Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Welcome. Today on Thru the Bible, our teacher Dr. J. Vernon McGee tells us about a time in the future when commerce and politics come to a grinding halt. It’s a fascinating lesson, especially in light of all that’s happening in our world now. So get your Bible and turn to Revelation 18.

I’m Steve Schwetz, and you know, one of my favorite things to do while you’re finding your seat on the Bible bus is to share letters from fellow passengers all around the world. That’s right, if you’re new to listening, maybe you didn’t know that Thru the Bible is heard in more than 250 languages and in nearly every country of the world, and the lives of so many listeners are being changed.

Like Nobel from Bangladesh, who shares this: “Through this program, I came to understand that I am a sinner. I realized by the conviction of the Holy Spirit that I have committed many sins and needed to repent. Before this, I was not sure about my salvation. But now I have the assurance that I am saved by believing in Jesus Christ as my personal Savior. I thank God for changing my life.”

And then here’s a good one. This is from Kenya: “I am Fundi, and I have learned that God thinks good thoughts toward us and has mercy on us. This has given me new hope, even in the family challenges I am facing. I believe God will help me because He cares for me and plans good things for my life. I have learned that I need to be clean in my heart more than just outwardly. Therefore, I have asked God to forgive me for all the wrongs I have done so that He may cleanse me and help me to do what pleases Him and other people.”

And then our final letter comes from a female in Turkey who wishes to remain anonymous, and she says: “I’m 29 years old, and for a long time, I was going through deep emotional and financial struggles. I felt completely forgotten by God, like my prayers were lost somewhere in space. I thought if I can’t find help from people, at least I can turn to God, but even then, I couldn’t feel His presence.

And then one day, by accident, I listened to your program. I didn’t expect anything, but through it, I met Jesus Christ. When I learned about what He did for me on the cross, I couldn’t stop crying. I realized that it wasn’t too late. He met me exactly where I needed Him most. For the first time, I understood that God is not distant. I wasn’t alone anymore. Jesus had carried my pain, my sins, and my burdens. He wants me to have life, abundant life.”

Well, if you want to pray with us and praise God and intercede for listeners like these all over the world, why don’t you sign up for our world prayer team? It’s super easy, just go to ttb.org/pray or call 1-800-65-BIBLE for more information. And let’s thank Him now together.

Heavenly Father, bless Your Word as it goes out into all the world. And as we listen, Lord, draw our hearts close to Yours and then show us what You want us to learn. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Now, as we come today to the 18th chapter of Revelation, we see here the judgment of commercial Babylon and the reaction of both Earth and Heaven to it. We have here in this chapter political and commercial Babylon judged. And in the first eight verses, we have the announcement of the fall of commercial and political Babylon.

And then in verses 9 to 19, we have the anguish in the world because of the judgment on Babylon. 20 to 24, the anticipation of joy in Heaven because of the judgment of Babylon. Now, here in chapters 17 and 18, two Babylons are brought before us. The Babylon of chapter 17 is ecclesiastical. The Babylon of chapter 18 is economic. The first is religious, the apostate church that entered the Great Tribulation period.

The second is political and commercial. The commercial center is loved by the kings of the earth, and the apostate church is hated by the kings of the earth, as we saw in chapter 17. The apostate church is destroyed by the kings of the earth. Political Babylon is destroyed by the judgment of God. That is, when Christ comes, this city will be destroyed.

Now, obviously, Mystery Babylon is destroyed first in the midst of the Great Tribulation. That’s when the apostate church is destroyed. While commercial Babylon is destroyed at the second coming of Christ. Now, these two Babylons are not one and the same city. I personally believe that Mystery Babylon is Rome and that when it goes down in the midst of the Great Tribulation, that the religious center becomes Jerusalem because it’s at that place that the false prophet we saw puts up the image of the Antichrist to be worshipped.

Now, commercial Babylon is ancient Babylon rebuilt as the commercial capital of the world. This city is the final capital of the political power of the beast. Now, a few years ago, this seemed rather far-fetched, and I’ll grant you that it did seem far-fetched that the power could reach back into the Mid-East.

But since then, we have experienced in the world today a tightening of the energy, and these Arabs, they just cut off the oil supply. And when they did, why, the whole world felt it. In fact, the matter is what tremendous power they were wielding. And the wealth of the world is moving even now into that particular area because of the price of oil and the millions and billions of dollars that is flowing into that area. It could well become the great commercial capital of the world.

A Jew recently challenged the Israeli Minister of Tourism out in Australia, and he said to him, “How does it come about that all the countries surrounding Israel have oil, but Israel doesn’t?” And the reply was, “God gave the Arabs oil and the Jews the Bible. Would you want to exchange with them? God forbid. The oil will run out quick enough, but the Bible will last forever.”

And this great commercial center that will be ancient Babylon rebuilt will be destroyed by the second coming of Christ. Now, there has been some disagreement among conservative expositors whether ancient Babylon will be rebuilt. Now, very candidly, I for years took the position that it would not be rebuilt. I believe now that it will be rebuilt and that Isaiah 13:19 and 22 speaks of the fact that ancient Babylon is to be rebuilt and destroyed.

