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Revelation 17:4 says, “The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and gilded with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication.” According to this verse, the woman is gilded with gold, precious stone, and pearls, the very materials with which the New Jerusalem is built. But these materials are the gilding of this woman. Gilding is a thin covering; it is not the real thing. For example, an ornament may be gilded with gold. The ornament is not actually gold; it is simply covered with a thin layer of gold.
Furthermore, the woman in Revelation 17 has a golden cup full of abominations and the unclean things of her fornication. In the Bible abominations indicates idolatry, because idols are an abomination in the eyes of God. Fornication signifies an improper contact, an improper relationship. Although the cup is golden, signifying the nature of God, it is not filled with gold but filled with abominations and fornication, that is, with idolatry and improper relationships.
Verse 5 says, “On her forehead there was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” This woman, Babylon the Great, is the mother of many harlots. It is important that we find out who this mother is and who her daughters are. Revelation 17:16 says, “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 burn her utterly with fire.” The ten horns refer to ten kings of ten kingdoms. Under the leadership of Antichrist, these ten kings will hate the harlot, make her naked, eat her flesh, and burn her utterly.
Revelation 18:3 says, “All the nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her luxury.” This word certainly refers to religious Babylon, which has made the whole earth drunk with her wine. The phrase and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the power of her luxury refers to material Babylon, which makes people rich. Thus, religious Babylon causes people to be drunken, and material Babylon makes them rich in material things. The Babylon in the Old Testament was the literal Babylon, and the Babylon in the New Testament is the symbolic Babylon. Symbolic Babylon has two aspects: the religious aspect and the material aspect. According to history, there has been both a religious Babylon and a material Babylon. In the eyes of the Lord the Roman Catholic Church is religious Babylon, and the city of Rome is material Babylon. Even Augustine said that Rome was Babylon. These two aspects of Babylon are both found in the book of Revelation. The religious aspect is found in chapter 17, and the material aspect, in chapter 18. Both are related to Rome — the one to the Roman Church, and the other to the city of Rome.
The word in Revelation 18:4, “Come out of her, My people,” refers to both religious and material Babylon. Because Babylon is about to fall, God’s people must come out of her. Do not remain in Babylon waiting for her to fall. Come out of her now.
Now we come to the matter of the daughters of the woman, Babylon the Great, portrayed in Revelation 17. If the mother of the harlots is the Roman Catholic Church, then the daughters must be the religions that continue some of the Babylonian practices of Catholicism. The mother and the daughters make up a family of harlots. Although in this family there are the mother and the daughters, there is no husband, because fornicators do not have a proper husband. They have been involved with many men, but none of them is a husband. The mother and the daughters look alike. As the mother is, so are the daughters. We have seen that the constitution of the mother is division with confusion and idolatry; the constitution of her daughters is the same. Just as divisions issue in confusion, so idolatry issues in fornication. Four words adequately describe the mother of the harlots. These words are division, confusion, idolatry, and fornication.
The church is not only the people of God but also the wife of Christ. Christ is both our God and our Husband. With respect to Christ as our God, we must worship Him and Him alone. Anything we have besides Him is an idol. But with respect to the Lord as our Husband, the church must not be involved with any other man. If a woman is involved with many men, she commits fornication. In the Bible idolatry and fornication are linked together. According to Numbers 25, when the Moabites induced the children of Israel to commit fornication, the Israelites fell into idolatry also. When Solomon committed fornication by taking hundreds of wives and concubines, “his wives turned his heart after other gods” (1 Kings 11:4). Furthermore, the church in Thyatira, a prefigure of the Roman Catholic Church, was involved with both fornication and idolatry (Rev. 2:20). Every idol is an illegal husband. The Lord is our unique God and our only Husband. Apart from Him we must not have any other. Rather, we should be a pure virgin espoused to our one Husband (2 Cor. 11:2). To love something in place of the Lord is to practice idolatry.
