The Babylon of the days of Daniel did certainly fall. Those days, too, were the days of Babylon's highest splendor and greatest glory. Yet that was the time she fell.
This fall was foretold over and over in the word of the Lord by His prophets; it was proclaimed in Babylon by the public reading there of the word of the Lord concerning Babylon; all who were the Lord's people, or who would be the Lord's people, were called to leave Babylon, that they might not be taken in her fall; signs were given by which all might certainly know when to forsake her, and how she would be overthrown. All this was made plain to all by the word of the Lord.
Isaiah proclaimed the message of a vision declared unto him, (Isaiah 21:1-10) in which Elam and Media were to go up and besiege; and in a "night of pleasure," (Isaiah 21:4) of eating and drinking, the watchman would cry: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods He has broken unto the ground." (Isaiah 21:9)
The same prophet also wrote to her of her pride and her wickedness, saying: "Therefore shall evil come upon you; you shall not know from whence it rises: and mischief shall fall upon you: you shall not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon you, which you shall not know." (Isaiah 47:11)
He wrote plainly the name of the man--Cyrus--who would lead the forces in the overthrow of the city. (Isaiah 45:1-7) He also wrote: "Go forth of Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans, with a voice of singing declare, tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say, The Lord has redeemed the servant Jacob." (Isaiah 48:20)
In Jeremiah 50 and 51 is written: "The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet." (Jeremiah 50:1)
In these two chapters there is given an account, even to particulars, of the fall of Babylon written more than half a century before the time. This account was sent to Babylon by a prince of Judah, who, when he arrived there, was to stand in the broad street of Babylon by the river Euphrates, and "read all these words." (Jeremiah 51:61)
And when he had read the words, he was to exclaim: "O Lord, you have spoken against this place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but that it shall be desolate forever." (Jeremiah 51:62)
And when he had spoken these words, he was to bind a stone to the manuscript, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates, and say: "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." (Jeremiah 51:64)
And all that the Lord had spoken, and that the prophets had written, came upon Babylon. Babylon did fall. In her iniquity she fell, and because of her iniquity she fell. And this, not because it could not have been otherwise, but because she would not have it otherwise. For the Lord would have healed Babylon; but she would not be healed.
His people were there for that very purpose; but when she would not be healed, they were obliged to forsake her, and go everyone to his own country; for her judgment reached to the heaven, and was lifted up even to the skies. (Jeremiah 51:9) So Babylon was left to her fate, and sank to rise no more at all.
So much for the Babylon of the book of Daniel and of the days of Daniel.
But now there is a Babylon of the book of Revelation, and of our days--the last days.
What means the word concerning a Babylon of the last book of the Bible and of the last days? What does it mean unless it be that the world of the last times is to become like the Babylon of those other days, and is to come to the same end as did the Babylon of those other days? If that is not the lesson in it, then there is no lesson in it.
The term "Babylon," written so often in the book of Revelation, and of the last times, is meaningless if it does not mean that the last days, and the world of the last days, will be such as was Babylon in her last days.
Why was the fall of Babylon proclaimed in old time? and why is the fall Babylon proclaimed in the last times? (Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 51:8,47,49,58; Revelation 14:8; 18:2) Why, unless there is to be a Babylon to fall in the last times as certainly as there was a Babylon in old time to fall?
Why was the judgment of God to be visited upon Babylon in old time? and why is the judgment of God to be visited upon a Babylon of the last times? (Isaiah 13:1,19; 14:22; 47:5, 7-11; Jeremiah 50:9-16,28-29; Revelation 17:1, 16-17; 18:6-10) Why, unless there is to be a Babylon in the last times as certainly as there was a Babylon in old time?
Why were the Lord's people called out of the Babylon of old time? and why are the Lord's people called out of the Babylon of the last times? (Jeremiah 51:6,45; Revelation 18:4) Why, unless the Babylon of the last times hardens herself in iniquity as did the Babylon of old time?
Why was it that the messenger in Babylon of old time ended his message by casting a stone into the midst of Euphrates, and exclaiming: "Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil that I will bring upon her." (Jeremiah 51:64)
And why is it that, at the close of the message concerning the Babylon of the last times, a mighty angel takes up: "A stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall the great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." (Revelation 18:21)
Why, unless there is to be a Babylon in the last times to sink, and that will sink, as certainly as there was a Babylon of old time to sink, and that did sink?
Why was it that, at the noise of the fall of the Babylon of old time, the earth was moved, and the cry was heard among the nations? And why is it that, at the fall of the Babylon of the last times, "The kings of the earth...bewail her, and lament for her," (Revelation 18:9) and that their cry is heard among the nations? (Jeremiah 50:46; Revelation 18:9,10,15-19) Why, unless the judgment upon the Babylon of the last times is just as real as and as terrible as was that upon the Babylon of old time?
Why was it that when the Babylon of old time fell, so at Babylon there fell also the slain of all the earth? (Jeremiah 51:49) And why is it that when the Babylon of the last times falls, there is found in her "the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth?" (Revelation 18:24)
Why, unless the Babylon of the last times is just as wicked, just as cruel, and just as impressive, as was the Babylon of old time?
Why was it that when Babylon of old time fell, the heaven and earth, and all that was therein, were called to "sing for Babylon"? (Jeremiah 51:48) And why is it that when the Babylon of the last times shall fall, the word will be, "Rejoice over her, you heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets?" (Revelation 18:20)
Why, unless it is a thing to rejoice heaven and earth to be freed from the curse of the Babylon of the last times as readily as it was of the Babylon of old time?
But why call attention to any more parallels?
• Is it not perfectly plain that there is a Babylon of the last times that is a complete repetition of the Babylon of old time?
• Is there not a Babylon of the book of Revelation as really as there is a Babylon of the book of Daniel?
• Is there not a Babylon of our days as really as there was of the days of Daniel?
• And is not this Babylon of the last days to sink under the judgments of the Lord as really as did the Babylon of old?
When that judgment was written for the Babylon of old, was it not at the same time written: "This is the purpose that is purposed upon the earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed and who shall disannul it? and His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" (Isaiah 14:26-27)
Why talk then about a millennium--unless, indeed, it be a millennium of ruin and waste and desolation? Did Babylon of old have a millennium of any other kind than of ruin and waste and desolation, swept "with the besom of destruction, ... a possession for the bittern, and pools of water," (Isaiah 14:23) "as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah?" (Isaiah 13:19) (See also Revelation 18:19,22-23; Jeremiah 50:40)
Why talk then about the conversion of the world? Was the Babylonish world of old time converted? Did she sink because she was converted? She would not be converted. She sank because she was overwhelmingly wicked. And the Babylon of the last times is just like her. And thus with violence shall Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all. "Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached and the heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." (Revelation 18:4-5)--Advent Review, June 14, 1898.