The Watchtower's teaching on that prophetic command is not correct. As we might suspect, our error relates to the erroneous assumption that Christ began ruling the world back in 1914. Presently we assume that Babylon the Great fell from power back in 1919—supposedly evidenced by the release of Rutherford and company from prison and the reorganization of the Bible Students. Since that time, we imagine that people flee from Babylon the Great simply by withdrawing their church membership and becoming Jehovah's Witnesses.

However, we might ask: In what way does Babylon the Great have less power over Jehovah's Witnesses now than it did before 1919? For example, Jehovah's Witnesses are greatly oppressed in virtually all Muslim-dominated countries of the world. The Russian Orthodox Church has recently succeeded in getting Jehovah's Witnesses banned in the city of Moscow. The Catholic Church was successfully influenced France to punitively tax the Watchtower. Meanwhile, the fundamentalist and evangelical sects continue to gain in power and influence in the United States. So, how is it exactly that we suppose Babylon the Great has already fallen?

Secondly, the Watchtower's understanding of the 13th and 17th chapters of Revelation does not adequately explain the circumstances surrounding the emergence of the scarlet-colored beast; upon which the harlot sits astride.

Currently we suppose that the seven-headed beast received its foretold death-stroke during the First World War. However, the facts simply do not harmonize with history. As deadly and senseless as the Great War was, Great Britain and the United States emerged from the war intact. And as the ruling head of the seven-headed beast, there was no societal or governmental instability. The governments were not faced with collapse. The only government that was overthrown was Czarist Russia. Even Germany survived the war without collapsing into anarchy. So, there simply is no basis for our supposing that the extraordinary prophecy concerning the near-death experience of the political system took place back in 1914-1919. (See essay: "Judgment Day: The Last Hour of the Eight King")

The significance of that, as regards our relationship towards Babylon the Great, is that the revival of the seven-headed beast in the 13th chapter of Revelation is surely the same development that is depicted in the 17th chapter of Revelation with the beast emerging from the abyss of death—with the harlot on its back.

Jehovah's Witnesses believe that the scarlet-colored beast went into the abyss during the Second World War when the League of Nations was disbanded, only to be replaced by the United Nations. However, such an interpretation lacks credibility. The reason so is because the League of Nations was not really a government. It was a not-so-effectual forum of nations. Many nations, including the United States, Russia and China, did not even belong to the League. Despite the blasphemous accolades attached to the League by various clergymen at its inception, it seems ludicrous that Jehovah would have portrayed such an irrelevant institution, such as the League was, as a ferocious seven-headed beast.

Sound reasoning leads us to no other conclusion but that the prophecy has not been fulfilled yet. How can we be sure? Because, the resurrection of the beast from the mortal death-stroke, up out of the abyss, heralds the commencement of Judgment Day. How do we know that? Because, we read at Revelation 17:8: "The wild beast that you saw was, but is not, and yet is about to ascend out of the abyss, and it is to go off into destruction. And when they see how the wild beast was, but is not, and yet will be present, those who dwell on the earth will wonder admiringly, but their names have not been written upon the scroll of life from the founding of the world."

Those who "wonder admiringly" at the resurrected beast are those who receive the mark of the beast, and hence, their names are not written down in the book of life. According to the Watchtower's stale interpretation of the prophecy we would have to assume that Jehovah started the judgment back in 1945 when the beast supposedly came out of the abyss in the form of the United Nations. That means that everyone who merely embraces the United Nations, including the Watchtower's own NGO signatories, have been judged worthy of the second death. (Which may in fact be the case, but that's beside the point.)

Conversely, it would mean that the "Get US out of the UN" folks, like the John Birch Society, for example, have their names written down in the book of life since they have not "wondered admiringly" at the United Nations. Can we see how absurd the Watchtower Society's interpretation is?

The near-death experience of the seven-headed wild beast has not occurred yet. It will come about as a globe-rocking calamity that will bring the present Anglo-American dominated political system crashing down. It will coincide with "men becoming faint out of fear" in anticipation of the dreaded things to come upon the world at that time. We may expect the 8th king, in the form of the United Nations, to then arise from the ashes of the presently-looming cataclysm in order to save the world from anarchy and from the specter of plunging into a New Dark Age.

According to Jesus Christ's detailed prophecy of the conclusion of the system of things, we may expect God's holy place to become desolated by the disgusting thing. Jehovah's Witnesses suppose that has to do with the actual destruction of Christendom, but that interpretation does not at all harmonize with the dozens of prophecies that indicate God's holy place is the sanctuary associated with the anointed congregation of Christ. The desolation of the holy place typifies the destruction of the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses by the 8th king, which at that time will be controlled from behind the scenes by Babylon the Great. In that sense then, Jehovah's holy ones are destined to go into captivity to Babylon the Great.

Take as a pattern the original captivity of the Jews in Babylon: Did the Jews adopt Babylonish false religion while they lived in Babylon? No doubt some did, but Daniel, Ezekiel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not. They remained true to Jehovah even though they were physically captive in Babylon. When their release came, if they were to qualify to restore the formal worship of Jehovah back on Jerusalem's Mound, Jehovah commanded them to leave all babylonish influence behind them and get out of Babylon. It should be noted too, their release came at the hand of Jehovah's anointed king, Cyrus. And they did not individually leave Babylon over a period of decades. Instead they marched as a congregation.

It is in that setting, then, that the future angelic command is heralded: "Get out of her my people!" Our release from captivity to Babylon the Great will come about at the revelation of Christ's glory. Our heeding the command to "get out of her" will require that we identify ourselves as worshippers of Jehovah at a time when doing so may land us in a concentration camp—or worse. Our getting out of her at that time will be an immediate precursor to Jehovah's putting it into the minds of the ruling powers to destroy all religion, worldwide.