In Revelation chapter 17 and 18, we are focusing on the destruction of the city of Babylon and the corrupt empire, if you will, that is associated with it. The Babylonian system that has been effective in corrupting the world. And as we've seen already in our study of the opening verses of chapter 17, this corruption is first and foremost a religious or spiritual corruption. And out of the spiritual corruption flows political, commercial, moral corruption. Romans chapter 1 makes clear, as a result of rejecting God and replacing God with a God of your own making. You are led into all kinds of moral depravity and all kinds of sin in every area. Chapter 17 identifies Babylon as a harlot, a whore. In verse 2, the kings of the earth have committed immorality with this harlot and so have been corrupted by her. She's seen in verse 3 as a woman sitting on a scarlet beast. full of blasphemous names having seven heads and ten horns. It relates it to the beast, the Antichrist, who will rule the world during the 70th week of Daniel. We'll talk more about the identification of the seven heads and ten horns when we move a little further into chapter 17. She is very wealthy, rich, splendidly attired in verse 4. clothed in purple and scarlet, adorned with gold and precious stones, pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her immorality. Even the vileness that she offers forth is presented in a gold cup that is beautiful and attractive, indicative of her wealth and splendor. But it's filled with abominations and vile things. She is identified for us in verse 5 as a mystery. Mystery is something in Scripture that would be understood only by revelation from God. This is something that God will give us insight to understand. The angel will explain this mystery to us, beginning in verse 7. The mystery is identified as Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth. Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth. So as we move toward the climax of earth's history, we move to the seven years leading up to the return of Christ to earth to establish His kingdom. We're moving toward the centralizing of this satanic system, the Babylonian system, in a particular focal point, a city. And what we're going to see is the attempted completion of a plan in Genesis, the opening chapters, God began with creation and His plan for man. It was corrupted by sin and not completed. As we get to the closing chapters of Revelation, we will see the completion of that plan with the Kingdom of God established on earth in a perfect environment with the effects and impacts of sin totally removed. That's God's plan. Begins in Genesis, ends in Revelation. In Genesis chapters 10 and 11, we saw the beginnings of Babylon, founded by Nimrod. The Babylonian system began there. We noted in chapter 11 of the book of Genesis, what the Babylonian system entails is the attempt to solidify and centralize the political, commercial activity of the world in a city, in a location, built with the unifying factor of a common worship or religious conviction. So we have the city of Babylon being built in Genesis chapter 11. And in that city was what? A tower whose top would reach to heaven. That was Satan's plan to unify the world around the worship of Satan, rejecting God, and all of its politics, commerce and so on would be centered. In this religious center, the judgment of God brought that plan to frustration. When we come over to the book of Genesis, we see Satan attempting now to bring it together again, where we will have Babylon, whether it's the city of Babylon rebuilt, as is a possibility, and we've seen some evidence of that in scripture, or as some believe, it's the city of Rome represented as Babylon. The point is the same. Satan now is attempting to bring to completion what he attempted back in Genesis chapter 10 and 11. To solidify the politics, the commerce, the leadership of the world in a city all built around a false worship system. We are moving toward that in our day. That will not be successful because the judgment of God will destroy Babylon. But that's the issue before us in Revelation 17 and 18. That's what we're talking about when we talk about Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. What happened back in Genesis chapter 11, when God came down and all the world was of one language, they used their unity to try to join together with one common false worship system centering in one city. God judged them and scattered them abroad. But something happened when that took place. The false, corrupt worship that had been started there was carried wherever those people went. And that accounts for why you see the elements of the Babylonian system permeating the world. The religious activity, the similarities in what characterizes the worship It goes back to a central point. Not Jesus Christ in his birth, but Babylon and its system. The founder of Babylon was Nimrod. He's mentioned in Genesis chapter 10. So we go to secular history and we find out some things about Nimrod. He had a wife whose name was Semiramis. Semiramis was a woman who was key in the founding of the Babylonian mystery religions. mythology, the traditions, whatever, that have built up around that and flow out of Babylon, was that Semiramis, the wife of Nimrod, had a son named Tammuz. Tammuz had been miraculously conceived. And you begin to see the seeds of something. We sometimes ask, how much does the devil know about the future? Well, he's a fallen being and his understanding is corrupted by his sinfulness. But he is also a very brilliant being. The indication seems to be that he has some insight and understanding regarding the plans of God and where history is headed. What he did in Babylon, back in Genesis 10 and 11, was to begin to develop a counterfeit to corrupt the world so that when the genuine came, it would be lost. in the counterfeit that overwhelmed the world. It's like if counterfeit hundred dollar bills blanket the city, and now I'm going to bring out a genuine hundred dollar bill, it's just lost in the counterfeit. Satan's counterfeit. Very well done. Because