NOTES ON THE TRAGEDY OF AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY: FROM AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL TO BABYLON THE GREAT IN 400 YEARS – (WITH VIDEO)

I.  THEOLOGY

SCRIPTURE. “You were running [the race] well; who has interfered and prevented you from obeying the truth?” – GALATIANS 5:7, AMP

KEY TERM: “INTERFERED.” ‘Anakoptó’ [ ἀνακόπτω]: (Used only here) ‘To beat back, to check or hinder;’ where the preceding ἐτρέχετε shows that Paul was thinking of ‘an obstructed road;’ to stop; to interrupt; to obstruct; ‘to impede or prevent from moving forward by any means;’applicable to any subject, physical, moral [spiritual] or intellectual; to clash; to come in collision; to be in opposition.”

QUOTATION. “It has hindered where it might have helped; it has been evasive when it was morally bound to be forthright; it has separated believers on the basis of color, although it has declared its mission to be a Universal Brotherhood under Jesus Christ. [‘American’] Christian love is the white man’s love for himself and for his race.” ― MALCOLM X, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘All was going well at first.’ What sudden Intruder has stopped your path and led you astray? Certainly it is not God, to Whom you owe your calling, that has persuaded you to such a course. You tell me that not many have fallen away [though in the Last Days it would multiply greatly]. ‘But those few are enough to infect the whole.’ Not that I wish to implicate all in the sin of some. Most of you I can trust to be true to me. The Author of your troubles, whoever he is, shall not escape. God shall judge him …

‘Ye did run well.’ — Again, as in Galatians 2:2, a metaphor from foot racing. ‘The [foolish] Galatians’ had made a good start, but suddenly changed their course. ‘Who did hinder you?’ … The original meaning of the word translated ‘hinder’ is to ‘break up a road,’ as an army before the advance of hostile forces. [As with] ‘Disobeying the truth — i.e., the Doctrine taught by St. Paul.’” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers, 1878, 1897; edited

II.  TEACHING

THESIS. Beloved, I have argued before this that the CURRENT AMERICAN TRAGEDY is best captured this way:

‘The Land of the Free and Home of the Brave is fast becoming its catastrophic, violent opposite: The Land of Captivity and Home to the Jackal: BABYLON THE GREAT. Further, the Leader of this Historic Betrayal has largely been The White American Church in “The Great Falling Away.’”

But if that outrageous proposal be true, how in God’s Economy could such a thing be taking place before our very eyes? I turn to THREE SOURCES for our analysis today – One from the Historic View, a second from a Prophetic View, followed an Academic View.

ONE: THE HISTORIC VIEW. Adapted from an Excellent Secular Literary Series published by the University of Virginia’s EDITORS of their online Explore Library titled, “BABYLON [NEW YORK CITY]: SIN CITY USA I” (2013; edited).

• SCRIPTURE. “I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And upon her forehead was a name written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” – REVELATION 17:3-5, KJV

• INTRODUCTION. “‘Many American Preachers have been willing to single out the damned,’ and they usually turned to the Book of Revelation for support when they wanted to do so. In the Book of Revelation, sinners are inhabitants of Babylon, the City in which the chosen people of Israel were held captive in ancient times.”

• HARLOTRY. “Led by an infamous Prostitute, the CITY OF BABYLON was a potent ‘Symbol of Moral Decay’ in the grisly Reform literature and tabloid journalism that arose in America in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. These tabloids and pamphlets, however diverse they might appear at first glance, shared:‘Sensational Apocalyptic imagery and rhetoric.’”

• LITERATURE. “Apocalyptic imagery oozes out of popular novels like GEORGE LIPPARD’S best-seller The Quaker City (1848). Lippard’s novel uses Apocalyptic imagery with a vengeance: Although America has been destroyed by ‘Priest-craft, Slave-craft, and Traitor-craft,’ thedead arise from their graves and sail in their coffins to wreak havoc on their oppressors. The novel sold 60,000 copies in its first year of publication and about 30,000 annually for the next five, making it one of the most widely read works of fiction in the first half of the nineteenth century, and giving rise to a flood of other urban exposé novels.”

·        CHURCH. “Like Lippard’s novel, ‘HARRISON BUCHANAN’S Asmodeus (1848) unveiled the hidden lives of Politicians and Preachers, showing that immoral Christians might find themselves among the damned at the End of Time. As damnation was a favorite theme in the tabloid literature of the day, so too were grisly accounts of crime and executions. Although these topics had been commonly combined with moralizing sermons in much of American literature of the previous century, in the mid-nineteenth century many publishers simply omitted the sermons altogether so that Americans could get right down to the gory details.” DK. This serves as Metaphor of an America increasingly unhooking from Biblical Morality to engage only the twisted details of Grotesque Sensationalism for Entertainment purposes that preceded the Year 1900 – The Beginning of ‘AmericanDégringolade’ – i.e., “The Great Tumble.”

