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Lyall Johnston—November 15, 2025
Today we have a subject which has the title Satan vs. the Church of Christ, or we may as well say the Churches of Christ, as they are represented in Rev. 2 & 3. The Scriptures identify two church systems or two church bodies. One is very clearly identified as the Synagogue of Satan or the Church of Satan. It has other names, blasphemous names.
Also, there is the Church which this major church system is against and has persecuted it for the last 2,000 years, putting many of the saints of the Church of the Body of Christ to death—martyred them!
Rev. 2:9 primarily has very much the same message about this synagogue or church of Satan the devil, the Church of, possessive case, Satan the devil!
Whereas the Church that Jesus Christ is building is Jesus, said He ‘kept the Church in the Father’s name.’ He also prayed to the Father (John 17): ‘Father, keep them in Your name.’ What’s God’s name? Theos, God! The Church of God.
The Church that God possesses
the Church that obeys the Commandments and Laws of God
the Church that is faithful
the Church that God has been called out of this world
the Church that God has been called out of the churches of this world
In fact, God says, ‘come out of this false church system.’ And He’s actually addressing the Church, or Churches of God to come out of this false, counterfeit ‘Christian’ organization that has nothing to do with the teachings and doctrines of God.
Totally fake, false, phony, and counterfeit, and very deceptive. One of the ways that Satan deceives the whole world, is through this false church system.
Revelation 17:1: “And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying to me, ‘Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters...’”
This is the false church system, this counterfeit religion, this counterfeit system that Satan has used to deceive the whole world, including mainstream Christianity, Catholicism, Protestantism, and every other ‘ism’ that there is, because all religions of this world, historians and researchers have traced their origins and their roots right back to Gen. 10 and 11, to the original Babylon, or Babel, when God confused their languages!
They took all their false teachings, such as the worship of Ishtar, today the so-called modern Christian churches celebrate as Easter, rejecting the Passover of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for this false worship system, which predates the Passover of Jesus Christ, the Christian Passover, by 2,000 years.
That was 4,000 years ago. The Trinity doctrine also began there. The worship of the sun-god began there. The worship of the mother and child began there, and that had nothing to do with the true mother and child mentioned in Rev. 12. Mary and her babe Christ, who became Savior of mankind after His death through His blood and many other doctrines. Now, the language was confused because, as it says in:
Genesis 6:5: “...and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
God saw what was in the hearts of man, and He destroyed mankind by the Flood of Noah. This time, man in rebellion, and you can read about that rebellion through Nimrod (Gen. 10). So this time God didn’t flood the earth, but He confused the languages, and they spread to the four corners of the earth, and that’s all recorded in Gen. 10 & 11.
What do you think happened to all those religious beliefs? They also went out to the four corners of the earth, and coming right down 4,000 years later, those same ancient Babylonian false religious teachings and beliefs are the major teachings of mainstream Christianity today!
IF you’re a part of that system, God has a message for you, which we will see when we come to an end of this section. It’s also a message to those who are members of the very Body of Christ:
through repentance
through baptism
through the laying on of hands and receiving the Holy Spirit
Because, sadly, some of us are double-minded, and we have one foot in the world, either in its religions, or in the world which is controlled by Satan, and subject to Satan and his attitudes! Again, we’ll see that as we close this segment. judgment.
So, here in Rev. 17 I will show the judgment of the ‘great whore.’ What’s she saying? She’s teaching false things, false doctrines, and God calls that whoredom! She is a spiritual prostitute, a spiritual church of prostitution, teaching false doctrines and false teachings, deceiving the nations!
We know it’s Satan deceiving the nations through this false church system called Babylon the Great, and we’ll see that.
Revelation 17:1—she’s “...sitting upon many waters.”
In other words, she’s sitting over many nations, even ruling over kings. You know, what happens when a pope dies? We saw that! We saw all the kings and leaders and nations, prime ministers and presidents sitting there at the funeral of the pope, because they’re all subject—or are going to be subject—to the pope or else.
This woman, v 2: “With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication... [in other words, spiritual prostitution] ...and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication”—her false teachings!
So the whole modern day, false Christianity, claiming to be Christian—or as it says in Rev. 2:9, claiming to be Jews, which is a reference to Christians—but, Jesus says, ‘are not.’ Christians. They’re part of Satan’s church, the Synagogue of Satan.
Verse 3—John speaking: “Then he [the angel] carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, full of names of blasphemy.”
This is the false church system, centered today in modern Babylon.
Verse 4: “And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones; and she had a golden cup in her hand... [very rich with vaults filled with all precious metals, gold, silver, precious stones] ...filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornication”
Her teachings, which are totally in the other direction to the Word of God, yet, claiming to be the servant of God and teaching the things of God! She is a liar, this whole church system. Notice what God the Father, through Christ, calls this church system:
Verse 5: “And across her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
This is in all capitals to emphasize the importance so that we will understand that this whole church system:
fake
phony
false
corrupt
deceptive
counterfeit church system
counterfeited by none other than Satan the devil
These words are vitally important that we understand them!
