Idolatry, & High Places
What is an idol, and how is it that we’re indicted as worshipping idols in the same method that the Israelites were caught in, when Aaron made them a golden calf?
An idol is anything, anyone, any place; whether it’s ideas, thoughts, imaginations, or anything else that the flesh man will succumb too, and placed in the stead of God and His Christ. Idols benefit us to no effect in true life, but still man is drawn to them as were Adam and his wife to the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.
When we empower anything with our worship and praise, and our bowing down to, by paying homage to the monuments of man’s mind; we are then worshipping idols. And as we bow to them, they in return are empowered with our strengths and abilities, and take on a seemingly life of their own.
Most anything can be an idol, and then worshipped, even the things of God, such as salvation. It’s not the salvation that God calls us to worship, but Him that gives it. It’s not the Bible that God calls us to worship, but Him that wrote it; not the angels, but God message thru them; not the inspirations of man, but the God that inspires us. The list can go on-and-on, but no other but God, and His Christ, is worthy of worship. Does anyone think that these great, or small, cathedrals, and all their beauty, will entice or become pleasing to our God? The answer is no. Just like God wasn’t pleased with the gift that Cain presented to Him, because it was created by the mind and hands, the works of Cain, neither is our Father impressed today with what man can conjure up. These monuments are built for man, whether they are small or gigantic makes no difference, for the ego of the carnal mind completely misinterprets the character of God.
In the beginning of the first century, God’s people were going from house-to-house, and tree-to-tree, to meet and spread the News that the Holy Spirit gave utterance too, and it was usually two or three that met, but the Kingdom was forwarded, and quite effectively. But now, especially in the last millennium, great cathedrals have been built by those that didn’t understand, but wanted to look as if they did; they completely missed the boat. God gave us abilities to build, but not for the use of building these monuments, with their finery of craft, and their bells and whistles, but a relationship with Him. It’s not these ‘churches’ that man is to bow too, but the Head of the Church, which belongs to the Christ of God, Jesus. For He, and He alone is worthy of our praise, worship, and thanksgivings, but man continues to sing the praises, and pay homage, to these great master pieces of his hand and mind.
If my people that are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I shall hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. This scripture was not written for those of the past alone, and since it’s the living Word and in no-wise done away with, it still speaks to those of us today; and He’s speaking to us right now.
It says in Scripture that Jesus spoke not a word, except in parables, and if observed closely, our whole world, and all that it contains is also a parable. Now Babylon was, in the old days, a city in Mesopotamia, and was it was not written about to give us a history lesson of a people that once lived, but to speak Truth to those of us that seek His way, Truth, and Life. So as we read, the many times that Babylon is mentioned, we can obliviously see that Babylon has been spiritualized into an allegoric symbol; the works of man. When we don’t have the ability to discern that which lies on the surface, from that which lies beneath it, as in parables, then we only see the thirty-fold return; but to have the sixty-fold return, we must see that which grows from the root; to have the hundred-fold return, we must become one with the root.
When passages speak of Zion, they speak of the ways of God, as He is Spirit and must be worshipped in Spirit, and so contrary to the true worship of the Father, is Babylon. Both are representations of the spiritual condition of man, and where our attention is drawn too. Babylon is carnal man that travels on his feet, works with his hands, and thinks with his earthly mind. And so Scripture draws a distinct line between the two, that is between Babylon the mother of all harlots, and the city and conditions of Zion; one processes outwardly thru the outer flesh of our thinking, and the other by our inner being that is in relationship with God. Zion is that place, usually in the heart, that nothing else matters but the things of God, and of course God Himself., Because Babylon is sitting on the seven mountains, as mentioned in Revelations, some call her that ‘great church’, others think Babylon to be the whole world system, and still others think her to be one of several of the big cities, places and people that seem not to care about the Way of the Father; but I see it as all of the above and much more. It is the total condition of man that continues with what he has gotten from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; that which is not of faith, is of the flesh. The high thoughts and imaginations of carnal man is the ‘high priest’ of babylon, and is what keeps us bound to this way of thinking, which was created by man when he