Coming out of Babylon

[Luke]

As a people, we are holding hands with Babylon—actually, no—embracing Babylon. Pretty simple. We often use the phrase 'be in the world but not of it' yet we are completely of the world. We engage in worldliness on the Sabbath, we are sending our children to be indoctrinated in public schools, we are watching and listening to satanic filth on TV, when we listen to Babylonian music, when we go to the cinema etc., we are obsessed with money and fame and status, we love mammon more than God, we are too obsessed with sports and the latest clothing (costly apparel), we care more about the carnal than the spiritual, we promote abominations, we promote anti-God and anti-Christian ideologies, we are idolatrous, we spend our time gossiping about others while refusing to look at ourselves, I could go on. Bottom line is, all is NOT well in Zion and we better clean up our act because if we are going to build Zion and actually be a Zion people then we need to look at ourselves.

[iWriteStuff]

As a people, we are holding hands with Babylon—actually, no—embracing Babylon. Pretty simple. We often use the phrase 'be in the world but not of it' yet we are completely of the world. We engage in worldliness on the Sabbath, we are sending our children to be indoctrinated in public schools, we are watching and listening to satanic filth on TV, when we listen to Babylonian music, when we go to the cinema etc., we are obsessed with money and fame and status, we love mammon more than God, we are too obsessed with sports and the latest clothing (costly apparel), we care more about the carnal than the spiritual, we promote abominations, we promote anti-God and anti-Christian ideologies, we are idolatrous, we spend our time gossiping about others while refusing to look at ourselves, I could go on. Bottom line is, all is NOT well in Zion and we better clean up our act because if we are going to build Zion and actually be a Zion people then we need to look at ourselves.

Whereas I agree with the sentiment, I'm less sure about the use of the word "we". It is definitely true, but I'm not sure how useful it is.

Coming out of Babylon is an individual experience. You can only take yourself. And, if you're lucky, help your family to do the same. Think of poor Lehi all by himself at the tree calling for his family to come join him. That might be as good as it gets.

So, stand by the tree of the fruit of life and beckon others to join you (which is what I think you're doing). Hopefully many will choose the same.

[Luke]

As a people, we are holding hands with Babylon—actually, no—embracing Babylon. Pretty simple. We often use the phrase 'be in the world but not of it' yet we are completely of the world. We engage in worldliness on the Sabbath, we are sending our children to be indoctrinated in public schools, we are watching and listening to satanic filth on TV, when we listen to Babylonian music, when we go to the cinema etc., we are obsessed with money and fame and status, we love mammon more than God, we are too obsessed with sports and the latest clothing (costly apparel), we care more about the carnal than the spiritual, we promote abominations, we promote anti-God and anti-Christian ideologies, we are idolatrous, we spend our time gossiping about others while refusing to look at ourselves, I could go on. Bottom line is, all is NOT well in Zion and we better clean up our act because if we are going to build Zion and actually be a Zion people then we need to look at ourselves.

Whereas I agree with the sentiment, I'm less sure about the use of the word "we". It is definitely true, but I'm not sure how useful it is.

Coming out of Babylon is an individual experience. You can only take yourself. And, if you're lucky, help your family to do the same. Think of poor Lehi all by himself at the tree calling for his family to come join him. That might be as good as it gets.

So, stand by the tree of the fruit of life and beckon others to join you (which is what I think you're doing). Hopefully many will choose the same.

Very true, unfortunately it seems like there won't be many building the New Jerusalem. You just have to focus on yourself as you say.

[Jamescm]

A big issue is that most people in the Church don't even seem to realize that they're standing in Babylon. To be apart from Babylon is to have completely different paradigms regarding what is considered normal, healthy, or expected. Education, health care, insurances and other financial expectations, and such factors are far less obvious to most than entertainment or social beliefs, but to be apart from Babylon and have the independence necessary to survive until, and help build, Zion requires far more than just the obvious stuff.

I've met plenty of members who do the obvious "right thing" when it comes to Sabbath worship, humility and modesty of dress, and promotion of righteous ideals while still fully embracing the very social and economic machinations that enable our gradual slavery and the erosion of both individual liberty and collective spiritual stamina.

People today are born under the watchful eye of government-funded hospitals, assigned numbers and certificates, go through government education (as you pointed out), freely choose to become indoctrinated through further education as adults, then whatever is left of them is stuck buying a house and car through debt and praying to God in vain that the insurances they're mandated to have will enable them to afford to drive or go to the doctor without billing issues, or paying their taxes without IRS mistakes.

Those saints spend their whole lives being told by everyone in their world outside the Church that chastity is essential, then the Church they're raised in begins giving a slight turn of the eye to a lack of chastity if it involves the same sex. They study the words of both modern and ancient prophets and see the importance of bottom-up government, then are told both in and out of the Church to welcome and use top-down governmental mechanisms and systems. They're told to "render what is Caesar's unto Caesar" without regard to the fact that what Caesar claims isn't his, and that claim has extended into what is God's for over one hundred years with meek acceptance

To truly and fully step outside of Babylon would require a movement large enough that many in the Church would condemn it.