Babylon Talk
Kingdom Journey: Day 256
Monday, December 25, 2023
Today’s Reading: Revelation 18
When Michael Bloomberg was still mayor of New York City, he announced he was stepping up his efforts beyond his role as mayor to battle a number of social issues, including fights against smoking and obesity, and for gun control. He detailed his plans in an interview in which he predicted his crusades against those issues would serve him well in the afterlife.
Then billionaire Bloomberg said, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
That is scary talk, Michael Bloomberg. That is Babylon talk.
What is Babylon talk? It’s the prophecy in today’s chapter of the fall of Babylon. But I don’t think Babylon is Babylon at all.
The Revelation 18 Babylon has been the topic of so much eschatological speculation and guessing about who that actually is. I think that is dangerous and usually ends with the wrong assumptions. Scholars have speculated that it could be Rome or the United States. I don’t see either. When people become sure of what the Bible calls mysteries, my antennae go up.
Why? I think Babylon is bigger than a localized and specific name of a city or country. It is a spirit of security that comes from wealth and influence and seeing no need of God for our forgiveness or help in getting to heaven. Fallen Babylon is the fall of humanism and every false foundation it is built upon—from science to affluence and influence, riches, power, and personality. Without God, Babylon will fall and always fail. Here is what John saw of what was considered Babylon the great:
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 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.”
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:1-5)
Babylon was a specific Old Testament place. At one point at the height of her power, Daniel chapter 5 says the king of Babylon saw the finger of a man’s hand write on the wall of his palace a message of judgment that needed someone to interpret. It was during a feast that the image crashed their Babylonian party. It was so frightening that the Bible says it affected King Belshazzar physically: “The king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together” (Daniel 5:6).
Daniel is called to interpret the writing and says basically, “Babylon, your days are numbered and this kingdom is coming to an end.” And the end for them happened that night with the invasion of the Medes and Persians.
The party was over in one night. And now, in Revelation 18, the party is over again. But I don’t think it’s the same city again. I think it has to do with anyone, anything, any country, system, or government that feels no need of heavenly help.
The scary part is that Revelation 18 almost sounds like Daniel’s interpretation from more than 2,500 years earlier. The Revelation Babylon party has a timed ending too. Twice in the chapter, it says, “for in one hour your judgment will come” (verses 10 and 17).
Any system that tries to last without God is simply Babylon, be it a country, a person, a system, or a billionaire. Even if you are the best at these, your sins and forgiveness of them need God.
Let me give a word to those who have Babylon talk and left God out in their lives. Someone said it like this: “There are two ways whereby God punishes sin: the fires of hell and the blood of Jesus. These two things go together: the fires of hell and the blood of Jesus. It’s not a question of whether your sin will be punished, it’s a question of how.” Remember, God always wins. Everyone who pronounces their power over God will fall like Babylon.
In the mid-1700s French humanist Voltaire, at the end of his life, had some Babylon talk. He declared that his writings would displace the Bible and that in one hundred years, the Word of God would be forgotten. You can’t fight God, or you will fall like Babylon. Here is what happened. Twenty-five years after Voltaire’s death, Voltaire’s house became the printing center for the Geneva Bible society, and tens of thousands of Bibles were printed and sent from his house. You can’t mess with God. He always wins. Or, as Allister McGrath said, that many are “trying to exterminate God and finding out that he outlives his pallbearers.”
I wouldn’t spend my time trying to figure out if Babylon is an actual place in the tribulation future. I would spend my time making sure I am trusting in the only thing that can get me to heaven, the blood of Jesus.
Have you heard the story about the rich man who was determined to “take it with him” when he died? He prayed until finally, the Lord gave in. There was one condition; he could bring only one suitcase of his wealth. The rich man decided to fill the case with gold bars that he’d invested in.
The day came when God called him home. One of the angels greeted him but told him he couldn’t bring his suitcase.
“Oh, but I have an agreement with God,” the man explained.
“That’s unusual,” said the archangel. “Mind if I take a look?”
The man opened the suitcase to reveal the shining gold bars. He thought gold would be good everywhere.
The angel was amazed. “Why in the world would you bring pavement with you?”
Revelation 21:21 tells us that gold is the pavement in heaven. Why trust in something that God says has no great value? Our greatest value is the blood of Jesus.
Excerpt from:
Dilena, Tim. The 260 Journey. Colorado Springs, CO, Book Villages, 2001.