began this earthly system from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The flesh was created as a seed, and liken unto an acorn, to sprout into an oak tree, and the true oak tree is in tune with the Way, Truth, and lives in the Life of our Creator; this same tree can produce fruit that will remain, as from the Tree of Life, or bear as a fig tree with no figs. Now I realize that we all fall short of the glory of God, and at least to some degree, and have missed the mark of our created Life, and to use that as an excuse is not living by faith. For God knows our weaknesses, and understands that man is fallible, but what He wants is not our works or deeds, but a relationship with Him. So why do we continue to worship the ‘good works’ of man, when our attention can be on the Father and our fellowship with Him? Because man, societies, and institutions that didn’t have that fellowship pretended they did, and made all these images, these ‘great cathedrals’, these intellectual ideas and values, to collectively hope that they are ‘good enough’ for Him to find us worthy; but that will never happen. We are already worthy, and do not have to do anything to deserve Gods’ fellowship, but to believe and have faith; it’s already our free Gift from Him. But the system, the babylonian way that our forefathers have given us, and for such a long time, that many have bought into it as the way it should be; but it is not. Since God is Spirit, and the only way to worship Him is through spirit, then our worship will be in a way that is hid in our closet, and probably not see by man. Repetition of silly practices only gives us a false sense of perfect, striving further to get-it-right; but this practice doesn’t make perfect, it makes us silly when anything is done, unless done with alliance, and with faith in Him
So babylon, in the sense of the spiritual representation is the three six’s, the 666, and it was precisely those three marks of man that was hung on the cross at Calvary. “He that knew no sin became sin.” Jesus took our babylonian attitudes, our sins, and burdened Himself with them in our stead, as a sacrifice for us to the Father, becoming sin Himself, that we might live unto the purity of the Life that was given to us in the beginning. Jesus was nailed through both feet, His Hands, and a crown of despicable thorns smashed upon His head, representing the ways of flesh man, the places we walk, the things done by our hands, and our way of thinking, the three six’s; man, man, and man. And thru all this, and done with purpose, He was resurrected unto Life, and Life everlasting; and all that for it was the Fathers’ Gift to us from His Son Jesus. We are now His clean children, His son, for we have been given joint ownership with Him to the Father of all creation. Jesus came to earth to reveal to us that we are blind and deaf, thus delivering man from darkness, and showing each that the Kingdom of God lies within each of us; the Kingdom is not a state yet to come, but it is alive and well within all. We all have possession of the Kingdom now, and will embrace it if we’ll put away that old way of thinking, the systems conjured by the failures of man, and begin seeing that what God said is absolutely true; the Kingdom of God lies within the heart of each.
So babylon is all of the above in the aforementioned paragraph; thus the Spirit led life of believers no longer exist, or at least not when our thoughts are in control, for babylon is contained in man’s thought system.
But somehow man won’t let this take hold within him, still thinking that he has to earn his way to God, but Jesus is our only earnest, and the debt has been fully paid, we are now free from the bondage of sin; but then again, man says that he has accepted that, but won’t let go of his inert need to earn his own freedom. We ought to walk during this life, knowing that we can no longer be placed under that bondage again; for once, and for all, Jesus set us free. And to earn ourselves approved, is to crucify Him afresh, voiding within our own mind the great privilege, the Gift, and sacrifice that Christ gave to all, for on that hill of the skull, He paid all the prices of man’s inabilities, the way of our thinking, and therefore bought, (with the price He paid), mankind back into the bosom of our Father. Jesus did not give up His life for naught, but for all, not some of us, but for all; we are all partakers of the Kingdom that can see with our inward eyes. This notion of being rewarded for our deeds is pure nonsense; it’s either man doing them, or God. And when man aligns himself with God, then it’s God doing the work, and not man; you can’t mix oil and water.
Now ‘high places’ is what man creates when he doesn’t see what Christ is doing, therefore making to no effect His gift, or at least in that individuals’ mind, but the sacrifice for us remains the same, but not accepted by all. An idol is anything that man imagines and bows his inner knees to, in hopes that this image can bring him prosperity, such as in the security of money, home, health, and maybe even a uprising leader to show them the way, instead of trusting our only true Deliverer to pull through for us. High places are developed in the mind of man that is looking outward for the answers that lie within.
