MYSTERY BABYLON

(Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the July-August 1984 issue of the “Midnight Cry Messenger.”)

“And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” Rev. 17:5.

There is so much in the scripture that in some way relates to our subject. We will simply use this single verse as a text to start with. However, we will refer to many scriptures as we pursue our subject.

The first thing I call to your attention is that this woman pictured here is called the great whore, mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. She sits upon many waters which are said to be “...peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.”

Along with many other things in the scriptures about her she is called Mystery Babylon. There are many mysteries in the Bible. A mystery is something that is not understood, or is hidden.

In the spiritual or invisible realm the natural man with his five senses is helpless to see or understand spiritual reality, good or evil. These things have to be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. This is why Babylon is a mystery.

LAW OF REVELATION
Several factors govern the revelation of spiritual things. I Cor. 2:14 says, “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Whereas the natural man has no capacity to understand spiritual things, the carnal believer understands very little. This is why Paul said, “And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.” I Cor. 3:1.

Only the spiritual man is capable of discerning spiritual things. I Cor. 2:15-16. Due to God’s prophetic timetable, all revelation is subject to the sovereign wisdom of God. This includes the time, place and people involved.

Because of spiritual ignorance and violation of these principles much error has come into the professing church through unenlightened men who tried to interpret the Bible without the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And no doubt most of us with any religious inclination have ignorantly embraced error in our religious identity.

In process of time this infusion of error and darkness becomes hallowed tradition which they have more interest in propagating than walking in the light. This seals these groups off from the Spirit of revelation. When this happens the dove of the Holy Spirit takes his flight to those who are open and receptive to true revelation.

“For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.” Matt. 13:12.

Once any church group is abandoned by the Spirit of revelation, it either becomes a lifeless religious form or is taken over by seducing spirits and doctrines of devils. I Tim. 4:1. Without the power and presence of the Holy Spirit they are incapable of begetting children of God. Instead of being sealed by the Holy Spirit, their converts will be sealed by evil religious spirits residing in Mystery Babylon. Rev. 18:2.

SPIRIT OF BABYLON
However, we need to see that Babylon and her daughters are actually the manifestation of anti-Christ, working under the guise of religion. Although the whole world system is in reality anti-Christ, our concern here is professing Christianity. Since the woman is a type of the church, the great whore with her daughters represents the false or apostate church system. Drunken with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, she is the enemy of Christ and the persecutor of the righteous.

Apostate religion or Babylon is any religious system that Christ-rejecting men gravitate to instead of Christ. It is a counterfeit or substitute for the real thing. Some are born into it because of family ties and some are converted to it.

Although the people in Babylon wear a cloak of religion and may profess faith in Christ, most of them are deluded. Very few are candidates for the kingdom of God. This is because seducing spirits and doctrines of devils are the real power behind apostate religion. I Tim. 4:1, Rev. 18:2.

All demoniac power, religious or otherwise, is totally anti-Christ. This is why true Christianity or a ministry of the Spirit is hated, opposed and persecuted by apostate religion. This began with Cain’s murder of Abel and was climaxed with the murder of Christ. It is significant to note that apostate religion (Judaism) and political Babylon (Rome) joined hands in sending God’s son to the cross.

Although the beast nature of man has been somewhat restrained during this gospel dispensation the last day loosing of Satan is upon us. The trend of hatred, persecution and murder will accelerate and continue till the coming of Christ. Satan’s wrath will increase because he knows his time is short. Rev. 12:12.

Mystery Babylon is forever at work to destroy vital Christianity. Many anti-Christ movements, both religious and political, have been raised up to accomplish this goal. Millions of people are invariably involved in this age-old conspiracy. Satan always blinds men into thinking their cause is just and good.

The last step in apostasy is man, inspired by Satan, believing that the end of his supposed righteous cause justifies whatever means it takes to get him there. This means hatred, conspiracy, lies and murder. This is the cause of the shedding of much blood upon the earth since Cain slew Abel.

