MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT,
THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND
ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH

I
INTRODUCTION

A MYSTERY WRAPPED IN AN ENIGMA

Revelation 17:1-6 is one of the most enigmatic passages in all of Scripture. It's a parable, a mystery wrapped in an enigma - and it's meaning is hidden to all those who brazenly and unblushingly call themselves by Christ's Name for advantage or convenience, but whose lives betray that calling. Specifically, I speak here of the leaders of today's American Church - the Pharisees and Sadducees of our time; the same people about whom Jesus was speaking when He told His disciples:

"... it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, BUT TO THEM IT IS NOT GIVEN.

"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

"THEREFORE SPEAK I TO THEM IN PARABLES: BECAUSE THEY SEEING SEE NOT; AND HEARING THEY HEAR NOT, NEITHER DO THEY UNDERSTAND.

"And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, BY HEARING YE SHALL HEAR, AND SHALL NOT UNDERSTAND; AND SEEING YE SHALL SEE, AND SHALL NOT PERCEIVE:

"For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

"But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

"For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. (Matt. 13: 10-17)

WHICH DIVIDE DO YOU FALL IN?

The question is, which divide do you fall in? - are you capable of understanding these "mysteries," or has that ability been stripped from you? If it has, then nothing that I can say will do you any good in understanding them. You no longer have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear." Your heart is "waxed gross," and your "ears are dull of hearing, lest at any time you should see with your eyes, and hear with your ears, and understand with your heart, and ... you should be healed" (Matt. 13:15).

You are in danger of being cast away by God. And don't think that can't happen to you. Jesus plainly says that it can; that's clearly what happened to the "unprofitable servant:"

"Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt. 25:30)

THERE IS A COST TO DISCIPLESHIP

There is a cost to discipleship; there is a price which those who have taken on the appellation of "Servant of God" must pay, and that price is OBEDIENCE. Jesus said:

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21) [Please see our last article, "The Cost of Discipleship;" please also see our article, "Fearful Sights and Great Signs From Heaven."]

But if one who calls himself a "Servant of God" refuses to obey His Master's instructions, then - again - that servant stands in jeopardy of being cast out of the household of God.

Do you have "eyes to see" and "ears to hear?" Can you understand the "mysteries of God?" Whether you have that ability or not can be measured by your obedience to His commands. Again, the Bible says, "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me." (John 14:21)

Do you love God? Do you really love Him? If you do, your love will be manifested by your obedience. Do NOT say that you love God when you refuse to obey Him. Do NOT say you have faith in Him when you refuse to be obedient to His commands. The Apostle James wrote:

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

"If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

"And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

"Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

"Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

"Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils [demons] also believe, and tremble.

"But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? (James 2:14-20)

UNDERSTANDING THE MYSTERIES OF GOD

All this to say, if you do not possess the will to obey God, then the "mysteries of God" will be forever hidden from you - and though you diligently seek to unlock these mysteries through much study and perseverance, you will be unable to do so - even if they should be explained to you by an angel of God - AND THESE ARE NOT MY WORDS, BUT CHRIST'S. But if you are willing to obey God, then your eyes will be opened and your ears will be unplugged, and the meaning of these "mysteries" will be revealed to you - and I speak especially concerning their application in today's world and in this present time; and most particularly as they pertain to the American Church, the American New World Order System and the kind of avaricious and imperial Christianity it has spawned throughout the world.

II
THE WHORE

THE WOMAN OF REVELATION 17

Revelation 17:1-6 portrays a Woman - a religious system - sitting on a Beast full of names of blasphemy (cursings, profanities, impieties and irreverence) towards God. We know this Beast to be the American New World Order System, and the Woman who rides the Beast to be the American Church - that church which gives sanction to the ambitions of this new imperial order. [Please see Chapter XIV of the Antipas Papers, "The Beast of Revelation 17" and Chapter XV of the Antipas Papers, "The Woman of Revelation 17."]

There are three things that should be noticed here:

1. This Woman is described as an "HARLOT" [a whore - indeed, the "Mother of Whores" (Rev. 17:1 and 17:5)].
2. She is described as an "ABOMINATION" (Rev. 17:5).
3. She is described as dwelling in the "WILDERNES" (Rev. 17:3).

AN HARLOT

First of all, this Woman is called an HARLOT (a whore, a prostitute) - someone WHO SELLS HER SEXUAL FAVORS FOR MONEY.

