No. 14 - BABYLON IS FALLEN, IS FALLEN
By: John J. Blanchard
Saturday, May 18, 2002

We will start by turning to Revelation chapter 8, verse 10: “Then the third angel sounded: and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water; and the name of the star is Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood; and many men died from the water, because it was made bitter.” So a third of the waters were, in a sense, ruined here. Many men died because of the water. This was a great star that fell to the earth doing all of this damage.

Turn to Revelation chapter 12. We will see this star that is called Wormwood is referred to once again. It is not necessarily called Wormwood but it is the same thing. Revelation chapter 12, verse 13: “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child. But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness to her place, where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. So the serpent spewed water out of his mouth like a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood.”

So this dragon was cast to the earth and we know this is Satan persecuting the Church. The Church went into its place of safety, we know, in the Middle Ages and once again in the last days. This dragon and this star called Wormwood are one in the same. Now go to Revelation chapter 13, verse 1: “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority.”

Verse 3: “I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. So they worshipped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying, ‘Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?’”

So we see here that the dragon has a representative on the earth called “the beast.” When they honor the beast, they are worshipping the dragon as well. It is a system that has two parts, in other words. It goes on to say in verse 4 “...Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” So obviously it is the same system making war on the saints that we just read earlier. Verse 5: “And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.”

Verse 7 of Revelation 13: “And it was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. And all who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.”

Now we know this system made war and conquered the saints and drove them into exile, you might say, in the Middle Ages. The true Church went into hiding. Then here in the end times the same thing has happened again. So twice in history this system conquers God’s people. It says right here that it is allowed to overcome the saints. It overcomes them with captivity and sword, and those who endure these things must have patience - the patience of the saints.

A lot of times we read these things and we try to apply them to physical nations of the world going into captivity and stars slamming into the planet earth, destroying the waters and the rivers. As we have seen in our study of the beautiful mind and thoughts of God, we must look at the scriptures in a spiritual way to understand what is happening.

This star called Wormwood or the dragon is obviously Satan. If you look this word up, it is #894. Number 894 means bitterness, calamity, wormwood. A name of Satan’s system is Babylon: the capital of Chaldea and a type of captivity. We know that Babylon took ancient Israel captive and that being the physical forerunner in the last days, it takes the spiritual Church captive. So it is the same system doing it physically and spiritually to God’s people - His nation Israel and His people, the Church.

Now let’s look at Ezekiel 5. Often times when we see Ezekiel 5 (the prophecy of thirds and going into captivity) we know that happened to ancient Israel. We also know it is going to happen again in the last days. Without God’s help, we apply it strictly physically. We are going to apply this spiritually, brethren. Ezekiel chapter 5 verse 9: “‘And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will scatter to all the winds. Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, “surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity.”’”

Verse 12: “‘One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall My anger be spent, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be avenged; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them.’”

We can all look at ancient Israel and we can see the fulfillment of this. We say well, Babylon did come down, Babylon did take them captive, destroyed them with the sword and they were scattered about. Then we look at a later fulfillment when Rome (the next representative of the Babylonish Empire) came and conquered Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and did the same thing. Parents ate their children, there was tremendous suffering and famine and once again they went into captivity. Then we make the mistake of saying, well that is what is going to happen to Israel in the last days. It will be the same thing all over again, not realizing that Zion, Jerusalem, in the last days is a spiritual Church.

You can get the key here, as there was a temple in Jerusalem in 70 A.D. and one in ancient Judah that Babylon captured in 586. There was a temple that got defiled in both cases. Now we know, and we have studied that many times (we will not reprove that right now) that we are the temple of God. There is no physical temple and physical priesthood. We are kings and priests it says in I Peter. We are the temple it says in I Corinthians 3. We have studied that and proven that beyond a shadow of a doubt.

So now let’s look at verse 11 with spiritual eyesight. Ezekiel 5, verse 11: “‘Therefore as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you...’” We are the sanctuary; we are the temple. If we had time, we would go to Ezekiel 13 and Leviticus 26 and see similar admonitions against defiling the sanctuary and defiling the temple and then punishments coming.

If we apply this to the spiritual Church of God, what is happening in the world and what has happened to the Church takes on a different and more important and deeper meaning. We can see by looking at the Old Testament Israel and Judah what we are going through is a modern fulfillment. The Church has gone captive. It has been divided into thirds. It has been driven away from the truth. It has been scattered, because we have defiled the temple in the Church of God in the last days. Perhaps we will do a sermon on that in the future which deals more in depth. But we have touched on it and we have certainly covered the concept of the Church being the temple very thoroughly in the past.

So let’s try to make some sense out of what is going on in the world today and in the Church and try to learn from this for our own spiritual growth. Perhaps we can clear up the vision of what we are supposed to be doing here in the last days.

First of all I want to look at some scriptures about Lucifer (Satan). Obviously if Wormwood and the dragon is Satan, then these other references to Lucifer will help us understand what happened and what is going to happen. Go to Ezekiel chapter 28, verse 1: “The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, ‘Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, “Thus says the Lord God: Because your heart is lifted up, and you say, ‘I am a god, I sit in the seat of gods, in the midst of the seas,’ yet you are a man, and not a god, though you set your heart as the heart of a god (Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! There is no secret that can be hidden from you! With your wisdom and your understanding you have gained riches for yourself, and gathered gold and silver into your treasuries; by your great wisdom in trade you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches).”’”

