Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 17
Recognizing the Six Characteristics of the Religious Spirit of Babylon
The six characteristics of the religious spirit of Babylon are the same today as they were when they were first recorded in Scripture in Genesis 11.
3. Building an Empire (continued)
“Then they said, ‘Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves’—Genesis 11:4 (NLT)
“Have you ever stood and stared at it? Marveled at it beauty? Its genius? Billions of people just living out their lives … oblivious … the peak of your civilization! And I say *your *civilization because as soon as we started thinking *for *you it really became *our *civilization, which of course is what this is all about.”—Agent Smith to Morpheus as he looked out over the vast city that was built by those who served the Matrix
Why does God bring two people together in marriage? God makes this crystal clear in Malachi 2:15:
“Didn’t God create you and your wife to become like one person? And why did he do this? It was so you would have children, and then lead them to become God’s people.” (CEV)
But what do many of us do when we make our plans for married life? We begin to envision our family empires. These empires may be small in scale compared to a large Christian organization, but they are our empires, nevertheless.
We put off having children because we want to focus on our career goals, building our businesses, gaining possessions, growing wealth, or any number of empire-building reasons.
For empire builders, children are an inconvenience that prevents them from focusing on pursuing their own self-serving visions for their lives.
There is a popular TV show now called “Children Ruin Everything.” That title sums up an empire builder’s view of children.
Abortion is a convenient tool that people use to prevent children from interfering with their plans so that their personal empires can be built without interference.
Human Life International reports that “96.50% of all abortions are therefore performed for social or economic reasons.” (Staff)
In other words, abortion is primarily used as a form of birth control in order to prevent children from interfering with our plans.
If you talk to young Christian couples about their plans for family, they often have already limited the number of children that they intend to have. If you ask them why, and they are honest, they might say that “limiting the number of children is important to protect the plans we have for our own lives. We don’t want to sacrifice personal plans that we have in order to raise more children and guide them to find their unique callings and destinies in life. We have personal plans and goals that are more important to us. And besides, we do not trust in God’s ability to provide financially for more than two children.”
It seems like most Christian couples believe that they must step in to control God’s excesses. If they allowed things to happen naturally, they could end up having so many children that they would not be able to pursue their own plans for their lives! Not only that, but how could they afford to provide for so many children?? Their God is much too small and powerless to provide financially for the children that He gives.
But God’s blessings are upon those couples who have *many *children. Blessings come with the children.
“Children who are born to people when they are young are like arrows in the hands of a soldier. Blessed are those who have many children. They won’t be put to shame when they go up against their enemies in court.”—Psalm 127:4-5 (NIRV)
Children Are the Reward
Many families, churches, and nations have lost sight of life’s true rewards. They may institute systematic birth control to prevent children from living beyond infancy so that they can focus on pursuing what they value as the rewards of life. They focus on building their personal empires and pursuing self-serving goals. They want to build something great that will last as a legacy.
Sadly, they do not realize that children are the rewards! Children are the lasting heritage!
“Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.”—Psalm 127:3 (KJV)
Jim Sammons, a wealthy real estate developer from Dallas, Texas, shared his own heartbreaking realization in a message entitled, The Hidden Message of the Lost Pearl. In this message, he shared his experience as an 11-year-old on vacation in Florida. There he and his brother stumbled onto an oyster bed. The two of them had a great time digging up oysters and collecting the shells of dead oysters. The real prizes for them were the dead oyster shells that were still joined together.
Late in the morning, Jim found what he considered to be his prize of the day. It was a very nice, complete oyster shell with both halves in perfect condition. The shell was empty except for some object that was rattling around inside. With great care, Jim pried open the shell and removed the “rather large, round, perfectly smooth object.” Relieved to get this irritating object out of his otherwise perfect empty shell, Jim tossed the offending object out to sea.
It only took a split second after the pearl left his hand for Jim to realize what he had done. He was only eleven, but he was old enough to understand that a pearl was valuable. And yet, not having a clear understanding of its value when he held it in his hand, he had thrown away the object of true value and had prized the empty shell.
Years later, Jim married, but he rejected the idea of having children for seven years. When he and his wife finally had their first child, Jim was amazed to discovered how much he enjoyed having a child in the family. Their daughter brought so many benefits to Jim and his wife that they did not even know they were missing! Their daughter changed their lives for the better in so many ways! This awakened in Jim a great desire to have at least four more children.
