The Whole System is Judged

The whole system, the world, is the judged or cursed thing now. It is the Jericho. While the camp lingers in the wilderness, we may be at work or on a mission to draw out the Rahabs. But we cannot seek the improvement of Jericho, or display the resources and capabilities of the world. The world including other thoughts, is also any moral or religious system or undertaking which does not act in company with a rejected and heavenly Christ. Such doings would be unholy, not according to "the truth," however morally conducted or benevolently intentioned.
To glory without going on to "perfection" in a crucified Christ will not, if alone, be the "perfection" in this age. There must be companionship with a rejected Christ also. Babylon, the mystic Babylon of the Revelation, may be brought to boast in a crucified Christ and be Babylon still. For what is it as delineated by the Spirit? Is it not a thing worldly in character as well as abominable and idolatrous in doctrine and practice?
Rev. 18 gives us a sight of Babylon in its worldliness, as chapter 17 does more in idolatries. Babylon of old, as in the land of Chaldea, was full of idols and guilty of the blood or of the sorrows of the righteous. But it had also this mark: it displayed greatness in the world in the time of Jerusalem's depression. So it is with the mystic Babylon. She has her abominations in the midst of her, and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus stains her. She is disclosed even more fully as great and splendid and joyous in the earth during the age of Christ's rejection. She is important in the world in that day when the judgment of God is being prepared for the world. She can glorify herself and live deliciously in a defiled place.