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THE CHRISTIANITY

Of

BABYLON

BY 

Mark P. Toohey

The 2014 Revised Edition

With a new preface by the author

Preface to the 2014 Revised Edition
  

When I first wrote The Christianity of Babylon some twenty years ago (1991-92) it was born out of my Roman Catholic upbringing followed by my own apocalypse, the revelation of the true Christ in 1971. I had long before discarded the rituals and liturgical observances, the nonsensical myths that any reasonable mind would reject given a moment of critical thought, the blind obedience to a hierarchical religious system ascribing to itself "apostolic authority" and papal infallibility, and its multiplicity of commandments and condemnations. The Bible I was now studying in the light of the Spirit bore little, if any, resemblance to the catechisms promulgated by the priests and nuns in religion class. It became clear why Catholics are not taught the Bible, and not encouraged to look upon its pages apart from the counsel of their father confessor; indeed, for hundreds of years the book was banned from the hands of the common people, and even from the hands of seminarians being prepared as the emissaries of Rome. The truths it contains, and the lies it lays bare, would be dangerous indeed should an inquisitive mind call upon his bishop to explain how it is that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was born without original sin, remained a virgin throughout her life (although the Bible states clearly that Jesus had at least six siblings [Mat. 13: 55, 56]), and ascended bodily into heaven to be seated at the right hand of God, to forever be the intercessor, the mediator of mankind, as well as a myriad of other Church teachings about which the Bible is wholly silent or entirely contradictory.

My work was influenced, frankly, by The Two Babylons written by Alexander Hislop in 1853. Hislop (1807-1865) was a Free Church of Scotland minister known for his outspoken criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church. He singled out the Roman church as the modern embodiment of Baal worship, conceived in the kingdom of Babylon. Of course, it was not uncommon at the time to call out the Pope as the antichrist. Hislop's work has, in recent years, been discredited on largely academic grounds as "conspiracy theory propaganda" which mixed "sketchy knowledge of Middle Eastern antiquity with a vivid imagination" (Bill Ellis, Raising the Devil, p. 135, University Press of Kentucky 2000). I will not say that I agree entirely with Hislop's sometimes stretched associations and assumptions; but I cannot dismiss my own experience in having been reared in Catholicism and uncovering its non-biblical, pagan trappings with little more than a Bible and an encyclopedia; I too was an outspoken critic of Romanism long before I ever read Hislop. To the religious apologists my work will also certainly be "debunked" as heresy; I may even be so honored as to have my own conspiracy theory!

Believers and apologists alike may dicker over the historical details surrounding the likes of Nimrod and Semiramis, and the extent to which they propagated the apostate religion of sun-worship, and whether the rituals and symbols of paganism were deliberately adopted by the Roman church/state religion. Granted, history gets a bit fuzzy when you are going back a few centuries after Noah's flood. Depending on whom you read, Nimrod may or may not have been the king of Babylon, Semiramis was either Nimrod's wife or concubine (or may not have even lived in the same century as Nimrod); Nimrod may or may not have had a hand in building the Tower of Babel, and either he had a warlike vendetta against Abraham or they simply met for a polite conversation.

It is neither my purpose to exonerate Hislop nor to completely dismiss his work. I will quote his text on the occasion an analytical sense of the point is needed, and I could not better express it with my own pen. But the history of religion, as we know it, points to that kingdom on the banks of the Euphrates as the inception of that spirit of antichrist which promulgates the religions of men and has corrupted the Faith of Jesus in the earth. And that is the point: the SPIRIT OF ANTICHRIST. RELIGION! If the dubious history and legend of Nimrod and Semiramis offer an analogy to that great whore that sitteth upon many waters, well so; but the practices of ancient priest-craft religions of sun worship, fire-god worship, serpent worship, devil worship, replete with temples, graven images and sacrificial altars, are beyond dispute. The trail of the ancient temples and ziggurats stretches around the world. Is it mere coincidence that the church which today calls itself by the name of Christ has assimilated, howbeit unwittingly, a good many of the leftovers of ancient Mystery Babylon?

That is the purpose of this study. This is not intended as an attack on Catholicism, per se, but the similarities to the ancient priest-craft are striking and if by drawing those comparisons I incur the wrath of the religious apologists and labeled a heretic, then perhaps, as did Hislop, I have rattled somebody's cage. This is intended, rather, as a critique of what we know as "Christianity" in its modern mutant form, by whatever name it may call itself, and the great chasm of truth and reality that exists between the religion of men and the Faith of Jesus. So Christians of all categories and congregations, prepare to be offended!

Preface

  In my early years as a believer, one called to the Faith of Jesus, I had engaged a young man in conversation concerning the Lord Jesus and His provision for the redemption of this fellow's soul. We called it "witnessing." I was surprised that he conversed quite intelligently on the subject, for he informed me that he had devoted much time and study in searching out the chief tenets of the Christian faith. Then to my utter shock and disbelief he announced that when compared to the ancient pagan religions of the world, many of the beliefs of Christianity bore a canny similarity! Little did I then know just how accurate his observation had been. 

The pursuit of god-likeness is one of man's oldest endeavors. From Babylonian times when men proposed to exalt the works of their hands as high as the heavens, humankind has sought to elevate itself above the stature of its lowly estate, to overcome the imperfections and limitations of the carnal nature, and to achieve in one fashion or another the glory of the One in Whose image and likeness we are made. Thus, the invention of religion.

 Man's efforts to possess the qualities of divinity invariably take on the embellishments of doctrines, dogmas, disciplines, traditions, superstitions, rituals, mythology and the like, all of which drip with devout piety, offering the faithful the quasi-hope of "going to heaven," attaining nirvana, or entertaining seventy vestal virgins in the afterlife.

 The religion known as Christianity which is today adhered to by multitudes within the framework of various denominational persuasions, is in many respects a distorted mutation of the true Faith of Jesus which was delivered unto men on the day of Pentecost, and which subsequently turned the world upside down with the REALITY of the living Christ. It has undergone many centuries of evolution, having been layered with a multiplicity of beliefs, traditions and myths born out of paganism and the carnal imaginations of man.

 The most significant intrusion occurred beginning in the fourth century A.D. when Emperor Constantine, by virtue of his supposed conversion, declared Christianity to be the state religion of the Roman Empire. As Rome had long been the bastion of paganism, it was therefore necessary to incorporate the plurality of her gods, the observance of her liturgical festivals, and her many mythical and superstitious beliefs, as well as the exaltation of the female divinity into the worship of the one true God and His uniquely begotten Son, Christ Jesus, in order that the religion might be made more palatable to the pagan masses. Thus was laid the foundation for the greatest religious kingdom ever to command the human race, the Roman Catholic Church.

 The religion of Christianity would henceforth be imbued with the idolatrous hues of Babylonian sun worship, a bondage light years removed from The Faith delivered unto men.

 If by means of this writing I may define and illuminate for the reader the great chasm that exists between the Faith of Jesus, which belongs to the true ecclesia, the called out ones, and the shallow form of that faith called "religion" in which we have steeped for so long, I will have considered the effort time well spent.

THE GRAND DECEPTION

In the initiatory rites of Freemasonry the use of a hoodwink, or blindfold, is employed to symbolize to the candidate the desperate state of darkness from which he must be delivered, and to conceal from him the actual performance of the ritual by which he is to be invested into the ranks of others more "illuminated" than himself. Thus, the Masonic initiate is lead forth blindly and unknowingly as he consigns his life upon oaths and vows to a brotherhood of darkness and deceit which presents itself to him as the ultimate source of light and truth. He has been appropriately HOODWINKED -- deceived by false appearances, given lies for the truth, fantasy for reality, ritual for substance. Only upon advancement to the highest degrees of Masonic "enlightenment" will he discover the true nature of the Luciferian religion to which he has sold his soul, and which, upon pain of death, he may never reveal; for where would the poor initiate be, should he be told at the outset that the rites to which he is subscribing are none but the same Mysteries of Osiris practiced by the ancient Egyptians on the banks of the Nile, and are derived wholly from the Chaldean Mysteries of Babylon?

Likewise the devout Roman Catholic, who, baptized from birth into the papal church/state, reared in the traditions, superstitions, and catechisms of that "universal church," gives nary a thought to the hidden meaning of the Mass, the veneration of the Eucharist, the recitation of the rosary, or the novenas of Mary; in blind obedience do the faithful receive the sacraments, bare their souls to the confessional priest, perform their penance, venerate their relics, pray to the saints, adore the sacred heart, abstain from meats, and observe a thousand similar ordinances imposed by a clerical hierarchy which claims "apostolic authority." Not one catholic in ten thousand would ever suspect the true origin, the dark history, or the imperious design of so "holy" a church which portrays herself to the world as the embodiment of "Christianity." For where would the hapless Romanist be if informed by his Jesuit confessor, his archbishop, cardinal, or pope, that this "holy mother church" rose as an ogre from the abyss of Babylon, and that their "Jesus" which is ritually born, crucified, buried, and resurrected every year is none but that ancient Baal, the sun-god deity of Babylonian apostasy?

We could cite with equal definition a multitude of religions, sects, cults, denominations, fraternities and secret societies, even our political institutions, all of which bear the character and intent of that ancient kingdom on the Euphrates -- to HOODWINK the peoples of the earth; to deceive, defraud, and delude; to give them a ''wooden nickel," as it were, while making them to believe it is gold. Where but in the kingdom of Babylon is darkness called light, tradition heralded as truth, fantasy preached as fact, idolatry dressed up and painted to look like Christianity?  We need only to turn on the TV set to behold the modern priests of Baal.

How the world and all who dwell therein have been HOODWINKED by the delusions of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters. "And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast, and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?'" (Rev. 13:3-4).

While the existence of modern-day Babylon can be easily recognized in the religious and political systems which so blatantly display her character, we will err in understanding by fingering any one of those systems as the exclusive embodiment of that ancient apostasy; for mystery Babylon is the personification of that spirit of antichrist, that man of sin found to inhabit the race of Adam which seeks continually to exalt himself to the throne of God, to usurp the dominion and rulership of the Almighty and seat himself in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. "And upon her FOREHEAD was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT" (Rev. 17:5). That great mystery of iniquity, rebellion, and ungodliness is inscribed upon the forehead, in the MIND and HEART, of this harlot woman who sits astride the scarlet beast. It is a mystery deep-rooted in the carnal being of man, a part of his very constitution and makeup. If to have "His name and the name of His Father written on their foreheads" (Rev. 14:1) is to have the MIND of Christ, then certainly to have "Mystery, Babylon the Great" written thereon is to have the MIND of the beast.

So thoroughly intoxicated is the realm of professing Christendom with the bewitching brew of this mysterious woman that the substance of the Faith of Jesus is, indeed, a rare commodity in the earth. While the Father seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth, Babylon seeks to worship that which is visible and tangible (and profitable), building her glorious towers (today we call them cathedrals), her sectarian doctrines, her professional ministries, her imperious programs. With haughty piety does she clothe herself with the goodly Babylonish garment, learn with impeccable mimicry the pagan precepts of the ancient craft, and is ever vigilant to covet the wedge of gold. Multitudes have partaken of the intoxicating mixture from the "golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication" (Rev. 17:4) and are satisfied to call it "Christianity."

Babylon is the root and source of all perverted truth, of all that is enmity to the Spirit of God, and of all that seeks to deify man as a god unto himself. It is the image and exemplification of the beast before which all that dwell upon the earth bow in unwitting servitude. Babylon is resident in the carnal heart and mind of men, and given form by every work of his hands. Men of every people, nation, race, and tongue thus exhibit Babylon's unmistakable beastly mark upon their forehead or on their right hand. Her cup of iniquity is filled to the fullest, her tower now completed, as the unrighteous dominion of man is made full in the end of the age. "Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a MAN; and HIS NUMBER is six hundred and sixty-six" (Rev. 13:18) The Concordant Literal New Testament gives the rendering, "For it is the number of man(kind), and its number is six hundred sixty-six." We have no need to engage in the foolish speculations promulgated by the eschatological experts, for God's wisdom is simplicity itself. The number of the BEAST is the number of MAN. Three sixes -- six, the number of man, and three the number of completion or fullness; thus, the identifying mark of this beast is found in the fullness of MAN in all of his carnality and human wretchedness, in the totality of his dominion of unrighteous mastery over God's creation, in the consummation of his pride and self-exaltation as he places himself above the heights of the clouds, magnifies his throne above the stars of God, and declares himself, indeed, to BE LIKE THE MOST HIGH.

Such was the kingdom founded by Nimrod in the plains of Shinar in Mesopotamia only a few generations after the great flood. Nimrod was the son of Cush and great-grandson of Noah. Nimrod, whose very name means "rebel," "began to be a mighty one in the earth" (Gen.10:8). The language of the Hebrew gives us the picture of one who was a powerful warrior or tyrant, insolent, haughty, and contemptuous.  The Targum of Jonathan says: "From the foundation of the world none was ever found like Nimrod, powerful in hunting, and in rebellions against the Lord."

Nimrod was the first to build walled cities and his kingdom included the cities of Babel, Uruk, Akkad, and Calneh, all in Shinar (Gen. 10:10). In Hebrew and Christian tradition, "Nimrod the giant" is considered the ruler who initiated and oversaw the building of the Tower of Babel; though the Bible never actually states this, his mastery in masonry would suggest that this may be the case. His mastery of archery and exploits as a warrior/hunter was also unsurpassed. He was the first to form an army of like-minded warriors, and made war on his neighbors, conquering all the nations from Assyria to Libya. He also discovered another very effective means of subjugating and controlling his kingdom; an apostate religion. And guess who was to be its god?

The first century historian Flavius Josephus writes, "Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it were through His means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if He should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to reach. And that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers."

And from the Jerusalem Targum: "He was powerful in hunting and in wickedness before the Lord, for he was a hunter of the sons of men, and he said to them, 'Depart from the judgment of the Lord, and adhere to the judgment of Nimrod!'"

The spirit of antichrist had already reared its head. Nimrod is credited with introducing sun worship, fire worship and serpent worship, the very foundation of priest-craft religion, and the perfect religious tyranny to compliment that of the politic.

Alexander Hislop, in The Two Babylons, points out, "All traditions from the earliest times bear testimony to the apostasy of Nimrod, and to his success in leading men astray from the patriarchal faith, and delivering their minds from that awe of God and fear of the judgments of heaven that must have rested on them while yet the memory of the flood was recent. And according to all the principles of depraved human nature, this too, no doubt, was one grand element in his fame; for men will readily rally around anyone who can give the least appearance of plausibility to any doctrine which will teach that they can be assured of happiness and heaven at last, though their hearts and natures are unchanged, and though they live without God in the world."

Nimrod, therefore, became known as the "Emancipator," or "Deliverer" of men; yes, he had succeeded in delivering mankind from the knowledge and fear of God and given them their wooden nickel.

As most mighty heroes become greater in death than they were in life, so it was that after Nimrod's violent demise (Esau, grandson of Abraham, it is said, ambushed and beheaded him; perhaps there is something to that vendetta against the patriarch of Israel) his legacy was promulgated and magnified by Semiramis, his depraved and adulterous wife (or concubine, depending on which historical account you read), who claimed that he had now been deified as the sun-god, Baal. The first man-god to attain divinity, Nimrod thus became the father of all the Babylonian gods. The story goes that shortly before Nimrod's death, Semiramis had an extra-marital affair, you might say, and gave birth to a son whom she named Tammuz. To conceal her misdeeds and solidify her religious power she purported that the child had been supernaturally conceived by the rays of Nimrod, the sun-god, and that Tammuz was, indeed, Nimrod incarnate; THE SON OF GOD! Thus, we have birthed out of the bowels of that great MOTHER OF HARLOTS the ancient craft of sun worship, the religion of BAAL.

The tower then under construction, the top of which was to "reach unto heaven," was built for this very purpose, for it was from the "high places of Baal" (Num. 22:41, et al) that sun worship was conducted. Baal worship developed around the Chaldean Mysteries into an elaborate system of hierarchical priest-craft replete with legends, fables, and traditions to substantiate its validity to the ignorant masses. Hislop defines it well: "The primary purpose of the 'mysteries' was to introduce, little by little, or by degrees, and under the seal of secrecy and the sanction of an oath, such abominations that would otherwise have been unsafe to propound openly and all at once and to instill in the worshippers the element of fear so essential in any form of tyranny. The dark truths of the religion were introduced with 'all deceivableness of unrighteousness,' 'wrought mysteriously' under false pretenses and covert symbolism, lest the unwitting initiate reject them out of hand. Men are more likely to accept the deceit of falsehood when weaned gently from the truth, and when the deceit is made to have the appearance of piety. The worshipper will soon find himself of the persuasion that the falsehood is, in fact, the truth, and will have no trouble assimilating any further enlargement of the deceit as it may be presented."

Perhaps Hislop may be discredited on his academic acuity, but his insight into the bondage of religious tyranny is spot on!

The Mystery of Babylon that is today in evidence is thusly cloaked in the appearance of truth, faith, and piety while having as its substance the deceit of tradition, superstition, pagan imagery, and the very form of godlessness employed by that ancient and original apostasy. Central to these ancient mysteries was the legend of the death, burial, and resurrection or rebirth of the deified man-god. Religious legends of the violent death and subsequent deification of the god worshipped bear a striking resemblance in every nation where they are practiced. Whether he is called Bacchus by the Greeks, Mythras in Persia, Vishnu by the Hindus, or Thor in Scandinavia; whether known as Kronos or Saturn, Zoroaster or Hercules, Adonis, Dionysus, or Belus, he is that selfsame Nimrod exalted to the throne of the sun by the Chaldean Mysteries of Baal. The ritual performance of the "mysteries" can today be found in one form or another under various names in virtually every religion and culture.

The idolatry of Babylon found its way to the western world through Egypt, where Baal worship was practiced as the Mysteries of Osiris, and which today remain essentially unchanged in the institution of Freemasonry as the Legend of Hiram Abiff. Catholicism has preserved the ancient mysteries, indeed the essence of Baal worship itself, in nearly pure form, the practice of which is carried out perpetually in the Mass houses of Roman popery under the guise of "Christianity." The utter thoroughness with which the entire world has been steeped in the religion of Baal may be witnessed by even the most casual observer, for Christians of every persuasion the world over hold dear and sacred as foundational to their faith the annual performance of Christmas, Holy Week, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday without the slightest realization that these "holy" liturgical observances are nothing more than the ritual reenactment of the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of Tammuz, "son" of the sun-god, identical to their practice in the ancient Chaldeans Mysteries. The religious liturgies of Baal have only been "christianized," and the name of Jesus substituted for that of Tammuz. So somber a realization should give cause for solemn reflection for those in whom the birth, death, burial, and resurrected life of the true CHRIST is a present and experiential REALITY!

It is by no mere coincidence that Babylon should be characterized in the Scripture as a woman, and a harlot at that; for the great idolatries and abominations of Baal worship were, for the largest part, the device and work of a WOMAN. It was Semiramis, by some accounts, who retrospectively conceived the grand scheme of elevating her deceased husband, Nimrod, and her child of harlotry, Tammuz, to the status of eternal godhood. Inasmuch as Nimrod gained world renown for his conquering exploits, Semiramis left nothing undone in her similar notoriety as the embodiment of utter depravity. Quoting again from Hislop, "The Chaldean Mysteries can be traced up to the days of Semiramis, who lived only a few centuries after the flood, and who is known to have impressed upon them the image of her own depraved and polluted mind. That beautiful but abandoned queen of Babylon was not only herself a paragon of unbridled lust and licentiousness, but in the Mysteries which she had a chief hand in forming, she was worshipped as Rhea, the great 'MOTHER' of the gods, with such atrocious rites as identified her with Venus, the MOTHER of all impurity, and raised the very city where she had reigned to a bad eminence among the nations, as the grand seat at once of idolatry and consecrated prostitution."

No more fitting a prototype could be had for that "great whore that sitteth upon many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabiters of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication" (Rev. 17:1-2). Only but a moment's reflection is required to gain a sense of the supreme spiritual adultery in which this idolatrous woman, who today calls herself the "church," is arrayed, and the Divine indignation by which the magnitude of her corruption will be judged. "For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled fill to her double" (Rev. 18:5-6).

For reasons that should be obvious, Semiramis soon came to be elevated to a stature of deity equal to that of Baal. She came to hold a place of pre-eminence among the ancients and to have attributed to her all of the virtues (?) and character, both real and contrived, which were ascribed to Nimrod, so much so that the worship of the WOMAN superseded that of the chief figure of the godhead. Much speculation surrounds Semiramis throughout history; however, she is depicted in the artwork of nearly every culture from ancient times as the image of a mother holding her child, clothed in a flowing robe, with the crescent moon beneath her feet. Have you seen a painting or statue of Catholicism's "Virgin and Child" lately? Complete with the crescent moon; the Renaissance artists gave her the halo.

True to its Babylonian roots, the Roman church does likewise, investing in Mary, the "Blessed Virgin," such divinity as would have her conceived without sin, ascended bodily into the heavens, and seated upon the throne of power at the right hand of God Himself, forever to make intercession for poor sinners and to grace ignorant peasants with her apparition whenever the church is convenienced to have her do so. The deified Semiramis received adulation as the "Queen of Heaven," and the "Mother of God"; and since the birth of her child, Tammuz, was claimed to be of miraculous origin, she was called "Alma Mater," that is, "Virgin Mother." The name by which Catholics commonly identify her is simply the translation of one of her Babylonian titles. Her Chaldean name was Baalti, the feminine form of the male divinity, Baal, which in English means "My Lady," in Latin, "Mea Domina," and in Italian has been corrupted into the well-known "Madonna." In the Egyptian Mysteries she was known as Athor, the "habitation of God," signifying the fullness of the godhead which indwelt her; the Romans worshipped her as Vesta, the "dwelling place'' of deity. It was furthermore fabled (and I emphasize the word fabled) that upon her death Semiramis was transformed into a dove, as the goddess Juno, and was thereupon imbued with every quality of peaceableness, kindness, mercy and gentleness. As if to put the capstone, the icing on the cake, as it were, on the most monstrous religious idolatries ever devised by the depravity of human minds, the queen goddess of fornication and licentiousness now became worshipped as a type of the Holy Spirit! All grace and goodness was seen as proceeding from her divine countenance, insomuch that the veneration of this harlot "Mother of God" totally eclipsed that of even her "divinely" begotten son. Further disposition need not be given to the parallel doctrines of "Mary worship" so dear to the heart of every Roman Catholic, particularly among the Mary cults of Central and South America; it is sufficient only to note that the rabid veneration of Mary, the "Blessed Virgin" and "Mother of God," so overtly propagated by the religion of popery is Baal worship in its identical, unadulterated form.

The Hebrew word "babel" means confusion; it is from the root "balal" meaning to overflow, implying mixture or contamination, much as a chemical waste site might leach its toxins fouling the surrounding groundwater. It was this very mixture of the holy with the profane, when "the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took women for themselves, whomever they chose" (Gen.6:2), that caused God to repent of having made man upon the earth and brought the ultimate judgment of the flood in the days of Noah. Likewise did Belshazzar, king of Babylon in the days of Daniel, when he defiled the holy vessels of the Lord which had been taken from the temple in Jerusalem, "in order that the king and his nobles, his wives, and his concubines might drink (wine) from them (Dan.5:2). His judgment came swiftly; for no sooner had Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall than did Belshazzar lie dead, and his kingdom was given to the Medes and Persians.

So blatantly did Israel pervert the worship of the one true God that He surely must have tired of giving them into the hands of their oppressors. And they forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves (worshipped as the Egyptian god Osiris), and made an Asherah (an upright phallic symbol known as an obelisk), and worshipped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire in sacrifice to the fire-god, Moloch, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves (in prostitution) to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him; so Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria. (2 Ki. 17:16, 17, 23). The king of Assyria then brought men from Babylon (where else?) to settle the land of Samaria, from whence came the despised ethnic mixture of the Samaritan Gentile/Jew. And true to their Babylonian nature, they promptly set up images of their own gods in the high places of Samaria conjoined with the worship of Yahweh. They feared the Lord and served their own gods according to the custom of the nations from among whom they had been carried into exile. So while these nations feared the Lord, they also served their idols. (ibid. vs. 33, 41). The spirit of Babylon will forever pervert, corrupt, and pollute the holy with the profane.

Can there be any doubt as to the contents of this golden cup from which the Mother of Harlots has made all nations to drink? Is it not the corrupting, intoxicating MIXTURE of the holiness, righteousness, and purity of God with the foul, profane, loathsome stench of the carnal mind of man? MIXTURE brings CONTAMINATION and DEFILEMENT. It was this very spirit of Babylon that prompted Paul's stern rebuke to the Galatians, ''Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the SPIRIT, are ye now made perfect by the FLESH?" (Gal. 3:3). Babylon will forever seek to wrest the work of God's Spirit from His omnipotent hand and form it into an image of flesh that may be worshipped and exalted, all the while calling it by the name of the Lord, purporting that it is spiritual. But once the work initiated by the Spirit has been mixed with flesh and contaminated with the carnal imaginings of men it has been DEFILED, and is no longer the work of the Spirit, but wholly the device of flesh, and is fit only for the dung heap. Examine, if you will, every true moving of God's Spirit in His dealings with men, every revival, every outpouring, every unveiling or enlargement of truth, and you will find that Babylonian spirit of whoredom fast on its heels to organize, sectarianize, denominationalize, ritualize, traditionalize, formalize, dogmatize, and idolize the blessed purity of that Living Word until men are left with a lifeless FORM, an empty shell of a truth, another dead letter to add to their statement of creed, another religious pantomime upon which to build their tower of piety and righteousness.

The saddest calamity of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of professing Christians actually believe this incredible fraud to be the truth and give themselves wholeheartedly to its whoredoms! The name of Mystery Babylon has been so indelibly written upon the forehead of christendom that Christians are unable to think except in terms of established orders, sects, denominations, creeds, doctrines, meetings, communions, baptisms, services, programs, campaigns, missionaries, tracts, outreaches, ministries, fundraisers, potlucks, pledge drives, Sunday schools, church buildings, church commitment, church camps, church bazaars, choirs, cantatas, seminaries, television productions, witnessing, revivals, miracle ministries, special speakers, altar calls, conventions, retreats, ad nauseaum. Dare to speak to them in terms of SPIRITUAL realities and they will perceive you as a heretic. Dare further to throw down the idols of their high places and cut down their groves and you will surely be cast from among them as profane, stoned with stones, and tossed from the nearest cliff. To untold multitudes "serving the Lord" equates with serving the "church." If one is not married lock, stock, and barrel to a particular "church" and faithful to be there every time the doors are open, he or she is hardly considered to be a good "Christian," if one at all. But how many such faithful ones have ever taken the time to wait upon the Lord, to earnestly seek His face, to hear the voice of His Spirit, to discern His will, to desire to know only Him? I tell you of a truth that the trappings of the Babylonian church systems are nothing but a HOODWINK, a blinding distraction from the realities that are IN CHRIST; they serve only to placate the mind and soul of the carnal man, offering him the performance of religion while leaving him completely destitute of spiritual substance and life.

What harmony, we may inquire, do the children of the Light have with the unfruitful works of darkness? Or what agreement hath Christ with Belial, or the temple of God with idols? "Know ye not that he which is joined to an HARLOT is ONE BODY? For two, saith He, shall be ONE FLESH. But he that is joined unto the Lord is ONE SPIRIT" (1 Cor.6:16-17). Therefore, saith the Lord, "COME OUT OF THEIR MIDST and BE YE SEPARATE, and do not touch what is unclean; and I will receive you" (2 Cor. 6:17). Despite the excuses of many sincere and well-intentioned brethren, it is my firm persuasion that all who are called as sons shall, indeed MUST, forsake their mother of harlotry if ever they are to gain entrance into the Father's house. All who remain within Babylon's fortifications will suffer the judgments reserved for her. Let all those having an ear to hear "Flee from the midst of Babylon, and each of you save his life! Do not be destroyed in her punishment, for this is the Lord's time of vengeance; He is going to render recompense to her" (Jer. 51:6).

