The principles of the Kingdom of Heaven
| The principles of Babylon the Great |
The Golden Rule: All things therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do ye also unto them: for this is the law and the prophets. (Mat 7:12)
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets. (Mat 22:35-40)
Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery; You shall not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet;” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.
(Romans 13:8-10)
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. (John 15:12)
The Bride of Christ lives by the commandment of,
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart...
and thy neighbor as thyself."
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Capitalism is the world's first globally influential life system (a secular religion) in which the Golden Rule is seen as either socially destructive or, at the very least, unnecessary. "Love thy neighbor" is viewed as unnecessary because capitalist society advances and prospers through self-serving voluntary marketplace exchanges. Falling in line with this reality some of the most clever and influential promoters of Babylon's money-based commercial system, such as Bernard Mandeville, Ludwig Mises, Friedrich Hayek and Ayn Rand, actually argue that the principle of "love thy neighbor" is bad for society at large.Hayek wrote, “It may be asked how restraints on instinctual demands serve to coordinate the activities of larger numbers. As an example, continued obedience to the command to treat all men as neighbours would have prevented the growth of an extended order. For those now living within the extended order gain from not treating one another as neighbours, and by applying, in their interactions, rules of the extended order – such as those of several property and contract - instead of the rules of solidarity and altruism. An order in which everyone treated his neighbour as himself would be one where comparatively few could be fruitful and multiply.” Friedrich Hayek, The Fatal Conceit, page 13.
The Great Harlot of Babylon lives by the commandment of,
"Thou shalt love the world with all thy heart,
and yourself more than anybody else."
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“That interdependence of all men, which is now in everybody’s mouth and which tends
to make all mankind One World, not only is the effect of the market order
but could not have been brought about by any other means.”
Pro-Capitalist economist Friedrich Hayek
Law, Legislation and Liberty, (1973)
as quoted by Alan Ebenstein in Friedrich Hayek: A Biography, 2001, page v
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The Root of all Evil: But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1Ti 6:9-10)
But know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money...
(2Ti 3:1-2)
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
(Mat 6:19-21)
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Capitalism promotes maximum freedom for markets and merchants and relentlessly transforms anything and everything into commodities to be bought and sold in the marketplace. The primary commodity of the global marketplace is money itself, and those within the global financial matrix find that the pursuit of money becomes necessary for survival itself, while capital accumulation becomes the basis of the whole investment-driven scheme.
Indeed, within a capitalist system the "love of money" becomes the foundation of society, and from this root all kinds of various evils bear fruit.
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The Root of evil Avarice,
That damn'd ill-natur'd baneful Vice,
Was Slave to Prodigality,
That Noble Sin; whilst Luxury.
Employ'd a Million of the Poor,
And odious Pride a Million more
Envy it self, and Vanity
Were Ministers of Industry;
Their darling Folly, Fickleness
In Diet, Furniture, and Dress,
That strange, ridic'lous Vice, was made
The very Wheel, that turn'd the Trade.
Bernard Mandeville, the "Mastermind" of early Capitalism
from The Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Public Benefits, (1714),
in which Mandeville argues that sin, wickedness, and all manner of social vices
are actually good for society simply because they promote commerce
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Lust, Lust, Pride: And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. (Mar 4:18-19) For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven... (Philippians 3:17-20)
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. (1Jn 2:15-17)
The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. (Rom 13:12-14)
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Capitalism depends upon the continually expanding production and consumption of commodities. When this cycle starts to slow down we get anxious and call it a "recession," and when it reverses we panic and call it a "depression."The commodities that drive the engine of global capitalism are primarily marketed by appealing to mankind's carnal desires, as marketing expert Ernest Dichter (1907-1991) was keen to point out:
"One of the basic problems of this [American] prosperity, then, is to give people the sanction and justification to enjoy it and to demonstrate the hedonistic approach to his life is a moral, not an immoral, one. This permission given to the consumer to enjoy his life freely… must be one of the central themes of every advertising display and sales promotion plan.”
“On another occasion Dr. Dichter pointed out that the public’s shift away from its 'puritan complex' was enhancing the power of three major sales appeals: the desire for comfort, for luxury, and for prestige.” (quotes taken from Vance Packard, The Hidden Persuaders, 1957, pages 237-238)
Global Capitalism is the great end-times Maximum Temptation Delivery System, marketing the "things of this world" to the masses, and turning hearts and minds either to the daily grind of mere survival, or seducing them into the spiritually hollow pursuits of money, selfish lusts, and pride.