Sadly, after the passage of time, Jim and his wife were told that it looked like a medical impossibility for them to have any more children.
“Suddenly, all our newly established family dreams have been erased. All the excitement and anticipation of a newly-discovered future have vanished. It seems like there is a void in our lives—like four of our five children have just been killed.
“What makes the burden so heavy is that we had the treasure within our grasp and we threw it away. We saw the outer shell and mistakenly overlooked the treasure within. With our hands we plucked it out and cast it away. We tried to take God’s timing into our own hands.” (Institute, p.19)
On the other hand, Rees Howells was one of eleven children born to poor parents in a coal mining town in South Wales in the late 1800’s. One of Rees’ earliest memories was of a man who visited the Howells’ home one day and, looking around on all of the children, proclaimed to Rees’ father, “How rich you are!”
This puzzled Rees. He asked his father later, “How could he say you are rich?”
“Well,” his father replied, “how much would I sell you for? For £1,000? Or would I sell John, David, or Dick for £1,000 each? That’s how rich I am!”
Mr. Howells would have an even greater heritage than he realized. His young son Rees would eventually grow up to change the course of World War II and change the world through his prayers of intercession, inspiring millions of Christians since then! (Grubb, p.13-14)
God’s Reaction to Birth Control
God seemed to make His view of birth control very clear to Onan in Genesis 38:8-10:
“Then Judah told Onan, Marry your brother’s widow; live with her and raise offspring for your brother.
“But Onan knew that the family would not be his, so when he cohabited with his brother’s widow, he prevented conception, lest he should raise up a child for his brother.
“And the thing which he did displeased the Lord; therefore He slew him also.” (AMPC)
Seeing that one of God’s primary purposes for us is to produce and disciple children—physically and spiritually—one of the ways that we can partner with Satan and come into agreement with his plans is to institute systemic birth control in order to protect our self-serving plans for empire building.
Birth control takes many forms. Most empire builders use contraception, but abortion and infanticide (the murder of babies) are also effective means of preventing young lives from interfering with adults’ self-serving plans.
Watch with this link: https://youtu.be/GVao-Gn-J5c
God addressed this in Leviticus 20:1-5, letting his people know exactly how He felt about parents who sacrificed their own children on the altars of self-serving idolatry.
“And the Lord said to Moses,
“Moreover, you shall say to the Israelites, Any one of the Israelites or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech [the fire god worshiped with human sacrifices] shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
“I also will set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him, and excluding him from My covenant] and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his children to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name.
“And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from the man when he gives one of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech [the fire god] and they overlook it or neglect to take legal action to punish him, winking at his sin, and do not kill him [as My law requires],
“Then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, him and all who follow him to [unfaithfulness to Me, and thus] play the harlot after Molech.” (AMPC)
Jesus is even more severe in the New Testament, warning of the most severe consequences for *offending *a child or even having negative thoughts towards them!
“But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.”—Matthew 18:6 (KJV)
“Beware that you do not despise or feel scornful toward or think little of one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always are in the presence of and look upon the face of My Father Who is in heaven.”—Matthew 18:10 (AMPC)
Abortion and other forms of birth control are means of limiting individual destinies so that empires can be built with minimum interference. Those empires can be as small as a single household or as large as a Christian church. Empires can involve whole nations or even groups of nations.
Pharaoh instituted birth control in order to prevent God’s children from interfering with his plans for his empire.
“Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country… . Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: ‘When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.’”—Exodus 1:6-16 (NLT)
But the Hebrew midwives refused to align themselves with evil. They saved the lives of the baby boys. Because these midwives insisted on pursuing God’s purposes and helping women to give birth to many babies, God rewarded them with babies of their own.
“So God was good to the midwives, and the Israelites continued to multiply, growing more and more powerful. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families of their own.”—Exodus 1:20-21 (NLT)
But since his first plan didn’t work, Pharaoh instituted another method of birth control.
“Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: ‘Throw every newborn Hebrew boy into the Nile River. But you may let the girls live.’”—Exodus 1:22 (NLT)
We see this playing out in dramatic fashion now in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, recently compared himself to the 18th century Russian tsar, Peter the Great. Putin is pushing 70 years old. If he is going to cement his empire’s legacy and truly become Vladimir the Great, he’s got to have complete disregard for the individual destinies of others. And so we see people in Ukraine being sacrificed on the altar of Putin’s ambition as he pursues his vision of empire building. (Roth)
It is the same for any Christian leader who is intent on pursuing the goals of building his empire. Individual destinies and callings must necessarily be aborted. Individual believers must be redirected to be used to fulfill the vision of the Christian leader. If individuals were allowed to freely pursue their individual callings from God, things could get very chaotic, and people would be distracted from the main mission of fulfilling the leader’s vision for his empire.
