However, as we saw in our study of Revelation 21–22, “come out” is not a summons to escape, and the spirituality of Revelation is not an escapist spirituality. The withdrawal is not so much a physical exodus as a theopolitical one, an escape from civil religion and the idolatry of power-worship, as we have argued throughout the book. It is a creative, self-imposed but Spirit-enabled departure from certain values and practices.10 This is the necessary prerequisite to faithful living in the very Babylon from which one has escaped. That is, the church cannot be the church in Babylon until it is
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