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Has the institutionalised (denominational) church become, or at least in danger of becoming, the great whore of Babylon? Another word often used for whore is prostitute.
“Then another angel, a second one, followed, saying, ‘Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her immorality [corrupting them with idolatry]’.” (Revelation 14:8 AMP)
I recently came across an interesting article by pastor Dr David Ryser that I had read years ago.
Its basic premise is: “Is Church A Business or Prostitute?”
I have included an extract here:
“I came across a quote attributed most often to Rev. Sam Pascoe. It is a short version of the history of Christianity, and it goes like this:
Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.
Some of the students were only 18 or 19 years old–barely out of diapers–and I wanted them to understand and appreciate the import of the last line, so I clarified it by adding, “An enterprise. That’s a business.”
After a few moments Martha, the youngest student in the class, raised her hand. I could not imagine what her question might be. I thought the little vignette was self-explanatory, and that I had performed it brilliantly.
Nevertheless, I acknowledged Martha’s raised hand, “Yes, Martha.” She asked such a simple question, “A business? But isn’t it supposed to be a body?”
I could not envision where this line of questioning was going, and the only response I could think of was, “Yes.”
She continued, “But when a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?”
The room went dead silent. For several seconds no one moved or spoke. We were stunned, afraid to make a sound because the presence of God had flooded into the room, and we knew we were on holy ground.
All I could think in those sacred moments was, “Wow, I wish I’d thought of that.” I didn’t dare express that thought aloud. God had taken over the class.
Martha’s question changed my life. For six months, I thought about her question at least once every day. “When a body becomes a business, isn’t that a prostitute?”
There is only one answer to her question. The answer is “Yes.”
The American Church, tragically, is heavily populated by people who do not love God.
How can we love Him?
We don’t even know Him; and I mean really know Him. ……….I was pondering Martha’s question again one day, and considered the question, “What’s the difference between a lover and a prostitute?”
I realized that both do many of the same things, but a lover does what she does because she loves.
A prostitute pretends to love, but only as long as you pay.
Then I asked the question, “What would happen if God stopped paying me?”
Link to the above article in full here (opens in a new browser tab) Are we lovers or prostitutes?
That article reminded me again of a blog article I wrote based upon one of my sermons:
Man – Movement – Machine – Monument – Memory (link to that blog opens in a new browser tab)
Do you think of Church as a movement?
Many people have described the trajectory of a movement as: Man – Movement – Machine – Monument – Memory.
Unless care is taken, one man’s vision can too easily slip into the mechanical processes of a machine. And while it is not necessarily a bad thing to have efficient structures or systems, they can too easily take the focus away from the vision.
The movement slows down as its purpose is no longer clear, and it eventually becomes a monument, and later a memory.
The Church must constantly be rediscovering her call, to be, and to do, all God wants, at this particular time in history. This is how we follow Jesus in the world, constantly trying to help people of all ages and backgrounds connect to God.
And since the Church is “the Body of believers” that means each of us individually must be constantly rediscovering our call to be, and to do, all God wants, at this particular time in history.
That means that there must be a “line in the sand” we do not cross over.
And that line is at the point of us or the Church becoming a MACHINE. Because after that the church will just become a Monument and then a Memory”
If we think of the Letter to the church at Ephesus: “Consider how far you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first”. (Revelation 2:5 NLT)
And to the church at Sardis: “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have found your deeds unfinished in the sight of my God”. (Revelation 3:2 NIV)
And to the church at Laodicea: “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” (Revelation 3:15-17 NIV)
In the Bible, Babylon for example could apply to literal Babylon, circa 600 BC, or it could refer to Rome or to cities in the U.S. and elsewhere.
Babylon is the wicked world religious and political system, ruled in the spiritual realm by satan and ultimately in the physical world by the antichrist.
Viewing Babylon allegorically as the evil world-system concurs with the extensive description of the rule of the antichrist in Revelation chapters 12-13 and the return of this imagery in the immediate context (Rev 14: 9-11).
Babylon is a symbol of human works in contrast to God’s grace – a symbol of human traditions in defiance to God’s commandments.
Mingling truth with error, distorting the Gospel, changing God’s laws, and substituting man-made decrees for Biblical truth.
satan’s counterfeit system, termed “Babylon”, is a distortion of truth by both the ‘religious world systems’ and the ‘political world systems’
The church is meant to be the Body of Christ, with Jesus as the Head. (Colossians 1:18 ; Ephesians 1:22-23)
The way a human body was originally created, before sin corrupted this world, was to be free moving with its head (brain) controlling its movement and actions.
The original concept of the church was that it was also meant to be free moving (“a Movement”) with Christ controlling its movements, actions and focus.
It is said that the Catholic/Roman Catholic church has more than enough wealth stored in the Vatican to end world hunger and poverty completely.
But instead of doing the works of Jesus and the New Testament church it hoards its wealth to keep for its own institution. A lot like the boast of the church of Laodicea in Revelation 3:17
And the same could be said of most of the mainline denominational, orthodox, and Pentecostal churches with their buildings and cathedrals costing millions of dollars.
It seems that churches today have moved so far removed from New Testament church so as to be hardly recognisable as “Movements” and instead become, at best “Machines”, and in some cases “Monuments” or “Memories”.
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