“After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted:
‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal.
For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.’
Then I heard another voice from heaven say:
‘Come out of her, my people’, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.
Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Pour her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torment and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself.
In her heart she boasts, ‘I sit enthroned as queen. I am not a widow; I will never mourn.’ Therefore, in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.
When the kings of the earth who committed adultery with her and shared her luxury see the smoke of her burning, they will weep and mourn over her. Terrified at her torment, they will stand far off and cry:
‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, you mighty city of Babylon! In one hour, your doom has come!’
The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her because no one buys their cargoes anymore – cargoes of gold, silver, precious stones and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk and scarlet cloth; every sort of citron wood, and articles of every kind made of ivory, costly wood, bronze, iron and marble; cargoes of cinnamon and spice, of incense, myrrh and frankincense, of wine and olive oil, of fine flour and wheat; cattle and sheep; horses and carriages; and human beings sold as slaves.
They will say, ‘The fruit you longed for is gone from you. All your luxury and splendor have vanished, never to be recovered.’ The merchants who sold these things and gained their wealth from her stand far off, terrified at her torment. They will weep and mourn and cry out:
‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls! In one hour, such great wealth has been brought to ruin!’
Every sea captain, and all who travel by ship, the sailors, and all who earn their living from the sea, will stand far off. When they see the smoke of her burning, they will exclaim, ‘Was there ever a city like this great city? They will throw dust on their heads, and with weeping and mourning cry out:
‘Woe! Woe to you, great city, where all who had ships on the sea became rich through her wealth! In one hour, she has been brought to ruin! Rejoice over her, you heaven! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice, apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgement she imposed on you.’
Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
‘With such violence the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, never to be found again. The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard in you again.
No worker of any trade will ever be found in you again. The sound of a millstone will never be heard in you again. The light of a lamp will never shine in you again. The voice of bridegroom and bride will never be heard in you again. Your merchants were the world’s important people. By your magic spell all the nations were led astray. In her was found blood of prophets and of God’s holy people, of all who have been slaughtered on the earth.’” (Revelation 18: 1-24)
The debate about the exact empire that is referenced as Babylon the Great has waged for centuries and only that generation that will witness its destruction will be able to understand its identity. Those with foresight can understand this identity prior to its destruction while the majority will use history as a reference to show the characteristics presented within Scripture as to the identity of Babylon the Great.
(For further reference into the topic today I recommend: America in Bible Prophecy: Wealth and Prosperity vs Heavenly Abundance; Our Corporate and Political Leaders have Become Disconnected from What is Really Happening in the True Economy; The World’s Trust in the American Democratic System is Failing; & Left or Right, Either Way Blood Will Run in 2020.)
The Revolution that is forming within our world is something that should have happened a long time ago. The oppression those in authority have exercised against the people of this world, are so egregious that they are documented within the judgment portion of Scripture. There is no denying this system is evil and has engulfed the entire world. The eyes of the masses are being opened and the control system is being shattered.
So, we believe….
We are being told by those with authority that everything is under control and that there is no need to panic. We are told that the economy is in a V-shaped recovery (due to manipulation by the Fed into monetary markets causing an illusion of recovered) while unemployment claims are only being processed at a steady pace to not flood the market with newly filed unemployment claims. If you cannot see the system is functioning at maximal capacity and that is the only reason, there are only about 1.5 million new claims per week. The prior record was about 600,000 claims and the system is working almost 3 times as much and cannot keep up. Its not that the economy is getting better. It is that we are not allowing our check and balances produce accurate data so we can see what is truly happening.
We can see this is the same approach with Coronavirus testing. The President of the United States has stated that his plan to overcome this plague is to limit testing as if we do not test, we don’t have a virus. This logic is preposterous and anyone who can believe this line of reasoning has lost your soul. We are in the middle of a pandemic and this is not going to go away because we don’t believe its true. This plague is only further evidence as to the identity of this great country.
America has a history of looking the other way to avoid our atrocities. We pinned all the Native Tribes into camps that exist today. We racially and economically segregated the black community for almost 200 years after they were granted their freedom. We have pillaged our own people to enrich our leaders while causing pain and suffering across the globe. We have been unwilling to look at what we have done prior to our judgements. What makes anyone think we will change, because now we are being punished.
There is a reason the entire world looks at the destruction of Babylon the Great and they do nothing. We now know that they are as shocked as its occupants to how quickly its demise is. They only watch as they have no clue how to intervein in a country that is being destroyed!
“This is what the Lord says: ‘See I will stir up the spirit of a destroyer against Babylon and the people of Leb Kamai. I will send foreigners to Babylon to winnow her and to devastate her land; they will oppose her on every side in the day of her disaster.
Let no the archer string his bow, nor let him put on his armor. Do not spare her young men; completely destroy her army. They will fall down slain in Babylon, fatally wounded in her streets.
For Israel and Judah have not been forsaken by their God, the Lord Almighty, though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
‘Flee from Babylon! Run for your lives! Do not be destroyed because of her sins. It is time for the Lord’s vengeance; he will repay her what she deserves. Babylon was a gold cup in the Lord’s hand; she made the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine; therefore, they have now gone mad. Babylon will suddenly fall and be broken. Wail over her! Get balm for her pain; perhaps she can be healed.
