(part 2)
"And another angel followed, saying, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city,
because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."
Revelation 14:8
The two prophetic books--Daniel in the Old Testament and Revelation in the New Testament--speak of "Babylon". In the book of Daniel we read of a physical empire under the control of "Babylon". The Nation of Babylon had conquered God's chosen people, the Jews, and taken them captive in a very physical way. In Revelation it is "spiritual Babylon" that has taken God's children captive.
Some so-called "religious experts" try to convince you that the prophecy of Revelation 14 and 18 is a prophecy that will be fulfilled through the actual rebuilding of Babylon. But that will never happen. Saddam Hussein made plans in the past to rebuild Babylon but the prophecies of the Bible are against his dreams. The prophet Isaiah predicted the overthrow of Ancient Babylon (Isaiah 13:19-22) and God said "She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations . . . ."
This prophecy lets us know that in Revelation 14 and 18 God is not speaking of the physical empire, of Babylon. God is warning all mankind, just before Jesus comes the second time, to come out of "spiritual" Babylon. In the book of Daniel God called His people out of physical Babylon--and in the book of Revelation, God calls His people out of spiritual Babylon.
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When God refers to a church that He wishes to correct we all must realize that God loves each of its members. We as individual members are not bad or good as a result of the particular church to which we belong. We need to keep listening to Jesus and be willing to go in the direction He wants for our lives irregardless of what decision the organization makes. Listen to the voice of Jesus from the Bible and He will guide you in making the right decisions.
John writes in Revelation 17 "One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, 'Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.' Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a desert. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. Revelation 17:1-6.
In Revelation 17 God pictures Babylon as a woman. The Bible prophecies use the word woman as a symbol for a church. A good woman symbolizes a good church and a bad woman symbolizes a church that has strayed away from the teachings of Christ. She is dressed in purple and crimson red color. She is wearing gold jewelry and expensive stones and pearls, and "on her forehead was written the name, "Babylon the Great, the mother of prostitutes." "Babylon the Great," the mother church, has "daughter churches that have rejected many unpopular teachings of Christ."
Christ here is concerned with "the erroneous teachings of the Christian church. The fact that God says the churches are falling is not a condemnation of His people as much as a condemnation of the false teachings of the churches who claim to "represent God". God has His special children in every denomination, Catholic and Protestant and those who attend another church, as well as those in cults or those who attend no church at all. Many love God and God loves them. God loves everyone. Reader, God loves you whether you are a church member or not. You are reading God's last message of concerned love for all of His children. He wants to save you. Let God plant the truth, the seed of His word in your heart.
"I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus." God pictures the church as drunken on the blood of those she has killed. Through the dark ages the church killed over 50 million people who chose to obey God instead of obeying church leaders. God also calls Babylon "that great city, which reigns (rules) over the kings of the earth." Revelation 17:4-6, 18. This international religious power has power over world leaders.
No man has the right to judge another person regarding sincerity, motives, attitudes or choice of belief. God, however, does warn us to "come out of Babylon". Most people don't understand what that means. Who is Babylon? And if God is talking to me, how do I come out of Babylon? It is of vital importance that you and I know the answers to those two questions. Once you read this book your actions will reveal whether you really understand the answers.
Reader, God loves you! He has led you to this very book. God wants you to be safe through the coming crisis
Five Identifying Marks!
1. The purple, the scarlet color, and the gold reveal to us that Babylon is a power that has great wealth and great power.
2. That Babylon is "drunken with the blood of the saints" reveals another identifying mark of Babylon, Babylon is a cruel persecuting power.
3. Babylon has power over "the kings of the earth." This tells us that Babylon is an international church-state combination. The church uses governments to persecute those with whom she disagrees.
4. Babylon is considered "the mother of prostitutes," suggesting that this world power has "given birth " to many other churches that are like "their mother."
