We Live in Babylon, Not Israel: Biblical History and the Kingdom of God

Biblical history reminds Christians to serve and build a kingdom not of this world. In reflecting on our current reality, we might ask: “Do we live in ancient Israel or a modern Babylon?” Put a different way, to what extent are biblical lessons regarding life in the Holy Land normative for Christians who live as religious minorities—that is, in “unholy” lands dominated by non-Christians?

Ancient Israel and the Priority of Purity

Looking back to ancient Israel, the emphasis was on purity, not evangelism—God sent Ishmael and Esau into the wilderness, told Joshua to destroy the Canaanites, and instructed Ezra to insist that the Israelites put away foreign wives. To make the Holy Land holy, God commanded a zero-tolerance policy: There shall be no abominations among you.

The Holy Land was humanity’s greatest opportunity to live in a new kind of Eden, where God chose a particular nation to become its inhabitants. In this way, the Old Testament is highly location specific—the ancient Israelites’ charter was designed to protect the purity of the land God had given them. God established ancient Israel as a model nation for the world—a perfect test case of whether good rules would cultivate a good people. They were to cleanse it from defilement and then preserve it as holy; thus, evangelism was not a priority.

Living in the Anti-Eden: The Example of Babylon

Jeremiah—the prophet whose godly fury led to our word jeremiad—wrote, “I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruits and rich produce. But you came and defiled my land and made my inheritance detestable.” And yet Jeremiah had a very different tone when he spoke to Israelites living not only outside the semi-Eden but also in the anti-Eden, the city of Babylon. He instructed the exiles to: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. … Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Other parts of the Old Testament also indicate that Israelites outside the borders of Israel should have a very different political agenda than those inside. As a stranger in a strange land, Daniel had to coexist with them—which makes him a role model for us. For at least 66 years, from 605 to 539 B.C., Daniel lived and worked under Babylonian authority, always trying to serve a strange public while remaining true to God. Daniel thought and acted independently from these ungodly people, but nowhere did he indicate a plan or desire to wipe them out.

The Succession of Gentile Kingdoms

For Babylon to be resurrected as a nation during the Tribulation would violate the succession of Gentile kingdoms that was predicted in Daniel 2:36-45 and 7:1-14. This succession includes:

  • Babylon
  • Medo-Persia
  • Greece
  • Rome
  • Revival of ancient Roman Empire in ten nations form
  • Christ's Millennial Kingdom

Babylon in the Book of Revelation

John sees more concerning Babylon as his vision continues. In this section, John begins to trace the development of a system that is called "Babylon" (17:5). It is important to note that John is not picturing a revival of ancient Babylon, but is picturing the final form of Gentile world authority that will exist during the Tribulation. This system is characterized by both religious and commercial elements:

  • Religious Babylon (Chapter 17): Pictures an apostate religious system.
  • Commercial Babylon (Chapter 18): Pictures a global commercial system and its final destruction.

Spiritual Unfaithfulness and Apostasy

Chapter 17 represents an apostate religious system that will be in place beginning in the early days of the Tribulation. The noun "harlot" (Greek: πόρνης, transliteration: pornēs) could refer to physical unfaithfulness to marital partner or spiritual unfaithfulness to God. In prophetic vocabulary, prostitution or adultery is equivalent to idolatry or religious apostasy (Isaiah 1:21; 23:15-17; Jeremiah 2:20-31; 3:8-9; 13:27; Ezekiel 16:17-19; Hosea 2:5; Nahum 3:4). The prostitute exists today in many forms, but after the true church is raptured, it will become a worldwide apostate church. This "Babylon" will be destroyed at the midpoint of the Tribulation, when the world dictator sets himself up as God and demands that the world worship him.

The Commercial Finality

Following the religious collapse, Chapter 18 pictures the commercial "Babylon," which will exist during the last half of the Tribulation, as well as its final destruction. John focuses here on how the world's economy will be affected when the False Prophet requires everyone to receive the mark of the beast.