Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 28
“The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is being trampled and prepared; Yet in a little while the time of harvest will come for her.”—Jeremiah 51:33 (AMP)
At the end of this age, everyone will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”—2 Corinthians 5:10 (NIV)
Believers and unbelievers will be judged. The Antichrist will be judged. Satan himself will be judged.
But the judgment that is described in greatest detail in the book of Revelation is reserved for the religious system that has perpetuated spiritual human trafficking through the ages.
When the angel invites John to witness judgment, he does not direct John to the judgment of the Antichrist, or even the judgment of Satan, the Father of Lies.
The angel directs John to witness the great and final judgment on the false religious system that has enslaved God’s people for centuries and has robbed them of their destinies and their purposes in God’s plans.
“One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls then came and spoke to me, saying, Come with me! I will show you the doom (sentence, judgment) of the great harlot (idolatress) who is seated on many waters,
“[She] with whom the rulers of the earth have joined in prostitution (idolatry) and with the wine of whose immorality (idolatry) the inhabitants of the earth have become intoxicated.
“And [the angel] bore me away [rapt] in the Spirit into a desert (wilderness), and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet beast that was all covered with blasphemous titles (names), and he had seven heads and ten horns.
“The woman was robed in purple and scarlet and bedecked with gold, precious stones, and pearls, [and she was] holding in her hand a golden cup full of the accursed offenses and the filth of her lewdness and vice.
“And on her forehead there was inscribed a name of mystery [with a secret symbolic meaning]: Babylon the great, the mother of prostitutes (idolatresses) and of the filth and atrocities and abominations of the earth.
“I also saw that the woman was drunk, [drunk] with the blood of the saints (God’s people) and the blood of the martyrs [who witnessed] for Jesus. And when I saw her, I was utterly amazed and wondered greatly.”—Revelation 17:1-6 (AMPC)
When the time comes for Satan to be judged, Satan’s final judgment is summarized in a single verse in Revelation 20:10, but the final judgment of the Babylonish religious system that has deceived and enslaved so many of God’s people is described in great detail and takes up *more than two full chapters *of the book of Revelation!
Realizing this, it might cause us to wonder … Who is a greater enemy of the true Church of Jesus Christ? Is it Satan? Or is the greater enemy really the Babylonish religious system of spiritual human trafficking—the Mother of Prostitutes—that was inspired by Satan to deceive and enslave God’s people, robbing them of the life and the purposes that God had for them?
Who presented the greatest opposition to Jesus’ ministry? Was it Satan? Or was it the leaders of the religious system of His day who were inspired by the religious spirit of Babylon?
When Satan rose up to directly oppose Jesus, he was summarily dealt with and defeated. We see this in the temptations in the wilderness in Matthew 4, Mark 1, and Luke 4.
When individual demons rose up to confront Jesus, those confrontations didn’t last long. Jesus dealt with the demons swiftly and conclusively, casting them out of the people they had been tormenting.
On the other hand, the leaders of the religious system of Jesus’ day never seemed to go away. These leaders who had given themselves in service to the religious spirit of Babylon hounded Jesus mercilessly through His entire ministry, persecuting Him and attempting to take His life multiple times before they finally succeeded in killing Him in the most cruel way imaginable. Although Satan was behind all of it, it was the particular enemy embodied in the religious system of His day that was Jesus’ most vicious, merciless, and relentless enemy.
We should expect no less to be true in our own lives and ministries.
“A disciple is not above his teacher, nor is a bond-servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the bond-servant like his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul (Satan), how much more [will they speak evil of] the members of his household.”—Matthew 10:24-25 (AMP)