Exiting Babylonia
Treats of leaving ecclesiastical Babylon, the “church” that Jesus did not establish.
We are not the first to want to leave ecclesiastical Babylon. I quote from an article by David Greenlee, director of OM’s International Ministry Services.
“Walking with my wife along Zurich’s River Limmat, I was surprised to hear the strains of the 19th century gospel song. “Are you washed … in the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?” echoing from the courtyard of the 12th century Wasserkirche. Expecting the singers to be an American mission group, I was intrigued to find the male octet were all Swiss. But, like a trout in the river below drawn to a fly on a fisherman’s hook, their singing had achieved its purpose: it drew me across the street and into conversation.
Responding to the lyrics and the attrctive booklet a singer handed me, I asked what group or church the singers were part of. At that he began to hem and haw a bit: “Well, we aren’t from any particular church, but we want to be serious about following Jesus.”
This encounter made me wonder how we identify ourselves …
Why didn’t the Zurich street singers just state forthrightly who they were? Or, as a friend asked in a different setting, “Why can’t we just use a good, biblical term like ‘Christian‘?”
The question they were asked was what group or church they were part of. Their answer “Well, we aren’t from any particular church, but we want to be serious about following Jesus.”
Could it be that they knew that people in Zurich would be repelled by the concept of “church” as they knew it?
Because I love the Lord Jesus Christ and because I have read and studied His Word in the Bible for forty years. I can see that the churches around us in the city in which I live do not have the marks of what Jesus called ekklesia during His earthly ministry, and what His disciples founded from the day of Pentecost in that upper room onwards.
If you have come to the same conclusion, and want to explore the concept of “church”, you might be interested to look into the the following sites:
The Last Reformation (about the way God is working outside church structures)
The Church Page
What is “the Church”? how is different from “The Ekklesia” that Jesus founded? and how is the Church different from “The Kingdom”?
(This page is under construction)
If you want to understand the force behind the Babylon-type churches you perhaps want to exit, go to the page right below:
How will the final exiting of Babylon take place? Just as it did with Abraham. He was called to be the Father of a people to whom God gave a Land, and through whom a Blessing will finally usher in a Kingdom which will be diametrically opposite to all that Babylon ever stood for or will stand for. Read about this in Genesis 12:1-3.The influence of Baal spirits can also be seen in the invasion among the churches of darkness and wolves.
Bibloscope 