“After these things, I saw another angel coming down out of the sky, having great authority. The earth was illuminated with his glory. He cried with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and she has become a habitation of demons, a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird!”

Revelation 18:1-2

Another authoritative angel comes down out of the sky bringing strong power and authority from God to call out the end of Babylon, the Great Whore. The whole of the earth is given light from the angel who cries out with a mighty voice. It is not the gospel light that is preached but great woes proclaimed against the great city of Babylon which has now fallen. The word “fallen” is repeated because her end was great and had caused much suffering and increasing blindness to the people of the earth. Babylon has been overtaken by all that is evil and every hateful and unclean bird is bound up in her. Carrion birds and those who inhabit the night signify the darkness and destruction that she has wrought on the peoples of the earth. She is the breeding ground for demons and a prison for every unclean spirit. 

Babylon is the false church that has grown up and deluded and enthralled many by her wealth and ways of the world. She brings men in thrall to her devices and spreads the ways of idolatry and false religion. People are held in subjection to her demands and she exercises control and power of all who bow the knee to her, even the powerful kings of the earth. 

Babylon is in a state of complacency over her position towards God and is deep in slumber when the cry from heaven is heard. She wakes to face her own destruction and the everlasting punishment of the Lord. 

“Then a second angel followed, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, who has made all the nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality.”

Revelation 14:8

This is not mourning for Babylon but a statement of fact that the Great Whore, who has led so many astray, is now dealt with and is silenced and put to destruction. 

“For you have trusted in your wickedness. You have said, ‘No one sees me.” Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you. You have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one else besides me.’ Therefore disaster will come on you. You won’t know when it dawns. Mischief will fall on you. You won’t be able to put it away. Desolation will come on you suddenly, which you don’t understand.”

Isaiah 47:10-11

Another voice from heaven, the voice of CHRIST, calls to His people to come out of the false church and not be troubled with her plagues and judgments. The sins of the great false church, Babylon, have reached so high that they have reached to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities and will repay her double for her sins, since she melted out double punishment on God’s people without mercy. 

He pride has become her necklace and she has glorified herself and made herself wise in her own eyes. 

“Therefore pride is like a chain around their neck. Violence covers them like a garment.”

Psalm 73:6

“I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

Jeremiah 16:18

Punishment is the lot of all who reject God and build their own empires, leading many astray and causing other to follow them and the falsehoods they propagate. The Lord has judged Babylon with fire, because she has not turned and has got worse and worse, richer and richer and more and more proud, elevating herself above the LORD and thinking that He does not see. We are warned to come out for falsehood and seek the pathway of the LORD. The end of falsehood is destruction and the price of folly is unbelief.