And

Revelation 17
Babylon, the Prostitute on the Beast

One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits by many waters. With her the kings of the earth committed adultery, and the inhabitants of the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her adulteries.”

 Then the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. 4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5The name written on her forehead was a mystery:

Babylon the great

the mother of prostitutes

and of the abominations of the earth.

6 I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God’s holy people, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus.

When I saw her, I was greatly astonished. Then the angel said to me: “Why are you astonished? I will explain to you the mystery of the woman and of the beast she rides, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast, which you saw, once was, now is not, and yet will come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction. The inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the creation of the world will be astonished when they see the beast, because it once was, now is not, and yet will come.

 “This calls for a mind with wisdom. The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits. They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for only a little while. The beast who once was, and now is not, is an eighth king. He belongs to the seven and is going to his destruction.

 “The ten horns you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but who for one hour will receive authority as kings along with the beast.  They have one purpose and will give their power and authority to the beast.  They will wage war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will triumph over them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.”

Then the angel said to me, “The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages. The beast and the ten horns you saw will hate the prostitute. They will bring her to ruin and leave her naked; they will eat her flesh and burn her with fire. For God has put it into their hearts to accomplish his purpose by agreeing to hand over to the beast their royal authority, until God’s words are fulfilled. The woman you saw is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.”

Coming right up

Revelation 11
The Two Witnesses

I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 months.  And I will appoint my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”  They are “the two olive trees” and the two lampstands, and “they stand before the Lord of the earth.” If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes from their mouths and devours their enemies. This is how anyone who wants to harm them must die. They have power to shut up the heavens so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.

Now when they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up from the Abyss will attack them, and overpower and kill them. Their bodies will lie in the public square of the great city—which is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt—where also their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from every people, tribe, language and nation will gaze on their bodies and refuse them burial. The inhabitants of the earth will gloat over them and will celebrate by sending each other gifts, because these two prophets had tormented those who live on the earth.

But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet, and terror struck those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, “Come up here.” And they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies looked on.

At that very hour there was a severe earthquake and a tenth of the city collapsed. Seven thousand people were killed in the earthquake, and the survivors were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven.

The second woe has passed; the third woe is coming soon.

The Seventh Trumpet

The seventh angel sounded his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, which said:

“The kingdom of the world has become

    the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah,

    and he will reign for ever and ever.”

And the twenty-four elders, who were seated on their thrones before God, fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying:

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

    the One who is and who was,

because you have taken your great power

    and have begun to reign.

 The nations were angry,

    and your wrath has come.

The time has come for judging the dead,

    and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your people who revere your name,

    both great and small—

and for destroying those who destroy the earth.”

Then God’s temple in heaven was opened, and within his temple was seen the ark of his covenant. And there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake and a severe hailstorm.

If

The Great Apostasy?

Was a bell curve?

Were past it's apex.

It's peaked.

Lets Review (Part three)

The Great Apostasy (Part one of a series) Warning, Its long.

2 Thessalonians 2 

New King James Version 

The Great Apostasy

2 Thessalonians 2: 1-3

"Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,
either by spirit or by word or by letter,
as if from us, as though the day of  Christ had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means; 
for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first,
and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,
who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped,
so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

Pauls letter here was written for some in the church who thought Christ return had already happened.
He was merely reminding them that the stage had to be set first and,
The great rebellion, The great falling away, The great Apostasy
had to happen along with the antichrist revealing himself.

(the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition,...)

Gonna concentrate here on

exactly what is

"The Great Apostasy."

"Apostasy (/əˈpɒstəsi/; Greek: ἀποστασία ápostasía, "a defection or revolt")
is the formal disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. 
It can also be defined within the broader context of 
embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. 

Lets remember: 

embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous religious beliefs. 

All I am going to say is, its happened.

I'll present my case.

You decide.

Abortion.

No man knows when the soul enters the body.

Period.

