“And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.  And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues” (Revelation 18:1-4).

Like many of the symbols and passages of Revelation, the concept of “mystery Babylon” is drawn from earlier Biblical sources.  Its precursor is the tower of Babel in Genesis.   Babel was the first of four cities built by Nimrod, a hunter and “mighty one in the earth” (Genesis 10:8, 9).  Nimrod was a great-grandson of Noah and a grandson of Ham, whose descendants were cursed by Noah after Ham’s disgraceful treatment of his drunken father.

Two things distinguished the tower builders at Babel. First, their building effort represented a direct assault on God’s authority, and second, they were fully united in their rebellion.  The Bible says “the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech” (Genesis 11:1), and the greatest fear of the tower builders was that they would “be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth” (verse 4).  Although the people shared a common language, the true mark of their unity was a shared mindset of rebellion against God.  “And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do” (verse 6, emphasis supplied).

• “The men of Babel had determined to establish a government that should be independent of God…the people were fully united in their Heaven-daring undertaking. Had they gone on unchecked, they would have demoralized the world in its infancy. Their confederacy was founded in rebellion; a kingdom established for self-exaltation, but in which God was to have no rule or honor. Had this confederacy been permitted, a mighty power would have borne sway to banish righteousness—and with it peace, happiness, and security—from the earth. For the divine statutes, which are “holy and just and good” (Romans 7:12), men were endeavoring to substitute laws to suit the purpose of their own selfish and cruel hearts” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 123).

It is significant that the Bible’s first and last uses of the word kingdom are in reference to Babel and Babylon.  In Genesis 10:10 we read, “And the beginning of [Nimrod’s] kingdom was Babel.” In Revelation 17, the nations of earth “have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast…For God hath put in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (verses 13 and 17).  From beginning to end, the Bible depicts human kingdoms and the uniting of humanity as synonymous with Babel’s spirit of rebellion and self-sufficiency. End-time Babylon represents the final fruition of the Babel-builders’ dream—a single world empire, a single earthly kingdom, controlled by man.

Revelation predicts that Babylon will eventually control the world’s political and military powers, its great corporations and businesses.  This end-time “tower of Babel” will also unite the religious world under a false system of worship that appears righteous on the outside.  On the inside, however, it will be full of “devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” (Revelation 18:2). According to the Bible, the more closely humanity presses together, the more completely it falls under satanic control. Another passage from Revelation describes it this way:

• “And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” (Revelation 16:13-14).

At the end of time the world may appear deeply religious, but it won’t be the Bible-based Christianity that your grandparents and parents tried to teach you. The world may share spiritual slogans, but you won’t hear hymns about “power in the blood.” The revival and worship and unity promoted by mystery Babylon at the end of time will be ruled and controlled by demons.

How did God respond to the erection of the tower of Babel, and the efforts of its builders to construct and control a one-world government devoid of God?

• “And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:5-9).

God responded to man’s wickedness by confusing the language of the Babel builders and, therefore, physically separating humanity–the very thing that they feared the most. This “division principle” is a recurring one throughout Scripture; it is repeatedly used by God in the creation and preservation of both physical and spiritual life.

The Bible’s account of creation week reveals that God created all things through a process of physically dividing the elements.

• On Day 1, God “divided the light from the darkness” (Genesis 1:4, emphasis added).
• On Day 2, God “divide[d] the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament” (verse 7, emphasis added), creating the atmosphere in between these layers of water.
• On Day 3, God divided the water and created dry land in between. “And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear” (verse 9). Later that day, God created an abundance of plant life that was divided and multiplied “according to its kind” (verse 11).
• On Day 4, God created the sun, moon, and stars to “divide the day from the night” (verse 14, emphasis added) and to “divide the light from the darkness” (verse 18, emphasis added).
• On Day 5, God created sea life and birds that fly in the sky—animals divided by their habitat and method of transportation. Like the trees and the shrubs and the grass and flowers, the various species of fish and the birds were divided “after their kind” (verse 21).
• On Day 6, God created the land animals and divided them, too, by species, “the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind” (verse 25). Next, God knelt down and “formed man of the dust of the ground” (Genesis 2:7), and then separated Adam from that dust by breathing into him the breath of life. When Adam realized that he had no mate, God “caused a deep sleep to fall on [him], and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place” (Genesis 2:21). Eve, too, was created through a process of division.
• On Day 7, God rested and “blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:2,3). Significantly, God concluded His work of creation by dividing time itself. The Creator separated this 24-hour unit of time from the preceding six days as a memorial and reminder of His creative work.

God created the physical world, then, through a process of division. This historical record of creation is preserved to teach us important truths about how God works in the spiritual realm. “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse” (Romans 1:20). Just as God used the principle of division in the creation of the physical world, He also uses the principle of division to create spiritual life among His disciples and within His church.

Some will say, But Jesus prayed for unity among His disciples! Shouldn’t all Christians desire unity with each other? Shouldn’t all faiths focus on the importance of visible unity? Let’s look more closely at what Jesus actually prayed.

In His last recorded prayer before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed for unity among His disciples. “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me” (John 17:20, 21). Clearly, His desire was that all Christians be united together in visible unity that is a powerful witness to the world.

Before He prayed for unity, however, Jesus prayed for division. Just a few verses earlier, Jesus said about His disciples, “I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth” (John 17:14-17). Jesus knew that true unity was impossible unless those seeking unity were united on truth. Before He prayed for visible unity among His disciples, Christ prayed that they would be separated from the world through the truth. In another place, Jesus plainly said that living by the truth will bring division, rather than unity, with the world:

• “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division: For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law” (Luke 12:51-53).

In the book of Revelation, Babylon’s end-time unification of the world will not be based on truth, but rather on deception, coercion, and force. For a short time, it will appear as if Babylon has succeeded in uniting the world together in opposition to God. “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast” (Revelation 17:12, 13).

However, the facade of unity will soon disintegrate and the powers of earth will quickly end up fighting against each other. “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled” (Revelation 17:16, 17). At that time, those only will remain standing who have put their faith in Jesus Christ and chosen to serven and obey Him. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Revelation 14:12).

Divided from the world, yet united with Jesus Christ, they will be preserved from the destruction of the world, and will be redeemed from the earth. “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1). Will you stand with Christ and be divided from the world? The choice is yours.