Origin and Meaning of Babylon
By Charles M. Snow
THE origin of Babylon was entirely outside the purpose of God. It was conceived in selfishness and brought forth in sin. If we wish to carry its origin back to its primal cause, we must look for it in the insurrection of Lucifer and his disloyal legions in heaven itself. Babylon means confusion. Satan instituted confusion in heaven when he instigated rebellion against its government, and sought to exalt his "throne above the stars of God," and be "like the Most High." Isa. 14:12-14. Exaltation of self and distrust of God were the two germs out of which grew Babylon—both the Babylon that was created in heaven and cast out of it (Eze. 28:16), and the Babylon that was set up in this earth by that same wicked spirit that kept not his "first estate." The Babylon of Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar seems to have been the chief builder of the ancient city of Babylon. Concerning his part in its construction, he said, as he looked over its wonderful palaces, its hanging gardens, its colonnaded streets, and its mighty walls: "Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the kingdom, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?" Dan. 4:30. Nebuchadnezzar was thinking only of his own glory, his own pleasure, his own exaltation. That was the same spirit that had actuated Satan in heaven; and as God cast that spirit out of heaven, so He cast this king out of his rulership until he should learn the lesson of his humiliation. The beginning of earthly Babylon was back of Nebuchadnezzar, however. The world had been destroyed by a flood. God had promised that the water should not again cover the earth. The people distrusted Him, even tho they saw the bow of His covenant in the clouds. They must guard against the destruction of the world's inhabitants by another flood in spite of God's promise that there never would be another. Here is their reason for doing so: "And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." Gen. 11:4. They Built a City Instead.
God had given directions to the descendants of Noah that they should go forth upon the earth and people it. But they said, We will build us a city and a tower here, "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth." In other words, they would defy Heaven, and make such an arrangement that God's express purpose could not be carried out thru them. Not only that, but they would build a tower that would reach into the very heaven itself and enable them to reach heaven by their own efforts without regard to the design of God, and in spite of Him. That is why they named their great tower Bab-il, or Bab-iln, the gate of God. Having in their control the very gate to heaven,—the "keys of the kingdom,"—the people would refuse to scatter abroad upon the whole earth, and the greatness of the city and the name of the nation would be assured. Surely he who holds the keys to the gate of God holds the destiny of the people in his hands. Satan Wished to Be Gatekeeper.
But with all this God was not well pleased. Satan had conspired to control the kingdom of God and put himself between the creature and the Creator, and he had been cast out as a "profane and wicked prince." Now he inspires man to aspire to the position of gatekeeper on the road from earth to heaven, admitting and refusing whom he would, assuming to dictate even to Heaven itself, and placing himself between man and his Maker. This tragedy on the plain of Shinar (Genesis 11) had in it all the cunning ingenuity of the arch-deceiver; but God would not be thwarted in His purpose to people the earth. One word of His, dropped in that sea of people that surged around the base of Bab-iln, sent forth concentric waves of stammering people to the borders of the earth. They turned their backs upon their monument of defiance, and went out to subdue the wilderness and the desert, and to wage a battle for bread with the rocks, the thistles, and the thorns. Like Adam and Eve, they had found that to disbelieve God is to court sorrow and wed hardship and death. The cohorts of Michael had hurled Satan and his hosts out of heaven; the flaming sword of the angel had fenced Adam and Eve out of Eden; and a jibbering speech now drove the descendants of Noah away from the fancied gate of heaven which their calloused shoulders and horny hands had reared to the sky. What they named "the gate of God," God Himself denominated "confusion," and smote and shivered its head with His thunderbolts. Should not this be enough to teach men that God will not permit any being to stand between Him and His creatures; that there is but one gate and that is Jesus Christ, "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"? The Propaganda of Confusion.
But men have not learned this lesson yet. The descendants of the Babel builders went out into all the earth, carrying with them the doctrines taught around their tower. So in every part of the earth the propaganda of confusion has been carried on, and men have been seeking to save themselves by works which they might do—building little towers of their own by which to climb the skies or scale the walls of the eternal city. So men have undertaken works of penance that they might wipe the record of their sin off the books of heaven, forgetting that "there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." The Babel teaching has given us works of penance, absolution, purgatory, and "the keys of the kingdom," and so we find a great religious body denominated in the Bible "Babylon," confusion. A terrible name is given her—written upon her forehead—"Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth." She has carried on her work of sin and confusion with the utmost cruelty so that Inspiration could say of her, "I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Rev. 17:5, 6. She has not been content with self-salvation, but has insisted that salvation must be by her formula, and has carried her insistence to the point of demanding and taking the lives of those who preferred to seek salvation in God's appointed way. That has brought in confusion of the darkest kind. They who claimed to be the representatives of God on earth have sought to change the very constitution of God's government, turning wrong into right, and substituting human ordinances for those Divinity had established. Where Spiritual Babylon Originated.
The Babylon of the spiritual world had its origin in the Babylon of the temporal world; for spiritual Babylon to-day sits upon her throne and teaches a religion of penances to purge away sin, and traffics in the souls of men (Rev. 18:11-13). Babylon of old sought to make herself mistress of the very gates of heaven; spiritual Babylon to-day claims possession of the keys to the gate of heaven—claims power to open and shut heaven. Babylon of old reveled in a host of idols; spiritual Babylon fills her sanctuaries with them, and her votaries bow down to images and pictures of saints and perform painful and arduous tasks to cleanse their souls from sin. The cities of ancient Babylon had their patron saints; the cities of those countries dominated by spiritual Babylon have theirs. Ancient Babylon mocked Heaven with her infractions of the law of God; spiritual Babylon claims the right and authority to change that law itself, and of the wrong to make right. Ancient Babylon oppressed the people of God even to the death; spiritual Babylon has written her history in the blood of "heretics." All this that has grown up in spiritual Babylon was germinant in Babylon of old, and all is alike contrary to the law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.