[17] The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and out of the temple came a loud voice from the throne, saying, "It is done!" [18] Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. [19] The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. God remembered Babylon the Great and gave her the cup filled with the wine of the fury of his wrath. (Revelation 16 NIV)

Great is Babylon! Great will be the fury in her final demise. Babylon is beautiful, like a gem mined from the richness of civilization. She is cut and polished to cast a bent light that appears so brilliant in the twilight of the cave. Babylon is the crown jewel worn by the Magician. She sparkles in the eyes of the rebel and weaves a spell within his heart.

Have you ever been drawn or held captive, O man, by the seductive power of Babylon? I have felt the enchantment of her solicitations. She is constructed from the dust of creation. Babylon appeals to the asceticism of a creature who is born of dust and spirit. Babylon, this global city of man's achievement, captures so much of the Creator's splendor and the creature's yearning, but always with a demonic twist.

A blessing is turned into a curse within the agency of human will. Babylon is molded from creation, by man, to serve as a fortress standing against the dominion of heaven. Babylon is the city constructed by human desire to oppose the rule of Christ. She is called by many titles. The whole globe has surrendered to her civics, and serves her in manner if not in name. Babylon is one of many civilizations which men could have constructed from God's gift of creation, but in the rebel's heart the city has become a fortress against God--a place where each rebel acts as king:

[37] He will show no regard for the gods of his fathers or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. [38] Instead of them, he will honor a god of fortresses; a god unknown to his fathers he will honor with gold and silver, with precious stones and costly gifts. (Daniel 11 NIV)

Babylon is a rebel's concept of civilization. Unlike past counterfeit constructions from the human heart, contemporary Babylon not only stands against God's authority, it denies the spiritual altogether or reduces it to superstition. Past civilizations have stood against the true God, but always as they paid tribute to their false gods. Today Babylon is a fortress unlike all others. It recognizes nothing transcendent. It provides a false security behind its walls where the rebel commits the great blasphemy of claiming to be the master of his own existence.

The children of light gather in the shadows of the city of selfishness and self-acclaim. The Fellowship of the Cross is an alien nation among the nations. They long to live in a place where the meaning of the transcendent transforms existence, but the civics of Babylon has mastered the globe. There is no longer any far shore for pilgrims who are willing to set sail. There is no new land of isolation for building a godly society outside the influence of Babylon. The face of the earth is in her image. Church and state honor her with allegiance. The Fellowship of the Cross has nowhere to go, but must bear the abuse of a city set against it.

The Fellowship gathers in the light of its living Lord. With hearts united and opened to the transcendent Word, we share a holy love. In the darkness of the hour, we sing our songs of praise like robins greeting the approach of dawn. The city hears our love songs to Jesus. Our voices rise beyond the walls to the coming Lord. We are watchmen who testify to God's presence and to His coming. I am a watchman and I sing the omega note within the wedding song of the Bride and the Groom.

As I sing, I carry the note of judgment and hope. Judgment upon Babylon, and hope if the Church returns to her great commission. Without a mighty Church, without her mighty Word, history will die within the embrace of Babylon. Babylon is the great harlot who has recruited the nations into violating the storehouses of creation: "BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (Revelation 17:5b NIV) Babylon, harlot of history, served by the beast of the rebel's heart!

O man, look to the horizon! The beast is carrying you to death! It is the beast of blasphemy. It incarnates every unholy specter arising through the grates of hell from the deep recesses of human will. It has a life and animation of its own. The whole world moves toward Armageddon as this demon is released through human agency. The beast rides rapidly towards history's conclusion, like a horse that has taken its rider captive.

The beast will destroy its rider! The fantasies and appetites of her children will ruin Babylon. St. John saw the beast as having ten horns. The revelations of John not only spoke to his community under Roman persecutions, but are apocalyptic images transcending time. "Babylon," then and today, designates a corrupt civilization which shall be destroyed by the very agencies of evil which first founded her, used her, and ended up loathing her: "The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire." (Revelation 17:16 NIV) The harlot will die at the hands of her lovers.

Babylon, you have been deceived! Like foolish lovers who will despise eternity for one hour of passion, your people have lain with you in the bed of corruption. Both you and they are blind to the robust breadth of the Kingdom of Heaven. You boast of your strength, but your passion is a weak man's drink. You and your lovers do not know true passion. The passion of purity builds up, while its twisted double only tears down. True passion is seen in the love of God that brought Christ to the Cross. It is the same passion that the Church must rediscover for the sake of her mission in the world.