It is not enough, however, that we come out of HER; for in truth, SHE must come out of US! Her name, her nature, her identity must be eradicated from the very core of our being. All too often did Israel find themselves delivered from their captivity only to carry with them the pagan customs and idols they had become accustomed to in the land of their bondage; being set free, they remained yet in their captivity. What do we benefit by removing ourselves from Babylon if that selfsame spirit of apostasy is permitted to remain ingrained in the mind and constitution of men? Man would only clear away the ashes and search amid the rubble to find with what brick and mortar he might begin to build another tower. Many among us have taken satisfaction in calling ourselves "nondenominational," or in other ways denoting our separation from the church systems of Mother Babylon, aligning ourselves with those called-out ones, only to find that we all too soon begin to count heads, appoint a pastor, rent a building (being careful not to call it a "church"), have a music leader, polarize around agreeable doctrine, fall into a routine format, and look upon ourselves as THE church. We have forsaken one house of Babylonian sectarianism only to build another.

Oh, for the day that God would assemble His people by the Spirit to hear His voice by the Spirit, to worship Him in Spirit, and to be the habitation of His Spirit that His purpose may be affected BY THE SPIRIT! Would to God that the name of Babylon be forever erased from the foreheads of His chosen and the name of that heavenly city written thereon: "And I will write upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God: and I will write upon him My NEW NAME" (Rev. 3:12). It is unto Mount Zion that we must come, unto the city of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the habitation of Spirit, that spiritual house not made with hands that abideth eternal in the heavens. This and this alone is the true CHURCH, the spiritual body of the Living God, where Christ lives and reigns in the highest heaven. Here Babylon can never enter, for "there shall no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, nor maketh a lie" (Rev. 21:27). All who dwell therein shall be thoroughly purged of the whoredoms of Babylon, for they are virgins, undefiled with women (Rev. 14:4), "and HIS NAME SHALL BE IN THEIR FOREHEADS" (Rev. 22:4).

Hardly a more lucid discourse could be written concerning the grand deception of Babylon than that from the pen of author J. Preston Eby:

"The wanton harlot calls herself Christianity, but she is not. She is a corrupt mysterious mixture, a spiritual malformation, the masterpiece of Satan, the corrupter of the truth of God, the destroyer of the souls of men, a trap, a snare, a stumbling block, the darkest blot in the universe of God. It is the corruption of the very best thing, and therefore the very worst of corruptions. It is the GREAT PRETENDER, the counterfeit and usurper of the holy and glorious bride of Christ. It is worse by far than Judaism; worse by far than all the darkest forms of paganism, because it has higher light and richer privileges, makes the very highest profession, and occupies the very loftiest platform. Finally, it is that awful apostasy for which is reserved the very heaviest judgments of God, the most bitter dregs in the cup of His righteous wrath. True it is, blessed be God, there are a few names even in these harlot systems that, through grace, have not defiled their garments. There are some brilliant embers amid the smoldering ashes -- precious stones amid the terrible debris. But as to the mass of Christian profession to which the term "church" applies, nothing can be more appalling, whether we think of its present condition or its future destiny. I doubt that one Christian in a million has anything like an adequate sense of the true character and inevitable doom of that system which surrounds them. If they had, it would solemnize their minds, and cause them to feel the urgent need of standing apart, in holy separation, from the ways of the harlot system, and in distinct testimony against its spirit and principles. The 'thus saith the Lord' to God's people is unmistakably clear: 'Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her' (Rev. 18:4-8)"

 FAITH - OR FANTASY?

On October 31, 1517 a Roman Catholic monk named Martin Luther posted his Ninety- Five Theses on the door of the Castle church in Wittenberg, Germany as a direct affront to the overt abuses of the Catholic Church's indulgence system. The selling of indulgences, that is, the partial remission of one's purgatorial sentence, filled the coffers of the Vatican at the expense of the gullible faithful. The subsequent excommunication of Luther and rift within the church began a process which has continued essentially unabated for the past five centuries; the dividing and subdividing of religious Christianity. Inasmuch as what began with the Reformation has been entirely in the purpose of God, it has, nonetheless, brought about a complete return to Babylon -- the massive confusion of spiritual "language" in the earth. It is estimated that there are now some twenty thousand various denominations, cults, and sects upon the face of the planet that identify themselves as "Christianity." To account for the many variations of beliefs that have polarized within this religious dichotomy would be a task for only the most astute mathematician. And as barkers at the county fair who seek to persuade passersby of the uniqueness and veracity of their sideshow, not a few of these institutions of religious persuasion loudly proclaim theirs to be the only "one true church." Chapter and verse, no matter how misconstrued, along with a hefty dose of traditional teachings and beliefs, can be cited to validate their assertion. Those who have mind enough to see the obvious frivolity of it all can only come to the conclusion that they are ALL liars, and that it matters not what one may or may not choose to believe; one religion is as good as another. Maybe I'll just start my own.

Little wonder that men have become immune to the preaching of the gospel; they've heard it all. Who among us has not betimes heard someone remark, "Oh, I just don't know what to believe anymore." Whether simply disenchanted with the traditional religion of their upbringing or decidedly agnostic, men are left to adopt and discard doctrines much as they would trade baseball cards, while the churches of modern Babylon compete for the allegiance of men like politicians vying for your vote -- and your dollars. One cannot flip through the cable channels of his television set without being accosted by the persistent badgering of religious beggars, the prissy, professional, high-tech panhandlers of modern Babylon, whose reward is in their bank accounts, and whose only faith lies in their ability to beguile gullible saints into parting with their hard currency. (Martin Luther has certainly rolled over in his grave many times). The widely publicized moral and ethical excesses of these "kingdom builders" who worship the god of mammon have served to further callous the hearts of men toward anything remotely resembling Christianity. Indeed, for a man to find truth within the walls of this clamorous city requires nothing short of an act of God!

The question so poignantly posed by Jesus some two thousand years hence speaks just as loudly today; "When the Son of man cometh, SHALL HE FIND FAITH ON THE EARTH?" (Lk. 18:8). Shall He, indeed! Shall He find faith, or as in the literal language of the Scripture, THE faith; or shall He find men wallowing in the dead, empty forms of their religions and traditions in which they piously pretend to worship God and to find their salvation? What shall He find, my friend, as He comes to you? Shall He find one who is presumptuously secure in the imagery of their religious belief system, or one established in the righteousness which is by THE FAITH of Jesus?

"I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me" (Jn. 14:6). The "Jesus movement" of the early 1970's had the most appropriate slogan: "ONE WAY!" While any number of church denominations lay claim to possessing the "whole truth, and nothing but the truth," the inspired word is clear that there is but ONE FAITH (Eph. 4:5). Men have attempted to make one faith out of the many "isms" and "schisms" by ecumenizing the whole lot into one universal religious cauldron. Ministerial alliances, national and world church councils, even generic "interfaith" versions of the Bible have been propagated in obedience to the urgings of Rome, bidding us all to, as the bumper sticker says, "come back home"; to meld once again into the religious monopoly of Luther's day. The ONE faith, however, is not the philosophical invention of men, nor the forced adhesion of all religious persuasions under one popish banner; for the ONLY TRUE FAITH is the FAITH OF JESUS. And the faith of Jesus is quite simply that -- the faith OF Jesus. It is not faith IN Jesus, but the faith OF Jesus. It is Jesus Christ's faith; that faith which is inherent in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the faith which has its origin and substance uniquely in Him. Jesus Christ is the POSSESSOR of the ONE TRUE FAITH, and any true faith which men may exercise proceeds from Him through the inexhaustible grace of God. While innumerable "faiths" the world over name the name of Jesus, the ONE TRUE FAITH is resident only in He Who Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life -- and THE FAITH. The overwhelming body of "faith" professed by men is not faith at all, merely BELIEFS they have adopted through generations of dogma, doctrine, tradition, and superstition.

The Faith of Jesus needs no further denominating or labeling, no statement of dogma or credo, no programmed entertainment, holy liturgies or sanctimonious rituals, no holy days, religious observances or traditions of the fathers, no board of trustees, Councils of Seventy, or clerical hierarchies. The Faith of Jesus, and therefore Christianity in its truest essence, is not a religion or belief system to which we have subscribed, nor a set of doctrinal persuasions which we have assimilated, or a church into which we have been baptized. True Christianity is a RELATIONSHIP one enters into with the one true Lord through the ONE TRUE FAITH. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the power (lit. the right) to become the SONS OF GOD, even to them that believe on (lit. into) His name: which were BORN, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but OF GOD" (Jn. 1:12-13). "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again (lit. born from above), he cannot see (or perceive) the kingdom of God" (Jn.3:3). Clearly, the only entrance into the relationship of the one true faith is through BIRTH. It is the height of arrogance that religion proclaims membership in any one particular denomination to be the only hope of salvation. There is not a "church" on the face of the earth that has ever saved one man. Religion has yet to regenerate one dead son of Adam and transform him into the nature and glory of his Creator. The dogma, rite, ordinance, or ritual does not exist that can add one whit to the grace and power of God in effecting the reconciliation of humankind through Jesus Christ. Men may assert what they will, but being a child of God remains a matter of being born of a higher kingdom, born of the Spirit of God. Unfortunately, a cursory knowledge of the Savior, commitment to the church of their choice, and the expectation of "going to heaven" is the whole of Christianity for a multitude of saints.

Through the facile doctrines of carnal-minded men, the Faith of Jesus has been so idealized until salvation has become numbered steps culminating in the repeating of a "sinner's prayer" and submersion in a water tank. Heaven is seen as an eternal playground where those lucky enough to have made a "decision for Jesus" go to escape the fires of hell. Faith is the believer's "bill of rights" to health, wealth, and prosperity, whereby the believer is entitled to enjoy life to the fullest. Satan has become a fallen archangel, great in wisdom and power, with whom Almighty God must constantly contest for the souls of men. Rapture is the "blessed hope" of the redeemed and the "second coming" of Jesus the event of the age. The vision of the church has been so diverted and polluted by the accumulation of religious imagery that little of "the Way, and the Truth, and the Life" exists in that which they proclaim as their "faith."

It is my desire by way of this study to define and perhaps illuminate for the reader the great chasm which exists between the true Faith of Jesus to which we have been called, and the mockery of that faith called "religion" in which we have been so long inculcated; and from which, in many ways, we are yet to be delivered. The trumpet of His voice is sounding forth in this hour among His elect, "Therefore, 'COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,' says the Lord.' And do not touch what is unclean; and I will welcome you. And I will be a Father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to Me,' says the Lord Almighty"(2 Cor. 6:17-18). The Father is separating unto Himself, in this hour, a people pure and undefiled from the whoredoms of the religious woman who sits upon many waters, with whom the inhabitants of the whole earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication (Rev. 17:1-2). Many who have previously come out of religious Babylon are finding that Babylon has yet to come out of them. Having been regenerated in the Life of His Spirit, many have long since forsaken the lifeless forms of denominationalism, only to find themselves mired once again in the ordinances, church rituals, observances, traditions, et al, of religiosity, albeit with a different name ascribed above the door. Every new movement of God's Spirit in this century has brought a measure of awakening and enlightenment, only to be formalized, dogmatized, organized, and denominationalized by religious men. The visitation of the Spirit then wanes as God moves forward to effect the fulfillment of His purpose in this age, but men remain couched in the doctrinal kingdoms they have built, secure in the order to which they have become accustomed, continually attempting to pump new life into their dead forms and relive the glories of blessings past. The spirit of Babylon compels men to erect religious images and build kingdoms rather than to hear what the Spirit would speak anew as He brings us to the reality of His life. "And Peter answered and said to Jesus, 'Lord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah'" (Mt. 17:4). Men will, without fail, put up a shrine and mark a date on the calendar for some perpetual religious commemoration rather than perceive the truth of His unveiling. May we, by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, throw off the bondages and blind trappings of Babylon and heed the directive of our Father, "This is My beloved Son...HEAR YE HIM" (Mt. 17:5).

"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold...he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. Then an herald cried aloud, 'To you it is commanded, oh people, nations, and languages, that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up'" (Dan. 3:1,4-5). Few believers, be they in or out of any denominational church, realize how obediently they respond to the command of Nebuchadnezzar even today. The "golden image" erected by the popes of Rome beginning in the fourth century A.D. stands to this very day in the "province of Babylon," and millions of Christian believers unwittingly bow before it at the appointed hour. The Roman church has for centuries asserted that she alone is the sole repository of truth and salvation, the only true church founded by the Lord Jesus Christ, and possesses doctrinal and moral infallibility through the apostolic succession of Peter, who is claimed to have been the first pope. Anyone who so desires may research the long and sordid history of this woman who sits upon a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, who is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Rev. 17:3,6), so I will not now burden the reader with its details. I would, however, seek to make the reader understand just how close to Roman idolatry the religions of "Christianity" have remained, even as they adamantly renounce the mother of their origin.

The images of Rome stand immovable in the kingdom of Babylon, and have permeated the thinking, the doctrine, and the ritual observances of even the most fundamental of Christian churches. We have Roman popery to thank for "Christianizing" two of the most highly revered and celebrated holy days of the calendar year -- Christmas, and Easter. It is widely recognized by Bible scholars, theologians, and common believers alike that Christmas has nothing whatsoever to do with the birth of Jesus, except that ascribed to it by the traditions of religion, but is an observance of the ancient Chaldean Mysteries in annual celebration of the rebirth of the SUN GOD -- the BAAL of the Old Testament scriptures! The winter solstice marked a time of rejoicing and merriment in ancient religious culture as the sun began its slow northerly rising back to higher latitudes. The many customs and observances of Christmas, from the tree to the mistletoe, from the yule log to the exchanging of gifts, to the invention of Santa Claus have been layered on through various cultures down through the centuries. Since the design of the Roman church was to marry Roman paganism to Christianity, thereby more easily integrating the proselytes into Constantine's state religion, it was fitting to retain the ancient feast of Baal and paint it to look like Christianity. The annual festivity was celebrated by the Romans as the Saturnalia, and was designated by the Roman church in the fourth century A.D. as Christmas, a conjoining of "Christ's Mass," and as the birth of the SON of God. And so it is that to this day professing Christians the world over worship before the golden image every December 25th. "That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music (perhaps "Oh Come All Ye Faithful," or "The First Noel"), ye shall fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up."

The "Christmas story" is in reality the Christmas LIE. How often we have been told that the birth of Jesus was the "first Christmas!" It is proclaimed annually from church pulpits the world over and devoutly believed by millions of otherwise sincere Christians. The first Christmas, however, was not celebrated until about the year 325 A.D. when the "church" of Rome decreed it to be so and neatly wove the Biblical account of the birth of the Savior into the fable. The simple FACT is we are not told the exact date of Jesus' birth in the pages of the inspired word. Had the Father intended that we worship the day of His birth rather than worship He Himself in spirit and in truth, He would have undoubtedly declared it. Men, however, are given to perform as did Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration: "Lord, let us build here three SHRINES!"

Of what spiritual value is it, may I ask, to perpetually commemorate some fictitious long ago date on the liturgical calendar erroneously proclaimed as the physical birth of Jesus of Nazareth, when we who are His elect, His called and chosen ones, already POSSESS THE REALITY OF HIS BIRTH WITHIN? Having been born of the LIFE OF HIS SPIRIT, what may we add thereto by condescending to place Him back in a manger once every year in obedience to the dictates of our religious tradition? Our vision, Beloved, must cease from being historical in perspective, forever recounting the marvel of His birth, for, "even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet NOW WE KNOW HIM THUS NO LONGER" (2 Cor.5:16). The religions of men know a Jesus AFTER THE FLESH, an historical Jesus whose life, for them, is inscribed in black ink upon the gold embossed, onion skin pages of their Bible; and there He remains in their holy liturgies to be born, live, die and arise every year right on schedule.

We, however, are made to know Him AFTER THE SPIRIT, for we are of the NEW CREATION MAN in whom the REALITY OF LIFE resides; a spiritual man of a HIGHER ORDER, a man created and formed in His very image and likeness. His BIRTH, His LIFE, His DEATH, and His RESURRECTION are all EXPERIENTIAL REALITIES of our present walk in the faith that we have of Him. For those who are truly OF THE FAITH OF JESUS and who press in to apprehend the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, it can only be deemed as utter foolishness to return again to the empty forms of dead religion. Some would contend that no harm is done in celebrating Christmas if done so in the proper spirit. Let it be said that the PROPER SPIRIT in which to do your celebrating is the SPIRIT OF BABYLON, for the "true meaning" of Christmas is nothing short of regurgitated Baal worship!

Easter, likewise, is a religious contrivance of Rome having its origin in the religions of the ancients. Long centuries before Jesus ever arose from the grave, the ancient cultures were celebrating their annual spring fertility rite in honor of the goddess Astarte, or Ishtar (pronounced "eas-ter"). Throughout the kingdom of Babylon the spring festival was observed as the resurrection of Tammuz, son of Nimrod. Rome gave us the invention of Lent, a forty day period of fasting and self-denial, during which time Catholics, and some persuasions of Protestants, give themselves to "weeping for Tammuz" (Ez. 8:14).

Christians devoutly attend Easter sunrise services commemorating the presumed Sunday morning resurrection of our Lord, never realizing that the practice is rooted in ancient Baal worship. It was customary to worship Baal, the sun god, at the first light of dawn, and it was this very abomination which brought the wrath of God upon the corrupted house of Israel. "And He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their BACKS TOWARD THE TEMPLE of the Lord, and their faces toward the EAST; and they worshipped the SUN toward the east. Then He said unto me, 'Hast thou seen this, oh son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here?'" (Ez. 8; 16-17). Although I shall not condemn professing Christians as Baal worshippers for attending a sunrise service, we would do well to reflect on the question posed by Paul to the Corinthians: "What harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the TEMPLE OF GOD with idols? For WE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD" (2 Cor. 6:15-16). How often the temple of the living God is defiled by our unwitting participation in Babylon's idolatrous traditions!

Some may contend that Easter was celebrated by the early church in observance of the Lord's resurrection, given the usage of the word in Acts 12:4; "And when he (Herod) had apprehended him (Peter), he put him in prison...intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people." This single appearance of the word "Easter," however, can only be taken as a deliberate mistranslation of the Greek pascha, which in every other occurrence in the New Testament is correctly rendered PASSOVER. Given the extent of Romish corruption yet instilled in the 1611 reformed church, the usage may be forgivable due only to the fact that the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus was intimately coincidental to the observance of the Passover. On the other hand, it is this very "coincidence" of Divine Providence which serves to invalidate the so-called "Holy Week" observances of present day Christendom.

Religious tradition would have us believe that Jesus was crucified on "Good Friday," and arose from the tomb early Easter Sunday morning. Jesus Himself, however, stated with indisputable clarity that the Son of man would be "three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Mt. 12:40). Friday afternoon until Sunday morning is hardly THREE DAYS and THREE NIGHTS by anyone's reckoning! Both the historical and Biblical records substantiate that Jesus of Nazareth was crucified on Wednesday the 14th of Nisan, according to the Jewish calendar, the day of preparation which preceded the High Sabbath of the Passover (Mk. 15:42). It must be noted that the Jewish "day" began, not at midnight, nor at sunrise, but at SUNDOWN. This is why the body of Jesus was quickly buried without embalming ointment in the nearby tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, for dusk was nigh, and the "day" of the High Sabbath was at hand (compare Mk. 15:42, and Lk.23:54). Jesus foretold that His resurrection would take place "on the THIRD DAY" (Mt. 16:21). The first DAY, therefore, would have begun at sundown Wednesday and concluded at sundown Thursday. Likewise, the second DAY was from sundown Thursday until sundown Friday; and the THIRD DAY, which started at sundown Friday concluded at sundown Saturday. You may count on your fingers, if you like, and you will readily conclude that Wednesday evening to Saturday evening is THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS. I believe we may confidently assert that Jesus arose precisely as He said He would -- ON THE THIRD DAY, that is, sometime before sundown on Saturday. That He could not have arisen on Sunday morning is clear from the Scriptural record, for John's gospel records that Mary Magdalene was the first to arrive at the tomb on the first day of the week WHILE IT WAS YET DARK, and found it already empty (Jn. 20:1). The Sunday observance of Easter is merely a matter of religious convenience, the Roman church having long ago changed the Sabbath from the last day of the week to the first, SUN-day. Perhaps just another coincidence in keeping with the true character of her religion.

We may note in passing that so firmly entrenched in Christian tradition is the observance of SUN-day that one is often judged as something of a heathen if he does not faithfully fulfill his obligation to attend SUN-day religious services. The Roman Catholic Church, of course, declares it a sin not to attend Mass on SUN-day, particularly on EASTER SUN-day and other "holy days of obligation," under pain of mortal sin and eternal damnation; the bondage of Rome to this day remains even upon those who profess the Faith of Jesus. "That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery...."

In truth, it matters not that we debate precisely when Jesus' resurrection took place, only that He DID INDEED rise from the dead by the power of the incorruptible life of the Father, forever sealing the redemption and reconciliation of all mankind through His incomparable victory over death. Moreover, the resurrection of Christ Jesus must be of greater significance to us than the mere celebration of some annual religious observance; for Christ is even now arising within those of His calling, raising us into the newness of His life, transforming, changing, renewing, overcoming the degeneration of death that works in our mortal members; raising us to be seated together in Him in the highest heaven, to be with Him where He is according to the adoption of sonship foreordained by the Father. Tell me, if you will, why the saints of the Most High God must continue to acknowledge the empty, lifeless form which man's religion decrees to be the resurrection of the Lord when He WHO IS THE RESURRECTION lives, abides, and has His being and substance within themselves? Once regenerated into the reality of His life, born of the higher kingdom of Spirit, why do men insist on returning to the futility and emptiness of religion's vain imagery, performing their duty to walk in the precepts of Babylon? Religion, my friends, is the shallow form of godliness which man has devised for the placation of those who abide in DEATH. It is a PLACEBO for the DEAD! May all those who are NOW NUMBERED AMONG THE LIVING in Christ Jesus forsake the precepts of the dead and learn to walk in the REALITY of He Who IS THEIR LIFE.

While it is not my intention to condemn anyone for having their Christmas or Easter if they so desire, it must be said that if one truly has a heart to walk in the fullness of the life of Christ, there will come a time when the Spirit of the Lord will speak as a loud voice in your heavens, saying, "Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins, and that you may not receive of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4). Those who know their calling and election in this hour do not take lightly the admonition of the Lord: "Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them (the heathen nations)…and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, 'How did these nations serve their gods? EVEN SO WILL I DO LIKEWISE.' Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God; for every abomination to the Lord which He hateth, have they done unto their gods" (Deut.12:30-31).

The question we may ask of such things is simply, "Is it religion, or is it the FAITH OF JESUS?" If it is nothing more than religion for the sake of ritual observance, then it may be wholly discarded without discredit or impropriety. The Faith of Jesus suffers no harm at the destruction of Babylon. As we walk on into the nature of the new creation birthed within us, we will not help but lose all affection for the encumbrances of this world's religious gallimaufry.

Although volumes could be written exploring the many doctrines, customs, rites and rituals, traditions and forms imposed upon the world of professing Christendom as a masquerade of faith, I would bring to the reader's attention yet one further example of truth which has been thoroughly corrupted by the carnal deception of religion -- the doctrine of RAPTURE. The teaching of the "secret rapture" of the saints preceding the "second coming" of Christ is today widely accepted among the saints as Biblical truth, and proclaimed from pulpits and podiums as the "blessed hope" of the true believer. It has not always been so.

To discover the origin of the Rapture doctrine we must again place ourselves in the midst of the Reformed church of Martin Luther's day. It was widely held by the early Protestants that the Pope was the supreme embodiment of the Biblical antichrist, and that the Roman Catholic Church was the Mother of Harlots of Revelation 17. The Catholic Church saw its members defecting by the millions to embrace their new-found understanding of truth and redemption, truly a threat to the centuries old empirical power the Church commanded throughout Europe. In an attempt to neutralize this "bad press" it would be necessary to divert the vision of the Reformers from targeting the Papacy. Thus, a certain Jesuit theologian by the name of Ribera concocted a scheme of prophetic interpretation known as FUTURISM, which teaches that the entire book of Revelation awaits literal fulfillment during the three and one half years of the rule of antichrist at the END OF THE AGE. It must be said that this very perspective permeates the thinking of believers to this day, precluding interpretation of the book of Revelation in an historical or spiritual light.

The foundation laid by Ribera was built upon by another priest of Rome, the Jesuit Emmanuel Lacunza. Lacunza wrote a book titled The Coming of Messiah in Glory and Majesty under the assumed name of Rabbi Ben Ezra, supposedly a learned Jew who had converted to Christianity. First published in Spanish in 1812, Lacunza's masterpiece of deception propounded the notion that Jesus is to return not once, but twice, coming the first time in secret to rapture His church from the clutches of the antichrist. Thus, the doctrine of Rapture was born out of the bowels of Roman Catholicism, the "Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the earth" (Rev. 17:5).

Surprised?

The doctrine gained steam in Anglican circles after being translated into English by the Scottish preacher Edward Irving in 1827. A contemporary of Irving, John Nelson Darby, carried the banner even further, organizing "futurism" into a system of prophetic teaching called "dispensationalism," of which the secret rapture is an integral part. Like a cancer, the Roman deception spread to the United States and Canada in the 1860's and 1870's, where the torch was passed to one C. I. Scofield, a Congregationalist preacher who had come under the influence of Darby. Scofield heavily incorporated the teaching into the footnotes of his Scofield Reference Bible, lending a profound impact upon the beliefs of multitudes of Christians to this very day. Another significant personage, D.L. Moody, also adopted the doctrine under the influence of Darby and Scofield. The saturation became complete when the early Pentecostal movement, under the auspices of the Assemblies of God, assimilated the Sunday school and study materials of Moody Bible Institute into their church curriculum. Thus, Pentecostal theology became "rapturized," as did the subsequent Charismatic and Evangelical movements, which had their roots in Pentecostalism.

So there you have it. The doctrine of "rapture," so widely proclaimed and accepted as the "blessed hope" of the church, is nothing but a heretical ruse invented by the Roman Catholic Church in an effort to divert the vision of every true believer from knowing the truth! We may observe that it has succeeded well beyond the Jesuit Lacunza's greatest expectations. I have not the space in this writing to further elaborate the error of this doctrine; a number of excellent works are currently available to anyone endeavoring to gain a sound Scriptural understanding of truth regarding the matter. I must, however, state without apology that "rapture" is NOWHERE taught in the pages of the Bible, and can only be wrested from the Scripture by the deliberate misinterpretation and misapplication of a handful of verses. Rapture, my brethren, is a LIE. And it has fostered an escapist, elitist theology, common among cults; let the world burn, the space ship is coming for us. Every time the word "rapture" rolls off the tongue of a believer, that one unwittingly acknowledges agreement with the wooden nickel handed to him by Rome.

