The End Time Bible Commentary

Another angel with great authority (v1)
In chapter 17, the mystery of 'Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes', was revealed to John by one of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls of wrath in chapter 16. That angel gave us many clues as to her identity and her relationship to Antichrist's beast empire. Here in chapter 18 in verse 1, John saw "another angel, who possessed great authority, coming down out of heaven, and the earth was lit up by his radiance". This angel reveals the ultimate fate of this great city that is associated with the Big Mamma of false religions, namely Islam. The description of this angel makes it clear that Babylon's fall is decreed directly by God and is his judgment of her sinfulness. The earth being lit up by the radiance of this powerful angel suggests that Babylon's punishment will bring light to the earth, in place of the darkness that has covered so much of the world through the religion of Islam (see Isaiah 60:1-3).

Angelic Proclamation (v2-3)
The angel shouts with a powerful voice. Angels are also seen to shout loudly in Revelation 7:2, 14:7, and 14:15. And 1 Thessalonians 4:16 says, "For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel…" Loud shouts imply dramatic events are about to take place.

In verse 2, his proclamation begins, "“Fallen, fallen, is Babylon the great! She has become a lair for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detested beast".

"Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great" is a direct quote from Isaiah 21:9. When Jesus hung upon the cross and was about to die, he cried out "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me" in the words of Psalm 22:1 (Matthew 27:46). As well as uttering a genuine cry of anguish, Jesus was pointing to his death as a fulfilment not just of Psalm 22:1, but of Psalm 22 as a whole. Quoting a single line or verse of a prophecy points to the fulfilment of the prophecy as a whole. So here in Revelation, this quote of Isaiah 21:9 implies the fulfilment of Isaiah 21 as a whole. Isaiah 21 is the passage which most clearly identifies end-time 'Babylon' with Saudi Arabia, and with 'Kedar' (Mecca). It is introduced in Isaiah 21:1 as an oracle about the 'Desert by the Sea'. This is a reference to the Arabian Peninsula that is surrounded on three sides by the waters of the Persian Gulf, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. Three of the places named in Isaiah 21 are Dumah, Tema, and Kedar. According to the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 1:29-30, Dumah, Tema and Kedar were three of the sons of Ishmael. So the prophecy, "Babylon is fallen, fallen" (Isaiah 21:9), sits within context of a prophecy about the Elamites and Medes (Iranian people groups) invading the Arabian Peninsula (Isaiah 21:1-2), a resulting refugee crisis among the Ishmaelite (Arab) tribes of Arabia (Isaiah 21:13-15), and the 'glory of Kedar' being destroyed after exactly one year (Isaiah 21:16). It is reasonable to equate Babylon and the 'glory of Kedar' as one and the same.

The depiction in verse 2 of Babylon being abandoned to the wild animals and birds alludes to Isaiah 13:20-22 and to Isaiah 34:11, implying that the fall of Mystery Babylon also fulfils these prophecies.

Although Isaiah 13 might be interpreted as a prophecy of ancient Babylon's fall in 539 BC, expressed in poetic hyperbole, it is ultimately an end-time prophecy about 'the Lord's day of judgment' (Isaiah 13:6 & 9), when God is going to annihilate sinners, not just in Babylon, but in the whole earth, leaving 'human beings more scarce than pure gold' (Isaiah 13:12). Isaiah prophesied that Babylon would be destroyed by God, just as Sodom and Gomorrah were, that no Arab would pitch his tent there again, and that its ruined palaces would be left as dwelling places for the wild animals and birds (Isaiah 13:19-22). This was not the case after Babylon's fall in 539 BC, as it continued to be inhabited for about another 1,000 years.

