by Just Another Christian
by Just Another Christian
Philologos Religious Online Books
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Chapter 9 | Table of Contents | Chapter 10 (part 2)
THE GREAT DREAM
by Just Another Christian
| Matt.24:37 | But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. | |
| 38. | For as in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, | |
| 39. | and knew not,until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. | |
| Business as usual! Our Lord Jesus Christ said that the world would be neither ready, nor looking, for His return. Instead, they would be eating and drinking (celebrating their worldly successes), and marrying and giving in marriage (making plans for their futures). James, the brother of Our Lord said: | ||
| James.4:13 | Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: | |
| 14. | Whereas, ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. | |
| 15. | For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. | |
| 16. | But now ye rejoice in your boastings: ALL SUCH REJOICING IS EVIL. | |
| Jesus warned us about having a "life goes on" attitude by saying: Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting (enjoying our prosperity), and drunkenness (hypnotised and intoxicated by our worldly success or our prospects of success), and cares of this life (faithless worry about things that God has promised to take care of), and so THAT DAY COME UPON YOU UNAWARES. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth (Luke 21:34- 35). | ||
| But NO! IN spite of the fact that nearly every prophetic commentator both past and present is pointing to THIS time in which we live as being the End of The Age and the time of the Lord's return: IT'S BUSINESS AS USUAL! While the people of Apostate Christendom are busy laying up treasures on earth (Matt. 6:19), and making all sorts of provisions for tomorrow (Matt. 6:34): the leaders of Apostate Christendom are busy building their own personal ecclesiastical kingdoms. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations: THEY CALL THEIR LANDS AFTER THEIR OWN NAMES (Psalm 49:11). | ||
| THINK ABOUT IT: As if there weren't PLENTY of church-buildings and Bible schools around already; each one of these BIG-SHOTS has to spend the Lord's money on his own "custom built" PALACE (headquarters). And, of course, it has to be called the SO AND SO MINISTRY, or, the MR. BIG-TIME RELIGION BIBLE SCHOOL, and the YOU ALL KNOW WHO I AM HOSPITAL. No matter what they say with their lips about the nearness of the Lord's coming, their actions say: The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth (Ezekiel 12:22). Jesus warned these "would be" LEADERS of Christendom about this; that if they should begin to say: My Lord delayeth His coming; and shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken: the Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looketh not for Him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth (Matt. 24:48-51). | ||
| They eat and drink WITH the drunken, not LIKE the drunken. These modern Pharisees will luxuriate in THE POISONED LIGHT of worldly fame, and boast of friendships with senators, rich men, and sports heros; and they are drunken with worldly glamour. IN their lust for preeminence, they do not hesitate to SPY on each other, and to smite their fellow servants, by "tattling" on each other: this, of course, THEY SAY, is their "moral duty". But I know, and THEY KNOW, that it's really just COMPETITION for followers and money. It's BUSINESS AS USUAL in Organized Religion today; even though the Signs of The End are all around us. Jesus said, Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is....lest coming suddenly, He (Jesus) find you SLEEPING (Mark 13:33,36). | ||
SLEEPING? | ||
| In the Bible, sleep can mean natural sleep, as in Matthew 8:24, where The Lord Jesus has fallen asleep. For those that will be accounted as The Righteous, sleep is the term that Our Lord and the Apostle Paul use to describe the death of the physical body (Luke 8:52, John 11:11, 1 Thess. 4:13). IN Mark 13:36 (quoted above), to be sleeping is to be LIVING in a DREAM WORLD: a world that is the product of your own imagination; and EVERYONE who is not born again (John 3:3) is living in this DREAM WORLD. | ||
| Eph.5:14 | Awake, thou that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. | |
| Just as a dead person is out of touch with the material world in which you and I presently live; the spiritually dead (not born again) person is out of touch with spiritual reality. Every man who is living on the earth is in touch with material reality; but only the SPIRITUAL (born again) man is in touch with the rest of reality. Again: the NATURAL (not born again) man is in touch with only PART of reality; while the SPIRITUAL (born again) man is in touch with the WHOLENESS of reality. The SPIRITUAL is not an "additional" component to the reality shared by all earthly men: but that the SPIRITUAL DIMENSION of reality TRANSFORMS and RECHARACTERIZES all of reality. | ||
