Ty Gibson
Revelation 18:1-2 symbolizes the final climactic work of God’s church as an angel crying out to the world with a loud voice: “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen!”
Seventh-day Adventists refer to this prophecy as “the loud cry.” We believe that it represents our identity and mission as a people. The “angel” of Revelation 18 is a message-bearing movement that powerfully magnifies the “glory” of God’s good character in contrast to the misrepresentations of God’s character imposed upon the world by “Babylon.” Bad religious systems have done damage to God’s reputation in the eyes of humanity through false doctrines and coercive deeds. The “loud cry” message paints an accurate and beautiful picture of God’s character, resulting in the fall of Babylon.
The prophecy of Revelation 18 includes four basic elements: (1) authority, (2) glory, (3) global illumination, and (4) the fall of Babylon.
The authority exercised by the angel of Revelation 18 is not coercive authority, like that exercised by Babylon but rather persuasive authority, or the internally aroused power of God’s love generated by the gospel. It is the authority delegated to the church by Christ when He articulated the gospel commission:
… All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age … (Matt. 28:19-20)
Here Jesus announced His victory in the great controversy between good and evil. When He says “all authority” has been given to Him in heaven and on earth, He is speaking of the fact that His death on the cross demonstrated the truth of God’s love before the entire universe— heaven and earth—thus exonerating God’s character against the lying accusations of Satan and the false religious systems that represent him.
It was on the premise of deceit regarding the character of God that Satan instigated rebellion among the angels in heaven (Rev. 12:7). Likewise, it was through the same deceptive portrayal of God that Satan caused the fall of humanity and took possession of Earth as his claimed territory (Gen. 3; Luke 4:6). Ellen G. White gets to the core of the issue with these insightful words:
Unselfishness, the principle of God’s kingdom, is the principle that Satan hates; its very existence he denies. From the beginning of the great controversy he has endeavored to prove God’s principles of action to be selfish, and he deals in the same way with all who serve God. To disprove Satan’s claim is the work of Christ and of all who bear His name.1
The entire great controversy between good and evil centers on one question: Is God’s character one of unselfish love or self-serving power? By representing God as essentially selfish, Satan became “the ruler of this world” and “the god of this age” (John 12:31; 2 Cor. 4:4). As a counteroffensive maneuver, Christ “appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Heb. 9:26). He conquered evil by the selfless giving of Himself. Jesus achieved the redemption of humanity and reclaimed Earth as His own rightful possession by presenting the irrefutable truth of God’s good character, thus destroying “the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the Cross” (Col. 2:15, NIV). Satan was an armed foe, and Jesus disarmed him. The disarming of which Paul speaks has nothing to do with physical weapons. Satan has not waged his war against God with guns and bombs, but rather with deception and force. But when Jesus died on the cross, Satan’s misrepresentations of God’s character were proven false. The theological weaponry Satan had employed against God was rendered impotent.
God’s church is called upon to exercise the authority Jesus acquired over heaven and earth by His triumphant life, death, and resurrection. What is that authority? It is the authority of the victory Jesus gained over the kingdom of darkness by demonstrating beyond all reputation that “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
The “glory” radiating from the angel of Revelation 18—so brilliant and beautiful that it illuminates the whole world—is “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6). Jesus is “the brightness” of God’s “glory” and the “express image of His person” (Heb. 1:3). He is the complete and accurate revelation of the Father’s character to a world that does not know Him as He is. Into the darkness of distorted conceptions of God, Jesus came as a blazing light. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).
Notice how Jesus explained the result of His death on the cross: “But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name… . Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:27, 31-32).
At the cross, two cosmic-level events occurred in tandem: The Father was glorified, and Satan was cast out. The truth about God was placed on the table—entered as evidence into human history as a demonstrated reality—the truth that would, in its proclamation, destroy the credibility of Satan’s arguments against God.
In principle, Christ won the great controversy at the cross, in that Satan’s charges against God were fully refuted. This is the sense in which Jesus was given “all power in heaven and on earth” by His death and resurrection. Jesus forever proved that God is love and, therefore, worthy of the trust and loyalty of all rational beings. It is in the light of this achieved victory, with all its legal leverage and testifying power, that Jesus said, “Go therefore and teach all nations.” In the most practical terms, the gospel commission sends the church forth with authority to take back the souls of human beings from the dominion of the devil by liberating their minds from the falsehoods that keep them in rebellion against God.
The incarnation, death, and resurrection of Christ is the definitive answer to Satan’s claim that God is essentially self-centered and, therefore, cannot be loved, trusted, and obeyed. When Jesus died on the cross, it became forever beyond dispute that God loves all others above and before Himself. He can be trusted and should be worshiped and obeyed by every rational creature. There is no legitimate reason for rebellion against God.
