Faith Baptist Church
4258 Botetourt Road
Fincastle, Virginia 24090
(540) 473-2325
Nothing has persecuted society and in particular born-again believers more than religion. Often times it is religion that pushes governments to antagonize saints and sinners alike into an unwanted behavior that suits for building a world government. This is the call of the humanist and it is the call of Satan himself. Humanism and Socialism is man’s idea of creating a perfect world, and organized religion becomes the conduit in pushing through most of their agendas. Many evil leaders bank on the ignorance and superstitions of the masses to get what they want, and religion both creates and provides the perfect avenue.
Religion is man doing for God what God does not need or want. The pomp and ritual of the Old Testament tabernacle and temple showed in type and symbol a shadow of the holiness of God which pointed to and was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, Heb.8:5;10:1. This was replaced by the indwelling Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, John14:16;26.
The glory of God is not in a cathedral or in smoking prayer cisterns, or robed choirs, or stain glass windows, or repetitious prayers and chants. It resides in Jesus Christ and in the souls of his saints where God sits and reigns on the throne of believer’s hearts, Col.1:27.
Grace is God doing for man what man needs, but man cannot do for himself, and this rubs most people the wrong way. True Christianity is God doing for man what man cannot do for him, and that is pay for his sins.
The last thing Satan wants is for mankind to depend on the grace of God. Because the grace of God is so vast, any man who has entered into this grace by faith in Christ alone, will never leave. And the man who enters by faith in Christ Jesus, and stays the course of faithfulness such a man or woman draws others in by their testimony. A saint’s testimony is a fragile thing which Satan can alter by some distracting activity or temptation; something of which he has been very successful at doing in the local church.
Religion; that working out of man which seeks the favor of God, puts the emphasis on the merits of men and has thus motivated millions of men to take away the rights, property and pursuits of God fearing people.
Rev. 17 deals with political and religious Babylon and chapter 18 deals with economic, commercial Babylon. Babylon was and will be more than a place. It represents a way of life, a system which is anthropocentric, not Christocentric.
Each aspect of Babylon demonstrates the efforts of man in opposition to the grace of God.
17:1
Here one of the seven angels calls John aside to show him the judgment God is to bring on the great harlot that sits upon many waters. The many waters refers to the people she subjugates to her will
The Greek words here for the great whore is, pornes tes megales. The word whore or harlot comes from the word for which we get our word pornography. Just as pornography will spoil the purity of a person so does religion work to spoil the purity of the grace of God. The idea alone of a man being able to impress God with anything he can do is repulsive to God, but it’s extremely tempting to many people, Isa.64:6. Many men and women are indeed impressed with themselves and if religion can be utilized to promote their own works then whose to stop them, Rom.10: 2-3. It is upon religion that mankind works to establish his personal brand of righteousness. Well, I’ll tell you, the Lord will bring their useless religions and useless works to an end.
There will worship of Jesus Christ throughout the Millennial Kingdom, but there will be no religion during his 1,000 reign.
17:2 read..
Political rulers all over the world bend to the bidding of this religious system and in particular during the first half of the tribulation period. Yes, the Antichrist will make some kind of peace agreement with the Jews at the beginning of the seven year period, Dan.9:27, and as we have learned he will break this treaty with them.
But for 3 1/2 years religious Babylon; that system of religion that subjects men and nations to its bidding, will ride the back of the Antichrist as a means of enhancing its own power, and the Antichrist will consort with religious Babylon to promote his own political agenda. This is the biggest danger of combining church and state.
The angel says to John, “the kings of the earth have committed fornication.” That is, they have turned over the welfare of their people to the wishes of religious zealots. The kings sell the rights and freedoms of the people over to organized religion.
The ideologies of organized religion has for thousands of years moved nations against nations, not in defense of weaker nations, but to conquer them for personal wealth and power.
The inhabitants of the earth are said to be made “drunk with the wine of her fornication.”
The wine of organized religion has seduced billions of people all over the world and intoxicated them with the notion that God needs them to do the bidding of religious leaders, and at the same time those who are intoxicated with the wine of religion are being told they will be greatly rewarded for their service.
Men and women have become enslaved to many religions which promote works for eternal salvation and they have been brainwashed for so long that the idea of God’s grace saving them alone is ludicrous, practically blasphemous. During the days of the incarnate Son of God, Judaism so scoffed at the idea of one receiving salvation by grace, that they accused the Son of God of blasphemy and as religion often does, Judaism utilized scare tactics to get the Roman government to do their dirty work of crucifying Jesus Christ.
For 1,700 years a corrupted form of Christianity has used the same tactics of scaring leaders and nations and countless people of eternal retribution if compliance to her wishes and edicts is not forthcoming; that ones justification before God can only be obtained through years of faithful service before God’s saving grace is satisfied. It is still international protocol for Kings and Presidents today to bow before this religions leader and kiss his hand and call him Holy Father.
This corrupted form of Christianity has for centuries sold indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. It sells people the hope of seeing loved ones who have passed away, who lived less than honorable lives, sometimes foul lives; that if they would but pay and pray to the Holy Father he might relieve the suffering of their deceased relatives, and perhaps usher him or her into heaven.
It has venerated the Virgin Mary to worship status and works behind the scenes in secrecy and code. The Immaculate Conception is a catholic doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without sin and thus remained sinless throughout her life thus she is seen as co-savior of mankind; that she too was pierced through the heart at the crucifixion and she too was raised from the dead.
This corrupted form of Christianity has become so revered that men speak only in hushed tones of things thought to be unfavorable of the Holy See and the Holy Father, the Pope.
Religious Babylon, as a system of man, which became organized at the Tower of Babel is alive and well in the 21st century. It has gone through various ideologies and practices. It is seen corrupting the faith of Old Testament saints where children were sacrificed alive in the fires of Moloch, II Kings 21:1-6; Jer.32:35. And it is seen in the courts of Nebuchadnezzar where he called upon his astrologers for advice, Dan.5:5-7. Under the domain of the Roman Emperor Constantine, A.D 306-337, this religion’s ugly head once again rose to the occasion as a false savior wherein Constantine made Christianity the State religion of Rome. Since then it has wrapped it tentacles around that persecuted movement called Christianity.
And we will see in verse 5 this power hungry apostate church assimilates the other religions under her domain during the first half of the seven year tribulation period.