Verse 5: “And across her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS...”—her harlot daughters! Here we have Romanism, the Church of Rome, with all her Protestant daughters!
The Bible clearly calls them—IF you have ears to hear, to understand this—“THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
Verse 6: “And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And after seeing her, I wondered with great amazement. Then the angel said to me, ‘Why are you amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns’” (vs 6-7).
Now, if you don’t understand that, do write in or ask us for a copy of the book which explains the books of Daniel and Revelation. {Daniel/Revelation}
Without these two books, Daniel and Revelation, you can’t understand the Plan of God. You can’t understand fully what has taken place in the nations today. It’s all there. It’s been written there thousands of years ago.
Daniel back in his day and Christ, of course, giving this to the Church from the Father in about 95AD. And the two books have to go together to understand them.
Rev. 18—again, addressing this whole question of this false church system called Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots, spiritual harlots with all their false counterfeit teachings of:
Christmas
Easter
the Trinity
Halloween
All Saints Day
All those ‘religious’ observances, they’ve got nothing to do with the teachings of the Word of God. They are all counterfeit.
Our book: God’s Plan For Mankind, Revealed Through His Sabbath and Holy Days is a masterful writing, putting all the Scriptures together on the basis of God’s Sabbath and Holy Days, which shows us God’s Plan from beginning to end! Because the churches, the mainstream Christianity, have:
thrown the Sabbath out and now are worshipping Satan on Sunday
thrown out the Holy Days, which explain God’s Plan
They haven’t got a clue about God’s Plan for the salvation of mankind. They have a counterfeit message that takes you through the wide open gate right down the path to death!
So you need some of these publications. You need to understand the Word of God! Not through the false system, but through the Church that Jesus Christ built!
IF you don’t know where that is, you really need to study hard, because time is running out, time is getting short! It’s even getting short for those of us who are in the Church. IF we’ve still got one foot in the world, six days of the week, and we come before God and His people and fellowship just one day a week, because the rest of the week we’re living according to this world, we’re living in the world! Double-minded, not acceptable to God!
God wants us ‘lock, stock, and barrel,’ because He wants us to inherit eternal life! Now to do that we have to do it God’s way, and we’ll see more of that as we continue through this series.
Revelation 18:1: “And after these things I saw an angel descending from heaven, having great authority; and the earth was illuminated with his glory.”
The whole earth, this angel is so powerful. This is, I hesitate to use the word ‘just an angel,’ but it’s a mighty angel, so great and so powerful that the eminence, the light from this angel’s body, as it says, and the earth was illuminated with it!
Now think! Angels today, as Paul writes to the Hebrews, are ministering spirits to those who will be the children of God in the kingdom of God following the resurrection. What glory and power are we going to have? Read 1-Cor 15 and see what Paul has to say about that.
Verse 2: And he cried out mightily with a loud voice, saying, ‘Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen..”
This whole church system is going to fall, it’s going to be crushed. The city, the religious system is going to be crushed, but even the physical place, the whole land is going to be wiped clean, and no one will exist there. That’s how God considers this perverse, polluted religious system, which has got so many misguided people in its control. But the message of God, IF this means anything to you, is repent and ‘come out of her My people!’
“...‘Babylon the Great is fallen, is fallen... There’s a double curse in that sense on this great church system ...and has become a habitation of demons, and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hated bird; because all nations have drunk of the wine of the fury of her fornication...’” (vs 2-3).
This includes all those churches claiming, as it says in Revelation, to be Jews, or claiming to be Christians, but God the Father through Christ says, ‘and are not’! That one little phrase says a lot. They claim to know God, but they will not keep His Commandments. They reject His Commandments for what is a fallacy, and what is a false church religious system.
“...and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the power of her luxury” (v 3).
Now, listen to this. Here is a message to the people of earth from God the Father through Jesus Christ, through the angel that was sent to John to proclaim this unto all the nations:
Verse 4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, My people...’”
Why? Why would God want people to come out of this Babylonian system? Here it is, plain and clear.
Can you comprehend this?
Can you understand this?
Can you understand how serious this?
Can you understand what God is offering to you and to me in this statement?
This doesn’t only refer to the people of this world, but it also refers to the Churches of God today! You can read the history of as it was in the first century, and as that history continued in the Churches of God down through the last 2,000 years, ‘come out of her, My people.’ We ask the question: Who is God the Father addressing as My people?
