53. IX. BABYLON AND ITS DESTRUCTION.

All the predictions made in the book of Revelation have to-day been fulfilled (see above 40-44). The last chapter demonstrated that the Last Judgment has already taken place, and showed how it took place on the Mohammedans and the heathen. The next subject is how it took place on the Roman Catholics, who are what is meant by Babylon as mentioned in many passages of Revelation, and in particular its destruction in chapter 18. This is described thus:

The angel cried out in a loud voice, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and become the dwelling of demons, and the prison of every impure ¹ spirit, and the prison of every unclean and hateful bird. Revelation 18:2.

But before the story of how the destruction happened some preliminary remarks are needed:

(i) What is meant by Babylon and what it is like.

(ii) What the people from Babylon are like in the other life.

(iii) Where their dwellings have been up to now.

(iv) Why their presence there was tolerated up to the day of the Last Judgment.

(v) How they were destroyed and their dwellings turned into a desert.

(vi) Those of them who had an affection for truth arising from good were preserved.

(vii) The future state of those who come from earth from that source.

Poznámky pod čarou:

Jerusalem, on Mount Zion, signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. Jerusalem first comes to our attention in 2 Samuel 5, when King David takes the city from the Jebusites and makes it his capital. In the next chapter he brings the Ark of the Covenant there, and later it is where Solomon builds the temple, and his own palace. From then on Jerusalem is the center of worship of the Israelitish church. It is the place where the Lord was presented in the temple as a baby, where He tarried to talk to the priests at age twelve, where He cleansed the temple, had the last supper, was crucified and then rose. It is a central place in both the old and new Testaments. The city was built on Mount Zion, the highest point of the mountains of Judea. A city, in the Word, represents doctrine, the organized knowledge of the truths of the church. Mountains represent love of the Lord and the consequent worship. If you put those things together, Jerusalem on Mount Zion signifies the doctrine of love to the Lord, and how it governs your life. This is why David was led to make Jerusalem the most important city of the land, and why all worship was conducted there. And this is also why Jeroboam was condemned for introducing idol worship in Samaria. In the Book of Revelation, John's vision of the city New Jerusalem descending from God is a prophecy of a new dispensation of doctrine coming from the Lord.

(Odkazy: Arcana Coelestia 4539, 8938; The Apocalypse Explained 365 [35-38])