The Babylonian Captivity and Babylon As A Metaphor

[tulsa 2011]

The Babylonian Captivity and Babylon As A Metaphor In Jeremiah 50-51 and Revelation 17-18

Jeremiah 23: 20-22 says "The anger of the LORD shall not return, until
he have executed, and till he have performed the thoughts of his
heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly.
21.I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to
them, yet they prophesied.
22.But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to
hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings."

"Behold, I am against them that prophesy false dreams, saith the LORD,
and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by
their lightness; yet I sent them not, nor commanded them: therefore
they shall not profit this people at all, saith the LORD." Jeremiah
23: 32 Lightness is Strong's number 6350, which is said to mean
"frivolity, lightness."

The false teachers are not solid in their knowledge, they do not teach
truth. but teach frivolous things. "And they shall turn away their
ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables." II Timothy 4: 4

In the Old Covenant time, the consequence of coming under the
influence of false teachers, and into apostasy, is stated in Jeremiah
25: 4, 7-11, "And the LORD hath sent unto you all his servants the
prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened,
nor inclined your ear to hear."

"Yet ye have not hearkened unto me, saith the LORD; that ye might
provoke me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.
8. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Because ye have not heard my words,
9. Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, saith
the LORD, and Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will
bring them against this land, and against the inhabitants thereof, and
against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them,
and make them an astonishment, and an hissing, and perpetual
desolations.
10. Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth, and the voice
of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride,
the sound of the millstones, and the light of the candle.
11. And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment;
and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.
12. And it shall come to pass, when seventy years are accomplished,
that I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, saith the
LORD, for their iniquity, and the land of the Chaldeans, and will make
it perpetual desolations."

As judgment for falling into false doctrines and practices, physical
Israel was sent into the Babylonian Captivity for seventy years.

Then, Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51 is a metaphoric concept
describing physical Israel in apostasy. Yet many verses in Jeremiah
50 and 51 can be applied to the New Covenant church in apostasy. This is because the apostasy runs twice.

"My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to
go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone
from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace."
Jeremiah 50: 6

"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and
let us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth
unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies." Jeremiah 51: 9

Babylon is physical Israel in false doctrines and false practices.

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be
not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's
vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence." Jeremiah 51: 6

"My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man
his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD." Jeremiah 51: 45

Jeremiah 51: 6 and 51: 45 are repeated in Revelation 18: 4, where the
people of God are warned to depart from the church in apostasy in the
New Covenant timeline, "And I heard another voice from heaven, saying,
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and
that ye receive not of her plagues."

"Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the
earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the
nations are mad." Jeremiah 51: 7

Again, Babylon here is a metaphoric concept and not the historic city
and nation called Babylon; it is physical Israel in apostasy which is
the maddening wine of Babylon.

And again, we find the wine of Babylon making the nations mad in the
New Covenant timeline.

"For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication
with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the
abundance of her delicacies." Revelation 18: 3 But in Revelation 18
the metaphoric concept called Babylon is not limited to the Christian
church in apostasy. It includes the corrupt worldly culture
surrounding the apostate church. Merchants, from the Greek word
emporos, or world traders, are mentioned several times in Revelation
18. Revelation 18: 23 is a very interesting verse, which says "And
the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the
voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all
in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived."

The voice of the bridegroom, which is Christ, is not heard in Babylon,
the apostate church. But then it shifts to talking about the
merchants of Babylon, and ends by saying that by the sorceries of
Babylon were all peoples deceived. Sorceries is from the Greek word
pharmakeia, which is interesting because it brings drugs, including
prescription drugs and medical practices into this metaphoric concept
called Babylon. Pharmakeia as sorcery can also refer to Babylon deceiving
the people.

But why does the Christian community go into another Babylonian captivity after the 19th century and especially after the important period of 1945-1948?

 

[tulsa 2011]

"Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
19. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And
he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah,
Israel, and Jerusalem.
20.And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
21.Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are
the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his
head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the
Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter
it." Zechariah 1: 18-21

A horn is usually a nation, government or a people. These four
"carpenters" are the governments that have scattered the people of
God, here called Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, or those claiming to be
his people who are being scattered by these four horns as judgment.

In Strong's Exhaustive Concordance scattered in Zechariah 1: 21 is
number 2219, zarah, 'to toss about, to diffuse, winnow, cast away,
compass, disperse, fan..."

"And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of
the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto
heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever that it shall be for a
time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to
scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be
finished. And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, O my Lord,
what shall be the end of these things?...Many shall be purified, and
made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of
the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand." Daniel
12: 7-8, 10.

Daniel 12: 7 says that when "he" has accomplished to scatter the power
of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.