now we have a miraculous son conceived by Semiramis. But this son died, but was miraculously brought back to life. Now this goes back before the birth of Christ. It goes back into the Babylonian worship system. There are a number of things that we're familiar with today that have come out of the Babylonian system. One that's very interesting, there was 40 days of weeping in the Babylonian system for Tammuz, climaxing with his miraculously being brought back to life. And there are many other things that were part of the Babylonian system that we've talked about on other occasions and there are tapes available if you want to pursue that. Things like priestly absolution, sprinkling with holy water, offering of cakes to the Queen of Heaven, weeping for Tammuz for forty days prior to the Feast of Ishtar. Ishtar is another name for Semiramis. We have it as Easter. We celebrate Easter. Where did the name Easter come from? Well, it came from the Feast of Ishtar, which had to do with the worship of Tammuz. I want to read some material to you so that we are alert and aware of what is taking place. But before we do, I want to look into the Scripture to see that this Babylonian worship system had corrupted the nation Israel hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born. The worship of the Queen of Heaven, the worship of Tammuz had corrupted the nation Israel. Turn back to Jeremiah chapter 7. is writing 500 years before Christ. In Jeremiah, chapter 7, verse 16, God instructs Jeremiah not to pray for the people of Israel, people of Judah. Do not lift up cry or prayer for them. Do not intercede with me. I won't hear you. Do you see what the people are doing, the people of Jerusalem? Look at verse 18. The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the Queen of Heaven." We sometimes pick up that title like the Queen of Heaven and associate it with doctrines relating to the Virgin Mary. But you see here that the worship of the Queen of Heaven antedates Christ by at least 500 years because Jeremiah the prophet is condemning it. In Israel, look over in chapter 44 of Jeremiah. Here, the people have experienced being conquered by Babylon. They are now defiant of Jeremiah and his prophecies in even a more open way. They declare to Jeremiah, we are not going to listen to what you have to say. We are going to return to the worship of the Queen of Heaven with increased vigor. Because when we worship the Queen of Heaven, we didn't have the kind of troubles we have today. Verse 16, this is in the context of verse 15 began, then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifice to other gods, along with others, speak to Jeremiah saying, as for the message that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you. But rather, we will certainly carry out every word that has proceeded from our mouths by burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, by pouring out libations to her, just as we ourselves, our forefathers, our kings, our princes did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food. Then we didn't have any misfortune. You see what they're saying? This is not a new worship system. This worship of the Queen of Heaven. Burning cakes to the Queen of Heaven. This was practiced by our ancestors, but those were the good days. We need to get back to the worship of the Queen of Heaven. Verse 18. Since we stopped burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out libations to her, we've lacked everything. Verse 19. And the women said when we were burning sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. The Queen of Heaven, the Queen of Heaven, pouring out libations to her. Was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes? And in her image and poured out libations to her, they're saying is what's happened. Since they quit worshipping the Queen of Heaven, their husbands have been carried away in captivity and have suffered great loss. It wasn't that way when we worshipped the Queen of Heaven faithfully. Down in verse 24, then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt. Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, as follows. As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths, fulfilled it with your hands, saying, we will certainly perform our vows that we have vowed to burn sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven. Pour out libations there. Go ahead. Do it. Nevertheless, hear the word of the Lord. Note this emphasis on the worship of the Queen of Heaven. That is not something that developed as a result of Mary giving birth to Jesus Christ. The Queen of Heaven goes back into the Babylonian worship established in Babylon back in the early chapters of Genesis. It corrupted Israel hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born. Look over in Ezekiel chapter 8 verse 14. Then he brought me to the entrance of the gate of the Lord's house, which was toward the north. Now, what's happening? And behold, women were sitting there, weeping for Tammuz. See, associated with the worship of the Queen of Heaven, and Ezekiel writes about the same time as Jeremiah, was also the weeping for Tammuz. That was the 40-day period leading up to the Feast of Ishtar. Weeping in their worship over the fact that Tammuz had died. That will be climaxed by His miraculous resurrection to life again. Israel was involved in that worship four or five hundred years before the birth of Christ. They had been corrupted by this paganism. This is all incorporated when we come to Revelation 17. We talk about Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots. Baal worship that we're familiar with. Jezebel. who introduced Baal worship in Israel, that was a form of the worship of the Queen of Heaven. Tammuz, her son, Baal being another name. Various nations around the world have worshipped the mother and the daughter, and the mother-daughter worship becomes the focal point of Babylonian worship. And it's interesting, that pervades so many countries. In Egypt, the mother and the daughter were worshipped as Isis and Horus, or Osiris. They talk about Isis and Horus or Osiris, gods