NOTES ON THE CHURCH’S LOVE AFFAIR WITH THE WORLD SPIRIT: AMERICA AS BABYLON THE GREAT

SCRIPTURE. “Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” – JAMES 4:4, NKJV

QUOTATION. “Inasmuch as one cannot avoid Bad Company, one should not be deceived. One should see the insincerity behind the mask of friendliness, the destructiveness behind the mask of eternal complaints about unhappiness. The narcissism behind the charm. One should also not act if he or she were taken in by the others deceptive appearance in order to avoid being forced into a certain dishonesty oneself. One need not speak to them about what one sees, but one should not attempt to convince them that one is blind.” ― ERICH FROMM, The Art of Being, 1976; edited

FIRST THOUGHTS

This teaching is very near and dear to my heart, beloved, because it flows from one of the earliest Instructions I received as a comparatively young believer while matriculating at Regent University in the 1980s. I was still steeped in my secular doctoral ideologies and philosophies that had drilled into me that ‘Truth is relative,’ and I was having a major struggle to understand anything else.

My mentor at the time was HERBERT TITUS, then Provost of the University and soon to be Founding Dean of the Robertson Law School. A Harvard graduate and former ACLU attorney who found the Lord and a revolutionized view of Truth years before this, he was unable to unhook me from my error.

So, one day he had had enough, and I remember this Event taking place in his office – which would change my life, forever. His face began to twist in frustration, and he slammed his fist on his desk with nearly all his might, and shouted:

“Cliff! You are wrong! You must pray!”

EPIPHANY. Since this man commanded so much respect by so many, I did exactly that in the days and weeks following my Encounter with Dr. Titus. One morning in the aftermath, I was pondering a passage from the Apostle John Herb had suggested more than once that would become one of my Life Scriptures to this very day:

“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’”– JOHN 8:31-32, NKJV

Beloved, it was as if the very Doors of the Mind of Christ blew open like a mighty wind, and I saw it for the first time, around 1984.

First, there is ‘only one Truth, His Truth,’ and no other! Second, without a full grasp of that Truth, there is no freedom of any kind – salvific, or philosophical, or practical. Thus, there is no wisdom or ability to negotiate the depths of this world’s great Darknesses without, as Jesus termed it in the earlier passage, ‘The Father’s Truth!’

MY CALLING. So it is that I have become an inveterate, unmovable ‘Truth Guy’ at the clear and demanding, frankly, auspices of The Almighty. This in combination with a passage I have shared with you before from JEREMIAH 1, I shall not bend a single micro-measure of this matter of Truth Telling. Though I shall more than bend when (a) I am shown to be in error, or (b) when we are discussing relative trifles on which we can all “agree to disagree.”

“But you [Jeremiah], gird up your loins [in preparation]! Get up and tell them all which I command you. Do not be distraught and break down at the sight of their [hostile] faces, or I will bewilder you before them and allow you to be overcome.” – V. 17, AMP

To Be Clear: Though I be no prophet nor anyone remotely approaching the stature of the Prophet Jeremiah, I am, by Calling, ‘a Jeremiad,’ defined this way: “Generally, the term ‘Jeremiad’ is applied to moralistic texts that denounce a society for its wickedness, and prophesy its downfall” (Wikipedia, Dec. 9, 2023; edited).

You feel me here, my friends? I hope so. If nothing else, this explains a bit of why I came to be the way I am. God help us all.

II. THE GREAT EVANGELICAL DISASTER

Forty years ago, DR. FRANCIS SCHAEFFER published what I still consider to be his most important message midst of a Hall of Fame of literary and theological masterpieces, though none be perfect. The Heading above is the title of his last book that he penned while succumbing to the cancer that would take his life in the year of its publication, 1984.

His ideas were as Prophetic as anything I have ever read, before or since. And yes, it was sandwiched somewhere in that life-changing visit with Dr. Titus as God was hammering me, yes, ‘hammering me’ into better shape for the formidable task of training Christian Journalists at Regent University starting the very year of Dr. Schaeffer’s publication: 1984.

I note this Year in hindsight that would be my ‘Watershed Event’ toward a Theological Revolution in my later thinking.

SCHAEFFER’S LAMENT. As has become my habit, I shall BULLET POINT Dr. Schaeffer’s main ideas and arguments published nearly 40 years ago that sound today as if they were just penned. The same period of time that it would take God to prepare me for this present Circuit Ride Enterprise.

First however, I begin with what may be considered his BASIC PREMISE. “To be really ‘Bible-believing Christians’ we need to practice, simultaneously, at each step of the way, TWO BASIC PRINCIPLES.