Of course, there was a physical city of Tyre; but referring to this king of Tyre, it was not headed by a god but man might have thought he was pretty high up there. But this is talking in a dual sense about Satan the devil. We will see that as we keep reading here.

Verse 6: “‘Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have set your heart as the heart of a god, behold, therefore, I will bring strangers against you, the most terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and defile your splendor. They shall throw you down into the pit, and you shall die the death of the slain in the midst of the seas.”’” Now a physical man would die but Satan we know is getting thrown into a pit as well.

Verse 9: “‘Will you still say before him who slays you, “I am a god?” But you shall be a man, and not a god, in the hand of him who slays you. You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of aliens; for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God.” Now this is all physical but we know it applies to Satan, although he is an angel and will not be killed in this manner. But he will be thrown into a pit. Now it makes a transition where we can see this more clearly.

Continuing in verse 11: “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord God...”’” If you remember in the sermon that we covered the other day about a beautiful mind, we referred to Daniel praying to God. God had sent an angel to talk to Daniel and he had to fight the prince of Persia and kings of Persia to get to Daniel. Here you go again, there is a king over Tyre, over this principality, where there is a physical king on the earth. Over Tyre there is a spiritual version of that king. It is more real, you might say. We are making that transition right here in verses 11 and 12. Because then it goes on to say in the second half of verse 12: “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering…’” Now you see how it leaped back to Satan, jumping from the king of Tyre (physical) to Satan. Obviously the king of Tyre was not in the Garden of Eden, he was not that old of a man. So we are making a transition here.

Continuing in verse 13: “‘...the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers…’” The king of Tyre was not a cherub who covers but Lucifer was. He was one of the original angels, a cherub who covers. “‘I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God…’” Now we have studied into the mountains and we understand he was in the government of God. “‘...you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.’”

Verse 15: “‘You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.’” No man has ever been perfect except Jesus Christ so this is talking about Lucifer who was created perfectly. “‘By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.’”

Verse 17: “‘Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor; I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings, that they might gaze at you.’” Before we continue, Tyre was a trading city. It was very wealthy for its merchant class. Lucifer is compared to that as a trader who got rich. Now in Revelation we are going to go look in a little bit here again but you will recall this system trades in the bodies and souls of men. It is not talking money. Lucifer does not need money. Lucifer wants people, followers. He wants to take over God’s government. So you see there is a spiritual dimension here that if we just look too physically, we might think in the last days a system is going to trade in body parts, I have heard. Or trading in slaves would take place. Satan is not interested in body parts, new hearts for people, new corneas. But he is interested in trading in the lives and souls and the future of individual people. So you see here this is talking something far more serious than the physical but we were given physical examples to understand it better.

Now continuing in verse 18: “‘You defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your trading; therefore I brought fire from your midst; it devoured you, and I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you. All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you; you have become a horror, and shall be no more forever.’” He will lose his position forever. His government will be destroyed. Christ government will take over. We have studied that as well. So we need to look at these things in a spiritual sense to understand what is going on in the world today.

Now I would like to turn to Isaiah chapter 14 where there is another reference to Lucifer. Isaiah chapter 14, verse 12: “‘How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations!’” You can see by now we have understood how his government is over the nations and how it has put man against man, brother against brother and causes hatred, envy, anxiety, lust and destruction. Wherever he put his mind to do something he brought pain and suffering to mankind.

Verse 13: “‘For you have said in your heart: “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…”’” Another reference to his government and Christ’s government having stars in them. “‘I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the pit.” There is another reference to that pit.

Verse 16: “‘Those who see you will gaze at you and consider you, saying: “Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners?”’” He has the world held captive. The world and all the people that dwell on earth are his prisoners. That is why Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong’s book, A World Held Captive, was so inspired by God to help us understand that the world is in captivity. Satan moves the nations to do his will and has deceived all. Some day the world dwellers will look at him and be amazed that such an individual could have wreaked such havoc among the peoples of the earth.

Yes, Satan rules this world as the god of this world. We have seen that in II Corinthians. His kingdom has divided the earth into principalities that are ruled by his government. His government controls the earth. His system of government oppresses the truth, it oppresses God’s Church, it oppresses God’s physical nation Israel, and God’s physical people Judah for the knowledge that they have and the hope that they have for the world. It explains the hatred of the world toward anything Jewish, anything Israelite and anything that has the truth of God. The world is moved by Satan. They are deceived and do not understand what they are doing, but they indeed do hate the things of God. They are enmity toward God. They do not understand why. They just are.

So Satan moves the world and controls it in these ways and brings all of this pain, suffering and anxiety to the earth. We can see that eventually his system, his government, will be overthrown and Christ’s government will be established in all the earth and that mountain of Christ’s government will consume the whole earth. Everyone will be underneath this beautiful system of government.

Is something on this order already starting to take place before our eyes and we do not see it? We noted that there are two parts to this system, one earthly and one spiritual: (1) Satan and the governments of his on the earth and (2) the beast and Satan who controls them. This two-part system that has existed for a long time is going to get overthrown but what is going to take place when this happens? If we are not careful, we can help promote the system by saying this system is going to conquer the earth. This system is going to destroy God’s people. This system is going to win until some point when Christ takes over. By winning, he will reduce the earth that we see out there to a pile of ashes and rubble. A pile of rubble is what Christ’s government would be faced with when the time would come to usher in the Millennium. God is not going to allow that to happen.