In Daniel 12: 7 scatter is from Strong's number 5310, "to dash to
pieces, or scatter, be beaten in sunder, break in pieces, broken,
dash, cause to be discharged, dispersed..."

In Zechariah 1: 19-21, and in Daniel 12: 7, scatter means to destroy,
diminish, break in pieces, cast away or winnow as well as disperse.

Christ says in Luke 11: 23, "He that is not with me is against me: and
he that gathereth not with me scattereth." Gathereth is from
Strong's number 4863, sunago, from 4862, sun, "denoting union," and
from number 71, ago, to lead, bring together. Gathering, as the
opposite of scattering, means to bring into union with Christ.
Scattering would mean the opposite, leading people away from union
with Christ.

If we interpret Zechariah 1: 19-21 by Luke 11: 23, the four horns
scattering Judah, Israel and Jerusalem would not mean causing just a
dispersion of the people of physical Israel. It has a meaning closer
to the "scattering of the power of the holy people" in Daniel 12: 7,
to diminish the spiritual and earthly power of the holy people, and in
a more spiritual sense under the New Covenant, it would mean leading
the people away from union with Jesus Christ.

 

[tulsa 2011]

The four horn empires diminish Judah in the Old Covenant time and
diminish what is now called the Christian church in the new Covenant
timeline. In the Old Covenant time the four horns were Babylon,
Persia, Greece and Rome, and in the New Covenant time they are the
British, Soviet Union (Russian), Nazi German and American-UN empires.
These four horns after the Cross are parallel to the four horns before
the Cross. Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome, diminish Judah, Israel
and Jerusalem before the Cross and The British, Russian, Nazi German
and American-UN empires diminish the Christian community after the
Cross. Earlier the British empire, as well as the American
contributed to the gathering of God's people in the sense of helping
to bring them into union with Christ. But after a point in time, all
four of the post-Cross horns help bring false doctrines to the
Christian community.

The three world empires which defeated Nazi Germany, the leopard
kingdom, met in a historically important meeting in the persons of
Joseph Stalin, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in February
1945 at Yalta. Yalta was the Crimean resort place. So we have the
Bear increasing in its power in 1945, while the British lion is still
a power but not increased. And the American power was increased to
soon become the full fledged fourth diverse beast, or world
superpower. In the period of about 1945 to 1948 important events in
history were the founding of the United Nations, as part of the fourth
beast, the creation of the American national security state by the
National Security Act of 1947, the bringing into the U.S. of former
Nazi intelligence operatives and scientists and finally, the creation
of the the little horn (Daniel 7: 8) state of Israel in 1948.

Revelation 6: 2-8 presents a metaphoric set of four horses and
horsemen, the white horse whose rider has a crown and goes out to
conquer, the red horse, whose rider who takes peace for the earth, the
black horse whose rider holds a set of balances, and finally that
"pale" or chloros horse (green horse) whose rider is Death and Hell
followed after him. "And power was given unto them over the fourth
part of the earth, to kill with the sword, and with hunger,and with
death..."

The quartet of Revelation 6: 2-8 makes sense as being metaphoric
concepts of the same quartet of modern world governments as powers
interpreted to be the British lion, the Russian bear, the Nazi German
Third Reich, and America-United Nations as the fourth beast. Some
justification for this interpretation can be found in Revelation 13: 2
where the first beast is described as being like the leopard,bear and
lion.

The four horses of Revelation 6: 2-8 are also color coded, as the
white colonial power of the British empire, sort of civil and said to
have a man's heart in Daniel 7: 4. The red horse is the Soviet
Marxist system in the form of Bolshevism, but representing something
broader, which could include Transformational Marxism. The black
horse is fascism, in which big corporations and big banks rule through
a totalitarian government under their control. The pale horse, among
other things, represents the mixing of the white, red and black
horses, and don't forget that Death rides the pale horse and Hell
follows close behind him.

 

[tulsa 2011]

In history, since the important period of 1945-1948 the four
horses and riders of Revelation 6: 2-8 have scattered, or diminished
God's people.
During this period
of time, the falling away of II Thessalonians 2: 3 and the leavening
of Luke 13: 18-21 gained momentum. The Christian II Timothy
Church, which is never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, and
resists the truth (II Timothy 3: 7-8) become more evident in this
period. The remnant, mentioned in Revelation 11: 13 and in Revelation
12: 17, having the testimony of Jesus Christ (Revelation 12: 17) are
literally scattered over the world. And as in Daniel 12: 7 the
spiritual and earthy power of the holy people are scattered, which
means the spiritual
power of the II Timothy church is diminished. The salt has lost its savour, as
Matthew 5: 13 says, and the Greek word translated as savour is
moraino. Strong's
says moraino, number 3471, is from moros, number 3474, which means "dull or
stupid,.i.e, heedless, absurd, foolish."

