53. IX BABYLON AND ITS DESTRUCTION All the predictions made in the book of Revelation have to-day been fulfilled (see above 40-44). The last chapter demonstrated that the Last Judgment has already taken place, and showed how it took place on the Mohammedans and the heathen. The next subject is how it took place on the Roman Catholics, who are what is meant by Babylon as mentioned in many passages of Revelation, and in particular its destruction in chapter 18. This is described thus:
The angel cried out in a loud voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and become the dwelling of demons, and the prison of every impure* spirit, and the prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Rev. 18:2.
But before the story of how the destruction happened some preliminary remarks are needed:
(i) What is meant by Babylon and what it is like. (ii) What the people from Babylon are like in the other life. (iii) Where their dwellings have been up to now. (iv) Why their presence there was tolerated up to the day of the Last Judgment. (v) How they were destroyed and their dwellings turned into a desert. (vi) Those of them who had an affection for truth arising from good were preserved. (vii) The future state of those who come from earth from that source. *[In AR the translation follows the Greek more exactly in using the word for 'unclean' of both the spirit and the bird.]
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