Satan only has the 6,000 years from Adam until the end. He would like to, first of all, extend that. But second of all, at the end of that time when he knows he has been beaten, like most vicious generals and conquerors, he has a “scorched earth policy.” He wants to hand Jesus Christ a pile that is worthless and that has been utterly destroyed. God and Jesus Christ are not going to allow that to happen. There is no way they are going to let Satan dictate the terms that will bring about the end of this war between good and evil. It is not going to happen.

So this system is going to get exposed. We know this. In the future we will be talking about the innumerable multitude. Tomorrow, being Pentecost, we will talk about the firstfruits. We know that God and His system, His government, is going to win. We have been studying into that and we will study further. But how is this system going to get exposed? How are the people going to be released? How are the people of the earth going to be able to make a choice between the truth and the falsehoods, between good and evil? How are they going to repent? It is going to be amazing. I think you might be surprised.

Let’s turn to Isaiah chapter 47, verse 1: “‘Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no more be called tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, take off the skirt, uncover the thigh, pass through the rivers. Your nakedness shall be uncovered, yes, your shame will be seen; I will take vengeance, and I will not arbitrate with a man.’”

So God is talking about the humiliation to come to Babylon, and He refers to this physical system as a virgin daughter of Babylon. As we saw, Babylon means calamity, waste, confusion. It means Satan the devil. He is the king of Babylon. He is wormwood and bitterness. He has taken them captive, which is part of the definition of what Babylon means. So he, in a spiritual sense, has taken the whole world captive and his representatives on earth who are doing his bidding without knowing help captivate people with falsehood (false doctrines). We are told here that the virgin daughter of Babylon will be exposed. She will be exposed for all that she is.

We know, from what Mr. Herbert Armstrong taught, and we can prove in the Bible that the Church is often referred to as a virgin daughter. We can see that Christ is coming to the virgin in Matthew 25, which refers to the ten virgins there. Christ is going to marry a church that is called a daughter; and Babylon, Satan the devil and his system, has a daughter on earth as well. Now this daughter is deceived but it has done a lot of things to harm God’s Church. A lot of things that people should have known were not right. Persecutions, martyrings, inquisitions, wars, crusades - all manner of things that go directly against the ten commandments yet espoused by churches. We can see that today. I am not picking on any single church. We can look out there and see many religious wars around the world. All of these religious wars are part of Satan’s Babylon.

There is a chief church but there are many churches with just as much guilt on their hands. So we are not picking on anybody. We know that these churches are full of people that are deceived. We were all at one point in our lives or another part of them. So we certainly do not want to be judging or giving people a hard time or condemning them to death, hell or anything else because of their part in another church. We understand that deception is deception and trickery is trickery and these people will be shown every mercy from God that we were shown.

We were called out of this world and given the truth then baptized and given the Holy Spirit because God first loved us while we were in our sins. So we do not judge others. But we are calling a spade a spade here, because when Christ’s government comes, all the falsehoods of the earth and all of the deceptions will be washed away. They first must be exposed so that people can make a choice. God is going to allow the people of the earth to make a choice to repent, be baptized and receive the Holy Spirit or not. If they choose to remain wicked after having been given a good clear choice, then of course they will be destroyed. They will not exist in the Millennium.

I wanted to say that before I read to you some articles because we are not picking on anybody. We are just telling the truth. I was born Catholic. Some of you were born of other faiths. I have a great deal of respect for any Catholic or anybody from another religion who is trying to obey the ten commandments and treat their fellow man well. Many people in these religions are trying to do the best they can underneath a world held captive by Satan. There are many admirable traits that people have that we must acknowledge because the world is controlled by a being who brings the fruit from the tree of good and evil. People have a free will. So we are all a mixture of good and evil. All of us. We are not condemning anyone. Let us make that perfectly clear because deception is deception. As we know, the Church of God itself is guilty of an awful lot of wrong. That is what Christ was telling us in Ezekiel 5. He was going to send the Church into captivity for defiling His sanctuary, His temple. So lest any of us feel we are better than the world out there at large, let us realize that God is very angry with His Church. He allows it to go into captivity, to Babylon once again for a very good reason. So with that, so no one feels superior to anyone else, I want to read some articles to you.

This is a book by Hans Kung, a German religious philosopher from the Catholic Church. He wrote this book called The Church. He has studied very much in depth into the history of the church and where it is going. He has studied into the Vatican and different things. He had some interesting things to say here that I would just like to quote from his book. On the chapter, “The Preaching of Jesus” on page 43.

“Only twice - and, moreover, in two passages from the same gospel which are hotly disputed by exegetes (Matthew 16:18; 18:17) - does the word “church,” or “ecclesia” (in the Greek) appear in the gospels. On the other hand the words “kingdom of God” appear about a hundred times in the synoptic gospels. This is a disturbing fact for any ecclesiology, even today. Are we forced to agree with the ominous and often-quoted comment of Alfred Loisy: ‘Jesus proclaimed the kingdom of God, and what came was the Church?’” Now that is a profound statement. Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God but what came? It was the Church.

