We are heading for Babylon, and the fall.

One of the things I keep on saying here is to not be the elite, not like them. Those who consider a marriage that which you get in your late 30s, once passion is spent, and when you need to secure alliances and education for your children. Those who preach licence but practice restraint. For the elite of this world sit on the throne of Babylon, so do not do what they preach, but how most of them act.

Most of them. For the damage from liberal parenting is a cancer, and it affected the poor, and now is affecting the elite. The elite generally, and this is starting to break down, delay first intercourse, marry later, stay married, raise children, educate them, and use the functional partnership and support two people bring together to increase the emotional and financial wealth within the family. They use the nuclear family model because it works.

But we are heading for Babylon, and the fall.

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice,

“Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!
She has become a dwelling place for demons,
a haunt for every unclean spirit,
a haunt for every unclean bird,
a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.
For all nations have drunk
the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,
and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.”

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,

“Come out of her, my people,
lest you take part in her sins,
lest you share in her plagues;
for her sins are heaped high as heaven,
and God has remembered her iniquities.
Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,
and repay her double for her deeds;
mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.
As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,
so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,
since in her heart she says,
‘I sit as a queen,
I am no widow,
and mourning I shall never see.’
For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,
death and mourning and famine,
and she will be burned up with fire;
for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.”

And the kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality and lived in luxury with her, will weep and wail over her when they see the smoke of her burning. They will stand far off, in fear of her torment, and say,

“Alas! Alas! You great city,
you mighty city, Babylon!
For in a single hour your judgment has come.”

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

“The fruit for which your soul longed
has gone from you,
and all your delicacies and your splendors
are lost to you,
never to be found again!”

(Revelation 18:1-14 ESV)

We are clearly to separate ourselves from Babylon. So we need to know what the the qualities of this place, so we know when to leave, and when we are to remain.

• Babylon is wealthy. Or it appears to be wealthy. It imports many goods. The merchants of the world use it as their marketplace. It does not make, it pays others to make for it. It outsources.
• Babylon is sexually perverse. I think the text about sexual immorality is to be taken literally. The people of Babylon do not stick to marriage vows: one wonders if they make them. The metaphorical idea that they corrupt the rulers of the age by exporting their agenda to other parts of the world is clearly seen at present with the USA diplomatic corp advocating homosexuality and being deeply hurt when a nation (be it Russia, or Uganda) rejects these ideas.
• Babylon is culturally powerful and hegemonic. Immorality is not merely sexual. The corruption of Babylon has pervaded the world.
• Babylon considers itself secure. There is a denial of mortality, of aging: particularly among women, who tell themselves they will never be poor or a widow. They will always be able to snare a man. They will always be provided for. There will be no grieving, no mourning.
• Babylon trades slaves. I used to think that this was a metaphor, for slavery is past. I do not consider that any more: with the open enslavement and sexual defilement on the non Islamic (Kuffar) by the Islamic state, Slavery again exists on this planet. Babylon is not averse to this trade, and the degradation of souls.

I think we will be driven out of Babylon, the way that Christians have had to flee from the Islamic State: we will be silenced. For the PostModern ideas have made their way into the culture, and there is no acceptance that truth, beauty or duty exist. At least for those in Babylon: the exist for the elite only.

We will be silenced. Some of us will witness by our death. If the Orthodox call the neomartyrs those who died under the Ottoman and Soviet yoke, they will need a new term for this time.

And when we are silenced, killed and murdered, Out of Babylon we must go.