Genesis 10-11: Babylon- A Religious System And A Financial System United

In Genesis chapter 10, we see a continuation of the two streams that began with Cain and Abel-religiosity and spirituality. If these streams were atheism and spirituality, the difference between them would have been as clear as black and white. But religiosity and spirituality are like the colors cream and white. Only in bright light can the distinction between the two colors be seen clearly. The devil is a deceiver and he makes the counterfeit look as much like the genuine as possible. The gate to the broad way looks very similar to the gate of the narrow way, and a lot of people who enter through it don't even realize that they are entering the broad way. They are deceived by clever priests and preachers. We must be careful.

I am talking now about believers who are deceived. Consider just one area: How many believers really believe what Jesus said: “You cannot serve God and Money?” (Luke 16:13) Very, very few. There are multitude of so called Christians and Christian organizations who think they can serve both God and money at the same time. That's just one example of the great work that Satan has done in deceiving Christians. There are believers who love money and who imagine that they love God too, even though Jesus said that this was impossible. Such people are not spiritual but only religious..

In Chapter 10, we read of the beginning of Babylon. Its destruction is described in Revelation 18. Babylon appears at the beginning of the Bible and continues until the end of the Bible. We read here of a man named Nimrod in 10:8-9, who was a mighty hunter “before the Lord”. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel or Babylon. Babel originally meant “the gate of God.” Nimrod was not an atheist. Like Cain, he was a religious man whose profession was to lead people to God! That is how the Babylonian system works.

Babylon is a religious system (Revelation 17) as well as a financial system (Revelation 18).

Money and the work of God are joined together, and that's how Babylon is formed. And that's how people are deceived. They think they are doing the Lord's work, but they are drawn towards the work because there is money to be earned in it too! There is fame to be earned there too.

Christendom has become like that today. We see preachers today using the money given for God's work by poor people, to build expensive houses and to buy expensive cars for themselves, with a lifestyle that resembles that of film stars and not that of Jesus Christ and His apostles. We don't have to judge them, because the Bible tells us not to judge, But let us follow Jesus instead. A “Christian” religion system that brings people fame, wealth and power is certainly a Babylonian system. Babylon claims to show the “gate to God”, the very essence of what Babylon means. But it actually leads them to the gate to hell. Jesus said, “I am the door” (John 10:9). He is the door to Jerusalem, the true Church of God.

Nimrod is a type of the Antichrist, who will arise in the future. Nimrod became a leader in the know world of his day. The Antichrist is going to be like that in the last days. He is going to deliver people in some amazing way and will thus earn the respect of many. In revelation, we read that a false prophet will be very closely joined together in the last days. We see that at election time in the United States. Political leaders know that using the religious card will get them more votes. Even the “Christian religion” is used by politicians for promoting themselves. But that is not the faith of the Jesus Christ. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). That is the identifying mark of the true faith. You could never get Jesus or His apostles to be secular kings like Nimrod was. They were servants. Once when they tried to make Jesus a king, He ran away from their midst. He would not be their king.

In 11:4, we read that the people of the world decided to build a tower. They said to each other, “Come, let us make a city and a tower, the top whereof may reach to heaven”. They wanted their tower to be the gate of God (Babel). Human effort to reach God is a major constituent of false religion.

False religion is always a religion of our own works and not one of faith and dependence on God and the works he wants to do through us.

The leaders of false religion are always strong personalities with the charisma of film stars. They are not weak, unimpressive men like Peter. Most of the leaders of the Catholic Church today are people who seek fame and honor for themselves. The true prophet of God however are always misunderstood and called “heretics” and cast out by the counterfeit Catholic Church. That's what happen to Jesus and the apostles in their day by the counterfeit religious of their day.

There can be a lot of unity in Babylon. It says here that the whole earth used the same language (11:1). Not just the same language in terms of speech, but also the same language of human cleverness, human ability and human glory. That is the language spoke by the world and that unfortunately is the language spoken by many of the Catholic hierarchy today. Jesus Christ, however was crucified “through weakness”, II Corinthians 13:4, and “no beauty in him, nor comeliness, no sightliness”, Isaiah 53:2 that people “would be desireth”, of Him. He was a servant Who washed people's feet. He called Himself an ordinary man...a son of man. These are the identifying marks of a true servant of God.

