{"id":910,"date":"2018-03-22T06:10:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T14:10:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=910"},"modified":"2018-03-22T06:10:39","modified_gmt":"2018-03-22T14:10:39","slug":"devotion-revelation-148-babylon-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/?p=910","title":{"rendered":"Devotion Revelation 14:8 Babylon Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"
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    Revelation 14:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0A second angel followed and said, \u201c\u2018Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great,\u2019\u00a0which made all the nations drink the maddening wine of her adulteries.\u201d<\/p>\n

    What is Babylon?\u00a0 Or who is Babylon?\u00a0 To be sure there are many different beliefs.\u00a0 Pastor Byron MacDonald, Senior Pastor of Rolling Hills Covenant Church in CA, author of The Morning Comes And Also The Night, best expressed a controversial revelation of Babylon.\u00a0 His view may be too hard for some to believe or grasp, but for others, when reading his point of view, it will be an \u201cOh yeah, of course, that all fits together\u201d moment.\u00a0 His view cannot be fully explained in what I send out in the mornings.\u00a0 I suggest that you get the book and read it for yourself.\u00a0 Here is an attempt is made to give a brief explanation.\u00a0 Pastor MacDonald writes that the coming great Babylon is made of three key players.\u00a0 They are all called Babylon and are three distinct players, yet separate players.\u00a0 One is from the political world, another from the religious world, and one from the economic world. The political and religious parts are easy to identify as they are the Antichrist and the False Prophet.\u00a0 The third member may also be spotted if one is willing and has an eye willing to see.\u00a0 As the Word says that knowledge in the last days will be increased (Daniel 12:4<\/b>) so this revelation was a mystery that could only be understood as the Lord uncovered it.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

    When I first came to the Lord and began reading the prophecies concerning the End Days, and listening to and reading the popular end time prophecy expounders who mostly said the same thing, there is one thing I would always wonder about.\u00a0 Where is the United States of America?\u00a0 Where is the strongest and most wealthy country?\u00a0 The prophecies concerning End Times are global and that being so, what role does the USA play?\u00a0 Some have surmised that the Lord would use the USA to defeat those nations that come against Israel.\u00a0 Since I had no other explanation, and it made me proud to think the USA would be used for the righteous cause of saving Israel, I accepted this explanation.\u00a0 Still, there was nothing in the Word that said that was true, it seems it was mostly just other Americans ascribing this destiny to the USA.\u00a0 I accepted this explanation for about twenty years.\u00a0 Then as I was looking again at the scriptures my view began to change.\u00a0 It seemed to me that the USA would not be the great hero-to-the-rescue, but perhaps the opposite.\u00a0 It seemed to me that the description of Babylon seemed an apt description of the USA.\u00a0 For a time I kept that to myself.\u00a0 I heard of no-one, none of the people who were famous for expounding end time prophecies, saying this.\u00a0 Still, I could not shake the thought that they were all missing something very big.\u00a0 Could the USA be the Babylon the Great of\u00a0Revelation 18:2<\/b>?<\/p>\n

    When I read Pastor Byron MacDonald\u2019s book (see above) he put the pieces together.\u00a0 Looking afresh at the scriptures, I became confident that what Pastor Byron saw in the scriptures was true. As the USA is looked at as what it is, and what it is increasingly becoming (at an alarming rate), we realize that it is no longer what it was.\u00a0 It is understood that Americans tend to look with rose colored glasses at the past of the United States.\u00a0 Looking into its past, history finds it has tragedy hidden in its closets.\u00a0 As all nations do.\u00a0 Still, it has also done much good.\u00a0 It has expressed great kindness.\u00a0 It has sent out missionaries to the world to spread the Gospel of Christ.\u00a0 It has helped much of the world when it was in need.\u00a0 Though the USA has evil in its past, we must never forget that it has a history of overwhelming good.\u00a0 However, the moral compass of the USA has changed for the worse.\u00a0 While most of the USA still believes in God, most of the USA no longer believes that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God.\u00a0 Even the members of many \u201cChristian\u201d churches don\u2019t believe in the basic tenets of Christianity, such as the Jesus being fully God and fully man, the Virgin Birth, and the Resurrection of Jesus.\u00a0 The enemy has substituted lies for the truth about the founding of our country.\u00a0 The USA (a newer nation) is following the same path as its allies in Europe.\u00a0 They are turning from the strict adhering to the Bible and thusly the number of Christian churches in their countries is in sharp decline.\u00a0 In fact what were once full and powerful churches there are now fast becoming places of worship for their fastest rising religion, Islam.\u00a0\u00a0Galatians 6:7<\/b>\u00a0comes alive \u201cDo not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.\u00a0 A man reaps what sows.\u201d\u00a0 In Europe when the Bible became inerrant, when the populace began to believe the thoughts of man instead of the Word of God, and when it began to think that man could replace the righteousness of God with the \u201cevolving\u201d righteousness of man, it began to crumble.\u00a0 Family, they didn\u2019t open their eyes, and except for the saints who will not compromise, they still do not.\u00a0 Likewise this is increasingly becoming the fate of the USA.\u00a0 Europe is further along in the fall of the church, but they are much older nations.\u00a0 The USA is following the same pattern as they.\u00a0 The USA has not been a great nation because of great men, it has been a great nation because the majority had kept a faith in the Lord.\u00a0 It has been a great nation for one reason and one reason only: God has blessed it.\u00a0 It would seem that the Bible believing and Christ loving and following Christians are now in sharp decline, and likely are now a minority in the USA.\u00a0 Let\u2019s take a closer look at what the Word of God says about the third element of Babylon in the last days, the commercial Babylon.<\/p>\n