Isaiah 34 is a prophecy about God's end-time judgment of Edom. Verse 11 says, "Owls and wild animals will live there, all kinds of wild birds will settle in it. The Lord will stretch out over her the measuring line of ruin and the plumb line of destruction". Edom was originally the region around the mountains of Seir, extending from the southern tip of the Dead Sea, down to Aqaba at the northern tip of the Red Sea. It was settled by Esau and his descendants (Genesis 36:8 and Joshua 24:4). According to Ezekiel 25:13, by the sixth century BC, Edom was seen to extend south into Arabia as far as Dedan (modern-day Al-Ula in Saudi Arabia), presumably because the Edomites had by then spread that far south. It is therefore reasonable to understand Edom as synonymous with northern Saudi Arabia and southern Jordan, and that it is part of Mystery Babylon in its broader sense as the nation of Saudi Arabia, not just as a great city in Arabia. So not only are end-time prophecies about Babylon applicable to Saudi Arabia, but also those about Edom. Being the descendants of Esau, the Edomites and the Israelites were relatives. But in 586 BC, when the Babylonians conquered Judah, Obadiah 1:10-14 records that the Edomites joined in the slaughter and behaved as though they were in league with the Babylonians. They entered the city, joined in the looting, and slaughtered those who were trying to escape. Because of this great act of betrayal, the bible contains more prophecies of condemnation and judgment against Edom than against any other nation (Psalm 137:7-9, Isaiah 11:14, 21:11-12, 34:5-17, 63:1-6, Jeremiah 9:25-26, 25:17-26, 49:7-12, Lamentations 4:21-22, Ezekiel 25:12-14, 35:1-15, Joel 3:19, Amos 1:11-12, 9:11-12, Obadiah, Malachi 1:4). One of these is Psalm 137 which provides another important link between Mystery Babylon and Arabia. It refers to Edom as as 'Daughter of Babylon'. See my commentary on Psalm 137 for an explanation as to why this name was appropriate.

Isaiah 34:9-10 tells us that Edom's streams will be turned to pitch and the land will become blazing pitch. Given that it is talking about a region within Saudi Arabia, this is surely a reference to burning oil fields. The streams are not streams of water but oil wells which are set alight. In the First Gulf War, Saddam Hussein set alight to Kuwait's oil fields, as shown in the photo below:

In verse 3, the angel says, "For all the nations have fallen from the wine of her immoral passion, and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behaviour".

As I explained in my commentary on Revelation 17, Babylon's 'immoral passion' represents her worship of Allah, the false god of Islam. Worship of a false god is portrayed metaphorically in the bible as sexual immorality, adultery, or prostitution. The 'wine of her immoral passion' represents Saudi Arabia's evangelisation of the world with the message of Islam, funded by her great wealth. She is seen to offer her cup of wine to the nations in order to seduce them (Revelation 17:4). So the 'kings of the earth committing sexual immorality with her' represents her spiritual seduction of world leaders through the export of her wine, the message of Islam. The 'merchants getting rich from her sensual behaviour' represents her economic seduction of the nations through the export of her oil and import of their goods. Both spiritually and economically, the nations get sucked into an immoral relationship with her. Just as men who commit adultery or use prostitutes find ways of justifying their actions, so the nations justify their relationships with Saudi Arabia. For example, after Saudi Arabia intervened in the Yemen War in 2015, she committed numerous documented war crimes against innocent Yemeni civilians. Western nations continued their lucrative trade of selling her arms, despite the clear risk that she would use them to commit even more war crimes.

Come out of her my people (v4)
Verses 4 to 5 say, "Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, so you will not take part in her sins and so you will not receive her plagues, because her sins have piled up all the way to heaven and God has remembered her crimes".

This is effectively a quote from Jeremiah 51:6 which says, "Get out of Babylonia quickly, you foreign people. Flee to save your lives. Do not let yourselves be killed because of her sins". As such, it points us to the long prophecy of Jeremiah 50-51 as yet another that is ultimately about Mystery Babylon, even though it was originally about Ancient Babylon.

Here in verse 4, this is apparently the voice of God speaking, since he addresses 'my people'. With the previous angel having alluded to Isaiah 13, in which 'Babylon' is destroyed by God like Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 13:19), God now calls for his people to come out of her. This is like the angels calling Lot and his family to hurry and get out of Sodom before God's judgment fell (Genesis 19:15). But who are 'my people' in this context, and when should they heed this warning to leave?