of Egypt, but it's the mother-son worship. Greece had Aphrodite and Eros. We all know about it in Italy because that was Venus and Cupid. Various forms of the worship of the mother and the child. You go back centuries before the birth of Christ and you can have what we identify today as the Madonna. with the mother with a circle around her head holding the baby. You say, wait a minute, I thought that was Mary and Jesus. How did they get pictures of that hundreds of years before the birth of Christ? Because it was the worship of Semiramis and Tammuz with the Son encircled around her head since He is the Son God. Now that worship of the mother and the child becomes central to the Babylonian system and all the other facets of it. flow out of that. When we read in Revelation chapter 17, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots, we see at the fountainhead of her corruption is her religious corruption. And out of that will flow all the other corruption. So keep in mind, not limiting this to just the religious realm, but the religious and spiritual corruption is that which brings the corruption to every other area. The moral, social, commercial, political, corruption flows out of the fact that at heart, in its foundation, it is a spiritual corruption. I believe it indicates that in the Babylonian system, as it becomes focalized, we will have an apostate worship system, the 70th week of Daniel, in which the Roman Catholic Church is going to play a key role. The Protestant Church is going to play a key role. The indication would seem to be that the Roman Catholic Church We'll be leading the way. But the Protestant church is every bit as pagan in its practices, but does not have the solidified power that the Roman church has. Part of what I want you to be aware of and alert to is some of what is taking place in our day as the Babylonian system works its way into the evangelical church. And the evangelical church becomes associated with the Babylonian system in the spiritual dimension. And we have a corruption taking place. I'm not just talking about the Protestant church broadly. I'm talking about the evangelical Protestant church with it making common cause with the Roman Catholic church. Let me read you some comments from a book that was published in 1990 called Evangelical Catholics. It's written by Keith Fournier, published by Thomas Nelson. Keith Fournier is a Roman Catholic. He is dean of evangelism and the university's legal counsel at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. The foreword is written by Charles Colson and clearly identified with evangelical Christians, much of his writings and speaking. He writes the foreword, and he met this Roman Catholic dean while he was receiving an award at Steubenville University. He talks about how bad the university there was before Keith Fournier came. Charles Coulson says that when he arrived on the campus for the first time, he's walking across the campus and he says, but as I walked across the grounds, I felt a sense of purposefulness often missing from college campuses. And that gives you something of the tenor of the way Keith Fournier is going to write the book. Charles Coulson walking across the campus and he senses a sense of purposefulness. The rest of the book, as I've been able to read it, basically Roman Catholic mysticism, put within some evangelical terminology of how I felt, those kind of things that happen. Well, he talks about the changes that this Keith Foynier brought at Steubenville. Charles Colson's observation is, the changes at Steubenville have been miraculous. They can only be attributed to a great movement of the Holy Spirit. among people, now listen to this, completely committed to Christian living within the Catholic Church, evangelical Catholics. Only in recent years have the term evangelical and Catholic been joined, and that's true. In the early years of my being a believer, a Roman Catholic was someone opposed to evangelical Christianity. Evangelical Christianity was supposedly tied to the Reformation that stood against the false doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Only in recent years have the terms evangelical and Catholics been joined, and those who claim both are often misunderstood by their brothers and sisters in the faith, be they Catholic or Protestant. This isn't surprising. The pain and distrust between Catholics and Protestants goes back centuries. The Church has often been plagued by wars within her walls. You see this happen here. Let it change now. The church has been plagued with wars within her walls. What he's going to do is put the Roman Catholic Church and the Evangelical Protestant Church in the same walls. And it's been a plague that we have battled with each other. The church has often been plagued by wars within her walls, crippling her in her battle against the encroaching armies of secularism. The driving force is the real enemy is not false religion, the real enemy is humanism, secularism, or put it together, secular humanism. But as I come to Revelation 17, I find that the real corrupting influence in the world has been the Whore of Babylon. I find in Romans chapter 1 that this religious and spiritual corruption is what has corrupted the world in all areas. Now we're saying we ought to join common forces with Roman Catholicism. But at root, those who are called of God, whether Catholic or Protestant, are part of the same body. They share the same basic beliefs, the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, bodily resurrection, imminent return, infallible word, the same mission is new material. Pay attention. The Roman Catholic Church and evangelical Christians share the same mission, quote, presenting Christ as savior and Lord to a needy world. I did not know that was the mission. Roman Catholicism. I want to read you some Roman Catholic doctrine in a moment. It is high time that all of us who are Christians come together, regardless of the difference of our confessions and our traditions, and make common cause to bring Christian values to bear on our society. We've lost our