Revelation 18:7, commentary and pictures

Revelation 18:7 describes proud self-glorification and luxurious, pleasure-seeking living in riches gained through apostasy, with Babylon saying inwardly that she sits enthroned as queen in secure royal standing, is no widow who will ever be left desolate, and will see no sorrow or judgment. Her torment and sorrow are given in the same measure as her pride and indulgence, so greater self-exaltation brings greater punishment, overturning her false security when death, mourning, famine and destruction by fire come suddenly in one day. Fallen Babylon is the churches that refuse the warnings of the first, second and third angels' messages, exalting the spurious first-day sabbath above the seventh-day Sabbath and compelling others to dishonor God, until mystic Babylon becomes a persecuting power joining church and state to enforce false worship. The prophecy belongs to the very last events just before us, the last call of mercy when Babylon has fully reached her foretold condition and God's people still in her are called to separate from her communion so as not to share her sins and plagues, before retributive judgments destroy proud wealth and human greatness. These truths of Revelation 18 and 19 are testing truths that must be read by all and proclaimed boldly with a loud voice and no softening, as part of the third angel's message lightening the earth with glory to prepare a people to stand in the great day of God.

Words and Proud Boast

To glorify herself is to exalt herself in pride, to boast in her own greatness and ease, and to live deliciously is to live in luxury, indulgence, pleasure-seeking, riches and ease gained through apostasy. Her self-glorification is the pride of churches, kings and merchants who dishonored God by setting up and exalting the false Sabbath of the first day above the seventh-day Bible Sabbath, and her delicious living is their riches and ease through that apostasy, trampling the Sabbath and compelling others to do the same. Her torment and sorrow are measured to match how much she glorified herself and lived in luxury, with greater pride and indulgence bringing greater punishment, and she is a persecuting power that turns against those who keep God's commandments and have the faith of Jesus. Her saying in her heart, I sit a queen, is an inward, proud claim to rule with secure royal standing and enthroned security, exalted, secure and beyond judgment.

Her claim to be no widow means she denies she will ever be left desolate, denies loss, and denies she will ever know widowhood. Her claim that she shall see no sorrow expresses confident false security and refusal to expect grief or judgment, a proud self-exaltation claiming security from loss and sorrow and freedom from grief. That false confidence is maintained even in the face of great light and continued sin, and it makes certain punishment upon the power that joins church and state to persecute God's commandment-keeping people and enforce worship of the beast's image through the spurious Sabbath. It belongs to the judgment of churches that reject the warning messages of the first, second and third angels, refuse the truth and accept a lie, while proudly claiming secure royal standing with no loss or grief to come.

The same proud language of queenly greatness and expecting no sorrow describes Jerusalem in its pride and false sense of security. In the time of Christ she sat in pride and arrogance, saying she sits as a queen and will see no sorrow, trusting in her beauty and seeming secure in Heaven's favor even as destruction approached. She appeared beautiful, proud and secure, yet failed to recognize the time of her visitation before destruction. As Jerusalem was given up to destruction when she filled up the measure of guilt, so the world will be given up to its doom, and the scenes at the destruction of Jerusalem will be repeated at the great and terrible day of the Lord, but in a more fearful manner.

Proportionate Just Retribution

Torment and sorrow are given to Babylon in the same measure as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, so that greater pride and indulgence bring greater punishment. Her self-exaltation and luxurious, pleasure-seeking life are answered with proportionate retribution, and her boast of greatness and ease in claiming security from loss and sorrow draws that measured return. Her inward claim to sit as queen, to be no widow, and never to suffer sorrow expresses proud self-exaltation and confident false security, maintained even in the face of great light and continued sin. That boast belongs to a persecuting power that turns against those who keep God's commandments and have the faith of Jesus, and to the judgment of churches that reject the warning messages of the first, second, and third angels, refuse truth, and accept a lie. In this setting the judgment falls on the power that joins church and state to persecute God's commandment-keeping people and enforce worship of the beast's image through the spurious Sabbath.