Let us reiterate the piercing question posed by Christ Jesus which exacts an answer from every one of us; "When the Son of man cometh, will He find THE FAITH on the earth?" I fear that in many who profess His name He will find only prescribed beliefs in the superficial imagery which men so devoutly revere as "faith." The religions of men have devised for us a God Who is only as sovereign and almighty as their own "free will" allows Him to be, a God Whom they have formed in their own image and likeness, and Whom they believe to be bound by every dogma and tradition of their invention. The religions of men present to us a Savior Who, although proclaimed as the Savior of the world, is capable of redeeming only a remnant of humankind from the ravages of sin and death. They have made the free gift of God's grace a matter of "freedom of choice" on the part of man, rather than the immutable purpose of God for ALL men. Salvation, they say, is equivalent to church commitment, water baptism, speaking in tongues, or merely the rote recitation of a "sinner's prayer" with every head bowed and every eye closed. Their hope lies in the escapism of a "rapture" and the "second coming" of Jesus, rather than the reality of the appearing of His glory within their midst where He abides. Their heaven is an image adopted from the paganisms of ancient Rome, complete with streets of gold, mansions over the hilltop, and pearly gates where St. Peter awaits with the "keys of the kingdom" to admit the fortunate few to an eternity of paradise. Their hell, likewise, is the raging inferno of Dante's invention in which the overwhelming majority of human souls are incarcerated under the never- ending damnation of a wrathful God. We may well ask, "Is it FAITH, or is it RELIGION? Is it FACT, or is it FICTION?"

The saints of the Most High are, in this, the day of His appearing, being called out of the shallow forms and images they have ignorantly revered for so long to behold the REALITY of the Son, the manifestation of Christ Jesus Who is their expectation of glory. It is a people undefiled with women, a virgin people not polluted with the spiritual fornications of the harlot religious systems, which stand with Him upon Zion having His name and the name of the Father written on their foreheads (Rev. 14:1, 4). The distinguishing characteristic of these is that they "follow the Lamb withersoever He goeth." They follow not after the vain traditions of men, nor do they seek to mimic the ways of the heathen. They have cast down the imaginations of the carnal mind, and every high thing that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5). "At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look to the ALTARS (of Baal), the work of his hands, neither shall he respect that which his fingers have made, either the GROVES (lit. the Asherim, upright wood or stone images of phallic worship) or the IMAGES (lit. SUN-IDOLS common to Baal worship)" (Isa. 17:7-8). As Josiah of old, we must "purge Judah and Jerusalem from the HIGH PLACES, and the GROVES, and the CARVED IMAGES, and the MOLTEN IMAGES" that have defiled the true faith of the Living Christ. "And they tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he chopped down; also the Asherim, the carved images, and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them. Then he burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem" (2 Chron. 34:3-5).

Those who read these lines in whom the Living Word has clearly spoken to "Come out of her," and who have been separated unto the Father from the harlotries of Babylon, will undoubtedly bear witness to the confirmation of the Spirit, having found the substance of their faith in the REALITY that is in Christ Jesus. Others, who hold dear the traditions and religious imagery which have for centuries been regarded as the very core of Christianity, will just as certainly be offended, thinking, perhaps, that I perform a great disservice to their faith by questioning the veracity of such sacred and fundamental beliefs. The FAITH OF JESUS, however, is not founded upon tradition or religious observances, or the hand-me-down doctrines of the apostate church. The Faith of Jesus has as its foundation the SUBSTANCE of the life of Christ which indwells each of His chosen ones by His Spirit, and therefore CANNOT BE SHAKEN. There is absolutely nothing in life or death, no angel or principality, no height or depth, no power past, present, or future, indeed, no created thing that can separate us from the love of God which is IN CHRIST JESUS our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39). No other foundation can be laid except that which has been laid, Christ Jesus. HE is the sure foundation of FAITH which CANNOT be shaken.

BELIEFS, however, CAN be shaken. Doctrines can be shaken. Traditions can be shaken. And if, dear reader, your "faith" is in the beliefs, doctrines, teachings, and traditions of popular Christianity, they WILL BE SHAKEN; for He shakes not only your earth, but your HEAVENS also, bringing down every idol of religious Babylon, every false image of worship that feigns itself as spiritual, in order that those things which CANNOT BE SHAKEN MIGHT REMAIN (Heb. 12:26-27). If your heavens, therefore, have been shaken, REJOICE! For He taketh away the first that He might ESTABLISH THE SECOND. He is, in this momentous hour, establishing the second CHRIST, the last Adam -- that when the Son of man cometh He may indeed find THE FAITH upon the earth.

WORSHIP OF THE HORNED GOD OF HELL

Did that title do something for you? Perhaps stir within you a spark of anticipation, curiosity, or something more at approaching a morbid desire to peer into the realms of darkness? To explore something of the frightful and foreboding recesses of the netherworld? The devil? Oh, let's see what he has to say about HIM! After all, you would much rather read something about the devil than, say, taking up your cross to follow Jesus in discipleship, wouldn't you? You're not alone; so would a significant many professing Christians. There is something inherently titillating about the negative side of the spirit kingdom, something that appeals to the darker inclinations of man, an instilled curiosity of the unknown. Some of the bestselling titles on the racks of the Christian bookstores are those dealing with Satanism, demon possession, witchcraft, deliverance (read, exorcism), spiritism, the Satanic influence of rock music, and so on; books that try to teach you how to deal with the devil. The study of demonology is considered as appropriate to the religion of Christianity as is the study of the Bible.

Man has, for as long as he has trod this earth, had a fascination with the realm of evil, darkness, and death. The knowledge of good and EVIL opens up a world of unexplored possibilities for the carnal Adam, a world full of pseudo-spiritual wonderments that are but a distorted substitution for the higher realities of the kingdom of life from which he has been separated. Man needs to reach no farther than his soulical senses to touch the substance of darkness and evil. It is a realm which is readily accessible, one with which his carnal proclivities can easily identify. It is no wonder, then, that the devil would hold a place of such high esteem in man's religious arrangement of things, for the soul, which is the chief beneficiary of all religion, is the very habitation of that adversary's operation.

Who can deny that the devil is as much an object of acclamation in Christian circles as is the Lord Jesus Christ? To listen to the speech of many saints, one would think that they actually worship TWO gods -- Jesus, the benevolent God of good and blessing, and Satan, the malevolent god of evil and wickedness. And unwittingly, THEY DO! Gary Sigler once put it so succinctly when he wrote, "Do you know that the devil is a Pentecostal? You tell me what other realm you can get into today and hear so much about the devil! I have been in more Pentecostal meetings and heard more about the devil than I heard about God." So have I. As much as Christian teaching professes to despise the devil, he is, nevertheless, lauded continually as the grand adversary of the Almighty, a sinister being great in wisdom and power that God must unceasingly outwit in order to accomplish His purpose and exercise His will in the lives of men. The devil is ascribed such an exalted dominion that he is seen as virtually an equal of God in power and prowess, commanding an elite army of crack-troop demons, a hierarchical war machine of darkness with which he goes about wreaking havoc in the earth, hounding the saints with every manner of temptation and calamity, and undermining the will of God at every opportunity. He is given credit for the disruption of creation somewhere between the first and second verses of Genesis chapter one (I believe there is an empty line there), and he completely succeeded in frustrating God's plan for man in the Garden of Eden, usurping man's right of dominion, and making necessary the sacrifice of the Lamb of Calvary to restore what the devil had spoiled. He will rule the world at the end of the age when the Lord Jesus "raptures" His chosen saints to spare them the carnage, and in the final analysis, the vast majority of the souls of men will be dragged with him to hell in his unsparing grasp, there to be tormented with an eternity of unspeakable horrors. He is credited with ravaging mankind with every disease from the common cold to AIDS, raising up every demented ruler from Nero to Gadhafi, and fomenting the wars that have desiccated mankind. He is hailed for every misfortune in the lives of the saints, and given the blame (or should we say the praise) for every habit, temptation and sin by which the believer is overcome, even insofar as afflicting the saints with "demons" of nail polish and card playing (and the demon of dancing is one you really gotta look out for). Indeed, if it were not for his perceived influence, some of the saints would have no "testimony" whatsoever, for they speak little of the life, power, and victory of the indwelling Christ, but quite fluently of the battering inflicted upon them by this mighty prince of darkness.

Lest the reader should think that I exaggerate, please consider with me one of the most popular doctrines of religion, the subject of many a sermon and best-selling paperback, and, without rival, the crowning glory with which religious Christianity has adorned the Horned God of Hell. The tale, handed down from generation to generation, and accepted by nearly every believing Christian as factual and true, goes something like this:

Long ago, at the misty dawn of the ages, God created three mighty archangels; Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer by name. These glorious beings stood head and shoulders above the rest of the angelic host, as they were bequeathed with responsibilities unequaled in all of heaven. Michael was in charge of warfare, Gabriel oversaw the delivery of important messages, and Lucifer -- Ah, magnificent Lucifer! It was his high honor to orchestrate the unending adoration and worship of Almighty God by every creature in heaven. What a wondrous archangel was this Lucifer! Perfect in all of his ways, unexcelled in beauty and majesty, the wisest and most intelligent of beings, second only to God Himself in splendor and glory. But something went terribly awry. Lucifer was not content with his menial assignment as song leader. No, he had much higher aspirations; he desired the very throne of God. He desired for himself the very worship and adoration which, through his direction, was being showered upon the Almighty. Was he not the most beautiful of God's creation? Was he not worthy of such praise? We are told that possibly many eons passed before Lucifer had secured the allegiance of fully one-third of the angels of heaven in his bid to gain the throne by coup. (We can only presume that the angels are endowed with a sovereign free will as man also supposes to possess. The inference also comes to mind that something must be very much lacking in God's ability to rule in truth and righteousness if one-third of the heavenly host found cause enough to justify His overthrow). As Lucifer mustered his forces, Michael prepared to defend the throne of his Creator, and heaven was witness to the greatest warfare in all of history (or should we say legend). No one can be sure how long the conflict ensued, but alas, in the end, Lucifer and his horde were cast out of heaven, thrown down to the earth, there to rage against the human race in bitter vengeance for their defeat. We are told that since Lucifer, who now became Satan, failed in his attempt to usurp the throne of God, he and his demonic fallen angels have committed themselves to relentlessly pursue, harass, and destroy that which is closest to God's heart, that which God made in His own image and likeness -- the race of mankind. Now the battle continues for the souls of men, God and Satan in a head-to-head contest vying for the allegiance of men's hearts; and if we are to believe the contentions of the scholars, theologians, and preachers of modern Babylon, what Satan lost in heaven he will win on earth, for the vast billions of unregenerate men are destined to burn eternally in the tormenting inferno of hell. If this be true, then in the final analysis Lucifer will have gained the ultimate victory over a less-than-sovereign God Who, although giving the life of His very Son for the world's redemption, was unable to save His precious creation from the everlasting clutches of the Horned God of Hell.

Boy that would make a great Hollywood action film!

I hesitate for not one moment to declare to you that the foregoing story belongs in the archives of Babylonian mythology, for there is not one word of truth in it! How the devil must relish the glory and honor ascribed to him by the ignorance of religious minds, for man has exalted him to the stature of an ARCHANGEL, no less; a subject on which the inspired Scriptures are entirely silent! The plain and simple fact is that NOWHERE does the Scripture say that the devil's name is or was Lucifer, or that he ever was an archangel, or even that there were ever THREE archangels! The word "lucifer," in fact, is not even a Scriptural word, or a proper name. It appears only ONCE in the King James translation of the Bible, in Isaiah 14:12; "How thou art fallen from heaven, oh Lucifer, son of the morning! How thou art cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations." That is the entirety of what the Authorized Version has to say concerning Lucifer -- ONE VERSE. Wrest from its symbolical context the spiritual warfare described in Revelation 12:3-9, misconstrue the application of Ezekiel 28:13-19, stir them all together, and you have a doctrine fit for the Religious Tradition Hall of Fame.

The King James rendering of "Lucifer" is a deliberate non-translation of the Hebrew heylel, which means "the morning star," thus the phrase, "oh Lucifer (heylel), son of the morning." It is from the root word halal meaning to be clear or to shine, with the sense of making a boast or a show of oneself, or to rave and clamor foolishly; thus, to be puffed up and self-promoting. The word accurately describes the nature of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, who is the subject of Isaiah 14. The word "lucifer" is actually a LATIN word which was introduced when Jerome translated the Bible into the Latin Vulgate around 405 A.D. The word was in common usage by the ancients to whom lucifer was the morning star, the planet Venus, rising before and introducing the light of dawn, thus being the "light-bringer." The King James translators never bothered to correctly render heylel, but simply brought the extra-scriptural word "lucifer," with the capital "L," over from the Latin Vulgate. There is no Biblical or historical evidence to support the notion that "lucifer" was ever thought of as an angelic being or a devil. He was given that notoriety, however, in John Milton's 1667 classic Paradise Lost, in which Lucifer is depicted as an angel who sinned and was cast out of heaven, and described with terrifying imagery the eternal torment of lost sinners in a hell of fire. Thus was born out of a work of literary fiction the tale that is today proclaimed as TRUTH from the pulpits of modern Babylon -- "truth" that has evolved out of TRADITION and SUPERSTITION.

Now, tradition and superstition, my friend, belong to religion. TRUTH is delivered unto those who are believing into Christ, having been made recipients of the FAITH OF JESUS. I, for one, being of the Faith of Jesus, have no need for tradition and superstition, and will categorically reject all such foolishness every time the light of TRUTH uncovers the errors of religious fiction and fantasy. The author, C.H. Douglas, has penned a statement which so exemplifies the means by which the great majority of men come to possess much of what they profess as their "faith":

"Most people of necessity, and especially in these days of mass propaganda, form their opinions at second hand, and a great deal of opinion formed in this way is purely passive. Little or no critical faculty is applied to it, but on occasion it is regurgitated as though it had been formed as a result of personal experience."

In other words, repeat the mythological lie often enough, and the great majority of people will so unquestioningly assimilate it that when they open their mouths to REGURGITATE it, they are entirely persuaded of its veracity, and will speak it as "truth." All my life I heard that "God helps those who help themselves," assuming that the Bible clearly stated as much (It does not).The axiom was nevertheless repeated with the religious solemnity of those much greater in wisdom than I, so that its "truth" went unchallenged until, by the reading of the Bible and the understanding of the Spirit, I came to know that exactly the opposite is true; God helps those who have at last come to the end of themselves! Religion has repeated many such scriptural-sounding hyperboles for our soulical edification. God has not spoken it, the Scripture has not declared it, the Spirit does not bear witness to it, but it is, nonetheless, held sacred and irrefutable. On a rare occasion, one will think to apply his "critical faculty" to what he has heard, and finding it to be beyond the boundaries of truth and reason, will seek to expose its falsity in the hope that others will also adjust their vision to see reality rather than fantasy. Such a one is invariably vilified as a heretic, labeled an infidel, and cast from the temple as profane.

Whence cometh such imaginations, brethren, among those who have been called and chosen in He Who is their Way, their TRUTH, and their Life? Where else but OUT OF BABYLON; directly from the spirit of that kingdom of original apostasy. The god-like power ascribed to the devil by popular Christianity is as old as the religion instituted by Nimrod, for both fire worship and serpent worship are traceable directly back to the Chaldean Mysteries of Baal. Fire was held sacred as the enlightener and the purifier, and the voice of antiquity credits Nimrod as having commenced fire worship. The sun was worshiped as the divinity, Baal, and fire was seen as the earthly, physical appellation of the sun, possessing its characteristics of light, heat, and energy. "Passing through the fire" was an integral rite of Baal worship, signifying purification and regeneration, and as such, was an abomination to the Lord: "And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger" (2 Kings 17:17). Moloch, the god of fire, was appeased by the offering of first-born infants who were tossed into the devouring furnace in the bowels of his stone image. The modern religious image of hell, with its endless fires of torment, is nothing but a hand-me-down form of the doctrine of purgatory which permeated all pagan religion, and which is preserved in its purity by the priest-craft of Rome. Fire worship, as all such doctrines of paganism, is merely the corruption of spiritual reality and truth. Whereas the deceived worshiper of Baal is consumed and destroyed by a fire of torment, the believer in Christ Jesus is BAPTIZED with fire to the sanctification of his soul!

Likewise, the serpent, from the earliest times, has been highly held as an object of worship, and in due course, became associated with the worship of the sun, the great fire god. In the mythology of the primitive world, the serpent is universally a symbol of the sun. In the Egyptian mysteries, one of the most common symbols of the sun, or sun god, is a disc with a serpent around the circumference. As the sun, and his earthly manifestation, fire, was seen as the enlightener of the physical world, so was the serpent believed to be the great enlightener of the spiritual, having originally given to man the "knowledge of good and evil." The serpent was seen as the most spiritual of all reptiles, and was attributed as having a divine nature. Eventually, fire worship and serpent worship were conjoined, and the serpent became identified with a fiery character, that of a purifier and enlightener. It was this very enemy of true faith described by John in the twelfth chapter of Revelation: "And another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon." The "dragon" here is properly identified in verse nine as "the serpent of old," or the ORIGINAL serpent; that is, the serpent of the original apostasy. The word "red" is purrhos, which means "fiery"; thus, the great red dragon is, in reality, the FIERY SERPENT, the very "enlightener" of men, the "instructor" in the ways of knowledge, who is, in truth, the great DECEIVER of the world who has been worshiped as god since time immemorial.

The appropriation of the name Lucifer to the god of hell fire is a relatively modern refinement of the "doctrine of devils" so sacred to the harlot church, and comes all too natural, lucifer being the morning star, the "shining one," the "bringer of light"; thus, the "enlightener," or the "illuminator." The arch-deceiver operates today under the very pretenses that have sealed his success for millennia, posing as the god of light and truth, the one who is able to make men wise and enlighten the understanding. Indeed, are we not told that "even Satan disguises himself as an angel of LIGHT" (2 Cor. 11:14)? LIGHT has been his disguise from the very beginning. It worked on Eve. While Satan is even today identified with the symbols of the serpent and fire, the form in which he has come to be worshiped has taken on more celestial attire, a magnificently powerful ARCHANGEL, even one whose very name denotes his wisdom and enlightening abilities -- LUCIFER. Can any thinking, reasoning person not see how, by their fictional "doctrines of demons," the religions of men have exalted and glorified one who is no more than an impostor, one who has come only to defraud, to steal, to rob, and to kill? If the apostasy of Nimrod is to be condemned for "(exchanging) the glory of the incorruptible God FOR AN IMAGE in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and CRAWLING CREATURES (as in serpents)" (Rom.1:23), what shall be said for a religion which exalts that original serpent to the lofty estate of an angelic being, ascribes to him divine powers and attributes, and lauds him as the victorious captor of the innumerable souls of humanity?

We have yet a further proof of the IMAGE of Satan popularly held in the minds of men the world over as having been handed down from the Mysteries of Babylon -- that of a monstrous, cloven hoofed, horned demon of darkness, replete with fangs, clawed fingers, pointed tail, and with pitchfork in hand. One of the many deities by which Nimrod, or Baal, was worshiped, was Kronos, which signifies "The Horned One." His likeness frequently appeared in Assyrian sculptures as a gigantic horned man-bull divinity, an image possessing the torso and head of a man, and the body and cloven hoofed feet of a bull. Now, the same word that signified a "bull" also signified a "ruler" or "prince," and the horn has long been held as a symbol of power and sovereignty. Thus, the "Horned Bull" was meant to signify "The Mighty Prince," thereby pointing directly back to Nimrod, who "began to be a MIGHTY ONE in the earth" (Gen. 10:8). The Greek divinity, Bacchus, as well as the numerous other counterparts of Baal in various cultures, was represented as the "Bull Horned" god. This also accounts for the origin of one of the divinities worshiped by the Anglo-Saxons under the name of Zernebogus, who was the black, malevolent, ill-omened deity, which is the exact counterpart of the popular idea of the devil, who is supposed to be black, and equipped with horns and hoofs. The image takes on a particular significance when it is realized that Nimrod was by some historical accounts black, having been the son of Cush, who is said to have been the father of the black race; and so he is characterized with distinctly Negro features in the ancient images through which he was venerated. Who, then, is this Christian devil except he who came to be deified as the great "Horned One," the god who was at once the serpentine "enlightener" of men and the "purifier of souls" in the purgatorial fires of the netherworld? Who, indeed, but the Horned God of Hell; BAAL!

That there is indeed a devil, I will readily agree. That he is an instrument in the hand of an all-powerful, sovereign, and omnipotent God for the chastening and perfecting of His called and chosen ones, I will also concur. But to the effect that the devil has ever been anything other than a murderer and a liar from the beginning of his existence, I must wholeheartedly reject. For if we believe that Jesus spoke nothing except the truth, we cannot pretend to gainsay His clear, simple statement concerning Satan: "You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a MURDERER FROM THE BEGINNING, and DOES NOT STAND IN THE TRUTH, because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own NATURE; for HE IS A LIAR, and the father of lies" (Jn. 8:44). Nowhere in the pages of your Bible is Satan said to have been an archangel named Lucifer IN THE BEGINNING. The Greek word for "beginning," arche, means exactly that; that which has commenced FROM THE FIRST. And Jesus plainly declares that the devil was FROM THE BEGINNING a murderer and a liar -- NOTHING ELSE. His very NATURE, from the beginning, was that of a liar, a deceiver.

But religion must have its Lucifer; for men who understand nothing of the spirit and nature of Almighty God are wont to explain the occurrence of evil and the depravity of sin. The invention of a once-glorious archangel who was perfect in all his ways until iniquity was found in him, and who then sinned against God, corrupted the hosts of heaven, and was cast to the earth to foment his wickedness among men goes a long way in relieving GOD of the responsibility for those things pertaining to the entire realm of negativity extant in the world. The blame may be squarely laid at the feet of that damnable villain, Satan. Men cannot conceive the thought that an all-wise and holy God would create an evil devil. Where, then, did the devil come from? Certainly, he did not create himself, for the Scripture declares that "ALL THINGS CAME INTO BEING BY HIM (the Logos), and apart from Him NOTHING came into being that has come into being" (Jn. 1:3). If God, in His omnipotence and wisdom, created a being with the inherent capability of becoming evil, and in His omniscience knew beforehand that this being would become evil, is God any LESS responsible for the devil? If, on the other hand, God created a holy, angelic being, whom He intended for righteousness, and DID NOT KNOW that this being would become wicked and rebel against Him, then He is not the sovereign, omnipotent, all-knowing, all-wise God that we suppose Him to be, and Satan has pulled a fast one on God. If Satan has the ability to act autonomously, that is, apart from the perfect counsel and purpose of God, then there are indeed TWO GODS, equal in power and strategy, and we also stand daily in peril of being destroyed and consumed by the cunning wickedness of the Adversary! Perhaps it can now be seen why so many saints lack the victory and life of the Spirit of Christ,  and are continually torn betwixt walking in the flesh and walking in the spirit, between victory one day and defeat the next, always walking what they perceive as the fine line that separates the security of their salvation from the damnation of the lost; to them, their god of hell is a constant threat, an unceasing nuisance, ready to devour them at the slightest misstep, poised to strike at every opportunity of weakness, ever meddling in their lives to hinder the will of God, to bring upon them temptation, adversity, and calamity, and destroy their faith.

Be assured, however, that there are not now and never have been two gods, "For thus saith the Lord that created the heaven; God Himself That formed the earth and made it...I am the Lord; and THERE IS NONE ELSE" (Isa. 45:18). Once we begin to see by the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that there is but ONE GOD, almighty, all-powerful, and omnipotent -- that "OUT FROM HIM and PROCEEDING THROUGH HIM and INTO HIM are ALL THINGS" (Rom. 11: 36), we will then come to the blessed and liberating understanding that NOTHING touches our lives that has not been ordained by His sovereign hand. "I form the light, AND CREATE DARKNESS: I make peace, AND CREATE EVIL: I THE LORD DO ALL THESE THINGS" (Isa. 45:7). God creates evil? He says He does. Did He not create the serpent and give him a nature that was more subtle and cunning than any beast of the field? (Gen. 3:1). Has He not created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire as an INSTRUMENT FOR HIS WORK? Has He not created the WASTER TO DESTROY? (Isa.54:16). Has He not set before men both life and death, both blessing and cursing? (Deut. 30:15, 19). Yea, "I the Lord DO ALL THESE THINGS."

We may confidently assert that there is but ONE POWER; for Christ Jesus boldly declares, "ALL AUTHORITY HAS BEEN GIVEN TO ME IN HEAVEN AND ON EARTH" (Mt.28:18). This is He Who is "far ABOVE all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come" (Eph. 1:21). There is yet to be a devil or demon, a principality or power, which has ever usurped the authority of Christ or acted independently of His absolute sovereignty. Any authority invested in any creature, heavenly or earthly, is done so by His divine appointment; as He testified before Pontius Pilate, "Thou couldest have no power at all against Me, except it were GIVEN THEE FROM ABOVE" (Jn. 19:11). At no time has the throne of God been in jeopardy of overthrow. Never has the devil upstaged the Most High God, circumvented His will, or frustrated His purpose. The saints of the Most High will cast off all such carnal imaginations when they at last believe and KNOW that "ALL THINGS ARE OF GOD" (2 Cor. 5:18), and that it is He alone "Who worketh ALL THINGS after the counsel of His own will" (Eph. 1:11).

One who recognizes that it is God Who causes ALL THINGS to work together for good to bring us to the apprehension of His foreordained purpose, that we be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:28-29 ) -- that one no longer has a devil lurking around every corner or sitting on his shoulder to entice him into evil. For him, THERE IS NO MORE DEVIL, for the Horned God of Hell has been defrocked of his power, unseated from his throne of evil majesty, and all his works brought into proper perspective -- under the sovereign rule and dominion of God, effecting that which is ordained by Him in the accomplishment of His counsel, will, and purpose for the ages. We must see that God is truly ALL IN ALL. He is before ALL, the creator of ALL, the sustainer of ALL, the reconciler of ALL, the object of ALL, and the consummation of ALL. Truly, He is the Alpha and the Omega -- the beginning of ALL THINGS and the end of ALL THINGS. Let all who seek to know Him in His fullness and glory throw away the creeds, dogmas, myths, and traditions which serve only to divert our vision and corrupt our understanding of the glorious God we serve, and with singleness of eye behold He Who Himself IS THE TRUTH. Let all whose hope is in Him cease to walk in the precepts of the heathen, acknowledging their gods, and set their vision on the calling to which they have been predestined in the foreknowledge of God, to apprehend the nature and glory of the One in Whom is ALL AUTHORITY in heaven and on earth.

 THE PURSUIT OF CARNAL GODLINESS

 He first appeared quite innocuously, that serpent of old; a subtle whisper, a cunning question, a challenge to the sovereignty of God -- and the degeneration of mankind was the catastrophic result. "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden'? And the woman said to the serpent, 'From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.' And the serpent said to the woman, 'Nay, you surely shall not die.'" Think of the proposition confronting the mother of all mankind on that fateful day: "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, AND YOU WILL BE LIKE GOD, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:1-5). Who could resist? To be like God! To possess something far and beyond the measure of human capability. To know good and evil. Why, what marvels must be concealed in that sublime mystery! To be master of such unspeakable power! What enlightenment awaits! What great illumination! What supreme knowledge! Thus, the great "illuminator" of men, the serpent, presents his bill of goods. Men will buy it every time; for the soul of man is ever striving, ever seeking, for some higher knowledge, some greater consciousness -- some measure of wisdom and enlightenment that will transcend that of the average mortal, make him master over the common man, and exalt him to the envious stature of godhood in his own right and in the eyes of his fellow beings.

Man is so easily deceived. It takes very little, actually. Appeal to his desire for God-likeness as well as his egotism; offer him an irresistible plan of self-salvation, a doctrine of do-it-yourself perfection, promise him greater enlightenment, unsurpassed knowledge, exaltation and nirvana, and converts will beat a path to your door. It is the formula for successful religion.