It is also the spirit of anti-Christ in men of different religions and political persuasions that often brings them together in a common cause when their mutual enemy is Christ or his people. A good example of this is Pilate and Herod becoming friends at the trial and crucifixion of Christ. Luke 23:12.

In studying the history of the Bible and the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, several significant things stand out in my mind. This is not only true of the so-called Bible lands, but the whole world.

Man as a whole is a failure. He is selfish, proud, and cruel. He is a bloodthirsty creature that is never satisfied with what he has. In order to satiate his desire for his neighbor’s gold, lands and other treasures he constantly thinks up reasons to destroy him and take what he wants.

History is a bloody trail of the strong preying upon the weak. Earth’s soil has been soaked over and over again with human blood. Much of man’s energy, time and wealth is spent devising and making war against his fellow man.

ANCIENT BABYLON
To better understand present day Babylon we need to take a look at Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon. Dan. 4:30. The ruins of ancient Babylon with its hanging gardens give mute testimony to the fact that it was indeed one of the great wonders of the world. Unlike Jerusalem and many ancient cities with their narrow winding streets, Babylon was laid out like a modern American city. With wide straight streets it was meticulously and carefully planned.

In addition to Babylon’s geographical location and its commercial influence, it was also a religious metropolis of great and diverse magnitude.

It is said that there were fifty-three temples of the chief gods, fifty-five chapels of Marduk, three hundred chapels for the earthly deities, six hundred for the heavenly deities, one hundred and eighty for the gods Nergal and Adad and twelve other altars for different gods.

Though supposedly separate and distinct from each other, Babylon’s religion, government, commerce and vice went hand in hand. No matter how wicked, cruel or immoral man is he likes to bring his religion into everything he does. That makes him feel justified in what he does.

Our country today and the world as a whole with their many religious philosophies and forms of government are simply present day Babylon. Rotten to the core, our world is moving closer and closer to the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Hollywood has religion, so does the Mafia, so does Komeini and even the gays have religion. Take anything that man wants to do and sprinkle a little religion on it and it becomes a noble, good and just cause. Many call America a Christian nation because we have “In God We Trust” on some of our coins.

Any religion without Christ is anti-Christ. I might add that the greatest enemy of Christ in the world is not atheistic communism or some religion or philosophy that denies the existence of God or Christ. It is apostate Christianity that claims to believe in him. The natural man without religion is more tolerant toward the ministry of the Spirit and the gospel than people who have been exposed to or partaken of apostate Christianity.

Primitive people who have no contact with civilization and the professing Christian world are far more tolerant and receptive than those who have been exposed to and contaminated by the world system and professing Christianity. It is the religious spirits they partake of through such contact that cause them to resist the truth. However, this is true of all apostate religion.

Babylon, with her harlot daughters is apostate Christianity. She has become the hold and cage of millions of unclean evil spirits. Rev. 18:2. Sitting upon the many waters (nations) of the world, Babylon and her daughters have ministered these spirits to the people.

STRONG DELUSION
It is the anti-Christ nature of these spirits in people that resist the Spirit of Christ and the gospel. It is also the delusive power of these spirits that leads men into a state of reprobation. When men receive not the love of the truth that they might be saved, God sends them strong delusion. II Thess. 2:10-12.

However, let me hasten to add that Babylon or the spirit of Babylon existed long before Christ and apostate Christianity. Just about every religion in the world, including Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and the thousands of cults and religious philosophies, are the result of apostasy. Somewhere in the ancient past these people had light and rejected it.

By far and large most of our professing Christian world is apostate. Strong delusion is the seal of reprobation and is accomplished primarily through religious falsehood.

In the final analysis, apostasy is the result of rebellion against God. When men reject the truth, they turn to Satan’s lie. These words of Jesus to apostate Israel shows us the spirit responsible for their condition:

“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” John 8:44.

The spirit of rebellion is ministered from one generation to another. This is done principally through religion. Preaching this truth to the Jews cost Steven his life. “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.

“Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers.” Acts 7:51-52.

