I'll begin reading in verse 17. The seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, it is done. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth. So violent was that earthquake. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. God remembered great Babylon and gave her the wine cup of the fury of his wrath, and every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. And huge hailstones, each weighing about 100 pounds, dropped from heaven on people until they cursed God for the plague of the hail. So fearful was that plague. Our Father, we come to you again, not in mindless routine, but in heartfelt dependence upon the ministry of your Holy Spirit as we seek to understand your word. Guide us, help us, fill out our understanding of who you are, fill out our understanding of what your plan and purpose is in this world, and for this world, and Father, we pray that all of it, all of it, would thrust us toward the table that is set before us this morning. May all that we say, may what we hear and how we respond, all of it, be an expression of worship to you. We ask it in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen. Excuse me. Is this Mr. Jones? I'm calling from the emergency room at the hospital downtown. Your teenage son has been in a car accident, hit by a drunk driver. At this point, we can't assume that he'll ever again have the full use of his mental capacities. Thank you for coming to see us this morning. Though we carefully screen all potential employees who work here at the rest home, it has recently come to our attention that for some time your grandmother has been physically abused by a member of our staff. Mrs. Smith? This is the Manhattan City Police Department. As you know, the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists earlier this morning. We're sorry to have to tell you this, but we've just uncovered your husband's body in the rubble. Scenarios like this are not unusual, beloved, are they? You read of them in the newspaper every morning? You hear of them on the television every evening? And as human beings, we find ourselves entering into such stories with great emotional energy, because we too know what it is to experience such suffering. That is the kind of suffering that is a direct consequence of the unjust actions of sinful people. We've all experienced something that is to a lesser or greater degree, where we oftentimes find ourselves at a loss, however, is knowing how to make sense of it, of knowing what to do with the anger that is aroused by such injustice. What do we say to the families in Southern California this morning, who now realize that their destroyed homes are an expression of the premeditated evil of an arsonist? What do we say to the businessman whose longtime friend and partner embezzles the company's money, flees the country, and is now nowhere to be found? What do we say to the newly orphan children in Nigeria this morning, whose parents, pastors and their wives have been recently murdered by Muslims? What do we say to the young man or young woman whose reputation is shattered because a trusted friend intentionally divulges a personal secret that had been shared in the strictest of confidences? In such situations, as you well know, the intuitive, instinctive, natural, human response is to retaliate, to strike back, to get even, to get a pound of flesh, to seek revenge, and one could argue it's easily justified, isn't it? Given the fact that the suffering experienced is the direct consequences of actions that are clearly unjust, don't forget my friends factoring into all of this is the fact that we're Americans after all, weaned on images from the Old West. It's almost as though we've had an instinct bred into us which suggests that it's noble to take matters into our own hands, that it's masculine to settle the score, to play the vigilante, especially on those occasions when it seems that gross injustice will go unpunished unless we do something about it. I dare say all of you here this morning know what it is to suffer the consequences of unjust actions from sinful people. I wish I could exempt you from it. I wish I could exempt my own children from it, but at the end of the day it is life in a fallen world. And whatever game God is playing with us at the very least what we must never forget is that He Himself has subjected Himself to it in the person of His own Son, Jesus Christ, for this is the very kind of life He endured when He came and dwelt among us. So how do we deal with such suffering, Christianly, as He did? How do we respond to the righteous anger that wells up inside when we feel that a great injustice has occurred against us? Several years ago I was introduced to the writings of a Croatian Christian by the name of Miroslav Wolf, who incitfully addresses this very issue from an exceedingly Christian vantage point. After reflecting upon His Croatian people's great suffering at the hands of their Serbian aggressors, Wolf concludes, the presupposition of God's just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. The presupposition of God's just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. Do you hear what He's saying? The only thing that can enable victims of injustice to respond with non-violent grace in the present is the certain confidence that God will bring injustice to justice at history's end. It's the freedom, beloved. You see, it comes from knowing that there is an inescapable day of righteous vengeance on God's calendar. It seems to me that Wolf must have immersed