And this destruction is what is mentioned in this chapter 18. And actually, couldn’t be built—at least I don’t think it could be built—in the same spot because the Euphrates River has moved about 14 miles from the ancient city. Now, we notice here that there are these two views of the destruction of Babylon which are diametrically opposed to each other.

The viewpoint and perspective are highly important. The reaction of man, of business and politics, is one of great anguish. To them, it’s the depth of tragedy. It means a total bankruptcy of big business. But the second reaction is that of Heaven. It’s one of joy, that the holiness and justice of God is vindicated. It means the end of man’s sinful career on earth.

And this will bring us to the end of the Great Tribulation period. Now, let’s get into this chapter here. We have here in the first eight verses the announcement of the fall of commercial and political Babylon. I’m reading now, and I’m reading from my translation. “After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of Heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory.”

Now, we have again this very interesting statement, “after these things,” *meta tauta*. So there has been definitely a progress made through this period of these sevens that have been given to us: the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven personages, and the seven bowls of wrath. This brings us to the end of the Great Tribulation.

Now, John again is still a spectator. He says, “I saw,” and “another angel.” That takes us back to chapter 14, where a series of six angels are mentioned with the sole identification of “another angel.” He is a divine, supernatural messenger of God but faceless and nameless here. With this exception, this angel is with great authority. It indicates that this angel was of a superior rank to the other another angels, and he’s brought an important message.

We’re told here that the earth was lightened with his glory. And that, I think, signifies the prestige of this angel. We have that same thing in Ezekiel 43:2. Now, in verse two, and I’m reading again from my translation. I don’t recommend it at all. I do not think that I am capable—I’m not a scholar enough to make a translation, and I am weary of the new translations that are coming out.

They are very pedantic. They are, to me, like eating poi out in the Hawaiian Islands. It’s just tasteless and doesn’t have the zip that we still have in the King James. Now, let me read though mine. “And he shouted with a mighty voice saying, ‘Fell, fell is Babylon the Great, and became a habitation of demons, and a prison or a cage of every unclean spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hated bird.’”

Now, we had the preliminary announcement of the fall of Babylon way back in the 14th chapter at verse eight. The angel here is greater in authority than the one who made the first announcement. But now we’ve come to it, and “fell, fell is Babylon and became.” That is called the Greek prophetic aorist tense, which speaks of coming events as if they’ve already transpired.

As far as God is concerned, if He says something’s going to happen, you can just say it’s happened because it’s going to happen. It’s just that sure. Now, it’s God’s plan and program. It’s just as though it had already taken place because He knows the end from the beginning. Now, Babylon, this great commercial center of the world, is going to be destroyed. It’s a habitation of demons and a cage of every unclean spirit, every unclean and hated bird.

Now, it indicates that this is where the demons of the spirit world and unclean birds of the physical world will be incarcerated during the Millennium. Isaiah and Jeremiah confirm this, and I give you the reference. I’ll not turn to it. Isaiah 13, verses 19 through 22, and Jeremiah 50:38 through 40. And the very fact that these prophecies of both Isaiah and Jeremiah find a final fulfillment in the destruction of literal Babylon here in Revelation 18.

Now, if this is true, then there’s no prophecy which forbids Babylon from being rebuilt. Babylon is the headquarters of demons and has been the place of rebellion through the years. Now, verse three. Let me read my translation. “For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication, all the nations have drunk, and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness.”

Now, “have drunk” could be “are fallen.” Actually, both renderings are permitted, and both have good manuscript authority, and both are true. The normal rendering is “have drunk.” But this is God’s judgment on big business which denies God’s authority. This is the unholy alliance of government and business. And we’ve seen it in our day as being something that smells to high heaven, very frankly.

Now, the word here for merchants means those who travel. It’s not those who produce goods or manufacture goods but those who are brokers engaging in business for a big profit. Business is a sacred cow that nothing must harm or hinder in these days. And it’s true today, of course. Men use business as the biggest excuse for having no time for God. Yet these same men must finally stand before God. God will judge godless commercialism.

And big business is in for it. I can assure you that. In fact, they have had a bad, rough time in our day. Now, let me read on. I’ll read verse four. “And I heard another voice out of Heaven saying, ‘Come forth out of her, My people, that ye have no fellowship with her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues.’”

Now, it reveals that God’s people are going to be in the world to the very end. Now, this is not the church; they’ve already been removed before the Great Tribulation. But God has people during this period. The question has always been, will they be able to make it through? Well, they do make it through. He started out the 144,000, and he’s going to come through with 144,000.

Just like in the parable, the Lord Jesus said that the shepherd started out with a hundred sheep, one of them got away, but he didn’t come through with 99. He came through with a hundred because he went out and got that little sheep that was lost. Now, will you notice, he says here that his people are to come out of this city. And may I say, it’s a physical separation here with a corollary in the experience of Lot in Sodom.