Her false claim to security is overturned by sudden judgment, when her plagues come in one day. Death and mourning and famine come upon her, and she is utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her. The time is just before us, after long bearing with perversity, and it will make such a stir in the world as never has been made before, with proclamation going forth to repay her for what she did to God's people. Its fulfillment is in the judgments of heaven now being poured out and in the last great destruction at the day of the Lord.

The Ruler of the universe bears long with perversity but keeps a record of works and remembers iniquities, then punishes in proportion as pain has been caused to others. In mercy He holds back His judgments until warning has been given, for the truths of Revelation 18 and 19 are testing truths and the last call of mercy to the world that must be read, understood, and sounded more fully to all. That long forbearance makes certain punishment for proud self-confidence in claiming to sit as queen, never widowed and never to see sorrow.

As they judge and punish and cause pain, so they will be judged, punished, and made to suffer. This applies to those who persecute even unto death to compel worship of an idol sabbath and transgression of God's law, and to those who in satanic hatred try to force consciences. They indulge in false accusations, deride those God has appointed, and consign believers to prison, to the chain gang, to banishment, to death, drinking the blood of the saints and becoming intoxicated with exultation. For every pang of anguish, every tear shed, and every drop of blood drawn by torture, and all they have burned by fire, they must answer before the Judge of all the earth. God commands His ministers of judgment to reward her double, filling double to her in the cup she filled.

Her destruction comes when she is ripe for judgment and has filled up the measure of guilt. As Jerusalem was given up to destruction when she filled up the measure of guilt, so the world will be given up to its doom. Jerusalem in the time of Christ sat in pride and arrogance, saying she sits as a queen and will see no sorrow. The scenes that transpired at the destruction of Jerusalem will be repeated at the great and terrible day of the Lord, but in a more fearful manner.

Identity of Babylon

Fallen Babylon is the churches that will not receive the warnings of the first, second, and third angels' messages, because they refused the truth and accepted a lie. Her self-exaltation and luxurious living with proud claim to secure royal standing without loss or grief bring torment and grief measured to match that glorification and indulgence. The plain message of Revelation 18:1-8 does not describe the people made repositories of God's law.

It does not describe God's commandment-keeping people who uplift His downtrodden commandments and are the light of the world, and to call Seventh-day Adventists harlot, Babylon, or den of thieves and proclaim this guilt against them is a false and erroneous application with no divine commission, standing by the accuser of the brethren. The guilt bringing this judgment is the wine of Babylon, which is exalting the false and spurious Sabbath of the first day above the seventh-day Sabbath blessed and sanctified for man's use, with the immortality of the soul and kindred heresies. Rejection of truth for these heresies turns a church into Babylon, with kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers all in corrupt harmony, dishonoring God by setting up the false Sabbath, trampling the Bible Sabbath, growing rich and at ease through that apostasy, and compelling others to do the same while boasting of exaltation, security, and freedom from judgment.

Mystic Babylon has fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power distinguished by wicked character, seductive influence, and increasing outward parade of worldly powers in the closing scenes through the mystery of iniquity. She turns her wrath against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, joining church and state to persecute them and enforce worship of the beast's image through the spurious Sabbath, with her boast of greatness, ease, and freedom from loss and sorrow answered by torment and sorrow in proportion to her self-glorification and indulgence. She belongs to the final crisis when the so-called Christian world is the theater of great and decisive actions and every nation is involved. Then men in authority enact laws controlling conscience after the example of the Papacy, and as the world's apostate religious power she draws nations into rebellion, makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and her sins reach unto heaven bringing God's plagues.

Her condemned condition is that of the harlot living deliciously and waxing rich through the abundance of her delicacies, a cage of every unclean and hateful bird and habitation of devils, making the nations drunk with fornication and confederating with the kings and great men of the earth, whose sins have reached unto heaven and whose iniquities God has remembered. The verse belongs to the description of churches whose principles have become corrupted, when the harm caused by false shepherds' man-made teachings opposing God's law falls back upon them in judgment. It describes the proud, self-confident attitude of a church when it embraces the world, when temporal prosperity and the favor of the wicked lead it to act secure and independent and count itself rich, though it is unconverted and deluded, has left its first love, separated from its Maker and joined itself to the world, with divine character and spiritual strength departed.

