Posted on 07/07/2015 10:45:22 AM PDT by ShadowAce
“A second angel followed and said, “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great, which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.” (Revelation 14:8)
“Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.” (Revelation 17:1)
“The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, ‘BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’” (Revelation 17:4-5)
“And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” (Revelation 18:2-3)
“…for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality…” (Revelation 19:2b – NASB)
The following chapter has proved to be one of the more difficult portions of this book for the author to write, and perhaps difficult for the reader to read as well. When reading the above verses from Revelation, in the 1970’s, it was easy to conclude the verses must refer to some miserably corrupt institution or nation, but certainly not to our nation, our beloved United States of America. Few people disdain their own country, for obvious reasons. “Our nation, right or wrong,” has been our unofficial motto for a long time. But now in the 21st century, by any societal indicia, America has become a decidedly changed country from just a few decades ago. The purpose of this portion of the book is not just to decry our obvious declining standards of morality, an easy task for any impartial observer, but also to see if we as a nation fit the description of the Daughter of Babylon found in scripture. The question is: do these additional scriptural clues to the identity of the Daughter of Babylon, centered on her immorality, fit America?
Though Christians are loyal and patriotic Americans, our most important citizenship is as citizens of heaven, our true and future home. “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the LORD Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20). As Indiana Governor Mike Pence frequently says: “I am a Christian first, an American second and a Republican third.” Is it possible then for us as American Christians in the beginning of the 21st century to accurately view our nation? To see it not for what it was, but instead, for what it has become? To see our nation as God sees it?
In His Word God sees the Daughter of Babylon for what it had been (past tense) and what it will become. He says the nation “had been (past tense) a Golden Cup” in His hand. However, by the time of Revelation 17:4 the Golden Cup is filled with filthiness and abominations. According to scripture, the Daughter of Babylon fills the earth with “immorality,” a word not very politically correct these days.
The common mantra of today is that ‘we can’t legislate morality,’ though, of course, every law is a statement of what that nation’s people believe to be moral or immoral. A nation’s views of moral conduct will show up in its laws.
If we are a nation in God’s view that is responsible for several abominations, we have an obligation to see and understand, with clear eyes, our true condition before God. Our prayer should be for wisdom asking God to show us the “abominations” of our nation in our times. Following are but a few that readily come to mind:
Not content with just ‘birthing’ modern-day abortion on demand, America has taken an active role in pressuring other nations to change their laws to allow abortion on demand. Google any of the nations listed in Chapter 13 that don’t allow abortion by law. The surrounding articles disclose that the Center for Reproductive Law and Policy, headquartered in the U.S., is today involved in inducing those nations to change their laws to allow abortion. What is a New York City based pro-abortion advocacy group doing in other nations lobbying them to repeal their laws against abortion? The Center, which is funded in large part by “grants” from unspecified sources, states on its website that abortion is “a fundamental right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect and fulfill,” promising to “work toward the time when (abortion) is enshrined in law…throughout the world.” It brags on its opening page that it is active in promoting abortion law changes from “the poorest neighborhoods of Rio De Janeiro” to “the mountains of Nepal.” Americans are thus telling foreign lawmakers that they must repeal their laws prohibiting abortion, such as Chile, whose laws have been on the nation’s law books for centuries. Chile continues to refuse to change its laws.
In the first week after becoming President, Barack Obama signed an Executive Order lifting restrictions on the use of American foreign aid dollars sent to other countries for “family planning purposes.” There are now no restrictions on these foreign aid recipients from promoting abortion, using American tax dollars, our tax dollars. America alone among the nations of the world is the only nation sending its treasure, both private funds and public tax dollars, to the other nations of the world, to facilitate and encourage the killing of those nations’ infants. The result? Over one billion abortions worldwide.
What other nation in the world can be said to be the “mother” of the abomination of abortion, more than America? We own the title.
When Lon Chaney's son, Lon Jr., was born, his wife said "Here is Baby Lon!"
Though many other nations, but not all, also allow abortion, it has been America which has led in the abortion movement.
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I believe this to be factually incorrect.
The abortion rate is considerably higher in Russia than it is in the US.
1 Peter 5 is written in present tense, outside of the context of a prophetic vision of the future, but Revelation is not.
We are never going to agree, so there’s no point.
FReegards
Hmm, I just checked, and it was marginally inhabited at that time, but I don’t think “flourishing” is a good description. The city had been almost entire destroyed, with the marketplace and temples burned as recently as 123 BC, and contemporary accounts from Greek writers around that time describe it as “in great part deserted”, with nothing remaining of the city except for one temple and the city walls. Pliny wrote that, besides that one surviving temple, “in all other respects the place has gone back to a desert”.
So there may have been some people living there, but it wasn’t a city, much less a “great city” that could fit any of these prophecies, at least at that time.
I am starting to agree with John Price about fleeing America! The only problem is; where to go?
I believe it's the same way in scripture as well.
pretty sure that city mentioned spiritually as Sodom and Egypt has legalized abortion today,too.
God brought Israel out of Egypt on “Eagles Wings”. He and His angels are the “Eagles”. Many great powers have used the Eagle as their symbol...
Iraq has amazingly become front and center on world stage since 1990. Just like the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi were built-up in less than 10 years, it is not unbelievable that Babylon could be reestablished quickly (See “Footsteps of the Messiah” by Arnold Fructenbaum). However, I could be wrong about physical Babylon and it may be a new spiritual Babylon. Even so, America is not necessarily Babylon.
Here are some of Babylon’s most famous citizens.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtdlrlbAm08
The rate in Russia may be higher (I don’t know that), but it has been America who has pushed it to the whole world—America is the mother of that particular abomination.
Sure, but Babylon wasn’t the capital of any nation at that time, and hasn’t ever been the capital of any nation since then.
Yes it is, though it is more regulated than it is here.
We sit on many waters, we push our culture and abominations out to the rest of the world, we are arrogant, and we are the hammer of the world.
Those sins will not be the cause of our destruction though. Our destruction will come about because we will refuse to assist Israel when the nations are at her border, ready to invade.
Babylon is Rome.
Have you read his book? He recommends seeking out countries that have strict abortion laws and few Muslims. He moved to Chile. I have friends who have moved to Panama, although their Muslim population is over 1 million.
Once you start researching, where do we move?, it’s shocking how few countries will accept immigrants, how strict their requirements are, and if they are places where you could even live and be safe.
I think we probably agree that America isn’t the “Babylon” spoken of in Revelation. I personally think that Revelation identifies that city pretty clearly, but most people don’t seem to like that identification, so I tend to be in the minority in my opinion.
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