Beginnings of the Babylonian System

Transcript

GR 2043
06/10/2018
Beginnings of the Babylonian System
Revelation 17, Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

We're in Revelation 17 and what Revelation 17 is about is religious Babylon. Chapter 18 will be about commercial and political Babylon. And what Babylon is, it's the Satanic system that has been in operation since the earliest times. We went back to Genesis 10-11 and events following the flood of Noah and we see something of the Satanic system. The opposition of the devil to God began in heaven when he led an angelic rebellion against God. And then when God brought the creation of the world into existence, Satan intervened and Adam and Eve joined Satan in his rebellion against God. And Satan, since that time, has been leading the world in opposition to God and a key part of that is leading the world in false religions and false worship, all of which ultimately is a worship of the devil.

There are only two worship systems that have ever existed and exist down to today, that is the worship of the living God and the worship of the devil. And every false worship system is ultimately a worship of the devil. We noted that for example in
1 Corinthians 10 where Paul warned the church at Corinth about false worship and noted that when you join false worship, you become joined in fellowship with demons. Just like when you believe false teaching, you are believing the doctrine or teaching of demons, Paul wrote to Timothy.

These are serious matters. And all creation is moving toward the climactic events that we are talking about in the book of Revelation, that seven-year period that will culminate with the return of Jesus Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom. That will take place in Revelation 19. But in chapters 17-18 we see this Satanic system coming together in a unity that has never existed before. We saw in Genesis 11 the devil attempted to establish at Babylon a system where all the peoples on earth would be united around a central worship system and we would have a kingdom joined in the worship of the devil. But God intervened and scattered the peoples, divided their languages, and so down to today we have the divisions of the world. But the devil is working to bring all things together. His goal is to create in opposition what God is creating. What is God moving the world toward? A kingdom where all the world is gathered together under the authority of His Son Jesus Christ. Satan is working to bring all the world together under the authority of his ruler, the Antichrist, called the beast in Revelation 13 and again in Revelation 17. So we are moving toward that final form, that Satanic world system. It's a Babylonian system. We want to talk a little bit about that with you.

You'll note in Revelation 17 as we have looked, in verse 1 John was called by the angel and he was going to be shown, at the end of verse 1, “the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters.” There is a repeated emphasis in Revelation 17 on this spiritual harlotry, the Greek word pornia. We get words like pornography from that word; it denotes immorality. But in Revelation 17 we are speaking about spiritual immorality, unfaithfulness and opposition to God and honoring Him. The prophets in the Old Testament constantly rebuked Israel for their spiritual adultery, for their spiritual unfaithfulness. So this is the great harlot. And you come together now with the pulling together of this religious system, there is a unity now in it. We have diversity but this will be pulled together with a unified religious system to help prepare the way for the Antichrist who ultimately will destroy this unified religious system. So what we have in chapter 17 is an overview of this seven-year period, leading up to the coming of Christ. During the first 3½ years you will have a unified apostate religious system, for the last 3½ years you will have only the worship of the Antichrist. We saw some of that in chapter 13, we will be talking more about it.

This harlot sits on many waters, as we have seen the waters are said to represent peoples. So this is the apostate religious system that has functioned over the world in a diversity of manifestations but behind it is one spiritual entity, the devil. And they all join in worshiping him in their opposition to the worship of the living God. There is only one way to worship the living God. Jesus said, “no man comes to the Father but by Me.” So you cannot worship God apart from Jesus Christ and faith in His finished work, the book of Hebrews talks about in detail the way God must be worshiped.

