What makes up the final world system in Revelation 18?
Revelation 18's final world system is Babylon, the whole global order made up of religious, political, and economic elements. It is a unified worldwide system, increasingly knit together by commerce and technology, that Scripture calls Babylon and that faces God's judgment.
Les explains that Revelation 18's final world system is the great world system he identifies as Babylon [s18-s20]. He describes it as the whole economy—religious, political, and economic—the whole world system [s49-s50]. He notes the world is getting smaller and more closely knit through the internet, computers, and the financial world, which can transfer trillions of dollars in split seconds [s51-s57]. He says he long taught that Babylon in Revelation was simply the whole world system, and today that is far more believable [s58-s62]. In verse 4, a voice from heaven says, "Come out of her my people," so they do not partake of her sins or plagues [s63-s69]. Verse 5 says her sins reached heaven, and God remembered her iniquities [s70-s71]. Verse 6 calls for rewarding her double according to her works [s72-s76]. Verse 7 notes how she glorified herself and lived deliciously [s77-s79].