8. What details were given about how Babylon would fall?

⁸ Just how would Babylon fall? Jehovah gave Isaiah and Jeremiah some of the details. Isaiah wrote that Jehovah is “the One saying to the watery deep, ‘Be evaporated; and all your rivers I shall dry up.’” (Isa. 44:27) Further, Isaiah declared: “This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, so that I may ungird even the hips of kings; to open before him the two-leaved doors, so that even the gates will not be shut.” (Isa. 45:1) Jeremiah foretold: “The mighty men of Babylon have ceased to fight. . . . Their mightiness has run dry. They have become women.” (Jer. 51:30) So Babylon’s protective river, the Euphrates, would “dry up”; a leader whom Jehovah named long before he was born, “Cyrus,” would be the conqueror; the gates along the river would “not be shut”; and Babylon’s soldiers would ‘cease to fight.’

9. Why was Belshazzar’s feast especially repugnant to Jehovah?

⁹ On October 5/6 in the year 539 B.C.E. those prophecies were precisely fulfilled.

11. How was Bible prophecy regarding Babylon fulfilled in detail?

¹¹ Outside Babylon’s walls, Persian armies led by Cyrus the Great, in cooperation with the Medes of Darius, surrounded the city. While the Babylonians were reveling in their blasphemous religious orgy, feeling secure in their gods and armed might, Cyrus was undertaking a brilliant strategy. To the north of Babylon, his engineers cut through the bank of the Euphrates River, diverting it so that its waters no longer flowed south through the city. Soon the water level of the river in and around Babylon began to fall. In a very short time, the water was shallow enough for the troops led by Cyrus to enter the riverbed from the north and the south and move along it toward the heart of Babylon. Amazingly, the gates along the river inside the city had been left open by the unsuspecting or drunken Babylonians. In overwhelming strength, Cyrus’ forces swarmed into Babylon. “In that very night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed.” (Dan. 5:30) “Babylon the Great” had fallen​—in just one night! What a shock that was, and not just to the Babylonians, but to all the nations around her! Her end had come exactly as Jehovah’s servants had foretold. And in time Babylon did become “piles of stones,” “a desolate waste,” “without an inhabitant.”

[Pictures on page 21]

The dropping of the waters of the Euphrates River paved the way for enemy troops to enter Babylon and overthrow her

16. What are the “waters” on which modern Babylon sits, and what parallel is there in this with ancient Babylon?

¹⁶ Another similarity exists between ancient and modern Babylon, one having to do with the manner of their destruction. Ancient Babylon sat on waters, the literal waters of the Euphrates River. Modern Babylon also “sits on many waters,” says Revelation 17:1. What are these waters? God’s Word answers: “The waters that you saw, where the harlot is sitting, mean peoples and crowds and nations and tongues.” (Rev. 17:15) Note that the overthrow of ancient Babylon was immediately preceded by the dropping of the literal waters of the Euphrates River. Is there a similar dropping of the symbolic waters (humans) from underneath modern Babylon? Yes, there is, and it is taking place right before our very eyes!​—Rev. 16:1, 12.

HOW THE “MANY WATERS” ARE DROPPING

17. In what way are the symbolic “waters” under the harlot dropping?

¹⁷ In what way are the symbolic “many waters” under modern Babylon dropping, diminishing? In that millions of persons, including tens of thousands of religious clergy and workers, have abandoned the support that they used to give their religions, seriously weakening them. This is particularly true in Christendom, which has greater guilt since she claims to serve both God and Christ. While at times there is mention of “revival” in a few religions, particularly the less orthodox ones, in most cases this is only superficial. With few exceptions, the overall trend is unmistakable and can be seen by comments in the world press, such as the following:

“Something has happened to Christendom. Every indication is that we have entered a long, long night and we’re not going to come out of it . . .

“The effective existence of Christianity and Roman Catholicism in the public structures has already disappeared. We are witnessing the death of a socially and politically structured Christianity.”​—Prominent Catholic writer Malachi Martin, in the Providence “Sunday Journal,” February 17, 1980.

“The shortage of priests and nuns in the West is near the peril point in nation after nation.”​—“Time,” August 21, 1978.

“Christianity [is] retreating rapidly . . . a picture of superstitious agnosticism, confusion, and ignorance. . . . It would be no exaggeration to say that almost all children have no idea what Christianity really is.”​—London “Times,” September 25, 1978, commenting on a report from the Church of England Board of Education.

18, 19. Give additional evidence of the falling of these “waters.”

¹⁸ When Pope John Paul II visited France in May 1980, the New York Times (May 31) commented: “The influence of the church is rapidly declining in France. A recent poll disclosed that only 15 percent of the people are practicing Catholics, although 85 percent are baptized in the church.” In Brazil, Archbishop Luciano Cabral Duarte said: “Our Catholics are losing strength and are perishing from profound spiritual anemia.” (Veja, January 30, 1980) In Nigeria, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church admitted: “Today the church seems to have lost its sense of identity like someone suffering from amnesia and is asking, ‘Who am I,’ and ‘What am I here for’?” (Daily Star, September 11, 1978) In Greece, a newspaper said the following about the once-respected Greek Orthodox Church:

“Today the Church, that is the clergy, especially the highest clergy, is very often a den of scandal, a source of foolishness and nonsense.

“So much so, that for some time now, the great majority of the Greek people look on most clergymen, not as a respectable, spiritual institution, but as a swarm of agitators and scandalmakers, radicals and exploiters, who rather than ‘guide their flock,’ amuse it with their prattle and deliria.”​—“To Vima,” October 15, 1978.

¹⁹ Regarding the Eastern Orthodox Church’s most important center in Turkey, Time declares: “The historic see, once the center of half the Christian world, is dying.” American rabbi Alvin Reines says of the Jewish religion: ‘American Jewry is in a desperate state of crisis. The problem is that American Jews simply do not accept the teachings of traditional Judaism.’ In England, so many churches have closed in recent years due to dropping attendance that one commentator called them “an endangered species.” In Germany, a poll revealed that only 17 percent of Germans under 35 believe that God exists. In Japan, when people were asked, “Do you have a religion of some sort?” 60 percent answered “No” and 7 percent more did not answer. In country after country the situation with this world’s religions is as The Age of Melbourne, Australia, says​—that all denominations “are suffering a fall in believers.” Since the “fall in believers,” the fall of the “many waters” upon which the harlot sits, is so obviously taking place now, can the forces of destruction be far behind? No.