The Kingdom of Babylon
Babylon is the kingdom of this world. We are born in Babylon, and with God’s help, we will see the day when it falls. We will bear witness to that glad and blessed event.
Revelation 18:11-13
11. The merchants of the earth weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their merchandise any more;
12. merchandise of gold, silver, precious stones, pearls, fine linen, purple, silk, scarlet, all expensive wood, every vessel of ivory, every vessel made of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble;
13. and cinnamon, incense, perfume, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, sheep, horses, chariots, and people’s bodies and souls.
The Book of Revelation envisions the day that Babylon falls. It’s important that you read that list of merchandise that Babylon peddled in. Through it, we see exactly what kind of a kingdom Babylon truly is. Its power and greed touch every industry you can imagine. That last line is just chilling. People’s bodies and souls were nothing but merchandise to Babylon.
The vile kingdom of Babylon believes that it has the right to tell us what to do with our body, where we should go and what we should do. It controls our time, our futures. It limits our possibilities. Once they have control of everything that we do and what we deem as possible, they have full control over our souls. They trade people like commodities. They treat life like a commodity. They don’t care who lives and who dies, so long as their power, fear, and greed are fed.
Seeing Babylon Clearly
We could think of Babylon as an evil soul collector, they do that by controlling everything we do. They own everything. Through their fear, they sow fear, making us worry about each other and the potential enemies in our midst so they can erect walls and send forces amongst us to control us. Through their greed, they extract what is rightfully ours, the fruit of our labors, the work of our hands. They take and they take and they hoard it unto themselves, so we have less and less and less. The hungrier we are, the more willing they believe we will be to follow their dictates and to work for even less just to survive. In their lust for power, they make proclamations to aggrandize themselves, forcing us to bend our knee before them so that we can have the scraps from their tables.
Behold Babylon. The extractor of souls, of riches, of life itself, that takes all unto itself and cares nothing for those who live under it. These are the powers in high places that Paul talked about. Not the people, but the power structures. The system itself that doesn’t care who is placed where because it will always find replacements. It is self-healing. It is a machine of sorrow that grinds down humanity and the world until there is nothing else but it. It is the entropy, the hunger, devouring all that is because it can never be satisfied.
Now we need to dig deeper into the nature of Babylon so we can see it clearly. We need to be able to recognize it as it is forming and see its machinations as they take shape. If we don’t know what Babylon looks like in practice, and only have a vague image of it, we will not be able to confront it as it takes over our lives.
Babylon Tramples the Poor
People have always erected power structures around themselves so that they could exploit the poor for their own benefit. The Prophet Amos took people to task for this.
Amos 5:11-12
11. Therefore, because you trample on the poor, and take taxes from him of wheat: You have built houses of cut stone, but you will not dwell in them. You have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
12. For I know how many your offenses, and how great are your sins— you who afflict the just, who take a bribe, and who turn away the needy in the courts.
These words are powerful and feel like they could have been written today. The image of the rich and the powerful trampling on the poor was a common image used to show conquest. So in a way, Amos is saying you have conquered the poor.
What do they do after this conquest? They take taxes from them, from the things that they need to sustain themselves most. Taxes have changed a lot over the millennia. They used to be paid in the products that a community made. Since the advent of mercantilism and capitalism, those taxes are collected in money. But then again, no one can buy or sell anything without money. They can’t even get food without money. So they are still robbing what they need from the poor to enrich themselves.
We see this in our own present day when they give tax cuts to the rich and subsidies to industries that do not require them, while fully taxing or even increasing the taxes on those who can least afford to pay them. They use the machinery of government to extract what little wealth there is at the bottom so that they can continue to concentrate it at the top.
They have learned that a population that is too well-fed and happy, with too much free time, has a tendency to revolt against them. But they always forget that a population deprived too much tends to do the same. This is the blindness that is brought about by their fear, power hunger, and greed.
Babylon takes this wealth they have extracted building extravagant homes for themselves and places where they can live in pleasure. That is what the houses of cut stone and pleasant vineyards are about. I would go so far as to say that the curse of God placed on them here, that they will not dwell in them and that they will not drink their wine, is not just a future punishment after they are overthrown or cast down, but a true statement. They hoard the wine in hopes it will increase in value, and thus make them even richer. They do not live in the lavish houses they make. They abide there. They simply are. They do not allow themselves the connections and the allowance to savor what they have and thus continue in their suffering, always looking for more that they can have and bring in, while not truly living.
As a result of this, their sins, their falling away, their walking off the path is mighty. They go as far as they can away from the good path, so that they begin to afflict the just, those who are bringing about good to the best of their ability. They bribe others to be complicit. Without collaborators, vile power structures like this cannot exist. They then corrupt the courts so the poor cannot even find justice there.
Oh, how that sounds like our present age, and oh, how that sounds like every age that preceded it. Babylon tramples the poor, extracts their taxes, and denies justice to the people so that their wealth and luxury can be secured. They cannot even conceive of a world where one could have prosperity without exploitation because exploitation is all that they know and all that they care about. This further blinds them to the needs of those who are sick, injured, or disabled. Since they cannot find a way to exploit them, what use are they to Babylon?