Now you must understand something here: This is a detestation to God. In God's eyes, sexual intimacy is meant to be a gift a woman gives to a man whom she loves and wants to be with; it establishes a deep and very confidential RELATIONSHIP between herself and the man she loves that no one else can be privy to. The basis of this kind of relationship is LOVE - unreserved LOVE between herself and the man she loves; and in this connection one should understand that sexual love between a man and a woman is something ardently to be desired. Indeed, the Bible says that "it is better than wine" (Song of Solomon 4:10), and that -

"Many waters cannot quench [this kind of] love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for [this kind of] love [i.e., the kind that only a woman can give], it would utterly be contemned." (Song of Solomon 8:7)

But understand something here: The Bible is not talking about RAW sex; it's talking about sexual intimacy between an husband and a wife that is based on mutual love, respect and commitment.

A WHORE, however, is not interested in love; she's not interested in commitment. Like the American Church, she's interested in only one thing: MONEY! She sells RAW sex for MONEY; but make no mistake about it, the sex she offers - like the American Church with all its "signs and wonders," its "Green Gospel," its rapturous music and worship services, its so-called "family values," its various "fun activities," its claims on all the flag-waving of the American New World Order System, etc. - is extremely alluring and intoxicating. [Please see our article "A Luciferic Christianity."]

Moreover, this Woman - this whore - is no "Sally Frump." She is a beautiful SEDUCTRESS, and by her beauty and eroticism she excites and thrills all those who touch her - and so much so that the Bible says that they are "... made DRUNK with the wine of her fornication" (Rev. 17:2); they "... reel to and fro, and stagger ... and are at their wits' end." (Ps. 107:27). Those who drink from her cup of fornication and who are made drunk by it are unable any longer to see that "... her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death." (Proverbs 7:27)

Those who have intercourse with her are "like an ox that goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life." (Proverbs 7:22-23)

AN ABOMINATION

This Woman is also called an "ABOMINATION." An abomination in Scripture is something that is detestable to God; it is CONTRARY to His nature; it is something which, if He allows it to be attached to His Name, will bring shame to Him. This is INTOLERABLE to God. It is in this connection that the WHORE of Revelation 17:1-6 is called an ABOMINATION: She is called by God's Name, but she acts CONTRARY to His holy nature, and in doing so she is suggesting that God approves of her profane activities. Indeed, it is because of the hypocrisy of people who call themselves by God's great Name but who, by their activities and their living, act CONTRARY to his divine nature, that His -

"... name ... is blasphemed among the Gentiles (i.e., the unbelievers) ..." (Rom. 2:24)

Unbelievers understand what holiness is; they may not practice it, but they know what it is; and they know hypocrisy when they see it - and plainly they see it in the activities of the American Church. Brothers and sisters, I somberly warn you that God HATES this kind of hypocrisy; and He HATES anyone who is called by His Name, but who acts CONTRARY to his nature - and that's precisely why He was so harsh with regard to the scribes and Pharisees:

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

"Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.

"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.

"Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. (Matt. 23:25-28)

And He goes on to say:

"Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.

"Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, HOW CAN YE ESCAPE THE DAMNATION OF HELL? (Matt. 23:32-33)

Finally, we need to note the connection between the Woman and the Beast - an entity that the Bible says is "FULL of names of blasphemy against God." (Rev. 17:3). Plainly, this Beast is no friend of God! - it is God's great enemy. Why, then, does this Woman - who calls herself a follower of Jesus - connect herself with this Beast, and by doing so, linking God to the crimes of this Beast? Put another way, Why does the American Church - which claims to be God's representative on earth - consort itself with the American New World Order System which is ravaging and plundering the poor of the earth - the very people that Christ came to save? After all, Jesus said:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath ANOINTED me to preach the gospel to the POOR ..." (Luke 4:18)

Why then would God permit His holy Name to be linked to an imperial system that despoils and robs the poor? It is an ABOMINATION to God to be linked to such a system, and anyone who is connected to this system - directly or indirectly, centrally or just tangentially - will pay a terrible price. They are an ABOMINATION to God, and they are in danger of hell-fire. (Matt. 23:33)

You object? - but come on now! - is it so hard for you to see this? What would you think of a friend - a "best friend," perhaps - who consorted publicly and openly with someone who consistently defamed you; who went about doing everything he could to slander you and bring you to ruin? What would you think of such a friend? I tell you what you would do! - you would cut that friend off and have nothing more to do with him.

What, then, is God to think if those who call themselves by His holy Name openly consort and benefit from a relationship with His enemy - the Beast of Revelation 17 (i.e., the American New World Order System)? He will surely cut them off! He will have nothing further to do with them!

THE WILDERNESS

Finally, the Bible portrays the Woman as dwelling in the wilderness. Her seat of power is in the DESERT! - a place where there is no water; and without water there is no possibility of life. No matter how much the desert is tilled, no matter how much the desert is worked, no matter how much it is fertilized, life cannot take hold in a place like that. It is DEAD. What's that signify? - there is no longer any hope for life in the place where the Woman dwells, i.e., in the United States!

