(PART ONE of TWO) Hello everybody and welcome in to episode #358 of the Bible 2021 podcast. We are reading Reading Revelation 18 today and our focus is on is the organized church the whore of Babylon? We are a daily 10ish minute podcast, where we will dig in to the truth of the Word of God by reading one Bible chapter a day and discussing it. Welcome to new listeners in . Our goal is to encourage DAILY Bible reading, so you can jump in at any time and join with us. We want to invite as many people as possible to join us in daily Bible reading, so help spread the word and share the podcast! Don’t forget about our web-page, Bible2021.com – contact page, show notes, transcript and more– Click here for our Bible 2021 reading plan\ 

Today is a two-part episode, by the way – it became too large to fit into one episode. Be sure and listen to episode #359 also! Also, a bit of a head’s up: chapter 18 of Revelation is ALL about the fall of Babylon the Great – that is pretty much the focus of this chapter and chapter 17 and part of 19 as well, and thus it is our focus as well.

A caveat: today’s episode is kind of personal, in some ways, which is a very, very strange thing to say about Revelation 18, I realize. But What I mean that it is personal is because a very good friend – a dear and beloved friend of many years – recently sent me a book written by a man in Knoxville, Tennesee, which makes the claim that the current institutional church is the whore of Babylon. Now, before we discuss this, allow me to say up front that I am the pastor of an institutional/organized church with a name – Valley Baptist church in Salinas, California. Before that I pastored another church, Agape Baptist Church in Pinson, Alabama. According to the book we will discuss today, and the idea that what we know as church is the whore of Babylon, I am a leader – not an important one, but a leader – in the whore of Babylon – a false system that is infiltrated by witchcraft and controlled by the flesh and Satan, and is opposed to the true will of God in the Earth. Therefore, you must consider that today when listening to my opinion. Don’t make your judgment as to who the whore/harlot of Babylon is based on my testimony, but based on what the Word of God says.

Here is are some excertps from the book The Harlot Church System by Charles E. Newbold:

Zion refers to the true body of Christ, the bride, the ekklesia; Babylon refers to the false church system
of men’s traditions and religions. (Ekklesia is the Greek word in the New Testament which has been
mis-translated “church” in most English versions, but it literally means “called-out-ones”.)
Zion is a people–the people of God; Babylon is a Thing–church institutions and systems.
Zion is a living organism; Babylon is characterized by organizations, institutions, and systems.
Zion consists of people who have been born into it; Babylon consists of people who have joined it or
been voted into it. Zion is a people who are called by the name of Jesus; Babylon is a people who are called by many
different names that represent divisions within this Babylonian church system: Baptist, Catholic,
Charismatic, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, and all the rest.
Zion is Jesus-centered; Babylon is self-centered…The word church, as we use it, speaks of an illegal, unholy mystical union which embodies buildings,
institutions, denominations, and people. These have been so fused and confused with each other that
they perpetuate the dangerous lie that this Thing we call church (buildings, institutions, denominations,
and the people associated with them) is Christ’s assembly of called-out-ones….Soon after
my conversion in 1978, I saw how this church Thing was an idolatrous system of men’s traditions. I
despised it (not the people in it); yet, I felt a seductive pull back into it (p.15) …..Many who dare to leave one church go down the street hoping for a better “spiritual climate” only to find the same old whore in a brand new dress (p. 16)…This idolatrous system of men’s traditions, bundled in this Thing we call church and typified by the
Jezebel spirit is destined to be destroyed. (p.19)…..People are so deceived by this darkness that they have
innocently become the dispensers of it. Church, in all of its darkness, is the counterfeit harlot to the true
bride. The harlot church system springs forth from those who have spiritual Babylon in their hearts. This
Babylon is the great whore that sits on many waters. “Many waters” includes all peoples of all nations in
all denominations and non-denominational churches who practice the harlotry of church.
The harlot church system cannot be fixed. It can never be redeemed. It is flesh and all flesh is under
the domain of Satan. God’s people–we who are called by His name and who do not allow ourselves to
be called by any other name–must come out of Babylon. (p. 105-106)   From  The Harlot Church System by Charles E. Newbold Jr. 

