Man is called to be at rest in Christ in God. Apart from Christ, who is the Amen of God, man attains hatred, strife, impatience, vexation of spirit, despair, suicidal thoughts and actions, covetousness, personal ambition, and rebellion against his Creator. His end, if he does not repent and accept the finished work of God, is to be a wandering star for whom eternal darkness has been reserved (Jude 1:13). He despised the opportunity to gain loving, joyous relationships with God and people and now dwells alone forever in the darkest of nights.

The Laodicean believer will be vomited from the mouth of Christ.

As we have stated, Babylon and Antichrist are ready to welcome the lukewarm Laodiceans.

Babylon is the worship of the church, of church organizations and denominations. The church makes itself God. The Christian churches partake of the spirit of Babylon when they are directed by uncrucified men rather than by the Spirit of Christ. Men attempt to gain image, joy, fruitfulness, and dominion through the exercise of religion apart from the Person and Presence of Christ. The churches are worshiped in place of Christ.

Such speak much about the historical Jesus but they do not know the living Jesus. Statuary and other art forms, including music, take the place of the living Presence of Christ.

Babylon always is ready to accept the help of the world and to have intercourse with the world, hoping thereby to convert the world to itself. But in the end the world will turn against the great Christian organization of the last days and will burn her with fire (Revelation 17:16).

Antichrist and his image are the worship of man whereas Babylon represents the worship of the churches. Man makes himself God. Antichrist places man at the center of the universe and attempts to use God as the means of placing him there.

Antichrist is an imitation of Christ. He has the face of a civilized, humane man but the heart of a wild, venomous, treacherous beast. Antichrist imitates Christ but rejects the cross. He rejects union with God through Christ. He rejects the concept of the subordination of the human will.

Today, as the Apostle John claimed, there are many antichrists. There are many who, even in fervent Christian churches, are stressing how the Divine salvation profits man as man seeks to better himself. "You can do all things through Christ" they proclaim as they attempt to employ the Scriptures in a program of self-glorification. It is not Christ who is exalted, it is the person who believes in Christ so that through his belief God is forced to do what the believer desires. Numerous believers have fallen into this snare.

Antichrist speaks the words of Christ. But he has the mark of human works in his right hand and the mark of human thinking in his forehead (Revelation 13:16).

The Spirit of truth is in the land today, and those who are of the truth will hear and turn to the Lord Jesus. But the majority of the believers in Christ will sink ever deeper into the pit of self-seeking religion.

Church-centered Christianity (Babylon) is doomed to fall (Revelation 14:8), and those who worship man are destined to be "tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb"(Revelation 14:10).

To be continued.