http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5xYnBghap4
Hearing this song on my iPod brought back a memorable sermon heard way back in the seventies! It was a prophetic message, preached by a dearly loved mentor/pastor, John Ratzlaff. (I believe he was basing his teaching on a prophetic book he had read, but I can't remember this source.)
The essence of Rev Ratzlaff's message is that Babylon, as portrayed in Revelation 18 & 19, can be interpreted today as the world of international business.
The original meaning of course, the way the Revelator's message would have been understood by his readers, is that Babylon was Rome. Throughout history, readers of these Biblical words would have interpreted Babylon as whichever oppressive regime they happened to find themselves under. These are words of hope for every generation of Christians for 2000 years! In the seventies, in the USA, it was easy to see Babylon as referring to Washington, to the US military/industrial complex, etc. The US was just coming out of the Vietnam fiasco, and we were trying to deal with that.
John Ratzlaff comes along and says, no, the USA as Babylon is too limited. In today's world the oppression and dominance comes from more than just the USA. There are powers at work in our world which are beyond any one government, beyond any one country. These powers are best described as international business corporations, unaccountable to any one country. They are beyond the controls and limits any national government may want to impose.
Can anyone tell me anything has changed in the last 30 - 35 years?!!! It appears to me that the dominance of international finance has increased hugely. It has become more overt, less hidden than it might have been three decades ago. There is more awareness and discussion of this trend than ever before.
Another "Babylon" thread: During the last few years I have become more aware of the power-behind-thrones of our world. Through books, articles and radio interviews, I have heard of groups of powerful people (mostly men) like the Tri-Lateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and The Bilderberg group. These are the ones who pull the strings, who control governments, who make global decisions, who manipulate events in order to consolidate their dominance of the world. It is not difficult to sympathize with conspiracy theorists who speculate that these power-mongers deliberately created last fall's global financial meltdown as a means to further consolidate their power.
Another thread: Last winter I joined a small group working their way through a study of Daniel in the Bible. This study was led by Beth Moore, in a series of videos. She began every video with a little talk about walking the halls and streets of Babylon. Daniel, of course, is full of Babylon imagery.
I really think Beth Moore was onto something. I don't think she fully understood the depths to which we are living in Babylon; her take on it was along the lines that our obsession with consumerism is Babylon. I am saying that Babylon is a much more perverse, all-encompassing power seeking outright world dominance.
To summarize: I believe that these powerful figures behind the scenes who are seeking world dominance are repeating the Genesis 11 scene. They are building a tower. In Genesis, of course, it is portrayed as a physical tower of bricks and mortar, usually called the "Tower of Babel". In the 21st century I believe that the "Tower of Babel" is financial and political.
The world players seek to consolidate power in a few. They seek to control the direction the entire world goes. In so doing they are setting themselves up for power in direct opposition to the desires of our Creator, the Source of all power. They are swiftly moving the world into a position of defiance of this Source. And I also believe that as in Genesis 11, Source will not allow this to go on forever. A showdown looms!
We, as people of Spirit, are called to participate in this contest of wills. Will we respond to this call of increasing spiritual awareness, of a growing sense of membership in God's kingdom? Will we seek first God's kingdom, trusting that he will provide us with our needs? Will we cease worrying about tomorrow trusting that Source knows what we need?
Or will we take the other side, resisting attacks on "Babylon"? Will we support financial growth-without-restraint, ignoring ecological care? Babylon says economy first, environment second. Babylon says use all our resources as quickly as we can, make as much money as we can while the making is good. Babylon sees us as consumers, and wants to keep us compliant through fear of the future. Babylon does not want us to have any hope that things can change. "Yes we can!" is certainly not a slogan of Babylon!
We are living in Babylon; I have no doubt. But we are children of a different kingdom. We can live without fear; we can live in love and trust.
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