“The kings of the earth,” verse 2, “have committed acts of immorality, and the people of the world have been drunk with the wine of her immorality.” In other words this has been the characteristic of the world, rulers and everybody else have been involved in false worship, this apostate religious system. It started in Babylon in Genesis 11 and is going to be brought back into a unified Babylonian system. “He was carried away,” verse 3, “into the wilderness, he saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast.” We noted the woman represents the religious system, the beast is the Antichrist and the kingdom that he represents. We have talked about that, we'll be talking about it more later in chapter 17. The beast is full of blasphemous names. We will see this in chapter 18 with the political and commercial system. It's the devil's system, he is the “god of the world,” small “g” according to 1 John 5. He told Jesus at the temptation, “I will give you all the kingdoms of the world, for they have been given to me as the result of the fall into sin of Adam.” Satan has been delegated authority over all the kingdoms of the world by God. So the whole world system is built in opposition to God in all of its aspects, not just in religion. Everything is corrupted by sin, but we're focusing on the religious aspect here.

“The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations of the unclean things of her immorality.” Pictured here, this religious system is very wealthy, successful and it has been successful in corrupting the peoples of the world. They have been led into false worship and false religious activity. And she is identified on her forehead “Babylon the Great, a mystery.” This is something you would not put together without revelation from God.

We look at the world today, it just looks chaos, it looks like all kinds of religious groups and different religions and conflict, and we have political activity going on and you see . . . But God is explaining it. Here the religions of the world, let Me explain to you. We're talking about Babylon the great, we're talking about this great system put together by the devil and it is awesome. “The mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth.” And at the root, this has been the source of all the spiritual poison that has infected the world century after century, millennium after millennium. And this religious system has been consistent in its antagonism and opposition to God's people.

So “I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her I wondered greatly.” So John says I need more information and God, in His grace, is about to give more information because His intention is that we understand it. So he is going to walk us through an explanation of the details. But I want to pause a little bit before we go further and say something about this Babylonian system as it comes together in its final form. Because even as the world, the kingdoms of the world, and we're not going to do it today because we'll be doing it again as we move through the last part of the chapter. Remember the empires of the world, the last one being Rome and then Rome in subsequent form, a ten-nation confederacy, and then the Antichrist. So they are moving toward a unification, so the religious system will ultimately move toward that, as impossible as it seems, it is where we are moving in the plan of God and in the work of the devil because even the devil's rebellion against God cannot frustrate the plan of God. It accomplishes the purposes of God.

I want to look a little bit at this Babylonian system because I don't want us to think we just blow by that and say that's not anything. It is right around us in the diversity of religions, and I think as we come together in the Roman Empire revived, we can expect to see something of the religious system connected in that area.

Let me just share some things with you. I picked up a book at Barnes and Noble a number of years ago. It was written by an English anthropologist so he is not an evangelical and doesn't write from a biblical perspective. But it is The Cult of the Mother Goddess. It is by a man named James, E. O. James, I think his name Edwin Oliver James. He published it in 1959, Barnes and Noble republished it in 1994 so you can probably still get it at used bookstores and so on, if it is not in print. There is another one we do have in our bookstore called The Two Babylons by Hislop, written more from an evangelical perspective. Some of you are familiar with it, it was done in the middle of the 19th century, first published in 1853 but it has been republished by the Wasow Brothers and it is in print so that one I can recommend to you.

But here is what this man says as he begins his book The Cult of the Mother Goddess. And you see he is not a believer from the beginning. Whether or not the Mother Goddess was the earliest manifestation of the concept of deity. Well the Mother Goddess was not the earliest manifestation of the concept of deity, the first we came to know of God is when He revealed Himself, the one true and living Father God. So he is not coming from a biblical perspective. I read that because this is not a Christian who has a bias, this is just an anthropologist writing.

“Whether or not the Mother Goddess was the earliest manifestation of the concept of deity, her symbolism unquestionably has been the most persistent feature in the archaeological record of the ancient world.” In other words what we can find most consistently is the worship of the Mother Goddess. I think that is significant, as I read more from that in a moment to you. But I want to look a little bit at what the Bible is talking about when it talks about the Babylonian system, and it seems where we are going. This worship of the Mother Goddess, it infects our thinking. Turn on the weather channel and watch and you see some storms take place and what do they say? Well, “Mother Nature is really stirring things up, we'll have to see what Mother Nature does.” Where does that come from? It doesn't come from the Bible because God has never been revealed as Mother in that sense. It goes back to a concept from the beginning, it goes back to the beginning of the Babylonian system. Pay close attention.

