Prophets today say God is about to destroy the infrastructure of society (called in Scripture Mystery Babylon or Babylon the Great) in order to force his people into “the wilderness.”  They believe this would be a good thing because it would force God’s people to throw away their idols and repent of their sins.  Such a belief ignores at least two basic lessons of history: 1) people take their idols into the wilderness with them, and 2) people do not historically repent in the wilderness.

Ezekiel 20 recounts Israel’s history of failure in the wilderness.  Concerning these same people the prophet Paul says, “with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” (1 Corinthians 10:5) America used to be a wilderness and many Christians came here in order to escape the persecution of the existing organized church.  They in turn persecuted those who dissented from them.  Finally, the foundations of righteous government, first installed in America by them, were overthrown by the “Christian nation” which succeeded them.  Yes, for the vast mass of God’s people, the wilderness has always ended in failure.

The idea that God will force his people yet again into the wilderness also ignores two present realities: 1) no wilderness exists today that is not under the dominion of Babylon, and 2) God’s ultimate plan is not to force people to submit to his will.  His goal and plan is that people will ultimately desire to be conformed to his will and image. This is the great goal of history toward which we all march.