by David Orton

Rev 18:2

A Warning To The Church

Part 2 of 6

This series sounds a warning to the contemporary church. It will show that spiritual Jerusalem, the church of Jesus Christ – the city of God, has been invaded by Babylon, the city of man. We will show how this conflict plays out in the contemporary scene and how Babylon will ultimately fall in this glorious climax of the ages.

Babylon – the Church, seduced by a spirit of pride

The prophets all declare the ultimate fall of Babylon – her uprooting and complete destruction.[1] But what is Babylon? Is it Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, or perhaps the global financial system? Or, could it be America, as some are currently claiming?  However, we have already seen that the Babylon of Revelation can actually symbolise the church![2]  Seduced by religion and the spirit of pride the city of God can, in reality, become the city of man – Babylon itself! We are unwise, though, in attempting to identify her with a particular denomination, organisation, or group. Babylon is a spirit before it is a system. While it can be variously described, as a religious spirit, or a political spirit, and even a worldly or commercial spirit, it is behind all these things, a spirit of pride. Isaiah exposed this when he prophesied Babylon’s fall:

7 You said, ‘I will continue forever—
the eternal queen!’
But you did not consider these things
or reflect on what might happen.
8 ‘‘Now then, listen, you wanton creature,
lounging in your security
and saying to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.
I will never be a widow
or suffer the loss of children.’
9 Both of these will overtake you
in a moment, on a single day:
loss of children and widowhood.
They will come upon you in full measure,
in spite of your many sorceries
and all your potent spells.
10 You have trusted in your wickedness
and have said, ‘No one sees me.’
Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you
when you say to yourself,
‘I am, and there is none besides me.’
11 Disaster will come upon you,
and you will not know how to conjure it away.
A calamity will fall upon you
that you cannot ward off with a ransom;
a catastrophe you cannot foresee
will suddenly come upon you. (Isa 47:7-11 NIV; also Rev 18:7,8)
 
We mistakenly look for Babylon out there when all the while it is in here - in us. We have fallen prey to spiritual pride, boasting in our pedigree as Pentecostals, Evangelicals, or Conservatives. We say, “I am, and there is none besides me” (v 8,10). We feel smugly secure, trusting in our doctrinal orthodoxy, and in our Protestant cathedrals of success and power: “You said, ‘I will continue forever — the eternal queen!’” (v7).
Whether we are Evangelical, Pentecostal, or Conservative we have fallen prey to the spirit of pride, unwittingly  committing adultery with the gods of this age.

Babylon – a home for Spiritual Powers

Babylon, through her pride, becomes a “home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit” (Rev 18:2; see Eph 6:12). Principalities and powers are given a base of operation within the church itself.[3] Like the religious establishment of Jesus’ and Paul’s day it gives the appearance of godliness, but even religious “flesh” provides ground for demonic activity. Uncrucified self, in leaders and people alike, provides legal access for Satan to rule over entire religious structures and organisations. By operating out of self-will, self-promotion, or self-justification we can build and maintain churches and ministries independently of God. Rooted in pride they can become strongholds that ultimately resist the knowledge of God. What begins in the Spirit can be maintained by the flesh,[4] and end in demonic control.[5] The church of God, led astray by carnal pseudo-apostles and pastors,[6] can while maintaining appearancees of Evangelical or Pentecostal orthodoxy become the very “synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9; 3:9).
What better strategy than to set up a base of operations in the enemy’s camp! A church, while maintaining religious respectability, can become a home for spirits of witchcraft, sensuality, and control.

Pride & the work of our own hands

Babylon – the spirit of pride, is described as a “great whore” (Rev 17:1). And with the mystery name, “… Mother of Prostitutes and of Idol Worship Everywhere around the World” (Rev 17:5 TLB emphasis mine), she is the source of spiritual adultery. A condition any individual, group, or movement can experience where the spirit of pride, to whatever degree, has been given permission to operate. Pride opens the door to other gods – to the work of our own hands – to human effort, productivity, and power. This is not to deny a biblical work ethic. Sure, we labour, but it is the Lord who builds the house, or gives the increase.[7] Rather than trusting in the Lord we, therefore, turn to our own devices – to human programming and promotion. It is the same anti-Christ spirit which operates in the world religions, the world system, and as we have seen, adulterously, within the church. As a whore it is seductive and insidious. And as the“…Mother of…idol worship everywhere around the world”, it generates a pervasive and universal religious spirit to which all believers, churches, and denominations are susceptible.

Idolatry and the Western church

And so, the Western church, which should have been salt and light to the world[8] has instead become its source of darkness. As the church goes – so goes the world. She has been designed and mandated by God to lead the world. But her true prophetic calling has been subverted through her own idolatry. And she has become, instead, a false-prophet, leading the world into darkness. Self-deceived, we foolishly point the finger at the world’s darkness, not realising our own “lampstand” has been taken out.[9]  In our prideful boasting we say, “I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing…” (Rev 3:17 NIV).  Instead of living as a kingdom counter-culture we have become another Western sub-culture, trapped in our Evangelical and Pentecostal ghettos of cultural irrelevance.  And, in a pathetic parody of our prophetic witness we pronounce judgement on the world, forgetting it begins in the house of God.[10]
 
The Western church, can be likened to the man that Jesus delivered from an evil spirit. After searching for a place to rest the demon finally decided to return. Finding the house swept clean and unoccupied it capitalised on the opportunity by gathering seven friends more wicked and moved back in. And so, the final condition of the man was worse than the first.[11]
 
The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the first several centuries swept the house clean. But, instead of continuing to be filled with the Spirit it remained “unoccupied” attempting to appear “clean” and in “order”, “having a form of godliness …” (2 Tim 3:5 NIV). Despite this first-century cleansing of God’s house the emptiness of human power structures by the third, fourth, and fifth centuries began to create a spiritual vacuum, inviting the re-entry of a stronger demonic power. It returned seven-fold. The demons of idolatry, pride, sensuality, greed, and witchcraft, which had ruled over previously Godless societies, returned in a “baptised paganism”. Peter’s prophecy of the coming apostasy was fulfilled:  “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning …Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,’ and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud’” (2 Pet 2:20-22 NIV). The spirit of Babylon repossessed the church and it’s final condition, and, therefore of Western culture, became worse than the first.

 
Part 3 will explore what it means to come out of Babylon.
An excerpt from David Orton’s book, “Snakes in the Temple: Unmasking Idolatry in Today’s Church”
 

 

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[1] Isa 21:9; Jer 51:8; Rev 14:8; 18:2,10
[2] See Rev 11:8; 16:19; 17:18
[3] Eph 4:27
[4] Gal 3:3
[5] Gal 5:20
[6] 1 Cor 3:1; 2 Cor 11:13
[7] Psa 127:1; 1 Cor 3:6
[8] Mtt 5:13, 14
[9] Rev 2:5
[10] 1 Pet 4:17
[11] Mtt 12:45
 
 

 

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Copyright © David Orton 2006

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 8th, 2006 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Reformation/ Revival, Church Structure, Biblical Leadership, Living Christianity, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.