We are going back to Genesis 10:11. Remember Nimrod was the founder of Babylon. I have a chart for you, the mother and the child. When you get to Babylon you have Semiramis and we go to secular history and Semiramis was said to be the wife of the founder of Babylon, Nimrod. Remember Nimrod, that mighty hunter. And Semiramis had a child and that child had a supernatural kind of conception but he was killed. But miraculously he was raised. That seems to be the source of this Mother Goddess, Mother/Child development down through the history of time.

You can just put all those comparisons up, just the way this develops in different countries. In other words what they have found and a book like this, he will take you through all various countries of the world to show how this Mother Goddess cult has been the focus and often connected with this supernatural child. You'll note Tammuz, and some of these names, you'll note, Tammuz appears more than once here, and the names can change according to the country they are in. But you are talking about the same thing, this Mother Goddess worship. In Italy, Venus and Cupid, we may be most familiar with that because of Valentine's Day and what they have made of that. That was the name for Ashtoreth and Tammuz but in Italy. We will later mention Artemis in Acts 19. Well Artemis was the name of the goddess in Ephesus in Asia Minor but she was called Diana in Latin. So in Italy. And you have these names that get changed so when you read, if you read like The Two Babylons or this book by James or others, it can get confusing because the names change. But you see at the heart of it is the worship of a goddess, and she is sometimes associated with a god, a Baal, but often connected with a special child. And often that child has gone through a death and been supernaturally raised.

Now how do you get this going all the way back, long before the birth of Christ? Well, unbelievers get things turned around. They go to the world and secular records like this and they say the Bible must have followed that line and gotten these ideas from the world. But we know, as believers, where it came from. The devil was the one who was the anointed cherub that covered the throne of God, he has lived in the presence of God, still has access to Him. He knows something of the plans that God has sent forth and he very astutely has developed counterfeits so, long before Christ came, was born, was crucified and resurrected.

Pagan religions were celebrating the supernatural birth to a goddess, of a son who was killed and miraculously brought back to life. These things didn't come from, the Bible didn't adjust to the secular ideas, these secular ideas were planted so that the counterfeit that the devil was building would have more credibility. And that happens to a lot of the Bible when “scholars” go outside the Bible for their information, then try to fit the Bible into the outside information, they create a counterfeit and confusion.

So we have these names: Semiramis, Tammuz, Ashtoreth and on through. And there are others as you go through other countries and sometimes these names alter. I put on Egypt another name for Horos, so Cyrus, same person, so it can get confusing. But part of it, just keep in mind we are talking about a goddess and a child.

Come with me to Jeremiah 7. I'm first going to read you Ezekiel 8:14. In Ezekiel 8:12 Ezekiel is giving a message to the Jews and the elders of Israel are the subject. We are in the context of the Babylonian captivity. “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark? Each man in the room of his carved images? They say the Lord doesn't see us for He has forsaken the land. He said to me, you will see still greater abominations when they are committing.” Now listen, this is Ezekiel 8:14, “He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the Lords' house,” the Lord's house, “which was to the north. Behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.” You look on the chart, Tammuz. “Why are they weeping for Tammuz?” Because part of the pagan system, this goddess had given birth to this supernatural child but he had been killed. So they are weeping, but he will be raised. Similar to what people do like on Good Friday, that's a time of sorrow, they remember the death of Christ. Then there is a time of joy. So this they have, they are weeping for Tammuz. This is going on at the center of Israel's worship, which has been replaced by this worship of this Babylonian goddess and her supernatural son. And they are weeping for Tammuz. And God says, “These are greater abominations.” This has carried them to greater depths in their pagan worship.

