Human Trafficking in the Church — Part 3
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.
1. Settling In
“And as they journeyed eastward, they found a plain (valley) in the land of Shinar, and they settled and dwelt there.”—Genesis 11:2 (AMPC)
God has not stopped moving since the world began. There is always more to be revealed. There is always a “move of God” or a revival coming that will shake things up and bring God-inspired changes to Christianity as we know it.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”—Isaiah 43:19 (ESV)
When a church, a denomination, or a Christian ministry “settles in” and decides that they have it all; that they have received all of the revelation that there is to receive, or they are just not open to changes and just don’t want to move on from where they are, that is a dangerous sign.
God will not stop moving on into His purposes. If a particular church or Christian ministry decides that they will go no further, God will move on without them.
God’s Revelation is Progressive
Since the time of the Reformation, God has been restoring truth to the Church. He gave us the blueprint plans for this restoration of truth when He gave Moses the plans for the tabernacle.
In Martin Luther’s time of the Reformation, the truth of justification by faith was restored to the Church. In the Tabernacle, that is represented in the brazen altar, which is the first piece of furniture that a person would encounter after entering the Outer Court of the Tabernacle.
Not many years later, the Anabaptists were used by God to restore the truth of water baptism for believers. This truth is pictured in the bronze laver filled with water, which is the second piece of furniture in the Outer Court of the Tabernacle.
Moving on, God led the Church into the restoration of the truths of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, sanctification through the living Word of God, and prayer and worship in Spirit and Truth, which are pictured in the furniture of the Holy Place in the Tabernacle—the lampstand, the table of shewbread, and the golden altar of incense.
Soon, the Lord will lead the Church into His final stage of major restoration of truth in this Church age. Those believers who are considered to be worthy will be invited within the veil, into the Most Holy Place, to experience transfiguration and become living arks of God’s covenant, carrying His manifested, abiding presence with His authority.
If a church, a denomination, or a Christian ministry stops at any point along this journey and decides to “settle in” and go no further, rejecting further revelations of God’s truth, God moves on, and they are left behind by their own choice.
Ichabod
In the Old Testament times when Eli presided as high priest over an increasingly corrupt group of spiritual leaders, the Ark of the Covenant was taken from Israel, and God’s presence went with it. It was at this time of great loss that Eli’s daughter-in-law gave birth to a son.
“And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, ‘The glory has left Israel,’ because the ark of God had been taken and because of [the deaths of] her father-in-law and her husband. She said, ‘The glory has left Israel, for the ark of God has been taken.’”—1 Samuel 4:21-22 (AMP)
When the Spirit of God moves on and leaves a church behind, the religious spirit of Babylon moves into that church and reinforces the decision to settle in and stay where they are. That is why many churches seem like they are dead. The Spirit of God has moved on, and there is nothing left but the religious spirit of Babylon that substitutes religious traditions for the life of the Spirit.
Churches, denominations, and Christian ministries that have settled in and stopped moving on with God are easy to spot. They are the ones who criticize and persecute those Christians who continue to move on with God. As the saying goes, the greatest persecutors of the current move of God are the people from the last move of God.
The Catholic Church persecuted the Protestants. Reformation leaders persecuted the Anabaptists, and it has continued through the history of God’s moves in the Church. Persecution of new moves of God is a clear sign that God has moved on and the religious spirit of Babylon has moved in, inspiring those Churches, denominations, and ministries to persecute their brothers and sisters who moved on with God.
This is one of the common responses of spiritual human traffickers. If you try to leave them, they will often threaten you and try to hurt you. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs is filled with those stories.
We can see a clear example of this when God left the kingdom of Saul—a kingdom that He had established—and moved on to establish the kingdom of David.
“Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and **the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. **So Samuel arose and went to Ramah. **But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.”—**1 Samuel 16:13-14 (NKJV)
“Now Saul was afraid of David, because **the Lord was with him, but had departed from Saul.”—**1 Samuel 18:12 (NKJV)
Spurred on by the religious spirit that tormented him, Saul spent the rest of his life criticizing and persecuting the new move of God, which was embodied in David.
Jesus pronounced harsh judgment on the spiritual human traffickers of His day.
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed, and you decorate the monuments of the godly people your ancestors destroyed.** **Then you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would never have joined them in killing the prophets.’
“But in saying that, you testify against yourselves that you are indeed the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead and finish what your ancestors started. Snakes! Sons of vipers! How will you escape the judgment of hell?
“Therefore, I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers of religious law. But you will kill some by crucifixion, and you will flog others with whips in your synagogues, chasing them from city to city. As a result, you will be held responsible for the murder of all godly people of all time—from the murder of righteous Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you killed in the Temple between the sanctuary and the altar. I tell you the truth, this judgment will fall on this very generation.”—Matthew 23:29-36 (NLT)
One of the stated purposes of Jesus’ ministry was to bring freedom to the captives.
