Commercial-Political Babylon

Revelation 17 and 18 describe the rise and fall of Mystery Babylon. A gap in time appears between these two chapters. Revelation 17 describes the great harlot deceiving and uniting the world with her seductive idolatries. However, the world leaders destroy her and give their allegiance and collective power to the Antichrist. In Revelation 18, we find another angel appearing. He details the final destruction of this commercial-political Babylon which became the headquarters [seat] of the Antichrist and the false prophet. Some Bible scholars do not make a distinction between the transformational forms of this Mystery Babylon, however, we will examine six reasons why these two chapters are different.
Chapter 18 is very somber. It describes the destruction of Satan’s last and greatest empire, and the demise of unsaved humanity who repeatedly refused to heed God’s numerous warnings [Revelation 7:3-4; 11:3; 6:9; 14:6-7].