260journey.com
When Michael Bloomberg was still mayor of New York City, he announced he was stepping up his efforts beyond his role as mayor to battle a number of social issues, including fights against smoking and obesity, and for gun control. He detailed his plans in an interview in which he predicted his crusades against those issues would serve him well in the afterlife.
Then billionaire Bloomberg said, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”
That is scary talk, Michael Bloomberg. That is Babylon talk.
What is Babylon talk? It’s the prophecy in today’s chapter of the fall of Babylon. But I don’t think Babylon is Babylon at all.
The Revelation 18 Babylon has been the topic of so much eschatological speculation and guessing about who that actually is. I think that is dangerous and usually ends with the wrong assumptions. Scholars have speculated that it could be Rome or the United States. I don’t see either. When people become sure of what the Bible calls mysteries, my antennae go up.
Why? I think Babylon is bigger than a localized and specific name of a city or country. It is a spirit of security that comes from wealth and influence and seeing no need of God for our forgiveness or help in getting to heaven. Fallen Babylon is the fall of humanism and every false foundation it is built upon—from science to affluence and influence, riches, power, and personality. Without God, Babylon will fall and always fail. Here is what John saw of what was considered Babylon the great:
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 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.”
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. (Revelation 18:1-5)
Babylon was a specific Old Testament place. At one point at the height of her power, Daniel chapter 5 says the king of Babylon saw the finger of a man’s hand write on the wall of his palace a message of judgment that needed someone to interpret. It was during a feast that the image crashed their Babylonian party. It was so frightening that the Bible says it affected King Belshazzar physically: “The king’s face grew pale and his thoughts alarmed him, and his hip joints went slack and his knees began knocking together” (Daniel 5:6).
Daniel is called to interpret the writing and says basically, “Babylon, your days are numbered and this kingdom is coming to an end.” And the end for them happened that night with the invasion of the Medes and Persians.
The party was over in one night. And now, in Revelation 18, the party is over again. But I don’t think it’s the same city again. I think it has to do with anyone, anything, any country, system, or government that feels no need of heavenly help.
The scary part is that Revelation 18 almost sounds like Daniel’s interpretation from more than 2,500 years earlier. The Revelation Babylon party has a timed ending too. Twice in the chapter, it says, “for in one hour your judgment will come” (verses 10 and 17).
Any system that tries to last without God is simply Babylon, be it a country, a person, a system, or a billionaire. Even if you are the best at these, your sins and forgiveness of them need God.
Let me give a word to those who have Babylon talk and left God out in their lives. Someone said it like this: “There are two ways whereby God punishes sin: the fires of hell and the blood of Jesus. These two things go together: the fires of hell and the blood of Jesus. It’s not a question of whether your sin will be punished, it’s a question of how.” Remember, God always wins. Everyone who pronounces their power over God will fall like Babylon.
In the mid-1700s French humanist Voltaire, at the end of his life, had some Babylon talk. He declared that his writings would displace the Bible and that in one hundred years, the Word of God would be forgotten. You can’t fight God, or you will fall like Babylon. Here is what happened. Twenty-five years after Voltaire’s death, Voltaire’s house became the printing center for the Geneva Bible society, and tens of thousands of Bibles were printed and sent from his house. You can’t mess with God. He always wins. Or, as Allister McGrath said, that many are “trying to exterminate God and finding out that he outlives his pallbearers.”
I wouldn’t spend my time trying to figure out if Babylon is an actual place in the tribulation future. I would spend my time making sure I am trusting in the only thing that can get me to heaven, the blood of Jesus.
Have you heard the story about the rich man who was determined to “take it with him” when he died? He prayed until finally, the Lord gave in. There was one condition; he could bring only one suitcase of his wealth. The rich man decided to fill the case with gold bars that he’d invested in.
The day came when God called him home. One of the angels greeted him but told him he couldn’t bring his suitcase.
“Oh, but I have an agreement with God,” the man explained.
“That’s unusual,” said the archangel. “Mind if I take a look?”
The man opened the suitcase to reveal the shining gold bars. He thought gold would be good everywhere.
The angel was amazed. “Why in the world would you bring pavement with you?”
Revelation 21:21 tells us that gold is the pavement in heaven. Why trust in something that God says has no great value? Our greatest value is the blood of Jesus.
Excerpt from:
Dilena, Tim. The 260 Journey. Colorado Springs, CO, Book Villages, 2001.
260journey.com
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