TWO: THE PROPHETIC VIEW.  Our Modern View of these early warning signs of a CORRUPT NEW YORK CITY from an admittedly less salutary literature comes to us from the fiery preaching of DAVID WILKERSON. Best I can document, it was delivered from his Times Square Church in New York City on March 7, 2009, under the title, “An Urgent Message.”I publish the Original Text in its entirety for your review, without commentary.

“I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to send out an urgent message to all on our mailing list, and to friends and to bishops we have met all over the world.

An Earth-Shattering Calamity is about to happen. It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble—even the godliest among us.

 
For ten years [since 1999] I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole Megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago.
There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide. There will be looting—including Times Square, New York City. What we are experiencing now is not a Recession, not even a Depression. We are under God’s Wrath. In Psalm 11 it is written:

‘If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?’ (v. 3).

God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.

THE PROPHET JEREMIAH pleaded with wicked Israel, ‘God is fashioning a calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh, turn back each of you from your evil way, and reform your ways and deeds. But they will say, It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart’ (Jeremiah 18:11-12).

In Psalm 11:6, DAVID warns: ‘Upon the wicked He will rain snares (coals of fire) … and burning wind … will be the portion of their cup.’ Why? David answered, ‘Because the Lord is righteous’ (v. 7). This is a Righteous Judgment—just as in the Judgments of Sodom and in Noah’s generation.

WHAT SHALL THE RIGHTEOUS DO? WHAT ABOUT GOD’S PEOPLE?

First, I give you a practical word I received for my own direction. Lay in store a Thirty Day Supply of food, toiletries and other essentials. In major cities, grocery stores are emptied in an hour at the sign of an impending disaster. DK. Precisely the same “Thirty Days” I proposed in my book, The Sixth Seal II (2024, pp. 129-131).

As for our Spiritual Reaction, we have but Two [More] Options. This is outlined in Psalm 11. We ‘Flee like a bird to a mountain.’ Or, as DAVID says, ‘He fixed his eyes on the Lord on his throne in heaven—his eyes beholding, his eyelids testing the sons of men’ (v. 4). ‘In the Lord I take refuge’ (v. 1).

I will say to my soul: No need to run…no need to hide. This is God’s righteous work. I will behold our Lord on His Throne, with His eye of tender, loving kindness watching over every step I take—trusting that He will deliver His people even through floods, fires, calamities, tests, trials of all kinds.

NOTE: ‘I do not know when these things will come to pass, but I know it is not far off.’ I have unburdened my soul to you. Do with the message as you choose.” DK: I could not help but note indeed that his sermon was delivered in 2009, that he’d been warning of this since 1999, and my own expectations that much of this could well come to pass by 2029 – the very year that the COMET 99942, (1,230 ft.), APOPHIS, Egyptian God of Chaos and Darkness is calculated to come very close to Earth (19,793 miles) on Friday April 13 of that year.

THREE: THE ACADEMIC VIEW. My final resource is one I have referenced twice before since his is, in my view, the most carefully examined, documented and argued from a sound theological and doctrinal foundation. DR. STEVEN ANDERSON is a career Bible scholar, teacher, and author, with three seminary degrees. His Ph.D. is from Dallas Theological Seminary. His analysis is titled, “The Case for Identifying BABYLON THE GREAT as the United States of America,” published in his Truth Only Bible blog on July 29, 2021 (edited).

• 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, Pre-Tribulational 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.” DK. I have articulated a PRE-WRATH ESCHATOLOGY based on 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him” (New King James Version; Kelly, The Sixth Seal II, 2023).

• “DESOLATION.” “How the hammer of the whole earth has been cut apart and broken! How Babylon has become a desolation among the nations!” (Jeremiah 50:23, Amplified). Taken from the Hebrew, ‘Shammah’ [לְשַׁמָּ֛ה]: “‘Waste, horror, ruin, appalment;’ astonishment, dismay [re: an evil people, their households, land, towns and buildings that are to be utterly destroyed because of their sins].”

• 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.’ What follows below is a Summary of a much longer and more detailed argument regarding the Identity of Babylon the Great, part of a Commentary I am writing on the Book of Revelation.”

• PREMISE. “Traditionally, most (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 symbolically as 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 [though inclusive of that Church].’”