Now in Jeremiah 7:16, God tells Jeremiah, “Do not pray for this people, do not cry for them in prayer, don't intercede with Me for them. I won't listen. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me.” The queen of heaven. If you read any of this literature that delves into these kinds of things, you see the queen of heaven, that's what this goddess becomes—the queen of heaven, the pagan goddess to be worshiped. This is what had . . ., now it is in Israel's religion. They are weeping for Tammuz, they are making cakes and you can read about these cakes going on in other lands in a book like this secular book I mentioned, where they would make these cakes and then they would impress upon them the image of this child or this goddess and that was the way of honoring, like the queen of heaven. That's why he says in archaeology this is the earliest we have in archaeological finds of these kinds of carved images and worship system.

Come over to Jeremiah 44. This is why Israel had to go into captivity, this pagan worship. Resulted in the ten tribes being carried away by Assyria and now the southern two tribes with the pagan-ness of the worship. Jeremiah and Ezekiel both writing in the context of the Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah 44:16, verse 15 for the context. “Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifice to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt responding to Jeremiah.” Because in the context here, the Babylonian captivity and then going down into Egypt with this remnant. “As for the message that you have spoken to us,” this is what these people are telling Jeremiah, “in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you. Rather we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths by burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven, pouring out drink offerings to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, our princes did in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food and were well off and saw no misfortune.” You'll note, the kings, the princes, the people. This has infected Israel. Remember this woman riding the beast in Revelation 17, with whom the kings of the earth have committed immorality. Here they say our kings worship this goddess, our people did, this Babylonian system in its corruption.

Verse 18, “But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings,” then we have had trouble to summarize it. Verse 19, “Then the women said, when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven, were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image?” As I referred to, they did that in times prior to this in other parts of the world—the worship, they make the cakes and they have the image of this goddess on them.

So you come down to verse 25, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, as for you, your wives, you have spoken with your mouths, fulfilled it with your hand saying, we will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed, burned sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings.” Go ahead, perform your vows. Nevertheless, hear the word of the Lord, judgment is coming. So you have this relentless emphasis on the queen of heaven in the Babylonian system.

Let me read a little bit from this book, just a couple of comments. I read you where he said this is the oldest they can find in archeology. Like I say, this man will refer to Scripture but Scripture is not his authority, it's just another ancient work. But as he develops this whole system, he comes to how the church became involved in this. He says in the New Testament not much is said about Mary, he knows enough about that. He'll use the references to Mary in the Bible but there is not much more in the Bible about Mary. He even notes perhaps the last reference is the reference in Revelation 12 that some hold to be a reference to Mary, the Roman Catholics would, we hold it to be Israel. But he says how this cult developed and was accepted within the church, particularly as we would know as the Roman Catholic church.

Therefore in an age in which the goddess cult was so deeply laid, the mother of the redeemer hardly could escape being assigned a position which in many respects corresponded to that of the great mother, he calls her the magma mater but in translation it means the great mother. Because that's what the queen of heaven is, she's the mother of us all. The great mother in the pagan world, particularly in those areas which she had been predominant. In other words he has found as he has studied secular history, then look what happened to the church in its history, as it moved into pagan areas and with the passing of time it adopted some of the pagan practices and connected those to Mary. And built a cult around Mary that fit pretty much what the pagans did. And the history is interesting.

Can't read you all of what he says. In fact it was not until the post-apostolic period from the 2nd century and onward that the “Mary-ian” cult began to be formulated and gradually to take definite shape in Christian tradition. Note that it doesn't come down through the New Testament, it doesn't come out of Scripture. It comes out of what developed in church history, and this is about Roman Catholics, and I'll be reading about those in a moment. So part of Roman Catholic dogma, the Bible is not their only authority, they also believe the church fathers, those are the people in early church history, and the councils that met to discuss and define church doctrine are also authoritative.