| 2Cor.5:17 | Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. | |
| NOTE: the Scriptures do not say that "some new things have been added" to your reality, as if spiritual knowledge was something "extra" that could be "added" to the common knowledge of the natural man. For the born again person, ALL THINGS (no exceptions) ARE BECOME NEW! Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke plainly to this: that the new could not be simply ADDED to the perceptions of the natural man. | ||
| Matt.9:16 | No man putteth a piece of new cloth into an old garment; for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment (when it shrinks), and the rent is made worse. | |
| 17. | Neither do men put new wine into old bottles, else the bottles break (explode from the pressure of fermentation), and the wine runneth out, and the bottles perish: but they put new wine into new bottles, and both are preserved. | |
| The ripping of the garment and the bursting of the bottles describes the experience of those persons who attempt to "add" a little bit of Christian doctrine to the common knowledge and wisdom that they share with the rest of mankind. That little piece of Christian Truth only makes their life MORE difficult. Besides being caught in the common struggle for their own survival with the rest of men, this one who "adds" a few "pieces" of Christian doctrine to his life FINDS that his burdens and difficulties only increase. NOW, he has to GO TO CHURCH, and GIVE AWAY HIS MONEY, and TURN THE OTHER CHEEK, and READ THE BIBLE, and GO WITNESSING, and suffer INTRUSIONS on his privacy as well. If such a man attempts to "add" any of the really REVOLUTIONARY teachings of Jesus Christ to his life, they will most assuredly bring him to RUIN: Give to him that asketh thee (Matt. 5:42), and Hate your father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and your own life also (Luke 14:26), ARE NOT things that you can just "do" in addition to what you and everyone around you have always been doing. Those who have attempted to "patch" such teachings onto their PRE-CONVERSION lifestyle or "add" them to their WORLDLY WISDOM about life have ALWAYS found themselves stumbling into DESTRUCTION. The REAL Christianity does not "patch up" the natural man, nor does it "fill up" what is lacking in his natural human nature. Christianity replaces your entire outlook on life and denies the validity of ALL the "wisdom and knowledge" that you accumulated BEFORE you were born again. | ||
| Apostate Christendom is populated by persons who having made a few attempts at obeying Christ; have come away disillusioned. When tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by, they are offended (Matt. 13:21). Once a man finally concludes that the teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ are simply UNWORKABLE or IMPRACTICAL, he either leaves off the pursuit of the faith or digs up a "doctrine" or finds and "explanation" that will excuse his disobedience. In returning to his WORLDLY WISDOM, which the Bible calls the vain way of life received by tradition from your fathers (1 Peter 1:18), it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire (2 Peter 2:22). Because their "attempt" at "obedience" got them into trouble or cost them something that they were not willing to pay, they beat a hasty retreat back to their old "way of looking at things" and that "wisdom" which seemed to afford them some kind of "safety". For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, then, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them (2 Peter 2:21). All these that went back (John 6:66) from obeying Our Lord Jesus Christ are STILL ASLEEP; are still living in THE DREAM WORLD; and are now in danger of becoming reprobates, for they did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Romans 1:28). | ||
THE GOD OF THE DREAM WORLD | ||
| Now those who are ASLEEP (not born again) still behold a world of sights, sounds, forces and laws. IN THAT world: the world as seen by all men in common, the teachings of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are always being "explained away" and rejected as UNWORKABLE and IMPRACTICAL. | ||