The grand deception of Babylon, to be a man-god, has, lo, these thousands of years, been the calling card of the serpent, the modus operandi of the father of lies, the "mark," if you will, of the beast. Significant, indeed, that this crafty one should make his first appearance in the garden of God, for no sooner had the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into him the breath of life, than the serpent stood ready to entice, to draw man away from God by the lusts of his own flesh. Three curses were issued from the mouth of the Almighty that fateful day in Eden as Adam, Eve, and the serpent came before His holy tribunal. Most folks have no trouble recounting the ominous pronouncements which befell the man and woman, but God spoke FIRST to the serpent: "Cursed are you more than all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; ON YOUR BELLY SHALL YOU GO and DUST SHALL YOU EAT all the days of your life" (Gen.3:14). For the rest of his days the serpent was consigned to dwell in the realm of the earth, and to consume DUST as the sole staple of his diet. Now, we all know that snakes do not eat dust. We must understand with the mind of the spirit, for we are not speaking of a literal reptile composed of flesh and scales, but of a reality in the spiritual dimension of which the serpent is but a figure. Dust speaks of that which is earthy, natural, and carnal in nature. Only a few verses farther we read of God's sentence upon Adam: "Cursed is THE GROUND because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life...By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you RETURN TO THE GROUND, because FROM IT YOU WERE TAKEN; FOR YOU ARE DUST, and to DUST you shall return" (Gen. 3:17-19). This was an earthy man, taken out of the ground and destined to return thereto, signifying the NATURE of the first Adam. Adam was naught but DUST! For "the Lord God formed man of the DUST OF THE GROUND" (Gen. 2:7). The serpent's domain, his realm of dominion, was to be the very ground from which Adam was taken, the very origin of man's carnal form, the very NATURE with which he was imbued. The serpent was commanded by God to inhabit the realm of the natural man, to make his sphere of activity the same lowly, earthy, natural plane in which man would also abide all the days of his life. And it was given to the serpent that he should EAT DUST -- the same stuff of which Adam was made. Ah, is it any wonder that man should find so close a kinship with that serpent of old? For the serpent's unquenchable appetite was turned upon the DUST OF MAN'S CARNAL FLESH.

Many have pondered with great wonder and speculation the very question God posed to Satan as he presented himself on that day among the sons of God: "And the Lord said unto Satan, 'Whence comest thou?'" (Job. 1:7). WHERE DID YOU COME FROM, Satan? The Adversary answered as only he could, "From going to and fro IN THE EARTH, and from walking up and down in it." That is precisely where the devil has come from; FROM THE EARTH, from the GROUND, from the DUST, from walking up and down amid the earthy, carnal nature of MAN. Witness the words of Jesus in respect to the origin of all the evil in the world: "That which proceeds OUT OF THE MAN, that is what defiles the man. For FROM WITHIN, OUT OF THE HEART OF MEN, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and WICKEDNESS, as well as DECEIT, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these evils proceed FROM WITHIN and defile the man" (Mk.7:20-23). The list of evils which Jesus said come forth FROM WITHIN a man covers the spectrum. Curious those among them are also WICKEDNESS and DECEIT, those qualities inherently associated with the devil. The word here for "wickedness" is the Greek poneria, from the root poneros which means "pernicious evil" -- evil which is highly injurious and destructive in character. This is not merely an act that is wicked in itself, but that which seeks to perpetuate its wickedness upon everything it touches. It is malicious and vicious, the stuff of demented minds, the cancerous disease of evil. This very word, poneros, is used repeatedly in the Scripture when referring to "the wicked one," the devil. This wickedness, declares Jesus, proceeds FROM WITHIN THE HEART OF MAN! Jeremiah bears witness in this regard, "The HEART IS DECEITFUL ABOVE ALL THINGS, and DESPERATELY WICKED: who can know it?" (Jer. 17:9). Deceitful ABOVE ALL THINGS is the heart of man! There is nothing darker and more evil, for the heart of man is DESPERATELY WICKED. The Holy Spirit thus identifies THE HEART, that very center of man's soulish carnal nature of DUST, the realm in which the serpent abides, as the SOURCE OF ALL EVIL.

Subtle, indeed, is the serpent! From his secluded throne, concealed within the hearts and minds of men, he brings forth every conceivable evil with the most unsuspecting pretenses. It is fitting that this wicked one should be portrayed as a serpent, for therein is his true nature revealed. The word serpent is from the Hebrew root nachash, which means to hiss or whisper. It also carries the meaning "to diligently observe, learn by experience, to practice divination, enchantments, and incantations." The serpent, therefore, is a HISSER, a WHISPERER, an ENCHANTER, an enlightener, the illuminator and instructor of men, the LUCIFER.

J. Preston Eby has penned these relevant lines: "Whisperings out of the dust - there is something sinister in the thought, but beyond the evil that is suggested, there is also the thought of SUBTLE SUGGESTION -- a WHISPERED temptation -- something so subtle one could wonder from whence it comes, a word so low and so whispered as to be almost imperceptible -- or is it a THOUGHT, a DESIRE, a command from an INNER NATURE? These whisperings ARISE FROM THE DUST OF THE CARNAL MIND, OUT OF THE GROUND OF THE ADAM NATURE where the serpent lies! It was with this understanding that the apostle James could pen these inspired words: 'But every man is tempted when he is drawn away OF HIS OWN DESIRE (lust) and enticed. Then when DESIRE hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death' (Jas. 1:14-15). EVERY MAN is tempted-- not by some outside influence, not by some evil angel sitting on his shoulder, not by some little creature with horns -- but when he is drawn away OF HIS OWN DESIRE! Ah, this is the "whisper out of the dust" -- the subtle voice of DESIRE spoken cunningly from the thoughts, will, passions, ambitions, plans, hopes, fantasies, and cravings OF THE FLESH! If by the grace of God you can see the truth of this, you will then plainly see in all the emotions of the human heart the CREEPING, CROOKED, SLITHERING SERPENT OF EDEN!"

Give heed, my Brother, my Sister: As long as your devil remains the malevolent horned god of hell, the cloven-hoofed, pitchfork-wielding demon so enamored by religion, or the once-glorious, fallen archangel of Christian folklore, you shall never see him for what he really is. As long as your Satan remains an external force to be dealt with "out there" somewhere or "down there" somewhere, you will never uncover the true sphere of his activity. He is much closer to home than we would care to think, for it is in the hearts, the minds, and the souls of men that the serpent abides. He has his residence IN THE GARDEN OF GOD! There among the trees of the garden he waits, always ready to direct one's attention to the ever-appealing tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Now, do not misunderstand; I am not suggesting that we are all possessed of the devil; no more than was the apostle, Peter. Upon hearing Jesus speak plainly of His suffering and death, Peter, you will recall, rebuked Him, saying, "God forbid it, Lord! This shall never happen to You." To which came Jesus' famous reply, "Get thee behind Me, SATAN! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not SETTING YOUR MIND on God's interests, BUT MAN'S" (Mt. 16:22-23). Peter spoke as a SATAN, an ADVERSARY of the will and purpose of God. What great evil had been done to prompt such a stern rebuke? Only that Peter had spoken what was IN HIS HEART, out of the MIND of his SELFISH NATURE. Even though his intentions may have been entirely protective and compassionate, Peter, nevertheless, spoke as a man who minded only carnal interests. Having no real grasp of God's foreordained purpose, he could see only the devastating ramifications of Jesus' demise. The carnal, self-centered mind of man is ALWAYS CONTRARY to the interests of God. "The mind set on the flesh is enmity (positive, open hatred) toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is NOT EVEN ABLE TO DO SO" (Rom. 8:7). "For the flesh sets its desire AGAINST THE SPIRIT, and the Spirit against the flesh; for THESE ARE IN OPPOSITION TO ONE ANOTHER" (Gal. 5:17). A man who minds carnal things, my friends, is a Satan. He is a man whose interests are set only on pursuing the desires and ambitions of the natural man. Such a man cannot be pleasing to God, for he unwittingly resists God, and is an ADVERSARY to God by the simple exercise of that which he considers natural and normal. For this same reason was Judas Iscariot branded as a DEVIL by the Lord Jesus (Jn.6:70), for his motives, however sincere, originated from the heart of selfish ambition.

The serpent has enthroned himself in the carnal heart of man, usurping the dominion of the lives of men through fraud and deceit. It is not an exaggeration to say that the whole of mankind has tacitly made him lord, conceding the mastery of their lives to one who is naught but an imposter. "The whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast; and they WORSHIPPED THE DRAGON, because he gave his authority to the beast; and they WORSHIPPED THE BEAST, saying, 'Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him'" (Rev. 13:3-4). Dragon worshippers. Beast worshippers. The whole earth is AMAZED at him. The Greek word means to admire or to wonder, with the sense of perceiving or looking upon very closely; thus, to have one's vision focused intently. This beast has captivated and mesmerized the entire world. All humanity is under his seductive spell. He has won the loyalty and worship of every carnal-minded man. This one who was but a lowly serpent in the Eden of long ago, has, over the course of the millennia, been fattened on the dust of Adam, well sated with every carnal and fleshly lust, gorged with the earthly wisdom of the knowledge of good and evil, greatly exalted in the pride of his own accomplishments. He now appears at the close of this age, no longer a mere serpent, but a great dragon, mighty in strength, greatly admired and wondered at by all men.

And whence cometh this grand beast of whom the "end time" teachings of the church has much to say? "And I saw a beast coming up OUT OF THE SEA" (Rev. 13:1). The sea speaks repeatedly in Scripture as a figure of the writhing, churning mass of humanity, ever unsettled, tossed about with every wind and current, begetting every storm and tempest. And out of this sea, from the midst of the unregenerate, self-natured throng of MANKIND comes this blasphemous beast who thinks to wage war against God Himself. "And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain" (Rev. 13:8).

The apostle, James, writes, "For where jealousy and SELFISH AMBITION exist, there is disorder and EVERY EVIL THING" (Jas. 3:16). Who can contest the fact that SELFISH AMBITION is the forte of modern man? One has but to look upon the present condition of the "new world order" to see the wars, the destruction, the poverty, the injustice, the devastation inflicted upon mankind, and the deliberate destruction of our planet by the greed, the lust, the arrogant selfish ambition orchestrated by those who worship the god of mammon. Yes, look upon the whole of human affairs and you will readily witness the hopelessness of DISORDER and EVERY EVIL THING which besets mankind. And while men in high places gather in summits and symposiums to spout their platitudes, their world sinks deeper into the morass of decay and ruin. I find it amusing, actually, that these "enlightened" ones would think to put a Band-Aid on the irreversible hemorrhaging of the carnage they have created; for every device of the carnal man must end in futility and frustration. Men will never turn to God for their deliverance as long as they are hell-bent on saving themselves. The self-aggrandizing nature of man is not only the greatest adversary of God, but, indeed, man's own worst enemy.

This much-touted beast which men of religion have long anticipated at the end of the age has been alive and well throughout the millennia and even now thrives upon the earth; his mark is unmistakable. This beast, mighty as he may appear, is empowered by one higher in command; "And the DRAGON gave him his power and his throne and great authority" (Rev.13:2). Ah, the great DRAGON, the serpent of old, is the mastermind behind all the activity of the beast. It is he who is the motivator, the schemer, the organizer, the unseen perpetrator of all that man has become. And his overriding objective, the aim of his cunning and deceit, is to estrange men from the love of God, to draw them from all that is truth, and convince them that within their own ability lies the solution to their quest for godliness. May I tell you, my friends, what has been the most effective tool ever devised for the enslavement of mankind? Religion. The devil loves religion. It is his invention. No greater substitute for truth, righteousness, and true godliness can be found than to make a man religious. Give him a half-truth, an empty doctrine, an ossified ritual, a form of worship that is entertaining enough to hold his attention for an hour or so, and a law by which he may measure his righteousness; dress it up in pomp and ceremony and wrap it all in an impressive, multimillion dollar edifice, and you have a man satisfied in his soul that he is doing all that is required of him to be acceptable to God. The devil does not despise religious people; it is THOSE WHO DWELL IN HEAVEN that he seeks to destroy.

We are told of this great red dragon that "his tail swept away a third of the STARS OF HEAVEN, and threw them to the earth" (Rev. 12:4).The stars of heaven speak in the Scripture of the saints of the Most High, those who "shine brightly like the brightness of the expanse of heaven...like the stars forever and ever" (Dan. 12:3). Daniel also prophesies, "And it (the little horn) grew up to the host of heaven and caused SOME OF THE HOST and SOME OF THE STARS to fall to the earth, and it TRAMPLED THEM DOWN" (Dan.8:10). The end of the age shall be marked by a falling of the stars of heaven to the earth: "And the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a GREAT WIND" (Rev. 6:13). These are saints who have aspired to heavenly realms in Christ, who have seen and tasted of the goodness of His Spirit, who have glimpsed the vision of His glory and kingdom -- cast down to the earth by great winds of deception, fallen from the truth, walking only in the facile imaginations of their carnal understanding while they suppose themselves to have apprehended some great spiritual depth.

"But the Spirit explicitly says that in latter times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to DECEITFUL SPIRITS and DOCTRINES OF DEMONS by means of the HYPOCRISY OF LIARS seared in their conscience as with a branding iron" (1 Tim.4:1-2). Jesus also forewarns; "For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to MISLEAD, if possible, EVEN THE ELECT" (Mt. 24:24). Satan need not be concerned with the twice-blind religious folk of Babylon's church systems; they are already firmly under his guise. It is the ELECT that he would seek to MISLEAD. It is the stars of heaven that he seeks to ensnare. To mislead is "to lead IN A WRONG DIRECTION or into a MISTAKEN BELIEF, often by DELIBERATE DECEIT" (Webster's Dictionary). There could be no more fitting a description of the dragon's stratagem. He is, indeed, leading many in the wrong direction, diverting their vision to self-aggrandizing fantasies, sidetracking their walk down dead-end paths, all the while convincing them that they are apprehending the hope of their calling in Christ.

Isaiah unmistakably identifies for us the tail of the dragon; "The head is the elder and honorable man and the PROPHET WHO TEACHES FALSEHOOD IS THE TAIL" (Isa.9:15). The tail of the dragon is the false Christ, the one professing an anointing, but seeking only the preeminence of the flesh; it is the false prophet who comes in Jesus' name and proclaims that Jesus is, indeed, the Christ, but through the error of his "deeper truth" misleads many (Mt. 24:5). With the subtle deceit of his "tail bearers," the dragon catches the saints from their blind side and knocks them OUT OF BALANCE, causing them to fall from their heavenly standing, to lose their true spiritual perspective. We are, in this hour, seeing a multitude of out-of-balance teachings being promulgated among the saints by prophets bearing falsehoods. These doctrines masquerade as greater depths of truth and higher spiritual revelations by which believers may apprehend the fullness of God. Their fault lies in the MEANS by which the goal is thought to be obtained, for they espouse the preeminence of the SELF rather than the lordship of Christ Jesus.

One of the most deceptive cancers seething through the church in recent years is the pseudo-spiritual, metaphysical New Age brand of "Christianity" which is gaining wide acceptance. The New Age spirituality has its very roots in humanist philosophy and Eastern mysticism, and is a wholly self-centered religion which pursues only the ultimate exaltation and glorification of man. By the tenets of New Age thought, believers are innocuously encouraged to disdain the deity of Jesus and any thought of an objective salvation through the death and resurrection of the true Lamb of God. One such enlightened soul has written, "We are saved from sin by NOT SINNING! No one can be saved by the SHED BLOOD of any God-man or man-god." Simply put, Christ Jesus is the Savior of no one, the sacrifice of Calvary is a farce, and grace is non-existent; you SAVE YOURSELF by simply NOT SINNING! (Try beating your heroin addiction by just saying "no" when you need your next fix). The writer of those lines, by the way, professes to be a Christian; by whose definition can only be left to the imagination. How, I ask you, can anyone profess to walk in the Faith of Jesus and possibly accept such an absurdity? It is the height of foolish arrogance to think that the carnal man can overcome the sin nature of his carnal flesh through the utility of the carnal soul! No greater a deception could be conceived by the religious, SELF-EXALTING mind of man. This, my friends, is supposedly a "deeper truth"! Those who embrace such falsity can only do so by tearing their Bible to shreds or denying its validity entirely. Wherever you may find teachings that cast doubt upon the divinity of Jesus, the veracity of God's word, or the efficacy of the cross, and lay the burden of salvation and godliness upon the believer, you may be sure beyond a doubt that you have encountered the tail of the dragon.

Other "tail teachings" have believers seeking their own godhood through the inner exaltation of their consciousness to some higher realm of transcendence. The trick here is to simply come into the realization of your identity as a god, and as the creator of your own reality, the undisputed lord and master of your own kingdom. You are also, therefore, your own savior. Still others are embracing the doctrine of reincarnation, perhaps the oldest self-salvation scheme in the dragon's little black book. While some profess their imagined godhood, others declare themselves to be manifested sons, or to already have been translated and to have put on immortality, to be incapable of sinning, or to have attained some other great stature of spirituality.

Regardless how one may pretend to clothe such assertions with the garb of Christianity and with Scriptural rhetoric, the very essence of such aggrandizements remains the CARNAL, SELF-CENTERED SOUL OF THE NATURAL MAN. Here is ANTICHRIST revealed; that which exalts itself in Christ's place and would feign to rule in His stead -- the bloated ego of the SELF. Truly did Jesus state, "He who speaks FROM HIMSELF seeks HIS OWN GLORY; but he who is seeking the glory of the One who sent him, HE IS TRUE" (Jn. 7:18). Jesus did not come making loud pronouncements of His sonship or Godhood; indeed, He even forbade His disciples to reveal Who He was! Jesus came declaring the Father, to glorify the One Who sent Him. When one proclaims himself as having arrived, you may be certain he has not! Those who attain to the fullness of His nature and the manifestation of sonship in this hour will seek neither glory of their own nor the recognition of men. Their only interest will be the exaltation of the MANIFESTED ONE, He in Whose name they have been sent. Whatever your pretenses, that which has your attention and the focus of your vision is that which has your worship.

There is a gross error of vision, a spiritual astigmatism, if you will, being promulgated throughout the church in our day. It is the continual emphasis on what WE SHALL BE rather than on WHO JESUS IS. The vision of the saints is being directed toward the expectation of what great ones WE SHALL BECOME, which is a SELF-CENTERED vision. The fact is WE shall never be ANYTHING until we behold HIM and ONLY HIM in His glorious reality. We shall never attain the hope of our calling by continually concentrating our vision on what WE shall become. We shall only BE as we behold HIM -- AS HE IS. "Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, WHEN HE APPEARS (or is MANIFESTED), we shall be like Him, because WE SHALL SEE HIM JUST AS HE IS" (1 Jn. 3:2). In all things, Jesus alone must be magnified. To magnify is to greatly enlarge, to view with singleness of eye, to direct our undivided attention and concerted vision only upon Him. To repeat the words of John the Baptist, whom Jesus called the greatest prophet ever to have lived, "HE MUST INCREASE, but I MUST DECREASE" (Jn. 3:30). So is the attitude and heart of every true son of God.

Religious self-deception is the most subtle and effective means of diverting the vision of the saints. Be it the ritual religion of the harlot churches, or the pseudo-spiritual higher consciousness of New Age-ism, they are one and all motivated by man's inherent drive to become Godlike through his own self-efforts. Believers who wouldn't think of entertaining the idolatrous abominations of Roman popery will readily shout "Amen" to something just as twisted if presented under the guise of "new truth" and delivered with a charismatic "anointing," never realizing that the source of both deceptions is one and the same -- the carnal serpent of Babylon. That great deceiver has been so successful in his subtle devices because he only has to entice the SELF NATURE of men to win their allegiance. Religion is the friend of the devil and, as Karl Marx rightly observed, the opiate of the masses. Through its delusion men are effectively numbed to any reality of the life or Spirit of God.

This day is the Scripture fulfilled: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day (the day of the Lord) shall not come, except there comes a FALLING AWAY first, and that MAN OF SIN is revealed, the son of perdition, who OPPOSETH and EXALTETH HIMSELF ABOVE ALL THAT IS CALLED GOD, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, SHOWING HIMSELF THAT HE IS GOD...Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all DECEIVABLENESS OF UNRIGHTEOUSNESS in them that perish; BECAUSE THEY RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH, that they might be saved. And for this cause GOD SHALL SEND THEM STRONG DELUSION (or a working of deceit), THAT THEY SHOULD BELIEVE A LIE" (2 Thes. 2:3-11). You who have envisioned ANTICHRIST taking his seat in the temple of God need look no further. His spirit is now full in the earth. He has enthroned himself in the temple of God, cloaked in the deceit of false spirituality, exalting himSELF and proclaiming himSELF to be God. Study, if you will, such teachings as are embodied in the philosophies of Humanism, New Age spirituality, the "Ye Are Gods" doctrine, and other associated beliefs, and you will clearly understand that MAN has established HIMSELF AS GOD!

I am bewildered and distressed that precious saints who have received of His life, who have known the sweetness of His Spirit, and who have tasted of the powers of His kingdom can be so thoroughly duped into believing that they can now finish in the flesh what God has begun in the Spirit. But the one underlying factor evident in all who believe a lie is that they RECEIVED NOT THE LOVE OF THE TRUTH. Truth is not knowledge. Truth is not revelation. Truth is not a mystical experience. TRUTH IS JESUS! He Himself is the REALITY and SUBSTANCE of life. He alone is THE WAY to apprehend the high calling of God. Yet many saints are content to chase after charismatic personalities, experiences of higher consciousness, and "deeper revelations" thinking that in them they will find the reality for which they seek. They have not received a love for He Who is the TRUTH. It is for this cause that God has sent them a STRONG DELUSION, a WORKING OF DECEIT, an ACTIVITY OF ERROR, in order that they may believe a lie. And oh, how thoroughly those who are deceived believe the lie to be the truth! Apart from the merciful deliverance of God and a heart of true repentance, many who have thought to gain the glory of the Son shall suffer great loss in the day of His unveiling; for, "Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and BRING TO AN END by the MANIFESTATION OF HIS PRESENCE" (2 Thes. 2:8). The LAWLESS ONE, the carnal man, and all of his self-conceived glories shall lie down in derision and utterly perish in the presence of the glorious Christ, for his true character shall be revealed, his nature uncovered, by the exposing Light of Truth.

I realize that the things written herein may give rise to offense in those who have embraced the teachings now popular in some circles. Although it is not my intention to deliberately offend, nevertheless, offenses will always arise when error is confronted. I would leave you to contemplate the ironic wisdom of one whose offense at the Truth became the implement of his own destruction:

"A man will contend for a false faith stronger than he will for a true one, from the fact that the truth defends itself; but a falsehood must be defended by its adherents: first, to prove it to themselves, and secondly, that they may appear right in the estimation of their friends."  -- Herod Antipater

 RELIGION OF BONDAGE AND DAMNATION

The centuries following the fall of the ancient Roman empire were, perhaps, the darkest hours known to man in his ages upon the earth; so much so that they have forever been ascribed by historians the title of the Dark Ages. The pall of misery and ignorance which engulfed mankind during that millennium was not accidental in its occurrence, but deliberately imposed by the tyranny of the most diabolical enemy of freedom, liberty, reason, and truth -- RELIGION. The apostate religion first conceived in the dark abyss of Babylon, to which all its adherents were manacled in unquestioning obedience, had seized the opportunity for rebirth -- a religious phoenix rising from the ashes of political Rome; only this present incarnation was to come masquerading as a lamb, under the pretense of holiness and salvation, calling itself by the name of the Savior. Yes, Babylon, that ignominious Mother of Harlots, foul perverter of righteousness and destroyer of the souls of men, was now to profess itself as "Christian," and never was the depth of deception made to be so unfathomable. In that ancient kingdom on the Euphrates it was proclaimed that Baal was god, and so was he openly worshipped in abject idolatry by the priests who bore his name -- Cahna-bal, which is Chaldean for "priest of Baal." (Hence the English transliteration, "cannibal," denoting the flesh-eating rituals engaged in by those priests.) Now, however, the worship of the sun god, the performance of his rituals, the adherence to his superstitions and traditions, and the observance of his idolatrous liturgies were to be hid beneath the veil of faith, superimposed upon the righteous life and redeeming death of God's glorious Son, professed in rank mockery of the sacred Scriptures, and inexorably forced upon every man as surely as if to shackle him in fetters of iron within the darkest of medieval dungeons. The crown of the Caesars had scarcely fallen to the dust ere it was snatched up by the "Pontifex Maximus" of the new, Holy Roman Empire, an empire which, under the auspices of faith, was to spread the cursed blasphemies of Babylon to every corner of the world.

The Word of Life, so freely given to men, and by which all who embrace it are freed from the servitude of sin and death to arise in newness of life, was shut up as if sealed in a coffin, nullified by the imperious weight of traditions, dogmas, doctrines, and insolent decrees of the pope-god of Rome. It was forbidden that a man should dare even to look upon the pages of the Bible lest he discover the immensity of his delusion under the tutorage of his most "holy" church; indeed, the priests of Rome were wont to wrest that sacred book from the hands of any man so fortunate to come into its possession, under threat of excommunication and eternal damnation. It was impermissible that a man should exercise his God-given reason or freedom of conscience, or to seek to his own satisfaction such truth as would set at liberty his impoverished soul, for his church required that he be dead as a corpse to reason, and that he should be given thought or movement only by the Reverend Father to whom he owed the most unwavering obedience, and whose words were, to him, spoken as from the mouth of Christ Himself.

Bound from the days of his childhood by the degradations of the confessional, shamed out of his integrity, dignity, and modesty, he is left to wander in a wilderness of irreconcilable guilt, to be ever drowning in a sea of cyclical sin, condemnation, and penance. Nor can he ever hope that death will bring him freedom from his most anguished state, for though the enviable joys of heaven are dangled before him as a carrot on a stick, the religion to which he is bound has devised for him yet a further torment -- the flames of an inexhaustible purgatory, from which he can be redeemed only by the faithful tribute of the living who must fill the coffers of Rome to offer Masses for his indulgence. His rest will be as elusive in the grave as it is in his earthly sojourn, for the Savior, he is taught, is an unappeasable God of vengeance and indignation, continually wroth at his undeliverable condition, and can be approached only through the vicarious intercession of Rome's "Blessed Virgin" or the plenitude of her "saints". Such is the state of the hapless Romanist; yoked from cradle to grave with the condemnation of his sin, always kept uncertain as to the security of his soul, enslaved to a perpetuity of penance and works in a futile effort at self-atonement in the hope that these will add something toward his merit with God; bound to the obedience of such doctrine and dogma as would certainly astound even the ancient Chaldean priests, burdened under so great a weight of law by which neither priest nor pope can abide, deprived of any grace or peace except that which may dribble from the lips of his father confessor; and that the snare of his soul may be perpetually ensured, he is denied access to the only One Whose blessed name alone is given among men by which they must be saved.

Intolerable to any and all who might oppose or question her decrees, the tyranny of Rome ruled the nations with a rod of iron, often heated molten hot to put out the eyes or scorch the tongues of those "heretics" so bold as to exercise the liberty of their conscience or breathe a word in question to Rome's nefarious dictates. Kings did not ascend thrones except they did so with the papal blessing, and the reverend confessors assigned to those royal courts served well to subjugate the power of the temporal to that of the ecclesiastical. Unto herself did Rome appropriate the right to make all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, a right which she has yet to relinquish. A Roman Catholic writer of barely a century ago has penned the telling words, "The power of the church exercised over sovereigns in the middle ages was not a usurpation, was not derived from the concessions of princes or the consent of the people, but WAS and IS held by divine right, and whoso resists it rebels against the King of kings and Lord of lords." And what, we may inquire, might be the fate of such who RESIST the divinely sanctioned right of so holy and pious an institution to so exclusively govern the affairs of men? We have it from the mouth of one Tamburini, General of the Jesuits: "It is of faith that the Pope has the right of deposing heretical and rebel kings. Monarchs so deposed by the Pope are converted into notorious tyrants, and may be killed by the first who can reach them. If the public cause cannot meet with its defense in the death of a tyrant, it is lawful for the first who arrives to assassinate him." How very benevolent! To be a king, therefore, meant also to be the facile puppet of the Pope, for to be otherwise was the sentence of death.