THE TOWER OF BABEL
A good example of the spirit of Babylon is found in the attempted building of the city and the tower that was properly named Babel after God confounded their tongues. Gen. 11:1-9. Had man not decided to settle down and build this city and tower, he would have continued to be a sojourner. Actually, this desire to settle down and build a permanent dwelling place was out of character for God’s purpose and plan for man. God’s best for man was to realize that here he had no continuing city but he was to look for one to come.

Finding the plain in the land of Shinar they decided this was a good place to settle down and build them something of a permanent nature. Unlike Abraham, they were not looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Heb. 11:10.

The city they attempted to build represents government, politics, entertainment, culture and security. The tower represents religion and their concept of God.

They didn’t want something of a temporal nature. Their city was to be made out of brick, thoroughly burned and seasoned. This city and tower would also be the means of holding everyone together, thus giving them strength, stability and protection. It would put a stop to their wandering. Together they would do great things. This spirit of unity today is called patriotism.

All this seemed like a great thing to do. All their wanderings seemingly had accomplished nothing of a permanent nature. This city and tower would give them earthly security and heavenly security. What more could you want? All this and heaven, too.

There is something in man that wants something of a permanent nature. He wants security “ something dependable and stable. He likes to feel secure and comfortable. He would much rather have a bird in the hand than a thousand in the bush.

However, the Lord was looking on and there were several things he didn’t like about this project. “...let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.” Gen. 11:4.

It is evident that these people considered this their project and not the Lord’s. It was their name that they wanted to glorify and not the Lord’s. The unity, the numbers, the success and the imposing result would give them a monument of pride that they could point to and say, “Look what we have done.”

Instead of the Lord, self was at the center of their endeavor. Essentially this is the spirit that begets Babylon and all the kingdoms of this world, including religious kingdoms. They want the biggest, the best, the grandest, the most imposing and impregnable. They want something they can glory in that others can’t challenge or take away from them.

This, my friends, is the spirit of Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar epitomized the spirit that builds all Babylons when he said, “...is not this great Babylon, That I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty?” Dan. 4:30.

The real spirit behind most religious kingdoms goes all the way back to the original rebel, Lucifer, “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.” Isa. 14:13-14.

Not being aware of the spirit that motivates them, many man-made kingdoms have been built supposedly in the name of the Lord. Man in general wants to do something good and often of a religious nature. Peter would have built another Babylon on the mount of transfiguration had he been left to himself. Matt. 17:15.

DIVINE INTERVENTION
The Lord himself admitted that with unity and motivation there was nothing that man wouldn’t have accomplished in building this city and the tower if left to himself.

Being made in the image of God there is a measure of creative genius in man. The Lord knows this but he will not permit man to selfishly use this God-given ability to glorify himself. Isa. 42:8 says, “I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.”

This is why he came down and confounded their tongues. Unable to communicate with each other, they ceased to build their city and tower and were indeed scattered abroad. When unity and understanding departs division follows. Two cannot walk together except they be agreed. Amos 3:3.

This example of human effort in the building of political, national and religious empires is typical of the world history of nations. Where are Media Persia, Greece, Rome and Babylon itself? Many lesser known empires have made their impact upon various parts of the world only to disappear and fade into history. Practically all of them had their religion along with their politics and culture.

The history of man in general is one failure after another. And the only reason for this perpetual failure is that man has tried to run his own world according to his own human wisdom. Our wisdom at its best isn’t sufficient.

If man is left to himself he becomes a self-sufficient, independent creature that blindly builds one kingdom after another. History is replete with examples of great religious, political and military leaders who, with delusions of grandeur, set out to remold and reshape the world.

This is what Hitler tried to do with his master race philosophy. This is what Lenin had in mind with his communistic philosophy. This is what all religions have done in their holy wars and crusades, supposedly in the name of the Lord. And this is also what democracy would do if they could. The sum total of all these concepts and efforts of men is Babylon.

MAN NEVER LEARNS
The natural man never learns the ways of God nor accepts his judgment. Edom, the descendant of Esau, is typical of man’s continual rebellion and reaction to God’s judgment. “Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the Lord of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever.” Mal. 1:4.

