The Christ in Prophecy Journal

The Mighty Angels of Revelation 18

MP3: The Mighty Angels of Revelation 18
Hosts: Nathan Jones & Vic Batista

The Angel Having Great Authority

Vic Batista: As we continue looking at God’s mighty angels found in the book of Revelation, we’ll marvel at how exciting Revelation 18 is concerning the fall of Babylon. Chapter 18 contains the second half of the Mystery Babylon topic, following Revelation 17’s description of the Great Harlot.

Nathan Jones: Revelation 17 describes a mystery — a symbolic woman — who in verse 5 is called “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and the Abominations of the Earth.” We are shown an image of a woman who is drunk on the blood of the Saints. She rides into power on the Scarlet Beast, which is the Antichrist and his world system. But, the Antichrist, who soon becomes king over all the world, will hate the Harlot and kill her halfway through the seven-year Tribulation.

The question we last addressed is, “Who is this Mystery Babylon?” Many Bible prophecy scholars believe that Mystery Babylon will be a one-world ecumenical religion. In other words, she’s the religious system where all the religions hold hands and sing “Kumbaya” and work together for the 3.5 years of the Tribulation. Her time is fleeting, though, for the Antichrist and his False Prophet desire for Satan to be worshiped instead, and so in the middle of the Tribulation the Antichrist kills this Harlot Babylon religious system and sets up the worship of Satan through himself. The second half of the seven-year Tribulation embraces Antichrist/Satan worship as the world religion, though Christianity and Judaism still exist, which he tries to stamp out.

Vic Batista: Now in Revelation 18 we are shown another facet of this Babylon system unfolding.

Nathan Jones: With Revelation 18 there is a shifting. We were talking about Mystery Babylon in Revelation 17 as a harlot religion which will exist during the first half of the Tribulation. Now the Apostle John is going to be given a continuing revelation in Revelation 18, starting with verses 1-4, concerning Babylon the Great, but it is no longer the religious Mystery Babylon. Babylon shifts from a religious system to representing the Antichrist’s political kingdom.

“After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.’ And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.'”

Vic Batista: What a powerful proclamation this mighty angel is bringing! It’s like he’s peeling back the truth so we can bear witness to the disaster that is about to befall the Antichrist’s kingdom.

This mighty angel in verse one is said to hold great authority. The Bible makes a clear distinction between the different angels that have been making these proclamations all throughout Revelation. Angels were proclaiming the Seven Seal Judgments, seven more the Trumpet Judgments, and seven more the Bowl Judgments, but here there is another mighty angel who gets the honor of proclaiming the destruction of the evil Babylon world system.

Nathan Jones: As we make our way through the 72 references to angels in Revelation, we continue to see how much angels are at play in the Revelation narrative. It’s like a veil has been ripped away and we are finally seeing the true spiritual warfare going on behind humanity’s affairs. God continues to use angels as His messengers, for they are His servants who carry out His will.

#God continues to use #angels as His messengers, His servants who carry out His will. Click To Tweet

And so, God sends yet another angel to make a dynamic proclamation. This angel is very different from the other angels we’ve encountered so far, and there have been many, for he has been given great authority. Other than the description of Jesus Himself from Revelation 1 and 10, this angel is almost as magnificently resplendent. I don’t believe that this angel is also Jesus Christ, because the comparison to what John saw earlier in Jesus as the Lamb or as the Mighty Angel that stands on the waters is not the same as this Revelation 18 angel.

Why does this angel have great authority? Could this be Michael the Archangel himself? We don’t know as we’re aren’t told. All we do know is that he has a recognizable authority that John can clearly see. There is a heavenly order, like the military, where there are general angels all the way down to private angels. Likewise, it’s the same heirarchy for the demons. There is the general angel, Satan, all the way down to the buck privates.

Not only does this angel have great heavenly authority and tremendous power, but he is also described as being so bright that he illuminates the earth with his glory.

Vic Batista: Jesus in Revelation 1 is also described as emitting glory. Heavenly glory is so pure and bright it actually illuminates the angels so that they appear glorious. God’s mighty angels literally shine! If you look in the Old Testament in the book of Daniel, you’ll read more about how incredible these angels are.

#God's mighty #angels literally shine! #Revelation Click To Tweet

Nathan Jones: Yes, it’s clear that this angel with great authority isn’t Jesus Christ, because John has seen Jesus and described Him since chapter one. John didn’t say, “Oh, Jesus came back and…” No, he said, “another angel.”

Isn’t it funny how Westerners have this notion that angels are a bunch of blonde, curly haired men with wings who hang out in white robes and look like humans? But, that description is not entirely accurate, for the Bible describes angels of all sizes, shapes, animal-looking, human-looking, forces of nature, and weather. Angels come in all different shapes and sizes. This angel of Revelation 18 is incredibly luminescent and holds great authority.