Likewise, there was no education to be had among the institutions of learning save the church provide it. Through the articulation of her able prelates the intelligence of men was reduced to its lowest plane, never permitted to rise above the intellectual horizon of the Supreme Pontiff of Rome, yet thoroughly imbued with the cunningly devised fables that would forever assure its function only as an automaton of the church, thinking as she thinks, speaking as she speaks. Every school child knows that one of the greatest discoveries ever to advance the understanding of science was made by the astronomer, Galileo; namely, that the earth is not the center of the universe, as had been commonly held, but that it, along with all the other planets of the solar system, revolve around the sun. But how many of those young scholastic minds are made also to realize that on the 22nd of June, 1663, Galileo was forced to fall on his knees in order to escape the cruel death to which he was to be condemned by the order of Pope Urban VIII, and sign with his own hand an unequivocal retraction of the discovery he knew to be fact? Under pain of death it was forbidden that one of the great scientific minds of that day should postulate such a heresy, for the infallible Pope of Rome had declared it to be otherwise! The infallible decree of the infallible Pope had declared such a notion to be "philosophically false, and erroneous in faith." What a glorious thing for the infallible Pope to infallibly know that the earth does not revolve around the sun! And what a blessed thing that Roman Catholics should be taught and governed by such an infallible being! Rightly have those centuries of light-extinguishing bondage been christened the DARK Ages!

If the minds and souls of men could not be sufficiently held in her grip through the instrumentality of her theology, her confessionals, and her papal bulls, there was devised yet a more wicked and infamous form of coercion -- the Inquisition. The pages of history drip crimson with the blood of hundreds of thousands who, through no fault other than that of resisting the savage yoke of Rome, were put to the rack, burned at the stake, and suffered the most unspeakable horrors at the hands of the Dominican inquisitors, all with the blessing of the popes and for the "glory of God." Through the period of some five centuries did this blasphemous woman who is seated upon a scarlet beast seek out and exterminate all whom she considered "heretics." The blood of the Albigenses, the Waldenses, the Hugenots, and all such despised Protestants cry from the ground for vengeance and justice against the great harlot of Babylon. "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly" (Rev.17:6). And lest the reader suppose that modern Rome is greatly reformed in her character, one has only to investigate her role in the slaughter of the Serbians, Croatians, Orthodox believers, Jews, and other European ethnics by the millions under the banner of the swastika during the war of nations barely three quarters of a century distant; a war envisioned as the final great Inquisition by which Europe would again be restored to her absolute dictatorship. Hitler was Rome's boy.

To what depths of intrigue, what schemes of treachery, will this mother of modern Christendom stoop to spread her scourge of religious bondage to every nation of the earth? To revolutions and wars? To the deprivation of liberty, freedom, justice, equality, and the common reason given to every man? To the infiltration of every religious, political, social, and educational institution founded in the name and cause of liberty? Yea, this and more! Even to the shores of America, ordained as the last great bastion of Christian freedom, has her carnage come. Ponder with diligence the words of one of America's finest sons: "There is a fact which is too much ignored by the American people, and with which I am acquainted only since I became President; it is that the best, the leading families of the South have received their education in great part, if not in whole, from the Jesuits and the nuns. Hence those degrading principles of slavery, pride, cruelty, which are as a second nature among so many of those people. Hence that strange want of fair play, humanity; that implacable hatred against the ideas of equality and liberty as we find them in the Gospel of Christ. You do not ignore that the first settlers of Louisiana, Florida, New Mexico, Texas, South Carolina, and Missouri were Roman Catholics, and that their first teachers were Jesuits. It is true that those states have been conquered or bought by us since. But Rome had put the deadly virus of her anti-social and anti-Christian maxims into the veins of the people before they became American citizens. Unfortunately, the Jesuits and the nuns have in great part remained the teachers of those people since. They have continued in a silent, but most efficacious way, to spread their hatred against our institutions, our laws, our schools, our rights and our liberties in such a way that this horrible conflict became unavoidable between the North and the South. As I told you before, IT IS TO POPERY THAT WE OWE THIS TERRIBLE CIVIL WAR." These were the words spoken by the noblest of American Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, who was himself soon to be felled by the bullet of his Roman Catholic assassin, John Wilkes Booth.

Yes, "it is of faith that the Pope has the right of deposing heretical and rebel kings." Such notorious tyrants "may be killed by the first who can reach them".

Such assertions as have been here presented may undoubtedly appear intemperate, redoubtable, and unbelievable to the great majority of present-day believers, particularly those who have had no previous knowledge or encounter with the precepts of the religion of popery. They are not meant as a degradation of the millions of souls who so sincerely adhere to Roman Catholicism, believing it to be truth; but the sordid history of this "one, universal, catholic, and apostolic church" is an open book, available for the examination and scrutiny of all who have eyes with which to read, and cannot be casually tossed aside. It is not in my purpose to add to the condemnations which Rome has thus far heaped unto herself, however it is necessary that the reader of these lines have at least some grasp of the momentous influence which that religious empire on the Tiber has imbued into the thinking and mentality of present-day believers, and which has saturated the doctrines, teachings, traditions, and observances of modern Christendom.

The posture of twentieth century Christianity was more toward conciliation and compromise with the Vatican, rather than in the exposing of her errors, and so she would have it. Rome's modern gospel of ecumenism is intended for Protestant consumption in order that the religion of Babylon may be made more palatable, colored with Christian hues of love and unity. Though nonetheless considered heretics to whom all the vehement anathemas of the Council of Trent yet apply, believers of the non-Catholic persuasions are now referred to as "separated brethren." Where the Dominicans once won allegiance to the Pope with rack and stake, the Jesuits have made far greater strides with the "fifth column" strategy; that great successes have been won in Rome's efforts to disguise her past, exonerate her name, and meld herself into the mainstream of modern Christendom, with the intent of absorbing the faithful of every sect again into her fold, is worthy of note (as the bumper sticker which enjoins the separated brethren to "Come back home"). It must be remembered that she carried her banner well during the Charismatic renewal of the 1970s. Why, it was said that the Pope had received the "baptism of the Spirit" and spoke in tongues! And the Church seemingly had no problem with Charismatic Catholics speaking in tongues out of one corner of their mouth while praying to Mary out the other. The twenty-first century has now been witness to the universal adulation of the first rock star "super pope," Francis, lending new vitality and acceptance to the one, true, universal church. You know you have arrived when you get your mug shot on the cover of Rolling Stone.

While rejecting Rome's more overtly arrogant and ridiculous claims and teachings, it is not surprising that Protestantism should so readily accept many of her traditional tenets of "faith," for they are, in reality, both of one harlot. It must be realized that Babylon is not a denomination, per se, or an organization, but a SPIRIT, a parasitic blotch in the hearts and minds of men which will embody itself in the "man of sin" and exalt itself to the throne of God regardless of the religious persuasion to which men may subscribe. Babylon may perhaps be better defined as the Mother of Religion, for religion is that pseudo-spiritual invention of men which is, itself, the great harlotry of the world, seducing mankind with an empty FORM of godliness, while containing nothing of the substance of real spirituality. Apostate religion was born in Babylon, and Romanism, the Christianized mutation of ancient Chaldean Baal worship, is the vehicle through which that original apostasy has colored the spiritual vision of the millions who today identify themselves as Christians.

Already we have seen how that all of Christendom unwittingly bows before the image of Babylon annually on the 25th of December in celebration of the rebirth of her sun-god. Given to us with a Christian flavor by the genius of Rome, the observance of Christmas is universally considered the most sacred, holy, and joyful event of the Christian calendar, despite the fact that its pagan origins are common knowledge. We have been likewise compelled to observe the spring fertility festival of the Chaldeans under the pretense of commemorating the resurrection of Jesus. Though Bible believing Christians may be loath to admit it, it is nonetheless true that Romanism has preserved in their identical form and passed down to us the liturgies of Baal; namely, the annual observance of the birth, death, burial, and resurrection of the sun-god, which are today commonly accepted as legitimate commemorations of the life of Christ.

Jesuitical ingenuity has created for us the dispensational and futuristic interpretations of the Scriptures, sending every "heretic" theologian on a wild goose chase in search of "the antichrist," and assigning the coming of the Lord to some future celestial event. Perhaps the greatest doctrinal diversion by which Roman deception has sidetracked the vision of the true church and defrauded her of a clear understanding of her purpose in God, is in the teaching of a Secret Rapture. The Roman origin of this modern-day ruse goes virtually undetected; so thoroughly has it been absorbed as a tenet of faith that it is hailed as the "blessed hope" of the believer.

Nowhere is the delusion of Rome's religion more pronounced, however, than in the Christian imagery of judgment and hell, and in the outright acceptance of her most insidious scheme to rob men of their confidence in Christ, degrade and pervert the holy nature of God, and nullify the work of redemption -- the doctrine of eternal damnation. The hope of Catholicism is nothing more than a perpetual abyss of purgatorial flames, from which there can be no deliverance apart from the generous and continual bribery of the priests by the relatives of the deceased, in the expectation that by a plethora of Masses having been offered on his behalf, the poor, suffering soul may at last make atonement for his sins, and obtain the merit required to enter that blissful paradise called heaven. Should the required atonement fall short, the unfortunate soul is hopelessly doomed to his punishment, forever consigned to the raging inferno of hell, there to be tormented in flames throughout eternity, thus satisfying the wrath of a merciless God. By such doctrine the conciliatory work of Calvary is transformed into a ridiculous mockery, the efficacy of the Savior is reduced to a meaningless ruse, and the infinitely abounding grace of God by which the free gift of life is given unto all men is made null and void. All who subscribe to such a belief would be truer to their "faith" by worshipping Moloch, the god of fire, as did the pagans of Babylon, whose vengeance and wrath with mankind could be appeased only by the continual sacrificing of human flesh in the flaming bowels of his graven stone image.

Aside from providing a rich and inexhaustible source of revenue for the church, the continual fear of never-ending damnation is without rival in its ability to chain the Pope's adherents to his interminable yoke of bondage; for while claiming to be the sole repository of the salvation of men, never does the Roman church offer any assurance that that salvation is at any time attainable by the believer, or even that the poor soul will ever gain his release from purgatory. Thus, the Catholic faithful serve the precepts of their church as "those who through fear of death (are) subject to slavery all their lives" (Heb. 2:15).

While true Christianity rejects the absurdity of purgatory and affirms that "BY GRACE YOU HAVE BEEN SAVED THROUGH FAITH; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; NOT AS A RESULT OF WORKS (nor indulgences and penance), that no one should boast" (Eph.2:8-9), the religions of Christendom have, nonetheless, retained the pagan image of God as a wrathful, vindictive, merciless despot disposed to tormenting for eternity all that refuse His salvation. If the religion of the pagans effectively denies men access to the grace of God and feeds them fantastic lies of their fate beyond the grave, the harlot churches of Christendom do little better. In either case, salvation is obtainable only by an elite few; in paganism, the priests of the craft; in Christianity, those who have made a "decision for Jesus" (or maybe it's just the 144,000). The remaining throngs of unsubmissive humanity are relegated to an unrelenting, irrevocable damnation in a hellish abyss of eternal anguish.

The simple, yet glorious TRUTH of the Gospel, however, is that "God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that THE WORLD SHOULD BE SAVED THROUGH HIM" (Jn. 3:17). Either "God was in Christ reconciling THE WORLD to Himself" (1 Cor. 5:19), or He was not. Either "Christ also died for sins once FOR ALL, the just for the unjust, in order that He might bring us to God" (Hb.3:18), or His propitiatory death upon Calvary's tree was a cruel, sadistic hoax. Either Jesus spoke the truth in saying, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, WILL DRAW ALL MEN to Myself" (Jn. 12:32), or He lied. Either Paul wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, "For as in Adam ALL DIE, so also in Christ shall ALL BE MADE ALIVE" (1 Cor. 15:22), or he wrote in error. And either the command spoken by the mouth of God Himself, saying, "Turn to Me and be saved, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH; for I am God, and there is no other. I have sworn by Myself, the word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness and will not turn back, that to Me EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, EVERY TONGUE WILL SWEAR" (Isa.45:22-23), must be obeyed by ALL the ends of the earth, or God is incapable of fulfilling His word, your Bible is therefore a lie, and your faith is in vain.

The irrefutable TRUTH contained within the pages of Holy Writ is that God "wills that ALL MEN SHOULD BE SAVED and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Tim. 2:4). God does not merely desire it, or hope for it, or wish for it -- God WILLS IT! Believers seem to have no trouble accepting the fact that God calls into existence those things which are not; He WILLED that there be light, and it was so; He WILLED that there be a heaven and an earth, and it was. He Who laid the foundations of the earth, divided the light from the darkness, and ordered the boundaries of the universe has yet to speak a word that is not brought to pass entirely in accordance with His WILL. If God WILLS, therefore, that all men are to be saved, and furthermore COMMANDS that all the ends of the earth obey His will, who art thou, oh man, to declare that it cannot be?

One would think that so glorious and liberating a truth would be shouted from the housetops and proclaimed from the pulpits, setting men free from the bondage of their religious slavery which continually holds the threat of damnation over them like a sword of Damocles. Men will, rather, vehemently protest the straightforward Word of God to defend their doctrine of "faith," confine the love and grace of God only to "whosoever wills," and by their sacred dogma proclaim a Savior Who is unable or unwilling to fully redeem THE WORLD for which He gave His life. The truth that God will have ALL MEN to be saved is so fiercely opposed by men steeped in the traditions of religion, for to entertain such a thought would require the complete dismantling of their entire religious belief system. Would to God that it was so! How long will the vain imagery of the religion of bondage and damnation prevent men from ever perceiving the magnitude of God's redeeming grace unto all men of all ages, reduce the unalterable command of an omnipotent God to the choosing of men, and mollify the completed work of reconciliation secured by the death and resurrection of His Son?

Let all who persist in holding to such fantasy now take their scissors in hand and commence to cut from the pages of their Bibles such verses as do not conform to their doctrine. You may begin with 1 John 2:2: "And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and NOT FOR OURS ONLY, BUT ALSO FOR THOSE OF THE WHOLE WORLD." If the overwhelming majority of unregenerate mankind is to be forever discarded to the hell of lost souls, then this verse is a blatant lie and may be stricken from your Bible. Likewise Romans 5:18-19: "So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of RIGHTEOUSNESS there resulted JUSTIFICATION OF LIFE TO ALL MEN. For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One THE MANY WILL BE MADE RIGHTEOUS." If the propitiatory death of Jesus failed to fulfill all righteousness and is incapable of bringing all men into justification of life, then Jesus cannot be "the Savior of ALL MEN" as 1 Timothy 4:10 proclaims Him to be; He can only be the Savior of a few, and then hardly a Savior at all, for His righteous act of obedience was a dismal failure. So also may 1 Corinthians 15:22 end up on the cutting floor: "For as in Adam ALL DIE, so also in Christ ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE"; for if ALL MEN dead in Adam are NOT made alive in Christ Jesus, then the Apostle spoke an egregious error! And there are another hundred verses or so that proclaim the same falsehood. There won't be much left of your Bible once we get done.

The doctrines of religion will concede that Jesus took upon Himself the sin of the world, and that He died for all men, but will in the same breath deny that the justification for sin wrought by that sacrifice can ever be effectuated unto THE MANY for whom He was the propitiation; although He died for the sins of the world, they will contend, His gift is extended only to "whosoever will" may choose by their own "free will" to receive it.

The churches of modern Babylon prepare men only to die. Religion skillfully wields the threat of death to coerce the multitudes into her clutches, then keeps them secure in her bosom by the continual preaching of sin condemnation and flesh consciousness. Whatever hope they may have in the Lord, they are taught, lies beyond the grave and can never be apprehended in this present life. Here they will have only the continual affliction of the devil, the constant, unwinnable struggle to overcome their flesh, and the ever-present fear of damnation should their walk be less than "Christ-like." The shallow teachings of the Christianity of Babylon do no more than the Catholic confessionals in keeping men bound to the unbroken cycle of sin, condemnation, and repentance, presenting for the consolation of its adherents the pious excuse that "we'll never be perfect in this life." Rare, indeed, is the believer who rises above the "sinner saved by grace" mentality to lay hold of the REALITY of LIFE, VICTORY, and DELIVERANCE resident within by the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ. Religion keeps men beaten down and defeated, wallowing in an undeliverable quagmire of sin-consciousness and self-condemnation. For all too many the Christian walk is a tightrope act where one misstep sends them again "backsliding" into the depths of condemnation and despair. Religion has erected for them an image of "Christlikeness" and doles out condemnation to all whom, despite their most fervent efforts, fail to make the grade. Their hope for victory and deliverance is therefore placed in some instantaneous transformation "in the twinkling of an eye" when Jesus returns to rapture their wretched lives from destruction. The thinking of the saints has been so thoroughly drenched with the "when we all get to heaven" syndrome, that they will be "dying daily" for the rest of their lives, never coming to know the victory of LIFE that has made them free from sin and death.

Jesus came that we might have LIFE, and that we might enter into its reality and fullness NOW, not that we might resign ourselves to the defeatist sin and condemnation mentality continually ground into our thinking by lifeless religion. Let every soul who cherishes the free gift of salvation know with unwavering certainty that CHRIST IS LIFE, and that the Christ Life now resident in every redeemed saint is the fullness and power of God to effectually eradicate sin and death, lifting its yoke of condemnation, freeing men to walk in the nature of the NEW CREATION made in the likeness of the Last Adam. Let the dead bury the dead! We are now numbered among the LIVING!

To proclaim Christ is to proclaim LIFE. To walk in Christ is to walk in liberty and victory, no longer shackled to the dead precepts of bondage and condemnation. To live in Christ is to abide in the REALITY of HIMSELF, and that reality far transcends the vain imagery and shallow substitutions of Babylon's religion to behold the substance of Truth. If ever we are to be like Him, then we must see Him and know Him AS HE IS, rather than through the Romish-colored theology of man's church systems. "And they sang a NEW SONG before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders; and no one could learn the song except the one hundred and forty-four thousand who had been purchased from the earth" (Rev. 14:3). Blessed Day! We are learning a NEW SONG! We are receiving a NEW NAME (that is, a new NATURE) which no one can know except he who receives it! We are learning to FOLLOW THE LAMB withersoever He goeth! Hear His voice, chosen ones. Rise up and shake off the dust of this earthy realm, and set your vision on greater things. God is moving in a new way for a new day; He beckons us upward!

HELL, FIRE, AND BRIMSTONE

"And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, 'Lord, wilt thou that we COMMAND FIRE to come down from heaven AND CONSUME THEM, even as Elias did?' But He turned and rebuked them, and said, 'YE KNOW NOT WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT YE ARE OF. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, BUT TO SAVE THEM." (Lk. 9: 54-56)

What a graphic illustration of the self-righteous religious vengeance inherent in the hell, fire, and brimstone doctrines of Christendom! As the disciples, incensed because others that were not among the followers of Jesus were observed casting out demons in His name, religious Christianity has drawn the circumference of acceptable doctrine, inscribed the boundaries of divine mercy and grace, and committed all who do not follow into everlasting consumption by fire. This fate, imposed upon untold billions of unregenerate souls who have had the misfortune of never having "accepted" the salvation of Christ, is perceived as the righteousness and justice of a loving God, Who, although giving the life of His very Son for the reconciliation of ALL MEN is either unable or unwilling to bring to completion the purpose of His grace.

The salvation of man, we are told, is now in the power of his own "free will"; man has the ability to choose his own destiny. In his self-righteous arrogance man declares his "free will" to be so absolutely autonomous of the perfect counsel of his Creator that God would literally move heaven and earth before He would interfere with man's sovereign volition. God has offered man the provision of His grace, we are instructed; He can do no more. If a man willfully refuses the invitation of the Savior, God is rendered powerless to save that one, and has no choice but to damn the ungrateful infidel to an eternity of torment in the blazing inferno of hell. Thus, with a "serves them right" attitude does the Christianity of Babylon preach the "believe or burn" gospel, calling down fire and damnation on all who will not follow according to the established creed.

Religious minds somehow derive a sense of justice and satisfaction from the thought of numberless billions of human souls forever writhing in the most excruciating of horrors, from which there is to be no alleviation or mercy. Some go so far as to teach that one of the greatest JOYS of the believer will be in looking upon the tormented damned as their cries of terror fall upon the deaf ears of the Almighty. "You had your chance to accept My redemption and to believe on Christ Jesus, My Son," He will sternly rebuke, "But now it is too late. Your well-deserved torment will now be meted out without measure, heaped upon you in waves of horror, grief, and anguish for as long as eternity shall stand." By what demented reasoning do men relish such a fate for unrepentant souls, yet profess to believe in a God of love, mercy, and forgiveness?

"But God is a righteous and just God," one will surely protest, "and can do naught but give the unbelieving their just reward. If men have refused so great a salvation as God has freely given, then they deserve every moment of torment that has been reserved for them." To see that the damned get DAMNED is every bit as important to the sermonizers of religion as to see that the saved get SAVED.

To all such we would declare along with the Lord Jesus, "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of!" For those who are of a spirit that would cast the unbelieving into an eternity of vindictive torment have yet to understand that "the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives BUT TO SAVE THEM!"

My friends, it is my supreme joy to tell you that I do not serve such a God! I know no such God from the pages of Scripture, nor do I know such a God by the life of the Spirit. Such "righteousness" and "justice" as is demonstrated by this sort of thinking is merely that of MEN, not that of God; for men have ascribed unto God the same vindictive brand of justice as they themselves possess. In their carnal religiosity, men unwittingly proclaim that Calvary's sacrifice is INSUFFICIENT, that God's righteousness has NOT BEEN SATISFIED, that the precious blood of the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world, is INEFFECTUAL in destroying sin and death and in procuring the justification of all men. Fittingly, the Catholic Church still has Him hanging on the Crucifix. (Don't worry; they'll resurrect Him on Easter).

The idea of purgatory, the state of the dead where men are purified or "purged" in the flames of the underworld is as old as religion itself. Worship of the fire god, Moloch, was integral to the Chaldean Mysteries of Baal worship dating back to the kingdom of Babylon. Moloch was appeased only by the sacrifice of human flesh cast into the blazing bowels of his graven image. Religions in every nation and culture have some variation of a place of judgment into which the soul of man is cast upon death, there to languish and suffer until if, by chance, he may reach a higher level of purification or transcendence, though never having any assurance of his escape therefrom.

The threat of eternal damnation serves religion well; the fear factor, as in any form of tyranny, is instrumental in the control and subjugation of the faithful. And the ruse can be very profitable. During the centuries of the Dark Ages, when the common man was forbidden to even possess a Bible or dare to think of his own reason apart from the counsel of his father confessor, the Roman Catholic Church filled the coffers of the Vatican selling indulgences, credit for "good time," as it were, from the fate of damnation. The indulgence sellers of Roman popery would ride into town displaying images of Satan tormenting suffering souls in purgatory, eliciting the generous contributions of the fearful faithful toward the alleviating of their certain fate. To this day, the families and relatives of the Catholic deceased pay the church for frequent indulgence Masses to be offered for the supposed liberation of the departed soul from purgatory, although there does not exist the priest, bishop, cardinal, or pope who can say when that might be. Religion makes good money off of eternal damnation.

The denominations of Christianity have been all too complicit in adopting the apostate precepts of their Roman Mother of Harlots. The imagery of hell, with the specter of a satanic devil orchestrating the never-ending torment of the un-savable is always a sermon well received (makes for a good altar call), and accepted as an "article of faith" of the religion that calls itself by the name of the Savior.

The religions of Christendom have retained a firm belief in the eternal damnation of unrepentant souls. The pagan image of God as a wrathful, vindictive, merciless despot disposed to tormenting for eternity all that refuse His salvation is indelibly etched in the religious thinking of multitudes who profess the Faith of Jesus. Indeed, the gross misconception of many is that the foremost purpose and benefit of their "decision for Jesus" is the assurance of "going to heaven" to escape the prospect of hell fire; and the "blessed hope" of rapture is their "fire escape." The "believe or burn" mentality of popular Christianity makes no allowance for the operation of God's grace beyond the present age, and even goes Catholicism one better; the "Christian" doctrine skips the purgatorial interlude and sends the unrepentant wretch straight to hell! Better answer that altar call.

The doctrine of eternal damnation so denigrates the true nature of an omnipotent, all-sovereign God Who is faithful to perform ALL of His Word, and so thoroughly negates the work of His exponential, ever-abounding grace, as to present the single greatest hindrance to the vision of the believer in ever perceiving the magnitude of God's redemption and reconciliation to ALL men throughout all ages. Their God is not that big. His grace ends at death. Black and white. Done deal. Hope you made the right decision.

How the Dark Ages yet veil the understanding! How men have denigrated the finished work of Calvary, the reconciliation of all creation, as they have sought to form God after the likeness of their religious theology. The doctrines of religion dispense grace by the thimble-full only to "whosoever will," and bring it to a screeching halt at the end of the age when we all "get to heaven." Thereafter, it is forever relegated to some dusty volume in the celestial archives, a museum piece to be viewed despairingly by every wretched soul consigned to the flaming inferno of hell that refused their "chance" to come to Christ. Thank God it will not be so! 

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So what does your Bible have to say about hell? Let's take a closer look.

There are actually four different words, one Hebrew and three Greek, which are translated "hell" in the Authorized Version. The Hebrew word sheol means "the place of the dead," referring to the state, the realm, or the habitation of the dead, rather than the literal grave in which the body is buried. It is derived from the root shael which by implication means "to request, to demand." Sheol is, therefore, that realm beyond this earthly life which draws and beckons all men to the final inescapable conclusion of all flesh, the estate of death.

Sheol is quite often used in a figurative manner to describe the perils and anguish encountered in life. In calling upon the Lord to deliver him from his enemies, David intoned, "The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of destruction terrified me. The cords (or restraints) of SHEOL surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me" (Ps. 18: 4-5). Again in Psalm 86:13 he testifies, "For Thy lovingkindness toward me is great and Thou hast delivered my soul from the depths of SHEOL." The Psalmist had obviously not gone to hell, but had been profoundly distressed by his adversaries and delivered from them by the hand of God.

Solomon, in his wisdom, wrote concerning the duty of disciplining a child, "You shall smite him with the rod and deliver his soul from SHEOL" (Pr. 23:14). Not that the rod of correction will save the child from burning forever in hell fire, but the loving CORRECTION of a father will turn the child from the error of his ways, and instruct him in the path of righteousness, perhaps sparing him many foolish and needless agonies in the course of life.

Jonah, also, was overtaken by distress at the hand of the Lord, and in his state of torment cried from the belly of the fish, "I cried for help from the depth of SHEOL; Thou didst hear my voice" (Jonah 2:2). God had most certainly delivered him into Sheol, a state of utter terror and anguish, until the repentant Jonah was made willing to honor the Lord with obedience. God heard his cry for deliverance and commanded the fish to vomit Jonah upon dry land from whence he went to prophesy against the wickedness of Nineveh.

The Greek word tartaroo appears only once in the New Testament in 2 Peter 2:4. As rendered in the Concordant Literal translation, "For if God spared not the sinning messengers, but thrusting them into the gloomy caverns of Tartarus, gives them up to be kept for chastening (and) judging." The thought is one of confinement, incarceration, restraint; a condition in which apostates are held, reserved for final judgment, much as a prisoner is held captive in a jail awaiting the day of his trial.