The more light men reject the more darkness they embrace. John 3:19-21; 12:35-36. The Judaic and Christian world have both had their opportunity and both have ended in a state of apostasy. The Christian or church age started out with more light than any preceding it. In fact, the coming of Christ ending with his death and resurrection was the fulfillment of all the types and shadows of the Old Testament.

The launching of the church age, and the proclamation of the gospel was God’s ultimate overture in the reconciliation of man.

THE FALLING AWAY
The falling away, the great revolt, the final rebellion or apostasy of II Thess. 2:1-12 is the climactic result of rebellion against God that started with Lucifer. Isa. 14:12-14.

It is a perditious or reprobate state men have experienced since Cain slew Abel and went out from the presence of the Lord. Gen. 4:1-16. Men in a collective sense such as cities, nations and generations have experienced reprobation at one time or another. The world in Noah’s day and Israel at the first coming of Christ are examples. Gen. 6, 7, 18 & 19, Matt. 12:38-42, 23:37-39.

The last day apostasy is the climax of all rebellion because the whole world is affected. And the heir himself, God’s only begotten Son, has been despised and rejected by man. Deliverance for the righteous remnant and judgment upon the world of the ungodly is the next thing in order. II Thess. 1:7-10.

THE REMNANT
Since God sought out Adam and Eve in the garden and covered their nakedness with animal skins he has reserved a righteous remnant in the earth. Although man in general has turned to idolatry and has gone whoring after other gods, this righteous seed has been preserved.

And it is because of this elect remnant that God is staying his hand of judgment upon this Babylonian world at this very hour. Like the wheat in with the tares, the little remnant has often found itself carried away captive into Babylon. At times God has raised up ministries with an anointing and a vision that the little remnant would gravitate to for awhile. However, Satan gets busy and sows tares in among the wheat and in process of time the enemy gains control and you have another Babylon.

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE
Over thirty years ago, I was a part of a fellowship of Baptist churches that was a split from a split that came out of the Southern Baptist Convention. As a young Christian and minister, I was thrilled with the spiritual reality in our group. We had some truly anointed ministers and our group was growing by leaps and bounds.

The strength of our group was their evangelistic fervor, good organization, some good preachers and spiritual liberty in the services. However they still wore some of Babylon’s clothes. Josh. 7:21. They stressed nickels and heads and tailored their progress to the task of building large congregations and Sunday Schools. They also still held to the one-man pastor concept. As a result of this some of their preachers became dictators that would not tolerate anyone or anything they thought was a challenge to the status quo or their authority.

A statement by the president of our Bible College at one of our fellowship meetings has stayed with me through the years. This was a knowledgeable man and seemingly had the interest of the work upon his heart. He said, “Brethren, we have about forty years to accomplish our work.”

What he was talking about was apostasy and the usual length of time it takes a religious work to become a lifeless form. We know of a certainty that there was a time when the Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals and others had some spiritual life.

Souls were saved and the saints were blessed and edified when they met together. The preachers and people were more interested in pleasing the Lord and worshipping him than they were in building a religious kingdom or the biggest church in the world.

FORM OF GODLINESS
Today most of them have a form of Godliness but deny the power thereof. And they teach and train their preachers to give them what they want to hear. The hireling preachers are echoes, not voices. They are actually afraid to look beyond the walls of Babylon for fear they might lose their place at Jezebel’s table. I Kings 18:19, II Tim. 3:5, 4:3-4, John 12:42-43.

I would

say that most churches today are the product of the spirit of division. You don’t have to go very far back into the history of the average church to find out it came into existence because of a church split “someone didn’t like the way things were done in the church they split off from. When disagreements arise in the average church today neither side is willing to submit their problem to the church. After a divisive back-door political campaign they end their fight with a church split. The more adamant side with the most political and financial clout usually keeps the church with the other side moving out and building them a good church where they can run things the right way. At least this is what most of them say.

BLIND AND DELUDED
The thousands of different churches, denominations, cults and sects with their varied doctrines and religious practices give mute testimony to the condition of religious man. It is a Babel of confusion and properly named “Babylon.”

