His Perfect Love

Guest (Male): A one-world religion. Is it taking shape even as we speak? Here's Pastor Matt.

Matt VanderVen: This harlot is going to unify the world religions into one branch of a religious institution. She's the embodiment of Satan's own ecumenical movement, the religion of the world system. The world we live in today is tolerant to everything but absolutes. It's no longer about truth; it's about what makes you feel good.

We see a casual disregard for the truth crippling even the church today. So many don't love God's word and instead want their ears tickled. That's a sign for you that we're already in the last days and that these things are already happening around us, already begun.

Guest (Male): Hello again. Thank you for joining us for another week of His Perfect Love. Find your place in Revelation chapter 17, and we'll join Pastor Matt VanderVen there shortly.

A one-world religion described as the great harlot will be a part of the end times, but it will be a false religion under the authority of the Antichrist and false prophet. As you'll hear momentarily, things seem to be heading in this direction right now, setting the stage for what's to come. Here is Pastor Matt with more.

Matt VanderVen: The alliance with the false prophet—what I call the unholy trinity—is the alliance with the dragon, Satan, who is the one that gives the Antichrist his power, and certainly the false prophet who allows the miracles and things to be done. They are false miracles in that regard; they're miracles, but they're not inspired by God. They're inspired by an unholy trinity. Satan's a copycat.

It impairs judgment. It creates a great delusion. Since this is pretty much well-accepted in religious systems, it is likely to appear as attractive and spiritual, though not necessarily moral. That is just something to think about: what it's going to be like. If you're a born-again believer, you're not going to be here. You're going to be looking down from the mezzanines.

But think about what it's going to be like. It's going to seem so spiritual to these people that are on the earth, who think they're actually walking and going towards a deeper relationship. I think so many of the cults even in our days—maybe that's how we can understand it. I think of things like the Jehovah's Witnesses or the Mormons, where Satan appears as an angel of light and these good things come from these cults until you just talk to somebody who's gone through one of them.

We've had several people in this fellowship who have come out of those cults and started reading their Bibles for the first time. The spiritual abuse that has happened, the brokenness, the lording over by the Nicolaitans, the things that have happened. They come in and want to talk to me. We sit down, and I literally just start sobbing and crying with them.

I don't know what else to do. I cry with them because these things should never happen. You can't go somewhere, you can't get a blood transfusion, you can't do this or that—all these things that are not in your scripture, that the Bible doesn't say a single thing about. I had one young lady come to me who was not allowed to go to the grocery store alone; she had to pick up the phone and call the pastor.

I said, "Where is that?" There are only two things of spiritual authority we see throughout scripture. One is the pastor of the home. That's your husband, ladies, if you're married, or Jesus Christ if you're not. That's the pastor of the home. The pastor of the church doesn't have the ability to go into the home and oversee that. He's not called to do that.

He's called to pastor the church and be the spiritual guider, lay down his life for the bride, and draw you into a deeper relationship through the understanding of scripture. He is never to come into your home and say, "I like chocolate mashed potatoes, you don't, so why are we having this for dinner tonight?" You laugh, but that happens today.

Think about it again in human history: all of the evils and wickedness that have been done in the name of Jesus Christ. Then we have the other side where pluralism says, "Hey, you don't have to adhere to the scriptures or any one way. Everybody's just going to go to heaven because Jesus is just a good guy. He's going to understand that we shacked up, that we're living together and not married, that we're committing fornication, adultery, lying, stealing, carousing, and boozing."

He didn't mean what he said when he said those people will not inherit the kingdom of heaven if they don't turn from their sin. He was just kidding, right? Oh, no. There is not pluralism. There's no Chrislam. There's no "coexist." While those might be nice little bumper stickers on your car, they don't line up with the teaching of the scriptures.

So there's going to be a disappearance of a spiritual movement, but it's going to lack spiritual authority, morality, and most importantly, Jesus Christ as the headship. That's what this verse is prophesying about. Friends, can't you already see the actors in the world religions being aligned for this great falling away? Humanism is very attractive.

Think about people who come to church—many people, I know this isn't you, it's the church down the street somewhere—but you think about people who come to church and we want to worship our way. Have you ever had that situation where you're like, "Well, I think it's better for me to do this"? Meanwhile, you find out one day when you're reading your scripture, "Oh, that's not in the Bible. Why didn't I know that?"

Well, it is because I am not at a church that teaches the Bible. I don't know what they teach, but they're not teaching the word of God line by line so that I get a full diet of all of the scriptures. What about humanism that is based on lusts, self-seeking, and a system that says, "Me, me, me. I, I, I," and I want to serve self?

What about a church that would operate that way and forget that this is a community that forms? It's not the building. The church is the body of believers endowed with the Holy Spirit from Jesus Christ that makes up the church, which is responsible to the community that God has placed us in.