Those in the II Timothy church do not
come to the knowledge of the truth. They are influenced by the
culture of the four post-Cross
horns, and by the diverse fourth beast of Daniel 7: 7, who merges the
traits of the British, Russian and
Nazi German horns.

But there is more to the story of why the Christian community comes
under captivity to a metaphoric concept called
Babylon in the New Covenant timeline. This is the story of the huge
number of false prophets or false teachers invading the community
since the 19th century and since the important period of 1945-1948.

 

[tulsa 2011]

There are Old and New Testament scriptures which show that at a point in the timeline of the New Covenant, a large number of false teachers or false prophets will exist.

The spiritual power of those claiming to be the people of God
has been diminished since 1945-1948 because the worldly culture under
these world empires of Daniel 7 and Revelation 13: 1-2, as well as
from the four horses and riders of
Revelation 6 have become more hostile to the true Gospel. The worldly culture surrounding the Christian community has become more anti-Christian since 1945-1948.

However, this speeding up of the falling away from the truth of II
Thessalonians 2
2: 3-4 in 1945-48, began earlier in the 19th century. As a result of
the influence of humanism - especially that of Hegel (1770-1831) and
Marx (1818-1883) - on Christians and the cultural change as a paradigm
shift in thinking away from a paradigm in which the Word of God is
seen to be absolute truth, many Christians lost their love of the
truth (II Thessalonians 2: 10-12) and zeal to protect the faith and
Gospel of Christ. So, the false teachers of the 19th century and the
cults began to gain more and more Christian followers.

Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), Ellen G. White (1827-1915), Edward Irving
(1792 ?1834), John Darby (1800 -1882), Charles T. Russell (1852-1916),
and and C.I. Scofield (1843 -1921) were some of the major false
teachers of the 19th century who influenced Christians. Remember that the Mormons also began in the 19th century. John Darby
and C.I. Scofield became the most popular of these 19th and early 20th
century figures.

<tbody>
[TD="align: left"]"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." II Thessalonians 2: 3-4

The man of sin is not one individual, but is a metaphoric concept. It could refer to Satan who empowers both the spirit of anti-Christ and the False Prophet concept which represents many false prophets. But the man of sin is expressed in human form.

A number of scriptures teach that there would be a departure from the
truth of the New Testament. II Thessalonians 2: 3-4 is not the only
one of these texts. And Matthew 24: 11 and I John 4: 1 are plain
scriptures which say that many false prophets will arise. So, it was
not only the four horns of Zechariah 1: 18-21, or the four horses and
riders of Revelation 6: 2-8 and the first beast of Revelation 13: 2,
the leopard, the bear and the lion kingdoms merged, which caused
Israel reborn in Christ to fall into apostasy. It was also the army
of false teachers which took over the organized Christian community.
These false teachers got their start in the 19th century, but gained
much momentum at the time of the end of World War II, the start of the
national security state (1947) and the creation of the Little Horn
nation in the Middle East.

Other New Testament scriptures showing that the Christian
community will depart from the truth are Luke 13: 21, I Timothy 4: 1,
II Timothy 3: 13, II Timothy 3: 1-8, and II Timothy 4: 4. II Timothy
3: 1-8 is on the II Timothy church, which is said to be unable to come to
the knowledge of the truth, and resists the truth (II Timothy 3: 7-8).

In Daniel 8: 23 the "transgressors" who are said to come to the full,
or the height of their influence, is from the Hebrew word pasha, 6586
in Strong's, which is said to mean "to break away, from just
authority, i.e, trespass, apostatize, quarrel, offend, rebel, revolt,
transgress." In the shift of the paradigm of thinking from the
absolute authority of God, and from absolute truth and absolute
morality to a shifting paradigm of the dialectic of Hegel and Marx
(and Freud) there is in the Christian church as influenced by the
surrounding worldly culture, a break away from just authority, a
rebellion, and many quarrels in which the dialectic process is used
to argue against the absolute authority of God in scripture.

I John 4: 3 says "And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world."

Matthew 24: 11 says "And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many." I John 4: 1 tells us that " Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."

In Revelation 20: 10 "And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."

There are scriptures which write about an army of false teacher s. Daniel 8:12 says an host, like an army, casts the truth to the ground. Joel 2: 7-10 calls the metaphoric locusts which attack the vine and fig tree an army of horsemen and in Joel 2: 20 they are described as the Northern Army. Then in Revelation 9: 16 a huge army of horsemen are described. In Revelation 9: 18 a third part of men or of man is killed by the fire, smoke and brimstone which comes out of the mouths of this army of horsemen. That a third part of man is killed by what comes out of their mouths is a clue indicating this is heavily metaphoric, and the killing is not physical death, but here a killing of man's spirit, his spirituality by what is said by this huge army of false teachers.

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