But the amazing thing about all this is the fact that the people in these religious systems are not aware of the fact that they are in Babylon. Each group brainwashes their converts into believing they are right and it’s the others that are wrong.

Most of the people that are in Babylon belong there because they do not really know Christ, nor do they want to know him because they are sealed in their sins with the spirits of Babylon. Rev. 18:2.

The following scripture gives us a picture of Babylon just before the coming of Christ. “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would that thou wert cold or hot.

“So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

“Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.

“As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.

“He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” Rev. 3:14-22.

THE REMNANT
However, there is a very small remnant of the Lord’s people in Babylon and they are not happy. Like the children of Israel who were carried away captive into Babylon, they cannot sing the Lord’s song in a strange land.

“By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof.

For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” Psa. 137:1-4.

Even as the Lord called Noah to build the ark and prepare for the coming flood, the Lord’s people must be awakened and prepared for the coming of Christ. This awakening and preparation will result in separation of the wise virgins from the foolish virgins. Matt. 25:1-13. The wise virgins and the foolish virgins are the wheat and the tares. The binding together of the tares into bundles is the many denominations, sects and cults. Together they consist of Babylon and her many harlot daughters.

Even as the Lord spoke to Abraham about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, he will speak again before the destruction of this world. And as Lot was brought forth out of Sodom before its destruction, God’s people will come out of Babylon before it is destroyed.

God’s call even now is to “...come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.

The elect must be awakened to the reality that they are in Babylon before they will desire to come out. This means that they will have to hear something different from the many conflicting echoes of apostate Babylon. Like John the Baptist, it will be a voice in the wilderness and not an echo.

CHARACTERISTICS OF BABYLON
Since religious Babylon encompassed the earth and is so complex and diverse, the question arises, “How can the elect recognize they are in Babylon?” Before we consider some of the characteristics of apostate Babylon and her daughters we must realize that most of the people have been brainwashed by the spirit of Babylon and are content where they are. They actually resent any suggestion that they are in Babylon.

It is so easy to teach gullible, naive man to believe that he is sound in his faith and that it is the Moonies, the children of God, the Hare Krishna and the Jim Jones’ followers that are deluded. It used to be the Seventh Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Mormons who were cults but they have all been accepted into mother Babylon’s family now.

Perhaps the most deluded of all are the fundamentally sound in the faith type, who have become a mere shell of lifeless religious form. Although many religious movements had a measure of light in their beginning and were blessed of God, they soon became a lifeless religious form without the glory of spiritual reality. This religious form is like any other form or mold. Its design is to hold things within the confines of approved criteria that are uniquely characteristic of the particular group it represents.

Religious form serves numerous purposes in the work of Satan. First of all it intimidates people and holds them in captivity. It strips them of the liberty to worship God in spirit and in truth. Secondly, it shuts them off from any revelation that goes beyond the confines of their group.

Thirdly, religious form excludes and denies the power of the Holy Spirit, which must be free to move in our midst according to the mind of Christ. Fourthly, religious form also strips us of the need of prayer and faith in looking to and honoring Christ as the head of the church. Actually religious form becomes so dominant and overshadowing it replaces Christ as head.

Fifthly, religious form becomes dull and uninteresting because the people know before each service what is going to take place. In some churches everything is itemized and listed on the church program which is given to you when you come in the door.

We need to understand that religious form covers a broad range of concepts and religious practices. Some are noisy and demonstrative while others are quiet and dignified. Some have many religious trappings such as crosses, beads, distinctive garbs of clothing, shrines, medals, statues and candle burning.

Some believe it is a sin to wear a necktie, jewelry or certain types of clothing. One preacher said a woman’s dress should have sleeves that come within two inches of her wrist. Although this fellow wore a necktie it was pinned on the underside with a safety pin. Anything such as a tie tack or clip was worldly. He also warned the ladies with short hair to pray that the rapture didn’t take place before their hair grew out.

A teenage girl, supposedly saved in one of these churches, innocently went to a movie with her mother and brother who didn’t profess to be Christians. Observed by one of the church members, a full report was given to the rest of the church. The next time she attended church two of the righteous sisters took her by each arm and marched her down to the altar to get her saved again.