Peter, when on the mount of transfiguration, after seeing Jesus, Moses, and Elijah transformed, wanted, in the ‘high place’ of his mind, to build three temples, they would have been three places of worship, and made into shrines of man’s hand, but, not understanding, had to be taken off that mountain, back to that place his mind was leveled at; the plains. And those that are dead- set on the devil that is positioned to attack at any time, have also placed, in their mind of high places, a belief that is not true. For if Jesus made every enemy His footstool; then either satan doesn’t exist, or is of no threat; either way, can cause no harm, but our mind, unsubstantiated, thinks he can; therefore our mind becomes our source of belief and is called a ‘high place’.
A ‘high place’ can be anything that we accept as true, or is mighty, but doesn’t exist except in our mind; the devil can’t make you do, or not do anything, all he is, is a footstool; there is no power, but the power of God thru His Christ; now that is total freedom.
So as we explore ‘high places’ and babylon, we can see that the mind and works of the carnal flesh are the roots of our beliefs. Jesus said to not only hew the tree down, referring to the tree of good and evil, thus the tree of knowledge, but to place an ax to its root, for He totally destroyed that tree, that we who remain, no longer fall under its bondage.
So, at least the way I see it, babylon is the worship of self, where we have made an extension of ourselves, altars of the ‘high places’ of the mind, and serve and exalt that idol of man. Anything that is not of God that man will pay his allegiances too, and will bend his spiritual knee too, or sing the praises of, or pursue for happiness, (and the list could go on and on), is the ‘high places’ of the mind of the babylonian empire that man has built within himself; it is anything that exalts the works of man.
I’m not sure, and nobody is, what God has stored for us in the future, but the babylonian empire will fall. Who knows the thoughts of God, or His ways, but according to Revelations, chapter eighteen, babylon will fall. “Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become the dwelling place of demons, a prison for every fowl spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird! For all nations have drunk of the wine of her wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. I heard another voice from Heaven saying; come out of her My people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”
Birds seem to be representations of messengers, sometimes a good message, but in this incident are called unclean and hated birds of foul spirit, and their dwelling place is of demons, and they live in the cage of the mind. This is about imaginations and thoughts that have run rampant in the mind of man, and the cage is the carnal brain. These are represented by the structures and empires, and of the imagination of carnal man for to create a temple, after Jesus said that he would tear it down and rebuild it thru the resurrection, was a pretty-good sign that ‘self-man’, (the self- centered outward man), cannot be held in trust with the things of God. And for all nations to have drunk of her wrath, (not God’s wrath), of her fornication of playing with ‘other gods’ of the institutions, structures, empires, or anything else that man has placed in front of God, therefore fornicating with them, bring to reality that man has strayed from his first Love, Christ. This thought system is not localized by any means, for the kings of the earth have also commissioned it and have been led by that unclean example. So what symbol could be world-wide and referred to as the word ‘her’? Sometimes countries and nations are called ‘her’, but that has already been addressed in the above verse as they included all nations; leaving only one of man’s structures that is established in every nation, with one common goal, and is always referred to as ‘her’; ‘this thing called church’. It takes but little understanding to see what’s being signified when God, in the eighteenth chapter, is telling His people to come out of her, and not be partakers of her sins. Now if we’re still having a problem understanding that this is the ‘church’ that is being described, then let’s look a little farther in the verse.
It says, continuing in the same paragraph of Revelations, the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. When one looks into the vastness of the money made, and the money spent on these structures called ‘church’, and then quickly jot down on paper just the surface of the spending, we will rapidly see that more money is exchanged in these institutions in a year than most of the giant box stores will ever make; collectively speaking. It takes many people just to build and sell the pews being used, or the electricity used, or the paper for bulletins and song books, and that when counting the materials for the building, the cost becomes staggering. It’s no wonder that the merchants of the world begin to lament over her destruction, for great salaries from within and from the many others is tremendous. And I’ve only touched the surface of how the world makes its living selling and buying the wares of the ‘church’. So when God says that not coming out of ‘her’ we also will reap of ‘her’ plagues. This structure, and occasionally a cathedral, looks more like a whore house than it does the House of God, and that’s part of the reason he said, in the same verse, that many in the world has committed fornication with ‘her’, and not excluding even our leaders. When this presentation of the organized ‘church’, and the longevity that’s it’s been going on, that has been established this deeply, we, as a people, have been indoctrinated into believing it is of God; and it certainly is not.
