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From Babylon to New Jerusalem
by
A T Jones
Part Four
The king of Babylon
(All the emphasis has been added by the Protestors)
Section 4
In these [previous] studies it has been stated that the real Babylon of the Bible is always Mystery, is always the working of the unseen forces -- the spiritual and intellectual forces -- of the natural world: and that the visible Babylon on the Euphrates and in Revelation 17 and 18 -- is each time the culmination of the working of these forces to their uttermost.
In this study, the truth of that view will stand out so plainly that none can fail to see that it is the truth.
This study is of The King of Babylon.
In Isaiah 13 and 14 in "the Burden of Babylon" there is told the Fall of Babylon in both its ancient and its modern and final forms. In the part relating to the final Fall, "the king of Babylon" occupies a large place. That the king of Babylon should have any place in the development and Fall of final Babylon tells that the king of Babylon continues all the time of the Babylon of the Bible, and is there at its final Fall.
In an intensely drawn description of him as he meets the final consequences of his reign --
As "the oppressor;"
As "he who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke;"
As "he that ruled the nations in anger;"
As the one "that made the earth to tremble," and "did shake kingdoms;"
"That made the world a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof;"
And that "did not let his prisoners loose homewards."
In the midst of this lofty strain touching "the king of Babylon," the description bursts all bounds and exclaims,
"How art thou fallen from Heaven O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, ‘I will ascend into Heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the Mount of the Congregation in the uttermost parts of the North, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit."
Isaiah 14:4-17.
And there is the king of the Babylon of the Bible.
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This is confirmed in other connections. While the Babylon on the Euphrates was the sum of all that of the world goes to make up government, kingdom, empire -- power, as "the glory of kingdoms;" and of all that through education and art and fashion could go to form "the lady of kingdoms": there was another city, that fell before the power of Babylon, that in one particular feature carried the palm and illustrated a great truth. This was the city of Tyre that in her day was queen of the world's trade, the mistress of world commerce and of commercialism.
Tyre was "of perfect beauty,"
"The crowning city,"
"The mart of nations,"
"The merchant of the people for many isles,"
"Whose merchants were princes,"
"Whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth;"
"All the ships of the sea with their mariners were in thee to occupy thy merchandise, many isles were the merchandise of thy hand."
Her business supplied a perpetual World's Fair. Read Ezekiel 27 and Isaiah 23. And "the king" of this world commercialism and business pride is described in a "Thus saith the Lord God":
"Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the Garden of God. Every precious stone was thy covering -- the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth, and I have set thee so. Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God. Thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created -- till iniquity was found in thee."
Ezekiel 28:12-15
Thus, of world commerce, of world pride, of world grandeur, of world glory, of world power, of which Babylon is the sum and symbol, Satan is the king. He is the king of the Babylon of the Bible.
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This truth is further confirmed in the story of the final Babylon -- the Babylon of Revelation 17 and 18.
This final Babylon is composed of the wild combine of the wild beast and the wild woman -- of the woman-ridden beast. The throne and the power and the great authority of this beast is given to him by "the dragon." And it is the throne and power and authority of "the dragon" himself, that is thus given. Revelation 13: 2. And the dragon is "that old serpent which is the Devil and Satan." Revelation 12:9; 20:2.
Of that combine of wild beast and wild woman, it is "the woman" that is the inspiring and the controlling, guiding, and ruling, element: for it is she who rides the beast. And so, very probably, it is on her forehead that stands the inscription, that characterizes the whole combine --
"Mystery -- Babylon The Great."
And since it is Satan who is the giver of the throne and power and authority of this woman-ridden combine that is this ultimate Babylon, this again and sufficiently tells that the king of Babylon of the Bible is Satan. When this Babylon is ever "Mystery," and this "the Mystery of Iniquity," then the king of this Babylon is clearly the king of this "Mystery,"
And can not be any other than Satan.
The Babylon of the Bible is the culmination of the working of the spiritual and intellectual forces of the natural world: of what the Scriptures always mean in the phrase "the world," "this world," "this present evil world," of which "the prince" and "the god" is "the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience." James 4:4; 1 John 2: 15-17; John 14: 30; 2 Corinthians 4: 3-4; Ephesians 2: 2; Acts 26: 17-18.
And since these forces are the Satanic, it follows as the certainty of truth that Satan is the king of the Babylon of the Bible.
The next study in this subject will be: Out of Babylon.
oooOooo
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