The Babylon market has collapsed all of a sudden. The economic prosperity for which Babylon stood as guarantor is over. There are no more outlets for the products the merchants have been selling very profitably for many years. The world economy has collapsed, whereas everyone has been clamouring for years for more – ‘More, more, we need to see growth figures!’ The ‘stock exchanges’ must break one record after the other! The ‘annual reports’ must show profits, preferably of more than ten percent, and the turnover must go up as well!” Selling ‘cheaper products’ is the motto so that business can compete better. Meanwhile producers care little about the miserable work conditions in Third World countries or the use of child labour there as long as the cheap products continue to roll in. That is just how the ‘free market’ works. But now, with the fall of the Babylon market, the ‘stock exchanges’ collapse worldwide: Wall Street, Tokyo, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong. All share prices are in freefall. Millions become paupers instantly. Those who trusted in the ‘Babylonian system’ are destroyed; there is no more credit to borrow and few jobs to earn money for the future. There will be global famine, verse 8 said.
You are reduced to tears, as a businessman. You trusted the ‘Babylon system’. Perhaps you lived on credit. How are you going to be able to pay your creditors? And the supplies you had stored in Babylon have perhaps been destroyed. How are you going to earn any money in the future? What will you have left to look after your family?
Everything collapses when the economy implodes. The infrastructure collapsed when the communist system fell in Russia. The centrally managed economy, which regulated the whole of the complicated traffic of society, whose plans spanning several years provided the farmers with agricultural machinery, seed for sowing, transport to the processing plants as well as to the markets in the cities, came to a halt. The switchover to competing, private enterprise along the lines of the Western capitalist model was difficult. And sellers in shops had to answer ‘no, not available’ when customers asked for certain products. Belts had to be tightened and vulnerable groups, such as old people and pensioners in particular, became the victims. Yet these were just growth pains on the road to better development for they are in no way comparable to what happens when ‘Babylon’ collapses completely. The fall of Babylon may be a little similar to the collapse of the stock market in New York in the 1920s, and the ensuing unemployment. However, that happened in the USA, a free country, which recovered after a few years.
Now the ‘great city of Babylon’ has gone up in fire and smoke incurring losses to the billions and causing worldwide chaos to a degree never seen before. Men become like animals in the chaos; society descends into anarchy as people plunder, steal, rob, murder and rape. ‘Man will be like a wolf to other men’, causing the society of a civilized world to sink into a pool of hunger, death, diseases, and no drinking water. In such a world, it is every man for himself; no one who can be trusted. If only we had remained faithful to God’s Word and His Laws, for they bring blessings— nationally and internationally. Repent, before Babylon and its destruction become a reality!
• When you read this about ‘Babylon’ you realise how richly blessed we are in our Western culture and countries. Europe grew as a fruit on the tree fed by the roots of Christianity and Judeo-Christian norms and values. It’s true we are not perfect, and we have a sordid colonial history, and many other faults – and by no means we-in-the-‘West’ were truly solid Bible-believing Christians, although from our Western Christian countries we did send many missionaries into the world, to share the Gospel with other nations, peoples and races. But we somehow had ’justice and order’, ‘freedom and prosperity’, social ‘safety nets’, medical care and low unemployment, as fruits of that Judeo-Christian tree
• And we also had the ‘blessing of the Lord’ also because of the presence of Jewish people among us – although many times we treated them very badly.
• Let us try to preserve this valuable heritage carefully and resist the decay that is coming in from all sides. The decay of good morals, of removing the Biblical values from our hearts and minds, from our education systems, from our laws and democratic political systems – and replacing them with vague humanistic values is the beginning of the degeneration of society, and has brought many civilisations down.
• Let us return to God and His Word—personally and together, as churches and nations.
• The ‘Wall Street Crash’ of 1929, also known as the Stock Market Crash of 1929 or the Great Crash, was a major stock market crash that occurred in late October 1929. It started on October 24 (“Black Thursday”) and continued until October 29, 1929 (“Black Tuesday”), when share prices on the New York Stock Exchange collapsed. It was the most devastating stock market crash in the history of the United States, when taking into consideration the full extent and duration of its after effects. The ‘Crash’, which followed the London Stock Exchange’s Crash of September, signalled the beginning of the 12-year Great Depression that affected all Western industrialized countries. A small example of what will happen on a worldwide scale when the ‘Babylon Crash’ will happen in the future.
