Times Of Swaziland: ‘BABYLON IS FALLEN’

‘BABYLON IS FALLEN’
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The Editor on 08/03/2018 07:19:00


Sir,
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city because she made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” Revelation 14:8.
‘Babylon’ is a term in scripture that is used to represent apostasy and
rebellion. It is drawn from Old Testament sources and used symbolically in the
New Testament; satan being the original ‘king’ of Babylon.
‘Fall’ is a term in the Bible that recalls the tragedy of Lucifer who became
satan (Isaiah 14:12), and the ‘fall’ of our first parents in Eden (I Timothy
2:14). It describes a process which begins in glory but ends in tragedy.
Her ‘wine’ is her false teachings, which she forces on people; the
‘wrath’ is her severe penalties administered against those who disagree with
her teachings.
The tower of Babel was the first ‘Babylon’. It was built on the foundation
of unbelief and defiance. It was an attempt by man to gain heaven by their own
works. The Bible clearly teaches that Jesus is the way to heaven not our works.
The most well known Babylon of the Old Testament was that founded by King
Nebuchadnezzar at the time of Daniel, 605 BC. This Babylon was used by God in
its beginning to discipline Judah, but because it took the credit for its
successes to itself and to its pagan gods, because it overreached in oppressing
God’s people and ‘refused to let them go’, because it indulged in the sin
of pride and thought itself equal to God, because it relied on the wisdom of
sorcery and magic instead of God’s wisdom, it fell under God’s judgment. It
was ‘weighed in the balances and found wanting’.
‘Babylon is fallen’ was predicted by Prophet Jeremiah (chapters 50 and 51),
who foretold the shocking fall of literal Babylon, as well as the fall of the
prophetic Babylon which is the Roman system of worship. During the Middle Ages,
the church which had been established in purity and truth by Jesus became
corrupted through paganism. It ‘fell’ spiritually far from scripture.
It was a crime to own a Bible at that time! The Ten Commandments, God’s holy
law, were changed, removing the second commandment (making and worshipping
images), changing the fourth commandment (making the first day of the week the
day of worship instead of the seventh) and splitting the tenth.
Teachings such as the ‘immortal soul’, a never-ending hell, penance and
purgatory crept into the church. The church joined forces with the State to
enforce its religious teachings, persecuting and killing millions. The head of
the church took the title of the ancient Babylonian priests, ‘Pontifex
Maximus’, and laid claim to many blasphemous titles of equality with God and a
human priesthood was established, giving authority for mortal man to forgive
sins, something only God can do. The priest was endowed with ‘creative
power,’ supposedly changing the wafer into the actual body of Christ.
Rising against the abuses of the church of the Middle Ages, reformers like
Martin Luther and John Calvin attempted to bring people back to a simple
adherence to the Word of God instead of human traditions.
Dear reader, God is calling us to come out of Babylon. God is calling you and I
to shun the apostate Roman teachings and follow what the Bible says. God’s
message today is very clear: “Come out of her, my people, that you be not
partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues,” Rev 18:4.
Bopoto Gwinyai
(7663 8191)