In the eyes of God denominational names, such as Lutheran and Episcopalian, are deplorable. My wife is rightly called Mrs. Lee. However, suppose she bears a name tag that says, “Mrs. Smith.” Although she tells people that she is Mrs. Lee, she continues to wear this name tag wherever she goes. This surely would cause confusion, and to me, her husband, it would be a great insult. I would say to her, “What are you doing? Are you not my wife? Since you are my wife, why do you wear the name tag saying that you are Mrs. Smith?” Suppose she answered, “Certainly I am your wife, and my name is Mrs. Lee. Don’t pay any attention to this name tag. It doesn’t mean anything. I wear it simply for the sake of convenience.” Although we may consider denominational names a convenience, they are actually marks of fornication. Why do you bear the name of Luther? Do you belong to him? Is Luther your husband? Why do you bear the name Episcopalian or Methodist? Are these the names of your husband? A name means a great deal. Do not try to excuse yourself by saying that denominational names are some kind of convenience. This is subtle. In the eyes of the Lord every denomination commits fornication because it takes a name other than the name of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 3:8 the Lord Jesus commended the church in Philadelphia for not denying His name. But all denominations deny the Lord’s name. At least they take another name along with His name. This is a very serious matter.
Look at today’s situation in Christianity. There is division, confusion, fornication, and idolatry. The daughters of the great harlot are those involved with these things. Those who are still in division and confusion and who commit fornication are part of the daughters of the harlot. Our age is very dark. Under the light we see things clearly, but in the darkness nothing at all can be seen. Most Christians today are in darkness. Because they are in darkness, they can be involved with division, confusion, and fornication without having any consciousness of it. Their senses have been drugged. They commit fornication without any awareness of what they are actually doing. How desperately they need to be enlightened. Today the Lord is speaking. Through His speaking, He shines upon us. In these days we all are under His enlightening. After reading this chapter, you will not be able to say that you are not clear about division, confusion, fornication, and idolatry.
In the previous chapter I pointed out that to ask a person what church he belongs to is to ask a divisive question. As long as you are in a division, you are in Babylon. But we in the Lord’s recovery hate division and confusion. Whenever I meet a brother, I am satisfied to discover that he is a genuine believer. Once I know that he is truly a brother in the Lord, I would never question him further to find out whether he is a Baptist, a Presbyterian, or a Methodist. To ask such a question is to be divisive. We are not divisive. We love all Christian brothers no matter whether they are Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Methodist, or Episcopalian. I am not a Methodist. If I were a Methodist, I would ask a brother whether or not he is a Methodist. If he were a Methodist, then I would love him. But we are neither Methodists nor members of any other denomination. Rather, we are simply Christians. Instead of being divisive, we love all our brothers, including those in the Catholic Church who are truly saved.
We are all-inclusive, and we love all our brothers. If I were to ask a brother whether or not he speaks in tongues, it would indicate that I either oppose tongue-speaking or favor it. If I oppose speaking in tongues, I would desire to find out if others speak in tongues. If they do, I would condemn them. This is divisive. But if I favor speaking in tongues, I would also want to find out if others speak in tongues. If they do, I would love them because I am in favor of speaking in tongues. This also is divisive. We do not care whether or not a brother speaks in tongues. We care for him simply because he is a Christian brother. We are not divisive but all-inclusive. Whenever you ask questions to find out where a brother is, you are being divisive. In the local churches we do not search out people to find out where they are. Rather, we embrace all Christians. We embrace those who speak in tongues and those who do not, those who wear long hair and those who have short hair. We embrace Presbyterians, Lutherans, and even Catholics. We receive every genuine believer. How wrong it is for any to condemn us for being narrow-minded! On the contrary, we are broad-minded.
After reading these chapters concerning Babylon, you may be tempted to condemn others for being in Babylon. I encourage you never to do this. Do not go to your relatives and friends in the denominations and tell them that they are in Babylon. Be careful not to do this.
