Is Babylon the Great a place you can find on a map? Rome? Jerusalem? A rebuilt city in modern Iraq? Plenty of people would put their money on America.

ABOUT THE EPISODE:
Josh sits down with Michael Rowntree to trace Babylon through the whole Bible. The trail runs from Cain’s first city and the Tower of Babel, through Nebuchadnezzar’s empire in Daniel, to the woman riding the scarlet beast in Revelation 17. Michael’s new book, The World Made Right, is out now, and this conversation draws on the final section, which he calls a tale of two cities.

Josh and Michael investigate: Why does she fall four separate times between Revelation 14 and 18? And why would the beast turn and devour the woman riding on its back (Revelation 17:16)? Josh presses Michael on both. He also asks about the clues that keep pulling readers in different directions: Jeremiah’s prophecy that ancient Babylon would never rise again (Jeremiah 51:26), and Peter’s greeting from “she who is at Babylon” (1 Peter 5:13).

Michael brings in Greg Beale, G.B. Caird, Sam Storms, Craig Keener and Richard Bauckham along the way. They also bring the conversation closer to home: the economic collapse in Revelation 18, whether the seven mountains of Revelation 17:9 have anything to do with the seven mountain mandate, and what it means today to hear “Come out of her, my people” (Revelation 18:4).

Join us for a deep theological discussion on the fall of Babylon.

0:00 – Introduction
1:37 – Babylon in Revelation
4:36 – Literal or Symbolic Babylon
15:17 – Is Babylon Jerusalem?
21:33 – Babylon's Seduction Today
26:00 – Garden and City Motif
36:08 – Harlot Riding the Beast
40:35 – Babylon and Empire
46:47 – Beast Turns on Babylon
52:27 – Seven Mountains Mandate
54:30 – Babylon's Repeated Falls
1:00:28 – Come Out of Her

BOOK:
📖The World Made Right by Michael Rowntree: https://www.michaelrowntree.com/the-world-made-right/