20 Dec 2013
Revelation 14:8
Revelation 14:8: “And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”
I believe that this is a reference to the actual city of Babylon. The Old Testament prophesied how that city would be destroyed, and so far those prophecies have not come to pass. Instead of being violently wiped out the city simply faded away over the course of centuries. Today the city is being rebuilt in Iraq, and one day it will become a very powerful city – but right now it is just a tourist attraction.
Here we see the end of Babylon: an angel announces that it has been destroyed. We are also told why: “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication”. She polluted the world with the worship of false gods, and so she is judged.
Passages like this make me think that the Tribulation is still quite some time away. Modern Babylon is nowhere near being a great city, and it does not have a relationship with all nations. It is going to take quite a number of years to turn it into the most powerful city in the world. Whether the Rapture is soon I do not know; it may be, or it may not be. But I do think that the Tribulation is at least a generation away, if not a great deal more than that.