Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 8
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
“Then they said, ‘Come, let’s build a great city for ourselves’—Genesis 11:4 (NLT)
In Samuel’s time, the people of Israel were not happy with the way things were going, so they asked Samuel to give them a king like all the other nations who were not serving God.
It displeased Samuel to hear the people of Israel demand a king to rule over them. He took his concern to the Lord in prayer.
“The Lord said to Samuel, ‘Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but **they have rejected Me from being King over them.’”—**1 Samuel 8:7 (AMP)
God then commanded Samuel to solemnly warn the people that establishing a king over them would usher in human trafficking.
**“**So Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, ‘These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them for himself to his chariots and among his horsemen and they will run before his chariots. He will appoint them for himself to be commanders over thousands and over fifties, and some to do his plowing and to reap his harvest and to make his implements of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers. He will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your olive groves, and give them to his servants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and your female servants and your best young men and your donkeys and use them for his work. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves shall be his servants. Then you will cry out on that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day [because you have rejected Him as King].’”—1 Samuel 8:10-18 (AMP)
This is a warning that is just as relevant to us today as it was in Samuel’s time.
Whenever a Christian leader is established in a position of authority over a church or a Christian organization, and begins to use that position to rule over the people, rather than to serve them, spiritual human trafficking will be the result.
This is exactly what is pictured in Revelation 17 where we see the Mother of Prostitutes riding on the back of the Antichrist beast.
Establishing a human leader in a place that only God should occupy is antichrist.
In Revelation 17, the woman called the “Mother of Prostitutes” represents the religious system that is characterized by spiritual human trafficking, while the Antichrist beast that she sits upon represents the governmental system or the organizational structure that supports her.
King or Servant?
Jesus took great care to instruct his followers not to rule over people, but to serve them.
“But Jesus called the disciples together and said:
‘You know that those foreigners who call themselves kings like to order their people around. And their great leaders have full power over the people they rule. But don’t act like them. If you want to be great, you must be the servant of all the others. And if you want to be first, you must be everyone’s slave. The Son of Man did not come to be a slave master, but a slave who will give his life to rescue many people.’”—Mark 10:42-45 (CEV)
“Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. They went into a house, and Jesus said to them, ‘I heard you arguing on the way here today. What were you arguing about?’ But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest.
“Jesus sat down and called the twelve apostles to him. He said, ‘Whoever wants to be the most important must make others more important than themselves. They must serve everyone else.’”—Mark 9:33-35 (ERV)
“The most important one of you should be like the least important, and your leader should be like a servant. Who do people think is the greatest, a person who is served or one who serves? Isn’t it the one who is served? But I have been with you as a servant.”—Luke 22:26-27 (CEV)
After Jesus’ ascension, the apostles continued the ministry as Jesus had modeled it for them, taking on themselves the forms of servants and serving the believers, rather than ruling over them as kings. Even the great apostle Paul made himself a servant of all in order to win more people to Christ.
“For although I am free in every way from anyone’s control, I have made myself a bond servant to everyone, so that I might gain the more [for Christ].”—1 Corinthians 9:19 (AMPC)
“You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.”—2 Corinthians 4:5 (NLT)
“So I am happy to give everything I have for you. I will even give myself for you. If I love you more, will you love me less?”—2 Corinthians 12:15 (ERV)
“Yet even if I am being poured out like an offering as part of the sacrifice and service I offer for your faith, I rejoice, and I share my joy with all of you.”—Philippians 2:17 (ISV)
On a Sidewalk in Washington D.C.
I clearly remember walking along a sidewalk one night in Washington D.C. after attending a Christian worship and prayer event in the Capitol building as a guest of my former pastor, Dan Cummins, who had organized the event. As I walked with Dan toward the Capitol Hill Club to enjoy dinner with guests after the event, we were joined on the sidewalk by a pastor who was well-known for networking with high profile government figures.
I introduced myself to this pastor and explained that Dan had been my pastor decades ago. Saying nothing to me, this nationally-known pastor gave me a sideways glance, sizing me up, evidently. He seemed to immediately see me as something of no value and not worth his time. I remember that condescending look. I don’t remember anyone ever giving me a look like that. It was a look that made me feel that I had absolutely no value in his eyes. Not being a person of power in Washington D.C., I got the feeling that this pastor didn’t see any more value in me than the dirt he was walking on.
I said nothing else.
When we got to the Capitol Hill Club, I was seated at a table with Senator GT Thompson from Pennsylvania, who is an outstanding Christian man. In contrast to the treatment I had received from the pastor on the sidewalk, Senator Thompson seemed to treat all of us at his table as equals, looking us in the eye, speaking and listening to us with sincere interest.