| THAT world: the world where the promises of God are not realized; the world in which the Bible doesn't prove to be reliable truth; the world in which NOTHING is absolutely sure; the world in which there is NO SECURITY; THAT world is THE DREAM WORLD. It is a DREAM WORLD because it is the product of each man's imagination: it is the world that is seen by those who sleep. The UNSAVED (not born again) man and the CARNAL (not born again) Religious Pretender see the same sun rise and set, together. They can behold the same trees in the same field, and they both see the law of gravity at work. They see the aged limp along, and the "young and innocent" destroyed by tragedy. They see the strong ones abuse and take from the weaker ones: there is APPARENTLY no justice. The UNSAVED man and the CARNAL Religious Pretender strive to find a set of "laws" to go by; a principle of operation; through which they hope to escape from being CRUSHED, WOUNDED, ROBBED, STARVED, INFECTED, CHEATED, REJECTED, HATED, and KILLED. But, it's ALL to no avail; for CHANCE is that great principle in their universe that betrays all their philosophy. Their universe is TREACHEROUS. Their universe is a NIGHTMARE, a DREAM, in which nothing is sure, and NO ONE is secure. They COMPARE their DREAMS, hoping to find a common dream that will tell them about reality and guide them safely through life. This DREAM of a COMMON DREAM is what we now call SCIENCE. | ||
| Matt.15:14 | They be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. | |
| Ah, SCIENCE! The treacherous, merciless, lifeless, IDOL-GOD of the DREAM WORLD! It is a GOD because men will obey it as ultimate authority. It is an IDOL because it is wholly man-made, being just the "heaping together" of the groping speculations of frightened men. It is LIFELESS because it has no mind of it's own and no effort to exert. It is MERCILESS because "it" never comes to anyone's rescue or accommodates itself to anyone's weakness. It is TREACHEROUS because it is ever changing and contradicting itself, and today's "discoveries" are always invalidating what we were calling "a fact of science" only yesterday. SCIENCE is nothing more than mankind's attempt to REPLACE the Bible with a "something else" that will grant to man the ability to control his own world and design his own future. SCIENCE is the FALSE BIBLE that is presently competing with the Holy Bible for the attention and trust of mankind. In Modern Christendom, the teachings of The Holy Bible are BRUSHED ASIDE whenever they appear to contradict SCIENCE in any practical matter. The Bible warns us to keep that which is committed to our trust, avoiding profane (natural, carnal) and vain (useless, ineffective) babblings, and oppositions of SCIENCE falsely so called; which some professing have erred concerning the faith (1 Tim. 6:20-21). And Oh! Dear Friend! WHAT PRICE THIS ERROR? | ||
| Jer.2:11 | Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people hath changed their glory for that which doth not profit. | |
| 12. | Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. | |
| 13. | For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. | |
| In the past, when men were in danger, or sick, or depressed, they would look to their GOD for help. But NOW, men, and even professing Christians look to The State when they are in danger; they look to Modern Medicine when they are sick; they look to psychiatry when they are sad and depressed. If these "saviors" FAIL to rescue them, and ONLY THEN, when they begin to lose all hope in "their god SCIENCE", do they begin to look for a God who is above science and Who can ignore the "laws of matter". They say nauseating things like, "I'm in God's hands, NOW", and they go looking for some kind of "truth" that will get them out of their jam, so they can go on in their Godless life a bit longer or find fresh energy to enjoy their carnal pleasures. ALL THE WHILE, they will call themselves "Christians", attend churches, and talk about "the Lord". | ||
| Ps.50:16 | But unto the wicked, God saith, What hast thou to do, to declare My statutes, or that thou shouldest take My covenant in thy mouth? | |
| 17. | Seeing thou hatest instruction, and castest My words behind thee. | |
| 21. | These things thou hast done, and I kept silence; thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself; but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. | |
| 22. | Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. | |
| There is PLENTY of religion in the DREAM WORLD, for they have built an high place (church house) in every street (Ezekiel 16:24). They seek God daily, and delight to know His ways, as (if they were) a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of Him the ordinances of justice (as if they really would obey them); they take delight in (making a show of) approaching to God (Isaiah 58:2). | ||
| But it's all just a part of their DREAM WORLD, in which they imagine that sitting in a church-house and enduring a sermon is the same thing as taking The Word of God to heart in the utmost seriousness. You should be taking an account of whether or not the "truth" you are receiving is making any REAL CHANGES in your life. | ||
| Jesus said: | ||
| Luke.8:18 | Take heed therefore HOW ye hear: for whosoever hath, to him shall be given; and whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he seemeth to have. | |
| Jesus warns us to MAKE SURE that our religion isn't just another part of THE DREAM WORLD: an extension of, or an addition to, the "wisdom and knowledge" of the unsaved man. | ||
| Jesus said: | ||
| John.6:35 | I am the bread of life: he that cometh to Me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. | |
