It might sound like I’m describing the present worldwide Covid crisis, but actually I’m summarizing Revelation 18, where John sees the end of the world. ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!’ (Rev. 18:2). In the Bible generally, and in Revelation in particular, Babylon represents the world against God — fallen, sinful humankind. So the fall of Babylon is a symbolic way of describing the end of the world.

In no time at all, the world has changed. Plague has brought the global economy crashing down; trade and industry has ground to a standstill, except for essentials; that ubiquitous first-world leisure activity — shopping — is a thing of the past. Stores are closed and long-established household brands are going bust. It used to be you could sample a different world cuisine for every night of the month, but now all the restaurants lie empty. The musicals on Broadway and the West End are cancelled, Carnegie Hall and the Royal Albert Hall lie silent. Weddings are out of the question.
What is especially remarkable about all this is the speed with which it has happened. It’s as if it all took place in a single hour. It seems like no time at all since we were enjoying life as normal, and now the whole world is united in a great collective lament for the loss of that normality. It’s the only topic of conversation on people’s lips, the only subject in the news reports.

It might sound like I’m describing the present worldwide Covid crisis, but actually I’m summarizing Revelation 18, where John sees the end of the world. ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!’ (Rev. 18:2). In the Bible generally, and in Revelation in particular, Babylon represents the world against God — fallen, sinful humankind. So the fall of Babylon is a symbolic way of describing the end of the world.

Revelation 18 almost reads like a news report of the breakdown of civilisation. Listen to some of the dispatches:

From Wall Street and the London Stock Exchange: And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. ‘The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors are lost to you, never to be found again!’ The merchants of these wares, who gained wealth from her, will stand far off, in fear of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, ‘Alas, alas, for the great city that was clothed in fine linen, in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, with jewels, and with pearls!’ (vv. 11-16)

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