THE FALL OF BABYLON.
“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later.”
Revelation 1: 19
No, the Bible does not tell us what happens day-by-day, of course not. It does however, especially in the last Bible book, picture how our world will end, and how then a new beginning emerges, with the new humanity that is wise, mature and knowledgeable. This new humanity is given the opportunity to pick up where “Adam and Eve” failed. That awareness, that desire, that ‘faith’ instinct, starts now, while we still dwell in an era where God-defying people – think Trump – create the ultimate universal undoing, speeding up the process of total disintegration.
Of course, right now, we all are participants in this unfolding drama, this creation-God defying human experiment, culminating in “The Fall of Babylon”. The author of REVELATION tells us that our earth, given to us by God, (see Psalm 115:16), has become like Babylon, that God-forsaken place, to which the Israel nation, some 2,500 years ago, was exiled.
My Spiritual Journey.
We all have our spiritual journeys. For me the year 1972 was the beginning of new insights, the year when ‘my eyes were opened’. Oh, I had been a ‘Christian’ from Day One of my life: born into a devout, church-adhering family, who had been sincere believers for generations.
Before that year I was the typical, obedient, run-of-the-mill-heaven-devoted believer. Example: as a member of a book club, I received Rachel Carson’s book, SILENT SPRING, and gave it away before I ever read it: ‘nature’ simply was not something that interested me.
Then the year 1972 became a turning point.
Two friends gave me books they liked and recommended: 1. The Dutch “Sterven.. en Dan?”, (After Death… What?). That book, written by a theologian, opened my eyes to ‘Life after Death’, lived, not in heaven, but in/on God’s work of art: his creation. That radically changed my life.
In the second book: “The Limits to Growth”, Danielle Meadows and others, drawing on computer models, investigated exponential trends, spanning population, industrial production and environmental impact, and concluded that by 2025, the world would reach the limits of earth’s resources, and its economy would start contracting, no matter how much money were used to prevent this.
Then there was still another book that clarified my thinking: Dr. Barry Commoner’s book, The Closing Circle (1971) in which he outlined “The Four Laws of Ecology”:
1) Everything is connected to everything else;
2) Everything must go somewhere;
3) Nature knows best;
4) There is no such thing as a free lunch.
These four laws emphasize the interconnectedness of ecological systems and the consequences of human actions in the environment. Especially today, Anno 2025, these four laws prove the foolishness of our industrial, nature-despoiling-earth-polluting lifestyle. Memorize them!
New Times.
Today the world economy is at a major turning point, which is why we should brace for rapid changes in the economy. The world is moving from having enough goods and services to go around, to not having enough to go around. The dynamics of the economy are very different with shortages coming. The hoped-for solution of higher prices doesn’t fix that problem, because, adding more buying-power simply produces inflation. Other solutions are needed. The world economy is reaching what simply is “Limits to Growth.”
I believe that Revelation, the last Bible Book, is prophetic in this regard. To the discerning reader it indicates what the future holds. See the heading of Revelation 18: it says The Fall of Babylon. I believe that Babylon, the city/country to which Israel was banished, is now equated with our secular world. In that chapter, the fall of our creation-destroying society is foretold: There – see verses 11- 19 – our economic collapse is pictured. Substitute gold and precious stones for yachts and fancy cars, estates and glamorous women, and we talk about people like Musk and Trump, Thiel and the Billionaire Bunch now ruling the economy. “In one hour, the economy has been brought to ruin”, (Verse 19).
Economies throughout the ages have grown until their populations grew too large for resource availability. World History is replete with societies that fail. Babylon was one of them. Jared Diamond, 20 years ago, wrote COLLAPSE, How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. Herelates the well-known example of Easter Island, in the Pacific, far from mainland Asia or America, where deforestation contributed to its total collapse. Other equally astute examples are the Maya cities, and, of course the Roman Empire, whose demise, somewhat arbitrarily, has been pegged at 476 AD. There too, supplying an increasing population, and decreasing resources, were factors.
Our fossil fuel age began over 200 years ago, and it now seems to be reaching its end.
Be mentally and religiously prepared.