Revelation 18:13, commentary and pictures

The list sets out Babylon's trade in spices, ointments, foods, animals, conveyances and people, showing a proud wealthy power that buys and sells even human beings as merchandise. Its closing words mean a traffic in enslaved people and in human lives that drags those made by God down to the level of brutes and below the animals, through being carried about, torn from families and made to suffer terribly. It belongs to the picture of Babylon's condition when the church has fully reached the state foretold by the second angel after rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. The chapter is the very last call of mercy and warning before destruction, commanding God's people to come out of her so as not to share her sins and receive her plagues just before the events of Revelation 19. That condemnation falls on the slave trade and on all who sanction it, and on the liquor seller who carries on the same dealing in souls by ruining mind and body for gain, and the chapter is present truth to be proclaimed boldly with a loud voice to prepare a people for the great day fast coming.

Babylon's Trade in Souls

Revelation 18:13 belongs to the description of Babylon's condition when the church has fully reached the state foretold by the second angel after rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. It points to a future time when that rejection is complete, and it is connected with the final call for God's people still in Babylon to separate from her. Its list of goods receives no separate explanation there and is given no distinct application beyond its place in that description.

The list catalogs Babylon's commerce in spices, ointments, foodstuffs, animals, conveyances and people, including souls of men, showing that human beings are treated as merchandise. It describes the judgment and destruction of a proud, wealthy power whose commerce treats even human beings as goods. Its words will be fulfilled: costly possessions and structures will perish, and accumulated wealth will not save those who have oppressed others. The chapter whose message this is must be proclaimed boldly and powerfully, without being softened or muffled, with the third angel's message strengthened and confirmed. The description warns readers to fear God's judgments, turn from selfishness and sin, and accept the light rather than insist on their own way.

The final terms for slaves and souls of men denote the buying and selling of enslaved people as merchandise and a traffic in human beings and their lives. Souls of men refers to people reduced by slavery to the level of brute creatures and below the animals, bought and sold, separated from their families, and subjected to terrible suffering. The language applies to the slave trade in the nation and to the Southern system of slavery, which treated human traffic and dealing in slaves as a right and was the foundation of the war. It applies to slave traders and to professed Christians and religious bodies that sanctioned or engaged in slavery, whose oppression is recorded by God in heaven and brings judgment and God's anger. The same dealing in slaves and souls of men is carried on by the liquor seller who for gain treats people as commodities, drawing them under alcohol's power to ruin. That traffic still continues today, coming from hasting to be rich, sacrificing integrity for luxury and display, perverting justice and oppressing the poor. It is one of the sins that called for vengeance on the antediluvian world and proves modern society is fast hastening to the same condition and the same destruction.

That traffic reduces human beings made by God to the lowest degradation and the level of brute animals. It involves human agony carried about and bought and sold, separation from families, and terrible suffering. Professed followers of Jesus who sanction this merchandise or engage in it themselves act with heartless indifference and hateful satisfaction while daring to worship God, which is solemn mockery that causes Satan to reproach Jesus. All of it is recorded by angels and written in the book, and the tears of enslaved fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters are bottled up in heaven. Trading in enslaved people is an enormous and grievous sin that brings God's punishment on the nation, with God holding the destiny of the nation in His hands. His anger burns against the nation and especially against the religious bodies that approved and practiced this oppression, to punish the South for slavery and the North for long tolerating its overreaching influence, restrained only a little longer.

Babylon is a corrupt harmony in which kings, merchants, rulers and religious teachers act together. The wine of Babylon that unites them is the exalting of the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath God blessed and sanctified for the use of man, and also the immortality of the soul. These kindred heresies, with the rejection of truth, are what convert a church into Babylon.

Final Warning Before Destruction

Revelation 18 presents the next great event following the final worldwide warning represented in Revelation 14:6-13. It constitutes the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given, and the last call of mercy to be given more fully to the world. The mercy of God holds back His judgments to give time for this warning message to be sounded to all, including the many who have not yet heard it, and all should read and understand these testing truths for this time.

The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled, and the whole of Revelation 18 will be fulfilled. Its recorded scenes point to events yet to take place and about to take place as the close of earth's history approaches, with deep concern, and they are connected especially with events yet to take place in cities and with God's judgments. Its description should cause all who read it to fear and tremble.

The chapter showing the last events of this earth's history was made known by Christ Himself to John on the Isle of Patmos and was given from God as solemn warning to call minds in these last days. It must be read and understood now without confusion, for Satan gains a great victory by keeping minds confused, and confusion now may be death. It stands with Revelation 3, Revelation 16:13-21, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and 1 and 2 Peter in revealing the two parties in the world, Christ's people and Satan's army of evil fallen angels working in all deceivableness of unrighteousness to deceive if possible the very elect.

It will be fulfilled when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth, and it foretells events that will occur when the day of God's wrath comes. The wickedness existing in the world today brings that coming judgment, and the scenes of judgment fall upon mystic Babylon as the consequences of rebellion against God's law come upon those responsible, ending in destruction as a display of God's power because of sin. Obeying God's law is of decisive importance in view of it.

