The Abomination of Desolation - St. Marys Coptic Orthodox Church

128 BABYLON THE GREAT WHORE
manner of your fathers? and commit ye whoredom after their
abominations?” (Ezek 20:30) And in the opening chapter of Isaiah, the
Lord laments the unfaithfulness of His own city, Jerusalem by saying,
“How is the faithful city become an harlot!” (Isa 1:21)
If that is the meaning of whoredom and fornication in the Old
Testament, bowing to other gods and becoming idolaters, then how can
we relate this to the New Testament use of these words?
St. Paul gives us the first clue, “Mortify therefore your members
which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate
affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col
3:5) So, in the New Testament, covetousness is the equivalent of the
Old Testament’s idolatry. Accordingly to covet things of the world, to
become worldly and immersed in the pleasures of the world is
considered spiritual fornication. For as in the Old Testament Yahweh
was the spouse of Israel, so it is in the New Testament that Christ is the
Spouse of the Church and of each unit of the Church, of each human
soul. Are we not told by St. Paul, “for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.” (II Cor
11:2) A chaste virgin would love her spouse more than anything else or
anyone else. She cannot love God and the world in the same time, for
the Lord tells us, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate
the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise
the other.” (Matt 6:24) And St. John warns us, “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.” (I John 2:15)
The clearest indication that worldliness is actually unfaithfulness to
God and indeed adultery in the spiritual sense is emphasized to us by
St. James, “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.” (Jas 4:4) St. James calls
“adulterers and adulteresses” and “enemies of God” those who even
befriend the world, those who “go awhoring” after worldly things and
worldly lusts.
Now the picture becomes clear, this “Babylon” or modern world
power is guilty of being very worldly, of loving worldly things more than
God. It is also guilty of seducing the other nations, the inhabitants of
the earth and the rulers of the earth into following the same life style,
a lifestyle of materialism and instant gratification that makes the love