himself in the writings of the revelation. It's precisely the reason why the Apostle John never exhorts the Asia-Miner Christians to take up weapons and fight against the injustices that have been perpetrated against them. I don't know if this has ever crossed your mind as you've read through the revelation over these last couple of years, friends, but when we see the hostility and the opposition and the attack, the persecution, even the martyrdom, has it ever crossed your mind? Why doesn't John tell them, pull your resources and make your stand? Strike back, go down swinging. It's not that John is a pacifist. It's not that John ignores the injustice, rather it's that he leaves the writing of injustices against us to God who at history's end will execute a justice infinitely more severe than anything we could ever concede. I have a dear friend who for many years had been a seminary professor in another state. Long before I had ever met him, he had gone through a terrible experience that he shared with me, a jealous colleague from a former institution had unjustly injured his reputation in such an excruciatingly severe way that for the next several years he lived with the costly implications of that damage. And my friend said, bearing his own heart, that for months after that incident, he would fantasize about the various ways that he could get even with this man. And we could hurt him in a way that would permanently damage his professional career. But by and by over time he came to realize that this appetite for revenge was both destructive to himself and grievous to God. And so he confessed his resentment and said, Lord, I'll leave this with you. Sometime later my friend received a telephone call. Did you hear the word about so-and-so? Referring to this very man who had injured him so severely, no, I'd not heard. My friend replied, is the conversation unfolded, it became plainly clear that a disaster of profound proportions had befallen this man's life and that he would never ever recover from it. My friend never told me what happened to this man with any specificity. He seemed quite frankly almost afraid to talk about it. But what he did say to me, I will never forget. He said in my most revengeful moment, art, I would have never wished that providence upon him. It was far more severe than the most evil fantasy I had ever dared imagine. And my dear friends, that will be our testimony at history's end when God brings injustice to justice. It will prove far more severe than the most evil fantasy you or I could have ever imagined. Do you understand this is the very thing that we are looking at now in the revelation, beloved? This is history's end. God's vengeance let loose without restraint, his holy rectification of all justice. You cry out for justice? Here it is. Even the image of gentle Jesus, meek and mild, is frightening here. In chapter 819, we'll see Jesus wearing a robe soaked in blood. Why? Because as the text says, he treads his enemies under foot in the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty, from which I would remind you, chapter 14. Their blood flows deep and wide as high as a horse's bridal for a distance of 200 miles. We've been saying it like this in recent days. It's Exodus-like retribution that paves the way for Exodus-like redemption. It's unto victory. And it is the reason, beloved, we can resist retaliation when we find ourselves suffering the consequences of the unjust actions of sinful people. To fall into the hands of God on that day will make any vengeance we might seek benign by comparison. Now allow me to draw your attention to the way John structures the outworking of this justice. You may recall back in chapters 12, 13 and 14, John pulls back the veil to reveal to us the true enemies of God and his people. In this order, he introduces us to the dragon, Satan himself, the beast and the first beast and the second beast, anti-Christ and false prophet, and finally, Babylon, this world system in its organized defiance against God. These are God's enemies, John wants us to know, and they manifest their hatred of God by attacking, assaulting, persecuting God's people. Now however, right here in the beginning, beginning with the end of chapter 16, John suddenly hits the oughta reverse button. And one by one, in order exactly the reverse of how we introduce them, he systematically sets forth God's destruction of each of these enemies, beginning with Babylon, chapters 16, 17, 18, 19, then the beast and the false prophet, chapter 19, and finally, the evil one who inspires all the others, Satan himself, the great red dragon, chapter 20. After then, at the outpouring of this last of the final seven plagues, God's sights Babylon, dead center in his crosshairs, the bull's eye of this world-shattering strike of divine vengeance, and I think it will help us this morning if we think about this particular judgment by the means of three specific headings, the finality of this judgment, the essence of this judgment, and the response to this judgment, firstly then, the finality of this judgment, verse 17, the seventh angel poured his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne saying, it is done. