The Last Judgement #54
54. What is meant by Babylon and what it is like. Babylon means all who wish to have power over others by means of religious belief. This is gaining control over people's souls, and so over their spiritual life itself, using as means the Divine elements in their religion. All those who aim at power using religion as a means are called collectively Babylon. The reason why the name of Babylon is applied to them is that in ancient times such control began, but was destroyed as soon as it started. Its beginning is described by the city and tower which had its top in heaven; its destruction by the confusion of speech; hence its name was Babel (Genesis 11:1-9). The meaning of these details in the internal or spiritual sense of the Word may be seen explained in ARCANA COELESTIA 1283-1328.
[2] Another such attempt at control was begun and set up in Babel, as is clear from the passage of Daniel which tells of Nebuchadnezzar setting up an image which all were to worship (Daniel 3). It is also meant by Belshazzar drinking with his nobles from the gold and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from the temple at Jerusalem; and at the same time worshipping gods of gold, silver, copper and iron. Therefore it was written on the wall, He has numbered, weighed and divided. And the king was killed that same night (Daniel 5). The vessels of gold and silver from the temple at Jerusalem mean the kinds of good and truth possessed by the church; drinking from them, and at the same time worshipping gods of gold, silver, copper and iron means profaning them. The writing on the wall and the king's death mean visitation and destruction with which those were threatened who used Divine forms of good and truth as means.
[3] There are numerous descriptions in the Prophets of what the people called Babylon are like, as in Isaiah:
You are to bring out this parable about the king of Babylon. Jehovah has broken the rod of the irreligious, the sceptre of the rulers. You, Lucifer, have fallen from heaven, you are cut down right to the ground. You said in your mind, I will climb the heavens, above the stars of God I shall set my throne on high, and I shall sit on the mountain of meeting, on the north side; I shall become like the Most High. Yet will you be brought down to hell, beside the pit. I will cut off the name of Babylon and what is left of her, and make her a possession inherited by the vulture. 1 Isaiah 14:4-5, 12-15, 22-23.
Elsewhere in the same book:
The lion said, Fallen, fallen is Babylon and cast down are all the graven images of her gods. Isaiah 21:9.
See further in Isaiah chapter Isaiah 47, chapter Isaiah 48:14-20; and in Jeremiah chapter 50:1-3. This makes it plain what Babylon is.
[4] It needs to be known that a church becomes Babylon when charity and faith cease to exist and self-love begins to reign in their stead. This love rushes as fast as it is given its head, not only to exercise control over all on earth it can make its subjects, but even over heaven. Nor does it rest there; it climbs as far as the throne of God and takes His Divine power for itself. The passages quoted from the Word prove that this also happened before the Lord's coming. But that Babylon was destroyed by the Lord when He was in the world, both by their becoming utter idolaters and by the last judgment upon them at that time in the spiritual world. This is meant by the passages in the Prophets about Lucifer, who is there Babylon, being cast down to hell, and the fall of Babylon; and also by the writing on the wall and by the death of Belshazzar; and by the stone hewn from the rock which destroyed the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream [Daniel 2:33-34].
Footnotes:
1. [The exact identification of this bird is disputed.]
Genesis 2
1
The heavens and the earth were finished, and all their vast array.
2
On the seventh day God finished his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3
God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy, because he rested in it from all his work which he had created and made.
4
This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
5
No plant of the field was yet in the earth, and no herb of the field had yet sprung up; for Yahweh God had not caused it to rain on the earth. There was not a man to till the ground,
6
but a mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole surface of the ground.
7
Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
8
Yahweh God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9
Out of the ground Yahweh God made every tree to grow that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10
A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads.
11
The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold;
12
and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone.
13
The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush.
14
The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates.
15
Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16
Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die."
18
Yahweh God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him."
19
Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20
The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21
Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22
He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23
The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called 'woman,' because she was taken out of man."
24
Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
25
They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
