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| Let's address a short prayer to God: |
| Our Lord, The impressive and tragic events which we studied in our last lessons will bring about the fall of Babylon. Why will Babylon experience this sad fate? What are the circumstances that will surround this fall? May Your prophetic Word enlighten us on this subject, just as it has so far. We ask You this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 2 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 17:1,2,5,18 |
Comments |
| Then one of the seven angels who
had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, «Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.» (...) And on her forehead a name was written: «Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.» (...) The woman whom you saw is that great city which reigns over the kings of the earth. |
In our lesson «The
Great Harlot», we have seen that Babylon symbolizes a religious system that groups
together all the apostate churches. In the last days, this system will receive full authority over all the nations. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 3 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 17:6,13,14 |
Comments |
| And I saw the woman, drunk with
the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (...) [The ten kings] are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them, for He is Lord of lords and King of kings. |
The union of the harlot, the beast, and the ten kings
(which symbolize the nations of the earth) will form a religio-political coalition that
will attack God's people refusing to submit to its authority. But this war against Jesus and His saints will end badly for the apostate coalition... This will be the fall of Babylon, which is the subject of this lesson. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 4 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 51:8,9 |
Comments |
| «Babylon has suddenly fallen
and been destroyed. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. - We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies.» |
First, let's see what leads God to pronounce such a
severe judgment against Babylon. Let's note first that God was exceedingly patient towards Babylon, incessantly calling all the apostate churches to come back to Him, to rediscover His will and obey it. But Babylon always refused to listen to God. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 5 |
The Fall of Babylon |
| Daniel 5:18-23 : Literal Babylon, too, was rebellious before its fall. |
| «O king, the Most High God gave
Nebuchadnezzar your father a kingdom and majesty, glory and honor. (...) But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him (...), till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever He chooses. But you his son, Belshazzar, have not humbled your heart, although you knew all this. And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.» |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 6 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Daniel 5:24-28,30,31 |
Comments |
| «Then the fingers of the hand
were sent from [God], and this writing was written. And this is the inscription that was
written: "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin." This is the interpretation of each word. "Mene": God has numbered your kingdom, and finished it; "Tekel": You have been weighed in the balances, and found wanting; "Peres": Your kingdom has been divided, and given to the Medes and Persians.» (...) That very night Belshazzar, king of the Chaldeans, was slain. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom. |
Seeing the unrepentance of literal Babylon, God brought about its fall. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 7 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 2:18,20,21 |
Comments |
| And to the angel of the church
in Thyatira write, «(...) I have a few things against you, because you allow that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and beguile My servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.» |
Spiritual Babylon, in turn, displays the same
unrepentance. In the «Letter to the Church of Thyatira», symbolizing the apostate Church in the Middle Ages, Jesus had already called the impure woman, here named Jezebel, to repent of her immorality, but, even at that time, she refused to repent. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 8 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 2:22,23 |
Comments |
| Indeed I will cast her into a
sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent
of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death. And all the churches shall know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one of you according to your works. |
God allowed many plagues to strike Europe during the
Middle Ages, in order to reason with the Church and «those who
commit adultery with her». Unfortunately, the Church preferred to sink more and more deeply into apostasy. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 9 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 50:29,31,32 |
Comments |
| «Call together the archers
against Babylon. All you who bend the bow, encamp against it all around; let none of them
escape. Repay her according to her work; according to all she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel. (...) Behold, I am against you, O you most proud!» says the Lord God of hosts; «for your day has come, the time that I will punish you. The most proud shall stumble and fall, and no one will raise him up.» |
The main cause of Babylon's unrepentance is her pride. Having a very high opinion of herself, she is convinced of her infallibility, and does not see at all the necessity of repenting and coming back to God. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 10 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:7,8 |
Comments |
| In the measure that she
glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow;
for she says in her heart, «I sit as queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.» Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. |
On the contrary, Babylon, by saying «I am no widow», shows that she really thinks she is God's bride, and also thinks that God approves of all she does, in spite of her abominations and impurity. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 11 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Isaiah 47:1,8,10 |
Comments |
| Daughter of Babylon (...), hear
