AMERICA – ROME, OR BABYLON?

The United States of America has often been compared to the ancient Roman Empire, and with good reason.

The two great powers in their waning years share a number o characteristics: Wealth, luxury, wantonness; a populace addicted to violent entertainment and government subsidies; arrogance; imperial over-extension; heavy-handed government regulation; the debasement of the currency; high taxation; mental and spiritual exhaustion – and much more.

Recently, however, some have dared to compare America with Babylon, that ancient city-empire which crushed the kingdom of Judah and was later destroyed by the Medes and the Persians.

In the Book of the Revelation, the apostle John seems to join Rome and Babylon in a combined image of dissolute despotism. The great whore pollutes the entire globe with her impurities, serenely confident that she is the world’s only superpower, safe and secure in her haughty position.
“On her forehead a name was written: Mystery. Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, and of the Abominations of the Earth.”

Then, almost without warning, we hear “a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, fallen…’”

The terrifying wonder of this collapse centers upon its suddenness: “Therefore her plagues will come in one day.”

Seeing the awful catastrophe, the kings and merchants of the earth cry out, “Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that might city! For in one hour your judgment has come.”

Europe totters on the brink of an economic abyss. American government bonds have been downgraded in a once-unthinkable demotion. Dozens of states face bankruptcy. Massive cuts in military spending have been announced. Commenting upon the 500-point decline in the stock market last week, one analyst said that he was “surprised” by the “velocity and scale” of the sell-off.

Is it possible that many will be unprepared for the “velocity and scale” of the fall of the West and of its erstwhile mighty leader?