| If your "religion" is just a DRY CREED that is copied from others and learned by rote, the day will come in which you WAKE UP from your DREAM, and it shall be as when a hungry man dreameth, and, behold, he eateth (receives The Word of God); but he awaketh, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreameth, and, behold, he drinketh (feels the Holy Spirit); but he awaketh, and, behold, he is faint (weak and about to pass out), and his soul hath appetite (he knows something is missing)(Isaiah 29:8). Those who do not take heed HOW they hear, and will not TAKE ACCOUNT of IF and HOW the "truth" they PROFESS has affected the REALITY and the QUALITY of their lives will AWAKEN to a REALITY that for them will be a NIGHTMARE: a HORROR of CONDEMNATION and SUFFERING where their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched (Mark 9:44). And YOU, who are reading this, WILL HAVE NO EXCUSE, for I have just warned you. | ||
| Now THE DREAM WORLD is no sign of The End of The Age, for it has always been with us. THE DREAM WORLD is just that TRANSIENT VISION OF A WORLD GOVERNED BY THE DEAD LAWS OF MATTER WHERE RELIGION TAKES A BACK SEAT TO SCIENCE. The Bible predicts a GREAT and FINAL APOSTASY by the Churches of Christendom at The End of This Age (2 Thessalonians 2:3), and this APOSTASY will have it's own peculiar "brand" of A COMPLETELY FALSE CHRISTIANITY. I call this PARTICULAR "brand" of Christianity "THE GREAT DREAM", because it submits to all the dictates of SCIENCE and SECULAR WISDOM, and yet appears to be Divinely confirmed by POPULAR SUCCESS and attendant miracles. This particular COMPLETELY FALSE CHRISTIANITY is already here, and the MAJORITY of the PROFESSING "Christians" have ALREADY accepted it. While it is still just a part of THE DREAM WORLD like any other false religion, this NEW VERSION of FALSE CHRISTIANITY is a thousand times more deadly than any "ordinary" corruption of the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3), and is ALSO the object of many EXTREMELY DETAILED prophecies. It has no parallels in history, and is NOT the product of any particular denomination or sect of Christendom. This particular COMPLETELY FALSE CHRISTIANITY is so UNIQUE, so UNSTOPPABLE, and so FRIGHTENING, that it deserves it's own name. I have chosen to call it: THE GREAT DREAM. | ||
MORE THAN JUST A HERESY | ||
| THE GREAT DREAM is not a DISTINCT "brand" of Christianity, neither is it the product of any existing sect or denomination. No single group, no matter how large, is able to dictate doctrine and policy to all the other groups; cultural pride and party spirit alone will prevent that. No, THE GREAT DREAM is the product of a UNIFIED Christendom, in which the historic differences between the Denominations are maintained AND ignored at the same time. The Lutheran is shaking hands with the Catholic without giving up his Martin Luther, and the Catholic is shaking hands with the Baptist without giving up his Pope. Just 100 years ago, such a thing would have been unimaginable, EVEN impossible. THINK ABOUT IT. While some men like to point at the Ecumenical Movement or some other Denomination when they talk about religious compromise, they show themselves guilty of the same principle of doctrinal compromise on a lesser scale: they will grant approval to other Denominations as long as they aren't "too different". The very existence of a Denomination presupposes that there are other "groups" of professing Christians that have a HERETICAL "version" of The Faith. To cross Denominational lines; to admit, approve of, and fellowship with people from a "different camp" who subscribe to a different doctrine is to deny the validity of your own. Jesus said there shall be one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16). If the Baptists and the Presbyterians can now recommend and approve each other, they should DISSOLVE their respective Denominations and form one group and agree on a single creed. BUT THEN, some of the BUREAUCRATS might lose their positions, so we know THAT won't happen. What they do, is continue to insist that their own group is the one that "has it right"; and at the same time, they approve of ANOTHER group that has a DIFFERENT "creed". The "creed" of one group may even condemn the "creed" of the other group, BUT THAT IS NO PROBLEM for them: NO, it doesn't bother them at all, and they even PRIDE THEMSELVES on being so OPEN MINDED. | ||
THE BABYLON SYNDROME | ||
| In the 11th chapter of Genesis, Babylon is the capitol of the civilized world, and everyone speaks the same language. They are a RELIGIOUS people, who say, Let us build us a city (an organized community), and a tower (a temple of religion), whose top may reach unto heaven (where God was presumed to dwell), and let us make us a name (a symbol of unity), lest we be scattered abroad on the face of the whole earth (Gen. 11:4). Now these people weren't a bunch of ignorant cave-men who thought that all you had to do was climb a few hundred feet into the air to get a personal audience with God. They believed that the MAGNIFICENCE of their TEMPLE and the MAGNITUDE of the worshippers would provoke a "better" response from God. | ||
