The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.

[Xeno.of.athens]

The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
[Rev 11:18]

Who would they be, these ones who are destroying the earth?

 

[d taylor]

-
​

May be a reference to the great harlot of Revelation 17:1

 

[timothyu]

At the moment it is the global government of Corporatism, controlling national governments of the planet and at present ensnaring the food industry to control the people. This as they plan to create a new human combined with tech, an insult to the God that made us. That may be what it takes for an intervention.

 

[RandyPNW]

The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
[Rev 11:18]

Who would they be, these ones who are destroying the earth?

In a commentary, we are referred to Psa 2, which uses similar words--"the nations were in uproar." In that scenario, the pagan nations around the Kingdom of Israel were intimidated by the Davidic kings who took what they thought was a haughty, self-righteous stand for the word of God. The audacity to impose their moral judgments on us pagans, who are entitled to our own gods and to our own conduct!

And so, nations round about Israel attacked it and tried to destroy it because they didn't like the religion they represented. Israel challenged the rights of foreigners to take land they deemed "theirs," and they held their land in the name of an Almighty God.

And so, the nations are enraged at the Kingdom of God, which would impose its will upon all the earth. But God has that right. He is the only God and the only King of kings.

How do they destroy the earth? They destroy it by capturing all men to follow their pagan ways, which in turn brings God's judgment down upon the earth. In effect their corruptions are causing God to destroy the earth with His judgments.

 

[GDL]

18 The nations were angry, and Your wrath has come, And the time of the dead, that they should be judged, And that You should reward Your servants the prophets and the saints, And those who fear Your name, small and great, And should destroy those who destroy the earth." (Rev. 11:18 NKJ)

I think the answer is in the immediate context. Those who destroy the earth in all respects (physical, governmental, spiritual, etc.) are those who do not fear the name of the God who created the earth and all of His creation to function pursuant to His will. Those who fear Him are also the ones seeking a land where righteousness dwells and for the curse to be removed and to see God's creation function as He designed and desires it to be. He's teaching men they cannot run His creation apart from Him and He rested from creating and desires to work with and teach men and enjoy His creation with them. Imagine where that goes if we first take care of what men were commanded to take care of. It's a big universe with more dimensions than we know, and we really cannot even contemplate what an eternity with Him even means.

 

[BobRyan]

The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
[Rev 11:18]

Who would they be, these ones who are destroying the earth?

Rev 11 -
15 Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven, saying,

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” 16 And the twenty-four elders, who sit on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, 17 saying,

“We give You thanks, Lord God, the Almighty, the One who is and who was, because You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign. 18 And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”

19 And the temple of God which is in heaven was opened; and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple, and there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder, and an earthquake, and a great hailstorm.

==================================

The "time" to destroy those who destroy the Earth" -- is the time when all the unsaved are destroyed (as 2Thess 1:5-8 says) and the earth itself is left desolate as Jer 4:23-28 says. In fact in Jer 25:30-33 "those slain by the Lord will be from one end of the Earth to the other" with no humans left to mourn or to bury them. Jer 4:25 "no humans" left. Not even birds left.

 

[timothyu]

Why is man so self-centered that man thinks everything is about us? God was battling powers of His creation long before we joined their adversarial ranks and that war continues today. We are still for a time under the authorities of these princes over nations.

 

[Xeno.of.athens]

Why is man so self-centered that man thinks everything is about us? God was battling powers of His creation long before we joined their adversarial ranks and that war continues today. We are still for a time under the authorities of these princes over nations.

Human beings have for quite a few centuries, thought of themselves as the masters of nature. They don't want to think of consequences, They want to think of conquest.

Human beings have for quite a few centuries, thought of themselves as the masters of nature. They don't want to think of consequences. They want to think of conquest. When you make nature into the enemy, and you make human ingenuity into armies to conquer nature, you're going to run in to trouble.

The ones mentioned in the passage in Revelation With the circumlocution "bring to ruin those ruining the Earth". are no other than the people who cynically build factories dig up mines and do all the other things that are making the Earth less habitable, that are wiping out species, and they will end with our biodiversity reduced severely. When all that happens, we may find ourselves in an extinction event that will lead to our own extinction.

 

[timothyu]

The ones mentioned in the passage in Revelation With the circumlocution "bring to ruin those ruining the Earth". are no other than the people who cynically build factories dig up mines and do all the other things that are making the Earth less habitable, that are wiping out species, and they will end with our biodiversity reduced severely. When all that happens, we may find ourselves in an extinction event that will lead to our own extinction

True but also those ruining the earth are those intend upon following the will of man rather than the will of God. Look at the division in the world over matters designed to keep us with our minds in the world rather than the kingdom. Fear this fear that while giving our allegiance to the false gods who claim to be our saviours. Jesus' good news was that would be reversed and come to an end once and for all.

 

[ARBITER01]

The nations were in uproar and now the time has come for your retribution, and for the dead to be judged, and for your servants the prophets, for the saints and for those who fear your name, small and great alike, to be rewarded. The time has come to destroy those who are destroying the earth.'
[Rev 11:18]

Who would they be, these ones who are destroying the earth?

The NET bible has a commentary note on this that is interesting,...

Or "who deprave." There is a possible wordplay here on two meanings for διαφθείρω (diaphtheirō), with the first meaning "destroy" and the second meaning either "to ruin" or "to make morally corrupt."

I did find one translation that followed this,...

Rev 11:18 And the nations were angry, and thy wrath has come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldst give reward to thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and to those who fear thy name, both small and great, and that thou shouldst destroy those who corrupt the earth.

That was Anderson's 1865 New Testament. In many respects, it tends to make more sense that way.