The Institutional Church: Is She Babylon or the Harlot?

“After these things I saw another angel coming down from heaven, having great authority, and the earth was illumined with his glory. And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “ Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “ Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Pay her back even as she has paid, and give back to her double according to her deeds; in the cup which she has mixed, mix twice as much for her. To the degree that she glorified herself and lived sensuously, to the same degree give her torment and mourning; for she says in her heart, ‘ I sit as a queen and I am not a widow, and will never see mourning.’ For this reason in one day her plagues will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for the Lord God who judges her is strong.  (Revelation 18:1-8 )

There are lots of reasons for the plagues in the church. One of them is because church leaders have been adding to and detracting from the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul warned the Galatians that this would bring on a curse. Actually, the institutional church has been distorting the gospel of Jesus Christ in our times for decades. Messages like the prosperity gospel is one of the biggest culprits. This “sow a seed” with the seed not being what the Lord Himself interpreted as the word of God, but money, is a clear example of the distortion. This false doctrine not only adds and detracts to the gospel but it actually twists scriptures, taking them out of context to mean something entirely different.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! (Galatians 1:6-9)

To be accursed on a grand scale produces plagues.

It is important to note that the institutional church will not be completely shut down until the actual “end.” Her fate is clear in the book of revelations. Who is the Babylon that the angel spoke to and warned that God’s people must come out of? Where are God’s people? For the most part, around the world, GOD’S PEOPLE ARE IN THE CHURCHES!!!

Without a doubt. Babylon is certainly a mystery. While at times, present day Babylon seems to be a country and other times, it seems to be the institutional church. I admittedly have been conflicted on this question. There are times I believe that Babylon is America because the biblical description sounds a lot like the USA. Moreover, there are signs right now that suggest that this country is already falling. NEVERTHELESS, God’s people are all over the world, not just America. Yet perhaps the angel is not referring to God’s people in the entire word, but only those of God’s who happen to be residing in mystery Babylon at the time of the end.

Does it matter? Not really. Because even if the IC is not Babylon, she is obviously the Harlot!

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “ BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered greatly. And the angel said to me, “Why do you wonder? I will tell you the mystery of the woman and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. And he *said to me, “The waters which you saw where the harlot sits, are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.” (Revelation 17:1-7,15-18)

The biblical description of the great Harlot strongly resembles the Catholic Church. The Protestant churches at this very hour are embracing Catholicism, recognizing Her as their mother, “the Mother of Harlots.’ Rome is the city, the seat of the Vatican. So America can’t really be Babylon because we can’t ”mother” anything as we were just born ourselves in 1776, just 242 years old. So Catholicism is the Mother of the many harlots within Protestantism.

To “go deeper,” there are a number of books that will be enlightening, to say the least: “Come Out of Her, God’s People, The Fake Jesus. the New Idolatry, Faces of the Religious Demon, Be Delivered From Deliverance Ministry,   and the Church of the End-time Zombies.”  They are like Sequels yet you can choose which one to read first.  Click here