‘One Principle is that of the Purity of the Visible Church.’ Scripture commands that we must do more than just talk about the Purity of the Visible Church; we must actually practice it, even when it is costly. ‘The Second Principle is that of an Observable Love among all true Christians.’ In the flesh we can stress Purity without Love, or we can stress Love without Purity; we cannot stress both simultaneously. To do so we must look moment by moment to the Work of Christ and to the Holy Spirit. Without that, a stress on Purity becomes hard, proud, and legalistic; likewise, without it a stress on Love becomes sheer compromise. ‘[True] Spirituality begins to have real meaning in our lives as we begin to exhibit simultaneously the Holiness of God and the Love of God.’ We never do this perfectly, but we must look to the Living Christ to help us do it truly.”

DK NOTE. To be perfectly clear, Dr. Schaeffer would agree with me that ‘Real Christian Love’begins with LOVING GOD “with all your heart, and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength” (MARK 12:30, AMP). Without this totalizing Love and Commitment, it is pointless to speak of love for anything or anyone else.

THE BATTLE. “Make no mistake. We as Bible-believing Evangelical Christians are locked in a Battle. This is not a friendly gentleman’s discussion. It is a life and death Conflict between the spiritual hosts of wickedness and those who claim the name of Christ. ‘It is a Conflict on the level of ideas between two fundamentally opposed Views of Truth and Reality.’ It is a Conflict on the level of actions between a complete moral perversion and chaos and God’s Absolutes. But do we really believe that we are in a Life and Death Battle?’” (pp. 31-32).

THE DISASTER. “‘Here is the Great Evangelical Disaster – The Failure of the Evangelical world to stand for Truth as Truth. There is only one word for this – namely Accommodation:’ The Evangelical Church has accommodated to the World Spirit of the Age. First, there has been Accommodation on Scripture, so that many who call themselves Evangelicals hold a weakened view of the Bible and no longer affirm the Truth of all the Bible teaches – Truth not only in religious matters but in the areas of science and history and morality. As part of this, many Evangelicals are now accepting the Higher Critical Methods in the study of the Bible. Remember, it was these same Methods which destroyed the authority of the Bible for the Protestant Church in Germany in the last century, and which have destroyed the Bible for the liberal in our own country from the beginning of this century. And second, there has been Accommodation on the issues, with no clear stand being taken even on matters of life and death” (p. 37).

THE BIBLE. “Within Evangelicalism there is a growing number who are modifying their views on the ‘Inerrancy of the Bible’ so that the full authority of Scripture is completely undercut … Unless the Bible is without error, not only when it speaks of salvation matters, but also when it speaks of history and the Cosmos, we have no foundation for answering questions concerning the existence of the Universe and its form and the uniqueness of man. Nor do we have any moral absolutes, or certainty of salvation, and the next generation of Christians will have nothing on which to stand” (pp. 44, 46).

ON DISCIPLINE. “Discipline has not been consistently applied by the faithful men of the Church. The Church was able to discipline Dr. [Augustus] Briggs in the 1880s [over historicist vs. Presbyterian theology], but after that, faithful men waited too long. Though they had achieved one outstanding victory, after that first burst of discipline, they did nothing, until it was far too late. Discipline in the Church and in our Christian organizations – as in the family – is not something that can be done in one great burst of enthusiasm, one great conference, one great anything. Men must be treated in love as human beings, but it is a case of continual, moment-by-moment care, for we are not dealing with a merely human organisation but with the Church of Christ. ‘Hence, the practice of the Purity of the Visible Church first means Discipline of those who do not take a proper position in regard to the teaching of Scripture’” (p. 86).

IN SUM. I conclude this brief summary of Dr. Schaeffer’s prescient work with what I consider to be his SIGNATURE IDEA: “Truth carries with it confrontation. Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless.” Woefully, tragically, and likely fatally, the American Church has failed on this Core Mission catastrophically in my studied view. The Consequences are, as Dr. Schaeffer has properly prophesied:

The Great (Last Days) Evangelical Disaster! Selah.

III. THE TEACHING

KEY TERM: “FRIENDSHIP.” ‘Philia’ [φιλία]: “Something held dear; fondness [or preference for]; as with an associate or neighbor; to befriend, love or kiss; warm affection.” WEBSTER (1828): “An attachment to a person [or thing], proceeding from ‘intimate acquaintance,’ and a reciprocation of kind offices, or from a favorable opinion of the amiable and respectable qualities of his mind … ‘True Friendship’ is a noble and virtuous attachment, springing from a pure source, a respect for worth or amiable qualities. ‘False Friendship’ may subsist between bad men, as between thieves and pirates.”

