Sonlight Devotional

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Scripture reading: Jeremiah 44:15-19, 25

Today, we will continue to compare modern Babylon point by point with the ancient Babylon, which is hated of God. We covered the first three points in Part One.

1. The modern church system makes the Word of God secondary to dogmas and rules of the church. This is a known fact. This practice is very rampant in all our churches not just in one church. The rules of the church are number one and must be obeyed first or else its members are counted rebellious. I know of one sister who was cast out of a church because she was telling the others about the Holy Ghost and the receiving of the fullness of the Spirit. That church had a rule against speaking in tongues and against the fullness of the Spirit. She was ordered not to preach the things that are in the Bible, but to preach church doctrine. She was dismissed and disgraced before the whole congregation.
2. Ancient Babylon had a madonna with a child in her left hand. The child was supposed to have been miraculously birthed without a father. This mother had this child. It was called IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. There is also a story or a dogma about the immaculate conception of Mary. The story is that Mary was never naturally conceived; that she also was immaculately conceived. Part of the mystery of the ancient world was that it had on its temple three images. One was a woman. The three images represented the father, the son, and the woman who was supposed to have been the Holy Spirit.
   In the modern Babylonish church system, there are also those three images. The woman in Catholicism is called the madonna. The baby that she holds is supposed to be Jesus Christ. Christmas traditions include the manger and the babe and Mary. Part of the secrets of Catholicism is that Mary is the embodiment of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus is the embodiment of the Christ.
   The Word of God disproves this teaching. Luke 1:34 and 35,“Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Mary is not the Holy Ghost because the scripture said, “The Holy Ghost (would) come upon” her. She was not the Holy Ghost at all. The Babylonish mysteries brought this deception into the church system.
   Pictures of the woman in Babylon show a woman grasping the serpent’s head. Diana, the goddess of the Ephesians, is shown bearing a serpent without a head, in her hand. Genesis 3:15 says that He “shall bruise (Satan’s) head, and (Satan) shalt bruise his heel,” speaking of the Son. In certain churches, it is attributed that the scripture says that SHE shall bruise his head and he shall bruise HER heel. Anyone can go to the Greek text and see that it is HE and not she. This great Semiramis was called Alma Mater, the virgin mother, as is also done in the Roman church of today.
3. In the Babylonish mysteries, the priests were supposed to be infallible. When they spoke the Word of God, they were infallible; and so it is that we find that this infallibility has also been incorporated into the Catholic Church. Some would say that they are not infallible, yet if you speak to them, they would let you know right away that they speak the Word of God and infallibility is there with them.
   These priests, therefore, would speak just what the pope would speak. Whenever the pope speaks Ex Cathedra, he is supposedly speaking the Word of God exactly, and he says that he is infallible. He cannot be wrong. Actually, the words that he speaks are definitely from his doctrine, and he believes that the dogmas of the church are in the same category as the Word of God. Very often his words supersede the Word of God in the minds of the believers and in the minds of their adherents. The pope is called Holy Father. The Bible says that we are not to call any man holy, that we are not to call any man father. See Matthew 23:9.
4. In Jeremiah 44:15-19 and 25, Jeremiah admonished the Israelites because they were worshipping someone called “the queen of heaven.” They responded in verses 17 and 18, “But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.”
   The people were stupid enough to believe that this goddess they were worshipping, “the queen of heaven,” would bring them prosperity. Today people are still praying to “the queen of heaven.” I was surprised to see a gate in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida marked THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN. In the Roman church, the members worship “the queen of heaven.” They pray to her and say they are praying to Mary, but they are praying to the same ancient “queen of heaven” that the Babylonians used to pray to.
   To some degree or another, our whole Christian system is Babylonized, if I can be permitted to use such a word. Our whole Christian system is back in the place where Babylon was. The steeples on the churches are Babylonish. The worship is Babylonish, because it is not worshipping God in spirit and in truth but is worshipping by religious offering.

WORSHIP MUST COME FROM THE HEART, and anything that is done, whether it is the playing of music, singing, or whatever it is, if it is not of God, it is not worshipping God. So let us consider this true worship of God and be found faithful to Him as we present ourselves before Him.

(Excerpt from The Book of Revelation, Volume 2, pages 157-159)

Thought for today: WORSHIP MUST COME FROM THE HEART, and anything that is done, if it is not of God, it is not worshipping God.