The word gehenna occurs eleven times in the New Testament, and is the transliteration of the Hebrew Gai' Hinnom referring to the Valley of Hinnom outside the walls of Jerusalem, where the fires through which the children of Israel were made to pass in the worship of Moloch burned day and night. In our Lord's day the idolatry had ceased, but the fires were still continually burning there for the destruction of the refuse of Jerusalem. Hence, gehenna was used in a metaphorical sense denoting the fires of destruction associated with the judgment of God; a subject which we shall examine shortly. What is significant is that those described as having Gehenna as their judgment are not the unregenerate of the world, but the UNRIGHTEOUS AMONG GOD'S PEOPLE. In denouncing the self-righteous religious hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees Jesus proclaimed, "Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of Gehenna as yourselves. You serpents, you brood of vipers; how shall you escape the judgment of Gehenna?" (Mt.23:15, 33). (Let the proselytizers of religion take heed!)

The Apostle James writes concerning the wickedness that proceeds from the heart of man, "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. Behold how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! The tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our existence, and is set on fire by Gehenna" (James 3:5-6). The fires of Gehenna are kindled in the midst of God's people to consume the refuse of carnality and flesh from their lives, to purge them from the wood, hay, and stubble that they may be refined as pure silver, that out of the fire of His judgment may emerge One like unto the Son of God, the pure gold of His nature. Here the fire is not quenched, the worm dieth not, until all that is refuse and waste within God's holy city is consumed.

Lastly, the Greek word hades is used eleven times in the New Testament, and is  rendered "hell" in the King James in every passage except one, where it is rendered "grave" (1 Cor. 15:55). Thus hades is the word most often associated in the minds of believers with the place of the damned. In the essence of its meaning, however, it refers only to the unseen or hidden realm into which the dead depart. Hades is the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew Sheol as can be seen in Acts 2:27 and 31 as the writer quotes from the Hebrew text of Psalm 16:8-11: "?Because Thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades (Sheol in the Hebrew), nor allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay'…He (the Psalmist) looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that 'He was neither abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh suffer decay.'" Although having been laden with centuries of development in which the word has acquired new senses, meanings, and usages, we have no liberty to assign to it any meaning other than that of its Scriptural usage. It is derived from the Greek aides; the prefix "a" is akin to the English "un" and the stem "id" means "perceive." Thus we have "unperceived" or "imperceptible." Our English word "hell" comes from the Anglo-Saxon "helle" or "helan," meaning a hidden place. In parts of England men still say, "I plan to hell my potatoes," meaning to store them in a pit or hole. Hades is, therefore, the unseen realm, that state of being which cannot be tangibly perceived or explained by the natural eye. To believe and teach that only the damned go to Hades is to misrepresent the implication of the word, for ALL WHO DIE go to Hades, the unseen, imperceptible world of the departed.

Given the extent of Catholic doctrinal corruption still so prevalent in the minds of the translators of the 1611 King James Bible, and the imagery of hell so inculcated in their belief system, it is little wonder that the pagan concoction of purgatory would be carried over into the reformed church and passed down through the Authorized Version to modern Christendom. The doctrine of hell has been embellished as the domain of Satan, the modern incarnation of the fire-god, Moloch; and Satan himself has been exalted to the stature of a once-mighty archangel, "Lucifer," now cast out of heaven into the pit of hell, a notion borrowed from John Milton's 1667 work of fiction Paradise Lost. The idea stuck, and with the misapplication of a verse or two of Scripture, it is now proclaimed as "truth" to the gullible masses. It would appear that Christianity's sacred article of faith is, in reality, pure myth and fantasy born out of pagan tradition and Christian fiction.

We need not relegate hell to the afterlife, however, for men need not "go to hell" to find the chains of darkness they so fear; a man's hell is much closer than that. Look upon the drug addict and the alcoholic and you will see one held captive in hell's unrelenting grip. Hell's torment is manifested in the demented, insatiable lust of the rapist, the psychopathic serial killer, the rage of the abusive spouse, the inhumanity of the child abuser, the senseless violence of terrorism and murder that man visits upon his own kind; men given wholly to the depravity and wickedness of the carnal heart, held as caged beasts in Tartaroo, as it were, reserved unto the day of judgment. Millions of lives are held captive in hell's torment, ever constraining the life of man to walk in the precepts of death until the day when he shall be inexorably compelled to possess the reality of that state of Hades in which he has dwelt all the days of his life. The insatiable fires kindled within the dross of the flesh rage incessantly, ever seeking fulfillment and gratification, and finding none, for "Hell and destruction are never full (lit. satisfied)" (Pr. 27:20).

A long-time friend and Brother of mine, now passed, knew all about hell; he had been there and came back to tell the story. For many years of his life he found himself engulfed in the terror and darkness of Sheol, bound in drug and alcohol addiction. Twice, he should have been dead. He had known the Lord since his teenage years, and despite the shackles of death in which he walked, never lost sight of Jesus for very long. Oh, how he implored God to deliver him from the hands of his enemies! Having tried rehab on three separate occasions, and having relapsed three times, each one worse than the last, he knew the dark shrouds of Hades would be only one needle away. But defeat had never been in God's purpose; for the Son of man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to SAVE THEM! He found victory in Alcoholics Anonymous and the hyper-super-abounding grace of the Faith of Jesus. Oh, how God is so fully capable of delivering the damned from the depths of hell! He was clean and sober and walking in the fullness of Life for more than a dozen years when the Lord said, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." 

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 The dogma of religion renders a great disservice to correctly discerning the truth that the Scriptures seek to reveal. Indeed, our reading of the text is grossly skewed and twisted into knots when studied through the error of vision so vigorously promulgated in the doctrine of hell.

For instance, I could never quite figure out why, if every unbelieving sinner is cast eternally into hell at the moment of death, that "death and HELL delivered up the dead which were in them; and they were judged every man according to his works…And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20: 13, 15). If the unregenerate go immediately to the eternal damnation of hell at the time of death, what is the sense or purpose of delivering them up once again to stand before Him Who sits upon the great white throne? Dredge them up from the depths of hell fire where they may have already been burning in torment for untold centuries, so that their judgment of damnation might be reiterated from the mouth of the Almighty (as if it had not yet been made "official"), thereupon only to be cast once AGAIN into the same hellish judgment for the rest of eternity! Twice damned! Furthermore, if the lake of fire is, as the preachers of modern Babylon are wont to proclaim, hell itself, then the Scripture presents a most perplexing enigma; for we are told that "death and HELL were cast into the lake of fire" (Rev. 20:14). Not only are the damned regurgitated from hell only to be delivered thence a second time, but we have HELL being cast into HELL! Not only is such a scenario laughably absurd, it is not at all what the Word of God declares. A reasonable sense of the Scripture can be had by simply rendering "hell" in its true meaning, as does the New American Standard translation: "And death and HADES (the unseen realm) gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one according to their deeds. And death and HADES (the imperceptible state of the dead) were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death."

We would note three things that now become readily evident: Firstly, that the dead are delivered up for judgment from out of the unseen, imperceptible realm of the dead - HADES - not from "hell"; secondly, that both death in its literal, physical effect, and HADES, the realm in which the dead abide, are to be cast into the lake of fire, for death remains the last enemy to be destroyed (1 Cor. 15:26); and thirdly, that the effect of the lake of fire upon death and Hades is the second death. The Scripture explicitly states that death and Hades cast into the lake of fire IS THE SECOND DEATH; conversely, therefore, the second death IS death and Hades cast into the lake of fire. And while many will be quick to parrot the accepted belief that the second death, or the lake of fire, is that ultimate, final, eternal death which awaits the unbeliever in hell, the Scripture overtly opposes such thinking. There is coming a day when death itself will CEASE TO EXIST. John saw that day at the revelation of the new Jerusalem, the Holy City which is the habitation of the life of God among men, and declared of it, "And there shall be NO MORE DEATH…for the former things are passed away" (Rev. 21:4). What will become of our sacred hell and all who have been damned to its bottomless depths by the doctrine of religion when there is NO MORE DEATH, no more Hades, and NO MORE HELL! How do the dead remain DEAD when there is NO MORE DEATH? The instrument ordained by God for the eradication and abolishment of all that is characteristic of death and Hades is the lake of fire, and THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH - the DEATH of DEATH. "The last enemy that WILL BE ABOLISHED is death" (1 Cor. 15:26).

Well, not to worry; God has just the solution: He plans to SAVE THEM ALL!

Death and Hades reigned as the unchallenged destiny of man until the Last Adam, the Man out of heaven appeared as the quickening Spirit, taking upon Himself the likeness of flesh and blood, "that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil" (Heb. 2:14). He confronted death by partaking of its sting, boldly strode into the very halls of Hades itself, and emerged victorious through the power of His resurrection, forever conquering its dominion over the lives of men. Christ Jesus has abolished death, bringing life and immortality to light through the Gospel (2 Tim. 1:10). Death is His footstool, Hades bows before Him, as He proclaims to all creation, "I am the first and the last, and the Living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have THE KEYS OF DEATH and OF HADES" (Rev. 1: 17-18). He has unlocked the gates of that realm which held captive the souls of men, broken down the barrier that kept men strangers and foreigners from the promise of life, destroyed the fortifications of Hades' domain to set captivity free from its chains of darkness. Death cannot stand where LIFE REIGNS!

The resurrections, judgments, and processing of the ages yet to come speak to us of an ongoing work of redemption from which no man is to be excluded. The hyper-super-abounding grace of reconciliation is fully capable of redeeming THE MANY, bringing ALL into the reality and fullness of His life, whether on this side of the grave or on the other. What we may perceive as the black and white of the matter is of no consequence in the purpose of God. The Good Shepherd shall not cease to seek out that last remaining lost sheep; the Savior shall not cease to draw every last man on whose life He holds the right of redemption; the grace of God shall not rest throughout the ages until hell is empty, until death and Hades have not one remaining captive - until God is ALL THINGS IN ALL.
 

JUDGMENT BY FIRE

 Appropriately did Jesus draw upon the analogy of the fires of the Valley of Hinnom in conveying a sense of the judgment by fire which is to be visited upon men, for FIRE is the very element ordained by God to accomplish His foreordained purpose in the creation, bringing all men in worshipful submission to the Life and lordship of Christ Jesus. "For behold, the Lord will come in FIRE, and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of FIRE. For the Lord will execute judgment by FIRE and by His SWORD on all flesh" (Isa. 66:15, 16). The Word of the Lord is clear and unequivocal: ALL FLESH shall be judged by FIRE and by the SWORD. The prophecy of John echoes that of Isaiah as he beheld the Word of God with eyes as a "flame of fire" going forth in righteousness to judge the flesh of all men: "And from His mouth comes a sharp SWORD, so that with it He may smite the nations…And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in mid-heaven, 'Come, assemble for the great supper of God in order that you may eat the FLESH of commanders and the FLESH of mighty men and the FLESH of horses and of those who sit upon them, and the FLESH of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great'" (Rev. 19: 15,17,18). That sharp SWORD is none but His quickening Word, and the Word of God is a FIRE. "?Is not My Word like FIRE?' declares the Lord, 'and like a hammer which shatters a rock?'" (Jer. 23:29). And again, says Jeremiah, "Behold, I am making My words in your mouth FIRE, and this people wood, and it will consume them" (Jer. 5:14).

Likewise did John the Baptist testify to the judgment of all flesh at the appearing of the Christ: "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and FIRE. And His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable FIRE" (Lk. 3:16, 17). This verse speaks specifically of the process of the threshing of God's people, for it is HIS FLOOR which is being purged in order that His wheat may be cleansed of the chaff. The chaff is that outer husk of the grain which is separated from the wheat by threshing, thus signifying all that is worthless debris and has no value toward that which His Spirit would establish in the lives of men; this He shall consume completely with unquenchable FIRE.

It is necessary that we understand something of the NATURE of God's fire, and the PURPOSE for which His fire is ordained. Fire is, first and foremost, a manifestation of the very nature and glory of God. It was "in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush" that God made Himself known to Moses. Through their wanderings in the wilderness God lead His people "by day in a pillar of a cloud…and by night a pillar of FIRE" (Ex. 13:21). At Mount Sinai the Lord made Himself known to His people in a most awesome display of His majesty; "Now Mount Sinai was all in smoke because the Lord descended upon it in FIRE; and its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently" (Ex. 19:18). And it was not merely by happenstance that Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to prove their god by the manifestation of fire, the very element considered so sacred in the Chaldean Mysteries. Their altar built, their oxen slayed, the prophets went through their blood-letting rituals and raved all day, calling upon Baal, but to no avail. No fire on their altar. Then Elijah prepared his altar and sacrifice, and drenched it with water three times until the water flowed down the altar and filled the trench which he had dug around it. "Then the FIRE OF GOD fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell down on their faces and they said, 'The Lord, He is God; the Lord, He is God'" (1 Kings 18:38, 39). Things didn't go very well for the prophets of Baal that day; Elijah seized them, marched them down to the brook of Kishon, a slew them to the last man.

The perverted veneration of fire and its association with damnation and death originated, as we have seen, with the apostate religion of Babylon. Seen in the purity of truth, however, fire is and always has been the manifestation of God's glory, majesty, power, and judgment.

No other element expresses the processing, purging, purifying, and transforming power of God as does fire. Little wonder then, that the Lord baptizes His people with the Holy Spirit AND WITH FIRE! He has kindled His holy fire within every saint of His calling and election, for His purpose is that we be conformed to the very image of the Son. He will, therefore, consume the chaff in our lives, temper our character, and transform our nature by the unquenchable fire of His Word until all that is of flesh has been consumed upon the refuse heap. "Behold, I have REFINED you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the FURNACE OF AFFLICTION" (Isa. 48:10). Affliction? Wait a minute: Isn't affliction and adversity brought upon us by that damnable devil, Satan? We have been saved; we are the "King's kids" and are to live the abundant life of blessing and prosperity. Sorry; too late; you have already received His baptism of FIRE! None shall escape or circumvent those dealings and processing ordained for the perfection of His called ones, for He will THOROUGHLY PURGE HIS FLOOR. No man shall be exempt from the Divine FIRE which is set ablaze by His quickening Word, for "EVERYONE shall be salted with FIRE" (Mk. 9:49).

The lake of fire is yet another manifestation of the corrective judgment of God. It is a symbol peculiar to the book of Revelation in which it is mentioned on five occasions. This is to be the final end of the dragon, the beast, the false prophet, and all who worship the beast and receive the brand of his nature. It is also curious that DEATH and HADES are to be cast into the lake of fire, which signifies the second death (Rev. 20:14). Now, death and hades are both abstract intangible realities which possess no physical form or manifestation other than their EFFECT upon mankind. What manner of FIRE, we might inquire, could be employed to consume that which has no tangible substance apart from the reality of its EFFECT? It should be evident that this is no literal flame of fire such as is common to the understanding of the natural mind, for a literal fire must have something of physical substance to consume or it cannot burn. By understanding with the mind of the Spirit, however, we can readily see that this fire differs nothing in character from that which God has already kindled upon the earth to consume the stubble of flesh in the lives of His chosen ones. Jesus proclaimed that He had come to "CAST FIRE UPON THE EARTH" (Lk. 12:49), and that fire was kindled on the day of Pentecost as He Himself was made manifest in the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and as TONGUES OF FIRE resting upon each disciple baptized with FIRE (Acts 2:2-3). The lake of fire differs in one respect - INTENSITY - for it is prophetically styled as a LAKE rather than a TONGUE. All men will be salted with fire; those of His calling and election by a BAPTISM of fire; those whose arrogance and rebellion must be broken by the judgments and processing of God in the ages to come by a LAKE of fire. In either event, the PURPOSE is the same; to eradicate death and hades from the lives of men until all that is enmity to God has been consumed to the uttermost, for this is the SECOND DEATH. There shall sin, corruption, and death be put to death, brought to a final end, never again to stake a claim on the creation of God. J. Preston Eby has written lucidly concerning this topic, and I would now defer to his work:

"The word BURN means combustion, or to consume. To consume does not mean to annihilate, for there is no such thing as annihilation in the absolute sense. When fire consumes a log in your fireplace it does not destroy any of the elements within the log, it merely CHANGES THEIR FORM. Combustion is the process by which chemicals combine to form new chemicals. For example: a tree might be cut down, sawed into firewood and burned. When the wood is burning the heat causes the chemicals of which the wood is composed to vaporize, mixing with the oxygen in the air to form new chemicals, including water and gas carbon dioxide. So what was formerly a tree is no longer identified as the form of a tree, but the substance thereof is now simply CHANGED into a DIFFERENT FORM and exists in its new form within the atmosphere as water, carbon dioxide, etc. Thus, to burn means to CHANGE. Furthermore, it is interesting to note that fire does not burn down; it always burns up; it seeks the highest level. And all that it consumes goes 'up in smoke' to exist in a new form in a higher dimension. To burn means to CHANGE, and the change is always UPWARD in its motion.

"FIRE is the heat and light that you feel and see when something burns. It takes heat to start a fire; but once the fire is started it produces heat that keeps the process going. Thus, fire is really HEAT and LIGHT.

"In my study of the lake that burns with fire and brimstone I was very much helped and impressed by the understanding given by Charles Pridgeon, and I would like to quote from his scholarly work on the subject of brimstone. He says, 'The Lake of Fire and Brimstone signifies a fire burning with brimstone; the word brimstone or sulphur, defines the character of the fire. The Greek word theion translated 'brimstone' is exactly the same word theion which means 'divine.' Sulphur was sacred to the deity among the ancient Greeks, and was used to fumigate, to purify, and to cleanse and consecrate to the deity; for this purpose they burned it in their incense. In Homer's Iliad (16:228) one is spoken of as purifying a goblet with fire and brimstone. The verb derived from theion is theioo, which means to hallow, to make divine, or to dedicate to a god (see Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon 1897 edition). To any Greek, or any trained in the Greek language, a 'lake of fire and brimstone' would mean a 'LAKE OF DIVINE PURIFICATION.' The idea of judgment need not be excluded. Divine purification and divine consecration are the plain meaning in the ancient Greek. In the ordinary explanation, this fundamental meaning of the word is entirely left out, and nothing but eternal torment is associated with it.'"

To briefly summarize the foregoing thoughts: BURN means combustion; to change the form of. FIRE means heat and light. BRIMSTONE means divine. Is it not now evident that in its purest meaning and essence the "lake burning with fire and brimstone" is in reality DIVINE HEAT AND LIGHT PRODUCING A CHANGE? How very fitting of God's holy fire! This is the very character of the REFINER'S FIRE and the FURNACE OF AFFLICTION, that baptism with FIRE which is a present reality in every son of His choosing; for He has decreed and ordained that we shall be CHANGED into conformity to the image of His Son. To this end, His holy unquenchable fire burns within until all that is chaff, refuse, carnality, and flesh is consumed, and the glory of the first Adam is transformed into that of the Last Adam. The purpose of the fire is to change the form of the natural man into that of the spiritual man. It is that very same burning of fire and brimstone which shall process, purge, purify, and consecrate EVERY MAN, consuming all that is of the realm of death, all that is enmity toward God, all that is negative and contrary to the POSITIVE, CONSTRUCTIVE purpose and working of He Who has reconciled the world and all that is in it, indeed, ALL CREATION, until ALL THINGS have been summed up together into Christ (Eph. 1:10), and grace reigns through righteousness unto LIFE through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom. 5:21). In God's scheme of things, fire is a GOOD THING!

Now, just WHERE do you suppose this Lake of Fire and Brimstone might be located? In what manner is God to manifest this fire of His judgment when the Lord will "Come in fire…to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with FLAMES OF FIRE" (Isa. 66:15)? Think not that God has dug a vast pit somewhere in the geography of the underworld in which to stoke the fires of His indignation for the judgment of all unrighteousness; for God does not have a pit - God has a PEOPLE!

"Blow a trumpet in Zion. And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near…So there is a great and mighty PEOPLE; there has never been anything like it to the years of many generations. A FIRE consumes before them, and behind them A FLAME BURNS. The land is like the Garden of Eden before them, but a desolate wilderness behind them; and nothing at all escapes them…They leap upon the mountains like the CRACKLING OF A FLAME OF FIRE CONSUMMING THE STUBBLE" (Joel 2:1-5). This great army of which Joel prophesies is to be manifested in the Day of the Lord, empowered by the fullness of His Spirit, to go forth in the earth as a consuming FIRE. They shall set the world afire with the living Word of the Lord, as the judgment of God lays the axe to the root of iniquity. The pride, arrogance, and wickedness of man, along with every devise of wood, hay, and stubble that has been fashioned by the work of his hands shall serve as kindling as this mighty people move in the power and authority of His Christ, fanning the flames of His righteous judgment. God's people are a FIRE! For it is written, "He makes His messengers spirits, His ministers FLAMES OF FIRE" (Ps.104:4). This mighty company of SONS, this BODY OF CHRIST, is the unveiling of his wrath and indignation upon a world of corruption and rebellion. Even as Jesus cast fire upon the earth with His living word of truth, even as the apostles set the world ablaze with the Good News that God has now reconciled you through Christ the Messiah, so shall this manifold FIRSTFRUIT people bring upon mankind an even greater fire at the herald of the Kingdom of God; for there is yet to be a greater unveiling, yes, a REVELATION of Jesus Christ as this age draws to a close. And who can abide His coming?

No more explicit a description can be had of the appearing of the Christ than that stated in II Thessalonians 1:6-10, here quoted in its literal translation from the Emphatic Diaglott: "If indeed a just thing with God, to give in return to those afflicting you with affliction, and to you, to those being afflicted, a relaxation with us in the REVELATION OF THE LORD JESUS from heaven, AMID MESSENGERS OF POWER OF HIMSELF IN A FLAME OF FIRE, executing retributive justice to those not knowing God, and to those not being obedient to the glad tidings of our Lord Jesus; who a just penalty shall pay, destruction age-lasting, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of the strength of Him, when He shall come TO BE GLORIFIED IN THE HOLY ONES OF HIMSELF, and to be admired in all those having believed." Yes, my friend, Jesus is coming! Look not for Him descending from the clouds of the sky to set foot on some holy mountain in Israel. He is coming IN A PEOPLE; in MESSENGERS OF FIRE; in holy ones OF HIMSELF! This, the Holy Spirit declares, is the REVELATION OF THE LORD JESUS FROM HEAVEN! And that is precisely what the book of Revelation, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, is all about!

Perhaps some might not be so eager to see the "second coming" of Jesus if they were made to realize that rather than coming to fly them away to yonder paradise, He is coming in fire and judgment. And I tell you, those who cling to their religiosity will despise His appearance, even as did the Jews two thousand years ago at the appearing of their Messiah.

Consider with me another aspect of this fire which is THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD; "If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives the mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with FIRE AND BRIMSTONE in the PRESENCE OF THE HOLY ANGELS (lit. messengers) and in THE PRESENCE OF THE LAMB" (Rev. 14:9-10). Think deeply on the profound implication of those words: Tormented with fire and brimstone IN THE PRESENCE of the holy messengers. Tormented IN THE PRESENCE of the Lamb. No greater torment hath wickedness and evil than to be IN THE PRESENCE of the Lamb! Men need not "go to hell" to find torment; they only need to be IN THE PRESENCE of the Lamb. And notice it is NOT the Lamb who does the tormenting; it is not the nature of the meek, gentle, redemptive Lamb of God to inflict torment on anyone. The purpose of the Lamb is wholly sacrificial and redemptive, to deliver and save. It is merely His PRESENCE that men find tormenting; for their torment lies deep within their own soul, in the wickedness of their carnal nature.

Men will remain content in their bestial condition, satisfied in their carnality, secure in every device of the flesh, until their works are exposed by the SWORD of His Word and convicting purity of the Lamb. Then their inner condition becomes a torment, their conscience seared, their flesh rent, their works destroyed, as the PRESENCE of the Lamb strips away their deceit in the light of righteousness. The very PRESENCE of truth torments the deceitful and the deceived, the liar and the cheat. The very PRESENCE of holiness torments the immoral and impure. The very PRESENCE of love torments the mean and hateful. The very PRESENCE of He Who is LIFE is torment to those who abide in death.

When the demon-possessed men of Gadara encountered Jesus, they were overcome with terror, and cried out, "What do we have to do with you, Son of God? Have you come to TORMENT US before the time?" (Mt. 8:29). It was TORMENT for a person so possessed to be in the PRESENCE of the Christ! I have been in meetings where the Spirit of the Lord was manifested in such power that one whose life was at enmity with God would literally run from that place, unable to bear the torment of the Holy Spirit's PRESENCE. Their torment came not from the Lamb, but from within their own soul, from within their own conscience; the heavy weight of conviction is, indeed, torment, utter misery, anguish and pain; yes, judgment and FIRE, until the heart of hardness is finally broken and embraced in the reconciling grace of the Lamb.

Every man must be salted with fire; and by that fire every man will be preserved and purified unto the Life and glory of the Father. "Each man's work will become evident; for the Day (of the Lord) will show it, because it is to be REVEALED IN FIRE; and the fire itself will test of what sort each man's work is. If any man's work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; BUT HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED, yet so as by fire" (1 Cor. 3:13,15). Ah, the fire is for the burning of the WORKS of man, to try each man's nature and character against the righteous standard of Christ, to burn up and consume the chaff of flesh, so that through the processing of fire THE MAN MIGHT BE SAVED!

Do you see? The fires of religion's hell are intended only to condemn, to torment, to damn for eternity the unrighteous soul; while the fires of God are corrective and redemptive in nature, burning off the dross of the flesh, changing the form of the rebellious heart, reconciling the lost sheep. And though his WORKS may suffer loss (so what's the big deal?) THE MAN HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED!

HOW LONG IS FOREVER?

"But when the Son of man comes in His glory and all the angels (lit. messengers) with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world'…Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels'…And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt. 25: 31-34, 41, 46).

Thus is written in stone the stalwart doctrine - yea, the mandatory belief - of the Christianity of Babylon; eternal damnation for the lost; eternal life for the saved. The matter is black and white. Sheep or goats. Saved or lost. Heaven or hell. End of story. And the most remarkable thing is that a matter of such grave consequence as your eternal destiny is entirely up to you! Isn't that something? God has given every man the right to choose where he would like to spend the rest of eternity; heaven or hell. God has relinquished His sovereignty in the matter; the decision is yours. And your decision is made on one basis and one only: Have you taken Jesus as your "personal Savior"? How often it is preached from the pulpits of religion. What YOU DECIDE to do with Jesus will dictate your eternal destiny, so CHOOSE YE this day. What shall it be for you, oh unregenerate one? Shall you be numbered among the sheep or the goats?

While such a sermon makes for a persuasive altar call with every head bowed and every eye closed, we may call into question the veracity of a conversion based on such a premise. After all, the fear of hell juxtaposed with the "blessed hope" of "going to heaven" in the Rapture is a no-brainer; but it is not a very solid foundation upon which to build the Faith of Jesus. From the outset the repentant proselyte is presented with the image of Babylon's vindictive God Who would just as soon cast you into the blazing bowels of Moloch as to save your soul. And the responsibility for your eternal destiny is yours and yours alone. Well? What shall it be? God is waiting.

Examined in the context of the Scripture, however, the foregoing verses reveal that the judgment of man rests not on their "decision for Jesus" but on their WORKS. To the sheep on His right hand of blessing the Father says, "For I was hungry and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or naked and clothe You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even to the least of them, you did it to Me.'" And for what cause do the goats incur His left hand of cursing? "For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me. Then they themselves also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison and did not take care of You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did NOT do it to one of the least of these you did NOT do it to Me.'"

