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Revelation 18:21-24: Further thoughts.

^“21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

Before moving on into chapter 19, here are two further thoughts on this passage:

‘Any institution that misuses wealth, power and pleasure resembles Babylon. Not only does John judge Babylon, but he implores his people to avoid being enticed and then entrapped by the illusion that prosperity and power protect persons and institutions from the ultimate demands of God’s justice. That message has contemporary relevance. The seductive powers of wealth, social status, and culture threaten the church because they are subtle deceivers that blur the distinction between the values of God and the    values of the world.’ Asbury Bible Commentary.

‘Babylon is a city founded on violence, not only the blood of the martyrs. Babylon has been at the centre of a network of violence that spanned the world, and all who have been slaughtered on earth have, in a sense, been slaughtered at the behest of Babylon. The merchants have grown rich on the back of military conquest. Money and power have done their collective worst, and John lumps them together, as we have seen, under the metaphor of fornication. Babylon the whore is gone, and will not return. And we, who live in the shadow of modern Babylon’s, can and must shudder as we too, watch the plume of smoke and smell the bitter smell.’ Tom Wright: ‘Revelation for Everyone’, p.166.

(For further study see Jer.51:60,61,63&64/Nahum 3:14/Deut.19:16-20).

Revelation 18:21-24: Pied Piper

^“21 Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:

There can be no question that this present world system is on borrowed time. Its end will come (21). This message is hammered in with the repeated use of the word ‘’never’’.

It struck me as I read this that one of the ways ‘the world’ influences is by music. It is a ‘Pied Piper’. It casts a spell on people. It mesmerises. It influences in ways that go far deeper than logic. This is not to say that music is bad. Not at all. But we do need to try to analyse the messages the culture is preaching to us constantly. It comes at us through a variety of means. It will have us under its spell in no time if we are not on guard. The prevailing culture will ‘disciple’ us in its ways if we do not determine that we will be discipled by Scripture, God’s Word.

‘’By your magic spell all the nations were led astray’’ (23b).

In his book ‘Don’t waste your life’, John Piper says ‘America is the first culture in jeopardy of amusing itself to death.’ Western Europe can’t be far behind.

PRAYER: Lord, please awaken me to the cultural forces that will shape my life only too gladly, if I do not allow you to do the shaping. Help me to swim against the strong tide.