The Earmarks of Babylon

We have had many messages on the earmarks of the body of Christ. We have studied the body, and talked a lot about what distinguishes the body of Christ from Babylon. I would like to review the characteristics of the body, but only as a prelude to looking into the identifying characteristics of Babylon.

We can say that some characteristics identify the body and everything else is Babylon, but that may not be totally accurate. Some churches and fellowships are not Mystery Babylon, not one of her harlot daughters, and yet not the beloved of the Lord. They are one of the virgins without number. See Song of Solomon 6:8.

What makes Babylon Babylon? First, what makes the body of Christ the body of Christ? It is vital that we know what the body of Christ is, and how it is distinguished from Babylon. When Bro. Lloyd Goodwin first came to Africa in 1978, he said he was the first true man of God in the body of Christ to come to Africa in 2000 years. Pastors who had come to listen to him rose up with challenges. They asked him what he thought they had been doing for years. Brother Goodwin told them they were in Babylon. There is a difference between Babylon and the body of Christ.

There are at least five distinct characteristics that are earmarks, or identifying marks of the body of Christ. Let’s just review those in summary form:

1. A different message. This fellowship goes deeper into the Word of God than any other people. We don’t just have a few professional scholars, but the average layperson has a deep love for, and an understanding of, the Bible. The ministry of the Word is our prime focus.

• The importance of doctrine. We value truth. We constantly seek to correct erroneous understandings of the Bible. We want the message that the early church preached.
• Foundational truths. There are at least six foundational truths that distinguish this people from all other groups. These are: the godhead; the mortality of the soul; hell; the limited body of Christ; the separate bride of Christ; and understanding the beast and Babylon.

2. A different spirit. The attitude of the people is one of charity; the divine love of God of I Corinthians 13.

3. A different purpose. The mission of this body is not just to save the lost at any cost; it is not even just to prepare people to inherit eternal life – our purpose is to give the world one final witness and to prepare the rulers of the world to come.

4. A different order. To the fullest extent possible, we seek to follow New Testament order in our services. The pattern of worship is different. The lack of a pre-planned agenda for each service, the openness of each service, etc. are all different than most church organizations.

5. A different organizational structure. We are not a denomination. Our churches are not organized into a man-made organization. We don’t have membership rolls, a ministerial hierarchy or an earthly headquarters.

It would be tempting to say that anything that does not meet these essential points is Babylon; but that may not be true. What, then, are some of the identifying marks of Mystery Babylon? Remember that it was the apostasy of the early church that created Christian Babylon. What was once pure and holy became contaminated and profane. Isaiah 1:21-23 prophetically proclaims that the faithful city (the true work of God on the earth) did become a harlot. In fact, the early church was corrupted by apostasy until it became the mother of harlots.

How can we identify the subtle trends that lead a church which was once part of the body into Babylon? Every true church in the first century eventually had the candlestick removed. What must we avoid to prevent that from happening to us? What makes Babylon, Babylon?

I offer the following partial list of the earmarks of Babylon.

1. Traditions which void the Scriptures

It is tempting to say that traditions which are not found in the Bible are a characteristic of Babylon. And they are; but not every tradition is Babylonish. Our local church has a tradition of praying at the close of each worship service, but that does not violate the Bible. Some traditions are good, godly and appropriate.

But Jesus strongly condemned the traditions of the Jews in Mark 7:1-13. Those traditions were wrong because they transgressed the commandments of God. When a people attach a deep religious significance to a tradition; when they enforce traditions on the people without biblical sanction; when they inflict punishment on those who do not conform to traditions, they are Babylonish.

And whenever traditions are in conflict with the mandates of the Bible, those traditions are wrong, and even sinful. We should constantly re-evaluate any traditions that creep into our worship. There are things about African culture that we cannot have in our church services. There are things about American culture that we cannot allow to be a part of our church operations. We want the culture of the Bible.

2.A man-made organizational structure

The spirit of Babylon is a spirit of a man-made organization. In II Samuel 6, King David attempted to bring the ark of God to Jerusalem. They placed it upon a new oxcart. But the Lord was displeased, and there was a breach. In I Chronicles 15:2, it is reported that David understood that the ark could not be carried on a man-made cart, but had to be borne on the shoulders of the men of God.

Even so, the body of Christ cannot have a written constitution, bylaws, supervisory directives, and an earthly headquarters. Our headquarters, our home office, is in heaven. But an earmark of Babylon is the development of an organizational framework.

Voting, caucusing, politicking, and lobbying in state, regional and national legislative bodies are foreign to the operation of the body of Christ. Just as there is no earthly executive branch providing government over men called of God, so there is no legislative branch adopting rules, regulations and laws to govern men of God.

A very important principle to us in this fellowship is found in I Corinthians 11:3-4. Bro. William Sowders taught us that the head of a man of God is Christ. Any God-called man ministering with an earthly covering dishonors Christ. An organization is an earthly covering. Credentials to preach, issued by a religious organization, are an earmark of Babylon.

3. Regional bishops / Ministerial hierarchy

The concepts of regional bishops and a ministerial hierarchy crept into the early church. Popular pastors developed greater authority – all with the best of intentions. As pastors sent out other men into the ministry, those men naturally looked back to their pastors for advice, guidance and direction. Others became influential, leading men, because of their intelligence, great gifts from God, or influential churches. Others naturally deferred to them.

Initially, many of these men were honorable men, just trying to be a benefit to the general church. But power continued to flow to them, and power can corrupt. When there were vacancies in churches, the powerful, the influential preachers in the region were called upon to send out, and ordain, other pastors. Instead of calling a group of local elders “bishops,” that title began to be reserved for the leading, influential men.