way here, folks. We're going to join common cause with Roman Catholicism to bring Christian values. It's not what we're called to do. Church of Jesus Christ is called to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to a lost and dying world. When the barbarians are scaling the walls, there is no time for petty quarreling in the camp. The barbarians are the secular humanists. We can't be doing battle with Roman Catholicism as evangelical Christians. Those are petty quarrels, secular humanism storming the walls. Let me tell you, that's not the issue. The issue is within the walls, the Babylonian harlots there. That's the danger. That's the corruption. Now, listen to this because I have to read you some other. This is going to be some book reviews. So Keith Fournier stands in the breach. Now, listen to this. He stands in the breach. He's truly orthodox in adherence to Roman Catholic doctrine and fully evangelical in his relationship to Christ. I say that is not a possibility. That is absolutely impossible to be truly orthodox in your adherence to Roman Catholic doctrine. and fully evangelical in your relationship to Christ. It's an impossibility. He says Roman Catholics like Keith Fournier are building alliances against our mutual enemy. He concludes, we have much to forgive, much to relearn, but evangelical Catholics can help us do both so we can band together against the rising tides of secularism, which threaten to engulf us. May God grant healing to his church. That's not unusual. Number of years ago, I took a course out at Fuller Seminary, which gave me a chance to be on the campus there for a couple of weeks. There, there was an openness to Roman Catholicism. Today, they have Roman Catholics teaching there. They make common cause with Roman Catholicism. And there's just a pressure throughout the evangelical church to accept, because we emphasize what we agree on. Don't the Catholics believe the virgin birth? Yes. Don't they believe the death of Christ? Yes. The resurrection of Christ? Yes. The deity of Christ? Yes. Well, then they're evangelical Christians. Wrong. because that's not all they believe. Let me read you some doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, and I've shared some of this material with you before, but it bears repeating. The first one I'm going to read you from comes from the Ten Series of Meditations on the Mysteries of the Rosary. It has the nihil obstate and the imprimatur. Let me read you what Roman Catholic Catechism says about the nihil obstate and imprimatur. The nihil obstate and imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral errors. And the imprimatur is by Richard Cardinal Cushing. This book is free of doctrinal or moral error. We've been reading about the Queen of Heaven. We read about the Queen of Heaven in Jeremiah. One of the meditations for you in this book is on a consideration. Queen of Heaven. The angels in Heaven saying, Queen of Heaven, rejoice because your Son is risen. Hail, O Queen of Paradise. As the stars are illuminated by the sun, so heaven is illuminated by you, O Mary." A few chapters over in Revelation, we're going to be told that in the New Jerusalem, we have no need of the sun because it's illuminated by the presence of God Himself. You're going to find this doctrine all but declares Mary is God, the Queen of Heaven. It comes out of the Babylonian system. It does not come out of evangelical Christianity. It does not come out of the Bible. She is co-redemptrix. That means she is a co-redeemer of the human race. The church and the saints greet her thus. You, O Mary, together with Jesus Christ, redeemed us. Can you be a truly orthodox Catholic and believe that and also be a true evangelical Christian? Believe that you're redeemed not only by Jesus Christ, but by Mary? God has ordained that no grace will be granted to us except through Mary. It is a doctrine preached by all the saints that no grace can come to us from heaven without passing through Mary's hands. No one will be saved or obtain mercy except through you, O heavenly lady. Remember this well. No one will enter heaven without passing through Mary as one would pass through a door. I thought it was Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but me. I am the door. Another Roman Catholic Church tells me Mary is the door. You can't get to heaven except through Mary. As mother of the Word incarnate, listen to this, as mother of the Word incarnate, Mary was elevated to a certain equality with the Heavenly Father. Does that not become blasphemy? To elevate a created being, to say she now has equality with the Heavenly Father? You know where this comes from. It comes from Babylonianism, the Queen of Heaven doctrine. I'm going to read these, I won't be leaving anything out. Some of you are going to say, oh, he's probably pieced this together. Everything I read is consecutive, even though I have breaks in between it. Mary is our co-redemptrix, because she gave us Jesus, pleasure of our salvation. Furthermore, she is co-redemptrix of the human race, because with Christ she ransomed mankind from the power of Satan. Jesus redeemed us with the blood of His body, Mary with the agonies of her heart. We were condemned through the fault of one woman. We were saved through the merits of another woman. I say we have totally departed from the biblical doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ. Just as Eve was the root of death for everyone, so Mary was the source of life for everyone. Mary is our co-redemptrix because she suffered in her heart whatever was lacking to the passion of Christ. As we are obliged to Jesus for his passion, so we are indebted to Mary for her participation in his passion. What's this next one? Mary is the mystical neck which inclined the divine head, Jesus, to mercy toward us. Now, if you are the neck that turns to the head, who's in charge? She is the divine cloud. She is the divine cloud that reigned upon us, the dew of new grace. She gave birth to Jesus with joy. She gave birth to us, brothers of Jesus, in anguish and sorrow. You see, as you read through their