The Three Angels and Babylon’s Fall

An angel flies overhead with the eternal gospel for every people group, calling the world to fear God, give Him glory, and worship the Maker of heaven, earth, sea, and springs because judgment's hour has come. A second angel follows with the announcement that Babylon the great has fallen, exposing the doomed end of the seductive world-city that intoxicates the nations. The paragraph brings together universal summons and the certainty that the world's corrupt center is already marked for collapse.

T⁶hen I saw another angel flying overhead, with the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth — to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. ⁷And he said in a loud voice, “Fear God and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come. Worship the One who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and the springs of waters.” ⁸Then 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.”

A third angel warns that worshiping the beast and receiving its mark leads to drinking the undiluted wine of God's wrath and to torment without rest. In the face of that warning the text explicitly calls for the perseverance of the saints, those who keep God's commandments and the faith of Jesus. A heavenly voice then pronounces blessedness on those who die in the Lord from now on, because they rest from their labors and their deeds follow them. The paragraph contrasts beastly worship ending in wrath with faithful endurance ending in blessed rest.

⁹And a third angel followed them, calling out in a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰he too will drink the wine of God’s anger, poured undiluted into the cup of His wrath. And he will be tormented in fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. ¹¹And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. Day and night there is no rest for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” ¹²Here is a call for the perseverance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. ¹³And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead — those who die in the Lord from this moment on.”