No soul, no murder.
Been over this one a bunch already.

Even if it is murder, both Moses and David were murders and they found redemption. 

Mind your own sin, not someone else's.

Ecclesiastes 11:5

"As you do not know the path of the wind,
or how the bones are formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God,
the Maker of all things."

There are a whole lot more verses I could have used here as well.
(about life beginning at the first breath etc)

This is a wedge issue created to support an evil, greedy, racist political agenda.
Period.

It is an emotional issue as well and it got the better of a lot of good people.

So if you truly believe in the sanctity of life?
Why aren't you protesting with black lives matter activist
against the slaughter of black and brown people in the streets?
Why aren't you protesting against state sponsored executions?
Why aren't you protesting against big pharma and their corporate greed
that led to the opioid crisis and the destruction of so many lives and families?
This issue is a sham and it always has been.
Caring about an amalgamation of cells in a woman's uterus
more than you care about living breathing people. 

The sanctity of life. 

"All religions revere life.
It is because we believe in the sanctity of all human life that we are sensitive to the effects of an unwanted pregnancy on women and families. We pray for a world in which every child is wanted, loved, and cared for. Because we believe in the sanctity of human life that we believe a child has the right to enter the world wanted and loved. Because we believe in the sanctity of human life we are sensitive to the effects of an unwanted pregnancy upon individual women, upon their loved ones and their families, and we recognize that they, not we, must determine what is best for those directly concerned and involved."

 "In reality, there are many of us who believe that choice is the most logical and the most responsible position any religious institution can take on this issue. My sisters and brothers, we are dealing with something that is deeply spiritual and cannot be left to those who would choose to politicize this issue and further victimize those who must ultimately decide for themselves."

Melvin George Talbert
UMC
Sermon, 1996

Melvin George Talbert

The biblical basis for being pro-choice.

Feel like I've talked about this one enough already.

Gun Rights.

Why on earth are people who are so sure of their eternity?

Buying guns and stocking up on ammo?

It makes absolutely no sense.

None.

Why in the world support the merchants of death?

Even to the point of accepting the slaughter of innocent school age children?

Lets just turn a blind eye to the horror of it all.

(Yes, Sandy Hook, numerous others, etc)

This is exactly where logical people start to have a problem
with the position of many in the church.

Abortion is a problem? 

But the slaughter of real live innocent children is merely the cost of doing business?
Cause I gotta right?

I'm gonna tell you flat out, your maker has a problem with that.

And no I'm not against guns.
They are fun to shoot and in the country
you practically have to have them to keep vermin away from your premises etc.

But this notion that somehow you're gonna
have an arsenal to protect yourself with is a bunch of falderal.

Call me after the societal institutions completely collapse
and the local chapter of the Hells Angles shows up at your door
and you're surrounded by 250+ ex military types armed to the teeth
demanding tribute
(payment, goods, food, generators, anything of value on a monthly basis etc)
and let me know how all that supporting the merchants of death worked out for you.

I'm not scared to die.
And if you were convinced of your own eternity?
You wouldn't be either.

Poverty wages

Many in the church supported policies that kept rightful earnings from workers. 

People might as well be peasants, surfs, etc, doomed to a life of indentured servitude.
Why in the world even work for wages that weren't gonna pay the bills?

Why did the church do it? 

To make yourself feel good?

Because you felt like,
"It will/can never happen to us?" 

Look around you right now. 

It's a lil bit of a different story right?

The minimum wage hasn't been raised in 11 years. 

Adjusted for inflation for when it was last raised it's now $4.45 an hour. 

Think about how much your grocery store clerk, 

or the stocker putting toilet paper on the shelves, 

or your garbage man 

or any other number of low paying positions you liked to look down upon
and think about what they are worth to you right now.

It wasn't that long ago some congressional dunderheads were proposing an elimination of the federal Minimum Wage.
Shame on the church for not supporting livable wages even though it said it does.