What's that say, then, about those who call themselves "followers of Jesus" but who refuse to get out of the U.S. in answer to God's holy DICTATE in Revelation 18:4? It says that they have been DESENSITIZED to the presence of God: They are unable to detect (to sense in their spirits) that He has removed Himself from that place.

Why would anyone who calls himself by Christ's name want to be in a place where Christ no longer dwells? Where there are no life-giving waters flowing out from Christ to water the land? Now you must understand something here: These are not my words, they are Christ's. I am not the one who has called the place where this woman dwells a wilderness. It is God that has done so! - and if the woman is the American Church, then what's that say about the nation she dwells in and from which she derives her sustenance: The United States?

Listen to me, those of you who think you can produce life in this WILDERNESS - this DESERT which the WHORE calls home - by your much work: You are utterly wasting your time. There is no possibility for that to occur. You will not find any life-giving springs in this desert to water and give life to what you plant there, and if you stay there, YOU WILL SURELY DIE - and I speak not so much concerning your physical-life (which so many of my detractors seem to be fixated on), but I speak here concerning your soul-life. You are in danger of losing your soul! - and if you doubt this fact, your doubt gives evidence as to how desensitized you have become to the presence of God! It says that you have already imbibed too much of "the wine of her fornication" (Rev. 17:2). You are living in a drunken stupor, as it were - and this is what has desensitized you. You are already a long way "... down the path to the chambers of death." (Proverbs 7:27) God does not dwell in the place you reside, and if you don't sense that, you are in deep trouble.

God's warning to you is to "Come out of her," and the reason He gives is that YOU WILL LOSE YOUR SOUL IF YOU FAIL TO DO SO (and, again, we are not talking about your physical life, but your soul):

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues [her judgments]." (Rev. 18:4)

And you should understand that these are judgments THAT GOD WILL INFLICT UPON YOU, not necessarily the AntiChrist. One would do well to remember the words of Hebrews 3:7-11:

"Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith, Today if ye will hear his voice,

"Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation [testing] in the wilderness:

"When your fathers tempted [tested] me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.

"Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.

"So I sware in my wrath, THEY SHALL NOT ENTER INTO MY REST." (Hebrews 3:7-11)

WHAT'S ALL THIS TELL US?

So what have we learned so far"

1. The Woman of Revelation 17:1-6 is a WHORE.

   She sells herself for money. The lust for "filthy lucre" (Titus 1:11) is what drives her - and could there be any more apt description of the American Church? The unbelievers clearly see the American Church for what she is, and - as a result - there is more truth to her Elmer Gantry portrayal by Hollywood than most American Christians are willing to admit. At least they know, if not most Christians, that -

   "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13)

2. She is an ABOMONATION to God.

   Why? - because she calls herself by God's name and by doing so, she implies that God approves of her association with the Beast of Revelation 17, i.e., the American New World Order System.

3. She is said to dwell in the WILDERNESS (i.e., the DESERT).

   There is no life where the Woman dwells. She dwells in a place where the "Springs of Living Water" no longer flow. As a result, there is no possibility to bring forth life there - and that's true no matter how hard one tills the land, no matter how hard one works it and fertilizes it, it can no longer bring forth life. Anyone who lives there will surely die!

GOD'S COMMAND

God's answer to all this, then, is for "His people" who live in Babylon to "Come out," lest they lose their souls:

"And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, COME OUT OF HER, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues [her judgments]." (Rev. 18:4)

NOTE: And, again, one should pay very close attention to the fact that what God has in view here is preserving the SOULS of His servants, as Jeremiah makes clear, "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his SOUL" (Jeremiah 51:6).

All of God's people who live in Babylon are to get out! That's what the Bible says; but - unfortunately - while many in the Left are beginning to leave the country, most Christians are unwilling and/or are too afraid to do so, giving meaning to the Lord's words when He said:

"... the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8)

DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS
TO THE COMMANDS OF GOD

Listen to me, dear child of God: Do not HARDEN YOUR HEARTS to the command of God in Revelation 18:4, as in another place and another time His people did in the Wilderness of Sinai. Again, the Bible says:

"TODAY if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts ..." (Hebrews 3:8)

I say again, obey God NOW, before you become completely DEADENED to His presence. I repeat: YOU CANNOT STAY IN BABYLON AND NOT IMBIBE THE WINE OF THIS WOMAN'S FORNICATION! It's impossible, no matter who tells you otherwise! You must get out of that place before you have drunk too deeply of this wine, or you will surely perish just as those who died in the Wilderness of Sinai did so many years ago - people who "GRIEVED" the Lord, and about whom the Lord said:

"They do ALWAYS err in their heart; and they have not known my ways." (Hebrews 3:10)

III
THE DAUGHTERS OF THE WHORE

THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS

Finally, we come to a very mysterious appellation used in the passage of Scripture we have before us (i.e., Rev. 17:1-6): "MOTHER OF HARLOTS" (Rev. 17:5). This woman - this WHORE - has given birth to many daughters throughout the world; they have spread themselves over the entire planet. Specifically, the Bible says:

"The waters which thou sawest [i.e., Rev. 17:1: "Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon MANY WATERS"], where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." (Rev. 17:15)

Clearly, the Whore has gained influence over the mass of the nations - and the leaders and elites of the earth are portrayed as living in guilty intimacy with her - and so much so that Dwight Pentecost can write:

"... [in the end of days] we see the whole stage [i.e., the world] filled with two personalities only: a 'Beast' and a 'Woman' ..."

