The tragic events of Sept 11th have shocked the world. No event in history has received such total and immediate worldwide attention. The sight of aeroplanes smashing into the twin towers of the Word Trade Centre and their subsequent collapse will mark the day for ever in the memories of all who saw it.
What have the scriptures to say about it?
The following morning the words from Revelation 18, “Babylon has fallen,” came to my mind. I soon found that I was not alone. Several others had the same thought. Many verses from Revelation 18 had a literal fulfilment on Sept 11th.
“For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality” (v3).
“In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!” (v17).
“And a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all” (v21).
In Genesis chapter 11 we read of the Tower of Babel (the Hebrew name of Babylon). Verse 4 has the words “let us build ourselves a city, with a tower with its head in the heavens.” The Hebrew word for a tower, migdol, literally means something big.
The similarity of all this to the World Trade Centre and the events of Sept 11th are unmistakable.
What does it all mean?
The World Trade Centre had 110 floors, and, by more than coincidence, the Hebrew word for a sign, nes, has a gematria (numeric value) of 110.
The fall of the WTC was a great sign, visible to the entire world, of the fall of Babylon. The fall of Babylon is vastly bigger than the collapse of the WTC, but the entire world has seen the sign of it.
Babylon stands for the great religious, political and economic systems of the world. They have been built by man without God. Religion, politics and money are the three methods man has used to control his fellow man. Frequently they have been the instrument of the persecution and martyrdom of millions of God’s saints. John writes: “I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I was greatly astonished.”
All that is going to end, and in its place will come the kingdom of God. “Then the sovereignty, the dominion and the greatness of all the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom will be an everlasting kingdom, and all the dominions will serve and obey Him” (Dan 7: 27).
How then do we react to the horrible events of September 11th? The events themselves were utterly evil, but they were a sign of hugely greater good. In the middle of Revelation 18 we read, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, because God has pronounced judgment for you against her.”
We see frightening events happening in the world, but we rejoice because beyond them we see the kingdom of God. We see and receive and enter that kingdom invisibly now. In time it will appear visibly and fill the whole earth.