this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, «I
am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow.» (...) For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, «No one sees me»; your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, «I am, and there is no one else besides me.» |
Babylon carried her presumption to the point of
believing that her will prevails over God's will. So she replaced the teachings and commandments of God with her own human concepts. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 12 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Isaiah 14:4,13,14 |
Comments |
| You will take up this proverb
against the king of Babylon, and say: (...) «You have said in your heart: "I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High."» |
In fact, Babylon's pride leads her to share the very
same mad ambition as that of Satan, as we have seen in the lesson «The Great Dragon and his Angels»: to take the place
of God Himself. And this is no surprise since, by rejecting God's repeated calls to repentance, Babylon has entirely given herself to Satan. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 13 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Genesis 11:4 |
Comments |
| And they said, «Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.» | The first expression of Babylon's pride
was seen at Babel, from which she takes her name. After the Flood, men wanted to prevent themselves from being struck by another similar divine judgment. Rejecting God's salvation, they chose to use human means, and to build a tower «whose top is in the heavens», just like the sins of Babylon which «have reached to heaven». |
Revelation 18:5 |
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| For [Babylon's] sins have reached to heaven. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 14 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Genesis 11:8,9 |
Comments |
| So the Lord scattered them
abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. |
The name «Babel» was linked with the Hebrew word
«balal», meaning «confusion». But, in Babylonian language, «Babel» meant «Gate of the Gods». The famous expression «Extra ecclesiam non salus est», that is, «Out of the Church, no salvation», proclaimed by modern Babylon, echoes this ancient claim of Babel, presenting herself as the only door giving access to God. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 15 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:2 |
Comments |
| Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit! | Because of her pride and her satanic ambition to take
the place of God, Babylon «has become a habitation of demons». Even more, her false doctrine of the immortality of the soul, according to which a part of man survives after death and can communicate with the living, left the door wide open to all the deceiving wonders of spiritualism, the favorite weapon of Satan, as we have seen in our lesson «The False Prophet». |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 16 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Genesis 3:4,5 |
Comments |
| The serpent said to the woman, «You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.» |
Nowadays, Babylon is made up of a multitude of
religions and movements which adopted as their credo the lies of Satan, the ancient
serpent. The assertion of the immortality of man, even if he disobeys God, and the promise of becoming like gods, deceived our first parents, and, still today, efficiently deceives millions of people. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 17 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:2,3 |
Comments |
| Babylon the great is fallen, is
fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage
for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. |
The spread of the deceiving false doctrines of
Babylon, like wine which makes the nations drunk, is another reason for her fall. In addition to all the lying spiritual movements, Babylon also groups together all the humanist and materialistic trends which negate the usefulness, indeed even the existence of God, and deem the Bible to be a collection of myths. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 18 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 51:7,8 |
Comments |
| Babylon was a golden cup in the
Lord's hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. |
By rejecting the Bible as the sole basis of their
faith, millions of people deprive themselves of the only source of truth which could help
them unmask Satan's wiles, and lead them on the path of salvation in Jesus Christ. Preferring to believe tales which do not challenge nor bring into question their spiritual condition, they thus drink Babylon's poisoned wine. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 19 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:20,21,23,24 |
Comments |
| «Rejoice over her, O heaven,
and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged you on her!» Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, «Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore. (...) For by your sorcery all the nations were deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and saints, and of all who were slain on the earth.» |
In addition to having led astray the nations by her «sorcery», Babylon is found guilty of having severely persecuted the people of God. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 20 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 51:24 |
Comments |
| «I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight», says the Lord. | As we have seen many times in our previous lessons, God's people are often the target of the persecutions of Babylon under the guise of the little horn - the papacy during the Middle Ages - and then, in the last days, under the guise of the great apostate religious coalition. |
Daniel 7:21 |
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| The same horn was making war against the saints, and prevailing. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 21 |
The Fall of Babylon |
| Babylon was and will be, until her fall, a persecutor of God's people: |
| «Call together the archers
against Babylon. (...) The children of Israel were oppressed, along with the children of
Judah; all who took them captive have held them fast; they have refused to let them go.
Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their
case, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.»
