passing through this world and should bless it in our transit but never yoke ourselves to its af fairs.” Matthew Henry said, “ This world is our passage and not our portion.” One thinks of Uncle Bud Robinson, the Holiness preacher, who was shown the wonders of New York by some o f his friends. That night as he prayed he said, “ Thank you, Lord, for letting me see New York. And most of all I thank you that I didn’t see anything that I want ed !” Blessed is the man who can sit as loosely as that toward Babylon! The recent New York World’s Fair carried an imposing Futura ma put on by General Motors. I am more interested in the Futura ma John saw on Patmos. The early Christians were strangers in Babylon. We are not moving the world today because we have become citizens of Babylon, ac cepting its standards, joining its societies, promoting its programs, trying to build the New Jerusa lem down here instead of looking for the pearly White City that's soon coming down. Dr. Roy Smith says that the early Christians “ never seemed to worry about whether they were making a good impression on the newspapers, the Chambers of Commerce, the labor federations, the philosophi cal departments o f the universi ties or the secret service o f the Roman government.” All of that has changed today and even in evangelical circles the new angle is to get chummy with Sodom and Gomorrah, play up to Rome and hobnob with Babylon. This policy is not working at all as slumping church statistics prove but the new school seems determined to go ahead with it anyway. There was a prophet o f God named Daniel who lived in Baby lon a long time ago and set a standard of conduct for all time. Modem prophets with their new techniques do not sound like Daniel. If one is to be popular in Babylon today, he must learn how to talk out of both sides of his mouth, work both sides o f the 11
which will culminate in the 666 which Dr. Torrance says is “ the number o f so-ca lled Christian civilization without Jesus Christ, the number o f every attempt to organize the world in a form that appears marvelously Christian but is in reality anti-Christian.” We see this process going on be fore our eyes today, as men try to superimpose a counterfeit king dom of heaven on an unregener ate society. But Christians are strangers in Babylon and should have no part in it. To quote Dr. Torrance a g a in : “A Christian may be a citizen of no earthly Babylon. He is a citizen of heav en and belongs to a new heaven and earth, the city of God. 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 en mity but that is the tribulation of the saints and the patience of the children o f God.” Spurgeon said: “ I am a for eigner even in England and as such I mean to act. We are simply
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