There is great joy and rejoicing in heaven when the material and religious Babylon is judged and fallen, and much Hallelujah is being released in the universe when God judges this evil consummation of all that Satan has done and is doing in the universe! Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!
And once God judges the religious Babylon first and then the material (or political) Babylon, this city will never be restored or rebuilt; rather, the New Jerusalem will be consummated, and God can carry out His eternal economy through His redeemed, regenerated, transformed, and glorified elect!
God hates Babylon and wants to utterly eradicate what it stands for.
The city or empire of Babylon may not be here outwardly, and there’s no country on earth called Babylon or city called Babel, but the principle of Babylon is here, and Satan is working in man and with man until there will be the great Babylon in its religious and material aspect, which will rise up in open rebellion against God.
The principle of Babylon is mixing the things of man with the word of God, and mixing the things of the flesh with the things of the Spirit.
The great Babylon has the material or political aspect, and also the religious aspect.
We may not be that much involved with the material or political aspect (and we should NOT be involved with it), but what about the religious mixture, confusion, and scattering?
If we look around us in Christianity, even though we see the word of God there together with so many things related to the worship of God, we also see a lot of evil things, much confusion, and a lot of mixture.
Even more, the Roman Catholic Church has a large reach and is involved not only with religious things (such as the churches, the bishops, etc) but also with the educational system (there are many very good Catholic schools and universities) and with the political system (the Pope is involved and has something to say concerning the political situation and the rulers around the world).
And in all the denominations around the world there are so many genuine believers, well-meaning seeking ones, and Christians who love God and read His word; however, the word of God is mixed with the word of man, and the things of the Spirit are mixed with the things of the flesh.
Where can you go and see the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ? Where can you see all the members functioning in their measure, having no “pastor” or leader who directs everything?
Where is there just a group of people who are called out and who follow the Lamb wherever He goes, and who are open to fellowship with all the believers in their locality under no other name but just being the church?
Self-exaltation is prevailing in Christianity, confusion is everywhere, all believers are scattered and divided, and there is much mixture of the divine things with the human things and the natural practices.
This is the principle of Babylon operating in Christianity today, and God would NOT try to heal Babylon but rather, He will allow Babylon the great to consummate and come into being, and He calls out to all His seeking ones to COME OUT OF HER.
Then, He will destroy the material and religious Babylon and He will consummate and bring in the New Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, God will Judge and Destroy the Material and Religious Babylon! Praise the Lord!
According to the book of Revelation, the restored Roman Empire is called Babylon the Great (Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17:5; 18:2).
The consummation of all that Satan has been doing, is doing, and will do on earth in man and through man is Babylon the Great, which has two aspects: a political or material aspect (seen in Rev. 18) and a religious aspect (seen in Rev. 17).
The political or material aspect of Babylon the great includes especially the matter of material things and the trade and commerce upon the earth (Rev. 18:9-19).
This is taking place right in front of our eyes today; there used to be a time that trading and commerce took place mainly inside a country, and crossing borders was quite difficult and lots of taxes were applied.
But today, as we approach the end times, the political situation of the world is not communistic but rather, there is a lot of international trade – not merely natural commerce – and commerce (including ecommerce) is thriving.
The whole world has become one large marketplace, and websites such as amazon, ebay, alibaba, and others, make it easy for anyone from almost any country to order and receive products from almost any country in the world.
And all men love this, for the convenience of having your own store, selling your own stuff online and shipping them worldwide, and being known everywhere with your brand and your products has never been easier.
Even more, the influence of Roman politics is seen everywhere; most of the present governments were adopted based on Roman law and Roman administration.
Modern government is built upon Roman principles of law and government.
The entire earth has been Romanized in this matter, and also in the matter of the religion, for the Roman Catholic Church is prominent in many nations, and the pope has a high political standing.
If we look everywhere on earth, the whole world is under the influence of the Roman law, politics, commerce, and religion, and the consummation is that Babylon the Great is coming into being.
Especially as we approach the end of this age, the Roman Empire will be restored and strengthened (most likely in Europe) and it will produce its last Caesar, Antichrist, who will be the man of lawlessness (Rev. 17:9-11; 2 Thes. 2:3-4, 8).
He will be very powerful and will rise himself above all men, even demanding others to worship him. God will use Antichrist and the ten kings under him to destroy the religious Babylon, the Roman Catholic church, right at the beginning of the great tribulation, as seen in Rev. 17:16.
The beast (Antichrist) and the ten horns (the ten kings of the revived and restored Roman Empire) will make the religious Babylon desolate, will persecute it, destroy her, rob her of her riches, and expose her; they will kill her members, and the will annihilate her altogether.
This is how God will destroy the religious Babylon. Then, at the end of the tribulation, Christ will come down from the heavens together with His overcomers as the armies, and He will fight against Antichrist directly, and He will defeat him and cast him alive into the lake of fire (Rev. 19).
Satan has instigated man by deceiving and corrupting man from the time of Babel to fight and rebel against God, and this rebellion will intensify until Antichrist and all rebellious men will fight directly against Christ at Armageddon.
The rebellion and evil we see happening around us today will gradually and incrementally intensify until man will follow Antichrist – the embodiment of Satan – to fight in open rebellion against God at Armageddon. Oh Lord!
But praise the Lord, Christ with His overcomers (which we hope and yearn to be a part of) will come and destroy the Antichrist with his armies, and He will judge and utterly destroy Babylon the great in its material and political aspect.
When Christ defeats Antichrist, the entire Roman Empire will be destroyed, and all the Roman things will be removed and cleared away from the earth. Hallelujah!
