Come out of her My People
Come out of her My people! (Rev. 18:4). With this great command from the Lord Himself we are called to separate ourselves from a world system that is destined for destruction. We are warned to come out of her “lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.” At this point in earth’s history this great entity is described as “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations” (17:5). From all that is provided we can see that is great city of sin represents the entire world economic, social, religious and political system that will be part of the end of earth’s tragic history.
To the apostle John, through whom this revelation comes, Babylon represented the authoritarian world government that would reach its peak of power toward the end of earth’s history. Most of the world will be lured into the deception of this great mystery including many of those who claim to follow Christ. Just before she is judged, this great power will have reached the pinnacle of worldly domination and then she will be destroyed (18:2f.).
Babylon has its beginning with the tower of Babel in the Old Testament (Gen. 10:8f.). Babel was humanity’s first attempt at authoritarian world leadership. It was the first great civilization that, under Nimrod’s leadership, thumbed its nose at God and tried to reach to heaven without going through Him. Following the great flood that judged the world, the people of the city continued earth’s defiance. They cried out “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4). God knew what they were up to and confused their language so that their fleshly unity would be broken and they would be dispersed to the rest of the earth to continue God’s command to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Gen. 1:28).
Babylon continued to take center stage in earth’s rebellion. It was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon who later came to Jerusalem and laid siege to the city of God’s people and captured Zedekiah the assumed king of the city, slaughtered his sons before his eyes, cut out his eyes and took him and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to Babylon in captivity (2 Kings 25:1f., Daniel 1:1). Hatred for Israel and the people of God has always been one of Babylon’s evil characteristics. That hatred continues to this day.
The prophet Daniel was in that great captivity as Jerusalem was taken into exile. Daniel and his young friends found favor with Nebuchadnezzar and thus unfolded the opportunity for God to speak through the prophet concerning the end of the ages (Dan. 2:31f.). Ironically, Daniel prophesies the rest of the world’s history from the center of her rebellion — Babylon. Others who prophesied during this time were Jeremiah, Habakkuk, Ezekiel, and Obadiah.
Babylon was always the center of pagan worship which means the center of satanic activity on earth. They worshipped Marduk, Merodach and Bel (Jer. 50:2), sexual immorality was rampant and Babylon remained the center of authoritarian, satanic government and the development of a wide-world economy which fed the avarice of its people.
At some point in coming history the call will go out from God, “Come out of her My people.” That will be a last minute call to warn the stubborn followers of Christ that they must vacate the city which represents the world system as fast as possible.
But we have an earlier warning from Paul: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Rom. 12:2). Just as he was the god of Babylon of old, Satan is the god of this world, the continuing Babylon (2 Cor. 4:4). His whole purpose in existence is to keep people “from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.”
The more time we spend captured by the Babylonish world system, the more blinded we become and the light of the Gospel and the glory of Christ becomes diminished. We need to awaken to the fact that in many ways we, God’s people, are captured by Babylon and need to hear His warning: “Come out of her my people lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues.”
Satan uses the ground he is given. Through the unfaithfulness of many who have been called Christians he has staked out territory in the political, social, religious realm. He is emboldened by our failure to stand forth for His truth. The result is an atmosphere in which truth is being replaced by absolute absurdities such as the notion that a person can choose their gender or the unborn don’t deserve to live or our culture is systemically racist. Our failure to stand for truth has allowed the enemy to develop his own rendition of truth to the detriment of society.
So what does this mean? Do we go off the grid and move to a mountain cabin away from the world’s delusions? No, as wonderful as that sounds. But we must come out from under this system that is slowly capturing our attention away from Christ and His purpose. We need to get our finances in order and get out of debt so that the world’s hold on our hearts is cut off. We are in this world on assignment from God but we are never to be part of this system that is destined for destruction.
In case you have been living in a cave the past few years, let me remind you that we are seeing a determined effort by Satan to increase authoritarian government with its intrusive economy. Even in once free America we are witnessing the enemy overplaying his hand because of the passivity of many citizens and the complacency of the body of Christ.
I am not trying to frighten you but am sounding an alarm. The Lord is saying “Come out of her My people” or we will have to suffer the consequences. The church is the “called out ones,” those who have chosen to come out of the world to serve their God. It is time the church responds to His call.