    Chapter 18 of Revelation gives key descriptions about the commercial (economic\/financial) Babylon.\u00a0\u00a0V23c<\/b>\u00a0states \u201cYour merchants were the world\u2019s important people.\u201d\u00a0 Certainly the United States is referred to as the \u201cland of opportunity and freedom.\u201d\u00a0 People from all over the world have struggled and strived to get to the prosperous USA.\u00a0 They still do.\u00a0 Right after \u201c9-11\u201d I took a cab home from the Airport.\u00a0 The taxi driver was of middle-eastern descent.\u00a0 Although not comfortable at first, he began to talk to me about the attack.\u00a0 I asked him why the Arab nations are so angry with the USA.\u00a0 He told me that it is because the USA is so rich and doesn\u2019t help out all the poor and desperate of their nations.\u00a0 Without getting into the arguments against what he said, it does reveal that they think of the USA as a prosperous nation. The USA is certainly the business powerhouse of the world.\u00a0 There have been recent times when that was slipping, but recent news show its commercial power rebounding with enthusiastic energy.\u00a0\u00a0Verse 23c<\/b>\u00a0can easily be seen to be speaking of the USA.<\/p>\n

    V7a<\/b>\u00a0reveals the wealth and opulence of this Babylon \u201c\u2026as the glory and luxury she gave herself\u2026\u201d\u00a0 It is said that even the poor (perhaps excluding the most extremely destitute) of the United States live like kings compared to people of third world countries.\u00a0 We all see on television the pleas to help these people who don\u2019t have clean water, food to eat, or a home to live in.\u00a0 Most Americans, when compared to much of the world, live very \u201chigh on the hog.\u201d<\/p>\n

    V7b<\/b>\u00a0\u201cIn her heart she boasts, \u2018I sit enthroned as queen.\u00a0 I am not a widow; I will never mourn.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 The USA believes that it sits above other nations and will never fall.\u00a0 Americans are proud.\u00a0 There are very few Americans who can accept that the USA will not remain to be the great country of the world.\u00a0 They, we, tend to think that the USA will always be great.\u00a0 But in that thinking is the error that it is the people of the United States that make it great.\u00a0 Family, that was never so.\u00a0 The USA has been great because of God blessing it.\u00a0 The Lord God blessed this country and kept it and that is the only reason it has been great.\u00a0 As it turns away from God and enacts immoral laws (that begin in immoral hearts) the USA should certainly expect God to withdraw His blessings and let the consequences of its decision to reject God fall upon it.<\/p>\n

    V11<\/b>\u00a0describes the merchants of the earth weeping and mourning after the fall of \u201cmighty city of Babylon.\u201d (Remembering that countries are often know by their capitals.)\u00a0 Imagine what happens if the USA is destroyed.\u00a0 The destruction of the USA would have a devastating effect on the world economy.\u00a0 All commerce with the USA would cease.\u00a0 It will destroy the world economy.\u00a0 The destruction of no other country would affect the world economy as much should it be destroyed.<\/p>\n

    We will continue reviewing scriptures concerning End Times Babylon.\u00a0 Certainly the evidence of the USA being this Babylon is building.\u00a0 Family, I take no pleasure in thinking so.\u00a0 Yet, we must follow where the Word leads us. It is true that we need to examine our loyalties.\u00a0 Although we love our country and although we are proud to be citizens of the USA (even with all her imperfections), our loyalties must first and always be to God.\u00a0 Though our country is infected by moral decay, God is the same yesterday, today and always (Hebrews 13:8<\/b>).\u00a0 God does not change (Malachi 3:6<\/b>).\u00a0 Man thinks he is evolving when actually he is descending.\u00a0 This is a worldwide plague of the spirits of mankind.\u00a0 The plague is the Antichrist spirit (1 John 4:3<\/b>).\u00a0 Yet, though the world declines spiritually, we who belong to Jesus grow spiritually.\u00a0 We are daily being transformed by God.\u00a0 That being so, it illustrates the great importance that we, with the Holy Spirit within, let our lights shine (Matthew 5:16<\/b>) and that we live out being the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13<\/b>).\u00a0 We do that through our love of God and by loving all of mankind with the deep true love that the Lord loves them.\u00a0 We are found to be His if we love (1 John 4:8<\/b>).\u00a0 Let us love one another (John 13:35<\/b>) and the world as God loves (John 3:16<\/b>).\u00a0 Let us let Jesus be glorified by His light shining through us.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

    Psalm 150:6<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.\u00a0 Praise the Lord!<\/p>\n

    Micah 7:7<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0But as for me, I watch\u00a0in hope\u00a0for the\u00a0Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

    Micah 6:8<\/b>\u00a0–\u00a0He has shown You, O man, what\u00a0is\u00a0good; And what does the\u00a0Lord\u00a0require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.<\/p>\n

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