Malachi 3:5 

“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against
sorcerers,
adulterers
and perjurers,
against those who defraud laborers of their wages,
 who oppress the widows and the fatherless,
and deprive the foreigners among you of justice,
but do not fear me,”
says the Lord Almighty."

(Hits on a lot of things covered here really)

Revelation 6:6

"Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying,
“Two pounds of wheat for a day’s wages, and six pounds of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

(The rich get richer, the poor get poorer basically)

 And the church supported it?

Voted for it.

And now?

You're bout to find yourselves in the middle of it.

You stood with them and enabled them robbing people not only of their wages,
but of their dignity as well.
Largely because they had you hoodwinked about one issue. 

Go back and look at the first topic discussed here.

Cannabis 

This one just strikes a nerve with me.
For obvious reasons :-).

I just wanna make sure I get this right, so here goes:

It's perfectly acceptable to the church,
for a person
to go see a doctor for less than five minutes,
be prescribed strong doses of
anti-depressants,
anti psychotics,
or anti anxiety pharmaceuticals
on the basis of those five minutes
and be addicted more or less to these pharmaceuticals for life
(for most people they are extremely hard to get off of)
at great cost to their liver for processing them
and all the while enriching big pharma and the big insurance companies?

But if a man plants a seed in gods green earth he resides on,
and raises,
cures
and consumes
the green natural plant that comes from that seed,
in a manner of his choosing?

Somehow the later is some kinda arch criminal dope fiend?

But the former is perfectly fine
????????????????????

Again, this is where logical people just say, wait a minute.

Side note:
Anything can be abused.
TV, Ice cream, shopping etc.
People can quit using cannabis
before most people
can quit drinking their coffee.
Just hush already.

Besides:

Genesis 1:29

“Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth,..."

Genesis 9:3

Every living creature will be food for you; 

just as I gave you the green plants, 

I now give you all things. 

He did it before and after the flood. 

Enough already, case closed.

Demonizing poor people.

Don't even get me started.
Cause you were better than them right?

You didn't need help. 

You were always able to pull yourself up from your boot straps. 

You would never be in a situation like that would you?

To have to live on government handouts. etc. 

Yeah. Right.

Matthew 23:12

"For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, 

and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Look around. 

Things look a lil different to you now in the middle of a pandemic?

"Well I helped at the food bank
and they had better vehicles than I did
and they had dogs
and they smoked and blah blah blah..."

It was never your job to judge,
your job,
is to help when able.

I got a truckload of verses for you on this subject

 So many?

I'm not even gonna waste my time with it. 

It's pointless.

It's the entire book practically.

Every time you turn around the book says
 help the widow, the orphan, the destitute, etc.

But in this great "Christian" country of ours?

We're all about cutting taxes and enriching corporations,
their lackey CEO's,
their board of directors and their stockholders,
while at the same time cutting the social safety net.

How dare you people scraping by on poverty wages expect help with food.

The greed is just unimaginable.

It is the worse form of addiction there ever could be.

Racism

This one could be it's own post all together.
But I'll try and make it brief.

Reagan's Neshoba County Fair "states' rights" speech

It's not an accident where that speech was given.

See, back in the day boys and girls, we used to hide our racist overtones.

Nowadays we got white supremacist in the White House.

Stephen Miller
(Other as well, obviously)

Lets see what else we got?

Gutting the voting rights act.

Supreme Court Invalidates Key Part of Voting Rights Act

Suppressing the voting rights of minorities through gerrymandered congressional districts.

All, supported by the church.

In Gods name.

To not speak out against evil is to support it.
Racism is evil.
Period
Been going to church for about forty years.
Still never heard a sermon on racism.
Why?
Who are you afraid of offending?
The people sitting in your pews?
Easier to pick on the LBGTQ community
thats probably not sitting in your pews on Sunday or something?

How dare you poor people of color think you have a right to vote.

How many in the church have spoken out against it?

Or is it just perfectly fine with you?