By now the picture as presented in the Scripture - specifically, Rev. 17:1 - is almost complete, and the American Church and the American New World Order System have been the principle agents in completing this portrait. And it isn't as if the "outside" world has not been noticing what's been happening. The poor and dispossessed of the earth certainly have; the Left surely has; the only people who are unaware of what's been going on are American Christians, proving once again for the umpteenth time, that -

"... the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light." (Luke 16:8)

THE HARLOT AS AN INSTRUMENT
OF AMERICAN WORLD HEGEMONY

And believe me when I tell you that there are many such "daughters of the Whore" spread out over the world in the "SLAVE-NATIONS" of the American New World Order System - churches that ride the Beast just as surely as their Mother does - and we speak here not so much of the indigenous churches of these countries, but those churches that have by now been CO-OPTED by the American Church in order to secure a financial or commercial advantage for their members in the American New World Order System.

Christians who adhere to Liberation Theology or to an evangelical church that refuses to be co-opted by the American system are cut off from any of these benefits.

Indeed, over the years nothing has proven so advantageous for gaining admittance to the commercial benefits of the American New World Order System in the SLAVE-NATIONS of that system than membership in one of these churches - whether a Protestant evangelical church or a right-wing Catholic church. These churches are nothing more than "advance teams" for the American Empire.

The fact is, for many years now the leaders of the Left throughout the world have been complaining that missionaries from the United States have been acting as "front men" not so much for Christ as for U.S. world hegemony. With generous financial help from their affiliates in the United States, their churches have been flourishing amidst the wreckage of radical movements that have been crushed by the American military or its surrogates. [Please see our articles, "America's New Vietnam & Your Sons and Daughters Will Be The Ones To Fight It - All In The Name of The Lord Jesus Christ," "The Spread of America's New World Order System Northward from Latin America to the United States," "The American Empire: The Corporate / Pentagon / CIA / Missionary Archipelago," and "The American Empire and the U.S. System of Client States."]

By the beginning of the 1980s, the suspicion that the U.S. government was using the American Church to further its own economic and political interests was no longer rooted in conjecture, but in fact as the Reagan administration re-militarized U.S. foreign policy after the debacle of the Vietnam War.

Soon right-wing political and religious activists were joining together where - according to author David Stoll - they began combining politics and religion with the view of "winning the world to Christ" by enlarging North American world hegemony. Increasingly, North American missions such as New Tribes, the Wycliffe Bible Translators, Youth with a Mission (YWAM), Demos Shakarian's Christian Businessmen's Association, Campus Crusade for Christ, etc. began allowing their missions to be harnessed to the needs of the Political Right, and they began emphasizing the necessity for the American Church, in conjunction with the U.S. military, to "TAKE DOMINION" over the earth.

OUR DESTINY IS TO RULE THE NATIONS

This message was echoed from the pulpits of America's "big-time" televangelists such as Jimmy Swaggart of the Assemblies of God (now "defrocked" as a result of his sexual improprieties), Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, Charles Stanley, Pat Robertson, etc. These men began preaching a new kind of "end-times scenario" to their vast television audiences: that Christians had to "set things right" in the United States; that their destiny was not the end of the world, but DOMINION over it. "I trust you know," Dennis Peacock said at Glen Cole's Capital Christian Center in Sacramento, California, "that OUR DESTINY IS TO RULE THE NATIONS."

What Peacock and countless other similarly-minded Christians had in mind was to wrest control of the country from their hated enemy, the "secular-humanists," who they maintained had taken control of it, and then use the United States as a spring board to "CONQUER THE WORLD FOR CHRIST." Peacock writes:

"The Lord's prayer ... says bring your kingdom to earth now. We've been waiting for the kingdom to come and save us like a spaceship, but it's not going to ... We want God to solve our problems, like a welfarist God mentality, [as if] God is the great Washington, D.C., in the sky. We make welfare prayers instead of empowerment prayers to Him. But THE BIBLE SAYS THAT WE'RE TO BE CO-RULERS WITH HIM "

Stoll elaborates on the thinking of these men:

"Based on biblical language about taking dominion over the earth, the religious right began to talk about 'taking dominion' over American society and 'reconstructing' it on biblical principles. Emblematic of their CONQUEST OUTLOOK, some took the next logical step: that the Bible promised Christians political dominion over all the nations. 'The command of our General [i.e., Christ] is to bring the nations of the world under His dominion', one believer wrote. 'We have been ordered to disciple them and [we have been] promised that our Lord will be with us until the CONQUEST is complete. The leaders and people of the nations that plot to throw off the rule of God are conspiring in vain. Individuals and nations must be told: the Kingdom of God has come and of its increase there will be no end'."

