The Babylonian Agenda:  The War we Wage

 “For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Ephesians 6:12, NRSV

All humanity, whether one realizes it or not, is engaged in a cosmic battle, the outcome of which will determine their eternal destiny, because the side we choose means everything, neutrality is not an option. (Deut 30:19)  God also promises complete deliverance if we accept His loving offer of salvation in Jesus Christ.

There are 2 primary agendas at work:

God’s agenda, where He calls lost humanity back into a loving relationship with himself through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the messiah promised in the holy scriptures.Key elements of this agenda include:

• Reveal to humanity His will and plan to redeem through the Holy Scripture
• Fulfill His plan to redeem by sending Jesus to provide complete atonement for humanity’s sin and testify to His lordship in rising from the dead, saving humanity if they put complete faith and confidence in Him for their salvation.
• Commission His redeemed people to proclaim this message until Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead, and reign as KING eternal.
• Sanctify and empower His people through His Holy Spirit to live and wage war in the spirit until His return.

Satan’s “Babylonian Agenda”, where he seeks to be worshiped by humanity corrupted through the ongoing propagation of his lies. The Babylonia Agenda includes these key elements:

• Corrupt the human race through sexual perversity
• Corrupt the human race through false religion
• Lead mankind into a global government (globalism) where he (Satan) will rule as king via a human proxy
• Destroy or suppress the testimony of God on earth, represented by true believers in Jesus the Messiah (the church), the Jewish people, and the revived nation of Israel.

(Note:  God allows Satan to work his agenda, but will ultimately eliminate his influence by casting him and the unfortunate who follow him into an eternal lake of fire.  Rev 20:10-15)

Everything we understand about espionage in warfare comes to play in this spiritual conflict, including the enemy in disguise (2 Cor 11:14,15), deceptive propaganda (2 Tim 4:3), seduction through education (1 Tim 4:1) and witchcraft along with direct cooperation with the spiritual enemy (Gal 3:1, Rev 9:20-21), and the spiritual battle being directly manifested in the actions of human beings through persecutions, attempted genocide, warfare, and death. (Jn 8:44, Rev 12:7-9, 13, 17; 13:1-9; also see Zachariah Chapter 12)

In the earliest ages of humanity we entangled ourselves with hostile spiritual beings in direct opposition to our loving heavenly Father and creator in the seduction and fall recorded in Genesis chapter 3; the first great apostasy with nearly the entire race forsaking their Creator God and entering into direct alliance with spiritual wickedness leading to judgment of the flood recorded in Genesis 6; and the new population after the flood refusing to obey God’s dominion mandate (Gen 1:26,-28; 9:1,2), instead building a city and tower in an attempt to revive the romanticized pre-flood relationships with the spiritual wickedness in attempt to build up their own “name” in Genesis chapter 11. 

The city they built was called Babylon, and the construction of the tower was halted by the direct invention of the creator God, the Almighty, whose name is Yahweh.  The people were dispersed over the earth into what is delineated in the biblical “table” of 70 or 72 nations depending on reckoning.¹   Unique among the people families is a solitary descendent of Shem named Abram, who God calls into a unique relationship with Himself as the rest of the nations go their own way for a time, under the oversight of supernatural principalities that the people seemed to want so badly, who quickly usurped the worship belonging only to God for themselves.  The descendants of this same Abram, the people of Israel, would later suffer God’s judgment and a 70-year exile at the hands of the Babylonian kings.  What is vitally important for us to understand is that while the physical city of Babylon is today just an archeological site, the rebellious spiritual beings, along with mankind’s sinful motivations behind the building of the city and tower still remain.  The heavenly messenger to the apostle John in the book of Revelation revealed that there was a name for the political and religious movement, and the institutionalization of such that remains and flourishes in the last days, “Mystery Babylon”.

“Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and talked with me, saying to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, “with whom the kings of the earth committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” So he carried me away in the Spirit into the wilderness. And I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast which was full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. And on her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her, I marveled with great amazement.” Revelation 17:1-6, NKJV

Notice the kings of the earth have polluted themselves with this mystery Babylon, and that this “woman” is drunk with the blood of the saints and the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.

The Babylonian agenda is finding its manifestation in America and the world today in the following ways:

• The extreme persecution of Christians around the world, in particular Islamic and Communist countries like China. Christian persecution is on the rise in Western countries in the form of extreme political correctness where Christianity has suffered decline and humanistic socialism, communism, and paganism is on the rise.
• The devaluation of human life via abortion and euthanasia
• The rise of militant homosexuality and the acceptance of homosexual marriage
• The rejection of Judeo-Christian ethics, and the God of the Bible in favor of pagan and eastern religions, even in some so-called “churches”.
• All the nations coming against Israel, as spoken of in Zachariah chapter 12, and Revelation 12:17.

 

Concerning bullet 5, the day of this writing, 70 to 72 (notice the number) nations are gathering in France to take it upon themselves to determine what to do with Israel, the Palestinian people, and Jerusalem (part of the West Bank).²  This is in addition to the recent UN resolution condemning Israel for building settlements in the West bank, passed because the US abstained rather than veto the motion.  This is a key part of Satan’s Babylonian agenda, and we need to pray that the incoming U.S. administration and congress has the courage to reverse these devastating and demonic declarations, lest America fall under increasing judgment until we repent of our “murders, sorceries, sexual immorality, and thefts” (Rev 9:21).  However, this international olive press may be just what it takes for Israel to turn to Messiah Jesus for help and deliverance.

