THE terms "Babel," "Babylon"—two different forms of the same word—mean "confusion." It is God's designation of man's attempt to save himself, of man's perversion of God's way.
The originator of it all is Lucifer, once a day-star of God, but who, in his exaltation, became instead of light-bringer, as his name indicated, the bringer of confusion into the kingdom of God. Therefore is he called "king of Babylon." Isa. 14:4, 12-14.
It goes without saying that wherever sin is there is confusion; and confusion has existed in this world ever since man sinned. But the origin of Babylon in this world in organized form dates from Nimrod. Then, as with Lucifer, was the organized attempt to exalt the creature above the Creator.
It came about on this wise: In the beginning man was told to multiply and fill the earth. Gen. 1: 28-31. They evidently did this, but went on in their selfish sinning till finally God destroyed that world, or cosmos, and swept from the earth every human organization. To those saved in the ark, God again gave the command to multiply, spread abroad, and fill the earth.
Men conferred together and said: "Come, 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." Read the account in the eleventh chapter of Genesis. It not only left God out of the question, but it was a defiance of His purpose concerning them. In other words, it was man's way of salvation set against God's way. It was glory to man instead of glory to God.
To show their estimate of their plan of salvation, they called that tower and city Bab-il, meaning "the gate of God." And they impressed the name on their thoroly burned bricks. They would save themselves from a future flood, that God promised would not come.
In the language of men, God "came down," "looked" upon the impious attempt, and called it what it actually and inevitably was, Babel, meaning "confusion." They called it what they hoped it would be.
And that is God's name for every such attempt of man to save himself or thwart the divine plan, or to pervert God's plan, from that time forth forevermore; and the confounding of tongues which followed that first attempt was the index of its inward working.
That attempt and the great city and empire of Babylon which followed became the typical generic head, the spiritual ethnological mother of all later attempts to "amend" (pervert) God's plan, frustrate God's purpose, set up a different standard from that of God's.
It may be safely affirmed that every false system of religion the world has known found its origin in that Babylonian apostasy, and may be traced in germ back to it. Every dead, cold, human creed is a different effort to divert or retard and so divide the religious world, and multiply confusion, worse confounded. All such creeds are diametrically opposed to the prayer of Christ, who prayed that His disciples might be one, even as He and His Father are one; and that this might be, they were to be sanctified, set apart, not by the theories or the creeds of men, but by the truth of the word of God. John 17: 17-19.
In Babylon, the political, the social, the educational, the religious world, stands to-day, divided as to principle, as to sentiment, as to standards, honoring men, fearing men, worshiping men, but ignoring God and His standards.
Take the religious world. There is absolutely no union as regards the inspiration, the integrity, the authority of God's word. There is no agreement regarding the binding character of His law, its immutability, its perpetuity. Some professedly hold to its integrity and admit change without one word of divine authority. Others believe in the abolition of the moral law of the universe and in a God requiring changeable character.
As regards the second coming of Christ, the immortality or non-immortality of man, the resurrection, the millennium, the atonement, and various other vital doctrines, there is great diversity of view. Confusion reigns supreme. Babylon is the fitting term—used by divine inspiration, used frequently by men at the present day.
To heal these divisions, to bring order out of chaos, unity out of diversity, and an orderly army out of warring factions, is the object of God's message in Rev. 14: 6-12, the positive part of which is found in verses 6 and 7 as follows:
"And I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, having eternal good tidings to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and unto4every nation and tribe and tongue and people; and he saith with a great voice, Fear God, and give Him glory; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters." Rev. 14: 6, 7.
Note the important features of that message:
1. It is the message of the everlasting Gospel—good tidings. It is the one Gospel not after men.
2. It is sent to all the world—to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people.
3. It calls from the fear of man which "bringeth a snare," to the reverence of God, a thing wofully wanting in all circles.
4. It demands that glory should be given to God, not to man; to the Mighty One, not to the creatures which perish. Men are lauded and honored and glorified while God and His infinity are forgotten.
5. It is the closing proclamation of that Gospel; for it bears the burden of an impending judgment—"the hour of His judgment IS COME." Paul preached the Gospel and a judgment "to come" (Acts 24: 25), of a day in which God "will judge the world" (Acts 17: 31). But the last proclamation brings us to the judgment itself, God's judgment. Men can not evade His judgment, pack the jury, postpone the sentence, or corrupt the Judge. The rule of His judgment is His law, spoken with His own voice from heaven. Eccl. 12: 13, 14; James 2: 8-12. Men may set it aside now; but the heaven shall declare His righteousness then, and all faces shall pale at His presence. He would write that law in our hearts now, that we may have boldness in the judgment.
6. It calls men back to God's worship, the highest, truest form of which is service. Said Jesus, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." "If ye love Me, keep My commandments," declares He who was one with the Father. Turn from the worship, the self-serving, the human slavery, to the worship; the service, of the living God who made heaven and earth, the Creator and Redeemer.
The rejection of that message means that the disease which afflicts Babylon will persist to her downfall and destruction. Sadly the Lord declares, "We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed." And then follows moral fall and fornication with political power, out of which comes logically the beast and his image and the enforcement of the mark of his authority. The fornication of Babylon is sadly recorded by the message, but the warning against the beast and his image and the reception of his mark is heralded world-wide, and is awful in its import.
That message warns and saves against all which is contrary to the class it envelopes: "Here is the patience of the saints; here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus."
That is unity, the unity of the apostolic church, unity in the eternal truth of God's word, the unity for which Christ prayed, the unity which will be ready to meet Him when He comes.
Reader, in that soon-coming day, where will you stand—with Babylon devoted to destruction, or with the saints of God who reign, immortal, forever?