PREACHING THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST
THROUGH THE BARREL OF A GUN

And make no mistake about it, those who were involved in this kind of thinking saw nothing wrong with proclaiming the Gospel through the barrel of a gun. For example, R.J. Rushdooney, the father of what we today call "Reconstructionism," wrote:

"In winning a nation to the Gospel, the sword as well as the pen must be used."

Clearly, then, people like Peacock, Rushdooney, Robertson, Falwell, etc. were more than willing to tie the success of the Gospel to American military might. Stoll continues:

"If Christ would not return until his followers completed the Great Commission ... it could hardly be accidental that such a high percentage of the world's Christians lived in the United States. Didn't 70 percent of the world's trained Christians and 80 percent of its Christian resources come from the United States? Didn't 90 percent of the money spent on world evangelism come from the United States? Surely then, America had a special role in God's plan. Even though it was not the only country with the duty of completing the Great Commission, unto whom much had been given, much would be required. If America had been more richly blessed than all other nations combined, then it was America's duty to bear an outsize share of the task

"Yet active efforts were being made to stop evangelism. Wasn't door after door being slammed shut? Because the United States was the headquarters of world missions, numerous evangelicals believed, it must be a special target of the devil. Satan knew he had to destroy the United States as a bastion of godliness, as a missionary nation, before he could wreak havoc throughout the world. THE U.S. MILITARY MACHINE WAS GOD'S WAY OF DEFENDING THE PEACE SO THAT HIS MESSAGE OF SALVATION COULD BE MADE KNOWN. WASHINGTON'S ADVERSARIES AROUND THE WORLD, THEREFORE ... [WERE] GOD'S ADVERSARIES, AND EVANGELIZING THE WORLD HINGED ON U.S. MILITARY POWER."

DRUNK WITH THE WINE OF HER FORNICATION

Of course, when right-wing Christians - together with their supporters in the Republican Party - talk of "overturning the rule of those who plot to throw off the 'government of God'," they mean those who would toss out the greedy, money-grubbing American multinationals corporations that are looting the countries of the so-called Third World, and "disappearing" those who seek to extricate their nations from the predatory grasp of the American New World Order System.

Why was all this so hard for American Christians to see? - after all, it didn't take a rocket scientist to see what the American multinationals were doing in the Third World: the wanton destruction of the rain forests, the dispossession of the poor from their land by American agri-businesses, the rape of the earth by American mining interests, the reduction of the peasantry to the status of worker-serfs in the "slave-labor factories" of companies like Liz Claiborne, Nike, etc., and on the banana plantations of the super-rich.

The answer is, American Christians had become INTOXICATED with worldly power, and they were so inebriated by it that they could no longer tell "right from wrong." To put it in the words of the passage of Scripture we have before us (i.e., Revelation 17:1-6), they had been "... made DRUNK with the wine of her fornication" (Rev. 17:2); specifically, with the wine of their religion's fornication with the American New World Order System.

They had been reduced spiritually to the state of drunkards who "... reel to and fro, and stagger ... and are at their wits' end." (Ps. 107:27), knowing not that those who drink from this cup of fornication are on a path that leads "... down to the chambers of death" (Proverbs 7:27) - "... like an oxen that goeth to the slaughter, or as fools to the correction of the stocks; till a dart strike through their livers; as birds hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for their lives" (Proverbs 7:22-23).

In teaming up with the elites of the American New World Order System, they had taken on the despicable image of those elites -

"Being filled with all unrighteousness ... wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

"Backbiters ... despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things ...

"Without understanding, covenantbreakers ... implacable, unmerciful:

"Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, BUT HAVE PLEASURE IN THEM THAT DO THEM." (Romans 1:29-32)

BLIND LEADING THE BLIND

America's Christian leaders had become little better than common inebriates who had been made drunk with the power that their new connection with the Political and Economic elites of the United States had gotten them - "blind leaders of the blind" (Matthew 15:14) -

"And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch." (Matt. 15:14).

And that's EXACTLY the condition of the American Church today and all those connected to it: they've been made drunk with the wine of the Whore's fornication and have fallen into a deep ditch; besotted inebriates who stagger to and fro unable to see through the foggy haze that beclouds their brains. After all, what else can be said of Christians who embrace warfare as a means of spreading the Gospel of the PRINCE OF PEACE (Isaiah 9:6), the One who instructed His followers to -

"Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,

"Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you.