The description of Satan back in Isaiah also describes him as incredibly beautiful. He’s like the morning star, bright and full of jewels. Lucifer was full of colors and glorious looking. Lucifer actually means “light bearer,” which is ironic since all he brings now is darkness to the world. This Revelation 18 angel obviously isn’t Lucifer, but another one who like Satan illuminates the world with his appearing gloriously.

Vic Batista: The book of Hebrews reveals that some of us have entertained angels unbeknown to us. They must look human or have taken on human form then?

Nathan Jones: Yes, according to the Bible, you never know when an angel is working behind the scenes. I have heard many stories, and even experienced one of my own, where it seemed like somebody came out of the blue, had all the answers, then disappeared. We’re left thinking, “Wow! Was that a person whom the Lord led to me, or was that an angel?”

My father was once in a serious car wreck. A biker pulled up and helped him out of the mangled car. My father could barely think or see. By the time the ambulance arrived, my father became semi-conscious. He then asked the ambulance driver, “Where is the man on the motorcycle who helped me out?” The paramedic replied, “There never was a man on a motorcycle here.” So, you never know when God has sent one of His angels to intersect with your life. Mind your manners then, right?

You never know when #God has sent one of His #angels to intersect with your life. Click To Tweet

Vic Batista: When your father gets to Heaven this guy is going to pull up on a Heavenly Harley and he will finally know it was that guy!

Nathan Jones: That would be the perfect angel for my father because he just loves motorcycles.

Vic Batista: As we talk about angels, Hebrews 13:1 is the reference about us unwittingly entertaining angels: “And do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing so have unwittingly entertained angels.” This passage reminds us that angels could be very active in our lives.

Nathan Jones: Yes, Ephesians 6:12 tell us that angels work behind the scenes of human affairs. There’s spiritual warfare being waged right now between God’s forces and Satan’s forces. Obviously God is the most powerful by far and He will win in the end. There is no doubt about it. This warfare goes on behind the politics of the world and the interactions of its people. I’m not saying we are being controlled like puppets, but there is definitely other parties involved in all that we do. What a fantastic battle that’s being waged across the earth! We are enduring a tremendous cultural battle here in Western countries and around the world.

When we are entertaining angels, do you think if we saw this angel from Revelation 18 we would remember him?

Vic Batista: Absolutely! The Angel Having Great Authority would be very memorable.

I believe people need to recognize a few things when it comes to angelic warfare, like what is happening with the culture wars in America and what is happening in the spiritual realm. Satan and his demons are tugging powerfully at the hearts of people so they’ll make the wrong decisions that they are making. People must recognize that the only way we are going to win this culture war is through prayer.

Nathan Jones: Exactly, prayer is the most powerful weapon in the Christian’s arsenal. Prayer empowers us to stand up for what is right and not back down.

Sadly, in these end times, we are going to see God allow for quite a number of defeats as immorality is being legalized, and already we have seen gay marriage pass. Can you imagine a gay Scout leader in the Boy Scouts? Speaking of letting a wolf in the hen house! This push for gay “rights” isn’t necessarily about civil rights, but it is about setting up Christians for religious persecution. To validate their sin, in their thinking, the homosexual lobby must push Christ and Christianity out of the country. That is Satan’s end goal. So, let us not get sidetracked by gays getting married, for that fight is not really what this cultural war is all about. This is a battle Satan’s waging to remove all traces of Christ and Christianity out of this country so that there is no longer any moral standard and so people can live any way they want to apart from God’s moral law. In anarchy, Satan thrives.

In anarchy, #Satan thrives. #Government #Revelation Click To Tweet

Vic Batista: Excellent point! As we have been looking through the book of Revelation, we notice the people of the Tribulation, like today, do not want to repent of their idolatry, their drug use, and their sexually immoral lifestyles.

Nathan Jones: Not at all! All of humanity are wicked inside. We are inherently evil. “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” as Romans 3:23 tells us. We must remember our own sorry state first and each of us ask Jesus to forgive us of our sins.

In the forty-ninth segment of our series “The Mighty Angels of Revelation,” the Angel Having Great Authority makes his announcement!

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Dr. Nathan E. Jones

As the Internet Evangelist at Lamb & Lion Ministries, Nathan reaches out to the over 4.5 billion people accessible over the Internet with the Good News of Jesus Christ. He also co-hosts the ministry's television program Christ in Prophecy and podcast The Truth Will Set You Free.

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  • Satan is the promoter of wars on the earth. His job is to deceive, divide, and destroy God’s people. We can see how the world is becoming more lawless every day.

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