The last grains of sand flow through the hourglass and soon twilight will be no more. The darkened hour is ending with midnight! The destruction of Babylon comes through the agency of her citizens. The Magician and the sons of perdition conspire against the city of their own creation. The beast will devour Babylon in a savage holocaust! I am a watchman, and I see the end of Babylon and cry to the Church: "Awake! Awake! Open your ears again toward heaven! Bring God's leaven to the world! Act before God's wrath brings great curses upon the world."

I open my voice and sing to the city. My note flows through the streets like the plague of Egypt. Blessed is the man who is covered by the blood of the Lamb! Blessed is the one who hears the song of the Saints! My note sickens the world of Babylon, but it rises to heaven as incense before the throne of God. There I behold the Seventh Bowl as I bow down before the Lord my God. His angels are dressed for battle. Below the forces of darkness are marshaled against heaven. O man, open your eyes if you care to see the final stroke of evil's perversity!

I am a poet who paints at the mouth of the cave. Dark, dark, dark colors are at the tip of my brush. Nature is shadows and mist above quaking ground--I want to picture a sunrise, but images of death and destruction appear upon my canvass. The strokes of light are few as they reveal the struggling presence of the Fellowship of the Cross. God moves me to reveal the evil hidden within the human heart as it reaches with terrible power into contemporary society. I search to find the Church upon my canvas, but instead the face of Babylon, stroke by stroke, emerges before me.

O my Church, only you have the power to avert our doom! Only the Church can carry the note of transcendent harmony into human history! We, the Called Ones, are the agency standing against chaos and bloodshed. Fatalism says, "act not," for all is decided! Faith says, "act," for God decides, in part, through the agency of His Saints. Human agency does not preclude God's complete control of history. Before the creation of time, God fully knew every human action and molded each to conform within His divine providence. Every truly good deed initiates within God Himself seeking compliance within the human heart. Human agency is a gift of God. It expresses the image of God. God invites our involvement within history.

Remember, O my Church, that Abraham once interceded for Sodom! The Church can act, and although its agency is imperfect, God's absolute power and perfection directs the outcome of its activity so that "all things work to the good of those who love Him." If the Church acts, history is changed. If the Church acts not, history is changed. If the church does not act today, history is doomed!

The Day of the Lord is fast approaching! And what will that day be like? Fire instead of fig! Lightening in winter! Leaves falling in summer! The face of the hungry jackal! Fields without crops! Fear in the eyes of every man! No place to hide... no place to hide...

I am a watchman who stands at the gate. I paint with words to reveal what has been, and what is to come. I paint of God. What has been is God's love. What will be is God's love. What has been is God's holiness, and it will always be. I picture the heart of man. Since the Fall, man's heart has been and continues to be, a place of shadows and deceit. Man's heart has brought contention and bloodshed throughout history. My canvass shows the hand of God reaching toward the heart of man. Apart from God's transforming presence, the heart is deceitful above all things. And in our future--through the heart--the technologies of new Babylon will be used perversely, as the climax of our rebellion comes at the omega point of human history.

O Lord, may Thy holy will be done! Yet I fear that this march takes even Thine elect to Calvary. Is this our last walk to Jerusalem? Can this bitter cup be averted before it touches our lips! Awake Thy Church, O Lord we pray! If she sleeps in death, then show Thy great love for the Saints alive in Christ! Preserve those who are covered in the blood of the Lamb! Show Thyself to be the God of covenant who works a supernatural grace for those who know Thy name. At Michael's coming may we be given the peace and joy which come to those who are written in the book of life. Let the deliverance prophesied by Thy servant Daniel be made known in the hearts of Thy covenant people:

"At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people-- everyone whose name is found written in the book-- will be delivered. (Daniel 12:1 NIV)

O man, I have become the bondman to this prophecy because God desires that the Golden Thread of meaning be cast as a life-rope to those who believe. When the worst shall happen, as it will in the near future unless the Church repents, there is to be no doubt in the Saint's mind concerning the goodness and love of God. God so loved the world that He gave His only Son! O man, do not make of this a little thing. You fear pain, and know little of it. The Father brought His Son into our world to experience pain--the pain of all history inflamed upon the nerves and conscience of a perfect being. This love is the Saint's tower of strength that continues to stand as the walls of Babylon crumble.

