What Really is Babylon?

And I saw another angel flying in midheaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he said with a loud voice, "Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters." And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality." (Revelation 14:6-8)

The conviction is beginning to emerge that the call to come out of Babylon has far greater meaning and implications than most have ever imagined. As I have been paying close attention and taking notes and trying to assimilate the deeper concepts in some presentations by a researcher of ancient civilization, I am starting to realize that Babylon involves far more than simply worshiping on the wrong day of the week or subscribing to wrong doctrines as I have been taught all my life. I now see that this can potentially be terribly self-serving interpretations of prophecy that completely miss the much greater warning in all the passages related to Babylon.

As I say, I am only just beginning to perceive the enormity of what this means so there is far more that I don't see than what I do at this point. But as my mind applies what I have been learning to real life situations, I suddenly see its practical application quite literally everywhere. The phrase, “Babylon is a system of thinking” is far more powerful and deeper than just having a wrong set of doctrines. It is the whole basis on which we found our thinking, our logic and all of our relationships. It is the Bible's code word for the antithesis of the Kingdom of Heaven as displayed in the life and teachings of Jesus. It is the very sum and substance of what we hail as civilization and progress in our world and society.

Babylon in God's eyes represents the whole system of living that we take for granted based on the three foundations of Economics, Law and Kingship that all emerged from the earliest cultures in Mesopotamia. This apparatus now completely encompasses every aspect and detail of life on this planet and completely skews our perception of reality. We really do not have a correct concept of the real meaning of the warnings that we sometimes quote about the difference between being a real Christian and our old way of living. But God's ways really are not a modification or improvement of the old ways but a radically, revolutionary, completely separate way of thinking and living. We usually apply this primarily in the “spiritual” realm of religion but fail to see its far more pervasive applications to every aspect of our perceptions of reality. In reality there is no separation between religion and secular – our life is our life and our spirit is involved in every aspect of our life. The distinctions between secular and religious are all part of the Babylonian way of discriminating.

Our idea of religion has become so infected with the basic principles of Babylon that it is like a wheat field full of weeds mingled all throughout completely entangled at the root level. It is impossible to pick through and pull up the weeds of Babylonian thought without damaging the good wheat and that job must be left to the angels. But Jesus gave a stronger metaphor when He said that you simply can't patch an old garment with new material or put new wine into old wineskins. He stated emphatically that new wine must only go into new wineskins.

We are fast coming to that point in history. The system of Babylon has hopelessly infected all religion beyond restoration or reformation. Reforms have been attempted by many throughout history with varied degrees of success and I do not discount them. But the final solution I believe will be different in important aspects, some of which still remain hidden from us. In the final events of earth there will be a polarization and a complete separation as those who cling to the roots of fear will be drawn inexorably deeper into the deceptions of Babylon while those who follow their heart attracted by the beauty of the real truth about God and His ways will find themselves expelled forcibly from the structures of civilization in this world.

The results will be shocking at the very least. It will become more obvious that the makeup of those who are truly following the Spirit and are drawn out of Babylon are often many who are least suspected to be spiritual by those who consider themselves most religious. At the same time, the majority of those who themselves have championed their assumed knowledge of truth and may have even spent their life energetically promoting the message to come out of Babylon, but who failed to perceive that the spirit with which they worked was actually in harmony with Babylon, will be baffled and confused by a sudden turn of events. Sadly, many of them will be found protesting to Jesus, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?' Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.' (Matthew 7:22-23 NRSV)

It is not just important but it is a life and death crisis if we do not understand at the heart level as well as the head what the real meaning of Babylon is. What I am starting to realize is that everything that grew out of literal Babylon and that now makes up all of civilization as we know it is suspect at best and defilingly deceptive on average. That means that the whole legal model of thinking and relating to one another is Babylonian thinking. That means that the whole system of economics and all the artificial value and exchange system that permeates every aspect of our lives is Babylonian living. That means that all relationships that have any element of comparison or value based on anything other than equality and unity, honor and humility in the body of Christ is Babylonian relationships. Babylon is all about power and control – that is the obsessive center of focus for those who live in Babylon.

