Babylon

February 25, 2000

What we have started here is great.

There were only two responses so far to the question of Babylon but they give us a foundation to work from.

The first is an historical view of Babylon after the flood. The second is an historical view from the Babylonian captivity. Both are historical views that we need to know but now we must go on to present truth. Babylon the Great is a present reality that will fall in the future. It is all tied up with the Beast of the Apocalypse, the Anti-Christ, the mark of the beast, Abaddon, the false prophet and more. We can really see the religious Babylon in the confusion that exists in the churches with its so many incompatible doctrines. Whether you realize it or not, we have identified many of them already. The Oneness doctrine, the idea that tongues and not love is the evidence of the Holy Ghost, anything that comes against a Trinitarian doctrine (actually that is being discussed on the egroup forum). Mainly those things are rejected because of the hatred and exclusiveness that they generate. And we have discussed other things like the idea of the Nicolaitans with their fleshly leadership and taking the authority of Christ and giving it to men. We can include the Calvinist errors if they still persist to deny free-will, the evangelical luke-warmness if they still deny all the spiritual gifts in operation and the fundamentals like the power involved in the laying of on of hands, we can identify the legalists who want us to follow the law of Moses and the extreme fundamentalists who hold to the letter and not the spirit including any group that will blaspheme against the Holy Ghost in the present revival movement or the five-fold ministry, especially in their insistence to despise the prophetic. There is much, much more, we could discuss them one by one but first we need to identify them. We need not condemn the people, only the errors and their insistence to divide and cause the schisms. Many of them are heresies and many are schisms and plain false doctrine. The church is in a mess, we are not here to put up with false doctrine and pride and hatefulness for the sake of unity, but identify and separate from the confusion so that we can go on to put the church in order and sound the alarm. It is the nature of love to warn others of a fire in our midst. True unity begins with truth.

Remember we are not condemning these people, only the errors that make up the confusion. We cannot take anything away from those who are held captive in Babylon, no more that we can deny that the children of Israel were also held captive in the historical Babylon. But if we are to fulfill the role in these last days that the Lord has given us we must know that God is calling us out of Babylon and if we are to rebuild in the restorative sense with a plumb line, then these others have no part of it. It is how I see it because of the commission to Zerubbabel outlines it so and it makes good sense. As the Bride of Christ, we are to be holy and blameless and we are to fulfill the prayer of Jesus that we are One. In order to be One, we must speak the same thing like Paul has told us to do. This means putting away the confusion and separating ourselves from those that have not come out of Babylon themselves. There can be no other way but the way that has been commissioned to us.

In the revelation to John it is written: And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her (Babylon) my people, that you be not partakers of her sins, and that you receive not of her plagues." Look what it says, Come out of her MY PEOPLE. We do not need to say that these things that we come up with as identifying Babylon have anything to do with rejecting the people, or their salvation and their part in the true church. THEY ARE GOD'S PEOPLE. But the Bride of Christ is holy and blameless and not so the majority of the church. Many of them are prideful, they follow after their own ways and they will not give up false doctrine because it threatens their self-righteous superiority over others. We are not to be the whole body, we are to be among the anointed remnant. And we are to direct ourselves in following the anointing and build upon what Jesus has laid down for us.

Look among your own churches and your own ideas that you have been taught and rely on the spirit to convict you of what you might think that is false. Put away your pride, your denominational bias and look objectively. Go ahead and look around you but also look in yourself. Question what we have been taught by others and our own pre-conceptions. We are only discussing things here for now, we are not making any conclusions as yet and we will not be condemning anyone. We do not have to have all the answers but we do need to question. Bring things up whether you are sure of them or not. Trust in the Lord to be among us and His spirit to guide us into all truth. Have you been praying for this? I hope and pray that you are.

Jay

Just a short comment on Religious Babylon:

As at the tower of Babel, when they tried to build a tower to reach up to heaven, so is Religious Babylon. It is the attempt of man, by his own initiative to attain to godhood, or god consciousness. This will manifest in many religious ways and humanistic ways, but it is all mans' attempt to be God. Jesus is Gods' answer to this sinful delusion, since God became flesh, the Eternal Word became man, to reach us. The simple gospel is that we need a Savior from sin and our SELF nature, which is always in competition and rebellion against our Creator, because of the sin we inherited from Adam. Therefore, to come out of Babylon, is to receive the freely given gift, provided by Jesus Christ, by shedding His own blood to redeem us from destruction. This will set us free from our rebellion and pride and allow us to enter into Christ, to be as Jesus, not because we attained it, but because we received the free gift of His Holy Spirit.

It is the Spirit of Christ Jesus enlivening our spirit which enables us to love God and obey His Commandments, and they are not grievous, but full of love.

We can be free to know God as He is, and be known of Him through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, without our own works to earn salvation.

Hannah

Babylon the Great,makes me think upon the book of Daniel,when after king Nebuchadnezzar's dream was revealed to him,probably after hearing some of the things that Daniel had said,he swelled up with pride.But Daniel,says something which none would dare do in that day,fearing that anything said, that would offend the king, surely would have brought on being beheaded.In Daniel chap.4:27,Daniel says Wherefore O king,let my counsel be acceptable unto thee,and break off thy sins by righteousness,and thine iniquities by shewing mercy to the poor,if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility.Verse 29,tells that after a twelve month period,as the king was strolling,through and probably admiring,the palace,and it's grandeur,among other things,that he spoke in verse 30,The king spake,and said,Is not this great Babylon,that i have built for the house of my kingdom by the might of my power,and for the honour of my majesty?The rest of this chapter shows that God,is over all,regardless of position,stature,or wealth,and power.A relative of his,in the next chapter also has a thing revealed to him,concernig the handwriting on the wall,being weighed in the balances,and found wanting.The three Hebrew children not bowing to the golden image that king Nebucadnezzar set up in the province of Babylon,shows in Daniel 3:5,6,that Revelation 13:14,15,is soon to be fulfilled,followed by Revelation 14:9-11,an even worse fate.Ancient Babylon,had the same seductive power,over people that the modern day one has.Luxuries,pleasures, carelesness,self-exaltation,instant gratification, indulgences of sexual immorality,a great military power,magicians,soothsayers,possibly anything that one could desire,it was there for the asking.The prophets spoke of modern day Babylon the Great, her rise and fall,which was great,who will hear the message,in our time to come out of her,before the plagues of God Almighty,begin to fall upon her,for her sins have reached unto heaven.Modern day Babylon,now has caused all to drink of the cup,that she holds,causing even the religious establishment, to stagger as a drunken one,seeking after the merchandise,that she so freely traffics,a covenant,of the world has she made wth many a apostate church.John 8:31,32,Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him,(if ye continue in my word,then are ye my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth,and the truth shall make you free).Free from the bondage of religious,political, and commercial,Babylon,which deceitfully enslaves many to their own destruction.But thank God through Jesus Christ,that there is a way out of Babylon the Great,Amen.

Jim

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