doctrine of Mary, Mary is really above Christ. There is only one Mary, but she has given birth to Jesus and to a multitude of brothers of Jesus. The Queen stood on thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety. All graces passed from God to Jesus, from Jesus to Mary, and from Mary to us. Listen to this one. Mary is the complement of the Holy Spirit. Before God, she asks not, she commands. Before God, she asks not, she commands. When she comes before God, she doesn't bring a request. She commands Him. No true devotee of Mary will be damned because she is the terrible conqueror of the devil. Love Mary because she transforms us into Jesus. No one can acquire an intimate union with Jesus and a perfect fidelity to the Holy Spirit without being greatly united to Mary. It is necessary for us to have a mediator besides Jesus' mediator. We will never find one more qualified than Mary. I thought Paul wrote to Timothy and said there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now we're told it's necessary for us to have a mediator besides Jesus. Can you be saved if you truly believe this doctrine? Absolutely not. When God deeply loves a soul and finds it stained with sin, He covers it with a beautiful mantle that makes it precious to Him. This mantle is Mary. What has happened to the blood of Christ? When God finds us stained with sin, He puts the mantle of Mary over us. And that takes away the stain. Man becomes what he loves. If he loves earth, he becomes earth. If he loves God, he becomes God. If he loves Mary, he becomes her son. That is another Jesus. You see, you don't become another Mary. There's only one Mary. She is totally and absolutely unique. But you can become another Jesus. Mary is the ark of salvation built by God on the deluge of our faults so that whoever desires may enter and be saved. Trouble is, Peter uses that analogy, but Jesus Christ is the ark. It is as important to be devoted to Mary as it is to enter heaven, because no one can enter paradise who is not devoted to Mary. She herself is the book of life from which God will read the names of the elect on the day of judgment. Now, you see what's happening. Evangelical Christians are saying, oh, yes, look at what we agree with the Roman Catholic Church. But you have to look and say what you don't agree with. The Judaizers came and Paul wrote about them to the Galatians. The Judaizers said, believe in Jesus Christ, but you also must be circumcised. What did Paul say? If anyone, including an angel from heaven, preaches that doctrine, he's under a curse. Is there anything wrong with preaching faith in Christ? No. But when you also say you must add to it. Be circumcised. Trust in Mary. The book of life is Mary. But Mary herself will introduce these elect souls to Him as her masterpieces. I thought Colossians told me that Jesus Christ will introduce us to His Father as those who are without spot and blameless. Now I find out it's Mary will introduce these elect souls to him as her masterpieces. It's impossible to believe that as an Orthodox Catholic, and this has been certified and it continues to be reprinted with copyright in 1964, copyright again in 1981, still bearing the imprimatur of Cardinal Cushing as being free from any doctrinal or moral error. So you're picking out the worst. Well, if that was the worst, could it be any worse? We have a co-redemptrix. Can anything strike more at the heart of what evangelical Christianity is than a co-redemptrix? I spent some time reading Catholic catechisms the last few weeks. These are Roman Catholic catechisms. I went down and bought them at a bookstore a number of years ago. I asked the bookstore manager, was not a Christian bookstore, the religious bookstore. I said, what are Roman Catholic priests in the Roman Catholic Church using today? What kind of books are they buying? What do they use to teach their doctrine? So he sold me these. They have the Nehilobstat and the Imprimatur. And they say in the front, the Nehilobstat and Imprimatur are official declarations that a book or pamphlet is free of doctrinal or moral error. These are a series of questions because it's a catechism. Where is God's revelation contained? Answer. God's revelation is contained in the Bible and in sacred tradition. Consequently, it is not from sacred scripture alone that the church draws her certainty about everything which has been revealed. Hence, both sacred tradition and sacred scripture are to be accepted and venerated with the same sense of loyalty and reverence. So we have two sources of authority now. We have the scriptures and we have tradition. We're not done. We want to add a third. Tradition and sacred scripture form one deposit of the Word of God. Thus, scripture, tradition and the Catholic Church combine to bring us God's revelation. So now we have scripture, we have tradition, we have the Catholic Church. Well, how are you going to know who is the final authority? Quote, the Catholic Church is the official interpreter of the Bible. So you really have one final absolute authority, the Roman Catholic Church. Its traditions are true. We say this is true about Mary. Mary was taken to heaven without dying. The Bible doesn't say that. No, but tradition says it. And the Roman Catholic Church declares that tradition is true. The immaculate conception of Mary, Mary was born without sin. The Bible never addresses that, but the Roman Catholic Church has the power and authority to declare it. and that is just as binding a doctrine. Well, I think that conflicts with the Bible. It doesn't conflict with standard of the only infallible interpreter of the Bible, the Holy Roman Church. So you see, we have one absolute authority. So that's why when we talk about the authority of scripture, the Roman Catholic Church talks about the authority of scripture. We're not talking about the same thing. When we talk about the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she was blessed of God, highly honored and exalted by God to be privileged to give birth to the Messiah. We're not talking about the Queen of Heaven that the Roman Catholic