Now how do you put all of this together? That's the Roman Catholic magisterium, led by the pope. That's why Roman Catholic doctrine is only the church, the Roman Catholic Church and its magisterium can authoritatively interpret the Bible and establish doctrine. And they do it not only with Scripture but with what the church fathers wrote. Sometimes church fathers were right, sometimes they were wrong. They are men. Sometimes the councils got it right, sometimes they confused it. But this secular writer notes there is nothing in the Bible and it wasn't until the 2nd century and longer afterwards that this doctrine about Mary developed.

There was a controversy about the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ, and we can understand that in church history. Today we talk about the theoanthropic union, the God/Man union. There was a council at Ephesus in 431 A.D., and it was to focus on trying to clarifying the debate that was going on between the true humanity and the true deity of Christ and how that would be expressed. So out of this Christological controversy came the title theopticos, and theopticos means mother of God. So out of this controversy the title theopticos, mother of God, was conferred upon her, upon Mary, at the Council of Ephesus in 431. They thought that would help clarify that Jesus was fully God, He just wasn't a man born to Mary, He was God. But the problem was they conferred that title, mother of God, and it's a little bit, opens the door to confusion. I was going to give you a current example but I won't further cloud the issue. So this debate goes on. At this council, one of the ways they got this done, this is part of the problem, when you have councils you are going to bring everybody together. All those from both sides were to come together at Ephesus and resolve the issue but Cyril the church leader with his side promoting the deity, called the council together, and in those days travel took time, and before the other side that wanted more of a balance in the humanity and deity of Christ got there, he had the council vote. And they voted to support his view that Mary is the mother of God. So by the time the opponents got there to meet with the council, the council had already decided and these who were going to represent the other side didn't come to present their side. They came to be called heretics.

So you realize the church councils, not that there is not some good and clarity to come out of them, but you have to be careful. These are men coming together to sort through what the Scripture says. Sometimes they got it right, sometimes they got it wrong. But this is the context in which you came up. And it is interesting what this man's observation is just as an anthropologist, not as someone studying Scripture. Where is the Council at Ephesus held? At Ephesus, that's not intelligent. In 431, now what goes on at Ephesus? Many of you are familiar with Acts 19, Paul visited this city of Ephesus and he preached the Gospel and some people got saved. And there were silversmiths at Ephesus that made a good living by making images of the goddess that they worshiped. And who was it? Artemis who is also known as Diana in the Latin.

So here is what he says about being at Ephesus. If anywhere so notorious for its devotion to Artemis, or Diana as the Romans called here, where her image was said to have fallen from heaven under the shadow of the great temple dedicated to the magma mater, the great mother, since 330 B.C. Do you see how long the worship of this mother goddess had been going on in Ephesus? They had the temple that was there that had been there since 330 B.C. So in this city the title God-bearer, mother of God, could hardly fail to be accepted. I mean you have a pagan environment and these people who come out of a pagan environment, they are accustomed to this mother goddess. Sure, we think it is great, this puts things together. Mary is our Diana, Mary is our Artemis. And it helped to lend to the corruption, now that many not be what was intended, I don't want to say that was intended by this council, but it paved the way when you say let's give her the title, mother of God. And one thing the Roman Catholic Church to this day is expert at, it is very adjustable to wherever in the world it goes. You can absorb your pagan practices as long as you will recognize the pope as the supreme authority and certain basic doctrines. Quick, get baptized. Now you are part of the church, now you need to partake of the communion. Other than that, bring your pagan practices with you. The corruption took place down through history.