Yes, O man, the holiness of God will allow the destruction of Babylon. Yet God's holiness is an expression of God's love. God will not allow His Saints to be seduced into the arms of Babylon. The Lord God will not have His people deceived into believing that heaven sanctions perverse passion and the shedding of innocent blood. He is not Hadad! He is not Moleck! He is LOVE! He is LIFE! Satan would consume and absorb you, O man, God gives you life and identity. As Babylon crumbles, God remains good.

O Lord, the rebel will die accusing You for his own villainy. The agency for destruction comes from the rebel's heart, but he believes that he is building a wonderful society. The rebel sees the specters of his heart as beautiful, and increases evil upon evil, like layer upon layer, to the walls of his dark fortress. As You come as Judge, O my God, against this citadel of evil--deliver Thy Saints! May they praise Thee for Thy light in the darkness! May they praise Thee for Thy love in a culture of lust! May they pass through Babylon's death and enter a greater existence, like a baby being delivered through birthing pains from the dark womb of this world into the splendor of Thy kingdom in glory!

I am a watchman, and I proclaim to Babylon the concluding words of this eulogy before her death. But you, O man, could still live. Babylon could die, and you live. Indeed! The death of Babylon in your heart is the beginning of existential life flowing from beyond the cave. Repent, O man! Repent and live! But if you will not repent, then receive this word of God that will accomplish its purpose at the omega point of human history:

The walls of Babylon will be broken down and the captivity of the Saints shall come to an end. Babylon is a city of Rebels that will be destroyed as the bowls of God's final judgments are poured out upon our planet. Michael pours the bowls of heaven's fury into history. With the pouring of the seventh bowl comes the hour appointed for Christ's return. As the Lord of history approaches, human agency will continue to darkly pursue the civics of Babylon. The seventh bowl brings fire, blood, and death to punish human sin. It carries the sounds of slaughter blown upon the winds of chaos in the season of anarchy. Look, O man, and see! Shall it be beauty or perversity? Blessing or curse? What do you see in your future?

This is how it shall be: All knowledge of technology, industry, genetics, and physical energy comes from God. These may be used for good or for evil. Michael now opens upon man blessing or curse. Because man's heart is evil--although the rebel calls the products of his heart good--the resources of creation will be violated. History will be brought to a violent end.

The final bowl bringing anarchy and bloodshed is already touching the earth. Look, O man, at your own abolition! See how you use your insights into physics and chemistry! Behold how knowledge for nuclear and biochemical weapons is everywhere! Consider the hearts of those to whom this knowledge is being delivered! Shudder! O Man! Shudder! Call the rocks down upon you! Terror is everywhere! Dark hearts reach to take hold of deadly forces in nature!

The days are coming when the technology for nuclear and biochemical weapons will proliferate throughout the globe. The technology for constructing weapons of mass destruction, even now, is no longer the property of super powers. Small nations, groups within nations, and individuals within nations, have access to terrible weapons sold to the highest bidder. Black marketeers are already selling the technology for sophisticated bombs and chemical weapons. Soon profiteers and revolutionaries will traffic new technologies providing weapons capable of killing large population centers. No more will only its demented members drink the devilishness of Jonestown, but the world will taste this deadly brew as it is carried from human hearts into large cities.

Super powers will attempt ever-widening controls as they seek to limit the availability of technology for constructing weapons of mass destruction. The control of knowledge, raw ingredients, and mobility for using or trafficking weapons, will purchase time against the day of holocaust, but at a high price paid in the freedom's we surrender. The price will not be high enough. In time the technology from which nightmares are made will fall into the hands of perverse elements within our global society. Threats of nuclear and biological destruction will become an ever-growing form of terrorism.

The threat of nuclear and biochemical blackmail from diverse sectors of the world will overshadow the dangers concerning super power confrontation. We will fear the terrorist more than nuclear war. Terrorists are not governed by any procedures or controls beyond their own decisions, for they have become gods. Even a corrupt government is better than terror without territory!

No law other than the law of brute survival, the law of personal ambition, and the laws of the jungle restrains the terrorist. There are no innocent "victims" for the terrorist, only "means" to his twisted end. As the number of uncontrolled terrorists increase, they will push the super powers into political crises of overwhelming consequences.

Reacting to the danger presented by the terrorist, many spokesmen throughout the world will seek to stop all further nuclear technology. Strict controls will be placed upon all resources used in making biochemical weapons. Debate will ensue debate, and the political system will be torn between diverse interests. The costs to safety will be weighed against the needs for producing inexpensive energy within a world of decreasing fossil fuels.