‘We would have healed Babylon, but she cannot be healed; let us leave her and each go to our own land, for her judgement reaches to the skies, it rises as high as the heavens’
The Lord has vindicated us; come, let us tell in Zion what the Lord our God has done. Sharpen the arrows, take up the shields! The Lord has stirred up the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
The Lord will take vengeance, vengeance for his temple. Lift up a banner against the walls of Babylon! Reinforce the guard, station the watchmen, prepare for an ambush! The Lord will carry out his purpose, his decree against the people of Babylon.
You who live by many waters and are rich in treasures, your end has come, the time for you to be destroyed. The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself: I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts, and they will shout in triumph over you.
He made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding. When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including the people of his inheritance – the Lord Almighty is his name.
You are my war club, my weapon for battle – with you I shatter nations, with you I destroy kingdoms, with you I shatter horse and rider, with you I shatter chariot and driver, with you I shatter man and woman, with you I shatter old man and youth, with you I shatter young man and young woman, with you I shatter shepherd and flock, with you I shatter farmer and oxen, with you I shatter governors and officials.
Before your eyes I will repay Babylon and all who live in Babylonia for all the wrong they have done in Zion,’ declares the Lord.
‘I am against you, you destroying mountain, you who destroy the whole earth,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will stretch out my hand against you, roll you off the cliffs, and make you a burned-out mountain. No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone, nor any stone for a foundation, for you will be desolate forever,’ declares the Lord.
‘Lift up a banner in the land! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare the nations for battle against her; summon against her these kingdoms: Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint a commander against her; send up horses like a swarm of locusts.
Prepare the nations for battle against her – the kings of the Medes, their governors and all their officials, and all the countries they rule. The land trembles and writhes, for the Lord’s purposes against Babylon stand – to lay waste the land of Babylon so that no one will live there. Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting; they remain in their strongholds. Their strength is exhausted; they have become weaklings. Her dwellings are set on fire; the bars of her gates are broken. One courier follows another, and messenger follows messenger to announce to the king of Babylon that his entire city is captured, the river crossing seized, the marshes set on fire, and the soldiers terrified.’
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trampled; the time to harvest her will soon come.
“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has thrown us into confusion, he has made us an empty jar. Like a serpent he has swallowed us and filled his stomach with our delicacies, and then he spewed us out. May the violence done to our flesh be on Babylon,’ say the inhabitants of Zion.
‘May our blood be on those who live in Babylonia,’ says Jerusalem. Therefore, this is what the Lord says: ‘See I will defend your cause and avenge you; I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. Babylon will be heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals, an object of horror and scorn, a place where no one lives. Her people all roar like young lions, they growl like lion cubs, but while they are aroused, I will set out a feast for them and make them drunk, so that they shout with laughter – then sleep forever and not awake,’ declares the Lord. ‘I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams and goats.
How Sheshak will be captured, the boast of the whole earth seized! How desolate Babylon will be among the nations! The sea will rise over Babylon; its roaring waves will cover her. Her towns will be desolate, a dry and desert land, a land where no one lives, though which no one travels. I will punish Bel in Babylon and make him spew out what he has swallowed. The nation will no longer stream to him. And the wall of Babylon will fall.
Come out of her, my people! Run for your lives! Run from the fierce anger of the Lord. Do not lose heart or be afraid when rumors are heard in the land; one rumor comes this year, another the next, rumors of violence in the land and of ruler against ruler. For the time will surely come when I will punish the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be disgraced, and her slain will all lie fallen within her.
Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will shout for joy over Babylon, for out of the north destroyers will attack her,’ declares the Lord.
‘Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain, just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon. You who have escaped the sword, leave and do not linger! Remember the Lord in a distant Land and call to him Jerusalem.
We are disgraced, for we have been insulted and shame covers our faces, because foreigners have entered the holy places of the Lord’s house. But the days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan. Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens and fortifies her lofty stronghold, I will send destroyers against her,’ declares the Lord.
‘The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, the sound of great destruction from the land of the Babylonians. The Lord will destroy Babylon; he will silence her noisy din. Waves of enemies will rage like great water; the roar of her voices will resound.
A destroyer will come against Babylon; her warriors will be captured, and her bows will be broken. For the Lord is a God of retribution; he will repay in full. I will make her officials and wise men drunk, her governors, officials and warriors as well; they will sleep forever and not awake,’ declares the King, whose name is the Lord Almighty.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Babylon’s thick wall will be leveled, and her high gates set on fire; the peoples exhausted themselves for nothing, the nations’ labor is only fuel for the flames.’
This is the message Jeremiah the prophet gave to the staff officer Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mehseiah, when he went to Babylon with Zedekiah king of Judah in the fourth year of his reign. Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disasters that would come upon Babylon – all that had been recorded concerning Babylon. He said to Seraiah, ‘When you get to Babylon, wee that you read all these words aloud. Then say, ‘Lord, you have said you will destroy this place, so that neither people nor animals will live in it, it will be desolate forever’. When you finish reading the scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the Euphrates. Then say, ‘So will Babylon sink to rise no more because of the disaster I will brink on her. And her people will fall.’ The words of Jeremiah end here.” (Jeremiah 51: 1-64)
Clinton Kowach
06/28/2020
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