The fall of religious Babylon will take place at the beginning of the great tribulation (Rev. 17:16-17), and the fall of material Babylon will take place at the end of the great tribulation (Rev. 18:2, 21).
And then, in Rev. 19:1-4 we see a wonderful universal praise to God for the fall of the religious and material Babylon, in particular of the religious Babylon!
In God’s eyes the religious Babylon is more hateful than the material Babylon, and all angelic beings and the people of God will shout Hallelujah! when God judges and utterly destroys religious Babylon!
The whole heaven will break out with Hallelujah, for when the material and religious Babylon is judged, God’s economy can be completed!
Lord, we praise You for You will come in to judge and utterly destroy the material and religious Babylon, and the New Jerusalem will come in as the consummation of God’s economy! Hallelujah for the divine revelation in the word of God that God will use Antichrist to destroy religious Babylon, and Christ with His overcomers will return to defeat and anihilate Antichrist together with the entire material and political Babylon! Amen, Lord, we stand on Your side; expose, judge, and destroy anything of the material and religious Babylon in us, and produce us as Your overcomers, Your overcoming army who will return with You to defeat and destroy Antichrist with his armies at Armageddon! Hallelujah, God will destroy Babylon and the New Jerusalem will come in!
Babylon the Great will be Destroyed and Never return, and the New Jerusalem will be brought in!
In his prophecy concerning the judgement and punishment of the nations, Jeremiah starts with Egypt and ends with Babylon.
Furthermore, both Isaiah and Jeremiah prophesied that once Babylon has been destroyed, it will not be restored (Isa. 14:22-23; Jer. 50:39; 51:62).
God will judge Babylon to such an extent that nothing of Babylon will remain in the universe. Hallelujah!
When God destroyed both the religious and the political Babylon at the end of the age, when both the material and religious Babylon will be destroyed, that will be the end of the judgement on Babylon prophesied in Jer. 50-51.
And that will also be the end of God’s judgement on all the nations!
God will destroy Babylon the great and remove it from the earth; He will cast it into the lake of fire, and the New Jerusalem will be brought in to be the prominent center of God’s eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth (Rev. 11:15; 21:2, 10-11).
As the Bible clearly shows us, there are two prominent cities – Babylon and Jerusalem – developing and consummating throughout the ages.
These two cities can be seen from Genesis, through Jeremiah, and all the way to Revelation. In the Old Testament we see in the book of Jeremiah how Babylon came to destroy Jerusalem and make her a ruin and desolation.
Then, at the end of the Bible, in the book of Revelation, we see Babylon the Great and the New Jerusalem.
Babylon the Great will be destroyed, removed from the earth, and cast into the lake of fire, and the New Jerusalem will be brought in to be the center of God’s eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth. Hallelujah!
We need to realize that, even though the judgement of Babylon will be taking place sometime in the future, and God will destroy the material and religious Babylon, yet today we need to cooperate with God to judge any Babylonian element in us.
The spiritual judgement of Babylon needs to be exercised by us and in us today; we need to judge Babylon, the religious Babylon, having no sympathy or room to accommodate today’s babylonish system.
We need to receive the Lord’s mercy to judge any element of the world with its livelihood and enjoyment, and repudiate and judge any mixture, confusion, and division of Babylon in our being and in the church life.
May the Lord have mercy on us to keep us pure in His recovery, as we are approaching the end of this age; may we be the Lord’s pure and bright bride with no mixture, confusion, delusion, or compromise.
May the Lord use this particular word to inoculate us, preserve us, and root out from within us and from among us any element of Egypt and of Babylon, so that we may live in the world but not be part of it, and we may be preserved and prepared as the pure loving bride of Christ!
Being in the church life in the Lord’s recovery does not guarantee that we will be part of the bride of Christ; we do have the best opportunity and environment to be produced as the bride of Christ, but we need to cooperate with God, on the negative side, to judge anything of religion, confusion, mixture, and division, and fully open to the Lord to enjoy Him as our life and our everything.
Amen, may the Lord have a way in His recovery to purify us and prepare us as the pure loving bride of Christ!
Lord, we give ourselves to You to be cleansed and purified from any element of the world and of religion. Prepare us as Your bride with no mixture, confusion, self-exaltation, and division. Save us from living a life of compromise, a life of hypocrisy, and a life of mixture and confusion. Root out from us and from among us any love for the world with its livelihood and enjoyment, and eliminate any religion from us so that we may be preserved and prepared as a pure loving bride for CHrist! Amen, Lord, we open to Your shining so that You may expose and judge anything that is not of the New Jerusalem in us. Produce us as Your overcomers, Your pure and loving bride, for You to gain Your overcoming bride that will return with You to defeat Antichrist and destroy Babylon the great for the consummation of the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by James Lee for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Jeremiah, pp. 248-250 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization Study of Jeremiah and Lamentations, week 9, God’s Judgment upon Egypt and Babylon.
- Hymns on this topic:
– To Jerusalem we’ve come, / We are through with Babylon, / We have gathered to be one, / O glory be to God! / Of the teachings we’re bereft, / All opinions we have left, / Spirit from the soul is cleft, / In the local churches now. (Hymns #1251)
– We have found the local church, our home; / We are home and home indeed! / Nevermore in Babylon we roam; / In the church is all we need. (Hymns #1153)
– Oh, but brothers, sisters, listen to another mighty voice, / “Babylon is fallen, fallen”—what a reason to rejoice! / O how blest that coming out from her was our eternal choice— / The victory is won! / Now behold the greatest wonder—New Jerusalem descend! / She’s the building of the Triune God with man—a perfect blend! / She’s the Bride, prepared, adorned for Christ—of all God’s work, the end! / The victory is won! (Hymns #1101)
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