Babylon As Metaphor For Apostasy Runs Twice

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Babylon As Metaphor For Apostasy Runs Twice

Old Covenant Israel was changed as II Kings 21: 13, Isaiah 29: 16 and especially Jeremiah 18: 1-6 predict. That prophecy of the transformation of Old Covenant Israel was fulfilled in the remnant of Israel which accepted Christ, and is seen in Romans 11: 5, or Romans 11: 1-5. Those of Old Covenant Israel who rejected Christ are cut off in Romans 11:15-21.

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10: 10

Christ changed physical Israel so that those in it and those of Hosea 2: 23, which were not his people but who become his people, could have spiritual life more abundantly. "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Matthew 15: 24

He was sent first to the lost sheep of the house of Old Covenant Israel. Yet only a small number of Old Covenant Israel accepted him, and in them his work to bring spiritual life to spiritually dead Old Covenant Israel was fulfilled. The majority, on the broad way, did not accept him. "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves." Matthew 7: 13-15

Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51 is Old Covenant Israel in apostasy, and Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18 is New Covenant Israel in apostasy. The apostasy runs twice. Babylon is metaphoric, using the name Babylon as an empire which took Old Covenant Israel into captivity for 70 years

"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel that prophesy, and say thou unto them that prophesy out of their own hearts, Hear ye the word of the LORD; 3. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe unto the foolish prophets, that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!" Ezekiel 13: 2-3. . The prophecy of bringing Old Covenant Israel to its end in Ezekiel 7 is the Lord's judgment for following the false prophets. .Jeremiah 25: 11 says "And this whole land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment; and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years." Jeremiah 29: 19-20 says "Because they have not hearkened to my words, saith the LORD, which I sent unto them by my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; but ye would not hear, saith the LORD. Hear ye therefore the word of the LORD, all ye of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon."

"My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place..........Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks." Jeremiah 50: 6, 8

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence." Jeremiah 51: 6

"For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the time of her harvest shall come." Jeremiah 51: 33

Jeremiah 23: 31-32 gives the reasons why God sent physical Israel into the literal Babylonian captivity, and Jeremiah 29: 8-10 repeats the reasons and says physical Israel will be in captivity seventy years.

Yet the Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51 quoted above is not the literal Babylon of king Nebuchadnezzar. It is a metaphoric concept. The metaphoric Babylon in Jeremiah 50 and 51 is physical Israel in false doctrines and false practices. But there are verses in Jeremiah 50 and 51 which apply also to the time of the New Covenant and the falling into false doctrines by what the II Timothy 3: 5-8 Christians call the church.

Just as the people of physical Israel in the time of Jeremiah (whose ministry was from about 626 BC to 586 BC) were sent into literal captivity in Babylon, so the people in the timeline of the New Covenant at the time of the end are sent into spiritual captivity to their own false doctrines. The Great Tribulation of Matthew 24: 21 is judgment by God for being in false doctrines, and that judgment consists of being brought into captivity to spiritual Babylon, or Christianity in false doctrines taught by the huge number of false prophets (Matthew 24: 11. II Peter 2: 1-3).

And that spiritual captivity to false doctrines taught by the huge number of false prophets, the priests and preachers of the church, is metaphorical Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18.

Revelation 18: 4 says "Come out of her, my people that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

This is a repeat of the call of Jeremiah 50: 8 to remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and of Jeremiah 51: 6 to flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her iniquity. In other words, Babylon as a metaphor for being in captivity to false doctrines repeats, running once in the time of the Old Covenant and again in the period of the New Covenant.

Then there is that interesting metaphoric statement in Revelation 18: 23, "And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee; and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee: for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived." Christ and his elect, the bride of Christ, are not in Babylon, not inside the camp in Hebrews 13: 11, but outside of Babylon, which is now the camp in false doctrines.

The false prophets of Ezekiel 3: 2-3, and the many false prophets of Matthew 24: 11, who deceive many bring Old Covenant Israel and then New Covenant Israel into false doctrines, and God gives them over to their false doctrines.