Toward Interpreting Properly What Revelation 18:22 Reveals about the Music of Babylon

Revelation 18:21 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. 22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee; and the sound of a millstone shall be heard no more at all in thee; 23 And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. 24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth.

Revelation 18:22-23 reveals that God’s judgment will bring about the permanent end of five specified things in Babylon: (1) the voice of harpers, musicians, pipers, and trumpeters; (2) all craftsmen of every craft; (3) the sound of a millstone; (4) the light of a candle; and (5) the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride. What does this passage reveal to us about the music of Babylon that is in view in the first of the five specified things that will be permanently terminated?

Interpreting Revelation 18:22 Properly

The right way to interpret what this passage reveals concerning the music of Babylon is to let the text speak for itself. Paying attention fully to what God has actually explicitly said shows us that the permanent termination of the various, specified music makers of Babylon that is spoken of in the passage is a divine judgment that the Spirit explains as resulting from the occult wickedness of Babylon:

Revelation 18:21 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. 22 And the voice of harpers, and musicians, and of pipers, and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee; . . . for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived.

We must note carefully, however, that the permanent termination of these music makers that is specified in 18:22-23 is not just resulting from Babylon’s sorceries deceiving all nations. In between that revelation and the explanatory statement about her sorceries is an intermediate explanatory statement: “for thy merchants were the great men of the earth, for by thy sorceries . . .”

What the passage says, therefore, is that the permanent termination of those music makers of Babylon is explicitly tied to Babylon’s merchants being the great men of the earth because by her sorceries all nations were deceived. The permanent termination of her musicians is therefore not just a statement of the termination of Babylon’s “innocent” enjoyment of their music; it is directly connected to her merchants profiting from their commercial ventures that disseminated the deceitful effects of the sorceries of Babylon to all nations.

Because the Spirit has made known that great city Babylon will be the cause of worldwide deception through her sorceries, we can be certain that Babylon herself will be a city permeated by such occult wickedness. Based on that certainty, we can certainly know that at least some of the music making of the music makers spoken of in 18:22 that God will bring to a permanent end will have been the making of occult instrumental music that was not, is not, and never will be acceptable to God.

The merchants’ exporting of such occult kinds of music (originated by her musicians and prevalently played by them in Babylon) from Babylon to all nations as a means of both deceiving all nations and profiting monetarily from that deception parallels the evil masters in Philippi using the occult activities of a demon-possessed girl for their profiting financially in a great way (Acts 16:16, 19).

God’s permanent destruction of Babylon’s musicians for the reasons explained in this passage, therefore, certainly points to at least some of her music being unacceptable to God because of the occult character of their music.