COMMENTARY. “‘Ye adulterers and adulteresses’ — Who have broken your faith with God, your rightful Spouse. Thus many understand these expressions, idea of a marriage, and because the Prophets, in conformity to that idea, represented the Idolatry of the Jews as Adultery. But inasmuch as Gross Idolatry was a sin from which the Jews had long been entirely free, and whereas to Adultery, and other sins of the flesh, they were exceedingly addicted, it seems more probable that these appellations are to be understood literally.

‘Know ye not that the friendship of the world’ — The desire of the flesh, the desire of the eye, and the pride of life, yielded to, to gain the favour of carnal and worldly men; or a conformity to such in their sinful courses, in order to gain their friendship; ‘is enmity with God’ — Is an evident proof thereof? see Matthew 6:24; Matthew 12:30. ‘Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world’ — Makes it his business to comply with and gratify worldly men, thereby constitutes himself ‘an enemy of God’! — And takes part with his adversaries.” ― JOSEPH BENSON, Notes on the Holy Bible, 5 vols., 1811-1818; edited

“ENEMY.” ‘Echthros’ [ἐχθρός]: “Hateful, odious, hostile; an adversary [in alliance with Satan]; a foe; properly, someone openly at enmity, animated by deep-seated hatred; implies ‘irreconcilable hostility,’ proceeding out of a ‘personal’ hatred bent on inflicting harm.” N. WEBSTER (1828): “A foe; an adversary. A private enemy is one who hates another and wishes him injury, or i The Greek term for

Beloved, those in arrogant Rebellion against the Godhead by her Spiritual Adultery with the Politics of Donald Trump’s Antichrist Spirit become not only despised by God, but He declares war upon them! PASTORS: I beg you to awaken your people to this existential threat to their lives here on earth, and vastly more seriously, their Eternal Destiny.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS: SLOUCHING TOWARD BABYLON

SLOUCHING. “‘A posture that accommodates to an individual [in this case].’ A hanging down; a depression of the head or of some other part of the body, an ungainly clownish gait. Refers to an awkward, heavy, clownish fellow.” – NOAH WEBSTER, American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828; edited

My Thesis: ‘The American Church is playing the lazy, indolent Harlot for want of earthy gain in rejection of Heavenly Honor.’ In effect, without realizing it, she has become the leading candidate for the most wicked, destructive spiritual and political force in the entire history of Mankind.

AMERICA AS BABYLON THE GREAT. When DAVID WILKERSON proposed this idea in the late 1970s which I began to read in the 1980s, I truly thought the idea was preposterous. RONALD REAGAN was our ‘Christian’ president, the Charismatic Movement had swept across several denominations, and it was, as the president’s campaign slogans brightly announced, “Morning in America.”

Some 50 years after Wilkerson’s Trumpet Blast and 40 years after the Reagan presidency ended in less than brilliant fashion as America fell under the thrall of WILLIAM CLINTON and company, we might well say that it was becoming, “Mourning in America.”

So to advance my admittedly controversial Thesis about the Biblical Identity of America as God’s Last Days Arch-Villain, I turn to the frankly brilliant analysis by DR. STEVEN ANDERSEN, career Bible scholar, teacher, and author, with three seminary degrees and a Ph.D. from Dallas Theological Seminary.

His article is titled, “The Case for Identifying Babylon the Great with the United States of America” (Truth Only Bible, July 29, 2021; edited). Here are his MAIN IDEAS.

INTRODUCTION. “The Book of Revelation gives more attention to an entity called ‘Babylon the Great’ than to any other single subject, with more than two chapters (17:1–19:4) dedicated to a discussion of this entity. As it is presented in that section, Babylon the Great is clearly the most significant player in the world of the end times. As such, its identification ought to be obvious to anyone living in the end times. However, at present, Pretribulational Dispensationalists are badly divided as to the interpretation of these chapters, and commentators who do not follow a strictly Futuristic view of Revelation 4–22 add even more interpretations to the mix. The lack of consensus on the identification of a prophetic entity that ought to be plainly evident indicates that none of the prevailing views does justice to the text of the Book of Revelation, resulting in ‘a State of confusion.’”

THESIS. “This article will argue that Babylon the Great is the United States of America, and that this identification is definitive and excludes all other possibilities.”

UNITY. “Traditionally, most (but not all) Pretribulationist interpreters have differentiated the Babylon the Great of Revelation 17 from the Babylon the Great in Revelation 18, arguing that Revelation 17 speaks of an ‘Apostate Church’ symbolicallyas a Prostitute, and that Revelation 18 describes a literal ‘City.’ However, an analysis of Revelation 17–18 shows that both chapters refer to the same entity, and that this is a ‘political entity,’ not an Apostate Church … The main difference between the Revelation 17 and Revelation 18 is this: Revelation 17 portrays Babylon the Great and its fall by means of heavenly signs and symbols, whereas Revelation 18 portrays the impact of Babylon the Great’s fall on the earth in a largely non-symbolic fashion.”

