Babylon, Markets, Preachers and Proclaiming The Biblical Narrative

By: Joseph Evans, Ph.D.

Something For Sunday

The Bank of Canada is the latest of the world’s major financial institutions to lower its interest rates; it is reported to be a staggering 0.25%. Hours that preceded this action, the United States Congress passed $ 2 trillion bipartisan legislation to relieve the United States economy from its immediate stresses (This followed the 2018 controversial $2 trillion that was given to 1/10 of 1% of the American plutocracy).  The current stimulus package came as a response to the worldwide coronavirus that has either injured or killed (629, 607 people and counting). What then is an initial response of the Christian church? We hope that our preachers will proclaim the biblical narratives that intersect with our current times. First we turn to what must be our initial responses.

An initial response is to ignore Donald Trump and the social Darwinism of the Evangelicals irresponsibility’s. These zealots are determined to demonstrate their American and White male virility.  Their fear; white supremacy is on its last leg. It is scheduled to slip into the rubbish bins of history – good ridden. This makes Trump’s silent whistle audible. It is more of Trump’s fascist’s rhetoric. Desperately, he wants to open the American markets around the time that the Western Church will observe Easter Sunday and fill the churches with sycophants who await infections and massive carnage because of their cult of personality (we note that the great Ethiopian Orthodox Church and the Egyptian Coptic Church will observe Easter worship on 19 April 2020).  Underneath, Trump is trying to save his failing presidency. His viral hope is the return of a strong economy but that’s not going to happen. The American economy is approaching a massive and historic economic recession. More than likely the American economy has recessed now. 

Another initial response is for preachers to struggle with the apocalypse.  By that we mean, the distinctive literary form of the book of Revelation and Daniel 7-12.  This is hyperbolic language that prophesies the future; its symbolic language is filled with extended metaphors and similes that provide approximations to what the writer sees but indeed the writer  has not words of any language that will help the readers grasp what is to come. – Nevertheless preachers in my view should grapple with what appears to be apocalyptic times.    

For example, Revelation chapter 18:1-3 can be thought about generally in the following way. Remember the writer is expressing in metaphor about the fall of Babylon.  The writer has substituted Babylon for imperialist Rome. The Roman Empire was the world’s sole superpower militarily, politically and economically. But the writer saw its emergent fall:

Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become the dwelling place for demons, a haunt for every unclean spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean detestable beast. For all the nations have drunk the wine of the passion of her sexual morality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living (Revelation 18: 2b-3).

When we immediately take notice, the writer confirms that demonic presence and power are reality.  It is a demonic presence that manifests in multiple forms of uncleanliness which more than likely is metaphor for unethical and immoral behaviors that have become cultural norms that exist and certainly among the elites – the plutocracy. The writer creates an extended metaphor that points toward illicit power. 

Illicit power is lust for income and wealth. Lust of power has turned the plutocrats symbolically into drunken immoralist. Plutocratic privilege is described as their willingness to prostitute themselves for profit.  This is metaphorically expressed as sexual immorality and committed to immorality with Babylon’s power. This describes undisciplined lust for power. Power is defined here as luxurious living – material wealth. We know this is a metaphor because in verse 3, it begins by telling us that “For all nations (ethnos or people groups) have been drunk by the propaganda. There is no truth in the land.  

The writer points toward the nihilistic state of the world; it has fallen because its morals and ethics have fallen.  The demonically possessed people are blind because of their lust of power. As long as the markets are producing a profit, the world and its human conditions are not important and no longer noticed.  

A final observance, what appears later in chapter 18:11-20 should take preachers several Sunday’s to exegete, expound and proclaim.  In a large and sweeping statement, the merchants’ luxurious living comes to a sudden and immediate end. We characterize this as something that has occurred which has disturbed the market’s profits (for us it is COVID-19).  Because the Roman economy intersected and intertwined throughout the world, the nation-state’s collapse was caused by the smaller economies collapsing as well. Briefly, let us grapple with chapter 18:11-13:

And the merchants of the earth weep and mourn for her {Babylon], since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kind of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron, and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle , sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls.

The writer describes a world economy that is controlled by a few merchants. We would call this group of people, the one -percenters. What has happened?  A complete, debilitating, recession has occurred. We take notice that the merchants have supplies, but apparently there is no longer a supply chain. The prostituted government has failed to keep currencies of value in the hands of the oppressed.  Forced human labor (the souls of the slaves) has been exposed. The economy has stopped and the Roman nation-state is not valuable and no longer intimidating without its abilities to move its wares through its markets. Alas! Mr. Trump’s Easter bunny and social Darwinism are exposed.  

These are inadequate exegetical comments but the larger point; preachers must grapple with eschatological (last things) texts and share these texts with their congregations.  The Bank of Canada has followed the United States initial financial response with others coming from its financial institutions. This will not stop the moral bleeding. There is no immediate ending in sight.  What are certain, serious preachers will rise to some of the strongest sermons that have been delivered in decades.