"And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also.

"Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. (Luke 6:29-30)

OR do you think that Jesus was simply "blowing smoke" when he said these things? - that He wasn't really serious? If so, you are a blind DOLT! God's command here could not be any plainer, and if you choose to disobey it, you have NO right to call yourself a "Christian." The command to "LOVE YOUR ENEMIES AND DO GOOD TO THEM WHICH HATE YOU" (Luke 6:29) is central to the teachings of Christ; it is the essence of Christ's message in the New Testament; and, again, if you can't obey God in this matter, why do you call yourself a "Christian?"

MIRROR-IMAGES

Come on now! - where is there any room in the teachings of the New Testament for the kind of warfare mentality of today's American Christian community? - the kind of Christianity that Charles Swindall, D. James Kennedy, Charles Stanley, C. Peter Wagner, et. al. preach. Where is there any room here for the kind of Christianity that the American Church is exporting to the world in the interest of the American New World Order System and on behalf of the financial welfare of the CEOs of Exxon-Mobil, Haliburton, General Electric, Boeing, Ford Motor Company, Nike, Microsoft, etc.?

THE VERY FACT OF THE MATTER IS - WHAT CHRISTIANS IN AMERICA ARE PRODUCING IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD IS A KIND OF MIRROR-IMAGE OF THE CHRISTIANITY THAT HAS TAKEN ROOT IN THE UNITED STATES; A CHRISTIANITY THAT FLOWS OUT OF THE BARREL OF A GUN. All this substantiates the appellation given by the Scriptures to the many, many churches throughout the world that have linked themselves to the American Church: that they are "DAUGHTERS OF THE HARLOT!" And what an evil kind of Christianity these "DAUGHTERS OF THE HARLOT" have created in the client-states of the American new World Order System!

Take just one early example: what happened in Guatemala in the early 1980s under General Efrain Rios Montt. The example here ultimately failed, but it proved useful as a model for other more successful attempts in Honduras, El Salvador, Ecuador, the Congo, the Philippines, etc. And now this example has spread to Europe - in many of the countries of the former Soviet Union. Even in Western Europe this model is beginning to take shape - especially as these populations are being "re-Christianized" under the impress of the poor who are mostly impoverished Muslim immigrants from North Africa. Indeed, the recent victory of the CDU in Germany is an example of this phenomenon, as is what's happening in Austria, Holland, and Italy. Even the United Kingdom and the Scandinavian countries have not been immune from this pathology. But it's in France under the impress of recent Muslim rioting, that this model is beginning to really take hold.

THE CHURCH IN GUATEMALA:
DAUGHTER OF THE HARLOT

But getting back to the kind of Christianity that the American Church tried to create in Guatemala in 1982, it appeared in answer to a perennial nightmare that the American elites - together with their lackey elites in the area - had had concerning the loss of their vast economic holdings in Latin America to the "scourge" of socialism - a nightmare that was given expression in a book that appeared in 1936. The novel was by an American missionary who wrote about a Russian Bolshevik who leads an uprising among Guatemala's Mayan Indians aimed at igniting a communist revolution in Central America, the fires of which engulf all of Latin America and reach even to the American border at the Rio Grande.

By the very early 1980s - almost fifty years after the book's publication - this seemed precisely to be was happening. Indians in the western highlands of Guatemala had joined Marxist guerrillas in an effort to drive out the corrupt American-supported military regime that was then ensconced in Guatemala City. The threat was materializing, moreover, in what the Protestant Christian missionaries of Central America regarded as a particularly insidious guise: a revolutionary interpretation of their own Christian faith: the LIBERATION THEOLOGY of left-wing Catholics such as Gustavo Gutierrez, Oscar Romero, Dom Helder Camara and most especially, Ernesto Cardenal. Indeed, Cardenal had actually joined the revolutionary Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua as a minister in the Sandinista's Revolutionary Council.

Christianity in the service of socialism? - in the service of the poor of the earth? Christianity aimed against the rich? - against American corporate interests? What were the proponents of Liberation Theology trying to do? - rob the American New World Order System of its most useful tool in its war against its left-wing opponents? That would never do! The answer of the American Church to the threat of Liberation Theology in Central America - specifically, in Guatemala - was General Efrain Rios Montt who seized power in a military coup on March 23, 1982. This was the kind of man for whom the American missionaries in Guatemala had been praying. Stoll writes:

"We can ... [only] imagine the hymns of praise which greeted this true soldier of God. The confrontation between North American ... [Christianity] and [left-wing Catholic] liberation theology made Central America, in the words of an [American] evangelical missionary, 'one of the strategic battlefields in the spiritual warfare over the allegiance and eternal destiny of the world's inhabitants'. The ... [American form of Christianity], an elder of Rios Montt's Word Church stated, was a 'stabilizing factor'. It would transform Guatemala into a 'spiritual stronghold', prevent Guatemala's rich oil and titanium reserves [most of which, incidentally, were owned by American corporate interests] from falling into Marxist hands, and become a buffer between the United States and the communist advance. 'After Guatemala', warned Word's parent church in the U.S., 'only Mexico remains'!" [NOTE: what American missionaries had in mind at that time was the threat of communism; what they have in mind today is the threat of "Muslim Terrorists."]

