Chapter Thirty-Six/The Great City Devastated - The Traveling Merchants - Conclusion

 As foretold by the glorious angel, religion has been deeply involved in such corrupt business practices. For example, there is the Vatican's involvement in the collapse of Italy's Banco Ambrosiano in 1982. The case has dragged on through the 1980's, until the unanswered question being: Where did the money go? In February 198 Milan magistrates issued arrest warrants for three Vatican clerics, including an American archbishop, on charges that they were accessories to fraudulent, but the Vatican rejected an extradition request in July 1987, amid an uproar of protest, the warrants were nullified by Italy's highest Court of Appeals on the basis of an old treaty between the Vatican and the Italian government. 

Did Jesus have a tie-in with questionable business practices of his day? No. He was not even a property owner, for he had "nowhere to lay his head." A rich young ruler was advised by Jesus: "Sell all the things you have and distribute to poor people, and you will have treasures in the heavens; and come to be my follower." That was fine admonition, for it could have resulted in his getting rid of all anxieties over business matters.  (Luke 9:58; 18:22) In contrast, Babylonish religion often has unsavory links with big business. For example, in 1987 the Albany Times Union reported that the financial administrator of the Catholic Archdiocese of Miami, Florida, U.S.A., admitted to the church's owning stocks in companies that make nuclear weapons, R-rated movies, and cigarettes. 

Next time: Chapter Thirty-Six/The Great City Devastated - "Get Out of Her, My People"

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