5. Immediately before the coming of Christ, many of God's children are in Babylon.
Which Is the ONLY Power That Has
All These Characteristics? The papacy:
a)is a magnificent church that
b) cruelly persecuted and killed millions, often by torture, for not obeying church teachings. The Papacy killed more than fifty million people in the dark ages for not accepting her un-scriptural beliefs. - See "Fox's Book of Martyrs" on the last page of this book.
c) is a religious organization that has power over the kings and governments of the earth.
d) gave birth to many churches that, for a time, believed in "The Bible and the Bible only". Many have since turned back accepting many un-scriptural beliefs and have become more like their mother. More information is found in the Appendix
e) The fifth identifying mark is that the majority of God's people are in Babylon just before Christ returns. God’s people are to come out of Babylon. That means that most of God’s children, today, are in Babylon. Where are many of Christ’s followers? They are in the various Protestant, as well as Catholic, churches.
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Could the Protestant churches be part of Babylon also? The sad answer is yes. Revelation 14, announcing the fall of Babylon must apply to religious organizations that were once pure and have since turned away from a pure faith in Jesus Christ.
The Bible says most of God's people today are still in Babylon.
In what churches are a large numbers of Christ’s followers found? Without a question, they are in the many churches claiming to be Protestant. "But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a prostitute. You lavished your favors on anyone who passed by and your beauty became his." Ezekiel 16: 15. The conflicting beliefs of the Protestant churches are another identifying mark. The word "Babylon" is related to a word meaning confusion and signifies confusion.
Paul, the apostle, predicted that the Christian church would reject Bible truth. The church did exactly that. The church rejected some unpopular Bible truths when they rejected and replaced some of the Bible’s teachings with pagan practices. The hope was to make it easier for those who worshiped idols to accept Christianity. 2 Thessalonians 2:3,4. "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.
History reveals that in order to grow quickly, the requirement for church membership was lowered, "a pagan flood swept into the church." Many in the church outwardly looked like Christians, but inwardly they had never changed. They still believed in the same false gods they had served before, only now they worshiped their idols in secret.
Our danger today is that we blindly cling to what we learn about God from our parents and our church. Many teachings we learn; we believe are direct from the Word of God, the Bible. People trust what they learn from their parents or their minister about God without question.
The trouble is that this style of learning has gone on for hundreds of years. During those years parents passed on un-scriptural teachings to their children, from parent to child. Our danger is in believing that because our church or our parents teach us something that it must be from God’s Word. Sorry! Just because a person in authority says it is so does not make it so! Our eternal destiny depends on our making the right choices. The only unchanging absolute guide is God’s word, the Bible.
We often listen to popular ministers who are well paid. Often their high salary stops many ministers from condemning popular sins. A popular minister can become unpopular if he or she speaks unpopular truth. If they become unpopular, they could lose their income.
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Some ministers are afraid to speak the truth for this very reason. So fashionable sinners live on with their fashionable sins, concealed under a mask of godliness.
Religion has become popular with most people everywhere. World leaders, politicians, lawyers, doctors, and business people, join the church to get the respect and confidence of society, and improve their own financial situation. They often try to cover their own unrighteous life style by claiming to be a Christian. Many have been baptized into the church who know nothing of Christ.
Baptism does not make a person a Christian. Popularity does not make a person a Christian. Attending church does not make a person a Christian. Many are baptized into the church and claim to be Christians but are not. They could also stand in a garage and claim to be a car, because cars belong in garages, but that does not make them a car.
Many people are looking for the benefits without the duties of Christianity. Is the church doing the work of the devil? Raising money often involves bingo and lotteries, appealing to greed instead of sacrifice.
False Doctrines are Intoxicating!
The great sin charged against Babylon is that she "made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication." What is the wine of her fornication? It is the false doctrine the church has passed on through tradition.
What are some of those false doctrines?
Rome substituted her teachings for those of the Bible.
When Rome had the power to do so, Rome banned the Bible and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. The churches of our time are doing the same thing when the creeds and teachings of the church become more important than the teachings of the Bible. They teach men to rest their faith upon the opinions and the teachings of their church rather than on the Scripture.
Opinions and church teachings often replace the teachings of the Bible.
In this way the teachings of the church are putting aside the Bible as really as Rome did, though in a less noticeable way. Before the coming of the Lord, Satan will work "with all power and signs and lying wonders." 2 Thessalonians 2:9, KJV.
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