To the adherents of the American Church in Latin America, the main cause of poverty and social unrest in that area of the world was not the rapacious activity of American corporate interests, but the lack of a genuine "work ethic" and a truncated morality among the poor of the region. It followed, then, that only a moral reformation could save the day.

This was the premise on which Rios Montt announced he would save Guatemala for "Christ and the church" - and, of course, for the American New World Order System. Rios Montt's Christian base in Guatemala was the Word Church headquartered in Guatemala City. It was an extension of Jim Durkin's Gospel Outreach denomination based in Northern California.

A LITTLE "NEW ISRAEL OF GOD"

Guatemala, under the tutelage of the American Church and missionaries connected to North America, would become a model of Christian transformation and a beacon of light to other countries of the world threatened by the same Satanic forces of socialism and Liberation Theology. It would become a little "New Israel of God" in association with its Mother to the north - the American Church. Indeed, Guatemala would become the first of many "little daughter" churches to the colossus in the north. In January of 1982 Rios Montt declared:

"Guatemalans are the chosen people of the New Testament. We are the New Israelites of Central America."

Encouraged by North American televangelists like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHaye, D. James Kennedy, etc., American Christians pledged millions and millions of dollars to Rios Montt's effort to drive the satanic forces of socialism and Liberation Theology out Guatemala.

Every Sunday morning Rios took to the radio to moralize against the sorry state of Guatemalan morality and to encourage his people to begin to take "personal responsibility" for their poverty - NEVER MIND THE FACT THAT THEY HAD BEEN ROBBED OF ANY WAY TO MAKE A LIVING; NEVER MIND THE FACT THAT THE GUATEMALAN PEOPLE HAD LONG AGO BEEN ILLEGALLY STRIPPED OF THEIR LAND BY MONEY-GRUBBING NORTH AMERICAN AGRI-BUSINESSES LIKE UNITED FRUIT COMPANY AND CHIQUITA BRAND; AND NEVER MIND THE FACT THAT THEIR MINERAL WEALTH HAD SIMILARLY FALLEN INTO THE HANDS OF AMERICAN MINING INTERESTS No! - what was needed was a "moral revolution," and somehow or other money would magically "fall from heaven."

And so Rios Montt's war to drive out the forces of satanic socialism and the minions of Liberation Theology began - and what a bloody affair it was! For example, in July of 1982 the Guatemalan army - IN THE NAME OF THE "PRINCE OF PEACE" (and advised by U.S. Special Forces and the CIA) - wiped out a large village of Chuj Maya men, women and children. Stoll writes:

"This was not a case of civilians caught in a crossfire because there had been no resistance. Gang-rape (the Guatemalan army's inducement for soldiers about to massacre women), torture, execution, and ritual cannibalism were supervised by officers who alighted from a helicopter." [Carrying Bibles in their hands, no doubt.]

KILLING INNOCENT CIVILIANS
IN THE NAME OF GOD

And this was supposed to be the new "Christian army" come to save the "poor and dispossessed" in Guatemala? - and what happened to these Chuj Mayans happened time and time again during the presidency of Rios Montt. And there at the forefront of what was going on were the elders of Rios Montt's Word Church in Guatemala City. What a pathetic sight it was. Take how one Word elder, Francisco Bianchi, tried to justify all the killing:

"The problem of war is not just a question of who is shooting. For each one who is shooting there are ten workers behind him. The guerrillas won over many [civilian] Indian collaborators. Therefore the Indians were subversives. And how do you fight subversion? Clearly you had to kill Indians because they were collaborating with subversion. And then it would be said that you were killing innocent people. But they weren't innocent. They had sold out to subversion." [Please see our article, "The Death Squads: Bringing in the Kingdom of God through Terror, Torture and Death."]

Another Christian observer wrote:

"Killing for the joy of it is wrong, but killing because it is necessary to fight against an anti-Christ system ... is not only right, but the duty of every Christian."

