Intoxicated on Religion

Many bible teachers claim that Revelation 17 describes the emergence of a new world religion. In a few years all the religions of the world, including much of Christianity will merge to form a new false religion. They say that the entire world will quickly be intoxicated by this new religion.

We should be shocked by this teaching. The Holy Spirit has been struggling to establish a worldwide religion for two thousand years. Most Christians doubt that he will be able to do it, yet they are happy to believe that the devil can get the acceptance worldwide religion in two or three years. He can pull off a task that the Holy Spirit has failed to do.

Here are two interesting questions.

Do you believe that a false religion can sweep the entire world and intoxicate the nations in a few short years?

Do you believe that the Holy Spirit can sweep the world with a revival that will establish the Kingdom of God?

Which of these do you think is most likely? If you voted for the first option, you have more faith in the ability of the devil than you have in the Holy Spirit. You believe that evil is more powerful than righteousness.

In terms of ability and power, most Christians rank the Holy Spirit above angels, but well below the devil. Some Christians would prefer to have angels active in their lives, which suggest that they rank the Holy Spirit below the angels.

Many Christians see nothing wrong in believing that a false religion will come. They declare, “The Bible says it, I believe it”, but did they do have the same fervency about what Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would do.

The Great Prostitute

The worldwide religion that will intoxicate the nations already exists. This religion is faith in political power and democracy. Faith in democracy has swept the entire world in the last century. Most of the world believes that democracy is the key to their salvation.

Go back to the nineteenth century and this faith did not exist. A peasant farmer in England had no expectation of the government in London. If he got into trouble, the Lord of the Manor might be generous, but mostly he depended on his family and relatives to get buy. Even when he faced injustice, he did not expect the politicians to assist. They only cared about the powerful and the privileged.

If farm worker moved to the city to work in a factory, he did not expect help from the government. His only contact with the government would be when they threw him in prison, if he got into debt. If the was really deep in debt, they might deport him to Australia.

The natives in Africa had no hope in their colonial governments. They knew that the powerful would look after the power. The best they could do was to go unnoticed.

All this changed during the twentieth century. Now everyone expects the government to rescue them from their problems. The poor person in Africa expects his government to provide capital and jobs. The clients of Northern Rock Bank expect the government to guarantee their deposits. The auto workers in Detroit expect the government to protect their jobs. The factory worker in China riots when the government allows his factory to close. Everyone assumes that democracy is the best hope for Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Faith in government salvation is now universal.

The entire world is intoxicated by democracy.

John saw a prostitute sitting on many waters. The angel explained what this meant.

Then the angel said to me, "The waters you saw, where the prostitute sits, are peoples, multitudes, nations and languages (Rev 17:15).

The great prostitute obtained her power from the peoples and multitudes. Democracy gives governments enormous political powers. That power comes from the people. Democratic government “sits upon the waters”, because it derives its authority from the people below.

Democratic government is the great prostitute. Democratic government draws salvation and authority from the people, whereas true authority and salvation is in Jesus alone. Seeking salvation from any other power or submitting to any other authority is prostitution. The great prostitute is not a future world religion. The great prostitute is already here and the world is already intoxicated by her power.