Revelation 18:16, commentary and pictures

The verse pictures a rich and splendid city arrayed in costly clothing and jewels, whose merchants and allies cry out in grief when her great wealth is laid waste in a single hour of divine judgment. That city is mystic Babylon, the churches grown corrupt in principle after rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. She is made Babylon by exalting the false sabbath above the Sabbath of the Lord, by teaching the immortality of the soul, and by turning from God's law to human theories under false shepherds. Its scenes are about to take place when the day of God's wrath comes upon the cities for their sins, and their great buildings erected story upon story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of His power. It is part of the last testing warning to be given more fully and boldly to the world without toning down, strengthening the third angel's message and calling God's people still in Babylon to come out so as not to share her sins and plagues.

Babylon's Splendor and Fall

The verse pictures a great city clothed in fine linen and purple and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls. Its rich adornment in costly fabrics and decoration marks Babylon in her splendor before her coming fall.

The cry of alas, alas is the lament of the merchants and others linked with her riches over her sudden ruin in God's judgment. Her great riches come to nothing in an hour, and all her display of costly clothing, gold, precious stones, and pearls cannot protect her when that judgment falls.

Babylon is the churches become corrupt in principle, whose principles have become as described in Revelation 18. Revelation 18 points to the time when the church, by rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, fully reaches the condition foretold by the second angel. That lament over the great city forms part of the setting for God's final call for His people still in Babylon to separate from her communion and leave her.

That judgment on mystic Babylon follows the work of false shepherds who turn people from God's law to human theories. She is made Babylon by exalting the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath which the Lord Jehovah blessed and sanctified for the use of man, by teaching the immortality of the soul, and by rejection of the truth. The kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers seen mourning her fall are all in corrupt harmony with her through these kindred heresies.

The verse describes the judgment and ruin of a proud, wealthy power whose costly splendor and accumulated treasures will not protect it from destruction. Costly possessions and human lives will be lost, and the world's flattering monuments of human greatness will be brought to ruin and reduced to dust before the final destruction of the world. This is a warning to those who reject the light and insist on their own way that they face the fulfillment of this judgment.

Judgment Coming on Cities

Revelation 18:16 belongs to the vision of the next great event following the final warning to the world in Revelation 14:6-13, as part of the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 now being fulfilled. It is the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning now to be given to all before the events pictured in Revelation 19, when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns on this earth. The scenes recorded in the chapter are events about to take place whose fulfillment is certain, revealing things yet to take place in the cities when the day of God's wrath shall come and the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth.

The verse applies to great cities where great buildings go up story after story, showing that one day those massive structures 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 terrible scenes whose fearfulness cannot be imagined. That coming destruction is because of the sins of the cities and the wickedness existing in the world, as a wonderful display of the power of God showing the importance of obeying His law. Its fulfillment will be awful and destructive, similar to the terrible judgment of God that fell upon San Francisco on April 18, 1906, so that when the scene comes it will seem that the day of judgment has come.

The destruction of a sinful city recently destroyed is God's rebuke because of sin and His special indication of this coming judgment, calling men who have abused their privileges and wronged their fellow men to make amends for the wrong done, to hear the voice from heaven, and to come out so as not to share in sin and plagues. Those who believe the prophecies must read the chapter verse by verse to understand its meaning and must not ignore it, make light of it, or defiantly plan greater buildings and investments far in advance of past buildings in the cities, for God will exercise His power to counteract such efforts. The verse gives no particular detail that New York is to be swept away by a tidal wave, only the general certainty that destruction is in the world and the great buildings will fall.

Last Warning to Proclaim

This lament over the richly adorned great city was given from God in solemn warning and made known by Christ Himself to John on Patmos, showing the last events of this earth's history and the things which will be, whose perils are now upon us. It belongs to the testing truths for this time and to the last call of mercy and message of warning to be sounded to all and given more fully to the world, and the truths in Revelation 18 and 19 should be read and understood by all. In mercy God shows long forbearance and holds back His judgments until this warning has been heard by those who have not yet heard it.

The truth of this chapter must be presented with boldness and power, with no toning down or muffling. The verse strengthens and confirms the third angel's message, which is present truth, the last great testing truth, a life-and-death question and the great test to be brought upon God's people in the last days. Its message belongs with proclaiming the Sabbath of the Lord and showing the seventh day to be the seal of the living God, and with showing what may be expected from the papal power when the Protestant churches reach out to grasp the hand of the power that has made void the law of God, and it is not an inferior matter.

Satan seeks to hinder its proclamation and would have it silenced, and has devised a state of things to bind about it. He will mingle deceptions with truth to create side issues that turn attention from the great issue, and his plans and methods must be guarded against. With evil fallen angels he is constantly at work in all deceivableness of unrighteousness to deceive if possible the very elect, and if he can keep minds confused about these things now he gains a great victory, for confusion now may be death.

The lament forms part of the setting for God's final call, when rejection of the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12 has brought the church fully into the condition foretold by the second angel, and God's people still in Babylon are called to separate from her communion and come out so as not to partake of her plagues. It is to be proclaimed with all power and efficiency by chosen human agencies with a loud voice as the last work to be done for the world. So the world is not left in darkness and men and women are sanctified through the truth, and a people are prepared to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming.