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8 A second angel followed and said, “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” 9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” ~ Revelation 14:8-11
We return to our study of Revelation 14 where we have been introduced to the first of three angels. The second and the third angels will deliver their messages in our text today. And, whereas the first angel warned of God's wrath to come and offered yet another opportunity for unbelieving man to turn from Satan to God, the second and the third angels speak not of God's offer of grace.
In v.8 we read, "A second angel followed and said, 'Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,’ which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries."'
This second angel will not preach the gospel to his hearers. This angel will only speak of God's judgment. This sadly implies his hearers rejected the first angel’s message which included the offer of God's grace. If everybody in the world responded positively to God's grace offer, then the book of the Revelation would not be necessary.
In v.8, we are introduced to Babylon which in its beginning was a city founded by Nimrod in Genesis 10-11. We know it as the Tower of Babel. We also know that Nimrod was a rebel and was one who did not respect the authority of God. Nimrod built the Tower of Babel and it was at the Tower of Babel that man first attempted idolatry by assert himself into the sky with his desire to be his own god.
When Satan was first cast of out heaven, the earth became his abode. And, by the time we get to the end of the Great Tribulation, Babylon will be a political, economic and religious world empire operated by the antichrist. And, in the end, it will be the place known to be totally against the God of the Bible.
Babylon will literally intoxicate and deceive the whole world with its anti-God rhetoric. This will be the final attempt of the antichrist to usurp God and he will literally engulf the whole world in his rebellion. In fact, everybody will come from all over the globe to bow down to the antichrist. And this second angel in v.8 is simply predicting the collapse of his kingdom.
In v.9-11 we read, "9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name."
The third angel will proclaim damnation upon all who will reject the free gift of salvation from the Lord Jesus. He will not preach the gospel, he will pronounce damnation. He, like the other two angels, will reinforce the previous message and he will advance the truth to the next logical step. After the people reject the Gospel, this third angel will pronounce the judgment of God on them, and this pronouncement will introduce God's damnation upon the rebellious.
According to Revelation 13, the Antichrist will exert economic control over the whole world. No one will be able to buy or sell without the mark of the beast imprinted into the back of the hand or on the forehead. In those days, Kings often marked out their own soldiers with a tattoo. And, in the end, the people of the world will knowingly take the mark of Satan's ownership of them on their hand or on their forehead.
According to v.9-10, this will be a fatal choice. Anyone who receives this mark will be cut off from the grace of God forever and they will experience the fury of His wrath. Ultimately, God must judge those who refuse His many offers of grace.
You see, God has three choices: He can let rebellion perpetuate and never judge it. In this case, injustice, cruelty, hatred, pain, and death would prevail. What kind of loving God would allow that? Or, God could force men to obey him and control them as puppets. But, that would mean they would not choose to love God. Love cannot be forced. Or, the only choice that God really has is that He must withdraw ultimately from those who refuse His love. He must let them go their own way forever. This will result in the terrible and needless torment of those who will choose godlessness.
The unbelieving world will knowingly and voluntarily drink the cup of the passion of the immorality of the antichrist. And, as a result, they will invite God’s wrath and damnation upon themselves. According to v.10, this wine of God's wrath will be mixed in full strength. These will experience the full brunt of God's unmitigated wrath due to their total separation from Him and all that is good. They will experience endless pain.
And, as v.11 describes, this will be Hell, the final destination of those who reject the grace of God in its many expressions. Hell was a place created for the devil and his angels. No human was ever intended to go there. It will be a place of ceaseless, unbearable, unrelenting, unrelieved torment. And, it could have been easily avoided by merely recognizing the kindness and love of the Lord Jesus. He went to the cross and suffered the torment so that we would not have to. Sadly, many will reject this wonderful gift of salvation and depart in great sorrow.