Well not me.

Oh and lets see whats else we got the church supporting it ought not to be?

ACA Rollbacks

Trump Signs Executive Order To Roll Back Obamacare

Separation of families anyone?

Trump administration family separation policy

As long as they're brown or black and poor it's all good.

Putting immigrant children in jails anybody?

US detention child immagrants

Matthew 25:45 

“He will reply, ‘
Truly I tell you,
whatever you did not do for one of the least of these,
you did not do for me.’

Yep.

All things that the church supported by not speaking out about it.

2 Thessalonians 10:11

"They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.
For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie"

Fulfilled.
Cross it off the list.

You can't preach to others they shouldn't lie

and then turn around and support one who does continuously.
(Along with a lot of other things.)

It's pretty simple

The fact of the matter is this:

The church wanted to believe what it thought 

even though it went against scripture,

so God sent someone to tell them what they wanted to hear.

Think about it for a minute and you'll realize it's all true.



I like was Desmond Tutu said:

"I don't preach a social gospel.
I preach the gospel,
period."

Anti-Science Positions

(Could be it's own post as well)

One small simple question.

Where did the laws that govern nature and the universe come from?

The laws of math, physics, science ect

Answer:

Jeremiah 33:25

This is what the LORD says: 

"If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night 

and the fixed laws of heaven and earth,..."

Colossians 1:16

"For in Him all things were created, 

things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, 

whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. 

All things were created through Him and for Him. "

Emphasis on ALL THINGS.

So whats the problem here?

Be joyful your God created science for man to use for his benefit.

The lawn mower you ride or push, the vehicle you drive, the road you drive on,

 the tablet, laptop and phone you use to look up bible verses on.

Your refrigerator, your furnace, your air conditioner.

Virtually everything you use in your daily life, 

wouldn't exist,

 if it wasn't for our knowledge of the laws of science God created for us to discover and use.

But oh goodness gracious, 

suggest that there are metaphors, 

allegories and similes in the bible 

used to explain the hard the explain 

and people will have a come apart right in front of you.

I'm gonna go with Billy Graham here.

If it's good enough for him?

It's good enough for me.

It ought to be good enough for the church as well.

Back in my day we went to biology class through the week 

and Sunday School on Sunday morning and people 

didn't have a disconnect in their brains between the two.

I don't know what happened 

but thats certainly changed over the last forty years.

"The earth isn't six thousand years old.

God created the earth in six days."

2 Peter 3:8

"Beloved, do not let this one thing escape your notice: 

With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, 

and a thousand years are like a day."

The key word in this verse is "like"

It doesn't say IS a thousand years.

It says "Like"

A thousand years or billions of years?

What difference does it make to man?

He won't live to see either of them.

I remember telling a friend of mine time wasn't linear.

He just smiled and laughed at me.

"Time is linear Andrew."

Well?

It's cylindrical as well.

It passes like this:

The blue ball is moving linear and the red ball moving cylindrically simultaneously.

"Time dilation explains why two working clocks will report different times after different accelerations. For example, at the ISS (International space station) time goes slower, lagging 0.007 seconds behind for every six months. For GPS satellites to work, they must adjust for similar bending of spacetime to coordinate with systems on Earth.

(and they do, 

the satellites are adjusted several times a year
to match their counterparts here on earth)

Time Dilation

People have no problem using the GPS on their phone 

but they are gonna deny the science behind it?

Brilliant!

So?

Time slows down the faster you go.

At the speed of light time stops.

"The faster the relative velocity, the greater the time dilation between one another, 

with the rate of time reaching zero as one approaches the speed of light (299,792,458 m/s). 

This causes massless particles that travel at the speed of light to be unaffected by the passage of time."

Can't wrap your head around it?

The train is traveling at the speed of light.

The passengers inside represent time being stationary.

I was working with somebody I really like not to long ago.

He said:

"You know, time is a man made concept, it's just something man made up."