NAMES. “The primary reason that the Book of Revelation calls the Prostitute ‘Babylon the Great’ is that she represents an entity that did not exist and was wholly unknown at the time the Book was penned. Hence, the Revelator chose to use a metaphor and state that the real name was ‘a Mystery’ (Revelation 17:5). Similar naming conventions are used in the Bible for other future entities: Russia is called ‘Gog,’ and many of the modern countries mentioned with it in Ezekiel 38:1-6 are called by other now-defunct names.

ANTICHRIST. The Antichrist’s Ten-Nation Confederation is represented by the Roman Empire (Daniel 2:40-43; 7:23-24). The name of Antiochus IV was not given in his descriptions in Daniel 8 and 11. The name of the Antichrist is never given, only the number of his name (Revelation 13:18). But even though none of those names is given, there has been and will be no doubt as to the identification of these persons or nations when they come, for the Bible gives identifying information that is far more specific than a name. The name ‘Babylon the Great’ was chosen, rather than some other name, to show that the entity it represents is ‘the pinnacle of the glory, wealth, power, and wickedness of the kingdoms of man.’”

DESTRUCTION. “According to Revelation 17:16-17, ‘Babylon the Great is destroyed by the Antichrist and the Ten Kings in the European Alliance that comprise his base of power’ (cf. Dan 2:42; 7:7-8, 24; Rev 13:1). Prior to this time, Babylon the Great has dominated world politics and has controlled the world economy. Since Revelation 13:3-7 presents the Antichrist’s Kingdom as the dominant world power during the second half of the Tribulation Period, and Revelation 13:16-17 shows that he controls the world economic system throughout the second half of the Tribulation Period, Babylon the Great must be destroyed ‘before the Midpoint’ of the Tribulation Period. Certainly the fact that Babylon the Great is destroyed by the Antichrist’s militaries, rather than directly from Heaven, argues strongly for its fall occurring before the Second Advent.”

HEGEMONY. “Babylon the Great is a ‘World Hegemon,’ a country which dominates world politics, economics, and culture in the End Times. Further, the text of Revelation indicates that it is a unique entity in the world, ἡ πόλις ἡ μεγάλη, ‘Great Polis.’ It uniquely makes all the nations of the world wealthy, reigns over the nations of the world, imposes its culture on all the nations, and ‘leads them in a massive downward spiral of materialistic depravity’ that culminates in worldwide worship of Satan and the Antichrist during the second half of the Tribulation Period. These are things that can only be done once, and the United States is now doing them. Never before in history has a single country dominated all the other countries of the world and enjoyed such preeminence in comparison to all the others. The United States finds itself in the historically unique position of monopolizing every significant power source in the world—a position it began to occupy since the end of World War II, and which was greatly enhanced by the end of the Cold War.”

CONCLUSION. “‘In summary, the Book of Revelation describes Babylon the Great as the Dominant Superpower in the world of the End Times’—so dominant, that it actually shapes the culture and economy of the world as it exists at the start of the Tribulation Period. The nature and scope of Babylon the Great’s dominance is such that only one such entity could ever exist in the history of the world, and ‘there is no doubt that the United States of America is this entity.’ While some aspects of the Prophecy remain to be fulfilled—most notably the Prophecies of Babylon the Great’s attempts to put Christians to death worldwide (Revelation 17:6; 18:20, 24; 19:2)—enough aspects already match so as to leave no doubt as to the fulfillment of the rest.”

CODA. Dr. Stevensen’s arguments have become to me, very nearly unassailable, but it has taken me over 40 years to arrive at that position since first hearing of it from David Wilkerson. As DONALD TRUMP becomes, for me at least, the only viable candidate for Antichrist, and world events line up meticulously for his second election to the Oval Office next November 5, 2024, as “Wars and Rumors of Wars” proliferate, America becomes even more desperate for a World Leader to restore peace and prosperity (at any cost).

I see ‘The American Hegemon’ as the only country able to launch such a Grand Finish to human history, as it has no peers in all these regards.

The Prediction. The largely Apostate American Church has made its treacherous bed with Mr. Trump as his Concubine, for which she shall be utterly destroyed by God and the Forces of Antichrist at Midpoint in the Great Tribulation. I frankly see no other course since there is no discernible movement toward Repentance among Church Leaders as of the end of 2023.

Therefore, as I have argued again and again, beloved: ‘Aspire to the Remnant Church!’ This to be found in honor and fruitfulness and much persecution when Shiloh Arrives. We have no other charge but this. Selah.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/M6jqoy2jh4k