Babylon Writes Oppressive Laws
Babylon doesn’t just work through extraction, but through unjust laws and oppressive systems that keep people down.
Isaiah 10:1-2
1. Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;
2. to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their plunder, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!
Laws are the rule book by which we govern our societies. If we were to look at this fairly, you could say that government is a game that we are playing with one another, where we establish the rules of play so that it should benefit everyone. The problem comes in when people who have greed, fear, and a lust for power are allowed to write those laws, because they will write them to their own benefit.
Oppressive laws have a couple of functions. The first is to incite culture wars. They turn people against each other within the society so that the argument is internal and no one looks up at the ones who are actually writing the laws. We turn those who may support these oppressive laws into our enemies and fight them instead of the regime that puts them in power. This is a very good way to conquer and control a people. If a people is divided, it will fall. As Jesus said, a house divided against itself cannot stand (Matt 12:25; Mark 3:25; Luke 11:17).
Next, they codify into law the very unjust systems by which they are governing, keeping the needy from getting the justice that they deserve and robbing the poor of their rights. These kinds of laws are meant to keep the people down. If the people are deprived of justice and their rights, then they have no leg to stand on within the system to achieve equity in their lives.
When they plunder the widows and make the fatherless their prey, this shows the base nature of those who seek this kind of power. They separate families because it is easier to exploit someone, especially a child, who has no one to help them. This kind of exploitation takes many forms, from the many children that disappear into slavery to the ones whose hearts are hardened to fight in their wars and to enforce the very laws that hold them bound.
This shows the darkness at the heart of Babylon. It’s not that it doesn’t care about those underneath it. The cruelty is the point. In their eyes, this unchecked cruelty is a sign of their true power, and in a perverse way, their own worth.
Even when such cruelty is unintentional at first, it inevitably develops because it is necessary to fuel those who are in charge. It whispers the sweet lie: if they hold authority over life and death, their dominion is absolute. In this way, they make themselves into gods, and gods cannot be questioned. Gods are always worthy.
May Babylon fall under the weight of the many cruelties that it commits.
When Law Replaces Ethics
People have a hard time understanding the difference between morality and ethics. Morality is how we should live personally. Ethics is how we should behave collectively and towards one another. One governs my actions. The other, my actions with others. In that confusion, many people simply defer to the law, believing that whatever is legal is also ethical.
By corrupting the law, the fearful, the greedy, and the power-hungry work their corruption down into the people at every level. The logic is simple. If it is legal for me to do a thing, then it must be ethical for me to do that thing. Since it is ethical for me to do that thing, then you should not be upset when I do that thing. This ignores the very possibility that the law might be unethical.
But since Babylon has done so much work to make sure that people are hungry and tired, and that their days are filled up with labor to extract wealth from them, people don’t have the time to sit and think philosophically about what is and is not ethical or moral for their daily lives. And thus, having a simple rule like the law is a relief.
It is an illusion of ease that helps people get by in their daily lives. “Well, it’s legal for me to act this way, so I can, and maybe even should act this way.” Thus, the injustice works its way down into everyday life, so that we exploit each other, just as the fearful, the greedy, and the power-hungry exploit us.
When People Become Merchandise
The next story in Acts 16 is one that I have been taught in my evangelical past. But the focus in it was on the deliverance ministry that Paul engages in and how that enraged the devil. If you actually read the text, that’s not what made these people mad.
Acts 16:16-19
16. As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling.
17. Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!”
18. She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour.
19. But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
Did you catch the operative phrase there? Was it that the girl had been freed from the spirit of divination within her? No. When they saw their hope of profit was gone, that is when they became angry and seized Paul and Silas.
The masters became angry when they realized they could no longer exploit this girl for profit.
The Roman Empire was all about forced exploitation and extraction of wealth. These masters were just doing that. We don’t know how they came into possession of this girl who had a spirit of divination in her. In fact, we don’t even know what that spirit of divination was. If we’re being honest, we don’t even really know why Paul cast it out. The scripture only says that he was annoyed that she was following them around.
What these masters were mad about is that their hope of profit was gone, and that led them to violence, just like the Roman Empire they lived in. They moved in the spirit of Babylon to seize Paul and Silas and bring them to judgment.
The thing that has always amazed me about this story from all sides is that we know nothing about this girl. Like any piece of merchandise sold and traded in Babylon, she is merely a product on the shelf. The story is about the people who owned her. That is disgusting.
Whenever we can see a person as property or even as a commodity, which is, when you think about it, a form of property, we see the depravity that Babylon breeds in the hearts of people. And if you don’t understand, that’s what people do anytime they talk about the labor market. That is the commoditization of people. That is turning people into products traded back and forth by companies to extract wealth for their own benefit.
There is no respect or dignity given to people under systems like this. It is unsurprising that they breed oppression.