(JEREMIAH 50:29,33,34) «And on her forehead a name was written: "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth." And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints.» (REVELATION 17:5,6) «"Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon," the inhabitant of Zion will say; "and my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!" Jerusalem will say. (...) As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall.» (JEREMIAH 51:35,49) |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 22 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:2,3 |
Comments |
| Babylon the great is fallen, is
fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage
for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. |
Finally, Babylon will fall because she did not hesitate to reject God and His Word of truth, preferring to adopt a lukewarm position which allowed her to conclude political alliances with the nations, and thus increase her prestige, authority, and material wealth. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 23 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 17:16 (New International Version) |
Comments |
| The beast and the ten horns you
saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. |
Now that we know the reasons for Babylon's fall, let's
see how Babylon will fall. When the seven last plagues (which we will study in the next section) are poured out on the earth, the nations «drunk with the wine of her fornication» (Revelation 17:2) will then understand that they have been deceived by Babylon. All these nations will then turn against Babylon to destroy her. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 24 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 17:1,16,17 |
Comments |
| Come, I will show you the
judgment of the great harlot. (...) And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these will hate the harlot, make her desolate and naked, eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to fulfill His purpose, to be of one mind, and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled. |
Therefore, quite ironically, God will use the rebellious nations to execute His judgment on Babylon, bringing about her final fall. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 25 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:9,10 |
Comments |
| And the kings of the earth who
committed fornication and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament for her, when
they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance for fear of her torment, saying, «Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come.» |
Yet, Babylon's wealth and opulence will have been very
profitable to the nations. This is why the kings of the earth weep when they see her ruin, although they themselves have contributed to her destruction, in their fury at having being deceived. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 26 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Ezekiel 27:33-35 |
Comments |
| You enriched the kings of the
earth with your many luxury goods and your merchandise. But when you are broken by the seas in the depths of the waters, your merchandise and the entire company will fall in your midst. All the inhabitants of the isles will be astonished at you; their kings will be greatly afraid, and their countenance will be troubled. |
But the kings of the earth don't weep only over the
extraordinary material loss caused by the fall of Babylon. They are also filled with fear, knowing that, since they followed Babylon, the same fate awaits them. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 27 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 14:8-10 |
Comments |
| Babylon is fallen, is fallen,
that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. (...) If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone. |
These kings have good reason to be scared because,
having drunk of Babylon's wine, they will now have to drink the wine of the wrath of God. They will thus have to suffer the seven last plagues, which we will soon study. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 28 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 51:63,64 |
Comments |
| Now it shall be, when you have
finished reading this book, that you shall tie a stone to it and throw it out into the
Euphrates. Then you shall say, «Thus Babylon shall sink and not rise from the catastrophe that I will bring upon her.» |
The fall of literal Babylon was symbolized
by a stone thrown into a river. However, it is a millstone thrown into the sea that will confirm the fate of spiritual Babylon: a total destruction. |
Revelation 18:21 |
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| Then a mighty angel took up a
stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, «Thus with violence the great city Babylon shall be thrown down, and shall not be found anymore.» |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 29 |
The Fall of Babylon |
| The final fate of Babylon will be a total and permanent destruction: |
| «And Babylon, the glory of
kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans' pride, will be as when God overthrew Sodom and
Gomorrah. It will never be inhabited, nor will it be settled from generation to
generation. (...) Her time is near to come, and her days will not be prolonged.» (ISAIAH
13:19,20,22) «Thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, against those who dwell in Leb Kamai, a destroying wind. And I will send winnowers to Babylon, who shall winnow her and empty her land. For in the day of doom they shall be against her all around."» (JEREMIAH 51:1,2) «"For I will rise up against them," says the Lord of hosts, "and cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring and posterity", says the Lord. "I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and marshes of muddy water; I will sweep it with the broom of destruction."» (ISAIAH 14:22,23) |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 30 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 18:8,10 |
Comments |
| Therefore her plagues will come
in one day - death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for
strong is the Lord God who judges her. (...) Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! For in one hour your judgment has come. |
These two passages clearly show that Babylon's destruction will be sudden, unexpected, and completed in a very short time. |
Isaiah 47:1,11 |
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| Daughter of Babylon, (...) evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 31 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Revelation 19:1,2 |
Comments |
| After these things I heard a
loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, «Alleluia! Salvation and glory and honor and power to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.» |
The last stage of the fall of Babylon will correspond
with the return of Jesus, as we will see in a future lesson on Armageddon. This is why such a scene of rejoicing takes place in heaven. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 32 |
The Fall of Babylon |
Jeremiah 50:2,6,8 |
Comments |
| Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed,
Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces.
(...) My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. (...) Move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be like the rams before the flocks. |
As we have seen many times in our lessons, let's never
forget that sincere people are still within Babylon, like lost sheep, led astray by bad
shepherds - their spiritual leaders. God entrusts us with the important mission of calling them to come out of Babylon, and to bring other sheep with them, «like the rams before the flocks». So it is now up to each one of us to accept this holy mission, and to accomplish it before the return of our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. |
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Lesson 77 |
Screen 33 |
The Fall of Babylon |
| Let's pray together: |
| Heavenly Father, Your message is clear: «Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen! (...) Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.» (Revelation 18:2,4,5) Please grant us the latter rain, so that we may proclaim with power this message on Your behalf, and encourage the sincere believers who are still within Babylon to take a stand for You. In Jesus Christ we pray. Amen. |
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The Fall of Babylon