Every one of us is called to full-time ministry. We're ministering in our workplaces. Not everybody's called to come up here like Pastor Aaron or Pastor Bill full-time at the church. But many are called in their jobs, in their homes, with their children, their grandchildren, their neighborhoods, and their friends.

Some people have great opportunities of fellowship. Maybe you do hair or nails and you've got a captive audience like Pastor Paul did for at least a half hour to an hour. Maybe mothers, you start thinking about the home. Maybe you homeschool your children or you send them to the Christian school. What an awesome privilege to be able to pour into those kiddos that are right in front of you at lunch, asking, "How's your day going? What's going on in the school?" That's your full-time ministry.

I even think of how many places today—churches and schools for that matter—don't even open a Bible. If they do, they kind of talk around the Bible, but they don't actually read it. We wonder why biblical illiteracy, even among Christian schools, is at the highest it's ever been. That's something that is coming out in the Pew Research and some of the Barna research groups.

People will use the name of Christ, just like he tells us it's coming. He's saying to be aware of this, but also he's telling us that there will be judgment that follows for those leaders, for those pastors, and for a flock that chooses to allow themselves to turn around and say, "I don't want the meat; I want the milk."

Certainly, we know there are some people who just never had the opportunity to be in the holy scriptures. I know I grew up that way in the Catholic church. I knew of the books of the Bible, but I didn't understand. I didn't really read. Certainly, God isn't going to judge me for what I can't be responsible to understand. Please don't walk out of here feeling bad. Praise the Lord, you're in the word of God now. Build on that. Mature and grow in that.

The second thing we read is in verse 3: "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 and blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns." What did John see here? First, he was carried away in the spirit into the wilderness. He's carried away some place in the desolate nature in the wilderness, and it's an appropriate setting for this vision of judgment that John's given here.

He saw the harlot sitting on the scarlet beast. The harlot rides the same beast with seven heads and ten horns that was previously seen back in Revelation chapter 13, verse 1. This refers to the same beast, clearly referring to the Antichrist and his kingdom. If we were to just take the time this morning to read Daniel chapter 2 and Daniel chapter 7, I encourage you to do that at home. It would be even more obvious to you.

Her association with blasphemy and the dragon's beast are clearly seen from God's perspective. But to the people of earth, she will look quite religious and have faith that everybody wants. I truly believe she will be offering the final doctrine of the humanist gospel. I think it's very obvious that that is what's being taught in many colleges and universities across the world.

I was just sharing with you that I was watching a documentary about a gentleman from Oxford. He was in a seminary in Oxford and he began to talk about how when he was doing his seminary defense, he stood up in front of his professors. It's a pass-fail there and there's no retake. So it's a pretty anxious moment for him. He's spent the last five or however many years working on this dissertation.

His work is on dating the Greek New Testament, specifically the Greek textual criticism and different things like that. He is a wonderful believer in Christ. Anyway, he felt very alone when he was going through that program. He would comment to his wife, "Am I the only one here that actually has a relationship or believes in Jesus? My entire cohort—it feels like it's more secular, coming at it from a study of a philosophy or an ideology of philosophy."

Sounds like a one-world-wide religion. They remove the idea that miracles can happen or that healings can happen today. They say there's no gifts of the Holy Spirit. All the things that you and I are taught in the book of Acts for a spirit-driven church, they have just dismissed. They've just said that doesn't exist, don't pay attention to it.

It was just a really interesting documentary that just came out less than a month ago. He's going around and talking to different churches saying, "Wake up, Christians! Missionaries are coming here now." Missionaries are coming to the United States of America now because we have such a biblical illiteracy and we have people that have forgotten what it's like because of American Christianity and comfort.

People in Syria, people in Iran and Iraq, we've had them come talk to us. They're telling us, "We're worried about you guys because the church is given over to the flesh. People are really given over to their comfort, to their convenience, and there's not that dedication unto death." They all understood that in the first century, and in their lives today, they're living in very difficult places.

Some are in underground churches in China and other places like that. I've asked Pastor Ted to come and talk in January to share a little bit about what's happening in another country. He was just there in three different countries with underground churches. Every day they wake up saying, "Lord, if today's my last day of life..." Women and mothers are praying, "Lord, I pray that you would have mercy and show grace. Don't let them see me murdered in front of their eyes. Lord, I pray that you would just give me a moment where the children could just look away for a second, but that they would never deny the faith," so that even the children would go.

That's a heaviness most of us don't deal with on a daily basis. I didn't wake up thinking that way this morning. I pray for the protection of the church in the days we're living in, but I wasn't thinking about that specifically here this morning. So it's this idea of just looking at the humanist gospel. I don't know where everybody's at here this morning.

I know this: it's going to be very pious-looking. It's going to look like there are strong religious leaders. They're going to be very popular. They're going to get along with everybody, these leaders and pastors. But I know what's going to come of it is no fruit. No real fruit because they don't end up doing what? It says very clearly, their names are not written in the book of life, which means they don't get saved.