He talks about how in the pagan lands you had this goddess as the mediatrix between God and man and soon fresh emphasis was given to her as a mediatrix. This gets connected, she is the mother of God and part of what came out of that council, it stressed so strongly, perhaps, the deity of Christ. You think of God, well God is so great and in one sense seems so distant from me. Well here is an opportunity, what better way to come close to God than through His mother? So you can come to the mother of God. And so that's why he says here, fresh emphasis was given to her as a mediatrix. Now it didn't become formal church doctrine for a few more centuries, but in practice, he notes, though she was not designated mediatrix until the 8th century, to all intents and purposes she had long fulfilled this role in Asia Minor and the eastern Mediterranean. The Council at Ephesus gave powerful impetus to the Mary-ian cultist which was represented almost at once in iconography. You know where they make images and pictures of the Madonna, the mother and the child. It's amazing as you look at these images you can see drawn from pagan times long before Christ with the goddess holding the baby and the stars around her head and so on. It's a pagan goddess concept, it is not new.

Then what happened? They began to build churches. And do you know where they often built the churches? He goes through the different places. They built the churches where the pagan temples had been because they are already identified as places of worship. So the superimposing of churches dedicated to the virgin on the goddess sanctuaries marks the development of the Mary-ian cultist and doubtless involved the transferring of at least some of the beliefs and practices connected with the pagan occupants of the shrines in popular godliness. In other words it made it easier for people to come now, worshipers at the church. Well, that's not in such conflict with our religion. They had Artemis, Diana; we have Mary. We still have the mother of God.

I've read to you before from some Roman Catholic doctrine. I think part of what has come together since this final Roman Empire comes together as a form of the Roman Empire. I think we can connect the religion that goes with it, too. These ten kings that form this next-to-the-last form of the Roman Empire are out of the Roman Empire. I think we see the culminating of the worship system that has become the Babylonian system that has come so epitomized.

This is a Roman Catholic book. I may have gotten it at a Roman Catholic bookstore. I used to do that on occasion so I could get their writings, rather than getting a Protestant who was telling me what the Roman Catholics believe. I’d go and get something from the Roman Catholics. This has the nihil obstat and the imprimatur. The nihil obstat means nothing objectionable. In other words this has been examined by Roman Catholic authorities, they find nothing objectionable—no contrary doctrine. It has the imprimatur of Richard Cardinal Cushing, many of you will remember his prominence in past days. Here is what the Roman Catholic catechism says. The nihil obstat and the imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. So this has the Roman Catholic stamp of approval, they printed it, they say it is free from doctrinal or moral error.

This is about Mary, because we are talking about the queen of heaven, this whole Roman-ish doctrine that has Babylonian doctrine that has been transferred now in a very clear way to the Roman Catholic Church. Mary, and I'm just quoting and I won't be reading successively because these just, they have ten points on every page and this is multiple pages. “Mary is the ark of salvation built by God on the deluge of our faults, so that whoever desires may enter and be saved.” You see what they are saying, Mary is the ark. If you want to escape from the consequences of your sin, you have to do it through Mary. It is as important to be devoted to Mary as it is to enter heaven because no one can enter Paradise who is not devoted to Mary. “She herself is the book of life from which God will read the names of the elect on the day of judgment.” You can see the book of life in Revelation 17. Mary is the book of life, she either has your name or she doesn't. But “Mary herself will introduce these elect souls to Him, to God, as her masterpieces and He will endow them with happiness.” And your consideration as you read this ought to be, love Mary because she transforms us into Jesus.

No one can acquire an intimate union with Jesus and a perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without being greatly united to Mary. It is necessary for us to have a mediator besides Jesus mediating. Now note that. 1 Timothy 2 says “there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” Roman Catholic doctrine says it is necessary for us to have a mediator besides Jesus mediating, and we will never find one more qualified than Mary.

When God deeply loves a soul and finds it stained with sin, He covers it with a beautiful mantle that makes it precious to Him. This mantle is Mary. Man becomes what he loves. If he loves earth, he becomes earth; if he loves God, he becomes God; if he loves Mary, he becomes her son, that is…another Jesus. I mean could we get anymore pagan?

“Consider Mary's power,” they counsel you. The queen stood on your right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. Does that not sound like the woman in Revelation 17, clothed so beautifully in scarlet and purple? All graces pass from God to Jesus, from Jesus to Mary, from Mary to us.