Continuing: “It seems to be far from straightforward or without dangers for the Church to reflect seriously on the gospel of Christ. Has it the right to appeal to the words of Jesus? Is it really founded on his gospel? Or is it merely a substitute phenomenon, making do in place of something much greater which, despite Jesus’ proclamation, has not yet come into being? It would do nothing but harm to the Church if questions like these, which are admittedly awkward ones and have never been adequately aired, were to be dismissed as stemming from the ill-will of critical exegetes and historians...” Exegetes are people who study the scriptures. “...who challenge an uncritical and unhistorical ecclesiological dogmatism which naively defends the status quo.” In other words, it would be wrong to just naively defend the status quo without looking into these matters. “Surely these questions indicate a fundamental Christian longing for the origins of Christianity, for the discovery of what Jesus really intended? What did Jesus really intend? Did He simply intend the Church we have today? Is the Church we have really backed up - in its essentials, not in its inessentials - by the message of Christ? Or is it not proudly basing the justification for its existence on the words of someone who would have opposed it from the start, just as He opposed the Jewish temple clergy and the theology of the scribes?”

In other words, did what ended up coming end up being just like the ancient Jewish system and their temple which Christ rejected when he came? This man is being very honest and asking very honest questions.

Continuing: “Many people today must have the impression that the Church is a prisoner, so to speak, of its own history and traditions, of its own ideas and laws. All too often it seems to be defending itself against Jesus and the uncompromising challenge of His message. To many people the Church’s frequent talk of ‘tradition’ merely suggests it is afraid to investigate boldly and radically its own origins and the original message which brought it into existence; it seems to be unwilling to take serious steps to clear out of the way all the barriers which separate it from the source of its own existence. Does the Church too ask the same question which the Grand Inquisitor in Dostoievski’s terrifying story puts to the returning Christ and to Christ’s message...”

Dostoievski wrote a book, The Grand Inquisitor, in which the Church talks to Christ when Christ returns and this is what the Church says: “‘Why do you come to disturb us?’ There is no doubt that the message of Jesus has had, if not a destructive, at least a disturbing effect on the Church in any age, challenging it, rousing it, goading it into new life; in short, it has always been a ‘stumbling-block.’”

In other words, the truth of Jesus Christ has always been as a stumbling block to the Church that came. Now we know Satan, Lucifer, controls the churches of the earth. These people are just deceived. Satan did a masterful job of deception. An honest person would ask the question what would Christ tell the churches today or would He reject them as He did the temple when He came the first time to the Jewish temple in Jerusalem?

Those are very profound thoughts there. With that I want to take a look at what has happened recently to the Church and indeed Churches. I have a couple of articles here. We won’t go through a lot of them because they are in the paper and in the news everyday. The Catholic Church is in the throes of a terrific scandal that has hurt the Church in many ways. It is harming affiliated Christian Churches as well.

This article is from the Detroit News. The date of it is Sunday, March 31, 2002. The title of the article is “Bishops Must Tell Truth On Sex Charges, Catholic Church Should Not Allow Lawyers, Consultants To Decide Policy.” It is by Eugene Kennedy.

“The Catholic Church of the 1950’s in which so many of us were altar boys and then young priests together, seems as distant as Camelot. Those of us who left the priesthood - some to marry - gaze back on old comrades, many of whom are now bishops. They are wrestling, as did Jacob with the angel, with how to face and tell the truth about the explosion of pedophilia among priests during the past two decades. Those bishops lost their apple-cheeked innocence when they made a Faustian pact with the nation’s demonic counselors - the lawyers, the insurers and the public relations advisers...” It is bringing them down. They got bad counsel on how to handle this pedophilia problem in other words. The article is quite lengthy but it goes on to say the following.

“This is a poignant tale of victims. First, of course, are the children who were violated in such a primal way by the priests who had, ever since they shepherded the masses of immigrant Catholics into the new world in the 19th century, been trusted fully and freely by their flocks.”

“Next are the priests themselves, victims of the administrative aspects of the Church that recruited and retained them without helping them to come to terms with their own internal psychosexual conflicts.” Indeed, there are children victims and adult victims but the priests in that system are victims as well. Why? Anyone in the clutches of Satan, which is anyone in the world and we live in the world and we feel his influence as well, is to be pitied. Because we exist in a world held captive. Try as we might we know we are all going to sin.

The people who went into the priesthood in the Catholic Church meant well and they wanted to do good. The Catholic Church does a tremendous amount of good around the world in missionary work for the poor, for orphans. That is the good part of the tree of good and evil. There is a very evil part. That evil part is Satan working his work through any human being. Lest we judge, we are no different. But that must be exposed, and Satan’s government must be exposed. His deceptions must be exposed so that the world can indeed make a clear choice to follow the truths of God and become a part of God’s Church and reject all the evil that is out there. Some how, we just saw in Isaiah 47, that has to get exposed. Could it be that we are starting to see the system and the fallacies there that Satan has foisted upon human beings getting exposed?

This is from the Detroit Free Press, Wednesday, May 8, 2002. “Catholic Themes May Be Part of Fall Lineup” in television programming by Alessandra Stanley. “‘The Calling,’ a prospective ABC television drama, has a pious plot about a seminarian engaged in a personal search for God. But the script has a twist that is likely to trouble Catholic bishops: The church is extraneous and even a hurdle in the spiritual quest.

