21 In what "city" was our Lord crucified?

Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem could all be incorporated under the name "Babylon" (man-directed Christianity). Babylon is the whore that is "drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus" (Revelation 17:6).

Sodom, Egypt, and Jerusalem represent the world and all that is in the world (I John 2:16). Sodom represents the lust of the flesh. Egypt represents the lust of the eyes. Jerusalem represents the pride of life. Lust, covetousness, and pride—this is the spirit of the world.

Sodom speaks of the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is the "Jezebel" spirit of fornication that seeks to defile the servants of the Lord. The spirit of lust and demon worship always attempts to destroy those who are anointed by the Spirit of God, as Jezebel attempted to destroy Elijah.

Wherever there is lust, perversion, violence, murder, occult practices, wrath, revelling, carousing, drunkenness, lying, the Lord Jesus and His servants always will be slain. These actions are of the flesh and Satan.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (Jude 1:7)

The material affluence of the rule of Antichrist will bring about the lusts of Sodom. We see this happening today. Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. (Ezekiel 16:49)

The Lord’s servants can be destroyed by fleshly lusts and sin.

I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness; they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. (Jeremiah 23:14)

Some of the Lord’s ministers and believers are involved in adultery, fornication, and pornography. They will remain blind spiritually until Divine judgment sweeps them away.

Egypt speaks spiritually of the world. It is the lust of the eyes. Egypt remains the principal scriptural type of the world, for Israel was called to come out of Egypt. Egypt, in Old Testament times, was a nation of considerable refinement. The Egyptians were pleasure-loving people, talented, artistic, and worshipers of a multitude of gods.

Abraham and Sarah were called out of the world, out of the civilized city of Ur of the Chaldees. From that time forward, God’s elect have been called to be separate from the world. The Church is in the world but not of the world. Christ’s Kingdom is not of the world system.

Christ and His witnesses always will be crucified by the world spirit. The world hated Christ and it hates every true disciple. Whoever will choose to be a friend of the world makes himself the enemy of God.

Every true saint is crucified to the world and the world to him. This is the only acceptable orientation to the world for the man or woman of God.

The reason so many Christian believers never become disciples of Jesus is that they were not "born crucified." They did not forsake the world when they "received" Christ. They never can bring themselves to the level of consecration God requires of each member of the Body of Christ.

"Egypt" is the apostate church looking to the world for safety and provisions. The witness of God is dead in such a church.

And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? (Jeremiah 2:18)

The preceding verse was addressed to a wicked, unfaithful Israel just before the nation went into captivity. Several times in the Scripture the Lord warned Israel not to go back to Egypt or to look to Egypt for support in the hour of trouble.

Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord! (Isaiah 31:1)

When God’s people become cold of heart they turn back to Egypt, to the world. There they become a mixed multitude—half-Egyptian and half-Israelite.

Jerusalem, the third city, is the place of religious pride and envy. Jerusalem symbolizes the pride of life, personal ambition, and presumption.

Religious pride, one of the deadliest of the conditions of the human heart, is produced by Satan in active religious people—particularly in those who have become prominent in the work of the church.

When the "successful" servant of God beholds the true work of the Holy Spirit, a work that threatens his hard-won status in religious activities, he or she may be moved with envy. Then he may attempt to murder Christ. For he [Pilate] knew for envy they had delivered him. (Matthew 27:18)

And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt: but God was with him, (Acts 7:9)

But when the Jews saw the multitudes, they were filled with envy, and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. (Acts 13:45)

But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. (Acts 17:5)

Whenever the sons of God, devout religious people, gather together before the Lord, Satan assembles with them. Satan is the personification of envy—envy directed toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore he fills with envy all those who are religious but who are not of the Lord’s elect, who are not of the Spirit-filled remnant.

Envy will rise up in the hearts of the religious people and they will strive, as did the chief priests and elders of Israel, to murder the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ in His servants. This will take place because of the Divine Glory that is to be issued to the Lord’s true saints.

But one day the envious will be compelled to worship God at the feet of the elect. Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. (Revelation 3:9)

Satan is the author of the lusts of the flesh (Sodom), and "murders" Christ and His anointed from that vantage point. If Satan can entice a disciple to commit adultery, or to hate, or covet, or dabble in occult practices, or to drink and carouse with the drunken, Satan then is able to prevent the forming of Christ in the disciple. Satan "murders" Christ, so to speak.

