The ‘cup of passion of the wine of Babylon’ evolves into the ‘cup of the wine of God’s wrath’. No one escapes it. Whether or not to go along with the world of the anti-Christ(s) is and always will be an individual decision – that has to be made. If you go along with such systems, imbibe their philosophies and ideologies, adopt their new morals and attitude to life, and participate in their economic systems by voluntarily receiving the mark on your forehead and your hand, with head, hand and heart, you will also have to drink the wine of God’s wrath. ‘Wir haben es nicht gewuẞt’—we did not know—many Germans said after the Second World War. With such a reasoning, they push the guilt entirely to Hitler and the little clique around him. Yet, in the book, Hitler’s Willing Executioners, Daniel Jonah Goldhagen shows how the vast majority of the German population was guilty and went along with the Nazi propaganda, and was prepared to perpetrate unbelievable atrocities personally. However the circumstances, this always is your own free choice, your own decision, for which you are personally responsible. The ‘dragon’, the ‘beast’ and the ‘false prophet’, the demonic inspiration by the ‘powers of darkness’ in the background, are the spiritual sources of the spiritual and physical temptations. But adopting these trains of thought, these state philosophies and ideologies, this new morality, and the use and abuse of their new registrations of your personal lives in their computer systems – it still is your own choice and responsibility.
You decide for yourself whether or not you go along with all this. The Law of Moses says not to follow the crowd in doing wrong, “Do not follow the majority when they do wrong or when they give testimony that perverts justice.”1 A small minority says: no. The great majority will say: yes. And that small minority has to endure much, as did the ‘Bekennende Kirche’, the Confessing Church, during the Nazi period in Germany. Inspired by the Swiss theologian, Karl Barth and others, German pastors and priests, Roman Catholic clergy and Lutheran ministers who refused to swear the oath to Hitler eventually ended up in the concentration camps, where they died, together with the Jews and many other Christians. One of the best known among them is Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose splendid book ‘Widerstand und Ergebung’—Resistance and Submission—has deeply moved many.
The first angel spoke of God the Judge; the second angel of ‘Babylon’ that was sentenced and convicted to death and destruction – the spiritual and the political leadership; the third angel speaks to those who are condemned along with them, the ‘ordinary’ people, everyone personally. And ‘the wine of His wrath’, His anger is unadulterated—not mixed, not diluted with water. His wrath is no longer tempered by His mercy, grace and compassion. Babylon’s fall makes an end to her power and authority in the history of man. The plans and schemes and diabolical systems cease to exist. They come to an end. But God’s wrath over the people who were responsible lasts forever, for all eternity. The cup of His wrath must be drunk to its very dregs.2
‘Babylon’ also became the symbolic name for ‘Rome’. It stood as a model for the world-encompassing system of absolute power and idolatry. Peter sends greetings to the believers from Rome, which he calls ‘Babylon’.3 And ‘Babylon’ is advancing in our time—in every field of life. Let us prayerfully remain uninfected by it,4 until He comes!
• It appeared that there were plans in Iraq to rebuild Babylon. The dictator Saddam Hussein, who fired rockets on Israel in the 1991 Gulf War, and who believed himself to be a new Nebuchadnezzar, wanted to do so – to increase his glory.
• Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was President of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. He was executed on 30 December 2006. So his attempts to rebuild Babylon failed. Even if that were ever to happen – and there are plans today to rebuild Babylon – much more is involved here than literal Babylon in Iraq, the heart of the earlier Babylonian Empire. ‘Babylon’ stands model for a ‘system’.
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer (4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German pastor, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity’s role in the secular world have become widely influential, and his book ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ has been described as a modern classic. Apart from his theological writings, Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler’s euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews.
• He was arrested in April 1943 by the Gestapo and imprisoned at Tegel prison for one and a half years. Later, he was transferred to a Nazi concentration camp. After being accused of being associated with the July 20 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler, he was quickly tried, along with other accused plotters, including former members of the Abwehr (the German Military Intelligence Office), and then executed by hanging on 9 April 1945 as the Nazi regime was collapsing.
Bible References:
1.Exodus 23:2 (Good News Translation, GNT) 2.Psalm 75:8 3.1 Peter 5:13 4.Romans 16:19; Ephesians 5:27; Philippians 2:15; Colossians 1:22; James 1:27