Religion in Service of Babylon
Babylon often works with her compatriot, the false prophet, to further her aims through religion. The religion of Babylon is one that uses the system of Babylon but casts it all in the language of faith. Ritual is costly and transactional. The church, or whatever the religious institution is, begins to operate more like a business than like a house of God.
Nowhere is this scene clearer than the riot in Ephesus.
Acts 19:23-27
23. About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way.
24. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen,
25. whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, “Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth.
26. You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
27. Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships.”
If you pay attention to this passage, while Demetrius talks about faith in the great goddess Artemis, his actual concern is for their wealth. His primary concern is not about faith, but as he says, “You know that by this business we have our wealth.”
I can’t help but think about the megachurches, pilgrimage sites, and other sites of devotion that have turned into something almost entirely about commerce. Simple acts of devotion require an entire band to play to entertain the crowd so that they can sing along, thus increasing the cost of holding a service. As these costs mount up, the attention of the pastors has to be dedicated more to the funding of the service than anything else.
Jesus said that we cannot serve God and mammon, which is to put our faith in our wealth. Here we see people who have done just that.
Babylon doesn’t know anything about faith, but it knows a lot about wealth and the desire to hoard and extract it. So it makes this core to all of those who would be doing any religious action. Every service is about making money. That money is necessary for the ministry, and without it, it cannot continue the way that it does. The ministry grows and now requires more money. And so the cycle continues, and it grows and grows, compounding on itself.
All the while, whatever the original intent, purpose, or community aim of the religious devotion, it is lost. All that is left is the industry. The business of selling that faith. “Do you want to know the word of the Lord, by my book, or teaching? Do you need a miracle? Send your money and you will have it.” In this way, religion becomes a racket. And the wolves are invited in to feed on the sheep.
In return for this capitulation of religion into becoming a business, Babylon now has access to the sacred language of that faith that it can use and twist to its own aims.
“Don’t read the Gospels. All you need is to listen to me. Jesus didn’t care about the poor. He cared about those other people over there and why we should eradicate them.”
“Oh, you actually read the gospel, so yes, Jesus did care about the poor, but that’s a personal issue. That’s not something we should be doing together.”
Such religious movements corrupted by Babylon will do anything to keep her happy and to keep the money flowing because money is help. They keep score. The biggest, the greatest faith is the one that has the most wealth in Babylon.
Devouring Widows’ Houses
Jesus pointed this out in his own day.
Mark 12:38-40 (cf Luke 20:45–47)
38. In his teaching he said to them, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk in long robes, and to get greetings in the marketplaces,
39. and the best seats in the synagogues, and the best places at feasts:
40. those who devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. These will receive greater condemnation.”
Beware the ones in the fancy clothes, who like to get greetings in the marketplace, who take the best seats at the religious services, and the best places at the feast. These are the ones who devour widows’ houses, says Jesus. For the pretense of holiness, they make long prayers. We have all seen these people.
These scribes were masters of the law, who would offer their services to widows to help manage their estates, and then mooch off them, taking advantage of their kindness and hospitality, and push them through piousness to give more and more and more. They exploited the vulnerable to enrich themselves.
Oh, if that doesn’t look like the churches that we have today, with all the sweet old ladies just eating out of the pastor’s hand and giving him money whenever he asks. The pastor living in the lap of luxury, taking all that these people have to make that life possible.
To exploit the vulnerable in the name of the God whose main focus throughout Scripture is to take care of the vulnerable and to help raise them up is particularly deplorable. It shows just how deep Babylon gets into the system, that it can use the very institutions meant to help these people to do them harm.
We don’t only see this in churches but in various charities and other groups that are designed with the intent of helping people. On their face, these systems sound like they should be beneficial to those who need them. But the practices contained within them require them to divest of all that they have, to have all of their wealth and savings extracted from them, to bleed them dry, to make them more dependent, and to make others wealthy.
Babylon will never be satisfied. It will drain the last drop of life’s blood from a person and still hunger for more. It will destroy an entire population, and yet still hunger. It’s violence, extraction and alienation creep all the way down into the lives of everyone.
The Path That Breaks Babylon
Babylon has no power over the liberated. Its power diminishes even more as the liberated come together to sustain and help one another. So long as we strive together, building systems of mutual aid, care, and support, we defy and destroy Babylon wherever we are.
We are called to be mystics, to see the beauty in all things and to savor it, to have life abundantly. This is a poison to Babylon because this life savored is hard to exploit.
We are called to be artists, creating new things and allowing our dreams to be born through us into reality. This is a poison to Babylon because the new threatens the old.
We are called to be prophets, interfering with injustice, with joy, wherever we find it. Joy is the opposite of alienation. It brings people together to celebrate, to sing, and to dance.
How do we do this?
We always remember that we were created in original blessing, no matter what Babylon wants to tell us. We walk the four paths in that great spiral dance, liberating ourselves from the chains that would hold us down.
Through awe and wonder, letting go and making space. In creating and co-creating, in justice and joy, we renew ourselves and bring the lush greenness back to the earth as we liberate the fountains of grace.
Once we have the eyes to see and ears to hear the work that Babylon does, it is our task to open the eyes of others so they might see and be free.