Come Out of Her, My People!
With all of this information, let’s again look at Revelation 18:4. Just who or what are we to come out of? We are to come out of Babylon. Who or what is Babylon? Babylon is that group of people who teach and lead others into apostasy. They are personified in the form of the Catholic Church, but they also take the form of most of the church universal today. How can I say this? Because I have been studying the scripture.
Remember what the harlot says to herself. `I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.’ This is exactly what the church believes of itself. The church universal (at least in the west) teaches the doctrine of the pre-tribulation rapture. This theory is founded on the basis of “my god would never allow my family to suffer.” They take a couple of different verses and put them together in such as way as to prove their point. Allow me to address this topic for just a moment, going back to Yeshua’s answer in Matthew 24.
As Yeshua was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. “Tell us,” they said, “when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?”
Yeshua answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
“Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
“So when you see standing in the holy place `the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel–let the reader understand– then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak. How dreadful it will be in those days for pregnant women and nursing mothers! Pray that your flight will not take place in winter or on the Sabbath. For then there will be great distress, unequaled from the beginning of the world until now–and never to be equaled again. If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive, but for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.
At that time if anyone says to you, `Look, here is the Christ!’ or, `There he is!’ do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform great signs and miracles to deceive even the elect–if that were possible. See, I have told you ahead of time. So if anyone tells you, `There he is, out in the desert,’ do not go out; or, `Here he is, in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather.
“Immediately after the distress of those days ” `the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’
“At that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all the nations of the earth will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Matthew 24:3-31
This is basically a timeline. First we have the beginning of the birth pangs, which is also the beginning of the tribulation. Next is the apostasy (the great turning away from the faith) that is followed by the Abomination of Desolation (read Daniel 9:25 – 12:11.) Please also take note that Yeshua tells us to pray that we will not have to flee on the Sabbath. This is an example of the fact that we are still expected to observe Sabbath. Then the Great Tribulation will begin. This is when there will be reports of the Christ (Messiah) everywhere, but we are not to believe it because when He does come, the whole world will see it! Then, “immediately after the distress of those days” “he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds.” Not before all of this, not during all of this, but after the great tribulation.
I know that there are many out there who make very convincing arguments for the pre-trib rapture. I used to agree with them, until I studied these verses. Yeshua Himself taught that we would not be gathered to Him until after the tribulation. Anyone who teaches opposite of what Yeshua Himself taught is teaching the doctrine of demons, and is therefore a false teacher. To follow him/her/them would lead them/us straight into the apostasy. This is one of the deceptions of the end time.
The church teaches that they will be removed from all of this because God loves them too much to allow any harm to come to them. Obviously, they believe that God doesn’t love the Christians of the third world as much as He loves these teachers, because He is allowing them to go through tribulation already. Obviously these teachers feel “special” and claim “we will never mourn.” This definitely sounds like the whore Babylon!
What they don’t understand is that Adonai puts all those He loves into the fiery furnace to refine them.
Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?” Jeremiah 9:7
“In the whole land,” declares the LORD, “two-thirds will be struck down and perish; yet one-third will be left in it. This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, `They are my people,’ and they will say, `The LORD is our God.’” Zechariah 13:8-9
The world is full of false teachers. The church universal is creeping closer and closer to the final apostasy that Yeshua spoke of. Many are being led astray because they don’t take the time to search the scriptures themselves to see whether or not what they are being taught in church is the truth or whether it is just a slight variation on the truth. Remember, Satan didn’t entirely lie to Eve, he twisted the truth just enough to make Eve doubt.
If we are indeed living in the end times, we need to pay careful attention to the lessons found within the Bible. Moses himself once spoke to the distant future generations.
Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God–your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.
You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God but also with those who are not here today. Deuteronomy 29:9-15
What Moses taught applies not only to those who were with him at that time, but also all of those who are called by His name who were not with them that day. That would be us, wouldn’t it?
Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes. Give back to her as she has given; pay her back double for what she has done. Mix her a double portion from her own cup. Give her as much torture and grief as the glory and luxury she gave herself. In her heart she boasts, `I sit as queen; I am not a widow, and I will never mourn.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will overtake her: death, mourning and famine. She will be consumed by fire, for mighty is the Lord God who judges her. Rev. 18:4-8
Adonai wants His people to come out from under the false teachings and harlotry of Babylon. Many today are being “called out” of their churches and assemblies. These people are not leaving the faith. They are actually coming closer to the true faith found in the Torah. Sunday worship is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many, many false teachings prevailing in the church today. Replacement theology, word-faith movements, and revivals are the key words. None of this is scripturally sound. Each new covenant didn’t replace the old, they were just add-ons. “Name it and claim it” is telling God what He will do for you. What gives us the right to tell God to do anything? Those who preach revival refuse to admit that the body is dead. Only someone who is spiritually dead needs to be revived.
We must come out of this false religion or we will share in the plagues that will hit Babylon hard. We must embrace the Law of Moses (Torah) as He has told us to do. Yeshua (Jesus) said, “If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?” John 5:46-47 This is just as true today as it was when He spoke those words so long ago. How are we to believe Him if we don’t believe Moses? Moses told us that to live we must follow His commands.
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.
The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 30:1-10
If we are to believe Yeshua, we must first believe Moses. Moses taught us to follow Torah, as did Yeshua. When questioned about the Law, He showed Himself to be an authority.
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: ” `Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:36-40
Yeshua states “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30) He also taught us:
“If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. John 14:23-24
John taught us the same message.
We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Yeshua did. 1 John 2:3-6
How did Yeshua walk? He followed every commandment of God! The Pharisees could not find any wrong in Him, so they had to find false witnesses to make up stories. Why could they find no wrong in Him? Because He followed Torah! So should we.
Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the LORD. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the LORD will go before you, the God of Israel will be your rear guard. Isaiah 52:11-12
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: “I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come out from them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the Lord Almighty. 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
We have allowed our faith to be mixed with the religion of Babylon. We have mixed the holy with the profane to the point were we can’t tell the difference between the two. It is easy to look at the world and see that certain prophecies are coming to pass.
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God– having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2 Timothy 3:1-5
Once again, we are told to separate ourselves from such people. Do we find these kinds of people in the churches of today? You bet we do! In fact, this would describe many of the highest paid evangelists in the country!
See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse– the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. Deuteronomy 11: 26-28
The LORD will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. The LORD will grant you abundant prosperity–in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground–in the land he swore to your forefathers to give you. Deuteronomy 28:9-11
There is obviously a blessing for obeying the Law of the Lord. We all want the blessing, but only those who are willing to obey are the ones who will receive the blessing. Who are we to obey, the Lord our God, or the church? We are to obey the Lord, even when the whole world around us refuses to do so. Those who are willing to follow His Law, when the whole world refuses, are called the remnant.
In that day the remnant of Israel, the survivors of the house of Jacob, will no longer rely on him who struck them down but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, a remnant of Jacob will return to the Mighty God. Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overwhelming and righteous. The Lord, the LORD Almighty, will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. Isaiah 10:20-23
Let us remember what Yeshua Himself said about the end times:
“Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, `Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, `I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ Matthew 7:21-23
Only the ones who do the will of the Father will be welcomed into the kingdom. Just because someone performs miracles does not mean that they are of God. Only those who do the will of the Father, which is found in Torah (the teachings of Moses.)
Psalm 119 is considered by many scholars to be one of the keys to understanding the Bible, yet is very hard to read if you are not following the Law. This Psalm speaks of the Law (Torah) as “sweeter then honey to my mouth.” If this is not what you are being taught in your church, maybe you need to think twice about continuing to fellowship there.
May our prayer be: “Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. ” Psalm 119:34
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