Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, special people.
Twas the morning after Christmas, and in the family room, we heard the two little boys playing, without even a boom. No fighting, no fussing, only one little clash. For Thano to buy Legos was sure worth the cash!
Anyway—I had to wonder again if the interpretation of Revelation 18 fits a prophetic description of America. I expanded my wonder this time by entering a little Google search—“Revelation 18 America.” Wow! Try it for yourself and see what happens.
However we form our views of the future, I don’t see how there can be much valid argument against the general thesis that things cannot go on indefinitely as they are! Mankind is no closer to utopia than he ever was! We have to be near the edge of global crises on a level never before possible. But rather than get all gloomy about it, it’s time to get excited, because if all this Bible stuff is true, our redemption is drawing nigh—and Biblical truth will be absolutely vindicated as true.
Have a great day—while you resist the temptation to resist thinking about this stuff—and become even a little dulled in where and in Whom your security rests.
Love—Ray.
I’ve already affirmed that I am not much of a scholar relative to the interpretation and unraveling of this book of Revelation. But the question that arises within me as I read Revelation 17 and 18 again is, “Why can’t ‘Babylon the Great’ be a prophetic description of America?” I could get carried away with my impressions and reasoning. I might just suggest that AMERICA RULES THE WORLD—not politically or administratively—but America, via Hollywood and the media, has profoundly impacted the entire world morally and ideologically way beyond any other nation in human history that I know of. By means of spectacular audio-video technology, that influence has worked like a “magic spell” (18:23). In that sense the description of Revelation 17:2 seems to fit—“With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.” The same idea is repeated more than once within these two chapters (17:18: 18:3, 9). Consider too the speed of her destruction—a description that could not take place by means of ancient warfare. “One hour” (18:10, 17, 19) is now very feasible by means of modern nuclear technology.
In view of the total and horrific destruction promised concerning “Babylon the Great,” the most important practical warning is that the true people of God “come out of her.” The "her," if not America in particular, would at least be the corrupt world system in general with her advancing anti-God orientation. That, I’m sure, does not require a physical evacuation, but a worldview and spiritual abandonment and separation. Complying with that requires extreme caution against contamination, compromise, and neutralization so that we do not experience the fate of the boiled frog that was cooked to death so slow by gradual heat increases that he didn’t even know what was happening.
It helps me to reduce things to their simplest form, so here are a couple of simple determinations that can serve as a basic recipe for our doing the future:
- Determine what and who you choose to believe—that is, determine TRUTH. To be sure, that should be bigger than popular thought or our subjective personal opinions.
- Determine and resolve to live your life according to that basic belief whatever the cost—letting things fall where they will.
In real and practical terms, this is FAITH. And, “the just shall live by faith” (Galatians 3:11).