Prophetic Timing and Fulfillment

Revelation 18 belongs to prophecy soon to be fulfilled, recording scenes about to take place in a time just before us that will make a stir in the world such as never has been made before. It records the very last call of mercy to the churches and the world, now to be given as the last message of warning that all are to hear before the beast and false prophet are cast into the lake of fire, Satan is bound a thousand years, the wicked are resurrected and finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns. Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled as the last events of earth's history made known by Christ to John on Patmos, connected with another angel descending with great power so that the earth is lighted with his glory in the powerful proclamation of the third angel's message. The scenes portrayed show things yet to take place in the cities as God's special indications of His power displayed in destruction because of the sins of a wicked city.

The prophecy concerns the time when Babylon fully reaches the foretold condition through rejection of the threefold warning and closer alliance with the world, after the church has fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel. When that condition is complete, God's people still in Babylon are called to separate from her communion and leave her so as not to share her sins and plagues. Its destruction is presented as a serious rebuke, not something to dismiss or presume will not recur. It will be fulfilled in heaven's retributive judgments now being poured out and in the last great destruction at the day of the Lord, when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth.

Its fulfillment destroys proud, wealthy power, for costly buildings thought fireproof will become ashes as Sodom perished in the flames of vengeance, and costly ships laden with gold and silver and treasure and human freight will sink into a watery grave. Human pride will be buried with treasures gathered by fraud, and the flattering monuments of human greatness will crumble to dust even before the last great destruction. God will avenge the hungry, naked widows and orphans who cried to Him for relief against oppression and abuse, for every deed for good or evil is recorded. The time is right upon us when a sorrow that no human balm can heal will come, which should cause fear and trembling, though those who do not love the light will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved.

Its fulfillment brings terrible scenes beyond imagining in their fearfulness, with falling balls like fire full of arrows striking the earth with great calamities, houses set on fire that no human effort can extinguish, the earth quaking and homes falling with a crash, and distressing screeching and praying and confusion everywhere. Great buildings built story after story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power, for destruction is in the world and one word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, will cause those massive structures to fall. The destruction that fell upon San Francisco on April 18, 1906 was shown beforehand as similar to the terrible judgments of the day of wrath, exposing the wickedness existing in the world and stressing obedience to God's law. Destruction already witnessed in a recently destroyed city illustrates the retribution appointed for self-glorification and luxurious pride, forbidding indifference, making light of calamity, and flattering plans to build and invest defiantly as before, for God will exercise His power to counteract such efforts and calls those who abused privilege and wronged others to make amends and hear His voice.

The chapter warns of coming events on the earth but is not a specific prediction that New York will be destroyed by a tidal wave. As Jerusalem in pride and arrogance said she sits as a queen and will see no sorrow, and was given up to destruction when she filled up the measure of guilt, so the world will be given up to its doom. The scenes that transpired at the destruction of Jerusalem will be repeated at the great and terrible day of the Lord, but in a more fearful manner.

Proclaiming the Warning

The truths of Revelation 18 and 19 are testing truths for this time and the last call of mercy to the world, and they must be read and understood by all. The warning they contain must be sounded to all more fully and with all its power, because the perils of the last days are upon us. If confusion about these last events is allowed to remain, Satan gains a great victory. In mercy God holds back His judgments until that warning has been given. The chapter’s exposure of self-glorification and indulgent living matched by torment and sorrow, and of false confidence in exalted security beyond mourning, is to be read and understood as warning in connection with judgments soon to fall.

The chapter shows the truth for this time must be presented in no measured terms but with boldness and power, without softening, muffling, or toning down. Satan has devised conditions and a state of things to restrict and bind about the proclamation of the third angel’s message, so that message must be strengthened and confirmed. That message is a life-and-death question and the great test to be brought upon God’s people in the last days. He mingles deception with truth to create side issues that turn attention from the great issue.

The declaration that Babylon receives torment and sorrow in the same measure as she glorified herself and lived in luxury, while saying in her heart that she sits as a queen, is no widow, and will see no sorrow, is not an inferior matter but must be proclaimed as the very work God has appointed. It is to be given to the people together with the truth in regard to the Sabbath of the Lord, showing the seventh day to be the seal of the living God. It shows what may be expected from the papal power that has made void the law of God, and that the time has come when the Protestant churches are reaching out to grasp its hand. This is the message about Babylon’s fall that Satan would have silenced through deception, side issues, and diversion.