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake, which has not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. Did you notice the three steps in the outworking of this last plague? As we might have expected, this seventh angel emulates the procedure of the prior six. He dutifully pours out the contents of his bowl. Here however, as you notice, John specifically draws our attention to the fact that he pours it into the air. Did you see that? Now some commentators at this point suggest that this plague is a direct assault then on the domain of Satan, given the fact that the Apostle Paul refers to Satan as the prince of the power of the air. But I don't think that's what's going on here. God will very soon turn his judicial attention to the spiritual realm, we'll see that in chapter 20, but at this point, as we've already indicated to you, the present target in God's crosshairs is what John terms, verse 19, the great city, that this specific judgment is God's way of remembering great Babylon. So why does this angel strike the air with this particular plague? In part, as you read it in context with the rest, to complete God's comprehensive assault on this fallen created realm. In verse 2, what did we see? The angel pours his bowl out upon the earth. In verse 3, the angel empties his bowl on the sea. In verse 4, the freshwater sources are targeted in verse 8, the sun. Here now then, this seventh angel pours out his assigned plague upon the atmosphere which surrounds the earth, the air which people breathe. This John's way of revealing God's judicial sovereignty over the entirety of the created realm. We'll come back to that. Moreover, notwithstanding the devastation affected by the prior six plagues, this seventh is obviously the most comprehensive of all. Who can escape a plague that assaults the air? But beyond this, friends, the primary reason the seventh angel is said to strike the air with this plague is because of what specifically follows, a mighty apocalyptic storm that results in the ultimate demise of Babylon, lightning, thunder, hail, things that signify the end of history. God coming in judgment, as we will see, God bringing it all to an end. And so, a loud voice came out of the temple, and from the throne saying, it is done. Now, friends, sometimes in the revelation, we read a voice is coming from the temple. A voice came out of the temple saying, other times, we read a voice is coming out of the throne. A voice from the throne said, here, interestingly enough, these two images are now combined so that there can be no mistaking the source of this voice, or the authority that stands behind it. This loud voice, this overpowering voice that John heirs is not a delegated voice, it is God's own voice, and his declaration is definitive, isn't it? One word in the Greek text, it is done, it's over, it is finished. The very tense here used by God suggests an unalterable permanency. It's his answer, you see, to the promise that he made back in chapter 15, verse 1, remember, where the seven plagues are introduced as the last, and why in particular are they designated as the last, because in them as we discovered the wrath of God against this idolatrous world, so long held back, so long wished restrained will be poured out in the fullness of its exposure once and for all. This then, the seventh plague represents both the climax and the conclusion of God's judgment. The fact of the matter is, the next three chapters simply explain in greater detail what God himself declares right here, the finality of judgment, it is done, it is done, it is dear friends. One of the two divine responses in the revelation to a very similar previously made announcement. It was on Golgotha's cross as the sacrificed man that Jesus Christ declared once and for all time, it is finished. And of course, to display his initial agreement with Jesus Christ, God raised him from the dead. So here you see, this final judgment, it is God's spoken reply to that work. It is in part God's answer to the accomplishment of Jesus Christ on the cross. Upon those who refuse to embrace what he satisfactorily finished in a substitute, the outpouring of his judicial wrath on Jesus Christ, God will satisfactorily finish at his tree's end. It will be, you see, his antifinal response to the declaration of Jesus Christ. Jesus finished, yes, my son, with all of its negative consequences, it is done. But this is not God's only reply to the work of Jesus Christ. We hear it once more before the story ends in chapter 21. When the entirety of this fallen realm is forever put away and the promised new creation arrives, God himself once again will speak these words. See the home of God is among mortals, he will dwell with them, they will be his peoples and God himself will be with them, he will wipe every tear from their eyes, death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more for the first things have passed away. And the one who was seated on the throne said, see, I am making all things new. Also he said, write this for these words are trustworthy and true. Then he said to me, it is done. Now my dear friends, do you understand what I'm attempting to tell you? The execution of both final condemnation and ultimate glorification will be nothing less than God's own eternal response to the accomplishments of his son Jesus Christ. Eternal vengeance and eternal victory, both are determined by that event. And that day of final judgment is here. Notice the indicators of this very thing, verse 18, and there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a violent earthquake, such as had not occurred since people were upon the earth so violent was that earthquake. Now dear friends, if you've been here over the last couple of weeks, what specific themes have permeated both this chapter and the prior one? Exodus themes. Let me ask you upon their deliverance out of Egypt