Church is talking about. We're not talking about one who is co-redemptrix with Christ. We're not talking about the one. Unless you come through her, you have no access to heaven. So we use similar terminology, but when we get down to it, we find out we're not talking about the same thing at all. Question baptism. What is baptism? Baptism is the sacrament in which we are made members of the church, empowered to participate in Christian worship and born to eternal life by means of water in the spirit. And it quotes from Vatican II extensively through this. You always have to use the right formula in baptism. It must be always I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. This formula must always be used in baptism. It is essential if there is an emergency baptism and a priest is not doing it and you're doing it because a person is about to die. You must use this correct formula. You see what has happened? It's a magical application of something. Baptism is the most necessary sacrament because without baptism, no one can be saved. How is that different than the Galatian heresy? Fine, you must believe in Christ, but unless you're circumcised, you can't be saved. Paul said, if an angel teaches that, he's under a curse. Fine to believe in Christ, but unless you're baptized, you can't be saved. And yet we can say you can be a truly orthodox Catholic in your doctrine and also an evangelical Christian. I say it is an impossibility. And to imply that is just to open the door to the Babylonian harlotries that come in and corrupt. The church has taken no official stand on the nature or even the reality of limbo. Now, limbo is held by some Roman Catholic theologians as where babies who die unbaptized go. And it's heaven, but it's a form of heaven where they are never allowed to look on the face of God because they never really experience true salvation. The church has no official position on limbo. But the church does teach that baptism in some form is necessary for salvation. So you cannot be saved without baptism. You see what we have. They want to talk about faith in Christ. Oh, we believe that. Amen. Amen. But you also find later, and I don't have time to read it all, that salvation is only in the Holy Roman Church. Now, they try to make exceptions, but if you would have opportunity to become part of the Holy Roman Church and reject that opportunity, you could not be saved. So you see, it's faith in Christ plus, faith in Christ plus, faith in Christ plus, faith in Christ plus. And yet we say they're within the walls of the church. We've got to join together with them against secularism that's overrunning the church. I say secularism and secular humanism is not the threat to the church of Jesus Christ. The Babylonian harlot is a great threat, even to evangelical Christians, the mass. Simply stated, this is their quote, simply stated, the mass is the same sacrifice as the sacrifice of the cross. In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read that Christ offered his sacrifice himself once for all. There is accordingly only one numerically one sacrifice of the new covenant. Consequently, the mass is not a new sacrifice different from the sacrifice of the cross, nor does it repeat or multiply it. The mass is the sacrifice of the cross. made liturgically yet truly present in all its sensual reality under the sacramental signs of bread and wine. The point is, there is only one sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, and it is ongoing and unending through the offering of the Mass. So that's why they say, oh no, you're not saying the truth when you say we are re-offering Christ. We're not re-offering Christ. We are continuing the sacrifice of Christ. And in the Mass, He's dying on the cross right here because He never stopped dying on the cross. This is one unending sacrifice being offered round the world, day in and day out. I say the book of Hebrews chapter 10 says when Jesus Christ had offered one sacrifice for sin for all time, He sat down at the right hand of the Father. There is no ongoing sacrifice. I cannot join hands and hearts with someone that teaches such a polluted and vile doctrine. And their own admission is, without the Mass, there would be no Roman Catholic Church. That is the heart of the system. Well, there are many other things, obviously. Indulgences. That comes directly out of the Babylonian system as well. You know what indulgences are? They are the overflowing merits of Christ and the saints that form, according to their terminology, an inexhaustible treasure for the church to draw upon. In other words, Saint Joseph died. But he was so good and so holy, he had far more merits than he needed for himself. Those go into a treasury, and all the extra merits of the saints are deposited in that treasury, and that forms an inexhaustible treasury that the church, the Roman church, can draw upon to give absolution, to give indulgences, to spare you from temporal punishments that you might have to work off for your own sins. Obviously, a vile person like you will never have more than enough. But Saint so and so did. Where does that come from in scripture? It comes from no place. But you go back and study the Babylonian line. Indulgences were a practice to the priesthood there. So that whole system, what does that to do to attack Roman Catholicism? Well, yes, in the ways it is unbiblical. If I've misrepresented them, you come and show me. I've tried to read from their own works. If that is not in conflict with Scripture, I don't know what is. Now, how can the evangelical church be talking today, and this is just one area, and I've used just one person, but this is permeating things. Oh, we can join together with Roman Catholicism in this. Why? Well, we agree about abortion. We agree about the role of men. We agree about this. Well, Paul could have found much he agreed with the Judaizers about. They believed the Old Testament. They believed you ought to have faith in Christ. Problem is, they also said, you must be circumcised to be saved. He says, that doesn't. You're under a curse. What am I