The whole of Revelation 18 is the last work to be done for the world and part of the third angel’s message, whose events are soon to be fulfilled. It must be proclaimed with a loud voice by the human agencies God has chosen, with all its power and efficiency and without diversion into lines that would hinder it. Another angel descends from heaven with great power, and the earth is lighted with his glory. Revelation means revelation, and the world is not to be left in darkness, for the message prepares a people to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming with stealthy, awful dread.

The portrayal of a sinful city facing God’s judgment is a solemn warning of complete destruction upon cities that must now be carried to the people with great solemnity and not passed by unnoticed. It calls them to stop exalting the spurious Sabbath. Its warning belongs to the call to leave her and avoid sharing in her sins and plagues. The destruction of a city is a serious rebuke, not something to dismiss or presume will not recur.

Moral Warnings and Application

The verse warns those entrusted with the sacred work of proclaiming the third angel's message of dangers threatening them, calling them to search the Scriptures diligently to learn how to guard against the evil of powers of earth completely giving themselves over to evil in the closing scenes of earth's history. It presents mystic Babylon fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power, whose wicked character and seductive influence are distinguished for persecution of God's people, with more and still more external parade by worldly powers through the mystery of iniquity. Those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus are the object of this power's wrath, and it is dangerous for those who have received the truth to link up with secret societies or to join themselves in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments.

The verse applies to those who in satanic hatred try to force the consciences of God's people, indulging in false accusations, deriding those God has appointed, and consigning believers to prison, to the chain gang, to banishment, to death, drinking the blood of the saints and becoming intoxicated with exultation. It applies to those who persecute even unto death to compel worship of an idol sabbath and transgression of God's law, showing that as they judge and punish and cause pain, so they will be judged, punished, and made to suffer. God bears long with perversity but keeps a record of works and remembers iniquities, and then punishes in proportion to the pain caused to others, giving torment and sorrow in the same measure as self-glorification and luxurious living in answer to the proud inward boast of sitting a queen, being no widow, and seeing no sorrow. For every pang of anguish, every tear shed, every drop of blood drawn by torture, and all they have burned by fire, they must answer before the Judge of all the earth, and His ministers of judgment are commanded to reward her double, filling double to her in the cup she filled.

The verse presses the question of where each one stands in this earth's history, given as a living reality to be read and understood of what will surely happen in the last day. It calls every soul to put away magazines and other fictitious reading, to believe and practice the Word of God as the only hope of the world, to refuse deception by Satan's sophistry by believing the Word of God, and to stress the importance of obeying God's law in view of the wickedness existing in the world today and the terrible judgments like the destruction that fell upon San Francisco on April 18, 1906. It shows God's storehouse of retributive judgments falling on those who keep sinning against great light, when costly buildings thought fireproof will become ashes just as Sodom perished in the flames of God's vengeance, and costly ships with gold and silver and human freight will sink into a watery grave. Human pride will be buried with treasures gathered by fraud, and God will avenge widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness cry to Him against oppression and abuse, for every deed for good or evil is recorded. It means falling balls like fire full of arrows striking the earth with great calamities, houses set on fire that no human effort can extinguish, the earth quaking and homes falling with a crash, distressing screeching and praying, and confusion everywhere, with a sorrow coming that no human balm can heal and flattering monuments of human greatness crumbling to dust even before the last great destruction. This warning should cause fear and trembling, but those who do not love the light will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved, saying by their attitude that they want their own way and not God's way.

The destruction already witnessed in a recently destroyed city illustrates the retribution appointed for self-glorification and luxurious pride, belonging to God's special indications of His power displayed in destruction because of the sins of a wicked city in scenes yet to take place in the cities. It forbids indifference, making light of the calamity, and flattering plans to build and invest defiantly as before, for God will exercise His power to counteract such efforts. It calls those who have abused privilege and wronged others to make amends and hear His voice.