The Grand Theme of the Bible - Babylon the Great

The building of the original Babylon was more than a political enterprise.  Since that city was established in defiance of Jehovah's sovereignty, religion was involved.  Indeed, ancient Babylon became a fountain of religious idolatry.  It priests taught God-dishonoring doctrines such as the survival of a human soul after death and that the hereafter is a place of eternal horror and torment, presided over by demons.  They fostered the worship of creatures and of a multitude of gods and goddesses.  They fabricated myths to explain the origin of the earth and man upon it and performed degrading rituals and sacrifices, supposedly to ensure fertility in childbearing and crop raising, and victory in war.

As the various language groups from Babylon spread out over the earth, they took Babylonish religion with them.  Thus, rites and beliefs similar to those of ancient Babylon flourished  among the original inhabitants of Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Far East, and the South Seas; and of these beliefs  persist to this day.  Appropriately,  then, Revelation refers to the world-embracing empire of false religion  as a city named Babylon the Great. (Revelation chapters 17, 18)  Wherever it has been sown, false religion has  sprouted in oppressive priesthoods, superstition, ignorance, and immorality.  It has been a powerful tool in Satan's hand.  Babylon the Great has always fought fiercely against the true worship of the Sovereign Lord Jehovah.

As a most reprehensible part of the seed of the Serpent, the scribes and Pharisees in first-century Judaism took the lead in persecuting and finally murdering the primary representative of the seed of the woman.  Thus, the Serpent was able to "bruise him [the "seed"] in the heel." (Genesis 3:15; John 8:39-44; Acts 3:12, 15)  Why is this described as only a heel wound?  It is because this wounding touched him only briefly here on earth.  It was not permanent because Jehovah resurrected Jesus on the third day and exalted him to spirit life.  - ACTS 2:32, 33; 1 PETER 3:18. 

The glorified Jesus Christ now serves as God's right hand, judging Jehovah's enemies.  He has already taken action against Satan and his angels, hurling them down and confining activity to this earth-which accounts for the multiplying  of woes in our day.   (Revelation 12:9, 12)  But there will be the foretold removal of Satan's earthly seed when God executes judgment on Babylon the Great and all other segments of Satan's organization on earth. Finally,  the Seed of the God's woman, Jesus Christ will bruise Satan,  that old wily serpent, "in the head," and that will mean his complete annihilation and his social removal from the affairs of mankind. - ROMANS 16:10. 

Next time: Things That Must Shortly Take Place

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