I couldn’t help but contrast these two leaders. Here was a pastor who seemed to have such an elevated view of his own importance that he could not see the value in a fellow believer for whom Christ died; and on the other hand, a senator in a position of real power, who would be sharing a stage with the President of the United States within the week, and who seemed to be the embodiment of a true servant of the people.
“People of Israel, after you capture the land the Lord your God is giving you, and after you settle on it, you will say, ‘We want a king, just like the nations around us.’ …
“The official copy of God’s laws will be kept by the priests of the Levi tribe. So, as soon as anyone becomes king, he must go to the priests and write out a copy of these laws while they watch. Each day the king must read and obey these laws, so that he will learn to worship the Lord with fear and trembling and not think that he’s better than everyone else.”—Deuteronomy 17:14-20 (CEV)
“But do not be called Rabbi (Teacher); for One is your Teacher, and you are all [equally] brothers. Do not call anyone on earth [who guides you spiritually] your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. Do not let yourselves be called leaders or teachers; for One is your Leader (Teacher), the Christ. But the greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be raised to honor.”— Matthew 23:8-12 (AMP)
Elevating the Role of the Pastor
Pastors who serve well in their positions of responsibility deserve great honor and our full support, as Paul tells us in 1 Timothy 5:17:
“Let the elders who perform the duties of their office well be considered doubly worthy of honor [and of adequate financial support], especially those who labor faithfully in preaching and teaching.” (AMPC)
But in general, have we elevated the role of pastor beyond what God intended that role to be?
The word “pastor” is only mentioned one (1) time in the entire New Testament. The same word that is used for “pastor” in Ephesians 4:11 is usually translated “shepherd” and usually refers to Jesus Himself. Only once does it ever refer to the role that we think of as a pastor.
On the other hand, the word for “bishop” or “overseer” is used five times.
The word for “deacon” is used 37 times, but is usually translated “minister”.
Meanwhile, the word for a “church elder” is used over 60 times in the New Testament!
So, who should really be carrying the greater responsibility for leadership and ministry in the Body of Christ?
When we read carefully, Scripture does not seem to single out the pastor as the most important person in the church. There is a whole lineup of ministers who seem to be in positions of greater importance to the church by the way they are listed in 1 Corinthians 12:28, and pastors are not even mentioned in that listing!
Where did we get this idea that the pastor is at the top of the church hierarchical structure? How did the pastor come to be looked upon by some as the “king” of the church?
Could it have come through the worldly concept of empire building, modeled after Nimrod, or maybe Pharaoh, who enslaved God’s people as a means of controlling them?
Again, I am very grateful for the wonderful, positive impact that pastors have made on my life and on the lives of believers everywhere, but are we sure that our traditional model of a pastor’s role is a Biblical model?
In the single New Testament verse that mentions pastors, we are clearly told that they are not supposed to be doing all of the ministry, but rather, they, along with others, are to prepare the disciples to do the work of the ministry.
(I have a suspicion that pastors who see themselves as kings of their congregations will bristle at these statements and reject them immediately, while pastors who see themselves as servants of the people will react by thinking, “This needs to be said more often!”)
Of course, pastors are absolutely necessary and invaluable to the Body of Christ. I’m not suggesting that we do away with the role of the pastor. Absolutely not! We need them desperately! We could not manage without them! I’m just suggesting that if they have seated themselves on the kingly thrones of their organizations that they might please move instead into the servant’s seat so that Jesus can take his rightful place in the organization.
Any Christian organization in which the leaders do not purpose to follow Jesus’ servant leadership example are susceptible to being lured into following the model that we see in Revelation 17.
When a Christian leader is positioned as “king” of a church or a Christian organization, ruling over the people, and begins to believe that the organization belongs to him to do as he pleases, he joins with the spirit of Antichrist as he rejects God from being “king” of the organization and establishes himself on the throne. Spiritual human trafficking comes riding in on the back of that decision. After that choice is made, it is almost inevitable that human trafficking will be implemented in that organization.
“Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,** **who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.”—Philippians 2:3-7 (NKJV)
Every Christian leader will have to choose between being a king, modeled after Saul, or a servant after Jesus’ example. If the leader chooses Jesus’ example and becomes a servant to the people in his organization, then God’s will can be accomplished in the lives of the people and they can be free to fulfill the personal callings of God on their lives.
If however, the leader believes that the organization belongs to him, and begins to see himself as “king” of the organization, human trafficking will result, and he will begin to use people to fulfill his own vision.
And it can happen in any Christian organization at any time, based on the choices of the leaders.
In the end, it won’t matter how magnificent or how great any Christian leader becomes. Every knee will eventually bow to the Lord Jesus Christ, the highly-exalted servant of all.
“Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”—Philippians 2:9-11 (NKJV)
And every empire of man will be swallowed up by the one true Kingdom of God.
“And in the days of these kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people; it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.”—Daniel 2:44 (NKJV)
“Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’”—Revelation 11:15(NKJV)
