Satan's Sphere
Scripture teaches the followers of Jesus to live their lives as people who are “separated from the world.” Not physically, but morally and spiritually. They are “in the world but not of it,” and their task is to call other men and women to “save themselves from this crooked generation” before Jesus arrives and judges the world.
Nevertheless, many voices in the church exhort
believers to infiltrate the surrounding culture and its institutions so they
may change society’s ungodly character and institutions from the inside.
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| [Photo by Harold Mendoza on Unsplash] |
But no such commission is found in the New Testament. Nowhere do we find Jesus or his apostles instructing the church to take over the cultural centers of this fallen age and thereby reform sinful society and otherwise fix this dark world. Moreover, according to Scripture, the present world order was condemned on Calvary, and its forms, ideologies, and institutions will cease to exist in the “coming age.”
There is no biblical mandate for the church
to take control of society’s institutions and the government, or to fix human
society. If anything, the very attempt to do so results in the corruption of the
body of Christ and distracts the saints from the mission assigned to them by
Jesus.
His church is called to preach the gospel to all nations, to call all who will hear to join themselves to his Body and become citizens of his kingdom.
The Bible does refer to the “seven
mountains” of this age, but it links them to Babylon, “the Great Whore,
the mother of harlots and the abominations of the earth.” This foul
creature not only “sits on many waters” and the “scarlet-colored Beast,”
but she also rules over these “seven mountains.”
IN REVELATION
In the book of Revelation, the image
of “many waters” over which the “Whore” rules portrays “peoples, multitudes,
nations, and tongues.” Moreover, the “scarlet-colored Beast” that
she “rides” is none other than the “Beast from the Sea” that
wages “war against the saints and conquers them.”
The Beast’s red
color connects him with the “Dragon, the Ancient Serpent, the one who is
called ‘Devil’ and ‘Satan’ and the deceiver
of the whole habitable earth.” And the “Great Whore of Babylon”
sits comfortably on the whole sorry lot.
The “seven
mountains” over which she exercises influence symbolize seven “kingdoms,”
five of which had fallen by the time John received his vision, one existed in
his day (which can only be Rome), and the seventh is yet to come. Each kingdom
is an incarnation of the “Beast” that ascends from the “Sea” and
the “Abyss” to “wage war” on God’s people.
Moreover, the seventh
“mountain” is identified with the “Beast that was and is not, is
himself also an eighth, and is of the seven; and he is going into perdition.” There
is nothing positive here, nothing worth fixing or reforming, and the Beast’s destruction
is sealed.
And the whole
time the “Great Whore” that is “filled full” of the abominations
of the earth is riding the monster in its mad dash to the “Lake of Fire.”
AN UNHOLY CITY
This unholy city, “Babylon,” is stained red with the “lifeblood of prophets and of saints,” and all while drunk
with the “blood of the martyrs” of Jesus, the results of the Dragon’s war on those who “have the testimony
of Jesus.”
Her sins “reach even to heaven,” therefore, “in one day shall her plagues
come, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly burned
with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.” It makes no sense for followers of Jesus to
attempt to befriend and coax this satanic creature into changing her evil ways.
Instead of undertaking that dubious venture, God summons
His church with the utmost urgency
to “come forth out
of her, that you have no fellowship with her sins, and that you
receive not of her plagues!!” A
disciple of Jesus cannot play with fire and not get burned!
As Paul wrote, the forms and institutions
of this age “are passing away,” and disciples of Jesus must live
accordingly. The present fallen age is a rudderless ship that ran aground eons ago.
There can be no compromise with Satan. The
church cannot win the world by emulating its evil ways or infiltrating its
corrupt institutions. Attempting to do so is a fool’s errand, a wasted exercise
in “working for the meat that perishes.”
This is not a call to abandon the world, but for disciples to engage it using the biblical means, including gospel preaching, Christian witness, faith, prayer, death to self, and self-sacrificial service for others.
In other words, the church is called to become
a “light set on a hill” that shines brightly in this darkened world. She
must be everything that the fallen world is not, and she must summon others to
leave its darkness behind while time remains.
Alas, many church leaders are teaching
Christians to embrace the Babylonian world system that was condemned on the
Cross. The very idea is absurd. But, as the Apostle Paul warned, in the last
days, evil men will invade the church, “deceiving and being deceived.”