As you can see, the author compares and contrasts “Zion,” which he defines as, ” a symbolic place in the spirit where Jesus is the only thing there is. He alone takes preeminence.” (page 3), with organized churches – Baptist churches, Methodist, Lutheran, etc. In other words, any church that has a name and a building, and – presumably a pastor or a group of leaders – is not part of God’s Kingdom, or Zion – not part of the real “Ekklesia” but part of Babylon. The author despises the institution of church (not the people) and believes it to be under the domain of Satan. He says that the church is the counterfeit harlot to God’s true church – followers of God that are wise and spiritual enough to not go to a “church” – and that the church is the great whore of Revelation 18 and the people in those churches are practicing spiritual prostitution and must leave the church, because the church cannot be fixed and it can never be redeemed.

So that is a lot to talk about, and we will not give a full and complete answer to this book and all of its allegations in today’s episode because of time constraints, but we want to look at the Scripture and see what the Word of God says about the harlot/whore of Babylon. I do need to say that Newbold is correct about one thing – “Ekklesia” has been translated to “church” and that is not a great translation of the word at all. Church comes from a Latin word that means of or belonging to the Lord, so it isn’t an evil translation, exactly, but an Ekklesia in Greek does indeed mean “called out ones.” Many, many, many pastors have preached this over the years, myself included, and you’ve probably heard that on this podcast. The Body of Christ is not a building or a service or a denomination or anything like that, but a people. This is a truth that more Christians must understand, but does this mean that every group of people that calls itself a church is actually part of the whore of Babylon and under the dominion of Satan? That’s the big question.

To answer it, we need to look at John’s description of this entity, and we begin in Revelation 17:

⁴ The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls. She had a golden cup in her hand filled with everything detestable and with the impurities of her prostitution. ⁵ On her forehead was written a name, a mystery: Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things of the Earth. ⁶ Then I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the witnesses to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. Revelation 17:4-6 

This woman has several titles: “Babylon the Great,” “The Mother of Prostitutes and of the Detestable Things on the Earth” and, possibly “Mystery,” which may be John’s description of her name, or it may be another title. She is also called a “notorious prostitute” in Rev. 17:1 and “Babylon the great city,” in Revelation 18:10 and 18:21.

To answer that, we need to look at what the New Testament says about Babylon. When we do, we find “Babylon” mentioned about 14 times in the New Testament. The first few references are quite simply to the kingdom of Babylon in a non-symbolic way- Babylon was a very real kingdom and world power who utterly defeated Judea and took them into captivity a few centuries before the birth of Jesus. Other than Revelation, there is only one reference in the New Testament that refers to “Babylon” in a non-literal/symbolic way, and that is,  1 Peter 5:13  “¹³ She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, as does Mark, my son.” So here we have what seems to be the ONLY other non-literal/symbolic use of Babylon in the New Testament outside of Revelation, so this is quite a clue for us! Unfortunately, we aren’t 100% sure what “Babylon” means here. There are 3 possibilities: 1. This refers to a person or church in literal Babylon – which commentators agree is possible, but not likely. this of course would mean that Peter was not being metaphorical, but literally using an actual place name. #2 Peter is referring to a small place in Egypt called “Babylon.” Most commentators think this is slightly possible, but highly unlikely, and again would mean that Peter is being literal and not metaphorical. #3 Peter is referring to Rome metaphorically in the same way that John calls Jerusalem Sodom and Egypt earlier in Revelation – he is being metaphorical and also speaking in code. Dr. Ben Witherington says, “‘Babylon’ was the Jewish code name for Rome, as is perfectly clear from many references (2 Bar. 11:1-2; 67:7; 2 Esd. 3:1-28; Sib. Or. 5:143, 157-160; cf. Rev. 14:8; 16:19; 17:18; 18:2-24).”

Why is this significant? Because none of Peter’s uses of Babylon seem to have anything to do with a code word for a group of people calling themselves a church.

And that is as good of a stopping point as we can get to. Join us tomorrow for the second half of our discussion on whether or not the institutional church is Babylon the Great/The Great Harlot. Let’s read our chapter and close out.

P.S. It is entirely appropriate to call a group of believers meeting in one specific place an “Ekklesia.”     Colossians 4:15 Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church (EKKLESIA) in her house.

_______________________________________________

Bible Memory passage for the month of December: Revelation 5:12, “They said with a loud voice: Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!”

The Bible 2021 Podcast Is a ministry of Valley Baptist Church A Church in North Salinas, California.

Happy by Mike Leite https://soundcloud.com/mikeleite
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/al_ha