I want you to listen to this carefully, see if this is not blasphemous. “Mary is the complement of the Holy Spirit. Before God she asks not, she commands. She doesn't come to God with her requests, she comes to tell God, to command God. Before God she doesn't ask, she commands. No true devotee of Mary will be damned because she is the terrible conqueror of the devil.” You see how Christ is involved in this, but all the emphasis is transferred to Mary and her relationship with you and her relationship with God. She is the one who conquered the devil. I thought Christ said in John 12 that He was doing that.

Mary is our co-redemptrix, she is the co-redeemer because she gave us Jesus pledge of our salvation. Furthermore, she is co-redemptrix of the human race because with Christ she ransomed mankind from the power of Satan. Christ didn't do it alone, with Christ she ransomed us. Jesus redeemed us with the blood of His body, Mary with the agonies of her heart. We are condemned through the fault of one woman, we were saved through the merits of another. Saved through the merits of Mary. Just as Eve was the root of death for everyone, so Mary was the root of life for everyone. You see, somewhere Christ has gotten dropped out of the picture. Oh, we add Him from time to time but our focus needs to be on Mary. As we are obliged to Jesus for His passion, so we are indebted to Mary for her participation in His passion.

Note this, remember Mary doesn't ask before God, she commands God. Mary is the mystical neck, which inclined the divine head, Jesus, to mercy toward us. If it weren't for Mary, you wouldn't be saved because she was the one who directed Christ to you. She gave birth to Jesus with joy, she gave birth to us, brother of Jesus, in anguish and in sorrow. You get the idea we couldn't have our salvation without Christ. She gave birth to Jesus, with joy she gave birth to us, brothers of Jesus, in anguish and sorrow. Just like she gave birth to Jesus, she gave birth to us. We owe it all to Mary.

A consideration you should take as you read this page is, Mary is mother of God. Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary who was called and really is the mother of God. As mother of the Word incarnate, now listen, this is so blasphemous you can't believe. As mother of the Word incarnate, in other words Jesus Christ, He is the Word of God who became flesh. As mother of the Word incarnate, Mary was elevated to a certain equality with the heavenly Father. Is this not pagan? Mary was elevated to certain equality with the heavenly Father?

God has ordained, they give you something you should carefully consider as you work through each of these doctrinal points. Here it is, Mary, mediatrix of grace. God has ordained that no grace will be granted to us except through Mary. “Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but by Me.’” Roman Catholic doctrine is, no grace will be granted to us except through Mary. In other words no one comes to the Father but through Mary, who is equal with the Father, and doesn't ask the Father but commands the Father. It is a doctrine preached by all the saints, that no grace can come to us from heaven without passing through Mary's hands. No one will be saved nor obtain mercy except through you, heavenly lady. Remember this well, no one will enter heaven without passing through Mary, as one would pass through a door. Jesus said He was the door in John 10. Don't be deceived when Roman Catholics say we have altered our doctrine and Protestants can get in. You can't get in without devotion to Mary.

Mary's privileges. She is co-redemptrix of the human race. The church and the saints greet her thus, “you, oh Mary, together with Jesus Christ redeemed us. In her is the same fullness of grace that there is in Jesus, although in a different manner. Consider this, queen of heaven. The angels in heaven sang queen of heaven rejoice because your son has risen.” I missed that. How do they know that angels in heaven sang that she was queen of heaven? “Hail oh queen of Paradise, you are the glory of the heavenly Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people. As the stars are illuminated by the sun, so is heaven illuminated by you, oh Mary.” When I read Revelation 21-22 I find that God is the light of heaven. Now I find out that Mary is co-equal with the Father.

