Come Out of Her, My People

Revelation 18:1-8 ESV

“After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was made bright with his glory. And he called out with a mighty voice,

“’Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!

    She has become a dwelling place for demons,

a haunt for every unclean spirit,

    a haunt for every unclean bird,

    a haunt for every unclean and detestable beast.

For all nations have drunk

    the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality,

and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her,

    and the merchants of the earth have grown rich from the power of her luxurious living.’

Then I heard another voice from heaven saying,

“’Come out of her, my people,

    lest you take part in her sins,

lest you share in her plagues;

for her sins are heaped high as heaven,

    and God has remembered her iniquities.

Pay her back as she herself has paid back others,

    and repay her double for her deeds;

    mix a double portion for her in the cup she mixed.

As she glorified herself and lived in luxury,

    so give her a like measure of torment and mourning,

since in her heart she says,

    “I sit as a queen,

I am no widow,

    and mourning I shall never see.”

For this reason her plagues will come in a single day,

    death and mourning and famine,

and she will be burned up with fire;

    for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.’” 

Who or what is Babylon a picture of? It or she is a picture of the wicked, the godless, and a habitation of everything spiritually unclean. She has forsaken the Lord and she is idolatrous, engaged in both physical and spiritual adultery. Babylon is known as the center of iniquity, carnality, and worldliness. It is also representative of a system of religion which uses idols in its worship and is morally and spiritually corrupt. And it is a place of excessive luxury and wickedness. And she wields great influence over the people of this world with regard to faith, culture, and practice.

Now, there are many and varied opinions of who this Babylon represents in these last days before the return of Christ. The Lord has often shown me this Babylon as the United States of America, i.e. their form of government and religion and rule and influence and power over the people of the world. More specifically he has shown me Babylon as the institutional market-driven “church” of today which is incorporated under the state, so the state church here in America which is the church married to the government.

And this fits with the instructions here for us to come out of Babylon, lest we take part in her sins, for her sins are heaped high as heaven. And this parallels over to the story of Jesus clearing the temple of the “money-changers” who were turning the temple of God into a “den of robbers,” or a “house of trade,” or a “marketplace,” and/or a “place of business.” For this is what has largely taken place within the gatherings of what are called “churches” here in America. They have become businesses of men.

And they are, indeed, being marketed to the people of the world via entertainment and “cool” praise bands, and fun and entertaining preachers, and flashing lights, and all the “bells and whistles” in order to attract the world to their gatherings. And so they also alter the character of God/Christ, and of his church (his body), and of his gospel, in order to attract the people of the world to their gatherings and in order to not offend the people of the world with the truth of who God is and with the truth of what his gospel message teaches. For they want to grow their businesses.

And this also parallels over to the teaching from 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 which instructs us to not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. And unbelievers are all who have not died with Christ to sin and who are not walking in obedience to his commands, regardless of profession of faith or no faith. We are not to be partners with the ungodly of this world. We are not to be in fellowship with those who are still walking in darkness. And we are not to partake in evil and idolatry and lawlessness of any kind.

But these institutional market-driven “churches” are married to the government via being incorporated under the state. They are in an unholy union with the government and with big business. For they are following after marketing schemes and tricks and goals for how to draw in large crowds of people from the world into their gatherings. And so they are conforming to the ways of the world in order to attract the world to their gatherings. And their gatherings are being patterned after the ways of the world, and the world is being blended together with “Christians.”

And so we are instructed in the Scriptures to not turn the church, the body of Christ, the temple of God into a marketplace and a place of business. For our gatherings together are to be a “house of prayer.” And we are not to be partners with the ungodly nor to be in fellowship with those who are still walking in sin, nor to partake in idolatry or any kind of false worship of God which gives glory to the flesh and not to God, and which is aimed at pleasing the flesh, and not at being pleasing to God. But we are to come out from among them and be separate, and God will welcome us as his children.

And we are to come out of this Babylon, this “church” which is being marketed to the world and has become a place of business and which is incorporated under the state in an unholy union with the government and with the world of business and with the ungodly of this world. We are to come out of these gatherings which are focused on entertaining the world and which are not centered in godliness, righteousness, and holy living, and not focused on the body of Christ exhorting one another to forsake sin and to walk in holiness and in obedience to our Lord, or face divine judgment.

[Matthew 21:12-13; John 2:13-17; Acts 5:27-32; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; Philippians 3:18-19; Revelation 13:5-8; Revelation 18:1-5; Romans 12:1-8; 1 Corinthians 12:1-31; 1 Corinthians 14:1-5; Galatians 6:1; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:1-16; Ephesians 5:15-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Philippians 2:1-8; Colossians 3:12-16; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:13; Hebrews 10:23-25; James 5:19-20] 

Walking in The Light  

An Original Work / November 16, 2011

Based off 1 John 1-2

When I lift up my voice, and

Sing praise unto God,

I will fellowship with my

Lord and Savior, King.

In Him there is no darkness.

He is in the light of truth.

If we walk in His light,

From sin He purifies. 

If we repent of our sins,

He’ll forgive us now,

When we humble ourselves, and

Before Jesus bow.

The man who says, “I know Him,”

But does not obey His truth,

There is no truth in him.

In darkness still he’s found.

Do not love the world of sin,

For it is hell bound.

If you follow the world, you’ll

Not in Christ be found.

The world and its desires 

Will not last; they’ll expire.

The one who does God’s will,

Receives eternal life.

See that what you have heard from

Christ remains in you.

Then, you’ll remain in Christ, and

In His Father, too.

This is what He promised us –

His eternal life with God.

So, continue in Him, and

You’ll receive a crown.

https://vimeo.com/114160122