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From Babylon to New Jerusalem
by
A T Jones
Part Two
"Mystery" Babylon
(All the emphasis has been added by the Protestors)
Section 2
The Babylon of the Bible -- "Mystery, Babylon" -- is the working of the spiritual and intellectual forces of the natural world. The open, visible Babylon is the product of the working of these forces to the utmost of their power. The Babylon of the Euphrates was the ultimate product of these forces in and unto their fullest and freest working.
And the Babylon of Revelation 17 is the ultimate product of these forces working the second time and finally to their fullest power and widest extent.
The Babylon of the Euphrates is the example of the utmost that these forces can accomplish: and is the lesson of instruction for all times following and especially for the times of the final Babylon. The forces that are the real Babylon never can surpass the Babylon on the Euphrates -- the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar.
There was manifested the utmost of their powers, the limit of worldly ambition, ability, and endeavor. It was "the glory of kingdoms." Isaiah 13:19. It was "the lady of kingdoms." Isaiah 47: 5. It was "the golden city." Isaiah 14:4. It was the golden kingdom of all time. Daniel 2:38-43. It was the wonder of the world, and some of its structures were among the "seven wonders of the world." It was the grand center of the world's science and art and architecture and of all that goes to make up the highest civilization and the grandest expression of worldly glory.
By its power it had conquered the then world, and all kingdoms and peoples were subject to its sway. In its form of government it held and exercised the imperial power and sway, while the respective kingdoms governed freely in their own realm so long as they recognized the imperial power as supreme. Jeremiah 27:11. Any kingdom of people who would not voluntarily submit to the imperial rule of Babylon was conquered and overrun and carried captive and placed in colonies in different parts of the empire. No people or power was allowed to stand, except as subject to the authority of Babylon. 2 Kings 24; Ezekiel 1:1, 3.
The kings of the respective subject kingdoms were required to go to Babylon at stated times where they all had thrones upon which they sat on State occasions in the presence, to the right or the left, of the high throne of the king of Babylon. Jeremiah 52:32. The actual government of Babylon was an autocracy; a government of personal imperial will only [dictatorship], not of any law as such: and it was all-inclusive in its scope and exclusive of every other power. Daniel 3: 13-15.
In the nature of things it was a grand imperial world despotism. It was "the hammer of the whole earth" that "smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke," "the oppressor" -- "the terrible of the nations." Jeremiah 50:23; Isaiah 14:4,6; Ezekiel 30: 10-11.
Its being "the golden city" meant more than only the richness and grandeur of the city. It included the Babylonish greed for gold, and the perpetual exactions by which the greed for gold was fed. For she was peculiarly "the exactress of gold." Isaiah 14:4 margin. No supply of gold was ever enough; and no sight or prospect of gold was ever forgotten, till it could be possessed.
Hezekiah king of Judah was sick unto death, and the Lord restored him. And as a pledge that it should be so, the Lord caused the shadow on the sun-dial to go back ten degrees. The Babylonians being close students of astronomy and observers therein, noted the phenomenon in the motion of the sun: and upon inquiry for the cause learned of the occurrence in Jerusalem. Then the king of Babylon sent an embassy with letters to Hezekiah to congratulate him on his recovery and to inquire concerning the motion of the sun. Hezekiah, feeling himself flattered by such attention from Babylon, spent more time in showing them the wealth and glory of his kingdom and city than in telling them of the wonder of God.
"He showed them all the house of his precious things -- the silver and the gold and spices and the ointments, and all the house of his armour and all that was found in his treasures. There was nothing in his house nor in his treasures that he showed them not."
Then Isaiah came and asked Hezekiah who were the men and what had they seen. Hezekiah told him who the men were and whence they came, and said, "All the things that are in mine house they have seen. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not showed them." Isaiah, understanding the Babylonish trait, replied that the day would come when all of it would "be carried into Babylon, nothing shall be left." Isaiah 39; 2 Chronicles 32:31. And the knowledge of that wealth was kept by the Babylonians more than a hundred years: till they had in very fact carried it all to Babylon.
All of this and all of the more that was the Babylon of old, is pertinent today. For the elements that compose the Babylon of Revelation 17 are altogether in spirit and in principle, and in some things in very form, the same as those of the Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar.
The governmental elements that compose the
combination of wild-beast and wild-woman that is the outstanding
Babylon of Revelation 17, are a universal world-power over the
nations allied with, and dominated by,
a worldly and world-church.
And any International Combine that may be formed, can carry in it the promise and potency of all that was the Babylon of old and that will be the Babylon of this last time. In any Parliament of Nations that may be formed the door is opened and provision is made for the development of world government solely of will not of law; and for the development of a world autocracy, as certainly as one man might become the supreme head of such an International Union.
And in the Church of Rome with its Pope and Cardinals on their high thrones in the papal palace in Rome there is continued the very principle and form of the king of Babylon and his subject kings on their high thrones in the Babylon of old. And the Church of Rome has ever been noted for its manifestation of that great characteristic of the former Babylon -- the insatiable greed for gold.
In the Thirteenth Century, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, in the very presence of Pope Innocent IV, spoke out the truth: "Oh! money, money! how much canst thou effect, especially at the court of Rome."
In the Fourteenth Century the abbot of Usperg denounced the schemes of Pope John XXII for the gathering of money: "Rejoice now, O Vatican! all treasures are open to thee . . . Thou wilt sell God Himself for gold."
In the time of the double Popedom of Boniface IX and Clement VII the doctors of the University of Paris declared of them: "Religion is for them a mine of gold, which they work to the last vein."
And in the Sixteenth Century Duke George of Saxony in the Diet of Worms in denunciation of the guilt and greed of Rome openly declared: "All sense of shame has been cast off, and one thing only is pursued -- money, money."
And so it is yet and ever.
And what "organized" church is there in the world today that is not like the "mother" in this Babylonish greed of gold and in inventions for varied and perpetual exactions of money, money, money, and ever more money, and never can get enough?
Oh! all things are hastening to the ultimate Babylon again, all things are ready and the world is ripe for it: and this time the final Babylon and the final of all that is Babylon and of Babylon forever. Revelation 18:21.
Thank the soon coming Lord.
oooOooo
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