This was a part of the falling away of the early church. Like Diotrephes, some men loved to have preeminence. III John 9. They accumulated influence and power. There is something in the nature of men to seek positions of authority. But there is also something corrupting about such power.

Jesus was against men seeking offices of authority. Matthew 23:6-12. We should be very careful that we do not set up a ministerial hierarchy. To do so would be a step toward apostasy and Babylon.

4. A strange spirit

The spirit that characterized the worship services of Babylonish churches is strange. We are not referring to the Holy Spirit of God, but to the mannerisms, the sounds, the types of music sang and played, and everything that goes into religious worship. Maybe it doesn’t seem strange to the religious world, but it is to the Lord and to His people.

When Moses and Joshua returned to the camp of Israel from Mount Sinai in Exodus 32, they heard a strange sound. Verse 17. Joshua was alarmed at the sound. The people had made a golden calf and were worshipping around it in a strange manner. The spirit around the golden calf was noticeably different than the spirit when the children of Israel were rejoicing after the parting of the Red Sea and the defeat of Pharaoh. It was different than the spirit that would characterize the worship at the tabernacle Moses was going to have constructed.

In Leviticus 10:1-2, two priests of the Lord, Nadab and Abihu, offered strange fire on the altar of God. Whatever was strange about the fire these two priests offered, God did not recognize it as true worship. He judged them for offering it. See Numbers 3:4. These were sons of Aaron; they had functioned as priests to the people. Exodus 24:1, 9-11. But they started some strange worship.

An earmark of Babylon is a strange style of worship. There is an order in the body of Christ, one that the Lord recognizes and honors. We cannot substitute something strange in our music, in our preaching, in our spiritual activities, lest we become Babylonish.

5. A ritual-based order

Jesus warned in Matthew 15:9 that people could worship Him in vain. In Matthew 7:21-23, He said He would reject people who claimed to prophesy in His name, cast out evil spirits, and do many wonderful works. Some religious worship, even worship of Jesus, is in vain. In Matthew 6:7, Jesus said that vain repetitions are not true worship. Yet Babylon’s standard worship rituals are nothing more than vain repetitions.

Worship in Old Testament Israel was very ritualistic. Holy days, offerings, temple ceremonies, etc., were all teaching tools to point Israel to their Redeemer. But the New Testament church is not ritualistic. The congregation is not to be passive while observing a professional priesthood perform sacred rituals. Worship is not that way in the body of Christ. Even the rituals we have, communion and water baptism, require participation by the saints.

Rituals, of course, demand professional priests. New Testament order did not make use of the Levitical priesthood. There are five offices in the ministry: apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. There is no office of priest. Only Jesus Christ is a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. In the church, we are all a royal priesthood. I Peter 2:9.

Babylon does not have Spirit-led services; their worship services are pre-planned and pre-programmed. Sermons can be announced at least a week in advance, every song is determined before the service begins, who will speak, how long they will speak, and other such items are in a pre-set agenda.

It was not so in the early church. Acts 13:2 was a Spirit-led service. While they were ministering, or serving, the Holy Ghost spoke – likely in tongues and interpretation – saying to send out Barnabas and Saul for a work the Lord had for them. “How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.” I Corinthians 14:26.

We believe in being led by the Spirit. The spirit of Babylon does not give room for the Holy Ghost to operate.

6. False doctrine/ smooth things

Babylon started as false religion – teaching things that were not the truth. An earmark of Babylon has always been a turning away from truth to fables, errors, and messages that only tickle ears, but don’t change hearts. A rebellious people will not listen to truth; instead Isaiah 30:9-10 says they will ask the prophets to prophesy smooth things. They want their messages to be easy to swallow. The preachers are not to make any demands on the people. Do not ask them to sacrifice, or to change their lives.

In II Timothy 4:3-4, Paul wrote against preachers who just tickle the ears of the saints. The Gospel is supposed to challenge the people to change for the better; it is not to flatter their vanity. The early church transformed into Babylon because the preachers did not stand firm on the order and truth given to them by Jesus and His apostles.

Jeremiah 50:6 says that it is the shepherds who caused the sheep to wander. But the saints are willing accomplices in this. Jeremiah 5:31 says that when the prophets prophesy falsely, the people love to have it so. At least most of them do.

The problem with this, of course, is that it leads to corruption of the purity of the church. It is not body order. It facilitates apostasy. When preachers stop preaching against worldliness, and when the church forgets that it has been called out of the world, it becomes Babylon.

Paul warned in II Timothy 3:1 that in the last days of the early church the people would be turned away from truth. That is because false teachers would prophesy smooth things. Those became the popular preachers. Those “hard” preachers, who condemned worldliness and demanded discipleship, were not so popular.

Where did these false preachers and false teachings come from? Jude 4 says that those who were leading the church into error crept in unawares. They did not come in from outside the fellowship. They were raised up in the fellowship, but to the surprise of many, they corrupted the truth. Paul wasn’t as worried about outsiders corrupting the Ephesian church; he said that men would arise from the inside, speaking perverse things, to draw away their own disciples. Acts 20:30.

The Apostle Peter wrote in II Peter 2:1-3 that there would be false teachers in the church. They would not come in from outside; they would be among the people. They would “privily” bring in “damnable heresies.” Respected preachers would err from the truth, and stealthily corrupt the work of the Lord. When truth is overwhelmed by error, that is Babylon. We may not have all the truth, but we are coming out of error, and not going into error. That is an important distinction. The body of Christ may not have every truth right; but we are not moving into apostasy.