Are they Christian expatriates working in Saudi Arabia? An estimated 37% of Saudi Arabia's population are foreign expatriate workers, a significant proportion of whom are Christians. Many of those Christian expatriates feel called by God to be there as a witness for Christ, and are not simply there to earn high salaries. So it would not be helpful to say, 'Why don't they just leave now?' There comes a time when abandoning a sinking ship is the right thing to do. But until that point, it is right to remain onboard and try to help every last passenger and crew onto a lifeboat. The timing of Mystery Babylon's fall is certainly puzzling, as it seems to coincide with the seventh bowl judgment (Revelation 16:19), which occurs significantly after Christ's coming at the sixth seal (Revelation 6:14-17) and the rapture of the Church (Revelation 7:9-17). If we equate Mystery Babylon with the 'glory of Kedar' in Isaiah 21, Isaiah tells us that it occurs exactly one year (Isaiah 21:16) after Iran's attack on the Arabian Peninsula (Isaiah 21:1-2). But given that trumpet and bowl judgments occur within a 42 month / 1,260 period after Christ's coming, and that the seventh bowl would occur around the end of that period, even one year earlier is going to be after the rapture.

In that case, is 'my people' a reference to the Jewish exiles who spend 1,260 days in a desert safe-place that God has prepared for them (Revelation 12:6)? It is reasonable to equate this safe-place with the Bozrah sheepfold from which their Messiah king personally breaks them free and leads them out (Micah 2:12-13). Although Bozrah means literally a 'sheepfold', Bozrah was also the name of the capital of ancient Edom. So it suggests that this Jewish safe-place is located somewhere in the region known biblically as Edom. Originally Edom denoted the region around the mountain range of Seir that runs between the bottom of the Dead Sea and Aqaba, in what is now southern Jordan (Joshua 24:3-4). However, by Ezekiel's time (c. 600 BC), Edom was seen to extend significantly down the west side of what is now Saudi Arabia (Ezekiel 25:13), including the whole region on the east side of the Gulf of Aqaba where biblical Mount Sinai is most likely located (known today as Jabal al-Lawz), and beyond to Dedan (modern-day Al-Ula in western Saudi Arabia). Deuteronomy 33:2 says, "The Lord came from Sinai and revealed himself to Israel from Seir. He appeared in splendor from Mount Paran, and came forth with ten thousand holy ones". Rather than just being a poetic description of God revealing himself to Israel during the Exodus, this could well be a prophecy of God revealing himself to end-time Israel when Jesus rescues them from their Bozrah safe-place somewhere in north-western Saudi Arabia near the true Mount Sinai. And so the voice that John hears in verse 4 saying "Come out of her my people…" could well be the voice of Jesus calling the Jewish refugees to come out from their safe-place in Saudi Arabia before Mystery Babylon is burned with fire (v8-9). Given that Isaiah 21 identifies the Iranians as the people who will attack end-time Babylon (i.e. Saudi Arabia), and given the description in Isaiah 34 of Edom becoming a desert wasteland that is left to the wild animals and birds, it could well be that Mystery Babylon's dramatic fall comes about because Iran nukes Saudi Arabia.

By the time of her judgment, Saudi Arabia is seen to be 'drunk with the blood of the saints' (Revelation 17:6). Does this imply that when the Great Tribulation begins she will launch a new persecution of Jews and Christians, like Hitler did against the Jews when he came to power? Or is she already drunk with the blood of the saints because for decades she has been exporting her murderous ideology of Wahhabist Islam, radicalising Muslims around the world into a drunken frenzy of violent jihad against non-Muslims? I suspect the latter is the correct answer. It seems to me that once the Great Tribulation begins, it is mainly Antichrist and his beast empire that persecutes Jews and Christians. It is Islam's jihadist ideology, together with Islamic eschatological expectations, that fuel and drive Antichrist's persecution of Jews and Christians, and Saudi Arabia is seen as fully culpable for its export of that immoral passion (Revelation 14:8). The irony is that God uses Antichrist and his Islamic beast empire to unleash his final judgment upon Saudi Arabia, the very source of Antichrist's murderous ideology (Revelation 17:16-17).

Saudi Arabia is divided into 13 provinces, with the Province of Mecca in the south-west being the most highly populated region. According to Isaiah 21:13-15, it seems that during the Saudi refugee crisis, the population will flee in a northerly direction towards Tema in Edom. According to Ezekiel 25:13, from Dedan northwards was considered part of Edom. By fleeing in the direction of Edom, it seems that they flee 'out of the frying pan into the fire'. For when Jesus comes back, it is Edom in the north-west of Saudi Arabia (and possibly southern Jordan) that he afflicts most with plagues (Isaiah 34 and 63:1-6, Habakkuk 3). Habakkuk 3:7 identifies them especially with the land of Midian. This was the region on the east of the Gulf of Aqaba in the north-western corner of modern-day Saudi Arabia. It is a part of Edom, in accordance with the definition of Edom in Ezekiel 25:13.

