Revelation 18:8: Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.

Therefore, or on account of Modern Babylon's pride, arrogance, and manifold sins,¹ the seventh Vial Plague of the Third Woe² shall come upon her suddenly in one day.³ This probably means a single day of 24 hours,⁴ and Babylon may even be utterly burned in a single hour of that one day.⁵

The sudden fall of the ancient city of Babylon foreshadows the physical fall of Modern Babylon in one day.⁶ The ancient city was virtually impregnable,⁷ and yet it fell in a single night⁸ in about 538 BC.⁹ On that night, King Belshazzar held a feast for a thousand of his lords, wives, and concubines to boast of his power and to blaspheme the God of Israel.¹⁰ He defiled the sacred vessels from the temple in Jerusalem¹¹ that had been stolen and brought to Babylon¹² by his grandfather Nebuchadnezzar¹³ in 587 BC.¹⁴ On the night of Belshazzar's feast, an army of Medes and Persians entered Babylon beneath the massive walls of the city on the dry bed of the Euphrates River.¹⁵ Belshazzar was captured and killed¹⁶ in the same hour that the miraculous writing on the wall predicted his death.¹⁷ Thereafter the city of Babylon fell into ruin¹⁸ and became so utterly desolate that it was never inhabited again,¹⁹ except for wild beasts and doleful creatures.²⁰

Four conditions (the world number)²¹ universally express the collapse and demise of Modern Babylon²² in one day during the seventh Vial Plague of the Third Woe.²³ The first two universal conditions are death and the mourning that accompanies death.²⁴ The third condition is famine, which is both physical²⁵ and spiritual.²⁶ This imagery emphasizes that Babylon will starve to death even though she now wants for nothing and lives deliciously.²⁷ This reflects the truth of the Savior's words that whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased in Luke 14:11.²⁸ Finally, Babylon shall be utterly burned with fire as the fourth condition.²⁹ Burning was the punishment prescribed by the Law of Moses for physical fornications anciently and is the prescribed punishment for Modern Babylon's spiritual fornications in the last days.³⁰ The burning will destroy Modern Babylon suddenly like Sodom and Gomorrah.³¹ The four conditions of Babylon's demise reflect the Lord's universal judgments upon her for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.³²