After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined 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." (Revelation 18:1-3)

Babylonian living means viewing anyone else better or worse than yourself. Babylonian living means feeling low self-worth and not believing the inestimable value that God has for every individual. Babylonian living means feeling better or worse than others in any way. Babylonian life is the whole structure of human designed authority, all the power structures in politics, commerce and religion.

Babylonian living is believing that things and people can be artificially valued and compared and subsequently inflated or deflated according to the whims of society. The whole idea of economics, money, real estate, ownership, capitalism, greed, selfishness etc. is all Babylonian through and through. That is why it is revealed in Revelation that those who come out of Babylon in the end will not be able to buy or sell unless they receive the mark of the beast. Because the beast is the power of Babylon and if you don't want to participate with the spirit of the beast you are not welcome to participate in the activities within that system. Instead of being afraid of not being able to buy or sell we should be rejoicing that we will finally be outside the oppressive, deceptive system of life that has held us in fear and bondage for all of our days. It will actually be another step toward final liberation for us, not a restriction.

Babylonian thinking also involves all the system of law and legal thinking that has been the most pervasive element of Babylon to permeate religion in my opinion. The reason we struggle so much with legalism and all its terrible effects on our spiritual lives is because we have been deceived by the enemy of truth to think that God operates His Kingdom under the rule of law just like we do on earth. This is possibly one of the most subtle deceptions that is most difficult to address and it raises the most violent and fierce antagonism from those who benefit most from its structures.

The whole Babylonian system of law is artificial in nature and is a counterfeit of the reality seen in God's true kingdom. It is based on arbitrary rules designed to fix any problems in the system of economics and reinforce the structures of discrimination among people. To work properly, it has to have added incentives in the way of arbitrary punishments. But that is not enough to make it really effective and so a massive organization of enforcers has to be put into place to impose the artificial punishments on anyone neglecting or refusing to live within this whole artificial system of life.

God's last call as seen in the mighty angels of Revelation is to come out of Babylon. If we allow our minds to really take hold of the implications of this call and begin to understand the bigger view of what is meant by Babylon we will either shudder with horror and then immediately go into denial or we will see a glimmer of the freedom that God is inviting us into by joining His family and becoming real children of the Most High.

Babylon is the whole structure of thinking and living as we know it on this earth. It is based on fear, force and deception and most of all control. It is massive, pervasive and unavoidable. To choose to leave Babylon is to risk losing everything we are familiar with and depend on for survival. It is far more radical than almost anyone dares to talk about publicly because it challenges all of our assumptions. But we are quickly moving toward a point in history where we will all be forced to decide between depending on Babylon and those around us for life or whether we will place all our bets on the Creator God who invites us into a completely different system of living totally separated from Babylonian thinking in every aspect.

To live in Babylon is to live in the external world and base our view of reality on the externals.

To live in God's family is to live from the heart and be led by the Spirit of God.

To relate to others in Babylon is to measure and compare ourselves with each other and treat people according to their position or esteemed value based on performance or roles.

To relate to others is God's system is to realize that every person is infinitely valuable in God's family and that all are created equally important. It is to treat others without any distinctions or discrimination of any type knowing that we are all brothers and sisters, co-partners in the grace of Jesus Christ.

To succeed in Babylon a person measures life and values things according to the benefit they can personally derive from them. They seek to manipulate the system and others though economic leveraging to improve their personal sense of worth and their relative position of wealth as determined by the artificial measurements of money.

To participate in the kingdom of God one must die to self and to the Babylonian way of living and be born again into a radically different way of thinking and relating to other beings. They depend on God alone to provide for their needs based on His promises to do so, trusting Him as a kind, caring Father to protect and provide for His cherished children. They live in a spirit of selfless service filled with the kindness and compassion and love that they receive from their own loving Parent in heaven.

Flee from the midst of Babylon, And each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, For this is the LORD'S time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her. Babylon has been a golden cup in the hand of the LORD, Intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; Therefore the nations are going mad. Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken; Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain; Perhaps she may be healed. We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, For her judgment has reached to heaven And towers up to the very skies. The LORD has brought about our vindication; Come and let us recount in Zion The work of the LORD our God! (Jeremiah 51:6-10)