The original Babylon, or Babel, was founded by Nimrod in the land of Shinar, in what is now Iraq.... Here the people—all of one language—came together to build the famous Tower of Babel to keep from being fragmented and scattered. The tower was to reach into heaven—a prideful venture that directly challenged God.... The Almighty intervened and divided the various nationalities by giving them different languages.... This halted construction of the tower.
This parallels our modern time remarkably. In fact, the economic and political integration of European nations with their different languages has frequently been compared with the ancient Babel project. As an example, the European Commission sponsored a widely distributed poster of the Tower of Babel and the words, "Europe—Many Tongues, One Voice."
In addition to trying to build a political empire, Nimrod also promulgated an idolatrous system of worship known as the Babylonian Mysteries, through which he sought to unify his subjects. It may surprise you to learn that this essentially pagan religion, though changed in form, has persisted to our day. Called by God "Mystery, Babylon the Great"..., it is described as a great "mother" church which will play a major role in end-time events.The concord between European nations under the aegis of the European Union is negatively portrayed as being something opposed to (LCG's) God's will.
The last paragraph is largely based on a discredited anti-Catholic polemic from the 1850s, namely The Two Babylons by Alexander Hyslop, a Presbyterian minister. One book that critiques the spurious claims made by Hyslop is The Babylon Connection? by Ralph Woodrow (1997).
It is taught in LCG that the final Pope will be given power by Satan to perform sinister miracles such as summoning fire from the sky in order to prop up a future European superstate fated to conquer the United States just before Christ's return.
Ever since Armstrongism began in the 1930s the COGs have constantly insistied that catastrophe is coming and it has never happened. There is no need to fear their dire proclamations. They are but false prophets.
Seriously.
ReplyDeleteHistorically there is only one nation that started of with one common language and is currently fragmenting in nation of different languages.
To give you a hint that nation started with 13 states currently united under 50 states.
It is a huge globe encompassing empire by many referred to as a consuming beast.
Any nutcase looking at the street pattern of the capital city of that empire can see the pagan patterns. That capital city is adorned with temples dedicated toward principles embodied by men. Like al pagan power centers there is a huge egyptian type obelix in the middle of its prime edifices.
EAT THAT
nck
While we expect claims to be backed up by citing sources, using discredited or questionable references is a risk for COGs, especially with internet-based content. It would be interesting to compare web-dependent COGs to those that primarily use hardcopy. At least one COG doesn't offer PDF download, and booklets must be "ordered".
ReplyDeleteBob Thiel has often referred to Hyslop, and frequent uses Dr Hoeh for support.
I suppose COGs expect that people will not bother checking sources, or even look up prooftext Bible verses.