The hearts of the naïve continue to be deceived by the likes of Rick Warren, who referred to the Pope as the "Holy Father"; a title reserved for God alone. He called for unity with Rome despite the fact that the Pope is considered the Vicar of Christ on earth. The implication of this title is that the Pope believes he has the same power and authority over the church that Christ has. This of course is blasphemous.
Beloved, the deeper we get into the end times the closer we all get to having to make a decision who we are in this for. If we are in this for ourselves and our convenience then we will see the Rick Warren's of the world as well intended folks who are just trying to cure the world's ills. If we hold them up to the light of Scripture however we will see Revelation unfolding before our eyes. We will read the seventeenth chapter of Revelation and see the prophetic decree about what this harlot one world church system will look like.
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: "Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations."And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly. - Revelation 17: 3-6 (ESV)
This apostate one world church system is starting in these days. It is starting when one of the most visible pastors in evangelicalism travels to Rome, calls the Pope the Holy Father, and says because he loves Jesus we are all on the same team. Sorry Rick. We are not all on the same team. Narrow is the way to eternal life and few will find it. What part of this do you not understand? Moving into the eighteenth chapter of Revelation we see God imploring us beloved! Come out of her my people; lest you take part in her sins and share in her plagues! Her sins are heaped as high as the heavens and God has remembered her iniquities! To pay her back for her deeds a double portion of the cup she has mixed awaits her!
Look at these verses and think about the modern apostate church very carefully. She has glorified herself and lived in luxury! She says I sit as a queen! I am no widow! Mourning I will never see! Dear Lord can this be any clearer? This is the message of the modern church! All luxury at the expense of widows and orphans. Sitting like an opulent queen arrogantly saying nothing will befall us! We shall see no mourning! Can you see the connection? Consider that one of the recurring themes for Joseph Prince is that God is never angry with us and never chastises us. Consider that Bill Johnson and others routinely teach that God always wants to heal us. Consider the routine preaching of the Creflo Dollars and Kenneth Copeland's of the world are to prop up the prosperity of this world as something to not only dream of but to demand of God. Let us look at the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary notes for verse 4:
4. Come out of her, my people--quoted from Jer 50:8; 51:6, 45. Even in the Romish Church God has a people: but they are in great danger; their only safety is in coming out of her at once. So also in every apostate or world-conforming church there are some of God's invisible and true Church, who, if they would be safe, must come out. Especially at the eve of God's judgment on apostate Christendom: as Lot was warned to come out of Sodom just before its destruction, and Israel to come from about the tents of Dathan and Abiram. So the first Christians came out of Jerusalem when the apostate Jewish Church was judged. "State and Church are precious gifts of God. But the State being desecrated to a different end from what God designed it, namely. to govern for, and as under, God, becomes beast-like; the Church apostatizing becomes the harlot. The true woman is the kernel: beast and harlot are the shell: whenever the kernel is mature, the shell is thrown away" [Auberlen]. "The harlot is not Rome alone (though she is pre-eminently so), but every Church that has not Christ's mind and spirit. False Christendom, divided into very many sects, is truly Babylon, that is, confusion. However, in all Christendom the true Jesus-congregation, the woman clothed with the sun, lives and is hidden. Corrupt, lifeless Christendom is the harlot, whose great aim is the pleasure of the flesh, and which is governed by the spirit of nature and the world" [Hahn in Auberlen]. The first justification of the woman is in her being called out of Babylon the harlot, as the culminating stage of the latter's sin, when judgment is about to fall: for apostate Christendom, Babylon, is not to be converted, but to be destroyed. Secondly, she has to pass through an ordeal of persecution from the beast, which purifies and prepares her for the transfiguration glory at Christ's coming (Re 20:4; Lu 21:28).
Beloved, the days of playing church are winding down. The time is coming when we will have to decide if we want to stay in a system that says they love Jesus but does not do as He has commanded or come out from among her. Our only safety is in coming out from among her. The mistake is in assuming that only Rome is the harlot. No one church system is alone the harlot. There are plenty of Catholic brothers and sisters who are saved and plenty of evangelicals who are not. Either way, the day of decision is coming. Like the Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary pointed out; in all sects of Christendom there are the true Jesus-congregation. It is the corrupt, lifeless Christendom they are surrounded by that is the true harlot. This is the church that are pursuers of fleshly pleasure and governed by the spirit of this world. It is all around us today. It is probably where many of us spend our Sundays. Thinking we can serve God in a fellowship that is playing church games. Playing games of relevance and embracing the culture of a fallen world. Playing games of greed and avarice embracing the temporal trinkets this world has to offer in lieu of the eternal blessings of God. Playing games of false grace and embracing a sinful world while thinking no sorrow can befall me. Playing purpose driven games of ecumenism and embracing flat out heresy as common ground. It matters not what games are being played. The game is coming to an end. It will be time to make a choice. As the key verses warn, her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her. Whoever has ears to hear; let him hear. Do not partner with darkness. Come out from among her.
Reverend Anthony Wade - December 7, 2014
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