Could the ‘church’ had been set up by people with a sincere heart, and still turned out to be what it has become? Certainly, and I’m quite sure that many God fearing, God loving folks set out to share their ‘good news’ with as many as possible, but were ill- equipped, and at least somewhat disillusioned. When God gives us, generally speaking, a revelation of a Truth, then somehow many think that they have to build a shrine around it, and sometimes that shrine last for many years, trying to continue to feed off of yesterdays’ manna. Sharing a new insight is one thing, but trying to institutionalize it is quite different, and I would guess that most of the time this new perception was for the individual who received it; but so many times, man has to strut-his-stuff instead of growing inwardly.
Anyway, like I’d said earlier, the things in the Spirit seem to parallel those of the earth, or is it, the things of the earth seem to parallel the things of the Spirit? An emotionally broken heart is probable there because it’s a reminder that a heart-felt need in someone else, is close at hand. A headache might be a reminder that our head is just too full of this flesh stuff, and is there to bring us back to the things of God. Maybe an earthquake is to wake-up, or shake-up a world full of ‘out of touch’ sleeping people. The sun is His warmth and light; the stars show His infinity; hunger is to feed our inner man; a personal tragedy is maybe, so we can rely on Him. These are just a few of the silly, or inaccurate ways that things of the earth, are paralleling the things of the Spirit, and as each would look closely at this thought, perhaps could see the depth of this understanding.
Let’s read a little more in this same book. Revelations 18;11; And the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one, (in babylon) buys their merchandise any more: merchandise of gold and silver, precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, every kind of citron wood, every kind of object of ivory…and wood, bronze, iron and marble. The fruit that your soul has longed for has gone from you, and all things which are rich and splendid are gone from you, and you shall find them no more at all.
The merchants of these things, who became rich by her,(babylon), will stand at a distance for fear of her torment, weeping and wailing… (But then God spoke); ‘Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets, for God has avenged.
Who is it that is presented in such luxury, of gold, silver, ivory, linen of scarlet and purple, and all such as was mentioned above? But those of these great cathedrals, whether they be of the mind, or sitting on just about every street corner in our cities and towns, these are they that say that they sit as queen and cannot be touched. These great structures, whether they be of the mind or paralleled in the structure of these things called ‘church’, it is obvious what has been done to those that are called by His name.
Whether we’re reading ‘old’ or ‘new’ testament scriptures, whether they are the stories of old or a parable taught by Jesus, or reading into the book of Revelations, we can see that there are several layers of hidden allegoric values amongst them. I said that to say this; babylon is any, and all, of our earthly values, and what man can do on his own, but the deepest of all esoteric meanings is, it’s really all about selfish me; babylon lives in each of us that look to this life outwardly. So whatever our hearts adore, follow, pay homage to, and we bow our spiritual knee to, is our idol, our high place, and at least for that moment, our god; thus babylon. God shall not be defeated, nor can man always have his way, for that city of babylon that lives in each of us shall fall.
Babylon, and her personified harlot is inside of every man; yes, you and me, she is the soul of man not married to the Spirit, (the husband), that lives within each. She sits in opposition and is the contradiction of the Bride of Christ, an unreasonable facsimile. She is the self-centered thoughts, deeds, and actions of every man. She makes her bed with the lust of the flesh, and idolizes herself in all who sleep with her. She puffs herself up and takes her rewards while she is faceted to any unaware partaker; she is the counterfeit of the Bride. She wants to be seen, and when she is done with her dance, takes a bow, and yet still wants more. Although she pretends to restrain herself, she will flaunt, at every opportunity, the selfish wares of her trade. She is the other side of man, his outward flesh side that wants recognition for every so-called ‘good’ deed that he’s done, and will counterfeit everything of our Lord to look as if she sits as queen; in the flesh she does, but in true Life; she does not.
It is no wonder why we are sitting on the same dung hill as did Job, whining about our problems, scratching our boils, and trying to figure out what went wrong, or for that matter, why the world is caving in on us. We have left our first Love, and went whoring after every god of self that each can invent, we have turned our backs to the Truth, and sought others thing that appeal to the flesh. Jesus was sent as the final answer to mankind’s’ ‘dung hill’ problems, and we need not to look any further than Him.
We’ll stop here for a moment, and will take a little time to figure out why man, that walked with God, and lived in that perfect harmony, forsook Him for this so-called better life.