and safe passage through the Red Sea, where did God's people arrive at Mount Sinai, that place where they enter into formal covenantal relationship with God? And when God descends upon that mountain, what are the signs that introduce his coming? Read Exodus 19 this afternoon, flashes of lightning, peals of thunder and a great earthquake. The very same signs mentioned here. Why? Why does John Drawer attention to that? Because he wants us to know beloved that history's end will not be brought about by the dragon, by the beast, by the warring kings of this earth, rather histories end will be brought about by the mighty work of God himself. It's his way you see of keeping in mind many of those Old Testament prophecies which tell us over and over and over again that God's final coming in judgment will be marked by cosmic upheavals and a great earthquake. We see this repeated many times throughout the Old Testament.
In fact, this language right here isn't even new to the revelation itself, isn't it? You may recall that at the conclusion of each of the prior sets of preliminary judgments, John calls our attention to these same phenomena. For example, at the conclusion of the seven seal judgments, John writes, there were peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning in an earthquake, indicating what, all preliminary judgments had come to an end, final judgment has arrived. At the conclusion of the seven trumpet judgments, John writes, there were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, heavy hail, indicating what, the conclusion of all preliminary judgments, the coming of God now in final judgment, God is showing up now. And that you see is what this is here. In this last cycle of judgments, at the pouring out of the seventh bowl, John again writes these very same words, flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, and a violent earthquake. My friends, if you read your Bible, you discovered that these are standard apocalyptic signs indicating the coming of God in final judgment. It's what this is at the pouring out of the seventh plague. It marks the finality of judgment. This is the seventh bowl in what God promised would be the final set of judgments. God himself declares it is done, and all of it is confirmed, you see, by the promised signs that Mark God's coming in final judgment. If you're as weary in these judgment passages as I am, this is an indication, beloved, that we are nearing the very end. But what is this judgment? Moreover upon whom is it directed, well, let's consider now, secondly, the essence of this judgment. John mentions an earthquake, but notice friends how he describes it, a violent earthquake. Watches had not occurred since people were upon the earth, so violent was that earthquake. At both the beginning and end of this phrase, he refers to this earthquake as violent, great, is the idea in the original, and squeezed in between he indicates that its severity was like nothing humanity had ever before experienced, unprecedented. Notice in the next verse that the great city is split into three parts, that is, it is totally destroyed. Moreover, John indicates that the cities of the nations collapse, they fall apart. Look at the geophysical consequences, verse 20, and every island fled away, and no mountains were to be found. What is this? It is quite simply John's apocalyptic way of referring to the violent overthrow of the entire old order. Again, beloved, I would submit to you, it is language very similar to what we find in the Old Testament. The prophet Zechariah, for example, speaks of the day of the coming of the Lord in judgment, when God comes to do battle with his enemies, and Zechariah writes that there will be such a terrifying earthquake that the Mount of Olives will be split into. It is terrified devastation to worldwide proportion. He writes even more comprehensively than I saw a great white throne and the one who sat on it, the earth and the heaven fled from his presence. Now dear friends, don't give yourself a headache this morning by pondering what all of this means in literal geophysical categories. The flight of these islands here, along with the disappearance of these mountains, epitomizes for us the flight of the entire old creation stained by sin from the coming of the Lord. It is all running away to hide, it is all fleeing from God's coming presence. The removal of which conveniently makes way for what? Recreation. The new heavens and the new earth, the eternal home of righteousness, don't forget my friends, that is where we are headed. John says in Revelation 21-1, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. In other words, the coming of the new requires the elimination of the old. And John tells us here that the old begins to flee away in fear as it were at the coming of God in judgment. We could be even more specific. You'll notice here that the target of this judgment is clearly Babylon. That in and of itself is a clue as to whether or not we should take this literally or figuratively. Babylon at this point in time is a rubble, it's nothing. Referred to here as the great city? Are we to understand this literally? In a book that steadily employs geographical reverences because of their symbolic meanings? No, my friends, we're to take this Babylon figuratively. But don't be mistaken, friends, don't read more into what I'm saying than what I'm saying. Just because the concept is conveyed figuratively does not mean that it's empty of meaning, or that it doesn't point to something that's real. This