So this gospel that they're going to believe, these world religions, don't actually draw people into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. They draw them into a humanist religion that makes them feel better about themselves and has very little accountability. Why do people leave churches? So many times it's because of offense. "I'm offended."

Growing up, I was offended a lot, and I'm so thankful my mother and father didn't pay attention to my offense. I'm thankful for my mother and father that gave guardrails to help me because I was very wayward. They weren't interested in how I felt about them. They weren't my friends; they were my parents. They loved me, and when I got out of line, I got a good wallop. And I needed it.

It's funny because when people see me now, it's like what Jesus said in Nazareth, "What good can come from Nazareth?" I go back and people are like, "You're a pastor? You were the one that was the first one to run to the bad stuff." Yeah, well, when you start to walk like that, maybe there's somebody here that can relate to that. You really realize how much you've been forgiven and how good God's been to you.

You know you don't deserve to stand up here. You know you don't even deserve to be a child of God, but yet it's for his grace, his love, and his mercy. So good, isn't he? All man's tradition, no truth, and no heartfelt transformation—none of it's going to result in obedience. That's what we need to see here. This is real and it's already starting to happen.

If it wasn't true, then there wouldn't be over a hundred million people in the United States claiming to be Christians. Yet when we go to the studies—that's one-third of the country, by the way—we see that less than eight percent of the entire Christians in America actually spend time in their Bible on a daily basis.

Let me ask you a question. If you were to have a relationship with somebody but you never called them, never spoke with them, and never heard from them, would you call that a relationship or a real friend? Or would you call that an acquaintance? Maybe somebody you know, but at a distance.

How many people do you think in the modern church really want fire insurance, but they're not necessarily looking for someone that is going to be the master of their lives? How many of you signed up to be a slave of Christ, a willing slave? I did because that's what the Bible teaches. *Doulos* is a willing bondservant, a slave of Christ.

There's not a better place to be more protected than to be in the Father's house, to be in the Father's care. To have the blood of the Father that's covered you and the blood of Son Jesus Christ that's cleansed you from all unrighteousness. No matter what happens, you and Jesus are a multitude and he is faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness.

He's also faithful and just. He says, "I've come again and I say I'm coming again. I will come and bring you to me, that where I go in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would not tell you, but I go to prepare a place for you that I will soon come again." You know the scriptures. You have them memorized. You know the promise of Christ.

These things are real. But to a church that's going to become apostate, to people that are going to turn around and walk contrary to their own ideologies and beliefs, how soon are they really looking for Jesus to come back? Are they? Are they looking for anything like that, or are they more concerned with luxury and wealth?

Again, look at verse 4: "The woman who was arrayed in purple and scarlet." That's luxury and wealth. "And adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abomination." That's what she's carrying with her. "And the filthiness of her fornication, and on her forehead was the name was written: Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of the 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. We read about these colors of splendors, magnificence, dyes, and fabrics. The Holy Spirit is telling us this woman adorned herself in the lust for power.

These emblems of luxury—purple and gold and precious stones—and government—scarlet. And yet she offers idolatry and abominations. Did you see that? Impurity and the filthiness of her fornication. She looks luxurious on the outside, but what is she really coming to bring? What does she have to offer? She's offering idolatry.

She's offering comfort and compromise in the things of this world, and people are buying it hook, line, and sinker. Boy, we just saw what people would be willing to give up for security just a few years ago.

Then it says on her forehead was written the name. The name on her forehead identifies her in more ways than one. Did you know that Roman prostitutes frequently wore a headband with their name engraved upon it? It's fitting she's called the harlot. She's dressed for the occasion: spiritual idolatry. In spite of all her glamour, she is nothing but a demonically inspired, lust-filled adulterer.

I'm going to say it like it is: any church that's going to go after that, any person that's going to go after that, that's who they're going to become. That's who they're chasing and what they're chasing. That scares me.

Mystery Babylon. That word mystery in the Greek means unveiling. Babylon the Great. This is not a title for the land of Babylon, but it's a spiritual mystery or a representation of the source: the mother of all idolatry. Mystery Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots, the mother of all idolatry, the mother of all abominations, and the mother of all spiritual adultery.

This harlot is going to unify the world religions into one branch of a religious institution. She's the embodiment of Satan's own ecumenical movement, the religion of the world system. The world we live in today is tolerant to everything but absolutes. It's no longer about truth; it's about what makes you feel good.

We see a casual disregard for the truth crippling even the church today. So many don't love God's word and instead want their ears tickled. They want no humility, authority, and submission to Jesus Christ. Those are bad words today. That's a sign for you that we're already in the last days and that these things are already happening around us. We're in the labor pains.

Guest (Male): That is Pastor Matt VanderVen on His Perfect Love. He has a bit more to say, so don't go away. We're going line by line through Revelation right now, and today's message from chapter 17 can be heard again at hisperfectlove.org.