and the patience of the children of God.” We who are citizens of the Heavenly Common wealth will not be controlled by Babylon, either ecclesiastical or political. As the age darkens just before the Dawn, it will be a time of fiery testing for all who do not wear the mark of the Beast. We will be the targets of the powers of darkness. Satan will endeavor to disable our bodies, deceive our minds and discourage our spirits. The weird, uncanny brainwashing of demonic forces‘ will put us under severest pressure. We will be disappoint ed in men we trusted who will weaken and fall away. We will be sore beset by circumstances and conditions that laugh at our faith. But the strife will not be long and God will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on Him. Strangers in Babylon, I salute you! Fear not and be not deceived! It may look as though the Devil has taken over but we have not reached the last chapter. Our Lord came in the advent o f grace to an obscure little province of mighty Rome but Christ overcame Caesar. When He comes again in the advent of glory He will find another Roman Empire. Be not misled by modem scholars who make Daniel’s fourth world-power to be Greece. That delusion came late in church history for the early fathers did not so believe. Be not confused with those who can see no further than Antiochus Epiphanes but “whoso readeth (Daniel), let him UNDERSTAND” . Make your way through Rev elation 17 and 18 until Babylon is no more and join that innumerable multitude in Chapter 19 singing, “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” Of course God’s people will be caught up before the final chapter of Babylon. But we live now in the darkening shadows just preceding the last act in the drama. To us the voice from Heaven says now, as He will speak again in the hour of Babylon’s destruction, “ Come out of her, my peo ple, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not o f her plagues.” I read o f a group o f youngsters marching in a parade. They were keeping pretty good time ex cept for one fellow who seemed to have a tempo of his own. Investigation revealed that he was carrying a transistor radio under his coat and his ears were tuned to music a thousand miles away! This generation o f conformists, like sheep on the way to slaughter, follows blind leaders of the blind. But the Christian who knows his Bible is out of step for he marches to the music of another world. Above the din, the wild weird discord of these days, he hears the drumbeats o f another world. He is tuned in on a different parade, God’s his tory within history, and he follows an unseen Band master. Strangers in Babylon, as a fellow-traveler, I salute you! 11
We think of the mixing of iron and clay in Nebu chadnezzar’s image. We see in the United Nations and NATO and the Common Market preliminary blueprints o f the homogenization o f the nations into a world state. The ecumenical movement presages a coming world-church. We are in the midst of Babylon and Christians need to heat’ God’s call to come out of her as both Jeremiah (51:6-9) and John record it (Rev. 18:4). Christians are in this world but not of it. We are pilgrims at the Vanity Fair of this age. Bun- yan pictured it in his immortal prose: “And as they wondered at their apparel, so they did like wise at their speech; for few could understand what they said. They naturally spoke the language of Canaan; but they that kept the Fair were men of this world so that from one end of the Fair to the other, they seemed barbarians to each oth er.” Bunyan would not see this marked distinc tion between the average professed Christian and the worldling nowadays. The modern run-of-the- mill church member is quite at home in Sodom. But we were never meant to be. We are strangers in Babylon and we are never to bear the mark of the Beast. There has been much speculation as to what that mark will be. (I remember that when the Franklin D. Roosevelt admnistration came into power and the National Recovery Act was insti tuted, some thought the N.R.A. sign was the mark of the Beast!) One thing is certain: men are being primed for that day when it comes. By now we are getting used to being numbered, tagged and labeled. Every man has not merely one number but a catalogue of them from A to Z, and I mean that literally, for A stands for his automobile license and Z for his Zip Code. Modern man is a Social Security number with a wallet full of credit cards. Surely we are being readied for the stamp of Babylon! But the child of God is an odd number. He has another mark of identification. As a Christian, he bears the name of Christ. He bears the stigmata of iden tification with the Saviour, the marks of the Lord Jesus. He awaits the day when he will be given a new name, when God will stamp His name on the foreheads o f His people. Our names are now in His book and one day His Name will be on our brows (Rev. 22:4). That is the one autograph worth seeking! As Babylon shapes up before our eyes, it will not be easy to make our way as a pilgrim and stranger through this unfriendly world. Dr. Tor rance says: “A Christian may be a citizen o f no earthly Babylon. He is a citizen o f heaven and belongs to a new heaven and a new earth, the city of God. No doubt, as a member of the Kingdom of God, he may be regarded as an alien in Babylon and will constantly be subjected to persecution and enmity, but that is the tribulation o f the saints NOVEMBER, 1966
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