Babylon is not a specific city. It's not even a specific civilization. There are some who would like to make a very tight correspondence with the present experience of the Asia Minor Christians and say, Rome is Babylon. Babylon is Rome, and the response to that really is yes and no. It was the present expression of Babylon, but this Babylon is far greater than Rome. Anyone city, anyone civilization? This Babylon, my friends, as you understand how the Bible uses this concept is the totality of human culture set in opposition to God and the gospel. It is an emblem of the entire world realm in its economic, religious, social, philosophical, political life posed in defiance against God. Now we will spend the next couple of weeks, my friends, carefully unpacking the implications of this for you, but for this morning, just for this morning, let me remind you of the soil out of which all of this is grown. The very first mention of Babylon is cloaked in the Hebrew term, Babel, which we initially encounter in the early chapters of Genesis. More specifically in that very strange and unusual story we refer to as the Tower of Babel. It begins if you recall as a venture in human autonomy. Come, let us build ourselves a city, let us make a name for ourselves. Oh, from the very outset, you can hear the overtones of that timeless quest for fame, independence, self-sufficiency, pride, the lust for glory. Now, of course, they seek to build a tower, as you well know, a ziggurat they say with its top that reaches into the heavens. And since heaven was regarded in Mesopotamian culture as the abode of the gods, we're to understand their attempt as this movement to ascend into the dwelling place of the gods by means of their own power. But in addition to building a tower, my friends, their enterprise includes the building of a city. Now, we hear that. And we get all enraptured with the tower. We shrug our shoulders in indifference at the thought that they're going to build a city, big deal. They're going to build a city who cares. But you must appreciate the fact that for people whose existence had been confined to a better one lifestyle, a nomadic lifestyle, a city was the ultimate image of human community. You will not understand what the rest of the revelation says, either about Babylon or the New Jerusalem, until you come to terms with this fact. For a better one people, a nomadic people, the concept of a city was the utopian dream of unity with other people. The ultimate image of human community. Now, to be sure on one level, Babylon becomes a symbol of human inventiveness and ingenuity, a triumph of human imagination. They conceive of a vision. This is how things might really be. And human reason, they calculate their needs and how to meet those needs. Come, let us make bricks, burn them thoroughly. And the text adds they had bricks for stone and bitumen for mortar. It's an expression of technology, albeit ancient. An expression of the power of human forethought and planning, in part beloved, it is an expression of what it means to be created in the image of God. The distortion of Babylon, however, was not that they regarded this as an extension of the creation mandate that God had given to humanity, filled the earth and subdue it. It was the ambition to create an entirely self-sufficient culture by the means of utopian planning, invention, technology, social cooperation, and diligent effort. After the personal motives may have been on the part of each individual involved, Babylon became a portrait of idolatry, an attempt to make community and civilization the basis of our security and the ultimate object of our allegiance. As envisioned by its people, my friends, Babylon was then implicitly nothing less than a substitute God. And so what happens? In the mind of God, the division of the human race is preferable to collective apostasy. So the great experiment in human initiative apart from God ends in judgment. But by and by, throughout the pages of the Bible, ancient Babylon becomes a symbol of the culture and community of this world that seeks its security, its happiness, its comfort, its prosperity, its strength, its permanence, and its own powers of wisdom and strength. This is what Babylon is, my friends, you see. The ancient site has been long since destroyed. Who cares? But I assure you that the spirit pulsates with vibrancy all around us. This you see was fascism in 1940. This was communism in 1950, and my friends, right within our own country, this is the spirit that predominates in our own age. We are living in Babylon. You hear it advertised in nearly every television commercial. You see it promoted in nearly every magazine. It's the driving agenda that underpins political platforms and social movements. We have the power, we have the intelligence, we have the technology, we have the money, we have the intelligence, we can make it happen. We can create a perfect world where closer now than humanity has ever been before. After all, we now nearly have the power to create life. We can genetically engineer our children with cures to things like cancer and heart disease and AIDS, looming on the horizon, who knows, eternal life may not be the fantasy we always dreamed it to be. Utopia is ours for the making if you'll just get on board and give yourself to the laws. And what happens when we don't? What happens when we're discerning enough to read through the message that's being communicated by that commercial, that advertisement, that political campaign? What happens when we refuse with both our