Mystery City

God’s Word has a lot to say about a mystery city that will, one day (probably very soon), pollute the entire earth with the last satanic religion (e.g., Revelation 16:17-21; 17-18). For example, Yeshua may have spoken about it when he gave an analogy about the Kingdom of Heaven, Matthew 22:1-14, NKJV (emphasis added):

And Jesus answered and spoke to them again by parables and said: “The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who arranged a marriage for his son, and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding; and they were not willing to come. Again, he sent out other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, “See, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen and fatted cattle are killed, and all things are ready. Come to the wedding.”’ But they made light of it and went their ways, one to his own farm, another to his business. And the rest seized his servants, treated them spitefully, and killed them. But when the king heard about it, he was furious. And he sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. Then the king said to the servants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

Chris White gave an interesting, powerfully compelling teaching about this city: Mystery Babylon — The Eschatological City of Jerusalem. My very limited life experience and knowledge of God’s Word leads me to suspect that Chris White may be profoundly accurate in his thesis that the city that the Book of Revelation refers to as Mystery Babylon is Jerusalem in the very last days of this, pre-Millennial age.

For example, if one observes the vast majority of the people of Israel who still reject the one and only Messiah, Yeshua, they appear to be like all of those who refuse to believe and trust in the God of Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov when they are under persecution from satan’s forces. That is, they seek relief from any source but God that they can find. So, in the end, when satan’s forces rise up in all of their horror, when their brutality is allow to prevail in a manner that has as of yet never been seen on the earth, it should not be surprising that the those who refuse to follow God will flock to them. Furthermore, it should not be surprising that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who are continually betrayed and persecuted by the contemporaneous forces of satan, yet who, at the same time and in large part, refuse to turn to their God for help, will embrace that last, horrible, seemingly all powerful satanic power when it offers Jerusalem peace and protection.

Thus, if this thesis is the true interpretation of Mystery Babylon, then it will be from Jerusalem where satan’s final religion will pervade the earth. This interpretation, while sad for those of us who love Israel and Jerusalem, would seem to make many of the pieces of the puzzle about Jerusalem in the last days, as described in God’s Word, fit. For example, why are satanic forces allowed to take and ravage Jerusalem just prior to God’s return (e.g., Zechariah 14)? Why is it that only one third of the land (of Jerusalem, apparently) will survive (Zechariah 13)?

The answer that Jerusalem becomes so corrupt and morally bankrupt that it embraces satan and his final religion of hatred for and destruction of God’s true people and needs to be cleansed of all of its filth and wickedness would seem to make sense. It would also make sense that a people who refuse to turn to God would turn to their persecutor, instead, when he offers them (a false) peace. Just look at the world, as a whole, today, for proof of that. (Also see Isaiah 42:21-25.)

 

Why Did God Cease to Dwell Among Men?

Once and a while, one might come across a question like, “Why does God not speak in a loud voice, from the clouds, like He did in the days of old?”

One answer that seems appropriate is the answer that God gave to Israel after they committed idolatry against Him, Exodus 33:1-3,5, NKJV:

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Depart and go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your descendants I will give it.’ And I will send My Angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people…” For the Lord [יהוה] had said to Moses, “Say to the children of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people. I could come up into your midst in one moment and consume you. Now therefore, take off your ornaments, that I may know what to do to you.’”

If you think about it, honestly, we are each like Israel in our relationship with God. Every time that we turn aside from doing God’s ways in favor of doing our own, we are committing idolatry (i.e., making ourselves as God in place of the One, True God). So, like the Israelites of Exodus 33, we are also a stiff-necked people who refuse to truly follow and obey God. Thus, God, in His mercy, maintains a distance from us so that He, in His holiness, does not have to strike us down.

Passover

FYI, according to the Jewish calendars that I found, Passover (including the Feast of Unleavened Bread) — e.g., Exodus 12, Leviticus 23:4-8, Numbers 9:1-14, — starts at dusk on April 6, 2012 and ends at dusk on April 14, 2012. The first and last days of the feast are special Sabbath days, and you should not eat any leaven (representing sin) during all of the days of the feast. This feast is most probably representative of Yeshua and His sacrifice for us, which means that He is our Passover lamb, and the unleavened bread represents His sinless body.

Miscellaneous

 

Have a great rest of your weekend.

God bless, and Shabbat shalom,

Darwin and Ani