As Lot was warned to get out of Sodom to escape the deluge of fire, these people of God are warned. And you will find that warning given way back in Deuteronomy, the fourth chapter, verse 30 and 31. Such was also God’s warning to Israel in Jeremiah 51:5, verses six, and then 45, and Isaiah 48:20. The warning is twofold: they are to have no fellowship with the sins of Babylon, and they are to flee before judgment falls.

Now, this has, I think, a very pertinent application for us today. I think it should be a warning to us. Not that God will not save His own from this hour, but He wants us to be separate, not indulging the old nature but walking by the Spirit. If we will not deal with sin here and now in our own lives by confessing and forsaking it, He’ll deal with it.

Either He will judge it now or it will meet us at the judgment seat of Christ. Now, God gives us the opportunity of judging our sin today. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11:31, “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”

How can we judge our own sin? Well, we’re told in 1 John 1:9 we’re to confess it. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” And confess means to say the same thing. *Homologeo* is the word in Greek. It means to say what God says about it. You know, we make excuses for our sin.

We say it’s not sin in our lives—of course, if our neighbor did it, it would be sin. But God says it’s sin, and until you and I are willing to call it sin, we haven’t confessed it at all, or if we try to excuse it and pass it by. It means to say, “God, I agree with You about this thing.” But if we refuse to judge ourselves, God will judge us. That is, believers, at the judgment seat of Christ.

The sin of some folk will not be settled until the judgment seat of Christ. Personally, I hope to get all my accounts straightened out down here because God may not take us to the woodshed immediately. It does not mean that He’s letting us get by with sin. No one is getting by who’s a child of God today. Judgment is coming to you if you’re His child. Now, He doesn’t spank the devil’s children.

Now, verse five. “For her sins have reached unto Heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Now, Babylon has a long history of accumulated sins. One of the oldest cities in the history of mankind and probably mentioned more than any other city in the Bible except Jerusalem. And finally, judgment breaks like a flood upon this city and its system.

The judgment of God may be delayed, but it’s sure. It may seem to us that the unbeliever’s getting by with sin, but God’s judgment is coming. Now, verse six. “Render unto her even as she also rendered, and double unto her the double according to her works: in the cup which she mingled, mingle unto her double.”

Now, this is poetic justice. The cup of iniquity is being filled to the brim. When the last drop is poured in, it’s pressed to the lips of those who committed iniquity. And my friends, this is just. Read Psalm 137. God is righteous and just in what He does. Now, verse seven and my translation.

“How muchsoever she glorified herself and waxed wanton”—that is, lived in luxury and lived it up too, by the way—“so much give her of torment and mourning: for she saith in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and shall in no wise see mourning.’” You see, the prosperity of Babylon blinded her to the judgment of God. Trading was active on the stock market, and everyone bought blue-chip issues right up to the moment of judgment.

Luxury, arrogance, pride, sin, and self-deception characterized the spirit of this godless city. World peace was in sight, and optimism was the spirit of the day. Only the prophets of gloom issued a warning, and they were classified as squares, as was Noah. And so was Vernon McGee, by the way.

Now, verse eight. Let me read that in my translation. “Therefore in one day shall her plagues come: death and mourning and famine, and she shall utterly be burned up with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her.” Now, this calls to our attention the suddenness of destruction and that it will be by fire. So great is her grief that mourning is counted a plague along with death and famine.

Death, mourning, and famine are the three horsemen who ride roughshod over Babylon. The destruction is total and final. In the Scriptures, this is the first city of prominence, but its long, eventful, and sinful history ends and it’s finally judged here. And strong is the Lord God who judged her.

It’s God who destroys this city because He alone is able to do so. He does so, we believe, at the return of Christ to the earth. And it’s as Isaiah put it in the 63rd chapter: “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious in His apparel, traveling in the greatness of His strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel, and Thy garments like him that treadeth in the winevat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of My redeemed is come.”

In His second coming, Christ is seen coming from Edom with blood-sprinkled garments. I believe He has come by Babylon, and He’s executed judgment on that wicked city. And we’re going to see the second coming when we get to the next chapter, the 19th chapter. Now, we don’t have time to deal with it today, but what was the reaction to the destruction of this great sinful center?

Well, there’ll be anguish in the world, naturally. And we’ll see who it is that goes to the funeral. And then we’ll see the anticipation of joy in Heaven because of the judgment of Babylon. Two diametrically opposed viewpoints, and it’ll be bad for one crowd but good for the other crowd. Well, we’re going to see that next time. And until then, may God richly bless you, my beloved.

Steve Schwetz: If you’d like to spend a little more time in this study or share it with a friend, download our app or visit ttb.org. And if you have questions about this fruitful ministry, well, all you need to do is call 1-800-65-BIBLE or write to us anytime at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109, or in Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. Well, join us next time as the Bible bus rolls along. I’m Steve Schwetz, and I’ll be here saving a seat just for you.

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