I just smiled and responded with something like:

"You know I used to think the same thing.

Till I did some research on the subject.

Time and space are woven together like the fabric of a trampoline.

As you look back through space, you are simultaneously looking back through time.

Not only that, but objects with mass (Stars, Planets, Galaxys, Nebulas etc )
cause gravity to warp spacetime.

They are like a bowling ball sitting on the trampoline of spacetime.

There ya go, the theory of relativity explained in layman's terms in less than a minute.

Who created time again?

"All things were created through Him and for Him."

Isaiah 55:8

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. 

“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, 

so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.…"

God created science.

You don't get to use all it's benefits 

but then deny the parts of it you can't understand or don't like.

How in the world people can do the mental gymnastics necessary to

support the positions listed here,

but can not accept metaphors, allegories and similes in the bible,

(Which by no means distort their truth BTW)

it is just beyond me.

The church has lost any and all moral authority
by supporting an evil, greedy, racist, immoral political agenda.

I don't have a flock to take care of,
or concerns about how much last Sunday's offering was.
I'm free to speak what God puts on my heart
without concern about political fall out in a localized church. 

Trust me it's all by design.

"I said it two years ago:

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2018

I firmly and unequivocally believe that we (Me and Lucy) have been given commission
to come challenge the religious and political precepts that prevail today.

I come with a lot of evidence to back up that claim.

And:

From Matthew Henry's commentary on Joel Two.

"and whoever he employs to execute his word, 
as the minister of his justice, 
is sure to be made strong and par negotio—
equal to what he undertakes; 
whom God gives commission to 
he girds with strength for the executing of that commission."

"Some of these guys will look like absolute freaks"





"...the new mystics will not be looking for religious acceptance, 
nor will they fear the opinions of any man. 
Neither will they eat what they are fed. 
They will hunt for themselves."

Anybody, 
anytime, 
anywhere, 
any subject, 
minimal prep time.

Matthew 10:19-20 

do not worry about how to respond or what to say. 

In that hour you will be given what to say.

For it will not be you speaking, 

but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.…

2 Corinthians 3:12

Therefore, since we have such a hope, we are very bold

Wait till the recompense gets here in just a lil bit.

Rewards for works

Then how you gonna argue with me about what I've said
and why I've said I said it?

Wait till you here about the things I've been praying for for years now.
(You'll have to come see that, I'm not gonna post about it, it's meant to be witnessed.)
And it's not at all me, it is about entirely turning yourself over to the holy spirit.

Everything that is going on in the world?

Makes perfect sense to me.

I'm not scared at all.

My eternity is sealed.

Is yours?

It's not to late.

Let me tell you something.

The reset button has been pushed.

Were just seeing the start of things.

Gods had enough.

"The Great Apostasy"

has been fulfilled.

I rest my case.



Oh?
And BTW

It's okay to disagree on things in the church,

Just not any of the following:

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth;

And in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;*
the third day he rose from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic** church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.

Amen."

(Catholic meaning universal Christian Church.)



Commercial Babylon has fallen.
Destruction of Commercial Babylon

Spiritual babylon is next.
Destruction of Ecclesiastical Babylon

(And no, I do not agree with everything lil thing in both those articles.
The idea here is just to get some people up to speed.)

And no thats not the order things happens in the book of Revelation either.
Chapter 17 is about Spiritual Babylon falling.
Chapter 18 is about Commercial Babylon's fall.

See:
Alright
about puzzle pieces etc.

Reference the above on time dilation,
speed of light
space time etc.

Throw your linear time frame references about the book of revelation
out the window.
They are irrelevant.
Promise.

Just consider this post part one of a series.
There will be more to follow soon.

Takes a minute sometimes Yo.
Get it?
Takes a minute?
:-);-):-):-):-)
Took about 10 hours over the course of several days actually :-).

I know Lucy gets it :-)
God bless ya honey.
You're the greatest baby.
I love you sweetheart.
See ya soon.