“The pilot is one of several being considered for the fall season that deal with the Catholic Church and seem to mirror the public mood of disenchantment with the church hierarchy.

“The creators of ‘The Calling,’ which was planned before the current child-abuse scandals broke, describe it as ‘a spiritual “X-Files,”’ and say they took their hero out of the priesthood - he began as a Vatican investigator - to avoid upsetting Catholic groups. But the script portrays the higher clergy as jaded and ultimately irrelevant. The hero refuses to be ordained when he discovers that his superiors at the archdiocese do not believe in miracles. He investigates them on his own.

“‘The show deals with someone who is looking to renew his faith,’ Roger Birnbaum, the executive producer, explains. ‘But that does not mean he has to get it from a church.’

“The networks will select their new shows over the next two weeks. If ABC picks up ‘The Calling,’ its Catholic setting will stand out amid a crowd of shows about Washington and the mob that seek to imitate ‘The West Wing’ and ‘The Sopranos.’ But it will not necessarily stand alone.

“Sylvester Stallone has developed a pilot called ‘Father lefty’ for CBS. It is about a handsome, unconventional Miami priest, played by Danny Nucci (‘The Rock’), who ministers to street children. He comes to his vocation a bit oddly. As a Marine in the Persian Gulf war, he makes a promise to God to serve if, by a miracle, the life of his Muslim girlfriend is saved.

“‘It is kind of “Northern Exposure” in a rectory,’ says Cynthia Cidre, the creator and an executive producer of the pilot. ‘But he’s not going to walk around in robes praying with folded hands. He’s a Miami guy in shorts.’

“Cidre said that Stallone based the character on a real priest, and that CBS approved the pilot before the scandal about priests erupted. But a little like ‘The Agency’ and other law-enforcement shows that had to factor Sept. 11 into their plots, ‘Father Lefty’ is likely to address pedophilia if the show gets a green light.

“‘We can’t just ignore it,’ Cidre says.

“Neither can other networks, apparently. FX is exploring ways to make a movie about pedophilia and sexual abuse in the church. NBC could also end up weaving Catholicism into its comedy lineup. The pilot for an NBC television news room farce includes a nun who lands a job as a weather forecaster because she is the cousin of the station manager.

“David Letterman has already lined his monologue with jokes about the scandal. It is also a natural fit for prime-time crime shows. The season finale of ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit’ on May 17 will feature a murder linked to the diocese’s cover-up of a top-ranking priest’s pedophilia. That episode was originally scheduled for September, but current events pushed it ahead to the height of the May sweeps.”

What we see, brethren, is a system getting exposed. It will be very, very difficult for those people. We must pray for them to see the truth and so they will be able to make a clear choice very soon. This is not happening by accident. God is orchestrating events.

It is sad to see people shooting their priests in the last week and priests committing suicide in jail because they are so ashamed. Do you not think these men have suffered and are very ashamed about what has happened? But they have existed in the captivity of Satan the devil and do not know it.

At least they can plead ignorance, where the Church has defiled the sanctuary while knowing better. So let’s not get too high and mighty and judgmental and self-righteous about these things. God is very upset with us but His job in the last days include revealing Satan’s system for what it is so that the Church can then be seen as the true arbiters of truth. So the world can indeed make a clear choice and become the innumerable multitude and not a pile of ashes. What we are seeing happening is incredibly important and it is a beautiful thing actually. It is going to bring repentance to the earth in huge waves like no one has ever seen before.

On the first day of Pentecost, which we are going to commemorate tomorrow, 3,000 souls were baptized in a single day. That will be far surpassed by many hundreds of millions very soon! The innumerable multitude will be billions of people! So what we are seeing is sad but it is wonderful. These people will see it for the wonder that it is some day. But right now they are so ashamed that they are committing suicide, they are becoming the laughing stock of the comedy shows on television, they are having books and movies portraying them. This is going to be very difficult and we are here to help, not condemn. So remember before we judge too harshly, these people are deceived and held captive, as we once were.

We are going to look at some more scriptures that God shows us in His word to explain what is going on so that we can be of use. We will continue where we left off in Isaiah 47, starting in verse 4: “As for our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts is His name, the Holy One of Israel. Sit in silence, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans; for you shall no longer be called the Lady of Kingdoms. I was angry with My people; I have profaned My inheritance, and given them into your hand. You showed them no mercy; on the elderly you laid your yoke very heavily. And you said, ‘I shall be a lady forever,’ so that you did not take these things to heart, nor remember the latter end of them.”

Verse 8: “‘Therefore hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, “I am, and there is no one else besides me; I shall not sit as a widow, nor shall I know the loss of children;” but these two things shall come to you in a moment, in one day: the loss of children, and widowhood. They shall come upon you in their fullness because of the multitude of your sorceries, for the great abundance of your enchantments. For you have trusted in your wickedness; you have said, “No one sees me;” your wisdom and your knowledge have warped you; and you have said in your heart, “I am, and there is no one else beside me.”’”

Verse 11: “‘Therefore evil shall come upon you; you shall not know from where it arises. And trouble shall fall upon you; you will not be able to put it off. And desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know. Stand now with your enchantments and the multitude of your sorceries, in which you have labored from your youth - perhaps you will be able to profit, perhaps you will prevail.’”

