Then a mighty angel picked up a boulder the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, and said:
(The Finality of Babylon’s Doom)
“With such violence the great city of Babylon
will be thrown down, never to be found again.The music of harpists and musicians, pipers and trumpeters,
will never be heard in you again.No worker of any trade
will ever be found in you again.The sound of a millstone
will never be heard in you again.The light of a lamp
will never shine in you again.The voice of bridegroom and bride
will never be heard in you again.
Your merchants were the world’s important people.
By your magic spell all the nations were led astray.In her was found the blood of prophets and of God’s holy people,
of all who have been slaughtered on the earth.” Revelation 18:21-24
After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:
(Threefold Hallelujah Over Babylon’s Fall)
“Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.He has condemned the great prostitute
who corrupted the earth by her adulteries.He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.” Revelation 19:1-2
Revelation poetically speaks of the destruction of Babylon, and then of people praising God because of the destruction. Are good, godly people supposed to cheer for the destruction of a city? Are we invited to worship God for bringing judgment? These kinds of ideas might make us squirm a bit. Aren’t we supposed to love our enemies? Ah, this is the kind of tension that the scriptures don’t ignore.
Perhaps one of the reasons we feel the liberty to ask such questions is the fact that we don’t often face religious violence in our nation. Our sufferings are relatively weak compared to what the early church faced. Our relatively safe environment allows us to ask big philosophical questions about justice and God. The truth is that our situation in the modern West is a unique one. In much of history and much of the world today, injustice is so grievous that all who languish under the hand of tyranny cry out for God’s vengeance. Could it be that our struggles with God’s acts of justice stem from the fact that we have been blessed with relatively easy lives and the fact that we have lost our emotional connection to God’s global church that is suffering?
God is good, and since he is good, he hears the voice of the oppressed, and he acts. He is also wise enough to know that even oppressors need his grace. The gospel paves the way for God to be both just and the justifier of those who believe in him (Romans 3:26). That is a theological perspective that is helpful, but it doesn’t help us with some of the deep emotions that surround injustice. Perhaps we would praise God for justice more if we felt the emotions of our fellow Christians worldwide facing injustice. Take a moment to pray for the persecuted church. Here is a video that you can watch to remind yourself of the world’s injustice, but I warn you, it is hard to watch. Praise God for his justice!
South Africa: Apartheid mass killer who ‘hunted’ black people says police encouraged him | BBC News
by Aaron Bjorklund