To conclude, my blog posted January 1^st 2016 contained the following educated predictions for 2016, there would be:

1. A more directed assault against the God given rights of freedom of speech, religion, and bearing of arms in the United States

2. More martyrdom in the east, and more Islamic attacks in the US

3. Increased judgment against our cultural and church apostasy (part of this judgement is 1 and 2 above):

“Destruction is certain for those who say that evil is good and good is evil; that dark is light and light is dark; that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20, NLT)

4. If repentance is sincere: Revival in the churches, Awakening of unbelievers, and exposure of the forces of darkness (Job 12:22, 1 Corinthians 4:5)

I am sad to say that predictions 1-3 came true in 2016, but am optimistic that number 4 is coming to pass.  The prayers of God’s people were heard, and the church in America has been given an opportunity to regain lost ground in the eternal conflict, push back the Babylonian agenda, and see revival and awakening.  This is a call for God’s people to be bold and strong in proclaiming the gospel, and continue to fight through fasting and prayer for God’s law to go forth from Zion, and His word from Jerusalem!  May repentance and revival come to America and the World.  Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty!

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The Great Cloud of Witnesses

I am making this blog entry in honor of two of my dear brothers in Yeshua the Messiah who I am confident have now joined “the great cloud of witnesses” mentioned in the passage below, Lewis Sherman of Jerusalem, Israel, and John Hernandez of Chicago, Illinois.  Always bearing witness to the gospel of Christ while they walked on the earth, and sad they no longer reside here, I have every confidence that there will be a great reunion when Jesus returns!  They had no fame or popular national ministry, but were faithful ministers of the message of salvation, so it is not a stretch for me to imagine them hearing the words from Jesus’s mouth, “well done my good and faithful servant, enter into your reward”!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,” Hebrews 12:1, KJV

The writer of the book of Hebrews makes the above statement after reviewing a long list of God’s servants who sacrificed creature comforts and popular acceptance for the sake of God’s kingdom.  The list included the likes of Abraham who left the land of his birth for the “land of promise”, and Moses who left the wealth of Egypt, and many other old covenant saints of whom it is said:

“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:39, 40, KJV

So, this great mass of witnesses is looking forward to being joined by the believers in the New Covenant, and they are not being disappointed.  The writer goes on to speak of the active worship of the new covenant assembly of believers:

“For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, … But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” Hebrews 12:18-24, KJV

This verse speaks of the unity of all God’s people, and how this unity is best displayed when we are gathered together to worship and proclaim Gods truth, we actually come to “mount Zion”, enter the “heavenly Jerusalem”, and join all the good ones who are there; Jesus, His angels, and the old and new covenant saints who have gone before us.

While some might challenge the assumption, I believe the cloud of witnesses includes those we have known and loved on earth that also knew and loved the Lord, and are now with Him in heaven.  They have finished the race, and, although we may not hear them or seem them, they are cheering us on as we run toward Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

I met Lewis Sherman, “Lew the Jew” as he sometimes referred to himself, when I was a young, recently ordained minister, living in Israel as a volunteer teacher.  Lew ran a Christian bookstore just inside the Jaffa gate of the Old City, part of the “Christ Church” campus.  We became acquainted at the bookstore, but became lifelong friends when I bumped into him while visiting Eilat (or Elot).  We were both bunking at “The Shelter” Hostel and came to realize that each of us had a heart to reach the lost with the love of God in Yeshua.  I grew to know and love Lewis, his wife Catarina and his children because they accepted me as one of their extended family, sort of adopting me, and Lewis and I shared in outreach and evangelism to the lost.  Even after I returned to the US, we always kept in touch, he stayed with me on occasion in the US, and then I stopped hearing from him in 2013.  I knew Lew suffered from heart issues, so I began to wonder if he was still with us.  Finally able to locate one of his children online, it was confirmed that Lew indeed had gone home to join the great cloud of witnesses.  My pastor and friend while I lived in Israel, Wayne Hilsden, I was told presided at his funeral.

“Atonement in Jesus World Outreach Center” was the vision-encompassing name of the sponsoring church of a weekend training seminar on evangelism being held at a Chicago-land hotel in 1990. A small group from my church in Rockford, Michigan decided to attend.  I am not even sure how we came across the flyer advertising the event, but it led to a divine appointment.  Having recently returned from over 2 years of living in Jerusalem, I decided it would help me get replanted into US church life if I went.  While there was not a huge crowed at the seminar, the passionate, Messianic, praise and worship being led by pastor John Hernandez and his Jewish believing wife Barb along with their team brought us into the great assembly in heaven!  And yes, you guessed it; I met another couple with whom a common love for Israel and reaching the lost led to another strong relationship.  John and his wife Barb were full of the love of God, a hunger to reach the lost, and a love for Israel, Barb being a daughter of Israel herself.  John and Barb started inviting me to preach and share my gift of music God had given me, and for one whole summer I drove every weekend from Grand Rapids to Chicago to work together with other passionate members of their congregation to do open air outreach on a Chicago beach.  Establishing a “beach front” for God’s kingdom if you will.  Well, I became engaged to a beautiful woman who happened to live in the Chicago area, so while I ended up moving to the Chicago area, I lost touch with John and Barb as we focused on building our family, even though Barb had let my wife borrow her wedding dress because we could not afford one at the time.  Now that my kids are older, I decided to try to find out what had become of John and Barb, and discovered that John has also gone home to join the great cloud of witnesses.  His courage, love for God, and boldness in Christ will and has always remained an encouragement to me, and I look forward to another great reunion at the marriage supper of the Lamb.

So, if you have family members or loved ones who have died knowing the lord, maybe even some you had lost contact with, take comfort in knowing that they too have joined that “great cloud of witnesses”.  You can’t see them, or hear them, but they are with the Lord in heaven, and they are cheering you on to run the race that is set before you, and are waiting for you at the finish line!

Happy Birthday Barb Hernandez!

E.A. Windischman

February 15, 2016