Midnight will come at noon when terrorist groups finally dictate demands on the threat of detonating a bomb, or releasing a bio-tech weapon, within some major city of the world. Like the shock of awaking to find a ferocious beast over one's bed, the world will suddenly become aware of its great danger. A breathless anticipation will be heard at first, than the sounds of social hysteria and panic... with no place to hide... with no place to hide.

Political systems will be thrown into tumult as they register the response of their people to the developing disaster. In order to control the great danger of terrorist sabotage, governments throughout the world will institute practices of stringent surveillance. To be effective under the gravity of the problem, surveillance procedures will infringe upon basic freedoms. The issues of human rights will take back stage to the needs to control the terrorist. Human dignity will be deeply marred by a people who scramble simply to survive.

The United Nations will discuss a unified measure for dealing with terrorist demands. Yet the collective wisdom of the world will not overcome the fundamental problem facing all negotiation with the terrorist: If the demand of the terrorist is met, then the incentive for further terrorism is strengthened. If the terrorist's demand is not conceded, then a major population center will be cold-heartedly destroyed.

A major population center will be destroyed. The day of the terrorist--the refined rebel in essence--will have come! No more will there be any safe place in Babylon! No more the leisure of Renaissance contemplation before a quiet fire in the safety of one's home. The son of perdition will steal away forever the worldly peace and joy of Babylon, and men and women will faint in the streets... with no place to hide... with no place to hide.

Although a revival within Christendom will have taken place before the day of the beast, the Church will remain ill-prepared to meet the magnitude of the crisis. Christendom will have proved itself too weak to strengthen the world. In its denial of transcendent light the church will have no illumination to offer people as they are stalked by predators of darkness. The fear of impending death will quake within the breasts of priest and proselyte who have sworn an oath to naturalism.

The Church will find herself a crippled physician unable to cure the crisis. Her priests and institutions had whitewashed the very devilishness that had grown as a cancer within the flesh of society. Little credibility will remain within the voice of Christendom! As the situation degenerates, the broadly based religious institutions will become increasingly ineffective. Local congregations will crumble. Congregations that do survive will be guided under the leadership of inspired men of God.

Only those church bodies and synods that had been faithful to God's transcendent Truth... only those church bodies and synods which had spoken out against sin and bloodshed... only those church bodies and synods which had remained advocates for the innocent... only those church bodies and synods which were all along faithful to the virgin born, crucified, bodily resurrected, and eternally glorified Jesus Christ... only the Fellowship of the Cross will retain integrity within its word of hope amid the chaos of sin, selfishness, and bloodshed.

What insight can be offered by a church that denies the supernatural! When the seventh bowl--judgment and fire!-- is poured, what good is the paper "Jesus" of a church whose Kerigma is a Word which has never become Incarnate! What power can be given by a church whose God is powerless to intervene within the elemental flux to still the storms, multiply the loaves, or heal the sick! What believable hope is offered by a church whose God has never once, in all human history, brought back even one person from the dead! The church that operates under the banners of naturalism and humanism is trapped to perish, with all its proselytes, within the small cave of its own finitude!

As the walls of the fortress crumble, the Fellowship of the Cross will be drawn closer together. They will weep for the travail of Babylon, even as the Lord Christ cried over Jerusalem. The Fellowship will become a sacramental offering to a dying world. The Saints will not escape the shadows of death, but they will be strengthened by the supernatural and transcending presence of their Lord and Shepherd. The Holy Spirit will testify to the words of Christ: "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 NIV) The Fellowship of the Cross will not be devoid of peace and joy!

But there will be no peace and joy for the people of Babylon. Babylon will exit history walking over the ruins of her shattered hopes. Prowling among the rubble of her destruction will be the beast of the harlot's worst fears. Rebels will be hunted among the wreckage of their broken idols. Some, by God's grace, will seek to return to an existence brightened by a transcendental light. Many rebels--theologians too--will begin to see beyond their personal jeopardy. In the face of destruction some will find their reflection within the events leading to the holocaust, and despair--these will become returning prodigals. As some rebels will be won back to God, so others on the way to God will be choked out and pulled up from their tender rooting in the faith. Global and personal suffering will build character, or destroy faith.