The following slides show a likely sequence of events related to the fall of Mystery Babylon:

Sins piled up to heaven (v5)
Verse 5 says, "because her sins have piled up all the way to heaven and God has remembered her crimes". This is given as justification for her plagues. Revelation 17 already gave a vivid description of her sins, and why she is deserving of God's condemnation. Not only is she guilty of gross idolatry, she is also seen to be drunk with the blood of the saints whom she has murdered. Even today, Saudi Arabia is one of the world's worst nations for persecuting Christians. Although the Saudis show a degree of tolerance towards expatriate Christians, leaving Islam and becoming a Christian is punishable by death according to Islamic law. God tells us that he has remembered her crimes.


Pay her back double (v6)
Verse 6 says, "Repay her the same way she repaid others; pay her back double corresponding to her deeds. In the cup she mixed, mix double the amount for her". In the Law of Moses, a thief who was caught had to pay back double what he had stolen (Exodus 22:4-7). Describing the beginning of the Great Tribulation, the Apostle Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:2, "For you know quite well that the day of the Lord will come in the same way as a thief in the night". Many people will suffer great loss in the Great Tribulation, including many who will lose their lives. Mystery Babylon (Saudi Arabia) and the beast (the Antichrist and his empire) will be held responsible for much of that loss. As such, at the end of the Great Tribulation, Mystery Babylon and the Antichrist will be made to pay double for their crimes. And just as she has become drunk on the blood of the saints through the export of her wine (the message of Islam), so she will be made to drink double from the wine of God's anger. In Jeremiah 25:23-24, the peoples of Arabia are listed among the many nations who will have to drink the wine of God's anger. And last of all the king of Sheshach (the Antichrist) will drink it (Jeremiah 25:26).


Exaltation and Humiliation (v7)
Verse 7 says, "As much as she exalted herself and lived in sensual luxury, to this extent give her torment and grief because she said to herself, ‘I rule as queen and am no widow; I will never experience grief!’ For anyone with any knowledge of Saudi Arabia, it should be obvious and appropriate to describe her as 'exalting herself and living in sensual luxury'. So I won't bother to list examples of her ridiculous excesses and luxuries. The discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf States like Qatar, Kuwait, and the UAE, has brought about a meteoric 'rags-to-riches' rise that is unprecedented and extreme. Her end-time fall will bring about a reversal that is every bit as extreme, leaving her tormented, grieving, and pitiful. The statement, ‘I rule as queen and am no widow; I will never experience grief!’ is a quote from Isaiah 47:7-8. As such it implies that the whole of Isaiah 47 is a description of her end-time fall. In that chapter she is pictured being thrown down from her throne into the dirt, and instead of being called 'delicate and pampered', she has to pick up millstones and grind flour like a poor woman. Her prostitute's veil is removed, her skirt is stripped off, her legs exposed, and her genitals are put on display! In other words, she is utterly shamed and humiliated!

Saudi Arabia's extreme exaltation, leading to her extreme humiliation, parallels Antichrist's attempted self-exaltation but eventual humiliation in Isaiah 14:13-15. This is set within a passage that presents Antichrist as a kind of Satan-incarnate. In verse 13 he boasts, "I will climb up to the sky. Above the stars of El I will set up my throne. I will rule on the mountain of assembly on the remote slopes of Zaphon". Mount Zaphon in this context was the Canaanite equivalent of Mount Olympus to the Greeks, and metaphorically-speaking was like the seat of the gods. Antichrist's boast that he will set up his throne above the stars of El means he will usurp the place of God. Isaiah 14:15 says, "But you were brought down to Sheol, to the remote slopes of the Pit". In other words, Satan-incarnate as the Antichrist seeks to overthrow God and exalt himself to the heights of heaven, but ends up in the depths of hell.


