How Do We Come Out of Babylon?

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Hi N____,

Thank you for your question. You ask about the two sisters of Eze 23. Those sisters are Ahola, who, we are told is the northern kingdom of Israel, also called in scripture Ephraim, which was the chief tribe of that part of Israel. We are told that her capital is Samaria, where Jeroboam, their first king, set up the golden calf and commanded Israel to keep their feasts in Samaria in the eighth month instead of the seventh month, contrary to what God had instructed them to do in Jerusalem.
The second sister is Aholibah who we are plainly told is Jerusalem and the southern kingdom with its temple of God, but which we are also told committed whoredoms on an even greater scale than her elder sister.

Eze 23:1 The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,
Eze 23:2 Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother:
Eze 23:3 And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity.
Eze 23:4 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah.
Eze 23:11 And when her sister Aholibah saw this, she was more corrupt in her inordinate love than she, and in her whoredoms more than her sister in her whoredoms.

You suggest that these two sisters are both us, and in that you are exactly right. Ahola, the elder is each of us as a beast which receives a deadly wound, and Aholibah is us as an even stronger beast whose deadly wound is healed.

Rev 13:3 And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.
Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

Now you know it is not my intent to offend you. I am very much aware that we are all very sociable creatures by our Creator’s design. Nevertheless, your return to a Babylonian church is nothing short of going from Ahola to Aholibah, expecting to find the love of Jesus Christ. Here is what that true ‘love of God’ is:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

You asked about how we are to come out of Babylon?

I appreciate this question because it affords me the opportunity to give the scriptures which answer this question which we all have in our own order (1Co 15:23).
It is clear that we are not intended to just quietly stop attending so as to avoid being persecuted for Christ’s name’s sake. This leaves our minister and all our friends in Babylon to wonder what became of us. Instead we are to “live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4 and Luk 4:4). That is the principle of scripture which reveals to us that we are both Aholah and Aholibah. But that is also the principle which reveals to us that we are to leave Babylon only after we have been spiritually “scourged in their synagogues” for bearing witness to the Truth, which is Jesus Christ.

Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

When we attempt to avoid allowing others to discover what we have come to see as the Truth, we are doing nothing less than hiding the Jesus we have come to know from those in Babylon who, sadly, we put before our love of Him as we live out Aholibah within ourselves. That is what you are doing in going back into the church after having left. Now since you are there, do not just leave without being a witness in the streets of that ‘great city’. If you are a true witness for Christ and His Truth, then you will be “scourged in their synagogues”, and left for dead in the streets of that great city.

Mat 10:17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

Do not attempt to avoid this. Perhaps this is why the Lord has you back there. You must bear witness to Him, and they will indeed ‘cast you out of the synagogue’.

Joh 9:32 Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.
Joh 9:33 If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
Joh 9:34 They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.
Joh 9:35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
Joh 9:36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?
Joh 9:37 And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee.

You and I are this man who was born blind from his mother’s womb. Christ has healed us of that blindness, and the least we can do is to acknowledge who He is and suffer the persecution that we are intended and designed to bear to try our faith.

You say:

You are so right. It is God who has brought you to iswasandwillbe. com and while He has indeed been feeding you without the benefit of fellowship, for a time, that is not where He commands us to stay. We are commanded to assemble together by whatever means we can and to be nourished one of another.

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

“Ourselves together” is not us and Aholibah. It is others of like mind, who have had the very same experience because they are of the very same body, which we are plainly told desperately needs and is nourished by all of its various parts.

1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.
1Co 12:15 If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:16 And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body?
1Co 12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling?
1Co 12:18 But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.
1Co 12:19 And if they were all one member, where were the body?
1Co 12:20 But now are they many members, yet but one body.
1Co 12:21 And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you.
1Co 12:22 Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary:
1Co 12:23 And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.
1Co 12:24 For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:
1Co 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.
1Co 12:26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1Co 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

“The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee”, and you and I cannot say to the other members of Christ’s body that we do not need them. They are what sharpens us, and they are what nourishes us, and helps to keep us spiritually healthy according to our Creator:

Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

Do not ignore these verses of scripture. What they tell us, for those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear, is that if we think we do not need each other, then we are saying we do not need Christ and thus we will be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, whereas we could be being sharpened by our other brothers and sisters in the body of Christ, and building ourselves up in love, which is obedience to God.

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

‘Keeping His commandments’ includes the commandment to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together when possible to do so. There are many who are seeking fellowship and who understand all of this, and want to be ‘sharpened and supplied and built up in love’ by the other members in particular’ of this “body of Christ”. I encourage you to sign up on the ‘body letter’ mentioned on the home page of iswasandwillbe to partake of the wonderful fellowship this service provides.
In concluding, you mentioned Christ’s trial being mostly in the garden of Gethsemane. The holy spirit is definitely dealing with you, but I keep referring to this verse of scripture so I need to quote it right here as we sharpen each other concerning this subject you raise here.

Pro 27:17 Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

That is just the Old Testament way of saying that the body needs all of its members and that it is nourished by what every joint supplies and that it builds itself up in love.
So let’s put those verses into action by allowing me to point out that Christ considered Himself to be on the cross from the temptation in the wilderness immediately following His baptism by John, and immediately preceding the beginning of His ministry. We know this is so because before He ever went to the cross, He told his disciples to ‘take up their cross and follow Him’.

Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mar 10:21 Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest: go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and follow me.
Luk 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

The temptation to avoid the suffering of the cross was just as strong at the beginning of His ministry as it was at the end in the Garden of Gethsemane. In both cases the trial was so great that His Father saw the need to send angels to minister to Him.

Mat 4:11 Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.
Luk 22:43 And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

You are so right in the principle you are applying here. Christ had considered all of this in advance and had already fought this battle in the spiritual realm before it ever arrived in the natural realm.
I hope you are granted to receive all of this in the spirit of love and obedience to our Lord in which it is intended.
Your brother in Christ,

Mike

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