"She tempts people by promising great power and wealth to those who serve her." Those are words from Ligonier Ministries on Mystery Babylon from Revelation 17.
The two great lights in not only London and England....but by extension the whole of Christendom....this in the latter half of the 19th century....were the Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon....and the Anglican ....Bishop J.C. Ryle.
Ryle may be most well-known for his book....Holiness....but he also wrote and preached extensively on the Second Coming....not just in a scholarly textbook fashion....but with a passion....warning his listeners....and pleading with them to take 'end of times' prophecy seriously....or suffer the consequences of not knowing what to expect.
One thing that J.C. Ryle tried to instill in the reader and the hearer was that idolatry was the key ingredient in all of our sin. Everything that was not worship of God and His Christ....was idolatry. Now driving to the mall might not be thought to have anything to do with worship....but that car we drive to the mall might be worship and therefore idolatry....or that which we are going to purchase might be worship or therefore idolatry!
At one moment we tend to look at these examples as....'Gee....another thing that we cannot do'....whereas we should see them and ask...'Oh my....am I worshiping this thing as an idol?'
John Calvin said...."The human heart is a perpetual idol factory." Anything can be an idol....wonderful and good and blessed things can be turned into idols. This is no small thing....in fact it seems to be the essence of Mystery Babylon!
That which evangelicalism today has fallen for....as it pertains to Christian Nationalism....can be described as a....falling away....from the truths of the gospel and the gospel itself....and is centered around pride and greed. All of this America First stuff is ultimately idolatry....all of the...."Winning, winning, winning" and the new golden age we are promised....is idolatry! Everything about Trump's rise was based squarely on idolatry! We evangelicals were led in this direction....and we just followed the pied piper..
In that Mystery Babylon whose destruction will come in one day....it may entail all that we hold as idols today? I recall something else that J.C. Ryle wrote in one of his books....at a different time....on a different subject....that in his extensive experience at being with many older people at the time of their death.....he stated that...."Old people tend to die....as they lived." In other words....the nearness of death....and no longer the need for possessions....did not free people to look to God....for they now had possibly a new idol....pride....in their refusal to admit that they may have been wrong....their entire life!
Idolatry is our problem in America and the church today. Idolatry is my problem. These posts can be idolatry....and I am sure that at times they have been. It is an insidious sin within us. J.C. Ryle was an extraordinary preacher and man. It is amazing to think that both he and Spurgeon preached to London at the same time. Another area that he is well-known for is his preaching on the...."Old Paths"....from Jeremiah 6:16
"Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads....and look....and ask for the ancient paths....where the good way is....and walk in it....and find rest for your souls....but they said....(which is also us today)....'We will not walk in it'."
If you are a student driving home after the semester and the year has ended....may God give you traveling mercies....and may you consider listening to the words from J. C. Ryle...
