Insightful Musings on the Scriptures
by
Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67
Good morning, dear people.
‘Tis the day after Christmas, and all through the house, there is little boy chaos, with me just a mouse. That’s why I’m here in the studio. But now I get a call from Becki who is going nuts—with Thano still not showing himself to help oversee them. So I leave this for over 1.5 hours to cover the chaos bases.
OK—I’m back. 9:35am. The boys have been bathed, clothed, fed, and delivered back to their mommy.
I had the same impressions as before while passing through these readings of Revelation 17 and 18. Why can’t “Babylon” be representative of America? I scanned one article online that identifies “Mystery Babylon” as New York City. The shoe seems to fit quite well. But I think this is where dogma is unsafe. And, insofar as my priority personal status with my Sovereign is concerned, does it really matter?
We’ll leave soon for Dallas to spend some time with Andy and family.
Blessings on your ongoing chaos—I mean, adventure. Don’t you agree that if it were not for the stability that flows from our Biblical faith, our lives could easily become difficult-to-control chaos?
Love and prayers. Dad/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).