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Friday, July 20, 2018

The Power of Mystery (Babylon) By: S. Jones


THE POWER OF MYSTERY (Babylon)

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  Jul 20, 2018


Other than the timing of the manifestation, the difference between Babylon and Mystery Babylon is the “mystery” factor. Babylon was clearly seen as an empire. Mystery Babylon was hidden. The Greek word musterion, “mystery,” means hidden or secret.

That simply means that the average person will not see it, even though it exercises power over them. No doubt the mysteriousness of this modern manifestation of Babylon is possible only because it takes advantage of blind people—or creates blindness by its policies and practices.

As I have written elsewhere, blindness is part of the Law of Tribulation in Deuteronomy 28:28. God blinded His people at least as far back as the days of Isaiah, a prophet who saw the fall of Israel and the deportation to Assyria (Isaiah 29:10; 42:18). The only way to avoid blindness is through Jesus Christ, because He is the Mediator of the New Covenant. The New Covenant removes the veil of blindness over the people, as Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3:14, 15.

The fact that most of the church is blind (without realizing it) shows us that the church functions largely under the Old Covenant. In other words, it thinks that salvation comes by the will of man and by his own vows of obedience. Israel thought the same in Exodus 19:8 when the Old Covenant was instituted in “the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38 KJV).

Though God also gave them the New Covenant in the days of Noah and Abraham, and again at the end of their forty years in the wilderness (Deuteronomy 29:1, 12, 13), when God made a second covenant with them. That covenant was based upon the will of God, His vow, His promise, all patterned after God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Most of the people did not understand the difference, so their mindset did not change. Their faith focused upon their own ability to keep their vow, instead of having faith in God’s ability to keep His vow. The same is true in the second church, the church of the Pentecostal Age.

Nonetheless, the potential to remove this Old Covenant veil has been with us since the beginning, and, in fact, now that the long captivity (tribulation) is ending, that veil is being removed. Not only is the New Covenant being revealed and preached in the world but simultaneously, we are seeing Mystery Babylon being exposed for all to see.

The coincidence between these two factors is striking. Removing the veil removes the mystery from Babylon, both internally and externally (politically). In past years men have tried to expose the secret government that has been ruling the world since the early 1900’s, but they have been frustrated at the blindness of the people. I have watched their frustration for nearly 50 years since I first began to become aware of it. It is now clear that the only way to expose Mystery Babylon is by the unveiling that comes only by revealing the New Covenant, as Paul says.

The Power of Mystery Babylon
Mystery Babylon has been able to exercise power through the power of blindness. Blind people are quite helpless, because they must depend upon other people who may do things without the blind person seeing what they are doing. This dependency works in any scenario.

By not understanding the nature of the flesh and its “old man,” we blindly follow the dictates of the flesh which commands us to sin (Romans 7:23, 25). Only by a change of identity can we change our identity (consciousness) to a “new man” that has been begotten by the Spirit. This new man does not sin, for Paul says in Romans 7:22, “I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man.”
In the external world of governments and nations, the same holds true. 

Because the veil has been spread over all nations (Isaiah 25:7), the nations have not concurred with the laws of God but have set up their own laws that give men the right to sin. Sin is “normal” to the flesh. A good illustration of this today is where men are now trying to normalize pedophilia.

A Medical student in May 2018 gave a TEDX speech claiming that pedophilia is natural and likened it to heterosexuality.

Mirjam Heine, a medical student, was the speaker at the University of Würtzberg for TEDx, in which she claimed that pedophilia, in her view, is a natural sexual orientation not unlike heterosexuality.

Those influenced by Mystery Babylon have already normalized fornication and adultery. In the Obama years they normalized homosexual relations and gay marriage. Now the push is to normalize pedophilia, led in part by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who has long advocated bringing the age of consent down to the age of twelve.

Waiting in the wings is the push for the normalization of bestiality. The degradation of Mystery Babylon is clearly seen by those who are not lawless, those who identify with the New Creation Man. But I will admit that the medical student (above) was quite right in a sense. All sin is “normal” to the old man of flesh. The old man is, at first, encrusted with the rules of past religious culture, and for this reason the old man has been restrained in the past. But when government removes those restraints, the old man shows his true colors.

While Mystery Babylon thinks that lack of restraint is “freedom,” Paul makes it clear that the need and desire to sin is in itself “bondage” (Romans 7:14). True freedom comes only when we no longer are compelled to sin, and when sin does not appeal to us. Sin appeals to the old man, but righteousness is the natural desire the new man.

I teach these things in order to expose the secret nature of Babylon, so that people have the opportunity to avoid the ill effects of Babylonian citizenship. First we must understand the difference between the old man and the new man and how to change identity from flesh to spirit. Second, the lessons drawn from this internal situation reveals also that which is external in the national, political scene. What we do as individuals is also reflected as a group or nation.

The Solution
The solution must begin internally, of course. One cannot change the nation full of individuals without first addressing the internal problem of Mystery Babylon. The change of identity, which begins by being begotten by the incorruptible seed of the gospel, is the beginning point. That holy seed is the New Covenant word of God, wherein we believe (have faith in) the promises of God and are assured that He is able to fulfill His promise. In so doing, we follow the steps of the father of our faith, Abraham himself (Romans 4:16, 21, 22).

We cannot be children of Abraham apart from following His example (Galatians 3:7). To be a son of Abraham is not about physical genealogy. It is about having a spiritual resemblance to Abraham and doing the things that he did. That is the Hebrew concept of sonship.

For this reason, the solution can only come through the Holy Spirit. I believe that the only way to turn things around is for the Holy Spirit to be poured out into the earth. This has happened many times over the centuries, but it was never sufficient to make a permanent change. We need the greatest outpouring ever seen in order to institute a change, break the bondage of Mystery Babylon on every level, and replace it with the Kingdom of God ruled by Jesus Christ.

The need itself prophesies what will happen.

I am encouraged by this. When I look at the chaos happening in America today, and when I hear the wails of the merchants of Babylon who are losing their grip on power, it does not make me angry. It encourages me, because I know that God is moving, and that victory is ours. We are privileged to live in the time of the end of a long captivity of “seven times.” The prophets often spoke of this day and wished that they could live to see those times.

Days of Elijah-Elisha
In September 2007, while we were holding a conference in Hilo, Hawaii, God revealed to us that we were entering the time of Elijah, but that we would have to wait another year for this to begin. In 2008 we experienced another delay until the following feast of Passover in Manassas, Virginia. The delay allowed us to get further clarification on the revelation, and that is how we discovered that this was not actually “Elijah” but “Elisha.”

So on April 12, 2009 the Elisha ministry was launched, and we then began to see a progression of the 16 miracle-signs of Elisha in the book of 2 Kings. So far we have seen the first half of those signs manifested in the world. We yet await the start of the second half—the double portion, which was given to Elisha (2 Kings 2:9, 13).

John the Baptist was “Elijah.” We are of the “Elisha” company, because we are being given the inheritance (double portion) as our Birthright. So far, we have received eight signs, which only equals the “Elijah” portion (Elijah performed eight miracle-signs.) We are poised to receive the double portion when we see signs 9-16.

While I do not know when this will occur, I do have confidence that the timing will be perfect. I think it will coincide in some way to the start of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that we expect. The ninth sign is about provision, both spiritual and physical, to do the work that lies ahead. That work has to do with bringing the New Covenant to the rest of the world, which will remove blindness and overthrow the power of Mystery Babylon wherever it is found.

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