Nothing here would suggest that the eternal fate of a man lies in a spiritual conversion, an act of repentance, or making a decision to "accept Jesus." The separation of the sheep from the goats is based entirely on what men DID or DID NOT do toward the Lord's BRETHREN. It is the WORKS of a man, his compassion, his empathy, his love and ministry toward his fellow man, or lack thereof, by which he is judged. Men will not be judged as sheep or goats based on what they have done WITH Jesus, but on what they have done TO Jesus.

Jesus had a bone to pick with Saul of Tarsus. He caught up with Saul on the road to Damascus one day and demanded of him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute ME?" "Who, me?" Saul had never known the Lord Jesus; indeed, He had long been ascended to the Father when Saul began his relentless persecution of THE CHURCH. But when Saul asked, "Who art Thou, Lord?" the Lord responded, "I AM JESUS WHOM THOU PERSECUTEST." Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these, MY BRETHREN, ye do it UNTO ME.

"And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, ACCORDING TO THEIR DEEDS" (Rev. 20:12). Yes, the dead, the goats, shall be judged according to their WORKS. Shall you be that Good Samaritan, or are you the one who passes by on the opposite side of the road, ignoring the need of the least of the Lord's brethren? Shall you be a minister of LIFE to the Lord's brethren, my friend, or shall you neglect the weightier matters of love, justice, humanity, and compassion toward your fellow man and therefore minister only death?

The final verse of this discourse in Matthew 25 is undoubtedly the mainstay of the doctrine of eternal damnation, for it reads, "And these shall go away into EVERLASTING punishment: but the righteous into life ETERNAL." Makes sense. If heaven is to be eternal, then obviously hell is likewise. But that is not what the Scripture has stated. Verse 46 makes no statement whatsoever concerning heaven and hell; it speaks, rather, of a certain QUALITY and TYPE of punishment, and a certain QUALITY and TYPE of life. In the literal language of the Greek Scriptures, it speaks specifically of aionion, or AGE-LASTING punishment, and aionian, or AGE-LASTING life, as rendered by Young's Literal Translation: "And these shall go away to punishment age- during, but the righteous to life age-during." The Concordant Literal translation also concurs; "And these shall be coming away into chastening eonian, yet the just into life eonian." And in the rendering of the Emphatic Diaglott; "And shall go away these into a cutting-off age-lasting; and the just ones into life age-lasting."

AGE-LASTING; that is, lasting until the end of the AGE or the eon. The punishment, the cutting off of the goats is to meted out within the context and parameters of the AGES; that is, within the time allotted by God for the completion of all judgment, correction, and purging of men in His unceasing work of reconciling His creation from its imposed state of futility, unrighteousness, and death. Likewise, the life imbued to the sheep is also characterized in the context of TIME; AGE-DURING life; those eons marked for the growth, maturity, and fullness of the life given to men as a seed that will spring forth, blossom, and bear the fruit of the image and likeness of the Son. If that seed which has been imparted to us in this earthly walk is to be our "eternal life," then I must tell you, I have been short-changed!

It may sound foreign to the ear to suggest that the life imputed to believers through the grace of the Faith of Jesus is not "eternal" in the sense that they have been taught to perceive it; but we will not begin to comprehend such things until we come to a clear understanding of the vast difference between TIME and ETERNITY.

Most church folk generally hold the idea that when Jesus "comes back" at the end of this "age of grace," time will cease and eternity will begin. Nothing could be farther from the truth! The fact is, "time" and "eternity" have absolutely NOTHING IN COMMON. Time is measurable in nanoseconds, milliseconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, centuries, millennia, and ages. Eternity, on the other hand, is immeasurable; it cannot be calculated by any standard of measure, for eternity has NO BEGINNING and NO ENDING -- eternity is TIMELESS. Time is tangible, divisible, changeable, alterable. Eternity is intangible, indivisible, unchanging, and immutable. Some of the concepts we have held concerning eternity are wholly absurd. Some would describe eternity as a progression of ages; but AGES are periods of TIME, and are therefore entirely unrelated to eternity, for eternity cannot be subdivided into ages. Only time can be compounded, and when time is compounded by time, what you have is TIME -- not eternity. Others would contend that eternity always has been, but was interrupted upon the introduction of time when God began the creation, and will be recommenced upon the completion of the ages. WHAT? Is there a time warp in eternity? Still others seek to explain the dilemma quite simply by saying that eternity begins where time leaves off, generally at the "second coming" of Christ. But again, eternity is without beginning and without ending; eternity IS. Our gross misunderstanding of time and eternity, as likewise judgment and hell, have given us a spiritual astigmatism, serving only to blur and distort our perception of God's work and purpose in His creation.

Time is, indeed, a phenomenon of creation; it is as much a "species" of creation as are the plants, animals, the earth, the heavens, etc. Time exists only in relation to the visible, physical universe, and all that operates therein. Consider if the earth did not rotate on its axis; would there be minutes, hours, or days? No. If there was not a moon to revolve around the earth, would we have months, each consisting of thirty days? No. If the earth, likewise, did not orbit the sun once every 365¼ days, would we have seasons or years? Same answer. Furthermore, time is entirely relative. After all, a "day" on the planet Jupiter is less than ten earth hours long; but a Jovian "year" exceeds 4,328 "days" as measured in earth time -- almost 12 years! A supernova that astronomers have just now detected in the heavens may have exploded many billions of years ago; its fiery glow is only now reaching the earth after spanning billions of light years of TIME. What we see as a present reality is ancient history in the TIME of the cosmos. Earth time had a specific place of beginning and will have a specific point of cessation. And that has been our perspective - EARHTY. Just as we have sought to form our god after the likeness of our religion, we have sought to explain the fathomless depths of God's eternity by the measure of our own TIME. It cannot be done, not by the most scientific of minds; for time and eternity have nothing to do with one another.

Time is the framework within which God has ordained that all His dealings with mankind are to be brought to fruition and completion. It is the boundary within which His purpose for all creation will be accomplished. As one has aptly written; "This phenomena called time was created by God FOR man. Why? Time is the WOMB from which God is birthing a people like unto Himself. We get the germ, the beginning and foretaste of eternity in time, but this is only the seed of eternal life. This womb of time is provided to aid man in his development, to assist him in preparation for a new, totally spiritual existence beyond time, beyond the last age, when the umbilical cord is cut, in a state of existence called eternity. Man, as he is dealt with by God, is passing from a gross, largely material consciousness, into a glorious spiritual existence. Time serves only as an instrument to help man, to give him time and experience to develop into that new state of being. In time there is change -- in eternity there is no change. All change and development must take place in time."

Ah, as long as man has the potential for CHANGE, for DEVELOPMENT, for GROWTH, and for PROGRESSION into the nature of God, man will be a creature caught within the boundaries and limitations of time. As long as there is that which is lacking of Elohim in the nature and character of man, time will remain God's servant and man's instructor. For as long as death shall hold a grip on the creation of God, time must continue, for death itself is merely an EFFECT of time, operating within the natural, time related realm of creation.

The Bible is also, therefore, a book of time; for within its pages is revealed the upward progression of Divine redemption and restoration from the time when God first made the heavens and the earth, to the time when all things shall be subjected unto the Son, and the kingdom delivered up to the Father, that God may be all in all. The entire revelation of God's dealings with man within the pages of the Scripture is in the context of TIME. You may find it surprising that the Bible says very little about eternity. And what it does have to say concerning eternity it says in regard to GOD, Who Himself is the Eternal One. He is Jehovah, the SELF-EXISTENT ONE. I AM. God IS.

The Bible says much, however, concerning the AGES, and rightly so; for AGES are periods of time, and have been established by He who is the Creator of time for the working out of all His purpose in the creation. "By faith we understand that the worlds (Greek, aion -- ages) were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Heb. 11:3). Never has as much confusion, debate, and error in doctrine been fostered than by the careless renderings in translation of one simple, little Greek word-- AION. The word aion means "an age." The English form of the word is eon, which we recognize as meaning a duration of time. The plural form, aions, means "ages." In its adjective form, aionios, it simply means "of, or relating to an age," or "age-lasting." In its compound forms it means the "age of the ages," or the "ages of the ages." It does not take a theological scholar to understand that anything spoken of in the context of an AGE, or in relation to the AGES is being spoken of in reference to TIME. Yet men will go to the greatest lengths to twist the elementary rules of language and grammar to defend their contention that AGES really mean eternity. Why? Because King James says so! In nearly 200 occurrences in the New Testament, the King James Bible renders aion only TWICE correctly as "age," and overwhelmingly to imply "eternity" or "eternal." And not that we should muddy the waters, but the translators of the 1611 Authorized Version have also rendered it variously as; ever, everlasting, forever, for evermore, for ever and ever, world, beginning of the world, while the world, world began, world without end, course, and even once in the negative as "never." What a pick-and-choose smorgasbord! I would like to know of the defenders of King James how the same word, aion, can mean "everlasting" in one verse, "world" in another verse, "course" in another, and "never" in yet another. That little four letter word must certainly possess some mystical, magical property to carry such a vast differentiation of meaning!

That aion and its Hebrew counterpart, olam, cannot mean "eternal" or "eternity," or have any other relation to that state of timelessness is evident from a simple examination of just how the word is used in the Scripture; for the meaning of a word is established by its USAGE. In all languages it is USAGE that determines MEANING; not what meaning WE give to a word, but what meaning the USAGE gives the word. In the vernacular of King James, the word "let" means to restrain or hinder. In modern usage it means just the opposite. The word "suffer" means to allow or permit; today, it means to be ailing or afflicted. Regardless that we may ascribe different meanings to words as language evolves, the Bible must be understood in the usage of the Hebrew and Greek languages at the time it was written. Biblical usage determines Biblical meaning.

The word "forever," and its equivalents, "eternal" and "everlasting," often occurs when it cannot possibly mean unending. Jonah, for example, testified in the depths of his distress, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever (Hebrew, olam)" (Jonah 2:6). Yet Jonah was in the belly of the fish for only three days and three nights. When a Hebrew slave loved his master and did not wish to go free at the end of the seventh year, we read; "His master shall bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever (olam)" (Ex. 21:6). Of course, that "forever" ended when the slave died. Again, when Solomon built the temple unto the Lord, he began his prayer of dedication with the statement: "I have surely built Thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for Thee to abide in forever (olam)" (I Ki. 8:13). And the Lord answered Solomon: "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication, that thou hast made before Me: I have hallowed this house, which thou hast built, to put My name there forever (olam)" (I Ki. 9:3). But Solomon's temple only stood a mere 400 years.

Even in our modern vernacular we use the word forever in a figurative sense, knowing full well that's not what we really mean. "You're taking forever," an impatient husband complains as the wife doddles in front of the vanity; ok, so she may be running behind ten or fifteen minutes. "The Rolling Stones have been around forever!" Well, granted, Keith Richards looks like he's been around forever, but The Stones have been with us now fifty years and counting.

Now, any intelligently honest man of reason must surely recognize that a word used in one case to mean three days and three nights, in another case to mean a man's lifetime, and in yet another to mean a period of four centuries, or in any other figurative sense, surely does not mean unending or eternal, no matter what English word is used to translate it. It is USAGE that determines MEANING. Numerous similar examples could be cited, but consider yet one more, that of the Aaronic priesthood. According to King James, Aaron and his sons were anointed as priests forever. "Their anointing shall be an everlasting (olam) priesthood throughout their generations" (Ex. 40:15). Yet in Hebrews 7:11-18, we read that the Aaronic priesthood was CHANGED to that of the order of Melchizedek. "For when the priesthood is CHANGED, of necessity there takes place a CHANGE of law also. For, on the one hand, there is a SETTING ASIDE of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness" (ibid. vs. 12, 18). How is it that God declares the Aaronic priesthood to be "everlasting," then abolishes it under the New Covenant? There would be no contradiction if the statement in Exodus was translated correctly, "TO THE AGE throughout their generations"; that is, throughout their generations AS LONG AS THAT AGE LASTED. The New Covenant heralded a NEW AGE and a higher priesthood; that of Jesus Christ, the High Priest, the order of Melchizedek. The "everlasting" Aaronic priesthood became null and void. So it is with the many other occurrences of the words olam and aion. When rendered according their proper usage, the many seeming contradictions of the Scripture evaporate, the inspired Word is put into proper perspective, and the Bible becomes a new book entirely.

Obviously, to acknowledge that the words olam and aion means an "age," and that an age is a specific period of time, and that God has ordained the ages of time for the reconciliation of His creation, shoots holes through religion's sacred teaching of "eternal" damnation. When we come to realize that God has purposed to liberate all His creation from its imposed bondage of corruption, decay, and death, and that in the ages yet to come ALL THINGS will be subdued unto the lordship of Christ and ultimately delivered up into the Father that God may be ALL THINGS IN ALL, the idea that vast multitudes of the unbelieving are to be forever and irrevocably damned in hell becomes absolutely absurd. To say that God's purpose is to RECONCILE and REDEEM His creation, even to the abolishment of death itself, and then contend that He has reserved an abyss somewhere in the nebulous vastness of eternity in which to forever punish and torment the great majority of mankind, is not only a gross contradiction of belief, but an outright denial of the omnipotent power of God to fulfill all His sovereign Word, and a blasphemy against the Lamb of God who, by the shedding of His blood, became the "Saviour of ALL MEN" (1 Tim.4:10).

Now, let us re-phrase the objection of those who would protest that since "eternal" life is forever, so must "everlasting" punishment be forever: Since the life which we now possess in Christ Jesus is the life of the ages, so must the punishment of the wicked be the punishment of the ages. If we understand the life to be the life which God has ordained that we should possess TO THE AGE, is it so difficult to understand that the punishment to be possessed by the wicked is entirely relative to His dealings with men IN THE AGES? Just as the life in which we shall walk in the ages to come, even in the glorified state of immortality, cannot be said to be "eternal," neither can the punishment, the chastening, the corrective judgments of God to be meted out in the ages to come be construed as "eternal." Indeed, to contend that the Most High God will inflict punishment on the wicked that is to be unrelenting, unmitigated, and without end throughout all eternity, is to ascribe to Him a crime of such magnitude as is unheard of even among the fathers of men. Those in our society who inflict abusive torment and unrelenting punishment upon their children are given lengthy jail terms and even sentenced to death for committing the most heinous of crimes against their own seed. Such people are among the most despised of criminals, abhorred among civil men, for their incomprehensible crimes against their own procreation tear at the heart of a father's love for his children. Yet by some demented reasoning we have convinced ourselves that God Himself is capable of just such a crime, compounded by billions of lives.

If, however, the punishment of the wicked is age-lasting, if it shall at some point be brought to a completed end, then it is apparent that there must be a distinct PURPOSE to that punishment. The word "punishment" is from the Greek kolasis which means just that -- punishment. It is derived from the root kolazo which, according to Strong's Concordance, carries the sense of chastisement or curtailment. To curtail means to cut off, to restrain, to set limitations and boundaries on a thing, or to lessen its impact or activity. To chastise means to punish, and is a form of the word "chasten," which means to DISCIPLINE, to PURIFY, and to REFINE. It should be clear to any thinking person that the punishment of the wicked is not meaningless, sadistic, unending torture, but PURPOSEFUL CORRECTION.

Would it not be far more in keeping with the character and nature of a redemptive loving God to view His righteous punishment as CORRECTIVE in its purpose -- to discipline, purify, refine, and redeem that which is lost? To what purpose do we, as fathers or mothers, punish our children of the flesh? Is it not to correct the error of their way, to instill in them a respect for the authority of our word; that is, to teach them obedience? Is it not to refine in their character the capability to do that which is right, according to the moral and civil standards of society, and to abhor that which is evil? There is but one righteous motive for punishment, and that is LOVE. And love's only purpose for punishment is to turn toward good that which is wicked; in a word, REPENTANCE. When the punishment has had its desired result, does the punishment continue unabated? Of course not. Corrective punishment, painful as it may be, is thereafter followed by RECONCILIATION.

No greater pain can be borne by a parent than to live their life having a son or daughter who is at complete enmity with them, one with whom their unreconciled differences have created an unbridgeable chasm of estrangement. The father, the mother, who has lost a son or daughter to drug addiction and life on the street. Unreachable; beyond reasoning with; beyond hope; the parent lives a daily hell not knowing if their child is alive or dead; always fearful that the knock on the door will come and a police officer will deliver the news. The strife, the variance, the dissension and dissimulation is an ever-present partition between parent and child, effectively destroying the harmony and love that once graced their relationship. Such was the condition of all mankind; separated from God through sin, disobedience, and rebellion, estranged through offenses, totally out of harmony with the higher kingdom of spirit, at enmity with God. But GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD that He changed all that! "But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity" (Eph.2:13-15).

So great is God's love for His creation that He took the initiative, provided the reconciliation, and sealed it once for ALL MEN with the blood of His uniquely begotten Son. "For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in Him, and through Him to RECONCILE ALL THINGS into Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, in evil deeds, yet HE HAS NOW RECONCILED YOU in His fleshly body through death" (Col. 1:19-22). The matter of man's reconciliation to God is already an accomplished fact; it was finished on Calvary. The heart of God's love for His creation would no longer bear the enmity which sin wrought in mankind, so He gave His own Son for the reconciliation of the world. His love demands nothing less than its complete and experiential fulfillment. And please understand that the efficacy of God's reconciliation has nothing whatsoever to do with man's choice in the matter. The fact is, man has nothing to say about it, for God has ALREADY DONE IT. "For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One THE MANY WILL BE MADE RIGHTEOUS" (Rom. 5:19). God will not allow His great love wherewith He loves His creation to go forever unrequited.

If we are to proclaim that God is a God of love, then let us proclaim His love to its ultimate and final conclusion, bringing glory and honor to His name, rather than despite and malfeasance. How the gospel preached by the religions of modern Babylon can harmonize the love of God with the sordid notion of everlasting punishment is beyond me. Either GOD IS LOVE or He is not. He cannot be LOVE only for those who, by His grace, have believed into Him, and at the same time be something less for all the rest. If God IS love, that being the very nature of WHAT HE IS, then all that He performs in and through His creation must be motivated out of the love that HE IS. What injury is there to God's character or sovereignty by proclaiming also that that same universal, all-encompassing love requires punishment, chastisement, correction, purging, refinement, and repentance for all men, and that the love that GOD IS spans all ages and embraces all men? That's the God I'd like to hear preached! Love requires that God's judgments and punishment be just, for, "every transgression and disobedience receives a just recompense of reward" (Heb. 2:2). Love also requires that God's judgments and punishment be purposive, that they accomplish something constructive; "For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness" (Isa. 26:9). Be assured that the GOD OF LOVE shall prevail in bringing all creation to righteousness, for He has willed it, He has commanded it, and He has finished it.

The sad fact is that many who profess the Faith of Jesus actually do not WANT all men to be saved. They will witness with great fervency, preach eloquent sermons, foster outreach programs, organize missionary trips to the far reaches of the globe, and even devise grandiose schemes to "save the world" by such and such a date so that Jesus can "come back." By all appearances they proclaim the gospel with the intent of seeing the unregenerate come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. But suggest to them that that is precisely the work God is going to effect in ALL men, and they will produce a phylactery full of arguments in rank denial that God will do any such thing. They are like Jonah, who, even after his own disobedience and rebellion had been broken, became angry because God decided to spare the wicked people of Nineveh; and that after he had gone to prophesy against Nineveh as God had commanded him in the first place, and after having to spend three days and nights in the slimy belly of that fish!  The Christians of modern Babylon feel likewise incensed and slighted at the suggestion that God would save the unregenerate that really do deserve to be damned, and after they and they alone have been promised the free gift of Life. Such is nothing but religious self-righteousness.

When we see, however, that the "everlasting punishment" referred to by King James is, in reality, "age-lasting punishment," the purpose of God in bringing all men to salvation through the processing of His judgments is in no way violated. Nor is any injustice done to the character of a righteous, all-wise, loving, and redemptive God who performs all things according to the counsel of His sovereign will. Let us be done with the foolish prating of Babylon's religion, and set our minds on THINGS ABOVE, for that is where CHRIST IS (Col. 3:1-2). There we shall learn of Him in spirit and in truth; there we shall behold Him in glory, being transformed into the same nature and image of glory. There shall our minds be renewed after the mind of Christ in the full knowledge of Himself; and there shall we see Him AS HE IS -- the SAVIOR OF ALL.
 

GOD'S PURPOSE IN THE AGES

It is inherent in the character and makeup of all men to worship and venerate a higher deity, to seek fulfillment on a higher spiritual plane than this natural life affords them, and to discover the solution to the human condition of limitation and mortality. The most important thinking that a man can do is his thinking about God. It is an inescapable fact that theology and philosophy mold the world. The ideologies of Nazism and Fascism fomented World War II. The philosophy of Humanism has given form to the self-aggrandizing corruption and decay of modern society. The teachings of idolatry produce an idolatrous people. The tradition and imagery of religion produces a religious people. Likewise, the mind of Christ in those of the Faith of Jesus conforms men to the image of Christ. What a world this will be when the TRUE KNOWLEDGE of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea! "'For they shall ALL KNOW ME, from the least of them to the greatest of them,' declares the Lord, 'for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more'" (Jer. 31:34)

It becomes imperative that we be "renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the NEW MAN which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth" (Eph. 4:23-24); and that the eyes of our understanding be enlightened that we may KNOW what is the HOPE OF HIS CALLING, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints (Eph. 1:18).The saints are so distracted by all the illusions of "end time" doctrine - one teaches that the Rapture will occur before the great tribulation, another teaches that the great catching away takes place in the middle of the tribulation, and God help us if we have to wait until the end of the tribulation! Concocting tales of a new Temple of Solomon being planned for Jerusalem, looking for signs and wonders in the earth, ever fearful of accidentally taking the mark of the beast implanted in a microchip in their cell phone or magnetically encoded on their credit card, and ever chasing after the "number of the man" most recently proposed to be the antichrist; there is scant little space in their thinking to ever contemplate the HOPE OF HIS CALLING beyond their "blessed hope" of Rapture (whenever it might be). They play Tidily-Winks while seeing nothing beyond the hype (and hoax) of religious eschatology.

How does one ever expect to run the race and obtain the prize if he hasn't the slightest idea what the goal is? God would not have His saints ignorant of the HOPE OF HIS CALLING. How we think about God will dictate the depth of our vision concerning His purpose in our lives, not to mention the manner in which we worship Him. Religion has given us only an IMAGE of God, an imagination of what we perceive God to be; and that imagination has been nurtured by the many false and erroneous beliefs we have assimilated through the facile doctrines of man's theology. Religious theology has formed God in the image and likeness of man.

The Father desires a people who will worship Him in SPIRIT and in TRUTH; we can only do so by KNOWING HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. Our thinking about God must transcend the carnal concepts imposed on us by the form of religion in order that we might behold Him AS HE IS, for when we see Him as He is, we SHALL BE LIKE HIM (1 Jn.3:2). What we SEE is what we shall BE. Our vision, that is, our understanding and perception, will dictate to what measure we are changed into His likeness. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being TRANSFORMED INTO THE SAME IMAGE from glory to glory" (2 Cor. 3:18). We are transformed into the image of His glory as we BEHOLD HIS GLORY. He is, at the closing moments of this age, unveiling Himself in ever-expanding depths of truth and understanding to His called ones until that which is perfect is come, and we see Him face to face (1 Cor. 13:12). That which we have heretofore seen only through a glass darkly, as in a riddle, He is making known in clarity as the light of His truth pierces the darkness of our understanding and we behold HIM unveiled in the progressive unfolding of His glory. One cannot help but leave behind the childish toys and rattles of empty religion as the substance of He Who is Truth is unveiled, for they become altogether worthless and futile as we behold His glory.

We have given previous consideration to the doctrines of hell, fire, and judgment as they are presented by the traditional teachings of the modern churches, and that grand hinge upon which the religions of Christianity pivot -- eternal damnation. The most insidious aspect of the doctrine of eternal damnation is how it skews and maligns our understanding OF GOD. We profess to believe in a God of love, forgiveness, and mercy, then turn right around and cast Him as a God of vindictive wrath and merciless torture. We proclaim that Jesus died once FOR ALL (Heb. 7:27), that He is the propitiation for the sin of the WHOLE WORLD (1 Jn. 2:2), and that He is the Savior of ALL MEN (1 Tim.4:10), and then vehemently deny that He will have ALL MEN to be saved, in spite of the most explicit Biblical statement of that fact (1 Tim. 2:4). We claim to serve a God Who is omnipotent and all-sovereign, but deny it by relegating the grace of His redemption only to "whosoever will," making salvation not the free gift of God to ALL MEN, but a matter of man's "free will" choosing. We declare with great frequency that God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son, that through Him THE WORLD should be saved (Jn. 3:16-17), and then ascribe to God the most monstrous "hate crime" imaginable -- presiding throughout the rest of eternity over the hellish, merciless, torment of every man, woman, and child ever to live upon the earth who failed to believe. Is it any wonder that we have no idea how to worship the Father in SPIRIT and in TRUTH? For such contradictory imaginations concerning the nature of God preclude any sense of the REALITY OF HIMSELF, AS HE IS, becoming TRUTH within our understanding.

When at last the Day Star arises within, and begins to illumine our understanding with the light of Truth, we begin to see that God has a far more wonderful and blessed purpose at work in His creation than we could have ever before thought possible. What an indescribable joy it is to realize that God's purpose is not to eternally damn the creation which He has reconciled to Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ, but to SET IT FREE from its bondage to corruption, misery, and death! "For the creation was subjected to futility (lit. disappointing misery), not of its own will, but BECAUSE OF HIM WHO SUBJECTED IT, IN HOPE (lit. in the expectation) that the creation itself also WILL BE SET FREE from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Rom. 8:20-21). How men can read those lines and not be overcome with blessed ecstasy in the magnitude of God's redemption! It was NO ACCIDENT that sin, death, and corruption became man's lot in life, passed down through every generation since Adam, snaring every man in its bondage to condemnation and despair, separating all men from the knowledge of their Creator -- because GOD DID IT! Read it. GOD SUBJECTED THE CREATION TO FUTILITY. The creation was not subjected to futility of its own will, or because it simply desired to be corrupt and go its own way, or because God's perfect plan was thwarted by the devil, but because GOD made it so. Futility is vanity and worthlessness, that which is empty, useless, and profits nothing. The Greek word so translated also carries the sense of TRANSIENTNESS, that is, a PASSING CONDITION. The slavery to corruption, futility, and misery is a condition through which God has caused the creation to pass, the implication being that it will at some point in time also EMERGE from its imposed state of depravity. Thus, the present woeful state of the creation is not without purpose, for God has subjected it to futility and corruption IN THE EXPECTATION THAT IT WILL BE SET FREE. That is the pure unvarnished FACT of God's inspired Word. God has purposely subjected the entire creation to the slavery of futility and corruption, AND GOD'S EXPECTATION is that it shall be SET FREE FROM THE SLAVERY OF FUTILITY AND CORRUPTION! Religion's expectation is that the greatest portion of God's creation will be forever damned to an eternal hell. How very different is the truth of God's Word from the teachings of men!

If one thing is abundantly evident throughout the pages of Scripture it is that God's purpose and work is progressive, ongoing, ever-enlarging, and all-encompassing in its scope. Scientists have discovered in recent years that the universe is not stationary or seemingly finite, but actually expanding outwardly at an incredible rate of speed. How very revealing of the nature of God's work in the creation! His work is not passive, but always in productive motion, ever-expanding in the further unfolding of the riches of the glory of His grace. Neither is it a degenerative work, but always REGENERATIVE; not downward in its motion, but always an UPWARD progression. He has lowered His creation to a state of futility that He may RAISE IT into higher spiritual dimensions in Himself. We can see this principle overtly demonstrated throughout the testimony of Scripture.

