Revelation 18:14 “And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.”

Fruits that thy soul lusted after

“Fruits that thy soul lusted after” is a commonly used English metaphorical phrase throughout the Bible referring to ‘whatever you want’ in modern English. ‘You’ is referring to the soul actually, the real you is the soul. That’s why that old English phrase is you, because the real you is not your body, it’s actually your soul.

‘fruits’ is referring to edible fruits such as apple, orange, grapes etc.

‘lusted after’ referring to want and desire, lust.

There’s a doctrine called spiritual circumcision that says, if you look at Colossians 2:10, the Bible says that when you got saved in the Lord Jesus Christ, God cut off your body of sins from you, meaning that your soul is separated from your body of sins.

That’s why your body of sins have no effect on your soul and your soul can go to heaven after you die. Before your soul was cut off, your soul was stuck to your body of sins, and when sinners commit iniquity, it makes sense they go to hell after they die because whatever they sin in their body attributes to the soul. Whereas for saved people, when they sin in their body, it doesn’t attribute to the soul because Jesus Christ cut it off based on His work on the cross.

So this phrase might sound like whatever your carnal desires and body want, but remember that the soul is connected to the body, they’re very interchangeable and that’s why the soul would be connected to some fleshly desire.

However based on spiritual circumcision, we are separated from our body of sins yet it is very sad that whatever our body desires to do, the soul will follow after it. Even though the soul is no longer part of the body, a lot of times we (aka the soul) decide to follow whatever the lusts of our flesh want rather than the fruits of the spirit.

What they desired has gone from them

Whatever they desired is gone from Babylon.

This sounds like a delectable, something edible. For example, if you look at nice chocolates, we would call them dainty and goodly, that’s the idea. So all these delicious meals are departed.

They cannot find them anymore.

The merchants are weeping

Revelation 18:15 “The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,”

The merchants who are responsible for shipping, importing and selling these delectable, these edibles.

They’re made rich by Babylon the great whore, that’s what ‘her’ is referring to from the context.

These merchants are far away from Babylon burning because, they don’t want to be caught in the torment and burning of Babylon.

And they’re weeping and wailing.

Revelation 18:16 “And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!”

This is what they will cry out while they’re far away from Babylon burning.

“Alas! Alas” is an old English phrase again. The watered-down English version (which doesn’t really do it an accurate translation justice) is basically ‘Oh my! Oh my!’.

It’s also repeated twice and that’s commonly used such as ‘Verily, verily’ in the King James Bible. The idea of its repetition stresses its importance. Shakesperian English and literature, whenever they repeat these words, it shows the weight and stresses the importance of the word in the English language, unlike modern English which deems repetition of words unnecessary and takes them out.

Babylon is a great city.

Think about it, what city is mostly known for being clothed in fine linen (the colors are purple and red), they have decorations and deck, they wear gold, precious stones and pearls? Well, that’s Vatican city. It’s not the United States of America.

Babylon (Rome) is destroyed

Revelation 18:17 “For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,”

Pastor does not believe that this is a literal, human standard time span of one hour, but it’s more of a biblical prophetic clock.

So they’re wailing that within one hour of time, Babylon’s great riches are all gone and it comes to nothing.

Notice that Babylon is known for its navy, shipping etc. So all of them are also far away weeping and wailing about Babylon.

Some people assumed that this would be USA because America is mostly known for worldwide trade. However, they don’t realize that Italy is also known for being one of the top places in the world that does worldwide trade shipping.
Another problem for the people who insist that Babylon is America is we cannot deny verse 16, which fits Rome much more than America.

If we think from all the verses we discussed in our Revelation study about a city that has religious and political power in the whole world, it’s obviously Roman Catholic church, Vatican city.

Not only that, in the context of Revelation 17, 18, it’s a sin for people to be joined to the business economics of Babylon. If we insist that’s America, then that means 99%, if not 100%, of saved Christians, have sinned because we are all working in jobs in America. It makes more sense if we were to say that if you’re working for the Roman Catholic church.

Revelation 17 & 18 also mention Babylon being known as the mother. What city is known as Mother Church, Holy Mother? Babylon goes all the way back to Nimrod and Semiramis.

The only way you could tie USA to a woman figure is the Statue of Liberty, but with Nimrod and Semiramis who started the Babylonian system, it’s not just the woman, it’s a mother and child. There are lots of cities around the world that can qualify for a mother figure but put a mother and child together, the candidate list goes even smaller.

So this is definitely referring to the Roman Catholic system here.

Revelation 18:18 “And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!”

These merchants who do trading by sea, they’re far away and cried when they saw the smoke of her burning and cried.

Notice the phrase ‘smoke of her burning’, it sounds like hellfire, so to speak. It matches with Romans 14 ‘the smoke of their torment’, just remember this it might come out to some really interesting doctrine later on.

‘What great city is like this great city of Rome!’

You can imagine a lot of people are going to cry out like that, it’s one of the top places where people would want to tour around the world due to its history and splendor etc.

Revelation 18:19 “And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.”

When they were crying, weeping and wailing, they would put dust all over their heads, so to speak. Now, this can come down to 2 interesting interpretations:
1. Because there’s so much English metaphorical wording here, this can be the same thing with verse 19. This English metaphorical phrase simply refers to them being in so much grief. Remember that the apostle John is unable to write modern English words such as cars and airplanes so he would just word it as chariot and flight. In Malachi and Joel where it talks about ploughshare, swords, spears and pruning hooks etc in the battle of the Armageddon, when the unbelievrs go to war against God, obviously that’s not their kind of weaponry. It’s going to be referring to guns, machine guns, tanks etc. The apostles at that time had to use the best wording that was available to them for weapons and their best modern weaponry during their time was spear, swords etc.
2. The rule of a biblical hermeneutics interpretation in the Bible is that you take the Bible literally as it says unless it’s impossible or unlike from context. By context in verse 19, it is actually very possible that they can cast dust on their heads during this time. Because the Antichrist is going to be a Syrian Jew, think about the cultures of those two nationalities when they’re in grief, some of the people would cast dust on their heads when they’re overtly in grief. Not only that, the Antichrist system is going to be a Jewish system, and because he wants to imitate God, and to take over the temple in Jerusalem, if he’s going to reinstate Jewish sacrifices, it’s not so far-fetched to say that he will reinstate Jewish customs especially if he wants to deceive the world saying that he is Jesus Christ. So he is retaining the Jewish customs and laws to prove that he is the Messiah.

Everyone was made rich in the shipping business from Babylon the great city.

Based on the fact of the costliness, the price, the monetary value that they gained through their shipping business from this great city.

In this span of one hour, she’s just desolate, gone, emptied out like that.

Notice that the word ‘desolate’ may be a reference to hell, sometimes not, so let’s just hold that thought.