Babylon Now
What are some Babylonian traits of behavior?
When examining the pattern of ancient Babylon and then comparing the traits found in modern day “Babylon the Great”, the subject of reasoning capability plays a significant role. Do you find yourself dazed confused?
Back in the days of ancient Babylon, God put the men who were building the tower of Babel into a ‘confused’ state in order to break up their works. Because they were no longer able to converse with one another because God changed their one language to many different languages, they became confused and could not continue their plan. They were unable to ‘reason’ with one another through conversation. (Genesis 11:1-9)
Later on in Daniel’s time, God caused the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, to go out from his palace and live as the ‘unreasoning’ beast of the fields for 7 years. He exhibited the behaviors of like a ‘wild beast’ and he thought unreasonably. (Daniel 4:25-33)
Today, we see humankind on a grand scale behaving in a confused, unreasoning manner. They think and act as the unreasoning wild beast do. Who is causing the state of confusion that exists today?
In this time, the Last Days, it is Satan and the other fallen angels who are causing mass confusion on a global scale. What occurred at the Tower of Babel and what occurred to Nebuchadnezzar was a result of God’s will. What is happening today is by the devil’s design and will continue to affect all who remain under demonic control.
Many professed Christians claim that they have ‘escaped’ “Babylon the Great”. But reason says that that cannot be true. While many have escaped the clutches of false worship, they have not escaped the global reach of Satan’s influence. His influence effects more than organized religion. The devil’s empire has its tentacles of influence in all aspects of society.
While a person can free themselves from living the lifestyle of the world that follows the devil, they cannot end his empire. It was not until King Cyrus came and overthrew the Babylonians that the captives were truly freed.
There is a big distinction between being ‘free’ from the corruption of the devil’s empire (not touching the unclean thing) and being out from under its global influence and its ability to affect you. Satan’s empire encompasses the entire globe. There is no physical place a person can flee to in order to be totally out of its reach.
Therefore, we remain ‘physical’ captives of Satan’s global empire until the time the “Greater Cyrus”, who is the resurrected Jesus Christ, appears and breaks once and for all times the Babylonian yoke of slavery.
Again, a person cannot just simply, as it were, ‘walk’ out of “Babylon the Great”. One cannot just simply, “get away”. Was that to be expected? Think of Jesus’ words in the Revelation He gave to John.
In the vision Christ Jesus gave to John that is recorded as the Book of Revelation, it opens by stating that John was by Spirit given a vision of things to occur in “the Lord’s Day”:
Revelation 1:10
“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,”
When John tells us that he was in the Lord’s Day, he is seeing events in the Last Days, near the time of Christ return.
At Revelation 1:11 we read:
“Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea”.
Those of the churches Christ is writing these letters to are human souls alive at this time. These are members of the elect or body of Christ.
In His words to the church in Pergamum, Jesus describes their environment and their current living circumstances clearly.
The Letter to Pergamum
12 “Write to the angel of the church in Pergamum: “The One who has the sharp, double-edged sword says:
13 I know where you live—where Satan’s throne is! And you are holding on to My name and did not deny your faith in Me, even in the days of Antipas, My faithful witness who was killed among you, where Satan lives.”
The Lord’s indicate an ongoing struggle against ungodly thinking and behavior in an extremely vulnerable proximity to the center of the devil’s operation.
He did not instruct them to move somewhere else. Just as being under the dominance and control of the city-state world empire Babylon did not require one to be within the city’s ‘official’ walls (where the throne of the king was), a person can still be near the devil’s center on the far-flung edges of his empire Babylon the Great.
Continued close association with godless people makes it impossible to be cleansed from corruption. Jesus likened such behavior as a “dog returning to is vomit. Each time the Lord mercifully cleanses such an individual, they go right back to unclean people with ungodly, unclean practices.
God counseled the unfaithful nation of Israel to separate themselves and quit touching what was unclean in His eyes. The apostle Paul reminded the disciples in Corinth of God’s command:
2 Corinthians 6:17
Therefore, “Come out from among them, and be ye separate,” saith the Lord. “And touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you,
We today must heed these words by separating ourselves from those who practice wickedness. If we do not, God’s holy Spirit will not dwell in us and without it we will be like the vacant house that Jesus describes at Matthew 12:43-45:
43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.
44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.
45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.
When we continue to associate with people void of God’s spirit, we open ourselves to demonic influence. We will share the same unreasonable thinking and behaviors as those who willfully have chosen the mark of the beast.
Until the time when Jesus returns, we must be vigilant in our efforts to resist the devil and stay morally and ethically clean.
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