| Their concern was for UNITY, and not for Truth. There can be NO OTHER reason why God would be displeased with their project, and what He did about it PROVES that He was offended at THIS UNITY, for He said: Let Us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one anothers speech (Gen. 11:7). God brokeup their UNITY by making it impossible for them to understand one another. This frustrated their plan, and so they quit the project. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth (Genesis 11:9). This word Babel has survived the centuries virtually unchanged; is STILL pronounced the same way (babble); and still means the same thing: CONFUSION. Babel is a very curious name, for it has 2 meanings. In Hebrew (the language of the people of God), it means CONFUSION; but in Chaldee (the language of the Babylonians), it means THE GATE OF GOD. Our current pronunciation, "BABYLON", comes from the Greek "Babylonia", which means "the land of Babel". | ||
REVIVED BABYLON | ||
| Over 4000 years have passed since the events in Genesis 11 took place, and today's Bible students are trying to find SOMETHING or SOME PLACE to call Babylon. This is because there are UNFULFILLED PROPHECIES in both Testaments concerning Babylon. If some sort of REVIVED BABYLON cannot be found, then Bible Prophecy will prove to be unreliable. Some have suggested that the original city would be rebuilt on the original site, and become the capitol of the earth again. This is VERY UNLIKELY, especially when you consider recent events in Iraq (the area of Ancient Babylon). Even if a new city WERE built on the original site, it is hard to imagine how such a city could actually DOMINATE over cities like New York, Moscow, Rome, London, Brussels, or Beijing. Protestants like to say that REVIVED BABYLON is Rome: the city that sits on 7 HILLS. BUT, you have to "squint" at the prophecy to "see" Rome in it, because this Woman who is also a city definitely sits on mountains, NOT hills (Rev. 17:9). This City, according to the prophecy, reigneth over the kings of the earth (Rev. 17:18). The entire nation of Italy is a second rate political power in today's world, and EVEN IF the Vatican does have embassies in other countries like a sovereign state; Rome does not, and CANNOT give ORDERS to the other nations; for Rome does NOT have THE GUNS or THE MONEY to force compliance. | ||
| That this REVIVED BABYLON is an EMPIRE, and more than just a single city, CANNOT be denied, for it reigneth over the kings of the earth. And furthermore, this REVIVED BABYLON is shown to have the 3 primary components of EMPIRE: the ECONOMIC, the POLITICAL, and the RELIGIOUS. In Rev. 18:12-13 her merchandise includes slaves [Grk. SOMATON, the physical bodies of men], and souls [the moral and spiritual loyalties of men]. The ECONOMIC COMPONENT controls "the goods". The POLITICAL COMPONENT controls "the bodies" of men by making and enforcing the laws of public order. The RELIGIOUS COMPONENT controls "the souls" of men by dictating to the people what should be the proper objects of their loyalties. | ||
MYSTERY BABYLON | ||
| Rev.17:5 | And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS, AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. | |
| This MYSTERY BABYLON cannot be found by looking at a map. The word that is translated to mystery is MUSTERION, which means "a secret, hidden from public view, and known only to a select group". This is a SECRET BABYLON. The word city in Revelation 17:18 is POLIS, which means [any organized social or political agency governed by a single policy]. Thus, in Hebrews 12:22, The Church is also called a "city". | ||
| Revived Babylon is a SECRET KINGDOM; and is composed of 3 diverse, though cooperative elements. That the 3 components of this SECRET EMPIRE are DISTINCT from one another is plainly shown, in that the POLITICAL COMPONENT eventually turns against the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT (Rev. 17:16), and the ECONOMIC COMPONENT will lament the destruction of the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT (Rev. 17:11). | ||
| Each of these diverse components of the SECRET EMPIRE may havetheir own separate headquarters. Likely candidates are easy to find. New York (the United Nations) may be the POLITICAL headquarters. Brussels (the Common Market) may be the ECONOMIC.headquarters. Rome is most likely the RELIGIOUS headquarters. Just WHO is WHAT or WHERE in these matters is not the subject I am inspired to address, and I am just GUESSING about these cities. I am NOT "guessing" about WHAT Mystery Babylon IS, though. I have just told you, and I am CORRECT. | ||