Under the Old Covenant God's dealings with man were limited to only one nation, Israel, and His Spirit invested in only a very few chosen individuals. God dealt with Israel on the terms of Law, and prescribed a plenitude of ordinances, observances, sacrifices, and offerings to which His people were bound in obedience. They were given only types and shadows of the reality and substance of God; the feasts and temple rites were merely symbolical figures of a higher spiritual reality which was as yet veiled to their understanding. Jesus of Nazareth limited His ministry to ONE people, the chosen nation of Israel, for they and they alone were made recipients of the promises of Abraham. But how things CHANGED upon the institution of the NEW Covenant! God's dealings with men became universal; Jew or Gentile, Greek or Roman, it mattered not, for ALL MEN were brought nigh unto God by the redeeming blood of Jesus. Jesus was the fulfillment of all the Law; from henceforth, God would impute His righteousness to men solely by grace through faith, wholly apart from their works, rituals, sacrifices, and religious ordinances. The types and symbols of Judaism gave way to the REALITY which they foreshadowed -- the appearing of the Messiah and His redemptive sacrifice on Calvary. No longer did men need to worship God in the temple, for now men WERE THE TEMPLE. Even the Aaronic priesthood was abolished by a Priest of a new and higher order -- the Melchizedek priesthood, of which Jesus became the sole High Priest. The former priesthood was brought to ruin and nullified when the veil of the temple was rent in twain. That which God had ordained and established by His Word under the Old Covenant He abolished under the New Covenant, in order to reveal Himself in a higher dimension, that men may know Him in truth and spirit, rather than in form and ritual. God created a NEW ORDER for a new day, for there is "a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted" (Ecc. 3:2). Indeed, "He taketh away the FIRST that He may establish the SECOND" (Heb. 10:9).

For the past two millennia, God has not dealt with a singular nation, for His higher purpose is to invest Himself in a church, a people composed of every nation and race and kindred and tongue, which is to be His FIRSTFRUIT from among men (Rev. 14:4) for yet a higher unveiling of Himself to all creation. We now stand on the threshold of a new age and a new work in the ever-unfolding purpose of God; the age of God's KINGDOM. This is the age of the reign of the Christ when "the kingdom (or rulership) of the world (will) become the KINGDOM of our Lord and OF HIS CHRIST" (Rev. 11:15). In this kingdom age will the fullness of life and immortality be made manifest in a firstfruit people conformed to the image of the Son and counted worthy to be partakers of the first resurrection. Again, the old order is quickly passing. A NEW DAY of greater glory is even now dawning. The higher realities of His kingdom are supplanting those of the church age as we come to behold Him AS HE IS. Whereas we have known Him in gifts and ministries, and in the anointing of His Spirit, we shall now know Him in the FULNESS of HIMSELF. And His appearing in His many-membered body, in myriads of HIMSELF, at the confluence of the present age with the next will be something far beyond His incarnation in flesh two thousand years ago, for "every eye shall see Him" when He "comes to be glorified IN HIS SAINTS on that day, and to be marveled at IN ALL WHO HAVE BELIEVED" (II Thes. 1:10).

The limited vision of church doctrine would draw the matter to a conclusive end then and there, consigning the lost to an eternity of hell, while the saved "go to heaven" where they have nothing to do and all eternity to do it in. But the Scripture indicates otherwise, for we are told of ages to come in which the surpassing riches of His grace shall be demonstrated through those having been raised up together with Him and seated together with Him in the highest heaven (Eph. 2:6-7). There is yet coming a "fullness of times" in which ALL THINGS in the heavens and upon the earth are to be summed up or consummated into Christ (Eph. 1:10); a day in which EVERY CREATED THING in the heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and ALL THINGS IN THEM give blessing and honor and glory and dominion to Him Who sits upon the throne (Rev. 5:13). His word also declares with the utmost clarity that even as all men have been made to die in Adam, so shall ALL MEN be made alive in Christ, each in his own rank of succession (1 Cor. 15:22-23). God's redemption of mankind is obviously an ongoing, unceasing work. I will leave it to the mentors of modern Babylon to figure out just how ALL MEN are to be made ALIVE IN CHRIST if they will be spending the rest of eternity in hell!

There is even coming an age when Christ shall relinquish His reign to the Father, "for He must reign UNTIL He has put all His enemies under His feet. Then comes THE END (the obtaining of God's ultimate purpose) when He delivers up the kingdom to God, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. And when ALL THINGS are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One Who subjected all things to Him, that God may be ALL THINGS IN ALL" (1 Cor. 15:24-28). The words do not exist which might be adequate to describe the magnitude of blessing, glory, and grace which shall proceed from the Father's throne in those untold ages which have yet to unfold as God continues to affect the progressive, enlarging, ever-expanding, all-encompassing scope of His reconciliation for the creation to its final conclusion.

You will have to think outside the box of religious dogma if you are ever to begin to perceive such a thing as God's purpose in the ages. You're not likely to hear it from the pastor.

It is God's expectation "that the creation itself also will be SET FREE from its slavery to corruption" (Rom. 8:21). It is God's expectation that "in Christ shall ALL MEN be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:22). It is God's expectation that "EVERY KNEE SHOULD BOW, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that EVERY TONGUE SHOULD CONFESS that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of the Father" (Phil. 2:10-11). It is God's expectation that ALL THINGS that have come out from Him, and that proceed through Him, shall also be consummated INTO HIM, that God should be ALL THINGS IN ALL (Rom. 11:36, 1 Cor. 15:28, Eph. 1:10). It is God's expectation that "ALL MEN should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth" (1Tim. 2:4). And to ensure that His expectation will be fully realized, God has taken a vow by no higher authority than Himself, and has sent forth His irrevocable Word which cannot return to Him void, commanding, "Turn to Me, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH; for I am God, and there is no other" (Isa. 45:22-23).  Unless I err in my elementary grammar, that first sentence is an imperative statement. "Look unto Me, and BE YE SAVED." God has not merely invited all the ends of the earth to turn unto Him and be saved -- GOD HAS COMMANDED IT! Well, so much for the choosing of man's "free will." Fact is, man has no choice in the matter at all, for God has COMMANDED it! God has not issued an invitation, and kindly asked for an RSVP. GOD has issued the COMMAND! All mankind must answer that command.

 If even ONE MAN remains lost for the rest of eternity, then, my friends, it is my solemn duty to announce to you that GOD HAS FAILED! If the punishment of the wicked is everlasting and eternal, then God is the most cruel and merciless of liars, and His word is wholly invalid and without authority. God's expectation for the creation is then nothing but a vain hope, an empty wish; death will never be abolished, creation will never be set free, all men will never be saved, all who have died in Adam will never be made alive in Christ, and God can never be all in all, for His creation will go forever unreconciled. Your Bible is also, therefore, a book of lies; Jesus cannot be the Savior of ALL MEN, nor was He made the ransom for ALL, as your Bible declares, if ALL are not to be ransomed. Moreover, if Jesus "gave Himself as a ransom for ALL" (1 Tim. 2:6), and ALL are not to be ransomed, then was His cruel death on Calvary's tree an ineffectual hoax, and He is less a Redeemer than we have thought Him to be. Even now I can hear one yelling, "Blasphemy!" Indeed, to propound such things is nothing short of blasphemy, which is exactly the contemptuous profanity of religion's sadistic, vindictive teaching of eternal damnation! You would have to tear your Bible all to pieces to believe such a thing. Now who do you suppose we should believe dear ones; men, or GOD?

When we understand, however, that the work and purpose of God is ever ongoing, ever enlarging, ever unfolding in greater dimensions of grace and glory, encompassing all men of all ages until all His word is brought to fulfillment and completion, both the punishment of the wicked and the life of the righteous as AGE-LASTING formations of God become clearly understandable.

We need look no farther than the pages of the Bible to find the clearest example of the progression of this age-lasting life which is ours by the Faith of Jesus: "And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified" (Rom. 8:30). If you are of the Faith of Jesus, dear reader, then you were PREDESTINED to this "eternal" life long before you were called. And having been CALLED, you were then JUSTIFIED. And having been JUSTIFIED, you are now undergoing the processing of SANCTIFICATION being set apart, consecrated, and purged of the chaff of flesh by the judgments of fire. And in the economy of God, you shall also be GLORIFIED with Him at His appearing. Are you NOW glorified? Do you NOW possess the fullness of His Spirit without measure? Have you NOW put off mortality and been clothed with that which is incorruptible? "Having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, Who is given AS A PLEDGE OF OUR INHERITANCE, WITH A VIEW TO THE REDEMPTION OF GOD'S PURCHASED POSSESSION" (Eph. 1:13-14). He has given us the Holy Spirit as a PLEDGE -- a DOWN PAYMENT, if you will -- in the assurance that the redemption of His purchased possession will be finalized, brought to full completion, when we are CHANGED into His likeness.

If this present PLEDGE of life that we now possess is to be eternal, then we are of all men most to be pitied; for that which is eternal is unchangeable, immutable, never ending; and we shall always remain in our present state of infantile spiritual reality, forever to know Him only "in part," never to apprehend the HOPE OF HIS CALLING. I pray to God that my present condition of life in Christ is not eternal, for to exist for the rest of eternity in my present state of spiritual limitation and soulish imperfection, always yearning for a more complete expression of Himself, desiring the full unveiling of His image and nature, and never to obtain it, would surely be the torment of hell itself! Thank God it is not so! For the spiritual life we now possess in Christ is in a constant state of CHANGE, of GROWTH, of DEVELOPMENT, until that which is perfect is come, and we shall "awake with Thy likeness" (Ps. 17:15). This age-during life that He has invested in those of His calling and election, and which is to embrace all men, shall endure throughout the ages, ever raising men into higher dimensions of His Spirit and glory, ever conforming men to the fullness of redemption and incorruption, preparing men to transcend the scope of time and limitation to inhabit the realm of eternity. In this very hour He is preparing a firstfruit people in whom to demonstrate the wonder of His age-lasting, incorruptible life. Even so, COME, LORD JESUS!

It is not surprising that we find this principle of age-lasting life demonstrated even in the natural, mortal life of man, for those things which are seen in the natural realm are simply reflections of the higher realities of the spiritual realm. At the time of conception, a "life" is invested in the womb, although it is but the seed of that which has yet to be manifested. Nine months later, that "life" takes its first independent breath, the seed brought to the birth; yet it is but an infant "life." We would never pretend that the life of an infant is immutable and unchangeable, for a great many years of changes, growth, developments, disciplining, corrections, maturing, and learning lay ahead. Through the years of infancy, childhood, adolescence, and adulthood, that same "life" which was conceived as a seed will undergo much transformation; yet it is, nonetheless, the very same "life." The very one conceived in the womb is the same one which is brought to full maturity. The essence of life does not change, although the person may change drastically in character, attitude, abilities, etc., as the circumstances and opportunities of life bring their influence to bear on the soulical nature of the man.

So it is with those who are born from above. In the regeneration by the Spirit, we are brought to an awakening of reality in Christ which is but a foretaste of the fullness of His glory and nature which He has predestined that we apprehend. The whole of our walk in Christ is a process whereby we "grow up into Him in all things" (Eph.4:15), until at last the Christ becomes formed in us (Gal. 4:19), and we are conformed into the very likeness of His glory, even to the transformation of the natural, physical body into conformity with the body of His glory (Phil. 3:21). And even the putting off of the corruptible and the putting on of the incorruptible is not an apprehending of eternal life -- yet. It is certainly an entering in to a state or condition of immortality, a condition in which death has been vanquished; but even immortality is only a precursor to that state of being in which all things that have proceeded out from God are once again summed up into Him, and find their "eternity" only in the Eternal One.

Consider that when the last enemy of God, death, is itself abolished, the distinction between "mortality" and "immortality" will become moot. Death shall have no further effect in any measure whatsoever upon God's creation; the very condition of death shall cease to exist. Therefore, there will be no more mortality, for mortality defines that which is capable of dying. Immortality exists only in relationship to mortality; that which is incapable of death standing in direct contradistinction to that which has the inherent possibility of dying. If death and mortality become non-entities, neither will immortality hold any place or notoriety, for eternity knows nothing of that which is either mortal or immortal. Do you see? In eternity there is no death or dying; neither, then, is there anything mortal or immortal. Immortality is a state of un-dying life which shall be possessed by those apprehending the fullness of the Christ-life throughout the ages. The state of immortality itself shall, at the completion of the ages, give way to a totally new and higher dimension of spiritual existence in God. The life that we have of Him, therefore, is the life of the ages. It is the true life, the substance of the fullness of the life which is in Christ Jesus, the Living One, operating in and through us for the ministration of God's purpose in the ages, the expectation that creation shall be set free from the bondage of corruption, and that all men for whom He gave His life shall be recipients of His Life!

THE NATIONS GONE MAD

"And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, 'Behold, they are one people, and they have all the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them'" (Gen. 11:5-6).

Man will forever seek to build his "tower of power," his empire of sovereignty and dominion, exalting the works of his hands and the glory of his intellect for, seemingly, nothing that he purposes to do will be impossible. It is clearly evident that man's empirical towers of political power, corporate and financial power, military power, and religious power have reached ever greater heights of consolidation and dominion as we embark upon the twenty-first century. Man has quite literally set himself among the stars sending probes into the outer reaches of deep space, constructing for his habitation a station in space in the heights of the heavens, and has set about devising the means of colonizing the moon, and Mars, and beyond. He builds his towers of concrete, glass and steel higher and higher into the sky, competing even with himself for the exaltation and preeminence of having constructed the tallest building in the world; the currently reigning structure is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai towering 2,722 feet into the clouds. Indeed, nothing will be impossible to him.

Throughout history man has built his empires, subjugating his conquered nations by force in the pursuit of his absolute dominion over the race of mankind. It is none but that spirit of Babylon, the beast in man by which he demands that the entire world should bow before his image and that none should have the means or privilege to buy or sell save he that unquestioningly acknowledges servitude to his supreme masters.

On the day that the Lord God confounded the language of the people in the plain of Shinar and scattered them abroad over the face of the earth, man's hand was stayed from achieving the realization of being one people, united in intent and purpose to consolidate their power in defiance of the Lord, to make for themselves a NAME, to stamp upon the world the mark of his nature, that the NAME OF MAN may live in perpetuity. Man has since never ceased to regroup, re-gather, re-unify, and plot his strategies for world domination. And in the closing moments of this age it cannot be denied that he has made all the inhabitants of the earth to take his mark and to draft deeply of the intoxicating brew of the cup of his abomination.

That Babylonian tower of brick and mortar is now seen manifested metaphorically in the lust for world dominance by the modern financial high priests of Baal who worship the god of mammon in the accumulation of great wealth and political power. Unfettered corporate/political power and international finance are the means by which the nations are brought to obedience by the greed and corruption of power-driven men; "globalization" and "free trade" are the modern terminology for the subjugation and enslavement of all peoples and nations under economic and political tyranny. And the Empire wields its awesome military power to force compliance in those nations who dare to not walk lockstep with her dictums, and to further consolidate her mastery over them with a multitude of military bases from which to foment her wars of aggression. Sounds very much like Nimrod's playbook from days of old.

Nimrod was the first to build walled cities to provide security for the people against the prey of wild animals and the intrusion of enemies. Consolidating the nomadic peoples behind walls was also very effective in controlling the population and in mandating obedience to the worship of Baal. Given the promise of safety and security, liberty and freedom, they soon found themselves trapped under the tyranny of their great "Emancipator" as Nimrod extolled his dominion of the world and took it by force, waging war against every nation from Mesopotamia to northern Africa.

So it is that the modern Empire of Babylon loudly proclaims freedom and liberty to all within its walls, human rights and justice, equality and civil liberties (even "democracy," whatever that is); and yes, Nimrod will keep us safe. The propaganda of optimism and "exceptionalism" are fed to the deluded masses while every institution of free thought, justice, and liberty is undermined in the furtherance of totalitarian control. And modern Babylon has even perfected the mass electronic surveillance of her subjects to further ensure their control; Nimrod would be envious.

In the late 1950s a revolutionary idealist styled by the American press as an "agrarian reformer" sought to liberate the people of Cuba from the repression and corruption of President Fulgencio Batista. Fidel Castro was hailed by the New York Times as a man of high ideals with "strong ideas of liberty, democracy, and social justice." It was not long after Fidel gained control of the government that this "agrarian reformer" demonstrated his "high ideals" to be those of Communist totalitarianism, and the state of affairs for the people of Cuba went from tolerable to terrible. The arch-deceiver of Babylon succeeds again.

Deception and bondage are the hallmark of Babylon. Governments promise "democratic reform" and "free elections," and to improve the desperate lives of their citizens while their dubiously "elected" politicians deliver the same corruption and cronyism they pretended to depose. That the people remain in abject poverty with no electricity or running water and raw sewage running in the streets is none of their concern. A lyric from an old song by The Who comes to mind: "Meet the new boss; same as the old boss." (Ironically the song is called We Won't Get Fooled Again!) Religion promises a path to salvation and spiritual enlightenment while delivering the enslavement of law, ordinance, works, the performance of ritual, and the prospect of eternal hell for all who do not acquiesce. The Wall Street loan sharks offer to deliver you from the monthly stress of making the ends meet, and the means of buying that new flat screen high-def TV that you just gotta have for football season with one little plastic "credit" card, knowing full well that the compounding interest will make you a slave to their debt peonage for the rest of your life. While professing to make men free, Babylon's tentacles have only enslaved multitudes in unwitting servitude to her kingdom. "And all who dwell on the earth will worship the beast…and he provides that no one should be able to buy or sell, except the one who has the mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name" (Rev. 13: 8, 17). So what's your credit score?

Out of the mind-bending arrogance of the wealthy multi-billionaire elite Babylon declares, "I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and I will never see mourning" (Rev. 18:7). Perhaps these exalted ones should take heed of Revelation 18: "And (the angel) cried out with a mighty voice saying, 'Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! And she has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality…For this reason in one day her plagues will come, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God Who judges her is strong." Babylon's high towers will fall to ruin even as did the towers of her World Trade Center: "And the kings of the earth who committed immorality and lived luxuriously with her will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of the fear of her torment saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour your judgment has come.'"

Babylon has made some very strange bedfellows. She is the common harlot with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication. The powerful forces of international finance, politics, and religion are melded into an interdependent network, the machinations of which are kept well concealed from the casual observer, and always denied when stumbled upon, and bringing the wrath of the beast upon any who so dare to uncover her deception. Leakers, whistleblowers, and journalists are prosecuted as "terrorists" and silenced with long prison terms in solitary confinement. Babylon's grand design was stated unabashedly, if not unwittingly, by the nineteenth century banker baron, businessman, and railroad tycoon, Jacob Schiff, who frankly declared, "We will have world government whether we like it or not, either by coercion or by consent." Man has never ceased in the building of his tower.

"These (kingdoms or nations) have ONE MIND (i.e. one RESOLVE or PURPOSE), and shall give their power and strength unto the beast" (Rev. 17:13). One cannot help but perceive the fulfillment of that word as we witness the fullness and mastery of the dominion of man upon the earth, the mark of his character and the number of his name written upon the foreheads of all the inhabiters of the earth. This should come as no surprise nor be cause for alarm or despair; for GOD HAS ORDAINED that it be so! "For God has put it in their hearts to execute HIS PURPOSE by having a common purpose (lit. even to do one mind), and to give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God should be fulfilled" (ibid. vs. 17).

For all the whoredoms, the idolatries, and the abominations fomented by Babylon, for all the bondage, death, and destruction brought upon the race of man by her hand, one may find the word of the Lord as spoken by Jeremiah to be quite unbelievable: "BABYLON HAS BEEN A GOLDEN CUP IN THE HAND OF THE LORD, intoxicating all the earth. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the NATIONS ARE GOING MAD" (Jer. 51:7). My God! This is a divinely imposed delirium; a forced state of drunkenness; a prescribed madness! Inasmuch as that great harlot herself has "a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornications," so has SHE been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord wherewith all the nations have been made to stagger and reel in drunken stupor.

Such a statement might be discarded as preposterous, such a thing inconceivable, were it not for the indisputable sovereignty of the God Who causes all things to work according to the counsel of His own will. For the God Who hardened the heart of Pharaoh is also He Who spoke to him saying, "For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate My power in you, and that MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH" (Rom. 9:17). The same Most High God Who called Nebuchadnezzar "My servant" is also He Who drove the mighty Babylonian king from his throne and caused him to wander as a beast of the field for seven years until Nebuchadnezzar understood that "the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind, and bestows it (the power of rulership) on whomever He wishes" (Dan. 4:25). From the mouth of Nebuchadnezzar himself do we have the sure testimony, "And all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, but He does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of earth; and no man can ward off His hand or say to Him, 'What hast Thou done?'" (ibid. vs. 35).

In prophesying of Israel's impending captivity to the kingdom of Babylon Jeremiah spoke, "For thus says the Lord; the God of Israel says to me, 'Take this cup of the wine of wrath FROM MY HAND, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it. And they shall drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them'" (Jer. 25:15-16). Thus with the golden cup of the wine of His wrath did the Lord consign all the nations under the yoke of Babylonian servitude: "For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'I have put a YOKE OF IRON on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him'" (Jer. 28:14).

Why is it such a strange thing that God would consign the nations and all the inhabitants of the earth to Babylon's yoke of bondage? Is this not the same God Who subjected the creation to futility and corruption in the expectation that He shall also set it free from the yoke of death, that His name might be proclaimed in all the heavens and earth, that the glory of His grace might be demonstrated to all who are sold under bondage? Indeed, God does nothing without PURPOSE! And no man may say unto Him, "What have You done to us?"

So off to Babylon went the children of Israel. There they would settle, build their homes, till the land, give their sons and daughters in marriage, and raise their generations. There also they would learn the ways of the heathen, come to worship their gods, and integrate themselves into the culture and social order of their captors. But within those walls of bondage God has a seed. God always has a seed, a remnant, those who have not defiled their garments; those who, like Daniel, bow daily in worship to the Most High God in flagrant disregard to Babylon's decrees, refusing to prostrate themselves before the image of gold. "?They shall be carried to Babylon, and they shall be there UNTIL THE DAY I VISIT THEM,' declares the Lord. 'Then will I BRING THEM BACK and restore them to this place'" (Jer. 27:22). Babylon is appointed as the cup in the hand of the Lord for the PRESERVATION of His holy vessels, His seed, until the day of His visitation; in that day shall their deliverance come.

Fear not, my friends, in looking upon the upheaval and calamity that is extant upon the earth, the madness of the nations; for it is an appointed travail until the Word of the Lord shall be fulfilled.

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''Writhe and labor to give birth, daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth: for now you will go out of the city, dwell in the field, and go to Babylon; THERE  YOU WILL BE RESCUED; THERE THE LORD WILL REDEEM YOU from the hand of your enemies'' (Micah 4:10).

Within the dark confinement of Babylon's towering walls this daughter of Zion will surely be enticed by the riches of that kingdom, by the splendors of her adornments, by the pomp and circumstance of her ceremony, the gaiety and revelry of her festivities, the awesomeness of her imposing monuments. Surely will she learn the ways of Babylon's dark mysteries, adopt her customs, assimilate her language, adorn herself in Babylon's finest garments, and even come to worship her gods. And out of the depths of so great a corruption, there the Lord shall stretch forth His hand to DELIVER and REDEEM His chosen daughter, and how great a deliverance it shall be!

How glorious is truth when one has known naught but error; how brilliant the light when one has dwelt only in darkness; how sweet the liberty of freedom when one has known only the bondage of captivity. "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an EXPECTED END" (Jer. 29:11). The literal Hebrew translates, "an end and an expectation"; that is, "an end, yea, an end which I have caused you to hope for." This chosen daughter of Zion shall be delivered at the appointed hour and brought out with a mighty hand from the kingdom of her oppressors; "And I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried captive" (ibid. vs. 14).

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her" (Hosea 2:14). The Hebrew for "comfortably" is leb, meaning the heart; figuratively it speaks of the feelings, the will, and the intellect of man, thus that innermost being, the SOUL. Amid that barren wilderness to which she has been allured by her Lord, He will speak to her heart, comforting her with His word of life, sustaining her by the grace of His Spirit, renewing and transforming her even in that place of solitude and darkness. How truly we understand that the work which the Lord has purposed to bring forth in His chosen can only be accomplished in the wilderness, out of the furnace of affliction. There, veiled from the natural understanding, hidden from all outward appearance, in the dry, barren, solitude and destitution does His Spirit process, try, purge, cleanse, and transform His chosen ones. And though it is not the most pleasant place to dwell, it is that sojourn so adverse to our flesh which effectively purges from us the enmity of the flesh toward God. Here the daughter of Zion will become renewed in mind, transformed in nature, formed in the image of her Beloved, and brought forth in glory.

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt" (Hosea 2:14-15). The valley of Achor is the valley of trouble. Here will the daughter of Zion see adversity and affliction, hardship and vexation, sifting and suffering. And this very valley of trouble has been GIVEN TO HER as a door of hope -- that is, an ENTRANCE OF EXPECTATION. A most significant event transpired in the valley of Achor; it was there that Achan, who in the days of Joshua had hidden the goodly Babylonish garment, the shekels of silver, and the wedge of gold in his tent, that he was taken along with all his family and possessions and stoned with stones and burned with fire and a great heap of stones raised over them, eradicating from the camp of Israel even the memory of the defilement of Babylon. How blessed are they who come to the valley of Achor! For there shall the Lord judge Babylon and bring upon her quick and complete destruction. The valley of Achor is the entrance of expectation for Zion's virgin daughter, for from thence shall her deliverance come! So thoroughly shall Babylon be laid waste, so full and complete the salvation of His chosen, that even the memory of her name shall not be uttered by their lips; ''For I will take away the names of Baalim (the many gods of Babylon) OUT OF HER MOUTH, and they shall NO MORE BE REMEMBERED by their name" (Hosea 2:17).

"After these things I heard, as it were, a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying, 'Hallelujah, Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants from her hand''' (Rev. 19:1-2). Now is that great kingdom of whoredom and idolatry destroyed; now is made ready the great marriage supper of the Lamb (ibid. vs. 7-9). No longer shall the bondage and defilement of Babylon trouble Zion, for the day of the Lord's visitation has come, and He has turned again her captivity. Her mourning turned to joy, her weeping turned to singing, she has been given beauty for ashes and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; for the wife of the Lamb has made herself ready. She has cast away the despised Babylonish garment to be clothed anew in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of her Beloved, Who hath chosen her from before the foundation of the world to be without spot or wrinkle in His presence. "And it will come about in that day, declares the Lord, that you will call Me Ishi (that is, my husband); and will no longer call Me Baali (my master, or my Baal). For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth so that they will be mentioned (or remembered) by their names no more. And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you shall know the Lord" (Hosea 2:16-17, 20).

The day of the Lord's visitation is nigh. The trumpet is even now sounding from the heavens announcing the completion of God's mystery - the REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. By the judgment of His fire and the sword of His Word the kingdom of Babylon shall fall to ruin and be remembered no more. Let us not be found at ease within the fortifications of that kingdom when God remembers her iniquities and rewards her for her works, but heed the liberating voice of His Spirit to "Come out of her My people," to "Flee out of the midst of Babylon"; for His command to those with hearing ears is implicit: "Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the flocks" (Jer. 50:8).

Let all who are called as sons throw off the garments of Babylon, cease from bowing to her precepts, observing her traditions, and paying homage to her images. Let not the names of her gods so much as fall from the lips of God's holy remnant or the remembrance of them defile the temple of the Most High. Let us, rather, rise above Babylon's hoodwink of idolatrous corruption to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, to know only Him in the reality of spirit, in the righteousness of His nature and the fullness of His glory. Let us be renewed in the spirit of our minds that in apprehending the mind of Christ we may at last and forever be set free from the captivity of Babylon.

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