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”—Luke 4:18-19 (NKJV)
Jesus was such a threat to the spiritual human traffickers of his day that they demanded His death.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who murders the prophets and stones [to death] those [messengers] who are sent to her [by God]! How often I wanted to gather your children together [around Me], as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. Listen carefully: **your house is being left to you desolate [completely abandoned by God and destitute of His protection]! **For I say to you, you will not see Me again [ministering to you publicly] until you say, ‘Blessed [to be celebrated with praise] is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’”—Matthew 23:37-44 (AMP)
A Wake-Up Call from Hollywood
The movie The Matrix is a modern-day parable of one man’s journey to escape spiritual human trafficking and fulfill the destiny for which God created him.
In this movie, the Matrix itself represents the religious system of Babylon the Great, the Mother of Prostitutes. It is the false, institutional Church that is guided by the religious spirit of Babylon, not the Holy Spirit of God.
“The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy.”—Morpheus
Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) awakens Neo (the new creature in Christ), reveals to him that he is being trafficked and helps him to escape the religious system of the Matrix. Trinity then brings Neo to Morpheus (transformation, metamorphosis) and Neo finally begins to enter into the abundant life and the purpose for which God created Him.
But the traffickers do not let Neo go without a fight. Persecution is relentless as Neo moves on into his God-ordained destiny. As Morpheus said to Neo, “You have to understand. Most of these people are not ready to be unplugged, and many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system that they will fight to protect it.”
The religious spirit of Babylon is shown in the movie as a spiritual force that takes over the bodies of unwitting people who are being used to serve the Matrix system. These people then take on the same appearance as other “agents” who are driven by the same religious spirit. This seems to illustrate Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:15:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” (ESV)
Sometimes, God shares important, timely messages through films and other secular media, especially if these messages are *not *being shared from the church pulpits. This movie pushed the boundaries of technical limitations of films at the time that it was made because of its need to show movement in the spiritual realm that transcended natural laws of physics and gravity. The entire film is a picture of life and warfare in the spiritual realm.
Jesus said that “if my followers don’t say these things, then the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40 ICB). Stones contain minerals and elements that are used to create and produce many, many things. Some of the creations that are made of these materials cry out to us with messages from God.
In this case, the stones were used to create a Hollywood movie that is crying out against spiritual trafficking in the Church.
“Wake up, Neo. The Matrix has you.”—Trinity’s first words to Neo
“Come out of her, my people”—Revelation 18:4 (AMP)
Jesus Never Settled Down
In contrast to many churches, denominations and Christian ministries that settle in and stop moving on with God, Jesus never stopped moving after He entered into His ministry. He even told potential disciples that “foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head” (Luke 9:58 NLT).
Let that sink in.
Jesus Christ, Who led the greatest ministry in the history of the world, the founder of Christianity, never even had a home! He never stopped moving long enough to settle down.
As Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it wants to. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. That’s the way it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8 ISV).
Abraham, who is called the “father of all those who believe,” was rich enough to settle down just about anywhere he wanted to, but instead, he chose to live in tents, being constantly on the move, because he had purposed in his heart that he would settle for nothing less than God’s best.
“By faith Abraham, when he was called [by God], obeyed by going to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went, not knowing where he was going.** By faith he lived as a foreigner in the promised land, as in a strange land, living in tents [as nomads] with Isaac and Jacob, who were fellow heirs of the same promise. **For he was [waiting expectantly and confidently] looking forward to the city which has foundations, [an eternal, heavenly city] whose architect and builder is God.”—Hebrews 11:8-10 (AMP)
In The Matrix, Tank introduced himself to Neo as a “genuine child of Zion.”
“Zion?” Neo asks.
Tank responds, “If the war was over tomorrow, Zion’s where the party would be.”
Just as Abraham looked forward to arriving at the city of God when his wanderings would be over, Tank and those with whom he was traveling looked forward to finally being able to rest in Zion, but until that time, they were on the move, traveling constantly on a ship like nomads.
This doesn’t mean that churches should not have buildings, or that we should all sell our houses and live in tents. The point is that we must all be willing to respond to the promptings of God’s Spirit, even if it means leaving behind all that we have known and following Him wherever He leads. After all, that’s what it means to call Jesus our Lord. (See Luke 6:46.)
As the children of Israel traveled through the wilderness, they had to move when the pillar of cloud and fire moved. If they didn’t, they were left behind. If that happened, they were in trouble because they would be left without provision in a wilderness with death all around them.
If you sense that your church, or a ministry with which you are involved, has settled in and stopped moving on with God, you should be concerned.
