Subject: God's final Judgement - Revelation 18-22

Revelation 18:21-24
Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence,
and will be found no more;
and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters,
will be heard in you no more,
and a craftsman of any craft
will be found in you no more,
and the sound of the mill
will be heard in you no more,
and the light of a lamp
will shine in you no more,
and the voice of bridegroom and bride
will be heard in you no more,
for your merchants were the great ones of the earth,
and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.
And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints,
and of all who have been slain on earth.”

Subject:  Final Judgement

In this chapter the political, military, material and powerful world of Babylon will finally be destroyed.   Babylon, in Scripture, is both a system and an actual place. In this chapter, although John is writing about an actual place, he is also describing the system.   However, he refers to an actual city four times in this chapter, so it is most like Babylon the capital city of Babylon the system.  It is a representative city.  God's destruction of this place is so devastating that there were be "no more" sound of music, sound of craftsmanship, marriage celebrations, visible light or exchanging of commerce.  The Antichrist, by this time, will build a tremendous commercial system with himself at the center of worship.   These things will be destroyed, not because they are evil, but, as the last verse states, because this commercial world was used to deceive all nations.  They were deceived through commercialism and sorcery (the use of drugs and witchcraft).  The "city" and "system" will be destroyed because of this deception and because they oppressed the believer(s).  God's final judgement will be on the rich and powerful who have no time or respect for God and Jesus Christ.  This was all stated years prior to this book in Psalm 2:

Psalms 2:1-4
Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
“Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
the Lord holds them in derision.

God gets the last laugh!!!