p. 7 | BABYLON ITS CHARACTER by C. M. Snow

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Nov 8, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 45.

BABYLON ITS CHARACTER

By C. M. Snow

By C. M. Snow

The Nature of Her Apostasy

FROM remotest times Babylon was the seat of nature worship, manifesting itself in most repulsive rituals and ceremonies. Contrary to the inspired record of creation, Babylon taught that all existence was an emanation of Deity; that all life, animal and vegetable, partook of the divine substance. She confounded the creature with the Creator, and her teachings transformed the Deity into a kind of god-world, whose manifestations were to be found in all the phenomena of nature.

With that belief and those teachings she fabricated a host of idols, and served them, and taught their service to the nations of the world. To such an extent did Babylon carry this iniquitous practice that the prophet of Jehovah declared of that land, "It is a land of graven images, and they are mad over idols." Jer. 50:38. Again the prophet says of her:

"Behold, the days come, saith Jehovah, that I will execute judgment upon her graven images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan. Tho Babylon should mount up to heaven, and tho she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me shall destroyers come unto her, saith Jehovah." Jer. 51:52, 53.

To what does the Lord refer in the words, "Tho Babylon should mount up to heaven"? The instigator of the whole Babylonian system once had his seat in heaven. Satan it was who first brought confusion into the universe of God. He sought to overthrow the government of God, to usurp God's place and prerogatives. This is what the Word of God says of this "king of Babylon:"

"How art thou fallen from heaven, O daystar [Lucifer], son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou saidst in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I will sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." Isa. 14:12-14.

Self-Exaltation

In this boast of Lucifer there is no thought or intimation of loyalty to God or dependence upon the Creator. The whole idea is an insurrectionary one—rebellion against the existing order, a purpose to set up a throne and government of his own in the place of the government of God, self-salvation. The dissemination of these ideas and the consequent disaffection of a host of the angels broke, for the first time, the order and harmony of heaven. That marked the origin of Babylon, confusion.

It is reasonable to suppose that Satan's mission among men would be identical with his mission among the angels. The history of nations and the record of God's Word proves this to have been the case. Satan's first work in Eden was to induce men to attempt to be like God; and thus he instituted confusion there.

A "Gate of God"

In the faithless posterity of sensual Ham, Satan found fertile soil for the propagation of his Heaven-defying purpose. These sons of Ham and of Nimrod decided to undertake a work that would insure their own salvation. They would build a mighty tower that would save them from the destructive power of any flood that Jehovah might bring upon them. They would build a tower that would reach to heaven, and then they would become the gate-keepers to heaven for all the rest of the world.

That is what the name they gave their tower signified. All the world would then flow to their city, the very key to the heavens, and they would be exalted above all the world. (Babylon of to-day claims to be the gate-keeper of heaven, carrying the keys.)

They began the tower, and they named it Bab-ili, the gate of God. But the completion of their presumptuous work God did not permit. They had been one people, and so one in purpose. They spoke the same language. God said, "Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So Jehovah scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city." Gen. 11:7, 8. What they named Bab-ili, God named Babel, confusion. There was more in it than the mere confusion of speech. Babylon's dogma of self-salvation was in itself confusion. It was opposed to God and His truth; it was another system designed to supplant the true worship of Jehovah; it was a system of rebellion against God, for it was propagated in image worship, which was contrary to the law of God. Confusion it was, and wherever it went it carried confusion and disobedience with it, and men began to look to their own deeds for salvation, and to attribute to the Creator the attributes of their own carnal hearts.

Babylon's Teaching

The confounded speech was the secret of their scattering; and yet they did not all leave Babylon. Later that city became the great commercial emporium of the East. Babylon occupied the position of a great spider, sitting in the center of a mighty web of highways which led to all parts of Asia, and to Africa and India. She manufactured cloths of richest colors in fine linen, wool, and silk; she dealt in spices and ointments, gold, silver, and precious stones, wines, and fine flour. Her wares were hawked to the ends of the earth, and princes came to her storehouses to purchase for themselves and their retinues.

Sitting thus in the mart of the nations, great Babylon taught them the religion of self-salvation; taught them to look to idols for the help which no one but God could give; taught them to trust in their own works to appease the wrath of the offended gods. The building of the tower of Babel was the outgrowth of the character of the men who built it. That self-righteous characteristic, that assumption of the power of self-salvation, has worked itself out along different lines in different countries; but the principle is the same in all its manifestations. Buddha learned it, sitting in austere contemplation of himself under the Bo tree; monks and nuns have practised it in the seclusion of the cloisters; men have followed those teachings on bleeding knees, scourging their backs with withes and cruel knouts, or have sought to drive sin out of their mortal bodies by sleeping on beds of spikes or standing between fires. All of this was germinant in the teachings of Babylon of old and of spiritual Babylon of to-day; and all is alike contrary to the law of God and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Perpetuation of Babylonian Error

Babylon of old fell under the direct judgment of God; but, before she fell, the call went forth to God's people, "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; be not cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of Jehovah's vengeance; He will render unto her a recompense." Jer. 51:6. Babylon went down; but the principles of Babylon's religion persisted in the nations she had taught—even in the nations that overthrew her. Every false religion of earth has been founded upon that Babel principle—self-righteousness and self-salvation.

Spiritual Babylon to-day sits upon her throne in the seven-hilled city, 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 claims possession of the keys to the gates 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. Her worshipers bow down to images and pictures of saints, and perform painful or arduous tasks to cleanse their souls from sin, while her priests take to themselves authority belonging only to God, the authority to grant forgiveness for sin. The cities of ancient Babylonia 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. The Word declares of the head of that system that he should oppose and exalt himself "against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God." 2 Thess. 2:4. Ancient Babylon oppressed the people of God, even to the death; spiritual Babylon, God declares, is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." Rev. 17:6.

This is the character of Babylon, persistent, unchanging; and all her history has been spelling out her name, Confusion. As Babylon of old fell, so will spiritual Babylon fall. "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit." Rev. 18:2. As God called His people out of ancient Babylon (Jer. 51:6), so does He now call them out of spiritual Babylon. "I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, My people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." Rev. 18:4. God said of ancient Babylon: "The heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come unto her." Jer. 51:48. And so He says concerning the end of spiritual Babylon: "Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye saints, and ye apostles, and ye prophets; for God hath judged your judgment on her." Rev. 18:20.

The end of Babylon's history is the end of the history of all sin and all confusion in the universe of God. No wonder the heavens and the earth are called upon to celebrate that grand consummation.