Times Of Swaziland: BABYLON IS FALLEN

BABYLON IS FALLEN
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The Editor on 14/01/2020 06:18:00


Sir,
The book of Revelation contains a shocking message about Babylon. In Revelation
18 we read about an angel ‘coming down from heaven, having great authority,
and the earth was illuminated with his glory,” verse 1. Then in verse 2 the
angel cries ‘mightily with a loud voice, saying ‘Babylon the great is
fallen, is fallen’.” The angel then describes how Babylon is fallen, and in
verses 4 and 5 we hear another angel urging; “Come out of her, my people, lest
you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”
In the previous chapter, Revelation 17, we are given an even clearer description
of Babylon, represented by a woman, with a name written on her forehead,
‘Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and of the Abominations of
the Earth’ (vs. 5). This woman, symbolic of an apostate church, and the mother
of all apostate churches, is ‘drunk with the blood of the saints and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus’ (vs. 6).
Message
So the urgent message in Revelation 18 is for all of God’s people to come out
of Babylon - to come out of the apostate churches - and to join with God’s
faithful remnant, who keep the commandments of God and has the testimony of
Jesus as described in Revelation 12:17.
The angel in Revelation 18:4, who says ‘come out of her my people’, is not a
literal angel that flies around the world giving this warning. No, this angel is
a symbol of God’s messengers on earth, His people, who are giving this warning
to the world.
Confusion
The words ‘Babel’ and ‘Babylon’ mean ‘confusion’. The name Babylon
originated at the Tower of Babel, which was erected after the flood by defiant
pagans who hoped to build it so high that no floodwaters could ever cover it
(verse 4). But the Lord confounded their language, and the resultant confusion
was so great they were forced to halt construction.
They then called the tower ‘Babel’ (Babylon) or ‘confusion’. Later, in
Old Testament days, a worldwide pagan kingdom named Babylon arose; it was an
enemy of God’s people, Israel. It embodied rebellion, disobedience,
persecution of God’s people, pride, and idolatry (Jeremiah 39:6, 7; 50:29,
31–34; 51:24, 34, 47; Daniel 3 and 5). In Isaiah 14, God uses Babylon as a
symbol of satan because Babylon was so hostile and devastating to God’s work
and His people.
There are some churches that originally protested the false teachings of mother
Babylon and left her during the great Protestant Reformation. But later they
began to mimic the principles and actions of the mother and thus became fallen
themselves. No woman is born a harlot. Neither were the symbolic Protestant
daughter churches born fallen. Any church or organisation that teaches and
follows Babylon’s false doctrines and practices could become a fallen church
or daughter. So Babylon is a family name that embraces both the mother church
and those of her daughters who are also fallen.
Jesus refers to many people in Babylon as ‘my people’. There are millions of
sincere Christians in Babylon who have not yet heard this warning message. These
people love the Lord supremely, and Jesus says they are His children.
Jesus says; “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must
bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one
shepherd. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me,” John
10:16, 27. Jesus recognises His children who are in Babylon. Further, He
promises to call them out of Babylon before it is destroyed. And, most glorious
of all, Jesus promises that His people who are still in Babylon will hear and
recognise His voice and come out to safety.
Bopoto Gwinyai