“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. Rev 14:8 (NASB) Read also Daniel 5.

Rev 17:1-11 will expand the concept of this here mentioned apostate religious system. Daniel 5 describes the last night of Babylon before its fall (which included the drying up of the River Euphrates also used in Rev 17). That night, when “the writing was on the wall,” they were profaning the sacred items taken from the sanctuary. The beast in Rev 13:6 had blasphemed the name of God and His dwelling (The heavenly sanctuary.) That night there was a drunken party taking place. For now, understand that the beast of Rev 13 has now taken on the added description of Babylon and its fall.

The second angel’s message announces the fall, or apostasy, of Babylon and identifies it as a false religious system. In Revelation 17:5, “Babylon is said to be ‘the mother of harlots.’ By her daughters must be symbolized those institutions that cling to her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing the truth and the approval of God, in order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. (The union of church controlling the state as we saw during the Middle Ages.) The twofold repetition of the word “fallen” points to Babylon’s progressive apostasy and signifies the certainty of her full moral collapse. Babylon is described as already fallen, but her fall is also described as future.

The end-time Babylon in Revelation is a union of false religious systems that will put themselves into the service of Satan against God’s people (see Rev. 13:11–18, Rev. 16:13, Rev. 17:5). This apostate religious union will manifest the arrogance of ancient Babylon in exalting itself above God and will seek to take His place in the world. The message of the second angel warns God’s people that this wicked system will depart further and further from the truth in consequence of her refusal of the light of the end-time gospel message. Revelation 17 will expand the meaning of this fall.