| Let us turn our attention now to the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT of this SECRET EMPIRE, for it is out of RELIGIOUS BABYLON that the "Christianity of The Apostasy"; which I call THE GREAT DREAM, has emerged, becoming, as it is ALREADY, the dominant faith of Modern Institutional Christendom. | ||
RELIGIOUS BABYLON | ||
| RELIGIOUS BABYLON is just the reversal of what took place over 4000 years ago when God frustrated their plan to build a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven. This has taken place because the people of Christendom have decided to FORGET THEIR DIFFERENCES as much as possible, so that, they would have Martin Luther and the Pope find a "common cause" WITHOUT resolving ANY of their DIFFERENCES, and, they would have the Pentecostals and the Fundamentalists cease their argument about the Holy Spirit. In the end, there are 3 issues in which all these once adversarial groups have agreed: PUBLIC MORALITY, SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, and of course, CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. In this Age of Apostasy, "good citizen" and "good Christian" are nearly interchangeable terms; disallowing for the fact that people who say We ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29) are not likely to be considered as "good citizens" by The State. | ||
| The 2 meanings of the word Babel describe the primary characteristic of RELIGIOUS BABYLON, in that what we have today is CONFUSION AT THE GATE OF GOD. On the one hand, they congratulate and approve of each other; on the other hand, they maintain doctrines that contradict and condemn each other. This is CONFUSION, for, if anyone should look to Modern Christendom for guidance in how to be saved, or stay saved, or get blessed, they hear a dissonant BABBLE of contradictory ideas from people who ALL claim to be on the SAME team. This amounts to a denial that there IS such a thing as an ABSOLUTE TRUTH; wherein if someone is RIGHT, then everyone who disagrees is WRONG. They have taken away the key of knowledge (denied that there is anything True and Final to be known and understood): they entered not in themselves (remained inTHE DREAM WORLD), and them that were entering in they hindered (Luke 11:52). They have hindered others from escaping from THE DREAM WORLD by DENYING that either The Bible or The Holy Spirit is communicating a CLEAR, SPECIFIC, and UNCHANGING message to mankind that can be RELIABLY expressed in WORDS. In other words, the Apostles of THE GREAT DREAM teach no plain, clear, and unambiguous doctrine. To them, The Bible is just a "good hint"; and they consider revelation to be VAGUE, and GENERAL. Truth becomes for them just THE LATEST OPINION that is held by the MAJORITY of the RELIGIOUS BIG-SHOTS that run the Institutions of Organized Religion. | ||
| Just as the Babylonians of Genesis 11 were striving to build a city and make a name for themselves; the disciples of RELIGIOUS BABYLON have DREAMS of EMPIRE. Christendom is rife with political activists who are attempting to INFILTRATE the government, and they lobby for the passage of laws; hoping to set themselves up as censors and judges over the unsaved. This "take over and make them live right" mentality is contrary to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who PLAINLY states that it is NOT our business to become judges over them also which are outside The Faith (1 Cor. 5:12). Another feature of THE GREAT DREAM is the vision of a safe and orderly society. In order to achieve this, these New Babylonians are willing to join and support social causes that offer NON-BIBLICAL solutions to mankind's problems. This is ALSO contrary to the teaching of the Apostle Paul, who said; that if anyone wishes to serve in The Lord's Army, he is NOT to entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who hath chosen him to be a soldier (2 Tim. 2:4). These New Babylonians are an ambitious lot: they plan to save us from ourselves by rescuing us from the "abuses" of FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FREEDOM OF RELIGION, and FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION. They are very earnest about "saving" society; SO EARNEST in fact, that they ARE the kind of people that Jesus was talking about when He said, Yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service (John 16:2). | ||
AND IT AIN'T JUST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH | ||
| For centuries now the Protestants have amused and justified themselves by saying that the Roman Catholic Church IS the Mystery Babylon of prophecy. Yes, there is a lot of evidence to convict this one Denomination, and YES, the Roman Catholic Church is very much a part of RELIGIOUS BABYLON. But, the Protestants seem to "conveniently" forget that Mystery Babylon is called The Mother of Harlots. Now just WHO do you suppose the DAUGHTERS might be? FUNNY QUESTION, isn't it? I agree that The Antichrist will find a friend in Rome; but when this happens, Rome will be speaking with ALL the other Denominations. The Roman Catholic Church ALONE simply will not qualify to be the Mystery Babylon of prophecy. I once believed this myself, and so, for the sake of those who have studied this subject, I will present 4 uncontestable proofs that the Roman Catholic Church ALONE cannot be the Mystery Babylon of prophecy. | ||
