinct allusion (Rev 22:1 ) to the revealing angel. Here the angel of the second (at least) has not been mentioned since Rev 17:1 ; Rev 17:7 ; Rev 17:15 , and no reason at all is given for the superstitious impulse to worship. The passage is certainly Johannine, but probably misplaced (like Rev 18:14 , etc.). Can it have originally lain at the end of 17., where the hierophant angel is speaking ( cf. also Rev 17:17 , words of God and Rev 19:9 b)? Such technical dislocations and derangements are common enough in primitive literature ( cf. my Historical New Testament , pp. xxxix. 676, 690). The passage must have been shifted to its present site either by accident or more probably by a scribe who saw that the similar assurance in Rev 21:5 , Rev 22:6 related primarily to future bliss rather than to judgment; perhaps he also took the first not as a divine saying ( cf. Rev 21:5 ) but as angelic (Rev 22:6 , cf. Rev 1:10-11 ; Rev 1:19 , and note on Rev 22:10 ), and sought to harmonise the same order as in Rev 14:13 (command to write, beatitude, asseverance). Otherwise 1 10 is a unity as it stands. The change of situation in 1 3, 4 10 does not prove any combination of sources; it is simply another of the inconsequences and transitions characteristic of the whole book. The marriage-idea of 7, 8 is a proleptic hint which is not developed till later (21), while the supper (9) is only mentioned to be dropped unless the grim vision of 17 21 (for which cf. Gressmann’s Ursprung d. Isr.-jd. Eschatologie , 136 f.) is meant to be a foil to it (so Sabatier and Schn).
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
prophets. App-189.
saints. See Rev 18:20 (holy).
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rev 18:24. , in her) The angel speaks this also; and yet he does not say, in thee, but, in her (comp. Mat 23:37), namely, in the deceiver of the nations, who is now so overthrown, that she does not hear the last part of this address.- , of all, who have been slain) Aringhus, T. i. of the work above quoted, f. 125, shows, that all the theatres of the Roman empire were marked by the slaughter of Christians; and he also says, f. 132, that Rome alone became as it were the GENERAL SHAMBLES for slaying the sheep of Christ. Pagan Rome shed much blood, papal Rome not less. From A. 1518 to 1548, more than fifteen millions of Protestants were put to death through the instrumentality of the Inquisition, according to the opinion of some, as is related in my Germ. Exeg. on this passage. This vast number is even doubled from A. 1550 to 1580, in Hoe on Ap. xvii. qu. 234. Neither of these calculations is probable. More than 900,000 are calculated to have been slain from A. 1540, or 1550, to 1580, by Fred. Seyler, in his Rome Drunken, pp. 339, 340. The true number, whatever it is, is stupendous.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
in her: Rev 11:7, Rev 16:6, Rev 17:6, Rev 19:2, Jer 2:34, Eze 22:9, Eze 22:12, Eze 22:27, Dan 7:21, Mat 23:27, Luk 11:47-51, Act 7:52, 1Th 2:15
were: Jer 51:49
Reciprocal: 1Sa 28:16 – Wherefore Psa 72:4 – the oppressor Psa 79:3 – Their Isa 13:1 – of Babylon Isa 26:21 – also Jer 26:8 – the priests Jer 51:24 – General Eze 24:6 – Woe Eze 35:6 – I will Dan 7:25 – shall wear out Mat 23:35 – upon Luk 12:45 – to beat 2Th 1:6 – General Heb 12:4 – General Rev 6:10 – dost Rev 9:21 – their murders Rev 11:2 – it is Rev 11:8 – our Lord Rev 13:15 – cause Rev 17:8 – go
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Verse 24
Was found the blood of prophets; that is, the guilt of shedding that blood.
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
18:24 And in her was found the {15} blood of prophets, {16} and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.
(15) That is shed by bloody massacres, and calling for vengeance.
(16) That is, proved and found out, as if God had appointed a just inquiry concerning the impiety, unnaturalness and injustice of these men.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The third reason for Babylon’s judgment is that she slew the saints (cf. Jer 51:35-36; Jer 51:49). The angel stated this reason as a fact rather than as an accusation. The responsibility for the blood of God’s servants martyred for their testimonies lies at the feet of this system. The murder of prophets is especially serious since they bore the word of God, but killing any saint is bad enough. Unbelievers have killed many believers, directly and indirectly, in their pursuit of material possessions. This verse could hardly apply only to the city of Babylon, though it includes that city. Through her example Babylon has been responsible for all the slayings on the earth (perhaps hyperbole), so guilt rests on her shoulders.
"Blood violently shed cries out for vengeance until it is rewarded by the punishment of the murderers. The destruction of Babylon answers to that punishment." [Note: Thomas, Revelation 8-22, p. 347. Cf. Genesis 4:10.]
To summarize, it seems that the Babylon John described in this chapter is the commercial system of buying and selling goods to make a profit. As religious Babylon includes all forms of religion (non-Christian as well as Christian religions), so economic Babylon includes all types of economies (capitalism, socialism, communism, etc.). This economic system will have its headquarters (at least ideologically if not also geographically) in Babylon on the Euphrates River during the Tribulation, and it will burn up. Self-interest is at the root of this system. Whereas believers have always lived within this system, we have always known that we must not adopt the philosophy that drives it, namely, selfishness. Possession of wealth is not the problem so much as the arrogant use of it. [Note: Sweet, p. 264.] This system has become so much a part of life that it is hard for us to imagine life without it. Nonetheless this chapter teaches that it will end just before or when Jesus Christ returns at His second coming, and it will exist no longer. This system began when people first assembled to make a name for themselves at Babel (Gen 11:1-9). As Christians, we need to make sure that we are not citizens of this Babylon, by laying up treasure on earth, but truly citizens of heaven, by laying up treasure there (cf. Mat 6:19-21). This chapter should challenge us to evaluate our financial goals and to repudiate selfish, arrogant living.
"The destruction of the city of Babylon is the final blow to the times of the Gentiles, which began when the Babylonian army attacked Jerusalem in 605 B.C. (cf. Luk 21:24)." [Note: Walvoord, "Revelation," p. 973.]
Following this revelation concerning the destruction of the major religious and commercial systems of the world, God moved John along in his vision. He proceeded from the Great Tribulation (chs. 8-18) to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (ch. 19), the climax of this book.