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"This is a world in which the neoliberal ethic of intense possessive individualism can become the template for human personality socialization. The impact is increasing individualistic isolation, anxiety, and neurosis in the midst of one of the greatest social achievements (at least judging by its enormous scale and all-embracing character) ever constructed in human history
for the realization of our hearts’ desire."
Anti-Capitalist professor David Harvey
Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution, 2012, kindle edition, location 456
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Covetousness: Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
(Luke 12:15)
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. (Rev 3:17)
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. (Eph 5:7)
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
(1Ti 6:6-8)
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"We must shift America from a “needs” to a “desires” culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things even before the old are entirely consumed. We must shape a new mentality in America. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs." Paul Mazur, investment banker at Lehman Brothers, circa 1928
"Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life, that we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals, that we seek our spiritual satisfactions, our ego satisfactions, in consumption. The measure of social status, of social acceptance, of prestige, is now to be found in our consumptive patterns…" Victor Lebow, economist, 1955 "It appears that the effort to constantly be dissatisfied and want more is a natural phenomenon - and lies at the very heart of our civilization... We can even go so far as to say that discontent is the engine of progress and of market capitalism. Frank Knight, probably the most important Chicago economist of the last generation, noted: "[I]t is human nature to be more dissatisfied the better off one is." George Stigler, Knight's student, even wrote, "The chief thing which the common-sense individual wants is not satisfactions for the wants he has, but more, and better wants. In our constant desire to have more and more, we have sacrificed the pleasantness of labor. We want too much and so we work too much. We are by far the richest civilization that has ever existed, but we are just as far from the word "enough" or from satisfaction, if not further, than at any time in the distinct "primitive" past. In one sentence: If we ourselves did not have to constantly increase GDP and productivity at all costs, we would not have to also constantly overwork ourselves in the 'sweat of our faces.'" Tomas Sedlacek, Economics of Good and Evil, kindle, location 3681
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"The parallelism between economic laissez-faire and Darwinianism... is now seen ... to be very close indeed. Just as Darwin invoked sexual love, acting through sexual selection... so the individualist invokes the love of money, acting through the pursuit of profit, as an adjutant to natural selection, to bring about the production on the greatest possible scale of what is most strongly desired as measured by exchange value."
John Maynard Keynes
The End of Laissez-Faire (1926)
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Competition: From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. (James 4:1-4)
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
(Gal 5:13-16)
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One of the foundations of a "successfully functioning" capitalist society is competition. The altruistic ethic of "people working together" that is formed in the family is discarded in favor of the competitive individualistic ethic of "every man for himself." This is great for the rich and powerful who have the resources to win this global competition, but not so good for the people at the bottom: "...increasing competition within the informal sector depletes social capital and dissolves self-help networks and solidarities essential to the survival of the very poor... An NGO worker in Haiti, Yolette Etienne, describes the ultimate logic of neoliberal individualism in a context of absolute immiseration: 'Now everything is for sale. The woman used to receive you with hospitality, give you coffee, share all that she had in her home. I could go get a plate of food at a neighbor's house; a child could get a coconut at her grandmother's, two mangoes at another aunt's. But these acts of solidarity are disappearing with the growth of poverty. Now when you arrive somewhere, either the woman offers to sell you a cup of coffee or she has no coffee at all. The tradition of mutual giving that allowed us to help each other and survive - this is all being lost.'" Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, 2006, kindle edition, location 4269
"Many decent people are locked into the embrace of a system that is rotten to the core. If they are to earn even a reasonable living they have no other job option except to give the devil his due... The coercive laws of competition force us all, to some degree, to obey the rules of this ruthless and uncaring system." David Harvey, Rebel Cities, 2012, kindle, location 3059
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"Modern Capitalist society, with its relations of production, of exchange and of property,
a society that has conjured up such gigantic means of production and of exchange,
is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to control the powers of the nether world
whom he has called up by his spells."
Karl Marx
The Communist Manifesto (1848)
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Consumerism: Jesus cries out to the Laodicean Church using the language of consumerism, perhaps the only language that this pathetic end-times Church can understand:
Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. (Rev 3:17-18)
Jesus warns us all, "Please listen to what I am saying and buy from me! I have some heavenly commodities that you desperately need!"