In Babylon they say, “Come let us build.” They don't need to consult God about such matters. They could build the gateway to heaven themselves! Those, as well, of a false Catholic religion does not depend helplessly on God for its every need.

They may pray. All religions have prayer, but it will be meaningless prayer. The prophets of Baal prayed for hours on Mount Carmel, but nothing happened. Elijah prayed for one minute and the fire of God fell from heaven! Some of us may glory in the fact that we pray every decade of the rosary every day of the week. That may be good. Jesus spent all night in prayer also. But prayer has value only if it is an expression of our helpless dependence on God for His guidance and help. Babylonians however do not need to seek God's will, for they depend on human cleverness. False religion begins with man, not with God. It's motto is: “In the beginning Man,” not “In the beginning God.” false religion originates in humanistic theology it is done through man's power and it is propagated for man's glory.

The scriptures speak about a church foundation, where built on it are people that are wood, hay and stubble or people that are gold, silver, and precious stones. (I Corinthians 3:12)

Babylon is built by man's ideas. A lot of so called Christian ministries, and Denominations, Dioceses and Parishe hierarchy are doing their work today through human ideas and not God's. They follow the principles of multinational companies and large business corporations, rather than the teaching of the apostles. They run their organizations like business enterprises and not like the Churches and ministries that the apostles built. Why didn't Jesus give his apostles to a marketing agency? Wouldn't they have done a better job than those twelve apostles? But that would have been man's methods. God's methods are different.

Very few people know God's methods, because very few people know God. Man is a religious creature and he would rather have religion than God. It is uncomfortable to live with God. It is comfortable to live with religion. You cannot live with God and be a great man in the world. But you can have the “Christian religion” and still be a great man. People don't want God. Many Catholics would rather have a pre- 1960 Catholic religion than God himself. Others want a Catholic religion that is new...easier...updated and more modern than to have God himself. They don't want the yoke of Jesus Christ on their necks.

Babylon is built through man's power. It does not need the Holy Spirit's anointing or the supernatural gifts that God gives.

With natural gifts, good music and electronic gadgets, the job can be done! No wonder our work for God is of such poor quality! We do not know the power that the early apostle knew. The baptism in the Holy Spirit that many people claim to have experienced today, I am convinced is a counterfeit baptism of their own human emotions and experiences-a psychological experience that satisfies them but far removed from what the disciples received on the day of Pentecost. Few today are experiencing that genuine anointing of the Holy Spirit that first came upon Jesus and the apostles. I would urge you to seek for that genuine enduement with power that is available to you since your confirmation. Or maybe, for what ever reason, you have never received the sacrament of confirmation. I would encourage you to seek to be confirmed in the Church. It is only through the initial grace of this sacrament can we have that power that Jesus promised his apostles before He ascended to heaven. And then we must continue to seek Gods power in our lives so that we can truly serve God. Why do I say that a lot that goes on today in the name of the Holy Spirit is counterfeit? Because Jesus said that we would be able to identify false prophets by their fruits. The love of money is so glaringly obvious in most of those who claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit today. Such fruit is certainly not from God, for the Holy Spirit is not a lover money. These people love power, position, and honor of men. These are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit. . Then their power must be coming from some other source, from some other spirit.

Babylon is built for man's glory. “let us make a name” is what we read in 11:4. Years later, we read in Daniel 4:30 that Nebuchadnezzar looked over the city of Babylon that he had built. I have heard that it was built as a square, 15 1/2 miles long and 151/2 miles wide, with walls that were 87 feet thick and 350 feet high. It had a beautiful hanging garden that was one of the wonders of the world. And Nebuchadnezzar said, “Is not this the great Babylon, which I have built to be the seat of the kingdom, by the strength of my power, and in the glory of my excellence?” It was built from man through man and to man. Nebuchadnezzar lived about 2000 years after the building of the tower of Babel. But he had the same spirit. 2500 years after Nebuchadnezzar, we find the same spirit in operation in the Catholic Church today. This is what Babylon is-from man, through man and to man. It is the very opposite of Jerusalem.

We read in 11:5 that “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of Adam were building.” Remember that the Lord will come down to examine whatever we build. He does not come down to examine the size of the Church. But the motive with which it is being built. For whose glory was it built? If he was examining the size of the tower of Babel, it was very impressive. But God came down looking for something else at that time. And He come down looking for something else today as well.