Soon this kind of thinking spread to other countries in the region, and was embraced by other Christian groups. Take what happened with World Vision: Refugees from the fighting in El Salvador who made their way to refugee camps in Honduras that were run by the Christian relief organization were routinely handed over to Honduran death squads which took their orders ultimately from the American Embassy run by John Dimitri Negroponte, now the Director of Intelligence in Washington D.C. A few days later, their mutilated bodies would inevitably be found floating in the river. Not only that, but World Vision staffers actually participated in the Honduran army's interrogation of refugees in their camps, often with CIA officers looking on. [Please see our article, "The Horror of John Dimitri Negroponte and Everything He Represents."]

ERSATZ REVOLUTIONS IN THE NAME OF THE
AMERICAN NEW WORLD ORDER SYSTEM

It is precisely this kind of Christianity that has been behind the ersatz revolutions in Georgia (the so-called "Rose Revolution") and in the Ukraine (the so-called "Orange Revolution") [both successful] and the aborted revolutions in Belarus and in Venezuela where, as we have already indicated, the CIA attempted to overthrow the legitimate government of Hugo Chavez with the help of right-wing Christian groups in Caracas several years ago. [For what happened in the Ukraine, please see our article, "The Truth about What's Happening in the Ukraine: Managing Democracy."

These kind of pseudo-revolutions are becoming endemic all over the world and give evidence to the way right-wing Christian groups and the American New World Order System have teamed up to "bring Christ to the world."

WHAT WILL YOU DO NOW?

Now as bad as all this may seem to be, the spiritual situation in these lands and among these peoples is not as bad as the situation that is extant in the United States, and it is into these lands that the Bible has commanded us to go:

"Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and DELIVER EVERY MAN HIS SOUL [and, again, please note here, the Bible is not talking about one's physical-life, but one's soul-life]: be not cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD'S vengeance; he will render unto her a recompence.

"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: FORSAKE HER, AND LET US GO EVERY ONE INTO HIS OWN COUNTRY: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies." (Jeremiah 51:6 and 9)

NOTE: Interestingly enough, this could only be said of the United States - a country populated almost wholly by immigrants from other lands, as one dear brother from India has so discerningly pointed out in his letters to us.

TO THOSE IN BABYLON, THE COMMAND IS TO "COME OUT." TO THOSE IN OTHER LANDS (TOGETHER WITH THOSE WHO LEAVE BABYLON), THE COMMAND IS TO TESTIFY AGAINST THAT BEAST AND THE WOMAN WHO SITS ON THE BEAST, AND SAY TO THEM, "THE KINGDOM YOU ARE SETTING UP IN CHRIST'S NAME HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH CHRIST, AND EVERYTHING TO DO WITH ANTICHRIST." This is the "GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM" - and the Bible says:

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come." (Matt. 24:14) [Please see our article, "The Good News Of The Coming Kingdom."]

Brothers and sisters, listen to me here! Prophecy is like a road sign saying: "Slow down, sharp right hand turn ahead!" But if we fail to heed the sign, if we fail to slow down before we get to the turn, it will be too late to brake once we finally get there, and we will surely slide off the road and crash.

Like a road sign, prophecy tells us things before they happen so that we can take evasive action before events catch up with us. If we wait until they finally overtake us, it will be too late to do anything - we will crash! Watch, therefore, for the "signs of the times," and don't wait to take action. You may wait too long!

Jesus said,

"... When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, it will be foul weather today: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye HYPOCRITES, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" (Matt. 16:2-3)

And Paul warns us,

"But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober." (I Thess. 5:4-6)

What is needed now is OBEDIENCE. Jesus said:

"He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21) [Please see our last article, "The Cost of Discipleship."]

I repeat: you have NO right to call yourself a "Servant of God" if you fail to OBEY Him; again I say to you - no, not I, but the Lord - if one who calls himself a "Servant of God" refuses to OBEY His Master's instructions, then that servant stands in jeopardy of being cast out of the household of God. It is in this connection that we must understand the words of Christ when He said:

"For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, but whosoever hath not, FROM HIM SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY EVEN THAT HE HATH," (Matt. 13:11)

When one comes to a point in His Christian walk when he decides that it is no longer possible for him to obey God - that it is just too difficult to do so, that the price to be paid for doing so is too high - then he will begin to justify his disobedience; to twist the Word of God to make it fit his circumstances and justify his disobedience: it is PRECISELY here that these words become operable: "For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundantly, but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath" (Matt. 13:11).

To those who obey God, THEY SHALL BE GIVEN MORE, AND THEY SHALL HAVE MORE ABUNDANTLY. But to those who refuse to obey God, EVEN THE LIGHT THAT THEY HAD WILL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM - and I say this with tears in my eyes for those whom I have known up through the years, even many in Antipas, who came to a point in their lives where they said that it was no longer possible for them to obey God; it was too difficult any longer for them to do so.

God bless you,

S.R. Shearer
Antipas Ministries