Thursday, November 19, 2020

The Second Fall

 

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Then another angel followed him through the sky, shouting, “Babylon is fallen—that great city is fallen—because she made all the nations of the world drink the wine of her passionate immorality.”  Then a third angel followed them, shouting, “Anyone who worships the beast and his statue or who accepts his mark on the forehead or on the hand must drink the wine of God’s anger.  It has been poured full strength into God’s cup of wrath.  And they will be tormented with fire and burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and the Lamb.  The smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever, and they will have no relief day or night, for they have worshiped the beast and his statue and have accepted the mark of his name.”                    Revelation 14:8-11

In Revelation so much is in apocalyptic language, messages of the end of times, and the completion of the Bible’s prophecies, and God’s final judgment over evil.  It’s easy to get lost in the imagery and shadows.  Generally accepted scholarship is that “Babylon” stands for the worldly system which opposes God’s will, including everything from elevating human power to greedily control people and governments, all the way to the basest of ignoring the basic human needs of food and shelter for the poor.  In the end all the grandiose schemes and manipulations of the powerful, controlled by Lucifer’s darkness, will be exposed, humiliated, and defeated.  The image of sulfur, fire, and smoke of torment forever is not lost on our internal compass of God as final justice, and recompense for transgressions.  


This image of the moon passing in front of planet earth is part of a NASA animation of an event which does happen in real life, when the “dark side” of the moon is illuminated by the sun.  You still can’t see it from earth, but the position of the “EPIC” telescope onboard the DISCOVR satellite a million miles into space captures it!  (NASA/NOAA) 

Exposing the dark side of this world’s systematic error is Revelation’s purpose in unveiling the Son of Man, Jesus, the one who will stand in judgment of those who give worship to anyone or anything other than the one, true, living God, Jehovah.  The righteous Son of God is alone worthy to judge the nations of all times. 

So, when Babylon is the label, it is evil that is exposed to the light.  It is a picture of an event I once heard (and cannot forget) described by evangelist Vance Havner in a sermon delivered to about 1200 students at New Orleans Baptist Seminary.  He was picturing the classic struggle between light and darkness, or good and evil.  He asked us to imagine a dark room behind the door.  The room is filled with little creatures, roaches.  When you open the door, they’re on high alert; you switch on the light and you know what happens, the creepy, crawly critters scatter!  Light does have that effect.   

As our first parents, Adam and Eve fell from innocence in Eden, so we all follow this inherited nature of sin.  The grace of God was offered to all of us as forgiveness, a gift of Christ’s blood on the cross.  In the end, as Revelation so dramatically depicts, those who reject that grace by clinging to this world’s evil system of power, greed, and estrangement from God, will fall a second time…this time, eternally…into a judgment of suffering, too terrible, unending and unquenchable to imagine.  That suffering has little to do with the fire; it has everything to do with being separated from God our Creator forever.  No light…only dark side.

For You Today

There is not a prophecy of Scripture that has missed the mark…they all come true.  Even this promise of judgment on the darkness.  But God has offered us the choice to reject the darkness and move into the light:

If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  Romans 10:9

Don’t delay; accept Christ and be saved from the darkness of the second fall.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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Title image, Pixabay.com and    W   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For other posts on God’s Judgment see:  Harvest of the Earth  and  Creator Savior Judge



 

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