The second significance of Babylon is that it is related to idolatry. History records that in Babel, built by Nimrod and his father, names of idols were on the bricks used to build the city. Hence, that city was full of idols. The outstanding feature of Babylon was its idolatry. When Nebuchadnezzar carried away the vessels from the temple of God and brought them to Babylon, he put them into the temple of his idols (2 Chron. 36:7; Ezra 1:7).
The Babylon the Great unveiled in Revelation 17 is also filled with idols, with the abominations of the earth (Rev. 17:5). The Catholic Church is filled with idolatry. In order to study the Catholic Church firsthand, I visited a large cathedral in Manila. At the front entrance there was a large image, an idol of Jesus. When I said that was an idol, I was told that it was Jesus. Then I said, “It is blasphemous to say that this idol is Jesus.” Someone replied, “Jesus is too abstract and mysterious. When we talk to people about Jesus, it is difficult for them to understand what we are saying. But when they see this image, it is easy for them to understand something about Jesus.” What subtlety! That image was not Jesus! It was an idol.
Probably we are all familiar with the picture of Jesus that portrays Him as a handsome man. Many Catholics and Protestants have that picture in their homes. But that picture is not Jesus; it is an idol. In 1936 in China I met a young woman who was possessed by demons. Since I knew that demon possession was related to idolatry, I asked her if there was an idol in her home. She told me that she had come to believe in Jesus and that there were no idols in her house. However, I could not understand how she could believe in Jesus and have no idols in her home, yet still be possessed by demons. Hence, I asked her again about idols in her home. Eventually, she told me that at home she had that picture of Jesus and that it was her habit to worship it. I told her that her picture was an idol and that a demon was behind it. I further told her to burn that picture. Then she said, “How can I burn the Jesus in whom I believe?” I said, “That is not Jesus. It is an idol.” After she burned the picture, the demon departed from her.
Many Christians have been in the garlic room so long they can no longer sense the odor of garlic that is all around them. Day after day, many unconsciously worship idols, actually thinking they are worshipping God. Today’s Christianity is not only full of divisions and confusion; it is also full of idols. Furthermore, it is full of traditions. Traditions are falsehoods, and falsehoods are vanity. Falsehood is also a form of idolatry, for it is believing something that is vain. The two main aspects of Babylon are division with confusion and idolatry. If you apply these two principles to today’s Christianity, you will see that the situation of Christianity is exactly Babylonian. Therefore, we must come out of her and return to Jerusalem, to the church.
Now we must see what Jerusalem is. For the Jews in the Old Testament, Jerusalem was the unique place of worship, the uniting center. Babylon caused division, but Jerusalem maintained the unity. Today’s Babylon is division, and today’s Jerusalem is unity, oneness. When we come back to unity, to oneness, we come back to Jerusalem.
At Jerusalem, the unique center of unity, there was the temple, the habitation of God. Where is God’s habitation today? According to Ephesians 2:22, God’s habitation is in our spirit. In principle, our spirit is today’s Jerusalem. The Samaritan woman said to the Lord Jesus, “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men must worship” (John 4:20). Jesus answered, “An hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall you worship the Father....But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and reality...God is Spirit; and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and reality” (John 4:21, 23-24). The Lord’s word about worshipping in spirit implies that the real Jerusalem today is our human spirit.
When we are in the mind, we are divided. But when we turn to our spirit, we are one. Do not talk too much about doctrine. Satan, the subtle one, always likes to raise questions regarding doctrine. In many places I visited, Satan used certain ones to ask me questions. Satan’s strategy in doing this is to draw us out of the spirit and into the mind so that we shall argue with one another. If we exercise our minds to discuss doctrine for a period of time, we shall be divided. Suppose instead of praying and exercising our spirit, we raise questions about foot washing, head covering, and the size of the cup used at the Lord’s table. The more we talk about such matters, the more we shall argue and fight. Eventually, as a result of arguing about doctrine, we shall be divided. But when we are in the spirit, there is no division and no idolatry. In the spirit there is simply the divine Spirit, God Himself.
I have been a Christian for more than fifty years. In the past, I was not able to define Babylon. But in these last years, the Lord has shown me that Babylon is division with confusion. Wherever there is division with confusion, that is Babylon. Moreover, Babylon is idolatry. Wherever there is the worship of idols, that also is Babylon. When my eyes were opened to see these things, I realized that because they are in the mind, most Christians are in Babylon. They are in divisions with confusion and, to some extent, they worship something other than God. They care for certain other things more than they care for God. In principle, this is idolatry. In like manner, for many years I did not know what today’s Jerusalem was. Later, however, the Lord showed me that today’s Jerusalem is the unity in our spirit.