You get the idea she is being pushed up, the things said about the Father now are being said about her. Where does it stop? I say this because there are some who profess to be Christians and evangelicals who think we have a lot in agreement with the Catholics. Charles Colson who is well-known because of his connection to Richard Nixon and then his professed conversion, maybe you have read some of his stuff. But his wife was Roman Catholic and he became Roman Catholic. And a Roman Catholic that was at the Franciscan University in Stubbenville in Ohio wrote a book entitled Evangelical Catholics. And Charles Colson writes the introduction. And he notes in this introduction, only in recent years have the terms evangelical and Catholic been joined. But the whole problem is that the Reformation was about the opposition to Catholic doctrine. And if you read the Council of Trent which was in response to the Reformation, none of these doctrines have changed. The Roman Catholic Church just adjusts its emphasis to the situation it finds itself, to make itself more acceptable. Only in recent times, this tells you something is wrong, if you can equate evangelical and Catholic.

At root, those who are called of God, whether Catholic or Protestant, are part of the same body. Now I just read you a portion, you can pursue it yourself. What I read, is that doctrine that a Bible-believing Christian could assent to? Are you saved through faith in Mary? Are you saved through faith in Mary plus faith in Christ? Plus faith in your baptism? Plus faith in the other sacraments? Galatians says there is one Gospel, one faith; it is faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Listen to this, he says concerning the author if this book, Evangelical Catholic, his name is Keith Fournier, he is truly orthodox in his adherence to Catholic doctrine and fully evangelical in his relationship to Christ and His creation. You cannot be truly orthodox in adherence to Catholic doctrine and fully evangelical, if evangelical means anything. This is why I mention this to you, because these things come along and sometimes read Revelation 17 and talk about Babylon and say yes, but we don't have to . . . The pressure is always on the believers to adjust, to compromise, to not be so narrow, to open up. As Colson goes on to say, “we have many things we agree on in the culture was, in the social issues.” None of that matters. If you are corrupt concerning the doctrine of salvation, you are on your way to hell. This is the Babylonian system in the form I take it we are moving to that will help bring the revived Roman Empire together in a religious system that ultimately the antagonism will reject and destroy. We will see that at the end of chapter 17. Now that raises questions about the Muslims and so on and I may take time to address that at the end of chapter 17 before we go into the political and commercial side of Babylon.

The Scripture is clear, the way of salvation is clear. There can be no alteration, there can be no addition, there can be no subtraction. Remember what Paul said to the Galatians? “If an angel from heaven should preach any other Gospel, he is cursed to hell.”

Well, Lucifer had his beginning in heaven, he is an angel who has fallen from his position in heaven and he promotes this error, he constantly pressures you to lighten up, ease up, recognize other people may also see things a little differently. That's okay, we can all get together. The Bible has to be our authority, the Bible has to be our standard. And there is no salvation in anyone else but Christ. If you come to this church regularly, if you get baptized here, if you partake in communion here, if you serve in a variety of ways here and you are trusting your baptism, your communion, your service in this church, all the money you give, you are going to hell because you are not saved because you attend this church. You are not saved because you participate in the activities of this church. There is only one way of salvation. “Jesus said ‘I am the way, the truth and the life; no man comes to the Father but by Me.’”

Until you recognize you are a sinner, guilty before God, justly condemned, and recognize Christ died to pay the penalty of your sin and you turn from your sin, place your faith in Christ, not in this church, not in your baptism, not in your parents' conversion. You personally trust Christ as the One who died for you. Until that happens, you are lost. There is no hope outside of Christ. The beautiful thing is this is the day of salvation. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him,” that means each one of us, anyone here, whosoever believes in Him “shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

Let's pray together. Thank You, Lord, for calling us together as Your people in this place, the church of Jesus Christ meeting here to be a pillar and support of the truth, to proclaim the greatness of Your grace, the depths of Your love and the good news concerning Jesus Christ, that He and He alone is the Savior. No one can add to His work, no one can take away from His work. He finished the work of redemption, paid in full the penalty for our sin. Pray for any who are here who yet have to trust in Christ. May this truth be made clear to their hearts and minds by the Spirit today, that they might trust Him. We pray in Christ's name, amen.