Strategies for birth control happen in churches just as they happen in Christian families and in nations. The only difference is that churches limit spiritual births rather than physical births.
Just as Pharaoh saw the necessity of aborting individual destinies if he was ever going to fulfill his plans for his empire, Christian leaders limit the numbers of new converts they are willing to receive and disciple because that would distract them from the plans they have for building their empires.
Protect the Programs and Lose the Harvest
At one time, I was actively involved in the outreach efforts of a church that I was attending. Most Saturday afternoons were spent reaching out to people in the inner city. We invited people to come and receive prayer for any needs that they had. People responded so well to our outreach that I realized we couldn’t stop there. These people needed more. Many people seemed to be hungry for follow-up discipleship ministry.
I shared this ministry need with the leader of the women’s ministry at my church. I told her that all we needed was transportation for some of these people in the inner city, and I believed there would be a steady stream of new disciples coming into the church.
I expected this leader to be excited about the possibilities of growth as we welcomed many new disciples into the church. Instead, this women’s leader told me that this was not a good time for that. She had certain plans for the women’s ministry, and a sudden influx of new people could cause confusion and interfere with her vision for the women’s ministry.
I was shocked. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I was literally being told that new disciples were not welcome in the women’s ministry at this church because it might interfere with the smooth operation of the program.
I also went to the leader of the men’s ministry. I told him that if we could find transportation for some of these men that we encountered on the streets, we could probably send him a steady flow of new disciples that needed his guidance.
He also responded by telling me that this was not a good time for funneling in a lot of new people. The men’s ministry was still fairly new, and he was still working to get the ministry organized as he envisioned it. A flood of new people coming in could cause problems for him as he tried to organize the ministry in the way that he felt it needed to go.
I was stunned at what I was hearing. Both leaders were telling me that it was better to let the harvest die in the field than to risk letting the harvest interfere with their church programs. I couldn’t believe that priority was given to protecting church programs at the expense of losing the harvest! What is our purpose here after all?
I don’t believe these leaders realized what they were saying to me at the time. The men’s ministry leader came back to me eventually and apologized, saying that he was wrong.
But that church didn’t survive. The church closed its doors a few years later, putting an end to both the men’s and women’s ministries.
Why Not America?
When a Christian leader is intent on using people to fulfill his vision for his organization, spiritual abortion will often become an accepted part of the culture of that organization. Otherwise, the care and discipleship of new believers could derail the leader’s plans for empire building. Take a look at any Christian church or ministry. How healthy is the outreach program? How healthy is the discipleship program for new believers?
Any time you see *physical *abortion as an accepted part of a culture, you will find churches who embrace a culture of *spiritual *abortion. These churches do not value evangelism and discipleship.
I recently heard a prophecy that spoke of an upcoming move of God in Brazil that will birth many new disciples into the Kingdom of God.
I thought, “Why Brazil? Why not America?”
I looked up the abortion laws in Brazil. It turns out that abortion is not accepted in Brazil as it is in America. Babies are welcome and loved there, in the natural and in the spiritual.
Then I understood why God is able to bring this type of revival to Brazil and not to America at this time.
Why would God bring revivals to America or to other nations for whom abortion is an accepted part of their culture? Those churches would not welcome new converts anyway and would likely not provide the nourishment and support they needed for their healthy growth.
We must understand that as Bob Jones’ prophecy of the billion-soul harvest begins to be fulfilled, God will only use churches that love and welcome new believers and that make it a priority to disciple them. Those who are focused instead on building their own empires will miss it.
References:
Grubb, N. P. (1983). Rees Howells Intercessor. Christian Literature Crusade.
Institute in Basic Youth Conflicts. (1970). The True Significance of the Wedding Covenant.
Roth, A. (2022, June 10). Putin Compares Himself to Peter the Great in Quest to Take Back Russian Lands. The Guardian. Retrieved June 10, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/10/putin-compares-himself-to-peter-the-great-in-quest-to-take-back-russian-lands
Staff, H. L. I. (2021, August 26). Why Women Abort. Human Life International. Retrieved May 31, 2022, from https://www.hli.org/resources/why-women-abort/
