Days of Vengeance - The Preterist Archive

18:1-2
priority over the kingdoms of the earth. Israel was a
Kingdom of priests (Ex. 19:6), exercising a priestly
ministry of guardianship, instruction, and intercession
on behalf of the nations of the world. When Israel was
faithful to God, offering up sacrifices for the nations,
the world was at peace; when Israel broke the
Covenant, the world was in turmoil. The Gentile
nations recognized this (1 Kings 10:24; Ezra 1; 4-7; cf.
Rom. 2:17-24). 26 Yet, perversely, they would seek to
seduce Israel to commit whoredom against the
Covenant – and when she did, they would turn on her
and destroy her. That pattern was repeated several
times over until Israel’s final excommunication in A.D.
70, when Jerusalem was destroyed. The desolation of
the Harlot was God’s final sign that the Kingdom had
been transferred to His new people, the Church (Matt.
21:43; 1 Pet. 2:9; Rev. 11:19; 15:5; 21:3). The Kingdom
over the kingdoms will never again be possessed by
national Israel.
26. Josephus points out repeatedly that the nations had historically recognized the sanctity and centrality of the Temple: “This celebrated place . . . was esteemed holy
by all mankind” (The Jewish War, v.i.3; cf. v.ix.4; v.xiii.6). In fact, the action of Jewish rebels, in the summer of A.D. 66, of halting the daily sacrifices for the
Emperor (in violation, Josephus points out, of long-standing practice) was the single event which finally precipitated the Roman war against the Jews (ii.xvii.2-
4). Even at the very end, as Titus prepared to raze the city to the ground, he was still pleading with the Jewish priests to offer up the sacrifices, which by now had
been entirely discontinued (vi.ii.1).
18
BABYLON IS FALLEN!
Come Out of Her! (18:1-8)
1 After these things I saw another Angel coming down
from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was
illumined with His glory.
2 And He cried out with a mighty voice, saying: Fallen,
Fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a
dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean
spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird.
3 For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of
her fornication, and the kings of the earth have
committed fornication with her, and the merchants of
the earth have become rich by the wealth of her
sensuality.
4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying: Come
out of her, My people, that you may not participate in her
sins and that you may not receive of her plagues;
5 for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has
remembered her iniquities.
6 Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back double
according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed,
mix twice as much for her.
7 To the degree that she glorified herself and lived
sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and
mourning; for she says in her heart: I sit as a queen and
am not a widow, and will never see mourning.
8 For this reason in one Day her plagues will come,
pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be
burned up with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judges
her.
1 St. John is now introduced to another Angel –
probably the Lord Jesus Christ, considering the
description of Him, compared with statements about
Christ in St. John’s Gospel: He comes down from
heaven (John 3:13, 31; 6:38, 58), He has great
authority (John 5:27; 10:18; 17:2), and the earth was
illumined with His glory (John 1:4-5, 9, 14; 8:12; 9:5;
11:9; 12:46; cf. 1 Tim. 6:16). The expressions parallel
those in 10:1, which, as we have seen, are clearly
speaking of the Son of God. The last phrase is virtually
a repetition of Ezekiel 43:2, where it says of God that
“the earth shone with His glory.” Christ Himself, who
brings the wrath of god upon the Harlot-City, comes to
proclaim her judgment. The destruction of the
covenant apostates manifests His authority and glory in
the Land.
2 The proclamation of God’s Messenger is consistent
(cf. 14:8): Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! Her
doom is certain, and thus is spoken of as already
completed. This is similar to the funeral dirge Amos
sang against Israel:
She has fallen, she will not rise again –
The virgin Israel.
She lies neglected on her land;
There is none to raise her up. (Amos 5:2)
Jerusalem’s apostasy has become so great that her
judgment is permanent and irrevocable. She is
Babylon, the implacable enemy of God, having become
a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every
unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and
hateful bird, in contrast to the New Jerusalem in 21:27
(“nothing unclean . . . shall ever come into it”). The
Harlot is in a wilderness (17:3), having been made
desolate for her sins (17:16; cf. Matt. 24:15; our words
wilderness, desert, desolation, and desolate are basically
the same word in Greek). The desert is, as we have
already noted, the place of sin and demons (Matt.
12:43; cf. Luke 8:27). An important source for this is
the original desolation of the world through the
demon-inspired rebellion against God (Gen. 3:17-18).
Following from this, on the Day of Atonement a goat
was driven into the wilderness, bearing the sins of the
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