Plagues in a single day (v8)
Verse 8 says, "For this reason, she will experience her plagues in a single day: disease, mourning, and famine, and she will be burned down with fire, because the Lord God who judges her is powerful!” In the old days of siege warfare, famine and disease were used as deliberate tactics of war to achieve a surrender. In the early stages its involvement in the Yemen War that started in 2015, Saudi Arabia employed a strategy of siege warfare to strangle the Houthi rebels into surrender. She blockaded Yemen's coastline with her navy and the skies with her aircraft. She bombed the Port of Hodeidah in order to cut off supplies, including food and medicine. Not surprisingly at that time, aid organisations warned that Yemen could face the worst famine in a hundred years, Yemen also experienced the biggest recorded outbreak of cholera. Military bombardment, disease and famine were all part of Saudi's strategy of war. God promises to combine all of these elements into his punishment of Saudi Arabia, all in a single day! As already stated, it is apparent from Isaiah 21:16 that the final destruction of Kedar follows a one-year Saudi Arabian refugee crisis that follows the announcement, "Babylon has fallen, fallen!" (Isaiah 21:9, Revelation 14:8). The destruction of Kedar seems to be a sudden and violent event (v21) that occurs within a single day (v8), and even within a single hour (v19), with the city being burned with fire (v8-9). This is likely to be a 'single day' during the time of the seventh bowl judgment (Revelation 17-17-21). This is approximately the same time during which Jesus battles his way through Edom (Isaiah 63:1-6, Habakkuk 3) on his way towards Israel and the final battle of Armageddon. Iran's initial invasion of the Arabian Peninsula will likely take a significant amount of time, perhaps weeks or months, and if it starts exactly one year before the destruction of the city, that is likely to occur some time during the trumpet judgments. Because chapters 12 to 14 form a section of Revelation that gives us a broader overview, it is not clear exactly where the announcement of Babylon's fall in 14:8 fits within the chronology sequencing implied by the trumpets and bowls.

The sudden destruction of Mystery Babylon is such a huge event that in the rest of chapter 18, and the beginning of 19, we read coverage of it from various different angles and perspectives. This reminds me of coverage of 9/11 which was such an enormous world-changing event that it totally dominated every news channel for days and weeks to afterwards.


Reaction of the Kings of the Earth (v9-10)
Verses 9 to 10 say, "Then the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment, and will say, “Woe, woe, O great city, Babylon the powerful city! For in a single hour your doom has come!”

World leaders who have been involved in immoral acts with her are seen to weep and wail when they see the smoke that burns her up. In a spiritual sense, these immoral acts imply that at least some of them worship Allah, the false god of Islam. In a political sense, these immoral acts imply their political alliances with her for the sake of economic advantage and political security, but overlooking her corruption, oppression, and human rights abuses.

What is the source of the fire that burns her up? Isaiah 13:19 says, "Babylon, the most admired of kingdoms, the Chaldeans’ source of honour and pride, will be destroyed by God just as Sodom and Gomorrah were". Does that mean God will use the same method of destruction that he used against Sodom and Gomorrah when he rained down sulphur and fire (Genesis 19:24)? Or does he use a human agent to destroy the city with a nuclear missile? Whichever is the case, it is still a judgment of God who can use either natural disasters or human agents to deliver his judgments. The picture of them standing a long way off, watching her burn and pronouncing woe over her, reminds us of Genesis 19:28. It says of Abraham, "He looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of that region. As he did so, he saw the smoke rising up from the land like smoke from a furnace".


Reaction of the Merchants (v11-17)
This is the longest and most detailed reaction. It depicts the reaction of the world's business people and the world's stock markets. They weep over her, asking who will buy all their luxury products that she always imported. Verses 12 to 13 give a long and detailed list of all her imports. Most of these are luxury items. Something like 'objects made of ivory' shouldn't be taken too literally. This is a listing of all the kind of luxury products the excessively rich of the 1st century AD might have wanted. Interpreting things in modern language, horses and four-wheeled carriages speaks of luxury cars. Wheat, cattle and sheep imply her import, not just of luxury items, but also of more basic food items. They confirm Mystery Babylon as a nation that is reliant upon the world's exports and produces very little of her own, other than oil and Islam. 'Slaves and human lives' reflects Saudi Arabia's import and exploitation of cheap foreign labour, and her extensive association with people traffickers. It may have been abolished long ago in most of the world, but slavery certainly exists today in Saudi Arabia.