words and our lives to yield our allegiance to this world system with its ideals and ambitions and religions and philosophies? Ridicule. Scorn, mockery, hostility, attack, opposition, assault, abuse, persecution, when this world system sniffs out a threat to its well-being. It will stop at nothing to eliminate it and you feel it everywhere life takes you. From the ball field, in the classroom, at the supermarket, the place where you work, your neighborhood, family gatherings, I would remind you, beloved that in Revelation, the counterpart to Babylon is the New Jerusalem. It's where we're headed, but we're not there yet. We live in Babylonian captivity and you will never read this world rightly until you understand that, but one day in order to set us free, God will bring it all to ruin. He will, as our text says, remember Great Babylon. He will give to her the wine cup of the fury of his wrath, this entire world order will be overthrown. In fact, friends, take note of what John adds to this judgment. Verse 21, and huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds dropped from heaven on people. Now, of course, it reminds us of the seventh Egyptian plague, doesn't it? Got raining down hail on the Egyptian persecutors of his people? We see it again in Joshua 11, another Exodus context, when God rains down hail on the armies of the five Amorite kings at war with his people. In fact, the text there in Joshua tells us that more soldiers died from the hail that day that came out of heaven than by the sword of his relight soldiers. It is the prophet Ezekiel who in the Old Testament speaks of this very same day, this very same hailstone as an expression of God's final judgment. The fact of the matter is, friends, on the pages of the Bible, hail was a part of the accepted arsenal of divine retaliation. Now, what's interesting here, however, is that John is careful to note the size of the hailstones, about a hundred pounds, literally a talent in weight? Why does he do this? I think to make a point of contact with his original readers. When Rome directed their assault against Jerusalem in the late 60s, Josephus tells us that they launched massive boulders from catapults, and they were thrown with such speed, and they affected such devastation, Josephus referred to them as stone missiles. More particularly, he indicates that they were white, like hail, and that they were all a talent in weight. It's terrifying imagery, I suspect, that many of John's readers would be able to identify with. Massive destruction, devastation, and death from hurled rocks out of the sky, only here, not shot out of a catapult, but shot out of heaven. The invader who has launched the attack here is none other than God himself. The essence of this judgment, beloved, is God's comprehensive overthrow of this world system than its manifold expressions of idolatry that has been bent on its autonomy from him. This is now the day of vengeance, the overthrow of all of it. Finally, the response to this judgment, it's surrender, right? We give up, we lay down our sword, it's submission, right? I mean, surely, after everything else, this rocket shower of hail will bring people to their knees, seeing the sheer foolishness of life apart from God, in huge hailstones, each weighing about a hundred pounds, dropped from heaven on people until they cursed God for the plague of hail. So fearful was that play. Now, friends, if you recall, this is the third time we read that people cursed God. Remember, verse 19, they cursed the name of God. Verse 11, they cursed the God of heaven, and on each of those occasions, remember John adds the words, and they did not repent. Here, however, while, again, mentioning that they curse God, he no longer even bothers to say that they don't repent. It's not that they want to, but can't. It's that they will not, so they don't. And you see, my friends, it's how they will go to hell. For that's what hell is. It's that place where the last voice you hear is your own. Cursing God, cursing God, cursing God, people in hell won't want heaven. They'll curse God for eternity. God will one day judge Babylon, and if it is this you see, my friends, of which we must remind ourselves, when we suffer the consequences of the unjust actions of sinful people, we both is right. The presupposition of God's just judgment at the end of history is the presupposition for the renunciation of violence in the middle of it. God one day will judge Babylon. Just as he one day judged Babylon. But that reminds me, dear friends, how did God judge the people of Babylon? He confused their tongues so as to destroy their power to establish community apart from him. He confused their tongues so as to destroy their power to establish community apart from him. Oh, but my dear friends, do you realize that it is through the means of the gospel that God stunningly reverses this judgment that he actually inverts it? By virtue of the accomplishments of Jesus Christ, God pours forth his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost so that through the multiplicity of divine human, of diverse human tongues, we might be granted the power to establish a community dependent upon him, the church. Babbles distorted agenda is realized in the people of God who belong to Jesus Christ. And great Babylon for all her hatred of God's people cannot destroy it. So the contrary, she will be destroyed. It is done. And God's community will prevail. It is done. All because of the one who declared it is done. Would you bow your heads with me, please?