And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more: The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble, And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men. And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing... for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. (Rev 18:11-15, 23)
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"The satisfaction that no longer comes from using the commodities produced in abundance is now sought through recognition of their value as commodities. Consumers are filled with religious fervor for the sovereign freedom of commodities whose use has become an end in itself. Waves of enthusiasm for particular products are propagated by all communications media. A film sparks a fashion craze; a magazine publicizes night spots which in turn spin off different lines of products. The proliferation of faddish gadgets reflects the fact that as the mass of commodities becomes increasingly absurd, absurdity itself becomes a commodity. Trinkets such as key chains which come as free bonuses with the purchase of some luxury product, but which end up being traded back and forth as valued collectibles in their own right, reflect a mystical self-abandonment to commodity transcendence. Those who collect the trinkets that have been manufactured for the sole purpose of being collected are accumulating commodity indulgences — glorious tokens of the commodity's real presence among the faithful. Reified people proudly display the proofs of their intimacy with the commodity. Like the old religious fetishism, with its convulsory raptures and miraculous cures, the fetishism of commodities generates its own moments of fervent exaltation. All this is useful for only one purpose: producing habitual submission." Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, 1967, kindle, location 928 "It is possible to think of consumption as an expression of individualism and self-worship. We could believe that the primary religious focus of modern life is the ego and see consumption as one of the ways in which the self gathers worshippers — my car, my house, my computer. Consumption can be seen as the means whereby the individual realises the wishes and ambitions of the self as end. For many years I accepted that view but, although it contains important insights, I think it has been overtaken. In the dynamics of our culture, consumption has now become the dominant faith and individualism, together with other subordinate commitments, serves it. Consumption is collectivist-individualist, nationalist-internationalist, the healer, the entertainer, the lover, the spiritual, the feeder and the consolation. It is the chief rival to God in our culture." Alan Storkey, "Postmodernism Is Consumption," from Christ and Consumerism: Critical reflections on the spirit of our age, Edited by Craig Bartholomew and Thorsten Moritz, 2000, page 100.
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"The spectacle is the stage at which the commodity has succeeded in totally colonizing social life. Commodification is not only visible, we no longer see anything else; the world we see is the world of the commodity... The society's entire sold labor has become a total commodity whose constant turnover must be maintained at all cost."
Anti-Capitalist philosopher Guy Debord
The Society of the Spectacle, (1967) kindle edition, location 698
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Urbanization: Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their fathers; that they do not rise, nor possess the land, nor fill the face of the world with cities. (Isaiah 14:21 - Judgment against the end-times Antichrist 'King of Babylon' - Isaiah 14 is the parallel to Rev. 18)
Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honourable of the earth? The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth. (Isaiah 23:8-9)
Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD... With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures: By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches... By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned… Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick... (Ezekiel 28:2,4-5,16)
Woe to [Ninevah] the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims! ...all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft. "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty... You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars of the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away."
(Nahum 3:1,4-5,16, NIV)
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Urbanization is directly related to the rise of the market economy of capitalism. When the land itself becomes a commodity and is acquired and accumulated into the hands of the wealthy few then rural folk are often forced from the land and/or drawn away by the seductive promises that city-life offers. In fact right now, and for the next 15 years or so, China is experiencing the single greatest mass migration in the history of the world, as up to 345 million people leave rural areas and enter China's cities looking for work. "The earth has urbanized even faster than originally predicted... In 1950 there were 86 cities in the world with a population of more than one million; today there are 400, and by 2015 there will be at least 550. Cities, indeed, have absorbed nearly two-thirds of the global population explosion since 1950... cities will account for virtually all future population growth, which is expected to peak at about 10 billion in 2050." Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, 2006, kindle edition, location 64
The mass urbanization that is part and parcel of the triumph of global capitalism is a way to domesticate and control the masses, maximizing the value of their labor through wage slavery, turning them into obedient consumers, and caging them in close quarters. The merchants think they come out on top in this game, but the vast majority of humanity loses. In the end, despite the rise of material comforts that global capitalism has brought us, the hidden spiritual costs have been far too great.
For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37)
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"A living Christianity cannot exist side by side with, and within, Capitalism."
Pro-Capitalist economist Ludwig Mises (1881-1973)
Gemeinwirtschaft (Socialism), 1st ed., p. 421,
as quoted by Jorg Guido Hulsman in Mises: The Last Knight of Liberalism, 2007,
kindle edition, location 5476
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