The River Euphrates Dried Up

20. How do both the sixth trumpet blast and the pouring out of the sixth bowl involve the river Euphrates?

²⁰ The sixth trumpet blast heralded the releasing of “the four angels that are bound at the great river Euphrates.” (Revelation 9:14) Historically, Babylon was the great city that sat on the river Euphrates. And in 1919 the release of the symbolic four angels accompanied a significant fall of Babylon the Great. (Revelation 14:8) It is noteworthy, then, that the sixth bowl of God’s anger also involves the river Euphrates: “And the sixth one poured out his bowl upon the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, that the way might be prepared for the kings from the rising of the sun.” (Revelation 16:12) This too is bad news for Babylon the Great!

21, 22. (a) How did the protective waters of the river Euphrates dry up for Babylon in 539 B.C.E.? (b) What are the “waters” that Babylon the Great sits on, and how are these symbolic waters even now drying up?

²¹ In ancient Babylon’s heyday, the abundant waters of the Euphrates were a major part of her defense system. In 539 B.C.E. those waters dried up when they were diverted from their course by the Persian leader Cyrus. Thus, the way was open for Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede, the kings from “the rising of the sun” (that is, the east), to enter Babylon and conquer it. In the hour of crisis, the river Euphrates failed in the defense of that great city. (Isaiah 44:27–45:7; Jeremiah 51:36) Something similar is due to happen to modern Babylon, the worldwide system of false religion.

²² Babylon the Great “sits on many waters.” According to Revelation 17:1, 15, these symbolize “peoples and crowds and nations and tongues”​—hordes of adherents that she has regarded as a protection. But the “waters” are drying up! In Western Europe, where formerly she had great influence, hundreds of millions have openly ignored religion. In some lands, for many years there was a declared policy to try to destroy the influence of religion. The masses in those lands have not risen up on her behalf. Similarly, when the time comes for Babylon the Great to be destroyed, the dwindling number of her adherents will prove to be no protection at all. (Revelation 17:16) Though she claims a membership of thousands of millions, Babylon the Great will find herself defenseless against “the kings from the rising of the sun.”

23. (a) Who were the kings from “the rising of the sun” in 539 B.C.E.? (b) Who are “the kings from the rising of the sun” during the Lord’s day, and how will they destroy Babylon the Great?

²³ Who are these kings? In 539 B.C.E. they were Darius the Mede and Cyrus the Persian, who were used by Jehovah to conquer the ancient city of Babylon. In this the Lord’s day, the false religious system of Babylon the Great will also be destroyed by human rulers. But again, this will be a divine judgment. Jehovah God and Jesus Christ, “the kings from the rising of the sun,” will have put into the hearts of human rulers the “thought” to turn on Babylon the Great and destroy her utterly. (Revelation 17:16, 17) The pouring out of the sixth bowl proclaims publicly that this judgment is about to be executed!

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“Its Water Was Dried Up”

Even now, support for Babylonish religion is drying up in many places, indicating what will happen when “the kings from the rising of the sun” make their attack.

“A nationwide survey found that 75 per cent of those who live in municipal areas [of Thailand] do not go to Buddhist temples to listen to sermons at all, while the number in the countryside who visit the temples is steadily declining to about fifty per cent.”​—Bangkok Post, September 7, 1987, page 4.

“The magic has gone out of Taoism in the land [China] where it was founded some two millennia ago. . . . Deprived of the magical devices by which they and their predecessors used to gain large followings, members of the priesthood find themselves without successors, facing the virtual extinction of Taoism as an organized faith on the mainland.”​—The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, September 12, 1982, page 36-A.

“Japan . . . has one of the world’s largest concentrations of foreign missionaries, nearly 5,200, yet . . . less than 1% of the population is Christian. . . . A Franciscan priest working here since the 1950s . . . believes that ‘the day of the foreign missionary in Japan is finished.’”​—The Wall Street Journal, July 9, 1986, page 1.

In England during the past three decades, “nearly 2,000 of the 16,000 Anglican churches have been closed because of disuse. Attendance has fallen to among the lowest of avowedly Christian countries. . . . ‘It is not now the case that England is a Christian country,’ [the Bishop of Durham] said.”​—The New York Times, May 11, 1987, page A4.

“After hours of heated debate, [Greece’s] Parliament approved legislation today, enabling the Socialist Government to take over huge estates held by the Greek Orthodox Church . . . Moreover, the law gives nonclerics control of church councils and committees responsible for the administration of prized church investments including hotels, marble quarries and office blocks.”​—The New York Times, April 4, 1987, page 3.