Satan is the author of the world spirit (Egypt), and "murders" Christ and His anointed servants. The Roman Empire with its slaughter of the saints is an example of the true attitude of the world spirit toward the Lord’s people. Hitler’s Germany is another example. The Christian (or Jew) who believes the world is his friend is foolish and blind. However, it is in the realm of "Jerusalem," of religious envy and self-seeking, that the fullness of Satan’s viciousness can be witnessed. Satan is a religious creature. He always will gather with the sons of God, with the most fervent religious people he can locate.

It was the leaders of Israel who howled for the life’s blood of the only begotten Son of God. We have stated that "Babylon" incorporates the spirit of Sodom, the spirit of Egypt, and the spirit of Jerusalem. "Babylon" represents the religious-world spirit. Babylon is a "whore" because it takes what belongs to God and offers it to the demon-filled people of the present age.

The spirit of Babylon seeks to build a tower to the heaven by its own wisdom and strength. It does this in the name of the Lord, but it is seeking its own glory. The spirit of Babylon can be found to a greater or lesser extent in most Christian organizations.

Babylon will marry and serve Antichrist coyly and gladly. But it will despise and murder Christ wherever it finds Him. The spirit of Babylon participates in the world system of commerce. The Christian churches engage in seeking monetary gain.

Every time the Spirit of God reveals Christ, the Christian churches that are found "in Babylon" will arise in fury and denounce the true work of God. If given the opportunity, the Christian churches, as did the Jewish priests and elders, will lie, murder, steal, deceive, hire false witnesses, and do anything and everything else necessary to destroy the work of the Holy Spirit.

We marvel at the satanic impulses of the Jews as they sought to slay Lazarus because of his testimony of being raised from the dead. But that same spirit fills the Christian churches in the present hour. The Christ-murdering spirit loves to sing Christian hymns. The members of the churches sing "Onward Christian Soldiers" while murdering the soldiers of Christ.

Notice carefully the seventh chapter of the Book of Acts. The Holy Spirit of God in Stephen was addressing the elders of Israel. These elders were among the most respected men of Jewry—doctors of the Law. They were learned in the Law of Moses. Their doctrine was perfect. Their conduct beyond reproach (in their own eyes). Could such men of the Law be deceived? Can the religious people be deceived today?

Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your father's persecuted? and they have slain them which shewed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: (Acts 7:52)

It was the almighty God who was accusing the elders of Israel. The awfulness of such a charge against human beings passes our comprehension. Such is the wickedness of religious envy. The Spirit of God did not go to the prison, to the house of prostitution, to the den of robbers to make such a charge. He went to the Church—to the leading elders, priests, and teachers.

The Holy Spirit of God termed the religious leaders "betrayers and murderers." Where are the betrayers and murderers of Christ today? In the Christian churches. Antichrist and the False Prophet will come out of the Christian churches.

Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us. (I John 2:18,19)

Judas Iscariot went out from the midst of the Apostles of the Lamb. Judas was one of the Twelve but in his heart he loved the world. This is the Antichrist spirit—the mixture of Christianity and the world.

John says, "Ye have an unction [anointing] from the Holy One." The difference between Christ and Antichrist has to do with the "unction," the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

It is not church membership or correct doctrine that makes the difference between Christ and Antichrist, it is the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

Could God level a more serious charge against Satan himself than He brought against the priests and elders of Israel? Satan is an envious religious creature. He aspires to be like God. He desires to receive worship. The history of the world demonstrates that Satan continually expresses his nature through church people—often through those who are confident, as was true of the Pharisees, that they are obeying correctly all the laws of God.

History has witnessed Christians torturing and murdering other Christians and innocent Jewish people. Were these acts prompted by the Spirit of God or by Satan?

Whenever a Christian makes an alliance with the world, receiving money, glory, honor, from other men, he will be the first to murder Christ wherever He appears. Judas Iscariot was a forerunner of Antichrist.

Take, for example, the scriptural practice of speaking in tongues, which the Holy Spirit of God has restored to the Christian churches in this century. Has the world denounced "tongues" as being of the devil? Has it not been the Christians who for their love of the praise of men have turned against their fellow Christians whose "sin" has been that they have believed that a gift of the Spirit is for us today?

The fundamentalist churches have denounced "tongues" bitterly as being sent by Satan. Yet the works of the "Pentecostals" are as scriptural as those of any other Christian group. Is Christ denouncing the Holy Spirit? Or is it not the same satanic spirit of envy that is filling the hearts of Christians who are certain they are keeping all God’s laws and have all the revelation of God that it is possible to obtain?

As God moves forward in our day it may be true that the Pentecostals will lift up their voices in dismay in this same spirit of envy.

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