| 1. The Mystery Babylon of prophecy is more than a church: it is an EMPIRE that rules the world. The Catholic Church may have all the trappings of an empire, with it's millions of members and it's millions of dollars: but it has no "teeth". Today's Pope does not, and cannot give orders to the leaders of the nations. If it is a question of POWER; it should be noted that the Protestants have more. The overwhelming majority of the world's weapons of mass destruction are under the control of the Protestant nations, and whatever is left for the rest of the world to divide up is mostly under the control of the Russians (not Catholics) and the Orientals (not Catholics). Besides the above facts, which are INDISPUTABLE, it has already been shown that Organized Religion is but a COMPONENT of this Great Empire. | ||
| The POLITICAL COMPONENT eventually destroys the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT, therefore, the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT cannot be said to be the whole thing. Henceforth, what we are looking for is just the RELIGIOUS COMPONENT of this World Dominating Empire (Rev.17:16). | ||
| 2. Catholic Doctrine is NOT a CONFUSION: it may be full of errors and heretical "additions" to the faith which was once delivered(Jude 3), but it IS NOT a CONFUSION. The Roman Catholic Church has a clear, unambiguous, and plainly declared teaching on every subject. Prior to the Reformation, the Catholic Church did dominate (though not completely) the Roman Empire, but even then, they still held a common confession of faith. Like Babylon BEFORE God confounded their language; they had one language (Latin) and one speech (creed). At the Reformation, God split them up, and now Christendom no longer has one language and one speech. RELIGIOUS BABYLON is a REUNIFIED Christendom that has a unity of PURPOSE and ACTION; but a CONFUSION of contradictory doctrines. RELIGIOUS BABYLON is: CONFUSION AT THE GATE OF GOD. | ||
| 3. Catholic Doctrine is not ESSENTIALLY apostate. In the Catholic Faith, Jesus Christ is God Incarnate Who saves us by the merit of His sacrifice of Himself on The Cross. The Catholic faith acknowledges an Inspired Bible: even if, like the other Denominations, they have their own way of understanding it. The Catholic Faith teaches a clear, and distinctly Christian moral standard: SUPERIOR, in some respects, to that taught by her DAUGHTER churches. The Catholic Faith teaches and allows for all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 12:1-11) and the possibility of MIRACLES: in THIS, they are clearly closer to the teaching of The Bible than many Protestant Churches. The Catholic Faith clearly teaches that there is a HEAVEN to GAIN and a HELL to SHUN. The Catholic Faith clearly teaches that there is a Great Resurrection and Judgement of all souls at The End of human history; to be presided over by Jesus Christ Himself. The God of the Catholic Faith is THE GOD OF HISTORY; and as we shall see, the "god" of THE GREAT DREAM is NOT The God of History. The Catholics have certainly heaped tons of rubbish, superstition, and intellectual nonsense on top of these Great and Historic Doctrines of Christianity, but beneath the rubbish, The Eternal Truth STILL SHINES. Salvation may yet be found at a Catholic Church: I do not say that this happens very often. In The End, the Catholic Church will be found to have "held out" AGAINST the religion of THE GREAT DREAM longer than most of the other Denominations. | ||
| 4. RELIGIOUS BABYLON is a mystery, a SECRET, a thing not plainly in sight. The essential meaning of MUSTERION (mystery) is "a secret, hidden from public view, and known only to a select group". RELIGIOUS BABYLON is a SECRET CHURCH: a CONSPIRACY between the leaders of several Denominations, who, cooperating with the KINGS and the RICH MEN of the earth, are laying the groundwork for The New World Order. The Catholic Church is NOT a "secret", and neither is it HIDDEN from sight. There will be NO "official" Church of the New Apostasy: but rather, the Churches of ALL Denominations are being swept up in it. By rejecting the plain and clear teachings of Our Lord Jesus Christ, or by evading SIMPLE OBEDIENCE through a million "interpretations, explanations, and excuses", MOST of the more than ONE BILLION professing Christians on this planet are STILL ASLEEP, and living in THE DREAM WORLD. The DREAM WORLD is just THAT TRANSIENT VISION OF A WORLD GOVERNED BY THE DEAD LAWS OF MATTER, WHERE RELIGION TAKES A BACK SEAT TO SCIENCE. | ||
Chapter 9 | Table of Contents | Chapter 10 (part 2)
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