In the building of the tabernacle there were no stones. The tabernacle was built with gold and wood. Gold signifies the nature of God, and wood denotes the humanity of Christ. Hence, the tabernacle as the dwelling place of God was built with Christ’s divinity and humanity. The temple was built primarily of stone but also partly of wood. Hence, it was a combination of wood and stone. Wood is also mentioned with respect to the rebuilding of the temple. Haggai 1:8 says, “Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house.” Although wood is mentioned in Haggai, it is not mentioned in Zechariah. In Zechariah we see the topstone (4:7). This indicates that the rebuilding of the temple was also mainly with stone. How could there be a topstone without a foundation stone? And how could there be a topstone without a cornerstone? The buildings in the Holy Land were constructed in the following manner: there was a foundation stone, a cornerstone that held the walls together, and a capstone, called the topstone, that covered the building. The mention of the topstone in Zechariah 4:7 thus implies that there was a foundation stone and a cornerstone. Therefore, in the rebuilding of the temple there was more stone than wood. This is confirmed by the Lord’s word in Matthew 24:2. In this verse the Lord Jesus, speaking of the temple, said, “There shall by no means be left here a stone upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down.” God’s ultimate building, the New Jerusalem, will not contain any wood. It will be built of gold, pearl, and precious stone. God’s building began with wood. Gradually, stone was added. Ultimately, there will be no wood; there will be nothing but stone.
We need to see how this applies to us today. When we first came together as the local church, there was hardly any stone. We came with the gold and the wood, with Christ’s divinity and humanity. At that time the building of the church was a matter of Christ’s divinity and humanity. The beginning of any local church is always like this. Gradually, as we grow in Christ and Christ grows in us, we become more involved with Christ, and we become stronger.
In the past you probably were not even wood. Instead, you were a heap of cotton. Look back at the time you first came into the church life. Were you not cotton? I can still remember the day I came into the church in 1932. Without a doubt I was just a heap of cotton. I was soft, warm, nice, and kind, and everyone liked me. Gradually, I changed from cotton into hard wood. Then eventually the wood was petrified through the flowing of the divine life within me. This flow carried away my wooden nature and replaced it with heavenly, divine minerals. Apparently, I am still wood; actually, I have become stone. When in my experience I was a ball of cotton, I had little to do with Christ. Christ was the gold and the wood with which the tabernacle was built, and I was a ball of cotton within the tabernacle. When you are a ball of cotton, you may love the Lord and believe in Him, but in your actual experience you have very little involvement with Him. He is He, and you are you. He is the gold and the wood, and you are a ball of cotton. Eventually, however, in the church life you become more involved with Christ, and Christ is wrought into your being.
When we enter into the New Jerusalem, we shall no longer be balls of cotton or pieces of wood; we all shall be precious stones. Every precious stone is hard. In the Lord’s recovery today the need is for stone. We do not cast away those who are balls of cotton. We shall certainly keep them but keep them in the hope that they will daily and gradually change from cotton to wood and from wood to stone. Ultimately, God’s temple, God’s habitation, will be built with stone. The Lord Himself is the foundation stone, the cornerstone, and the topstone, and we also must be living stones (1 Pet. 2:5). In the New Testament we are told clearly that the building material for the church is not wood, grass, and stubble; it is gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12).
I believe the Lord’s testimony in Europe will be subjected to more tests than His testimony in the United States because Europe is the territory of the mother harlot and her older daughters. The local churches in this territory must be strong, and everyone in them must be a stone. When Peter was brought to the Lord, the Lord changed his name from Simon to Cephas, which means “a stone” (John 1:42). In Matthew 16 Peter received the revelation that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, and the Lord Jesus said to him, “You are a stone, and upon this rock I will build My church” (v. 18, Gk.). Here we see that the church is built with the stone on the rock. The only way we can become stones is by enjoying Christ and eating Him. When we eat, a metabolic change takes place in our being. By eating we take food into us. Eventually, this food is digested and assimilated into our very fibers. This brings about a change, a transformation, of our being. It is not sufficient to have the doctrine of Christ. We must open our being, exercise our spirit, and take Christ into us. We should not take the doctrine of Christ into our mentality; we must take Christ as the life-giving Spirit into our being and let this Spirit be the transforming element that will change us metabolically. This is not a matter of the outward correction of our behavior but of the inward transformation of our being. In this way we become stones. This is what the Lord desires today.
I am not interested in merely teaching you or edifying you. I am doing my best to minister the element of Christ into you. I do not like to pass on knowledge. Instead, I would minister the transforming Christ into you. If you take this Christ into you, you will never be the same. Each of these chapters is an injection. After you have received these injections, you could not be the same even if you wanted to. Hallelujah for the injections of Christ! I have the full confidence that these heavenly injections will make us stones for the church today and ultimately for the New Jerusalem.
