Six angels, the number of man, proclaim judgment over man and his works. Preceded by Christ, the first,1 who thus brings the number to seven – they express the completeness of the judgment which is absolute, holy and righteous. The first of the six angels has proclaimed an eternal ‘gospel’, an eternal proclamation of the judgment of God. He did proclaim the gospel of God as the Creator, to whom all honour is due. “Honour be to Whom honour is due”, Rien Poortvliet replied when he was praised for his drawings and paintings of Nature. He meant that the original subjects in nature as God Created them, vastly surpasses what even the best artist can draw, paint, sculpt or reproduce. An ‘eternal Gospel’ that refers to Creation itself. Referring to the times long before the time of the reconciliatory, the redemptive and finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Gospel of ‘faith and grace’ that has gone all over the world for many centuries now. This is one more final message: if you do not believe, or do not want to believe the Gospel of salvation, at least: Worship the Creator! Bow before Him! Give Him honour! For the hour of His judgment has come. Bow before Him, who knows whether He will even yet leave a blessing behind for you!
And now the ‘second angel’ appears with another strong prophetic message before John’s very eyes. This angel calls out that ‘Babylon’ has fallen! The great Babylon has fallen! ‘Babylon’ that has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality, compare Zechariah 12:2 (GNT) “I will make Jerusalem like a cup of wine; the nations around her will drink and stagger like drunks.” It has fallen! Later on, John is allowed to see more details of that ‘fall of Babylon’,2 but he now uses the ‘prophetic past tense’ once again. He sees what still has to take place in the future as if it has already happened. The ‘fall of Babylon’—the concentration of all that is an enemy of God and the Lamb, and that lifts up ‘Man’ to be like ‘god’—has been decided. Historical Babylon, ‘the great city’,3 was the type of the violent, godless power that oppressed the people of Israel and was therefore exterminated.4 ‘Babylon’ led all the nations into ‘prostitution’—literally and metaphorically. The religious idolatry, the worship of idols was often associated with fornication, temple- prostitution. And the ‘wine of the passion of her immorality’ maybe refers to the frenzied feasts where alcohol and other intoxicating and mind-altering substances, like drugs, were in abundant use. And the ‘wine’ could also refer to the frenzy of devastating warfare. The Authorised Version says: “Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Lord’s hand that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.”5 When the wrath of the Lord sets in He starts by leaving man to himself. He withdraws His general grace. He gives ‘man’ over to his own lusts and his degrading passions. He delivers him up to everything that comes up out of his natural, sinful heart, mind and the lusts of his flesh. And to the full influence of the demonic ‘powers of darkness’. Romans 1:22-32 “Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonoured among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.”
Deluded by the temptations of the world and the powers of darkness, a stupor sets in, as a result of which the nations cast themselves ‘unresistingly’ and relentlessly into all kinds of injustice, immorality and bloodthirstiness. John sees ‘Babylon’ as already having fallen, however! And that is what it ultimately will come to.
• From the historical point of view Babylon fell, after it had conquered Jerusalem and the Temple and many towns in the South of Israel and dragged many inhabitants of Judea off into Exile by the rivers of Babylon.6 The Babylonian Empire was later conquered by the Medes and the Persians. Cyrus, the Persian, of the Empire of the Medes and the Persians put an end to the Empire of the Babylonians in 550 BC, and he allowed the Jewish exiles to return to Israel7 in 538 BC.
• Rien Poortvliet (7 August 1932 – 15 September 1995) was a Dutch draughtsman and painter. His parents were strict followers of the Dutch Reformed Church and were opposed to the idea of their oldest son going to an art academy. He made a very impressive book out of his drawings and watercolours concerning the life of Jesus Christ. “He Was One of Us”: The Life of Jesus of Nazareth (1994). He also created a beautiful book: Noah’s Ark (1992), with subtitle: credit where credit is due, honour be to Whom honour is due, meaning all Honour to the Creator. His books were translated into English, French, German, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Italian and other languages.
Bible References:
1.Revelation 10:1 2.Revelation 17 and 18 3.Daniel 4:30 4.Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51 5.Jeremiah 51:7 6.Psalm 137 7.2 Chronicles 36:22–23; Ezra 1:1–4, 3:7, 4:3, 5:11, 6:15, Isaiah 44:28–45:8, Daniel 1:21.