The judgment means God has a storehouse of retributive judgments permitted to fall upon those who have continued in sin in the face of great light. The most costly structures supposed to be fireproof will become ashes just as Sodom perished in the flames of God's vengeance, and massive buildings going up story after story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power. One word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, and those massive structures will fall, with scenes whose fearfulness cannot be imagined. Vessels costing immense sums wrestling with mighty waters will sink with their treasures of gold and silver and their human freight, man's pride will be buried with treasures accumulated by fraud, and costly possessions and structures will perish so that accumulated wealth will not save those who have oppressed others. The flattering monuments of men's greatness will be crumbled in the dust even before the last great destruction comes upon the world, and the time is right upon us when there will be sorrow in the world that no human balm can heal. The description warns readers to fear God's judgments, turn from selfishness and sin, and accept the light rather than insist on their own way and not God's way.

The terrible judgment of God that fell upon San Francisco on April 18, 1906 shows the kind of destructive events foretold for the cities. Witnessing such destruction is a rebuke from God that must not be ignored or made light of, and those who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of fellow men are called to make amends for the wrong done. To defiantly invest means and plan greater buildings afterward invites God to exercise His power to counteract those efforts.

God's people are commanded to come out of her so as not to share her sins and so as not to receive her plagues. This call comes just before the time pictured in Revelation 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated the great rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then follows the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked and the final triumph and reign of Christ in this earth.

Condemnation and Present Proclamation

The closing words condemn the buying and selling of enslaved people as a traffic in human lives that degrades them to the level of brute creatures. They apply to the Southern system that claimed human traffic and dealing in slaves as a right and became the foundation of the war. That same traffic still continues from hasting to be rich, sacrificing integrity for luxury and display, perverting justice and oppressing the poor. It was one of the sins that called for vengeance on the antediluvian world and proves modern society is fast hastening to the same condition and the same destruction.

The condemnation falls on slave traders and on professed followers of Jesus and religious bodies that sanctioned or engaged in slavery. To do so with heartless indifference and hateful satisfaction while daring to worship God is solemn mockery that gives occasion for Satan to reproach Jesus. All oppression is recorded by angels and written in the book, and the tears of enslaved fathers, mothers, children, brothers and sisters are bottled up in heaven. God's anger burns against the nation and especially against the religious bodies that approved and practiced this oppression, reducing people made by God to the lowest degradation, below the animals, carrying human agony about as merchandise, separating families and inflicting terrible suffering. He has the destiny of the nation in His hands, will punish the South for slavery and the North for long tolerating its overreaching influence, and will restrain His anger only a little longer before judgment comes.

The same dealing in slaves and souls of men is carried on by the liquor seller, who for gain treats people as commodities, draws them under alcohol's power to ruin, and corrupts and destroys mind and body. His work fills houses of prostitution, dens of vice, criminal courts, prisons, almshouses, insane asylums and hospitals. Behind him stands the mighty destroyer of souls, employing every art to draw human beings under his power and to create and foster desire for intoxicants in city and country, on trains and steamers, in business and pleasure, in the medical dispensary and even in the church.

The description should cause all who read it to fear and tremble, for God has a storehouse of retributive judgments permitted to fall upon those who continue in sin in the face of great light. He keeps a record of every action for good or evil and will avenge widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness have cried to Him for help from oppression and abuse. Costly possessions and structures will perish, accumulated wealth will not save oppressors, and obedience to God's law is of decisive importance in view of the coming day of wrath. Readers are warned to turn from selfishness and sin, to accept the light rather than insist on their own way and say by their attitude that they want their own way and not God's way.

The chapter is present truth for this time, the last great testing truth and third angel's message, the last work to be done for the world and the appointed work not to be set aside for other lines or counted an inferior matter. It is the last call of mercy to be given more fully, held back by mercy to give time for the warning to reach all including the many who have not yet heard it, and all should read and understand it. It is to be proclaimed by chosen human agencies with a loud voice with all power and efficiency, boldly and with no measured terms, no toning down and no muffling, so the message is strengthened and confirmed as a life-and-death question, the earth is lightened with glory, and men and women are sanctified through the truth and prepared to stand in the great day fast coming with stealthy, awful dread. That proclamation includes that the seventh-day Sabbath is the seal of the living God, exposure of what may be expected from the papal power that has made void God's law, and warning that Protestant churches are reaching out to grasp its hand. Satan would have that message silenced and bound about, and will mingle deceptions with truth to create side issues that turn attention from the great issue, the test to be brought upon God's people in these last days.

The chapter warns of what is coming on the earth and of the last events of earth's history, made known by Christ Himself to John on Patmos and given from God as solemn warning. It stands with Revelation 3, Revelation 16:13-21, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and 1 and 2 Peter in revealing the two parties, Christ's people and Satan's army of fallen angels working to deceive if possible the very elect. It must be given with minds diverted into no hindering lines and must be read and understood now without confusion, for Satan gains a great victory by keeping minds confused and confusion now may be death.