We all need to know what age we are in, what the present revelation is from God, where we should be, what we should do, and what flow we should enter into. Time is short, and the day of the Lord’s second coming is approaching. We must no longer be drugged by the religious things. We need to wake up to see where we should be and what we should do. This is a serious matter. The Lord Jesus likened this age to the age of Noah, saying, “Just as the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage...until the flood came and took all away” (Matt. 24:37-39). We must not be here unclear, drugged, and befuddled by the present situation. We must see what the age is, where we should be, and the way we should follow.
Revelation gives us a clear vision of today’s age and its prevailing flow and tide. If we spend time in this book with much prayer, the Lord will show us that the age today, from the unbelievers’ side, is full of evil and corruption. We will see that on the whole earth the age is full of evil matters, such as fornication, adultery, sodomy, dancing clubs, robbery, and violence. There is no hope for this age. God does not have any thought to cure it but has already given up on it. The unbelieving world is now under God’s condemnation and judgment.
In addition, on the earth today there are three typical religions. I do not count Confucianism, which contains only ethical teachings and is not a religion. I do not even count Islam, because it is an imitation, a counterfeit. The Islamic holy book, the Koran, is merely a counterfeit of the Old Testament with a little of the New Testament. The Koran even says something about Jesus, whom it calls “Isa.” According to the Koran, Isa was merely a great servant of God who was neither crucified nor resurrected. When Isa was about to be crucified, God took him to Himself in heaven. Then one day this Isa will return to continue his human life. What a counterfeit this is! The typical, genuine religions are Judaism (the Jewish religion), Catholicism (Romanism), and Protestantism. Do you love these three “isms”? No, we simply love Jesus.
It was under Judaism that Jesus was brought into the world. However, in speaking to the churches, the Lord mentioned the “synagogue of Satan” (2:9; 3:9). Synagogues are places of worship for the Jews, but those synagogues became the synagogue of Satan. In the eyes of God, all the synagogues of the Jews are synagogues of Satan. Although the Jews teach people to worship God, God is not in the Jewish synagogues today. Rather, Satan is there. This is the view not of man but of God. We must all realize that God is frank; He never pretends. On the contrary, Satan is always subtle and never frank. The first time Satan came to man, he came as a small serpent. Adam and Eve were not aware that this serpent was Satan. He always comes to us pretending to be something better than he is. He is evil and ugly, but he comes as something that appears nice. This is Satan’s way. One day Satan came to the Lord Jesus in this kind of subtle way. In Matthew 16:16, Peter recognized the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, and the Lord Jesus praised him for that. Right away, however, this same Peter who had received a revelation from the Father became one with Satan (vv. 21-23). Satan came through Peter to frustrate the Lord Jesus. If the Lord Jesus had not had the insight, He might have been cheated. Of course, He did have the insight, so He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan!” The Lord Jesus saw through him. Apparently that was Peter, but actually it was Satan. In the same way, apparently the synagogues of the Jewish religion are for the worship of God, but in actuality Satan is there. They are the “synagogue of Satan.”
As we have seen, the Catholic Church is Jezebel. People in Catholicism worship Jesus, but they worship Mary even more. At the entrance to a cathedral in Manila is a statue of Mary, one of whose hands is almost completely worn out. When I asked the people there what had happened, they told me that every day hundreds of people would come to touch that hand and that over many years this had worn it out. What a superstition this is! Catholicism teaches people something about Jesus, and they teach people to worship God, but their teachings are, for the most part, misleading.
In the Catholic churches today there is the so-called charismatic movement, in which speaking in tongues, the worship of Mary, and the Catholic mass all come together. What a confusion! Catholicism is subtle. As long as people belong to the Catholic Church, it accepts almost all the things they bring in. When the Catholic missionaries went to China, the Chinese people were practicing ancestor worship, and it was very hard for them to give this up. Because of this, some of the priests asked the pope to allow Chinese Catholics to continue this kind of worship. They were afraid that if the Vatican did not allow it, almost no Chinese would come into the Catholic Church.
Catholicism contains many heathen items. When Catholicism went to the Philippines, all the natives had their form of idol worship. Many of these forms were collected by Catholicism and added into their worship. For example, at a certain time each year there is a feast day, a special day of repentance. Before that day, people may rob from one another, but on the day of repentance they would repent of what they did. After the feast day, however, they would begin again to steal.
What then of the Protestant churches? To the church in Pergamos the Lord said, “I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is” (Rev. 2:13). Satan’s throne indicates his kingdom. Then verse 14 mentions the teaching of Balaam, which is to teach God’s people to eat idol sacrifices and to commit fornication. This does not pertain to the Jewish centers of worship, the synagogues, and it is not found only in the cathedrals of Catholicism. This teaching is also found in the Protestant churches. Some may argue and say that they never saw idols in the Protestant churches. However, we should be careful. There are some idols there. The title Reverend, for example, is an abomination to God. Only God Himself is to be revered. This is a small indication that should open our eyes to see that in Protestantism there are subtle things related to idols. As a sign, the church in Sardis prefigures the Protestant church, from the time of the Reformation to the second coming of Christ. In the eyes of God, the reformed church is dead (3:1). Moreover, even though certain matters were restored by this church, these things were about to die; hence, they needed to be revived (v. 2). This is the actual situation of the Protestant churches.
Today there is the unbelieving world. In addition, there are the things that belong to the enemy of God, including idols, Satan’s synagogue, Satan’s throne, and deadness, that are related not to the unbelieving world but to the religious world—Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Where then should we be today? Should we be in the unbelieving world, going to movies, skiing, dancing, surfing, and gambling in the casinos in Reno and Las Vegas? Should we go to Judaism or Catholicism? Should we be “Reverends” in Protestantism? On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the Jewish people, “Be saved from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). At that time, the crooked generation did not refer mainly to the unbelieving world but to the Jewish religion (Gal. 1:4). Do not ask, “Is there no God in Judaism? Is there no Christ in Catholicism and no Jesus in Protestantism?” Yes, the name of God is in Judaism, the name of Christ is in Catholicism, and the name of Jesus is in Protestantism. However, Satan is also there. God, Christ, and Jesus are there in name, but Satan is there in actuality. Therefore, under the covering of the Lord’s prevailing blood we say, “Come out of her, My people” (Rev. 18:4).
According to Revelation, there is a fifth category. Besides the unbelieving world, Judaism with its synagogues, Catholicism as Jezebel, and Protestantism, there is the pure church life and a call to the overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). The wrong concept about overcoming is that we need to overcome the small things, such as bad habits, our temper, smoking, or drinking. According to the context of chapters 2 and 3, however, to overcome is to overcome the evil, crooked, and perverse generation of Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Some among us, who were Jews, have overcome Judaism. However, in front of the trap of Judaism there are two snares. One is called Catholicism and the other, Protestantism. Some may come out of Judaism, but if they are careless, they will fall into one of these two snares.
Every religion today is a “drug,” a deceit, but the book of Revelation shows a clear, pure, bright, and shining way. We must take the way of the “sun,” the “moon,” and the shining “stars” (12:1). We must not be drugged and deceived by things that have the appearance of godliness. Those are not the genuine articles. We must all come out of those things. We must be clear, honest, and faithful; otherwise, we will be fully befuddled and judged by the Lord with this generation.