Verse 14 emphasises that her fall is permanent. The luxuries she desired have gone forever, and will never ever be found in her again.

In verse 15, the merchants stand a long way off because they are afraid of her torment. This probably describes the reaction of business people around the world who fear that the same kind of disaster might befall other important economic centres, such as New York, London, Tokyo and so on. Or do they stand a long way off in a more literal geographic sense, afraid of the spread of nuclear fallout?

The language of verses 16 to 17 reaffirms her royal status and excessive royal luxuries, and laments the destruction of such great wealth in a single hour. Saudi Arabia is known for its huge royal family, with roughly 15,000 princes and princesses, owing to the polygamy of its rulers. Its founder, Ibn Saud, had about 100 children, and one of his sons, Saud, has 115 children. Isaiah 34:12 says, "Her nobles will have nothing left to call a kingdom, all her princes will disappear".


Reaction of the Seamen (v17-19)
Verses 17b to 19 say, "And every ship’s captain, and all who sail along the coast – seamen, and all who make their living from the sea, stood a long way off and began to shout when they saw the smoke from the fire that burned her up, “Who is like the great city?” And they threw dust on their heads and were shouting with weeping and mourning, “Woe, Woe, O great city – in which all those who had ships on the sea got rich from her wealth – because in a single hour she has been destroyed!”

These verses are very important because they identify this great city as being located by the sea, or sufficiently close that the smoke of her burning is visible from the sea. If we identify the destruction of this great city with that of 'Kedar' in Isaiah 21:16, it is reasonable to associate it with Mecca, the birthplace of the Prophet Mohammed who is believed by most Muslims to be a descendant of Ishmael's second son, Kedar. Mecca is not exactly by the sea, but is located 70 km inland from the City of Jeddah, which is an important business city located by the Red Sea. About 100 km north of Jeddah, and also located by the sea, lies the new King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC). KAEC was conceived in 2005, with completion intended by 2020. It is possible that it may become a great economic powerhouse during the next decade, rivalling Dubai which lies on the east side of the Arabian Peninsula. In just a few years after the discovery of oil in the UAE, Dubai was transformed from a quaint Arab fishing village into a great business centre that is used as a hub by much of the world's shipping. It remains to be seen whether KAEC will really be such a success that it can become the next Dubai. In any case, Mecca, Jeddah and KAEC together form a religious and economic hub, all located within Mecca Province, the mostly highly populated of Saudi Arabia's thirteen provinces. Connected by high-speed rail links, it is reasonable to see these three cities as effectively forming one megacity that relates to the religious, business and shipping communities as characterised by Babylon the Great in Revelation 17-18. The following video gives an introduction to King Abdullah Economic City:

Reaction from Heaven (v20)
Verse 20 says, "Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has pronounced judgment against her on your behalf!"

The speaker here is not identified. It may be an angel, or possibly the voice of God himself as in verse 4 when he addressed 'my people'. This reaction contrasts dramatically with that of the kings, merchants and seamen. Instead of expressing woes, believers in heaven are called upon to rejoice. The city's destruction is God's judgment on their behalf. In other words, it is payback for her murderous campaign against God's people, in which she became drunk on their blood (Revelation 17:6).


Angel's dramatic pronouncement (v21-24)
Verse 21 says, "Then one powerful angel picked up a stone like a huge millstone, threw it into the sea, and said, “With this kind of sudden violent force Babylon the great city will be thrown down and it will never be found again!"

This alludes to Jeremiah 51:61-64. Jeremiah pronounced a long and detailed prophecy about the fall of Ancient Babylon, as recorded in Jeremiah 50-51. He then gave it to Seraiah, whom he sent to Babylon and charged as follows: "When you arrive in Babylon, make sure you read aloud all these prophecies. Then say, ‘O Lord, you have announced that you will destroy this place so that no people or animals live in it any longer. Certainly it will lie desolate forever!’ When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. Then say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am ready to bring upon her; they will grow faint.’" What this implies is that although the prophecy was primarily about the fall of Ancient Babylon, it is ultimately about the fall of Mystery Babylon. Whereas Seraiah was simply told to tie a stone to the scroll and throw it into the River Euphrates, now the angel picks up a huge millstone and throws it into the sea. So the prophecy is re-interpreted in relation to end-time Babylon the Great which is located not by the River Euphrates, but near the sea. The magnitude of her fall compared to that of Ancient Babylon is dramatically demonstrated in the difference between the huge millstone that the angel uses, and the simple stone that Seraiah used. Isaiah 13 is another prophecy of Babylon's destruction which is ultimately about end-time Mystery Babylon.