Verse 13: “‘You are wearied in the multitude of your counsels; let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from these things that shall come upon you. Behold, they shall be as stubble, the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame; it shall not be a coal to be warmed by, nor a fire to sit before! Thus shall they be to you with whom you have labored, your merchants from your youth; they shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you.’”

Now let’s remember, the main anger here is against Lucifer, but his system must go down. All people part of that system will have the opportunity to accept the truth. That is the beautiful part!

Continuing in Isaiah 48, verse 12: “‘Listen to Me, O Jacob, and Israel, My called: I am He, I am the First, I am also the Last. Indeed My hand has laid the foundation of the earth, and My right hand has stretched out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand up together. All of you, assemble yourselves, and hear! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; He shall do His pleasure on Babylon, and His arm shall be against the Chaldeans. I, even I have spoken; yes, I have called him, I have brought him, and his way will prosper.’”

Verse 16: “‘Come near to Me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, I was there. And now the Lord God and His Spirit have sent Me. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy one of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go. Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your descendants also would have been like the sand, and the offspring of your body like the grains of sand; his name would not have been cut off nor destroyed from before Me.”’”

Verse 20: “Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldees! With a voice of singing, declare, proclaim this, utter it even to the end of the earth; say, ‘The Lord has redeemed His servant Jacob!’ And they did not thirst when He led them through the deserts; He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them; He also split the rock, and the waters gushed out. ‘There is no peace,’ says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’”

So the message of God at the end time is to flee that system. He is telling His people first for they have become a part of it and are held captive in many ways. He wants those held captive in a system by Satan to flee as well.

Turn, if you would, to Jeremiah chapter 50. Remember when we talk about fleeing this system, we are warned in Revelation to “come out of her My people.” Why would God say “come out of her My people” if they are not a part of it in some way? Indeed, they are in many ways. They are tricked by Satan, at each other’s throats, not showing the world the beauty of God and His loving nature.

Jeremiah 50, verse 1: “The word that the Lord spoke against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. ‘Declare among the nations, proclaim, and set up a standard; proclaim, and do not conceal it - say, “Babylon is taken, Bel is shamed. Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are humiliated, her images are broken in pieces.” For out of the north a nation comes up against her, which shall make her land desolate, and no one shall dwell therein. They shall move, they shall depart, both man and beast.’”

So out of God’s throne from the north will come destruction upon the nation. If you remember in Revelation in chapter 2 that the Church will rule with Christ and smash the nations into pieces. It is not talking about physical people being smashed to pieces. It is these nations that control the earth, these principalities, this mountain. Daniel showed this, as well, that it will be smashed to pieces. Anyone who wants a rod of iron and thinks they are going to smash people to pieces, had better think twice. God’s mercy and His love is what we will judge and rule by. Not that no one will ever get punished. Do not get me wrong. But that is not the chief thing that we will be doing.

Continuing in verse 4: “‘In those days and in that time,’ says the Lord, ‘the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; with continual weeping they shall come, and seek the Lord their God.’” So when we see Babylon going down, we are also seeing the Church repenting and Judah repenting with weeping.

Verse 5: “‘They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces toward it, saying, “Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that will not be forgotten.” My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray; they have turned them away on the mountains. They have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place. All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, “We have not offended, because they have sinned against the Lord, the habitation of justice, the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”’” Indeed to the world and to the world’s churches it looks like the true Church is the bad guys. We are the evil ones. We have been persecuted.

Since Christ’s day the Church has been persecuted, but we have also done things to ourselves. Shepherds have led astray and brethren have been hard on brethren. You can read about this in Ezekiel 34 and Jeremiah 23 to confirm that. We do not need to look at that now, as we have in the past.

Verse 8: “‘Move from the midst of Babylon, go out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be like the rams before the flocks. For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country, and they shall array themselves against her; from there she shall be captured. Their arrows shall be like those of an expert warrior; none shall return in vain. And Chaldea shall become plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied,’ says the Lord.”

Verse 11: “‘Because you were glad, because you rejoiced, you destroyers of My heritage, because you have grown fat like a heifer threshing grain, and you bellow like bulls, your mother shall be deeply ashamed; she who bore you shall be ashamed. Behold, the least of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land and a desert. Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate. Everyone who goes by Babylon shall be horrified and hiss at all her plagues.’”

Verse 14: “‘Put yourselves in array against Babylon all around…’” Now this nation/kingdom exists over all of the earth so the vestiges of that will be ashamed to all mankind. We are not picking on any specific physical nation saying that it will be destroyed forever. God is going to save all of mankind. All mankind is going to have the option. Let’s put it that way. They will have the option to accept Jesus Christ.

Continuing in verse 14 where we left off: “‘...all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord. Shout against her all around; she has given her hand, her foundations have fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of the Lord. Take vengeance on her. As she has done, so do to her. Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle at harvest time. For fear of the oppressing sword everyone shall turn to his own people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.’”

Continuing in Jeremiah chapter 50, verse 17: “‘Israel is like scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away. First the king of Assyria devoured him; now at last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria. But I will bring back Israel to his habitation, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan; his soul shall be satisfied on Mount Ephraim and Gilead. ‘In those days and in that time,’ says the Lord ‘The iniquity of Israel shall be sought, but there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found; for I will pardon those whom I preserve.’”’” God is going to pardon His people and preserve them. He will offer salvation to all of mankind, as well.