Terrorists will inflict suffering directly by their terroristic activities, but also indirectly by the measures they force upon nations to combat their presence upon the globe. Governments will become as oppressive as the beast that they seek to control. Societies will govern their citizens through surveillance, electronic technology, restricted mobility, and the threat of capital punishment. Men and women will vanish from their homes at night. As the midnight hour darkens further, governments will increase the use of totalitarian structures designed to take the teeth out of the terrorist. All citizens will experience intimidation and limitations upon their freedoms. Specifically--and this is because the last battle is a spiritual warfare--the Saints will become the objects of ridicule and hate within the walls of Babylon.

The people of Babylon see at twilight. There are no black and white truths, but only shades of gray. When the Saint says, "Thus says the Lord," the city cries out "Unfair!", "Passe!", "Extremist!" "Chauvinist!", "Hate monger!" To the rebel, the Saints look like dark specters in service to the Deity whom the rebel loathes. The time is coming when the rebel will distrust the Saint as much as his own dark reflection in the terrorist. Although the rebel and Saint stand in stark contrast to one another, in a city that sees only in shades of gray, both will be seen as enemies to the civics of Babylon. In the last times, law and order will be wildly out of control and Babylon will be unable to distinguish between victim and criminal.

Open education will cease behind the walls of Babylon. Strict censorship will be placed upon higher learning in order to stop the growth of nuclear and biochemical technologies within the populace at large. The gap between the governing bodies and their citizens will grow ever wider. General education will become prescribed and censored, and scientific research will be limited to the few and programmed for national security and defense. Student and scientist alike will feel the scrutiny of governmental surveillance over their activities.

The process of censorship and surveillance will not begin as a malicious enterprise within the free world countries. On the contrary, it will be in response to the cries of their citizens that many governments will institute stringent limitations upon privacy and mobility: It will only take the destruction of one city to send all cities into chaos and panic. Citizens will be insistent and only too eager to give up whatever freedoms are necessary to save their flesh from the fiery attacks of the terrorist.

Already the chains that restrict our freedoms are being forged link by link because of the terrorist. Cameras in the lobby! Satellites in surveillance--high in the sky! Gates on the driveways! Metal detectors at transportation centers! Luggage opened and x-rayed! Guards carrying guns! Traffic kept at a distance! Barriers being built! Control the guns! Control the guns!

For the sake of brute survival, democracies and dictatorships will form partnerships seeking to control the activities of all people. The great world powers will make treaties and alliances supporting a mutual philosophy against terrorism. Their philosophy will reflect the attitude and fear that terrorists must be stopped at all costs. At all costs! It will no longer be human rights which occupies the stage of world debate, but rather the survival of humanity at any expense.

What price will the people of Babylon be willing to pay? The Lord Christ saw that, at the close of history, the cost of rebellious living would be gross: "Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death." (Mark 13:12 NIV.) When the day of the terrorist occurs in history, it will not be long until all the willing citizens of Babylon become terrorists, including her leaders. The rebels will be at each others throats! All rebels will become sons of perdition! The whole human race will crystallize into either terrorists or Saints, and the day of separation will be close at hand: The rebel will be burned in the fire, and the Saint will be refined.

And how, O man, can it be that such contention will break out among the citizens of Babylon? Why will family members betray one another? Look to the heart! Governments will first seek to control the terrorist by controlling social instrumentalities. They will look to the external! Intelligence gathering, surveillance, and severe limitations upon personal freedom and mobility are all external restraints imposed upon the functions of society at large. These external measures will combat the terrorist, but they will not break his resolve, for it lies hidden in the heart.

Remember, O man, that the terrorist is a supernatural creation of the rebel's heart. The terrorist is not born within nature, but within human agency. He cannot be destroyed within the natural world, but only within the human heart. The rebel does not understand this, because he thinks in terms of a world in which brute survival defines all of existence. Babylon will seek to control the beast by controlling the jungle in which he prowls. But, in fact, the beast cannot be stopped in the jungle.

Only a medicine to the heart can cure the terrorist and defeat his resolve. When the whole globe reflects back the heart of the terrorist, then social limitations will not stop the sons of perdition--the predators of the jungle. The terrorist hides behind social conventions. Without a medicine to the heart, which is the Gospel of the Incarnated Christ, terrorist episodes will continue to break out like spotted fever over the face of the earth. Major population centers will continue to be crippled or destroyed.