• POLIS. “First, REVELATION 17:18 directly states that the Prostitute of Revelation 17 is ‘THE GREAT CITY’ [epitomized by New York City, is more accurately, the Great ‘Polis,’ or ‘State’ of Revelation 18]: ‘And the woman whom you saw is the great state, which has a kingdom over the kings of the earth.’ Revelation 17:18 clearly establishes that the Prostitute is a Political Entity, not a Religious one. ‘Babylon the Great is a World Hegemon, a superpower that dominates world politics, economics, and culture in the Last Days.’”

• 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.”

• AMERICA THE GREAT. “Babylon the Great is [again] 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 ‘the 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 (Rev 17:6; 18:20, 24; 19:2)—enough aspects already match so as to leave no doubt as to the fulfillment of the rest.”

SUMMARY. Thus have I argued still again nearly inarguably, based on the evidence available to the Biblical scholars of the 21^st Century, that AMERICA IS BABYLON THE GREAT.

Whether from the Perspective of History, of Prophecy, or of the Academy, I believe there is no other explanation of the Book of Revelation’s consistent reference to the Last Days Superpower. Now we turn to the deeply vital implications of these findings for the American followers of Jesus Christ in the Last Times.

III.  LAST THOUGHTS: WHAT NOW?

Somewhat surprisingly, I turn to a notable Catholic theologian who offers us a steadier and calmer read of The American Condition as we might expect from Catholic intellectuals. Though writing nearly 20 years ago, here is, I think, still another prescient, if not prophetic, essay.

OUR AMERICAN BABYLON. This is the very title of a provocative reflection on where we came from, and at least two decades ago, where we were and are not likely headed RICHARD JOHN NEUHAUS prods us toward some reasonable and spiritually sound Conclusions midst all the din and disagreement between Church and State at the end of the precipitous Year 2024 (First Things, December 2005).

• OUR IDENTITY. Once upon a time—it was the 1976 Bicentennial of the American Founding, to be precise—I wrote a book on the American experiment and the idea of Covenant. Time magazine picked up on it and reported, ‘On the Day of Judgment, Neuhaus wants to meet God as an American.’ That’s not quite right. What I wrote is that: ‘I expect to meet God as an American.’ And that for the simple reason that, among all the things I am or have been or hope to be, I am undeniably an American. ‘It is not the most important thing, but it is an inescapable thing.’” 

• OUR STORY. “The theologian Robert Jenson has employed to fine effect the phrase, ‘The Story of the World.’ The story of Israel and the Church, he writes, is nothing less than the story of the world, and the world is today lost in its confusions because it has ‘Lost its Story.’ I would add that, for those of us who are Americans, we are as Americans part of the story that is the story of the world. ‘Moreover, America itself—this Nation that the Founders called an Experiment and, like any experiment, may succeed or fail—is [a key] part of the story that is The Story of the World.’ Of the many ways of thinking about America—Economic, Political, Cultural, etc.—‘There is today a striking scarcity of thinking about America theologically.’”

•  OUR LOSS. “It was not always so. Not so long ago, American intellectuals, including American theologians, spent considerable time thinking about, ‘Their Place as Americans.’ But in the last half century or so, we have largely Lost our Story and our Place in the Story of the World’ (cf. Religious Sociologist Robert Bellah, Habits of the Heart, 1985). Theologians, too, have succumbed to the False-Consciousness of having transcended the American Experience, which is expressed, more often than not, in a typically American Anti-Americanism that is relished and imitated by others, notably by European intellectuals. As in the writing of biography, or of history more generally, one cannot think truly about a story with which one is not sympathetically engaged. Love is sometimes blind, but contempt is always blind.”

• OUR FUTURE. “The Argument, in short, is that God is not indifferent to the American Experiment, and therefore we who are called to think about God and His ways through time dare not be indifferent to the American Experiment. ‘America is not uniquely Babylon, but it is our Land and Place in Babylon.’ We seek its peace in which we find our peace as we yearn for and … anticipate the New Jerusalem that is our Pilgrim Goal. ‘It is time to think again—to think deeply, to think theologically—about the Story of America and its Place in the Story of the World.’”

CODA. Who have we become then, beloved, and what are we making of our Grand Experiment since our arguably Religous Founding 400 years ago? BABYLON THE GREAT by every theological, political, and economic measure, I must conclude. And if true:

‘Is there still Time to Return to the God of our Founding?’

Perhaps a little, my fellow Americans. But precious little I suspect, as the Lord’s Massive Clock leans hard toward Midnight. Even as I type these last words on August 31, 2024.  

Selah. Selah.

NOTE ON VIDEO. Until my YouTube video restriction lifts next Wednesday September 4, we will have to use VIMEO one more time. The link is open to all, so go to that link below, but return here to post your comments so we can continue the conversation here for now. DK

VIMEO: https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/1004930286/privacy