The Fall of Babylon

2006-8-5 06:33:00

The Fall of Babylon

And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, having great power; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:1-2

The angel was so bright that "the earth was lightened with his glory."

This tells us that the lower personality (the earth) is going to be faced with such a display of higher light and truth that it cannot be denied or ignored. That message that faces the carnal self is the great whore of "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen..." "Fallen" comes from the Greek PIPTO which is in the Aorist tense which does not have an English equivalent. It can refer to either past tense as is translated here or it could indicate an ongoing happening. In other words, it could indicate that Babylon was falling in the days of John and is still falling.

There are two falls of Babylon to consider here. The first occurs within the life of the individual disciple. This is a sure interpretation that will eventually happen to each pilgrim upon the path. He finds that he needs money for a number of legitimate reasons. Among them are to be happy, to feed and cloth himself and his loved ones, and even to be of effective service to God and humanity.

To obtain this money he often has to prostitute himself and perform labors that he does not like, may require some dishonesty or may even contribute to enslavement of others or an unfair wage. For a long period of time he may justify himself and tell himself it is worth betraying his inner impulses for the greater good. After all, money is essential is it not?

Eventually the disciple discovers that he cannot be a true spiritual servant of the Christ and be a prostitute at the same time. Often with misplaced idealism he will reject money altogether and take some sort of vow of poverty. This does not free him from the Beast however and sooner or later he must find the proper balance. When he does, the prostitute in him "falls" and he goes forth with a new vision and determination to earn all his money with total honesty, harmlessness and in a way that benefits the whole. He will have no desire to accumulate wealth for the lower self but to dedicate what he has to building the kingdom of God.

The outward interpretation tells us of a fall that the world itself will have in connection with money. The socialist idealism of the world sees money, the free market and capitalism as a great evil and is fighting to destroy it. Eventually the money systems of the world will fall, but this will not yet free us from the Beast. For a time we will be under its control more than ever as it seeks to force goodness and equality down our throats.

As Babylon is falling we are told that it becomes "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird."

"Devils" here comes from DAIMON, which can be interpreted to mean a false god or an inferior being taking the place of God. In the "fallen" view of money, where it is prostituted, it indeed becomes a false God, even to the bearing of a man's image on its face and to forcing many to work for it with greater zeal than they work in the service of God and humanity.

"...and the hold of every foul spirit..." "Hold" comes from PHULAKE, which more literally means "prison".

To have to labor for money at a job that runs contrary to the individual's soul is like being in a prison and puts many in a "foul" mood or spirit.

"...of every unclean and hateful bird." The unclean birds are like vultures that wait for other competitive lives to die so they can eat their corpses.

We have heard that business is a "dog eat dog" world and there is a lot of truth in this. Many business people are like vultures in that they will rejoice in the death of a competitor (or even cause it) and pounce upon its corpse and consume its assets. This they often do with no regard to those who have lost their jobs and will suffer.

Someday this will end and for a time, under a more socialist system things will get worse, but eventually a new cooperative system will arise where service to the whole is the prime directive rather than profit at any cost.

Global Warming Enlightenment: The 1975, April 28th edition of Newsweek ran a story on the dangers of Global cooling. They warned: There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production- with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. The regions destined to feel its impact are the great wheat-producing lands of Canada and the U.S.S.R. in the North, along with a number of marginally self-sufficient tropical areas - parts of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indochina and Indonesia - where the growing season is dependent upon the rains brought by the monsoon. Climatologists are pessimistic that political leaders will take any positive action to compensate for the climatic change, or even to allay its effects. They concede that some of the more spectacular solutions proposed, such as melting the Arctic ice cap by covering it with black soot or diverting arctic rivers, might create problems far greater than those they solve. But the scientists see few signs that government leaders anywhere are even prepared to take the simple measures of stockpiling food or of introducing the variables of climatic uncertainty into economic projections of future food supplies. The longer the planners delay, the more difficult will they find it to cope with climatic change once the results become grim reality.
http://denisdutton.com/cooling_world.htm