The dark day will come when the controlling powers will grow aware that the terrorists' activities cannot be stopped merely through social restraints. Only at the very end will it be known--but not understood--that the problem lies in the heart of man. The rebel will have found himself out! Not understanding the Gospel solution, Babylon will finally attack the heart as its enemy. World governments will experiment with attitude modification. Many countries will seek to control the terrorist by subjecting their citizens to psychological reprogramming. The gap between the governing bodies and the masses will again widen.

The public reaction to governmental surveillance and mind control will be mixed. As it happened under the Nazis, some people will willingly--even gladly!--consent and participate within the government program. Others will refuse to confront the philosophical implications of governmental intrusion into the hearts and minds of people. Still others will resist terrorism as it becomes elevated to the level of government. Governments will rationalize their means to an end just like the terrorist. They will do whatever it takes to further their survival.

Government policies will create a variety of reactions within families. Some family members will agree with their government's means for fighting terrorism, and others will not agree and find its policies oppressive. Amid these diverging views, the dynamics foretold by the Lord can only be expected: The rebels will be divided against themselves, and family members will become enemies of one another. The Fellowship of the Cross alone will campaign the meaning of love, but by so doing, it will become targeted as an enemy to Babylon and her policies.

Not all countries will go along with the policies of Babylon. Some will resist because they do not want intrusion within their internal affairs. Others will refuse to infringe upon the basic rights and freedoms of their citizens. Countries refusing to enter in upon a unified campaign against terrorism will be forced into the coalition. "At all costs the terrorist episodes must be stopped," will be voiced by top international officials. "Some of our measures may seem severe, even cruel," officials may grant, "but they are for the good of all humanity."

The "final solution" for ending terrorism will involve the reconstruction or elimination of certain leaders and countries. The coalition leaders will argue an urgency for their programs, and the fears of a global society will give consent. Past terrorist activities will have brought severe economic hardship upon the globe. Agricultural resources will have been damaged and reduced. The flow of raw materials will have been stopped at the source or disrupted through disabled transportation. Large factories providing work, clothing, and food will lie in ruin. To the demise of human existence, the world will be left nearly sapped of its greatest power: the vitality of a healthy, godly, human soul.

This process described may take decades from the day of the first terrorist assault upon a major population center. Time will pass before the severity of the problem becomes apparent and its end in view. Yet it will come, and the rebel will be crushed under the walls of his fortress--brick by brick, then boulder by boulder. The rebel will look in the mirror and find that his god has forsaken him. The beauty of Babylon will be seen in the decaying corpses strewn upon her city streets.

The contamination by nuclear and biochemical weapons will have made millions of people ill. Those who are severely sick will present a tremendous burden upon governments who will not be able to care for their numbers. Death camps will be resurrected from the ashes of Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Resources will be rationed, and then only to the powerful and healthy. The Lord Christ's words to the women of the city, as He pulled His cross to Calvary, will be remembered again in the streets:

[28] Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. [29] For the time will come when you will say, 'Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!' [30] Then "'they will say to the mountains, "Fall on us!" and to the hills, "Cover us!" ' 31 For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?" (Luke 23 NIV)

A coalition of controlling powers cannot maintain the structures of government as they themselves become reflections of the terrorist. The law and order prescribed by Babylon will crumble within governments and between nations. Then the end will come. Rebels in power cannot reach accord, for harmony is a quality of heaven. The structures and relationships within Babylon are Nietzschean and pit the powerful against the powerful. The declining resources needed to support the citizens within each nation will fuel hate and envy between governments. The controllers will practice formal courtesies with one another, but only until an opportunity is gained to the other's throat.

The controlling powers will degenerate into madness. As Babylon dances insanely with the dark specters of the human heart, rebels will quarrel and battle both within and beyond boarders. The Fellowship of the Cross will be forced underground to resist the atrocities of the state. The Saints will strive to heal the wounds inflicted by the houses of Cain. The Fellowship of the Cross will furnish the only light left within the darkening walls of Babylon. The specters of the human heart will meet the Saint and the rebel within the open streets.

Polluted, raped, and mangled, this creation will long for Christ's final revelation. As the world heaves and then splinters for the last time, the rebel will fall to his place within perdition, and all the Saints will be gathered into the Father's house:

[6] He said to me: "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. [7] He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. [8] But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars-- their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death." (Revelation 21 NIV)


| Back to Chapter V | Back to top | On to Chapter VII |


[All contents copyright © 1980, 1998 David Anderson]