doing? Joining hands with those who, what, spewing forth this corruption, a cup full of abominations, Revelation 17, verse 4 says, and of the unclean things of her immorality. She's the great harlot, sitting on many waters, corrupting many people. And I'm going to act like we can join hands because secularism is the big enemy. Who's ever said secularism was the big enemy? Maybe the devil. Scripture says the harlot is the great enemy, the corruption. I had an interesting time reading this book this week, 300 and some pages. The Vatican Billions is written by a secular writer. So this is not an evangelical Christian perspective. This is a secular writer writing about the Vatican Billions. But important is you note that this woman in verse 4 is clothed with purple and scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and so on. We get down into chapter 18, the end of verse 3, the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality. Verse 15 of chapter 18, the merchants of these things who became rich from her stand at a distance weeping. Woe, woe, the great city she was clothed in fine linen, purple, scarlet, adorned with gold, precious stones, pearls. And she has such vast wealth. She has made nations wealthy. Interesting, the wealth. And I'm just going to say a couple of things on this. The Vatican has vast deposits of gold in Swiss, America and other banks, more dollar assets than the most powerful corporations of the USA. He has larger monetary reserves than France, Belgium, Italy and Great Britain put together. Now we talk about nations that are going to be joined together in this final alliance. Here you find an entity that has larger financial reserves than France, Belgium, Italy, and Great Britain combined. In fact, later on, some of this is documented from Wall Street Journal and things like that. At one of the dates they go in here, and since these are varied, some's in the 60s, some's in the 70s, I don't want to read you figures because then you have to translate it into inflated dollars and that. But the gold reserves, of Great Britain were only one-third the gold reserves of the Vatican. That's a nation. Now think about the power and the influence. This is a Bob Fry book for treasurers. By 1972, the combined assets of the U.S.' 's largest industrial corporations totaled about $47 billion. Five largest industrial corporations in the United States in 1972. Combined assets, $47 billion. In the United States, combined assets of the Roman Catholic Church, between 80 and 100 billion dollars. Twice as big as the five largest industrial corporations combined. Does that put them in a position of influence and power? You read through the various countries, France, Britain, Italy, and so on, the power that money brings. Invest it. I don't know whether it's true today. This book was written in the early 80s, and I don't remember the date that this is from. I'd have to check the footnotes. At one time, the Vatican owned 51% of the Bank of America. Large blocks of IBM, Goodyear, and all of this. Something happened in 1870. What happened, the Italians appropriated the property ownings of the Vatican in Italy. The Vatican owned about one-third of the Italian peninsula. The city of Rome belonged to the Vatican, where the Italians in 1870 appropriated all that land. In 1929, a man named Mussolini, to settle things with the Vatican Church, paid them a sum of the equivalent today of over $100 million with the agreement that that would resolve any claims the Vatican would have on these lands. That became the seed money for the vast wealth of the church today. Because in the teens, like between 1914 and 1917, Pope Benedict XV established the policy that the Vatican would now invest its money on the basis of business principles, not religious or political. So this money was invested and if you read a book like this and there are others, they'll show you how that money has mushroomed to today. vast billions of dollars to the point would interest us in light of Revelation 17 and 18. It has been calculated that if the billions and billions of dollars of the wealth of the Roman Church and its assets and so on continue at their present rate of growth, the Catholic Church would by the close of the present century own control and have a say directly or indirectly in at least one third of all the sources of wealth of the Western world. Now, that is a powerhouse. If you're going to say that the Roman Catholic Church will control at least one-third of the total wealth of Europe and America, you can understand something of the setting of Revelation 17 and 18 with the commercial impact. It multiplies out. Schools, we talk about, oh, it would be great to have money for Christian schools, but you know where most of the money goes for parochial schools. In fact, in one year, they have documented here, hospitals. Government money to the tune of something like $125 million was provided for religious hospitals. Of that $125 million, $114 million was taken by the Roman Catholic Church. We're familiar with the hospitals and various related organizations. It's a vast empire that permeates everything and has vast control. You read about the scandal there was in Washington and so on. They give the years here. when it was found that the United States government was selling gold at a discount to the Vatican. It was turned around and selling it at multiplied millions of dollars of profit. Why would you do that? Same reason we negotiate with the European community today. It's to our benefit to have someone who is so heavily invested in us be our friend and we make concessions. And all of this going on through the Western world in particular, you combine that with 800 million And you can raise hundreds of millions of dollars. The Vatican bank scandal a few years ago cost the Vatican hundreds of millions of dollars. You know what the Pope did? He declared the years, what was it, 82 and 83, a holy year. A holy year and the Italian government reacted strongly against that because of the pressure that would put on them with tourists coming in. It raised enough money to cover the indebtedness and that wipes out the issue. The creditors don't care as long as they get the money, have that kind of access to those kinds of dollars. All of that to say, when we talk about the wealth, we're not into all the other things that go with it. It's going on. My concern is here we have even evangelical Christians saying we should join together with Roman Catholicism against the common enemy. I mean, who is the enemy? A couple of passages and we're done. Turn over to Jude, just before the book of Revelation, the book of Jude, verse three. Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I found the necessity to write you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, who were long ago beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turned the grace of our God into licentiousness. and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. When you talk about a co-redemptrix, is that not denying our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ? What is Jude talking about when he says, contend for the faith? What has happened to the evangelical church of Jesus Christ, who can even get by with talking about this and saying such a thing is a good idea? You know what happens? It's been so long since the evangelical church has seriously studied and grappled with the doctrines of the Word of God, they don't have understanding any longer. I was reading a writer from well over a hundred years ago, and he made the comment that it only takes 15 or 20 years of preachers and teachers not faithfully teaching the doctrines of the Word of God to prepare a people to accept anything that comes along. And that's happened in the church today. Got all kind of emphasis on getting together, having big rallies and no concept of what are the theological principles and issues at stake confronting us here. Second Corinthians, chapter 11, we'll be done. I do have some things I want to say on some moral issues that perhaps we'll introduce our study with next week. Second Corinthians, chapter 11. I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me, for I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband. I betrothed you to one husband, to Christ, that I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid, lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your mind should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. For if one comes and preaches another Jesus, and we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully." Some things have not changed in almost 2,000 years, have they? Paul is saying to Corinthians, you have no concept. of maintaining your doctrinal and theological purity in your relationship to Christ. You think it's an asset that, oh, you just welcome these with different teachings with open arms. Other people say, oh, why are you always so divisive? Why are you always fighting about things? Why are we fighting within the walls about petty things when we should be standing against secularism? Well, Paul didn't commend the Corinthians for that attitude. He says down in verse 13, such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore, it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their deeds. I say, God has not changed. The Word of God is forever settled in heaven. You and I better be careful about making compromises with it. The book of Revelation will conclude on that note. You better not add to it. You better not take away from it. I say this because I want us to understand. We talk about the Babylonian system, the harlot that is corrupting the world. That has happened down through the centuries of time, as we'll see as we proceed into chapter 17. It is happening today. And just as the nation Israel, the people that God had called out for Himself, are found joined to the worship of the Queen of Heaven, weeping for Tammuz, we find evangelical Christians saying we ought to be joined with those who advocate the worship of the Queen of Heaven, who can weep for Tammuz, who corrupt the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, who deny the only Master and Lord, and establish another way of salvation through a co-redemptor. We have nothing in common. Does that mean we don't love them, desire them to be saved? Yes, we do. They say, oh, we don't pray that God, by Your grace, You will cause them to see the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Do all we can to present this gospel to them in its purity? Yes. But something happens. When you mix anything with the message of this gospel, you so corrupt it that it loses its power and impact to bring about salvation. Much of the gospel is present in the Roman Catholic mass but is without power because it has been adulterated with the doctrines of men that washes out its power. It is diluted and ineffective in the purpose God has given it. Let's be faithful as a church. He's called us to a mission. That's why we study the word of God in detail week after week. Why. So we will know what God says so we can assimilate it into our lives, have our lives changed by it and discern and stand for the purity of the Word in these days of apostasy. Let's pray together. Thank you, Father, for who you are. Thank you for Jesus Christ, the one and only Savior of the world. Thank you, Lord, that there is one God. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Thank you, Father, that in your grace you have provided salvation by his death that alone is sufficient and adequate to provide cleansing for all who believe in him. Lord, thank you for the time together to consider the doctrines that are being presented today. Lord, may we be guarded against arrogance and pride, self-centeredness and self-confidence. Lord, may we be firmly rooted and planted in your word. May we be a discerning people. May the corruption of the Babylonian system not be allowed to infiltrate our lives personally. Lord, I pray by your grace, we will be privileged to present the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To the people of this city and beyond, so that by your grace, many might come to the Savior. In his name we pray. Amen.