Continuing in verse 33: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The children of Israel were oppressed, along with the children of Judah; all who took them captive have held them fast; they have refused to let them go. Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will thoroughly plead their case, that He may give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon. A sword is against the Chaldeans,’ says the Lord, ‘against the inhabitants of Babylon, and against her princes and her wise men.’” A sword is God’s word. The truth will out, brethren.

Verse 36: “‘A sword is against the soothsayers, and they will be fools. A sword is against her mighty men, and they will be dismayed. A sword is against their horses, against their chariots, and against all the mixed people who are in their midst; and they will become like women. A sword is against her treasures, and they will be robbed. A drought is against her waters, and they will be dried up. For it is the land of carved images, and they are insane with their idols’” The waters (the influence of Satan) will be dried up. The waters (the Holy Spirit of God) will replace them.

Verse 39: “‘Therefore the wild desert beasts shall dwell there with the jackals, and the ostriches shall dwell in it. It shall be inhabited no more forever, nor shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.’” No one will go back to that system. “‘As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities,’ says the Lord, ‘so no one shall reside there, nor son of man dwell in it. Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation and many kings shall be raised up from the ends of the earth. They shall hold the bow and the lance; they are cruel and shall not show mercy. Their voice shall roar like the sea; they shall ride on horses, set in array, like a man for the battle, against you, O daughter of Babylon. The king of Babylon has heard the report about them, and his hands grow feeble; anguish has taken hold of him, pangs as of a woman in childbirth.’” Even Satan himself will be very fearful by this time knowing that the end of his government is just about upon us.

Jeremiah chapter 51, starting in verse 1: “Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, against those who dwell in Leb Kamai, a destroying wind.’” That is His Holy Spirit. “‘And I will send winnowers to Babylon, who shall winnow her and empty her land. For in the day of doom they shall be against here all around. Against her let the archer bend his bow, and lift himself up against her in his armor. Do not spare her young men; utterly destroy all her army. Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and those thrust through in her streets. For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.’”

Verse 6: “Flee from the midst of Babylon, and every one save his life! Do not be cut off in her iniquity, for this is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He shall recompense her. Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, that made all the earth drunk. The nations drank her wine; therefore the nations are deranged. Babylon has suddenly fallen and been destroyed. Wail for her! Take balm for her pain; perhaps she may be healed. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her, and let us go everyone to his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven and is lifted up to the skies. The Lord has revealed our righteousness. Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.”

You are seeing Satan and his system revealed for what it is and God’s Church revealed for who they are. Verse 10 stated right there, “The Lord has revealed our righteousness” which, of course, comes from Jesus Christ. “Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.”

Verse 20: “‘You are My battle-ax and weapons of war: for with you I will break the nation in pieces; with you I will destroy kingdoms; with you I will break in pieces the horse and its rider; with you I will break in pieces the chariot and its rider; with you also I will break in pieces man and woman; with you I will break in pieces old and young; with you I will break in pieces the young man and the maiden; with you also I will break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; with you I will break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you I will break in pieces governors and rulers. “And I will repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion in your sight,” says the Lord. “Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, who destroys all the earth.” says the Lord.’” We are talking about the destruction of Satan and his government and anyone on the earth who will not repent. Let me tell you, as things go farther along and God’s wonderful mercy and love is shown, most of the world will repent. Most of the world is going to repent.

Continuing on in verse 25: “‘And I will stretch out My hand against you, roll you down from the rocks, and make you a burnt mountain. They shall not take from you a stone for a corner nor a stone for a foundation, but you shall be desolate forever,’ says the Lord.” Satan’s kingdom, that mountain we have been talking about, will be desolate forever. The stones will be thrown down! The nations of the world will be under the government of Jesus Christ. We can see in Zechariah 14 that Egypt will keep the Feast of Tabernacles! Assyria will keep the Feast of Tabernacles, that is in Europe today! The physical nations, of course, will have new rulers. It will be divided up in principalities the way Jesus Christ wants to. We have covered that. The earth as you see it out there will still exist. By and large, most of the buildings and roads are still going to be there! Without Satan’s influence and with the influence of Jesus Christ, things will be run properly! It is going to be a beautiful thing that is going to take place - just awesome!

Continuing in Jeremiah 51, verse 33: “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is time to thresh her; yet a little while and the time of her harvest will come.’” That is the world white for the harvest! The innumerable multitude will be harvested! Babylon’s influences will crash. There is a physical comparison to Nebuchadnezzar but do not forget we have to look at things spiritually in the last days.

Verse 34: “‘Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel, he has swallowed me up like a monster; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies, he has spit me out. Let the violence done to me and my flesh be upon Babylon,’ the inhabitant of Zion will say; ‘And my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea!’ Jerusalem will say. Therefore thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will plead your case and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her sea and make her springs dry. Babylon shall become a heap, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment and a hissing, without an inhabitant.’”

Verse 38: “‘They shall roar together like lions, they shall growl like lions’ whelps. In their excitement I will prepare their feasts; I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’ says the Lord. ‘I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats. Oh, how Sheshack is taken! Oh, how the praise of the whole earth is seized! How Babylon has become desolate among the nations! The sea has come up over Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves. Her cities are a desolation, a dry land and a wilderness, a land where no one dwells, through which no son of man passes. I will punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring out of his mouth what he has swallowed; and the nations shall not stream to him anymore. Yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall.’” So this kingdom that has swallowed the earth and its peoples will be forced to release them.