The apostle John was shown that “the earth” will be “illuminated” by the angel of Revelation 18. By shedding the true light of God’s glory upon the world, this movement will bring about the final revolution of human history, and it will be a theological revolution. All will be brought face-to-face with the truth about God as revealed in Christ, and all will be brought to the point of conscious decision for or against God in the light of that glorious revelation. The prophets foretold this global enlightenment project:
Moses
Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.” (Num. 14:20-21)
David
Blessed be His glorious name forever! And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and Amen. (Ps. 72:19)
Isaiah
Arise, shine; for your light has come! And the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. (Isa. 60:1-3)
Ezekiel
And behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters; and the earth shone with His glory. (Ezek. 43:2)
Habakkuk
The earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. (Hab. 2:14)
John
… I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. (Rev. 18:1)
Christ is the complete fulfillment of this recurring prophecy. Under the marching orders of the gospel commission, His church is the channel through which His glory will be made a global human encounter. With one consistent voice down through the ages, the prophets foretold the inevitable rise of a powerful movement that will open the eyes of humanity to the real character of God. The climactic conclusion of human history will be accomplished by a worldwide truth-telling revolution through which God will be vindicated, and all the inhabitants of earth will be thrust into a crisis of reason and conscience as they weigh the evidence presented. All will be brought to the point of final, irrevocable decision.
Ellen G. White defines the global mission of the church like this:
From the beginning it has been God’s plan that through His church shall be reflected to the world His fullness and His sufficiency. The members of the church, those whom He has called out of darkness into His marvelous light, are to show forth His glory. The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to “the principalities and powers in heavenly places,” the final and full display of the love of God. Ephesians 3:10.2
The loud cry revolution announces, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen!” The “Babylon” of Revelation is a biblical symbol for bad religion masquerading as the true representative of God to humanity. More specifically, Babylon represents Papal and Protestant-Evangelical Christianity as a system of belief and practice known in Scripture as “the little horn” (Daniel), “the man of sin” (Paul), the “antichrist” (John), the “beast rising up out of the sea” and the “great harlot” (John).
John’s usage of “Babylon” as a symbol for false religion has deep roots in Scripture. There are three prominent characteristics of Babylon in the Bible: (1) the exaltation of human beings in place of God, (2) a salvation-by-works or appeasement picture of God, leading to (3) a coercive system of worship involving persecution for dissenters as the logical outworking of appeasement theology.
Our first biblical encounter with Babylon is in Genesis 10 and 11. Here we are told that Nimrod was the founder of Babel. It was a city established in a spirit of self-exaltation and distrust of God. The people of Babel attempted to build a tower to reach into “heaven” and sought to make for themselves a famous name. Here we see the spirit of self-ascension as the foundational characteristic of Babylon.
Abraham was a descendant of Shem, Noah’s son. He lived in “Ur of the Chaldeans,” a city of Babylon. “Ur” means fire, a name likely chosen for the Babylonian practice of human sacrifice in harmony with Satan’s misrepresentation of the divine character. God called Abraham out of Babylon to separate a people among whom a true knowledge of God could be formed—free from pagan worship practices that instill in the human heart an appeasement conception of God (Josh. 24:2). With Abraham, God founded a new nation that would hold forth the truth about the one true God and through which the Messiah would eventually come to banish all darkness (Gen. 11–12). As an intentional parallel to Abraham’s experience, the angel of Revelation 18 calls “out” of Babylon all who will hear God’s voice and embrace His true character in the end-time (Rev. 18:4).
From these infamous beginnings in Genesis, Babylon’s long career of rebellion against God is chronicled throughout the Bible. In the book of Daniel, we find the most detailed character profile of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king at its height of inglorious fame, embodied the spirit of Babylon by erecting an image as a monument to himself and forced everyone to worship the image on the threat of death (Dan. 3). Here was a foreshadowing of the final crisis of human history: a false image set up in place of God, a demand for appeasement in the form of forced worship and persecution for those who believe otherwise about God and refuse to worship the false image (Rev. 13).
Ancient Babylon was known for her false gods. The fall of Babylon announced by the angel of Revelation 18 is quoted from Isaiah 21:9: “… Babylon is fallen, is fallen! All the carved images of her gods He has broken to the ground.” Likewise, eschatological Babylon is essentially a professed Christian church that has attributed the characteristics of pagan deities, and thus Satan himself, to the biblical God. Ellen G. White states:
This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of ‘the man of sin’ foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s power—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.3
Therefore, the fall of Babylon must involve its false image of God being overthrown by the gospel. It is the work of the angel-movement of Revelation 18 that illuminates the world with the glory of God and thus precipitates the fall of Babylon. Babylon will undergo the “fall” foretold by the angel of Revelation 18 when that massive masquerading system of false “Christianity” loses its influence and credibility as a direct result of the gospel in all its beauty and power, revolutionizing the world’s understanding of the character of God.
This is the “loud cry” mission Christ has given to His end-time church. What an incredible calling! What a sobering responsibility! What an extraordinary privilege!
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1 Ellen G. White, Education, 154.
2 Ellen G. White, The Acts of the Apostles, 1903), 9.
3 Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy, 50.