After Ancient Babylon fell to the Persians in 539 BC, it continued to be inhabited for another 1,000 years. When Mystery Babylon falls, it will become an uninhabited ruin, left as a dwelling place for wild animals and birds (verse 2, and also Isaiah 13:19-22). In verses 22 to 23, the angel emphasises this fact. The sound of musicians will never be heard in her again (v22a). No craftsman or trade will be found in her (v22b). No light from a lamp will ever shine in her again (v23a). Neither will the voices of bridegroom and bride (i.e. the sounds of happy rejoicing) be heard in her again (v23b). This portrayal of her becoming a permanently deserted wasteland does make one wonder whether its destruction is caused by a nuclear strike, with the land and surrounding area becoming a contaminated desert wasteland, even during the Millennium when, generally-speaking, the earth is renewed and seems to become a kind of utopia.


The Final Verdict (v23-24)
Verse 23 says, "…For your merchants were the tycoons of the world, because all the nations were deceived by your magic spells!" This again emphasises her dual-role as a great centre for business, and also for religion. The Greek word 'pharmakeia' translated 'magic spells' in the NET bible implies a type of sorcery. As such it is a description relating to her religion. The earth's inhabitants are seen to have become intoxicated with the wine of her immorality (Revelation 17:2). The message of Islam intoxicates them and bewitches them under Satan's power like a magic spell.

Verse 24 says, "The blood of the saints and prophets was found in her, along with the blood of all those who had been killed on the earth". It is a portrayal of a wicked sorceress, sacrificing God's people and mixing their blood to create a magic potion.

This is like a courtroom scene in which the judge sums up what a vile creature she is, and why she is deserving of the heavy sentence he pronounces upon her. The phrase 'along with the blood of all those who had been killed on the earth' portrays her as an earthly manifestation of Satan himself, who will ultimately be held responsible for the blood of all those killed on the earth. In his summing up, God completely demonises her. This demonisation is also seen in the sense that in Revelation 17 she rides the beast. Like the dragon (Satan) in chapter 12, the beast has seven heads and ten horns. The beast is Satan's kingdom on earth. Saudi Arabia is the Great Prostitute who rides upon it and who also provides it with its wine, the ideology of Islam. She is therefore Satan's accomplice, and is judged accordingly for Satan's crimes.

In stating that God and the bible effectively demonise Saudi Arabia and Islam, it is important to point out that God loves individual Muslims. It is the religion of Islam, and its false god Allah, that God demonises. He doesn't demonise ordinary individual Muslims who succumb to the Islamic deception. According to Revelation 14:6-8, an angel proclaims the Gospel to every nation, tribe, language, and people immediately before the fall of Mystery Babylon. This demonstrates God's mercy before judgment, and I believe that many Muslims will repent and turn to Jesus at that point. When God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son (John 3:16), Jesus died for Muslim people as much as for anyone else. He longs for them to repent and believe in Jesus as the Son of God, their true God and Saviour.

On Open Doors' Watchlist of the top 50 nations where Christians face the most extreme persecution, Saudi Arabia ranked 13 out of 50 in 2024. After North Korea which is the worst of all, the next 15 worst nations are all Muslim nations, except for India where persecution is partly by Muslims and partly by Hindus. Out of the top 50 nations, 35 are Muslim-majority nations.

Saudi Arabia is not currently the worst persecuting nation. But here in Revelation, perhaps because she is the original source of Islam, and because she has so effectively used her oil wealth to export her wine, the message of Islam, she is viewed as being accountable for all who are persecuted and killed in the name of Islam.

To further understand the fall of Mystery Babylon, it is important to follow the pointers that Revelation 17-18 gives us to the prophecies of Isaiah 13, 21, 34, 47, Jeremiah 49, 50-51. All of these are ultimately prophecies about the fall of Mystery Babylon in modern-day Saudi Arabia.