Verse 45: “‘My people, go out of the midst of her! And let everyone deliver himself from the fierce anger of the Lord. And lest your heart faint, and you fear for the rumor that will be heard in the land (A rumor will come one year, and after that, in another year a rumor will come, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler), therefore behold, the days are coming that I will bring judgment on the carved images of Babylon; her whole land shall be ashamed, and all her slain shall fall in her midst. Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them shall sing joyously over Babylon; for the plunderers shall come to her from the north,’ says the Lord.” So we can see we are talking about a spiritual thing at the end times. Even though Nebuchadnezzar’s name was mentioned, he was just a physical forerunner and his kingdom of Babylon was a physical forerunner so we could understand what will happen next when Christ returns.

Verse 49: “‘As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon the slain of all the earth shall fall. You who have escaped the sword, get away! Do not stand still! Remember the Lord afar off, and let Jerusalem come to your mind. We are ashamed because we have heard reproach. Shame has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord’s house. Therefore behold, the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘that I will bring judgment on her carved images, and throughout all her land the wounded shall groan. Though Babylon were to mount up to heaven, and though she were to fortify the height of her strength, yet from Me plunderers would come to her,’ says the Lord.” So God is going to allow it to be plundered as they have plundered. Strangers from Babylon have come into God’s sanctuaries and God is going to destroy Satan’s sanctuaries.

Continuing in verse 54: “The sound of a cry comes from Babylon, and great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans, because the Lord is plundering Babylon and silencing her loud voice, though her waves roar like great waters, and the noise of their voice is uttered, because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon...” You can look in the New Testament in Luke 21 where men’s hearts will faint from the roaring of the waves. It is the roaring of Satan’s government going down!

Continuing in verse 56: “‘Because the plunderer comes against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are taken. Every one of their bows is broken; for the Lord is the God of recompense, He will surely repay. And I will make drunk her princes and wise men, her governors, her deputies, and her mighty men. And they shall sleep a perpetual sleep and not awake,’ says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts. Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; the people will labor in vain, and the nations, because of the fire; and they shall be weary.’” It is going to happen. Babylon is going to go down! God’s kingdom is going to establish peace on the earth!

Go to Revelation chapter 18, starting in verse 1: “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!’” Babylon has fallen physically, Babylon has fallen spiritually, Babylon is fallen, is fallen. “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury.”

Verse 4: “And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’” That is what we are encouraging people in the world and in the Church to do: come out of her! Avoid the destruction. It can be done and it will be done by billions! “For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double according to her works, in the cup which she has mixed, mix her double. In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously, in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, ‘I sit as a queen, and am no widow, and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore her plagues will come in one day - death and mourning and famine. And she will be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”

It is going to happen. Babylon will go down. We are not talking about physical people who are so evil their country must get burned to the ground and they must get burned. They are deceived. People on the earth are deceived and held captive. It is Satan, this place where the demons dwell, that is going to go down. Physically those controlled by him and false religion will go down as well. The people will have a chance to repent. God is very fair. The people will have a clear choice. Soon they will be able to make this choice.

Revelation chapter 14, verse 8: “And another angel followed, saying, ‘Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.’” What physical nation over the whole span of time could have made all nations drink of the wrath of her fornication? There are physical representatives but it is Satan’s mountain, his kingdom, that did this with mankind. This has occurred ever since Adam. There have been physically deceived people who have fallen for it and have aided him. It is his government. That is the original Babylon where the chaos and confusion came from. The tyranny of captivity originated with Satan and his government.

Revelation chapter 16, starting in verse 17: “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, ‘It is done!’ And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath. Then every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And great hail from heaven fell upon men, every hailstone about the weight of a talent.”

We will look into these hailstones in the future. We have talked about them somewhat in the past, but they are a good thing. These come from God. And the great city Babylon will suffer this great earthquake, and the mountains will move and fall flat. We studied the mountains. That is Satan’s mountain falling flat and not all the physical mountains of the earth. They will be replaced by Jesus Christ’s mountain and His government.

Revelation 17, verse 5: “And on her forehead a name was written: ‘MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.’ And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.”

This system even predates Jesus Christ’s first coming! This battle has been going on for a long time. It goes back to Babylon and Babel all the way back to Genesis where the seed of the woman, Jesus Christ’s Church, would have enmity against the seed of Satan. It is about to end! We are at the end of the war! What a wonderful thing when the world gets set free from this awful captivity!

Turn to our last scripture in Revelation chapter 18, starting in verse 1: “After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illuminated with his glory. And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons...’” The fall of that awful system is what is coming, and a wonderful system from Jesus Christ full of the light of God and truth will replace it. So his evil system, the system of Lucifer, that has plagued mankind for all of these 6,000 years and held us captive, is going to go down. First it must get revealed for what it is so that those dwelling on the earth can make an intelligent choice. I am telling you, the innumerable multitude is proof positive in God’s word that by far most people will repent!

It is our job now to let our light shine so that they can see the vast difference between the darkness of Satan and the light, the truth and the beauty of God and Jesus Christ!