It can refer to the 12 tribes of Israel, not just the Jews; the Jews were only just one tribe. They like to claim that they are all 12 tribes, but that’s a lie, that’s not the truth. There are the 12 tribes of Israel, Jews only one, and of course with the Jews we understand, after the division of the kingdom, that there were Benjamites and Levites that remained with the Jewish peoples, and they took on the name as Jews because they followed Judaism. Just as the Apostle Paul was the tribe of Benjamin, but actually he said he was a Jew, but that was because he followed the religion of the Jews, Judaism, which was not the religion of Moses, as you can read in our publication, which is there free of charge. Book: Judaism: Revelation of Moses or Religion of Men
Verse 4: “And I [John] heard another voice from heaven, saying, ‘Come out of her, My people, so that you do not take part in her sins, and that you do not receive of her plagues, for her sins... [this ancient Babylon, this modern Babylon now] ...have reached as far as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities’” (vs 4-5).
You can read back about that in Gen. 10 & 11. Hello! This ‘great church’ claiming to be the church of God, the only one true church, called the Church of Rome!
Verse 5: “For her sins have reached as far as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities. Render to her as she has rendered to you; and give to her double, even according to her works. In the cup that she mixed, give her back double” (vs 5-6).
Retribution! Punishment, from God the Father, because she refuted:
His Righteousness
His Laws
His Commandments
His Sabbath
the Christian Passover
the Holy Days
teaching for doctrines the commandments of men that go right back 4,000 years to that ancient city of Babel, today known as ancient Babylon with all its sins and corruption!
We know that from Gen. 6:5 the reason why God caused the Flood in the first place is the reason why ancient Babylon today is going to receive punishment equitable to her sins.
Verse 8: “For this very reason, her plagues shall come in one day—death and sorrow and famine; and she shall be burned with fire; for the Lord God, Who executes judgment upon her, is powerful.”
In closing let’s have a look at a couple of Scriptures. We’ve already seen Rev. 18:4, God’s message to you and me and to all the inhabitants of mankind! All who hear the message, this message being spread around the world, while we still have the ability to preach openly, God has given us an open door, and that door is going to be closed! When it’s closed, it’s going to be too late to redeem the time, because great persecution is going to come particularly upon the Churches of God and all those claiming to be of Christ, and also unto all the nations of the world.
Now, there are those who are apart at this time that will at that time come out of the religious system of modern-day Babylon, and they’ll receive the seal of God.
So, it says, ‘Come out of her, My people.’ Now, what I’d like to do is turn to James 4 just to refer back to something we already addressed. This is a message to you and me and to anyone who is hearing the preaching of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
James 4:7: “Therefore, submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil...”
his religious system
the Synagogue of Satan
the Church of Satan
all the lusts that he throws at us
“...and he will flee from you.... [solution]: ...Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.... [here are the conditions]: ...Cleanse your hands, you sinners...” (vs 7-8).
Oh, but that’s not talking to me. I’m part of the body of Christ.
don’t be fooled
don’t be deceived
as some are, who refuse to see the sin that dwells within! They can’t see and don’t repent!
Walking out on ice and about to fall through, unless you repent!
Verse 8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners...”
‘Oh, but I’m not a sinner!’ Everyone is a sinner, because we have the sin dwelling within, as Paul says to the Romans. And here’s the key to all Christians:
we can know all doctrines
we can have great powers
But IF we’re not doing this, we’re not even on the starting line, but we haven’t started to run yet.
“...and purify your hearts, you double-minded!” (v 8).
What’s James saying? James is a very powerful, strong message! What he’s saying is ‘you’ve still got one foot in the world, even in the churches of this world, and you’ve got the other foot in the Church!
You come along on the Sabbath and worship and fellowship as the people of God, but you’re still living in the world and that’s not good enough!. You’re double-minded. Not acceptable by God!
Powerful message! But we’ve got to own it personally. What do we do about it? Here’s the answer:
Verse 8: “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners... [resist the devil] ...and purify your hearts, you double-minded! Be grieved and mourn and weep...” (vs 8-9).
Repent! You may need to fast in order to just break through so that you know you’re in the very presence of God.
“...let your laughter be turned into grieving, and your joy into mourning. Humble yourselves before the Lord... [What is he going to do?] ...and He will exalt you” (vs 9-10).
Powerful words!
Scriptural References:
Revelation 17:1
Genesis 6:5
Revelation 17:1-7
Revelation 18:1-6, 8
James 4:7-10
Scriptures referenced, not quoted:
Revelation 12:9
John 17
Genesis 10; 11
Revelation 2:9
1-Corinthians 15
Also referenced:
Books—{truthofgod.org}
Daniel/Revelation
God’s Plan For Mankind Revealed by His Sabbath and Holy Days
Judaism: Revelation of Moses or Religion of Men
LJ:bo/po
Transcribed:
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