Revelation 18:1-3

1            After all this I saw another angel come down from heaven with great authority, and the earth grew bright with splendor.

2            He gave a mighty shout: “Babylon is fallen – that great city is fallen! She has become a home for demons. She is a hideout for every foul vulture and every foul and dreadful

3            For all the nations have fallen because of the wine of her passionate immorality. The kings of the world have committed adultery with her. Because of her desires for extravagant luxury, the merchants of the world have grown rich.”

John is describing the complete destruction of Babylon, not the literal city though. John used Babylon as a representation of all the evil world powers and all they represent. If we think about it in today’s terms, imagine if companies like Johnson and Johnson, PepsiCo, P&G, Disney, and Berkshire Hathway all closed and went bankrupt all at once. Everything that tries to block and interfere with God’s plan for the world is what will crumble. What’s God plan? Everything is balanced in harmony with each other. All of his creation loves him with every part of their created being. The forces that create division and separation from who God is, who he created us to be, and how we can accomplish his mission. The idea that the earthly powers are interfering with the work of God is not new.

Merchants in the Roman Empire were becoming wealthier and wealthier by exploiting the pleasures of society in sinful ways. They were creating ways to appeal to people’s desires for money, sex, and power. They were using and abusing the temptations of humans to commit sinful actions to obtain these desires. They didn’t care how it happened, who they hurt, and what it did to their future, but it showed as a positive solely for the emotional response that it would end up on. We see this today. People take advantage of their most vulnerable and powerful temptations to enrich themselves. It might set them in a positive position, but it’s often in the short term and it comes at a cost. Christians must recognize the propaganda that’s being expressed in our world today. We must live in accordance with God’s values shown through Christ on earth: service, giving, self-sacrifice.

We must focus on service. Finding ways to serve our neighbors and community, meeting the needs of those around us. This service could include cooking meals, driving them to doctor’s appointments, or helping them with chores. It could even be more involved – serving at your local food pantry, soup kitchen, or homeless shelters; speaking up at organizations and meetings to help ensure everyone has equal rights; attending a protest to make sure change is heard. It’s going to require our time, our resources, our energy – but it’s needed. Without our intentional effort to attempt to fix the problems that stemmed in past generations, there will be a worse future set before us in the next generation. I know God has won the ultimate victory, but it doesn’t mean we should stay silent in the here and now. It doesn’t mean we remain complacent until this fall occurs. It means we should still work to do God’s will and work towards a place where no one is tempted by the world’s evil.

Next part: The Fall of Evil – Part 2