Dwelling in Babylon

Previously: The Babylon connection, part XVI

A while back I had done a series called The Babylon connection, which examined what happened at the Tower of Babel and how that event is connected to the paganism which permeated the ancient world. The thing is, paganism has never gone away, it has just been walking around in different clothes. Naturalism and its twin darwinism is just paganism dressed up in a lab coat. Naturalists and pagans both worship nature as their god and creator instead of YHVH the Creator of heaven and earth. Only pagans will admit it and naturalists won't.

So what does that have to do with us? In Revelation 17, John sees a woman named with the name of Babylon (which is "Babel" in Hebrew):

"And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement." Revelation 17:3-6

Babylon is called the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. I believe "harlots" is used here in the same sense it is used in Jeremiah: that those who forsake the Lord and His worship have committed harlotries, or adulteries, disloyalties, to the Creator of heaven and earth. Babylon is the root which spawned every philosophy and rebellion which exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Then Lord then pleads with His ekklesia:

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.” And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues. For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities." Revelation 18:1-5

God's own people are portrayed as dwelling in Babylon! God calling the righteous to depart from Babylon before it gets judgment dumped on it sounds eerily familiar. Remember the two angels visiting Lot and leading him away from the city while fire rained down on it from heaven? Remember Lot's wife, who Jesus told us looked back on the city with longing, and was turned into a pillar of salt? We were warned not to be like Lot's wife. So what does it mean to dwell in Babylon, and what does it mean to come out of her?

To be continued ...

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Update: continued in Marked on the hand and forehead

I am...

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