So, why is Jesus so upset with Babylon? Come and see!

Here is another of those trials by fire for the purification of your heart and trials by water for the purification of your mind verses: 

"<2> When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee" (Isaiah 43:2).

When you are flooded by distorted, irrational, and false thoughts about spiritual or natural matters, He will extend you the awareness of their essential wrongness and leave you the wherewithal to reject them, even in a small way. It often will be a small and incremental way, for to push you too quickly would be counterproductive. 

When you are immersed in the fire of various evil desires, He will make it clear that these proceed from Hell and leave you space and strength to assert that you want no part of them. Again, this will be typically incremental.

As a reminder, when the flood and the furnace are extremely vile and uncomfortable, this is temptation properly speaking. When the fire and water are obviously yuck but much easier to bear, like the difference between a sad day when it is pouring outside vs a sad day when it is just drip dripping, then this is fermentation: temptation at its lowest settings. 

Or again, the fire and water of temptation are like being screamed and nagged at on the inside; while the fire and water of fermentation are like being stuck with a sullen, perverse person who is annoying but not unbearable.

The particular type of fire and water in which the Lord permits your immersion is not random but always related to things you personally need to work on to go to Heaven; as also to lessen the discomfort of dealing with lingering worldly blots and shadows in the next life in the areas designated for that purpose, eg the lower earth; the pit.

Many people are not exposed to the full fledged process during their earthly lives, because they are not able to handle it; and it would be counterproductive, injurious to their souls. So more of the cleaning up of chills and shadows will occur in the life to come in their cases. 

Context into why few are exposed to full-fledged temptation has been appended.

The more you pay attention to your heart and mind, acknowledging evil and falsehood in these, the more you are genuinely watching and praying as commanded by the Lord. And the more you will understand how inextricable these processes of fire and water are from letting go of bitterness and irrationality; thus becoming a better, stronger person who is closer to God and has healthier inner and outer habits. 

But if people teach false doctrines about love and fire, false doctrines about truth and water, then this gets in the way of the purification processes in the heart and mind. This is why the Word of God is so upset with Babylon, the strange woman, the Whore; for they destroy the runway and the conning tower and the airplane, getting in God's way and your own.

Why does Babylon do it, then? Because it is easier to control and deceive people when you hijack their hearts and minds, directing them to purposes contrary to those for which they were created. Because Babylon is any religious system of domination from the love of self and the world which interferes with rather than facilitating the regeneration process.

"This is the resemblance of religious domination from the love of self and the world through all the earth, this pattern known as Babylon." 

<6> And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth. <7> And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah. <8> And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. <9> Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. <10> Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? <11> And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base" (Zechariah 5:6-11).

The explanation of this passage about evil religious groups which profane the sacred and enslave and endarken people rather than pouring oil and wine into their wounds has been appended.

For to pour oil and wine in people's wounds is to facilitate the purification of people's hearts and minds; but the Babylonians who adulterate the goods and the Chaldeans who falsify the truths of the Church shall be destroyed, for the sake of humans who may yet be saved:

"<14> Thus saith the Lord, your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; For your sake I have sent to Babylon, and have brought down all their nobles, and the Chaldeans, whose cry is in the ships" (Isaiah 43:14).

Ships and cries are predicates of the mind, here reversed so as to mean falsification of the Word and false doctrine generally.

"<21> But there the glorious Lord will be unto us a place of broad rivers and streams; wherein shall go no galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby" (Isaiah 33:21).

Notice the ships here. Ship is in the reversed position and indicates falsehood and falsification; yet God modifies the predicate of the mind, ship, with the adjective gallant. This is because the false doctrines are seductive and pleasing on the outside even though they are poisoned water on the inside.

Remember what John of Patmos said when he beheld Babylon! "And I wondered with great admiration." It is much the same as referring to the ships as gallant. 

Doctrines which are merely pleasing, gallant, on the outside are worthless for helping you clean the platter and cup with fire and water. Know the difference, for your ultimate spiritual fate depends upon choosing wisely in the arena of your heart and the arena of your mind; and you do not need any distractions or stumbling blocks in your way, it being already challenging enough.

Appendix:

"But few know what temptation is, because few at the present day undergo any temptation; for none are able to be tempted except those who are governed by the good of faith, that is, by charity towards the neighbour. If those who are not governed by such charity experienced temptation they would instantly give way; and in those who give way evil becomes more firmly established and falsity more firmly believed, because in their case the evil spirits with whom they are thereby associated are victorious. This is the reason why at the present day few are allowed to enter into any spiritual temptation, but only into some natural forms of distress in order that they may be held back by means of them from self-love and love of the world into which they would otherwise plunge without any restraint" (Arcana Coelestia 4274).

" No one can ever know what all this means except from the internal sense. He will never know unless he knows from that sense what 'an ephah' means, and what 'the woman in the middle of it', 'the stone of lead over the mouth of the ephah', and also 'Shiner' mean. Once these particular meanings have been brought to the surface it is plain that the profanation existing in the Church at that time is meant. For 'an ephah' means good; 'the woman' means wickedness or evil, as it is explicitly stated there; and 'a stone of lead' means falsity arising from evil which shuts it away, 'a stone' being outward truth, and therefore in the contrary sense falsity, 643, 1298, 3720, 6426, and 'lead' evil, 8298. So it is that the woman in the middle of the ephah, over the mouth of which a stone of lead was placed, means evil shut up in good by falsity, which is the same thing as profanation. For profanation is evil joined to good, 6348. The two women lifting up the ephah between earth and heaven are Churches, 252, 253, by which the profanation was banished. 'Shiner', to which the woman in the ephah was taken away, is external worship that has profanity within it, 1183, 1292" (Arcana Coelestia 8540).