The church in Pergamos had the teachings of Balaam and of the Nicolaitans, and these are continued in this apostate church. Furthermore, the Catholic Church herself teaches, causing her people to listen to her rather than to the holy Word of God. Her adherents are all drugged by her heretical, religious teaching, not caring for Christ as their life and life supply, as indicated by the tree of life and hidden manna promised by the Lord to the churches in Ephesus and Pergamos (2:7, 17).
Matthew 13:33 says, “Another parable He spoke to them: The kingdom of the heavens is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal until the whole was leavened.” The sound teachers of the Bible agree that the Jezebel in Revelation 2 is undoubtedly the woman prophesied by the Lord in Matthew 13:33. These two women actually are one. The great harlot in Revelation 17 is also the same woman. Thus, the woman in Matthew 13 is the Jezebel in Revelation 2, and Jezebel becomes the great harlot who is called the great Babylon in Revelation 17. If she is not the harlot, then who is? The Jezebel in the Old Testament was a prefigure of “the woman Jezebel” in Revelation 2. When the Lord spoke to the church in Thyatira, He said that there was a present-day Jezebel. According to history, this present-day Jezebel undoubtedly is the apostate church, the Roman Catholic Church. In using the name Jezebel, the Lord was reminding us of what Jezebel, the wife of Ahab, did: she came from a heathen background and brought pagan things into the worship of God by His people. This is the crucial and most central point in the epistle to Thyatira. The principle of the deeds of the apostate church is to mix the heathen, pagan things with the worship of God by His people. She helps God’s people to worship Him, but she does not do so in God’s way; she does it in her own pagan, heathen way. Ever since the apostate church began, she has been absorbing paganism. Wherever she goes, she assimilates things related to the worship of idols.
One of the most striking examples of the deeds of this apostate church is the so-called Christmas. We want Christ, but we do not need a mass. Originally, December 25, the so-called Christmas Day, was the day the ancient Europeans worshipped the sun. They said that December 25 was the birthday of the sun. When the apostate church spread to Europe, she assimilated this ancient custom because she had taken in thousands of unbelievers into the church. These unbelievers still wanted to celebrate the birthday of their god. Therefore, to accommodate them, the apostate church declared December 25 to be the birthday of Christ. This is the source of Christmas. The book, The Two Babylons, exposes the origin of the evil, demonic, pagan things that were brought into the apostate church. If we see this picture on the negative side, then we shall know what we must be on the positive side.
From the very beginning of the Bible, God’s intention has been to feed His people with the life supply. Thus, in the garden there was the tree of life as the life supply. After man’s fall, God, in His redemption, did not give up this thought of feeding His people. When He instituted the Passover, God commanded His people to strike the blood of the lamb on the doorpost and, under the covering of the blood, to eat the meat of the lamb. After the children of Israel had been delivered from Egypt and were traveling through the wilderness, God gave them heavenly manna as their life supply (Exo. 16:14-15). Eventually, the children of Israel entered into the good land of Canaan. On the day they entered into the land, the manna ceased, and they began to eat the rich produce of the land (Josh. 5:12). The New Testament confirms that all these are types of Christ, not only as our Redeemer but also as our life supply. As the Lamb, Christ has two elements—the blood for redeeming and the meat for feeding. In John 6 the Lord Jesus revealed that He is the heavenly manna on whom God’s people may feed. We know that the rich produce of the land signifies the riches of Christ. Christ is not only our Lamb and our manna; He is also our good land. As the Lamb, He has the meat, and as the good land, He has all the riches for our life supply. In the Old Testament there were also the offerings which came from the produce of the good land. Among the five main offerings, the second was the meal offering which was for the feeding of God’s people. All the serving priests fed upon the meal offering. This signifies that Christ is the life supply for God’s priests. All God’s serving ones should feed on Christ.
Although this is clear in the Holy Word, most Christians have missed it. When I was in Christianity, I never heard a message telling me how to eat Christ. Nevertheless, the crucial point in the Holy Word is that Christ is our life supply and that we must eat Him (John 6:57). In Matthew 13:33 the Lord indicated that He was the fine flour. His word regarding the meal, or fine flour, in this verse refers to the meal offering which was primarily composed of fine flour. Hence, the fine flour is a full and complete type of the Lord Jesus as our life supply. As the meal offering, Christ in His humanity is the fine flour for our food. In Matthew 13 the Lord Jesus predicted that an evil woman would add leaven to this fine flour. This is exactly what the apostate church does, taking in the pagan leaven and adding it to the fine flour of Christ to form an evil mixture. In this, the apostate church is very evil and subtle.
Some in the apostate church would say, “Don’t you think we have something real? Don’t you think we have God, Christ, and the Bible?” Yes, they do, but it is not pure; it is a mixture. The apostate church has the fine flour, but within the flour there is leaven. When I was in Manila, I visited a Catholic cathedral. At the entrance of this cathedral was a statue of Mary. Noticing that one of the hands of the statue was almost completely worn out, I asked the people what had happened. They said that everyone who entered the cathedral firstly touched the hand of the statue and that, through the years, this had worn out the hand. When I asked them about the need for such a statue, they said, “If people do not have statues, they cannot understand what you are saying when you talk about the Bible. They need something solid to grasp.” This is their justification for having statues of Jesus and Mary. What subtlety! That is not Jesus or Mary—that is an idol. Apparently, they worship Jesus; actually, they worship an image of stone. This is the subtlety of the enemy. Now we can see the evil of the apostate church—it absorbs pagan things and adds them to the fine flour. How wicked this is!
Due to this evil mixture, there is much idol worship in the apostate church. The Lord said that Jezebel teaches people to commit fornication and to eat idol sacrifices. Jezebel teaches her people to worship idols. In the Roman Catholic Church the worship of idols is taught. In Manila, I saw many people purchasing candles at the candle counter and placing them before the images and idols on the walls. Wherever there is idolatry, there is also fornication. Jezebel not only brought in paganism and idolatry; she also brought in fornication. This is abominable, and we cannot tolerate it. It is not a matter of doctrinal debate—it is a matter of idolatry and fornication.
In 1937, when I was traveling in North China, a case of demon possession was brought to my attention. A certain Christian sister had become possessed. When I was asked the reason for this, I said that, in principle, either sin or some idols or images in that sister’s home would give ground for the demon to possess her. I was told that there were no idols or images in her home. Nevertheless, the demon came again and again to trouble her. I told her that since she was not involved in anything sinful, there must be some sort of idol or image in her home and that she should search thoroughly for it. Eventually, I learned that on her wall was a picture of the so-called Jesus, and I told her to burn it. From the moment she burned that picture, the demon departed. In this, we see the subtlety of the enemy.