Some go in for much ceremony and ritual and teach their parishioners that they actually partake of Christ through these observances. They pray to the saints, burn candles and wear supposedly miraculous medals. As far as I am concerned, a good luck charm or rabbit’s foot is just as good.

Some believe in ceremoniously having certain foods blessed, water made holy and handkerchiefs sanctified with healing virtue. Still others believe and teach that if you are devout and diligently honor the church you will be honored to visit some religious shrine or temple and be rewarded with certain honors and privileges.

These honors and privileges run the gamut from being blessed by the holy father to having your family sealed together in eternity. Wearing special underwear and burial clothing is also a special privilege that supposedly enhances your standing in the church and with God. They also practice baptism for the dead regardless of how long they have been dead or how ungodly they might have been.

Some have a purgatory where you go to be cleansed and made ready for heaven. They also have a ceremony of last rites for those who die. Still others have three different places called three degrees in glory that you go to. The highest one is for the devout and faithful. The second level is for those who were members but not so devout and faithful.

The lowest level is for those who were never converted to their faith, which they say is the only one in the world that is right. These lowest level dwellers will have the gospel preached to them by those from the upper level. When they are converted they will have a chance to move on up.

This is a good church to belong to because everyone will eventually be saved, either here or in eternity. However, the saved will all believe in their church, their version of the gospel and their prophet who started it all.

Other aspects of religious form which I have observed in my lifetime are doctrinal extremes, play upon emotions, emphasis of experiences and various affectations of speech all supposedly being the work of the Holy Ghost.

Satan cleverly substitutes noisy demonstration, display of emotions and religious experiences for the Holy Ghost. The so-called healing evangelist emphasizes physical healing and all kinds of blessings when you give generously to the great work he is doing. Some of them pronounce judgment and doom upon those who fail to support God’s great man of faith and power.

Still others cover up their lack of true anointing by punctuating their preaching with gasps, mumbles, grunts, unknown tongues, a singsong chant or shouts of glory and hallelujah. Most of them have very little of the word and what they do preach is often twisted and strongly colored with their traditional concepts. Many from the pentecostal and charismatic groups preach the Holy Ghost more than they preach Christ. Still others sound like an undertaker at a seance.

The educated and intellectual type like to build their sermons around a text and quote from the writings and sayings of others. They may also recite poetry and quote the sayings of philosophers and great men of history.

Not being taught by the Spirit, their insight into the scriptures is simply an echo of traditional sources of doctrine. “...if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” Matt. 6:23b.

Although infused with human wisdom and knowledge, their ministry is dead letter. Without a ministry of the Spirit such men have to draw from the sources they have available to them.

We also have the intellectual modernist that does not believe in the virgin birth, blood atonement or the miraculous. He has a logical explanation for the miracles of the Bible.

Of course the Bible thumping fundamentalist makes his boast in believing every jot and tittle of the word. And, bless God, he will fight before he will switch. Why should he? His jots and tittles are right and the others are wrong. This group could be the most deluded of all because they have so much letter of the word.

APOSTATE RELIGION
Apostate religion, whether it be lifeless Christianity, heathen religion, Judaism or one of the many cults are all part of MYSTERY BABYLON. All of them supposedly represent God in the earth.

Since our ministry for the most part is to the professing Christian world, it is to those who are unhappy in Babylon that are looking for a ray of light in a time of increasing spiritual darkness. Although the word of the Lord is precious or unusual and there is no open vision in apostate Babylon, I Sam. 3:1, I believe the Lord even now is fulfilling his word.

“The Lord shall go forth as a mighty man, he shall stir up jealousy like a man of war: he shall cry, yea, roar; he shall prevail against his enemies.

“I have long time holden my peace; I have been still, and refrained myself: now will I cry like a travailing woman; I will destroy and devour at once.

“I will make waste mountains and hills, and dry up all their herbs; and I will make the rivers islands, and I will dry up the pools.

“And I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not; I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them.” Isa. 42:13-16.





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