Not Denying the Lord’s Name but being Saved from Confusion, Scattering, and Mixture

As we read the Bible and realise the principle of Babylon, we need to be saved from denying the Lord’s name and from any confusion, scattering, and mixture.

God hates Babylon and the principle of Babylon, for this great city is first of all the culmination of man’s endeavor to build something to make a name for himself, and secondly, it is hypocrisy, it is a harlot, full of confusion, mixture, and scattering.

What God wants to gain is the New Jerusalem, and in this age the precursor of the New Jerusalem is the church. The church is what’s on God’s heart. However, the church became degraded, and what we have now is a great city, Babylon the Great, which is the antithesis of the pure and holy city, New Jerusalem.

The Great Babylon is a type of the fallen Christendom, where there are many genuine believers in Christ but at the same time there’s lots of confusion, mixture, scattering, hypocrisy, denying the Lord’s name, and taking many other names besides the Lord’s.

We in the church life in the Lord’s recovery may not be in Babylon, for we have returned to the genuine ground of oneness, but we may be affected or live by the principle of Babylon.

We need the Lord to shine on is and expose the principle of Babylon in our being so that we may be saved from denying the Lord’s name and from any confusion, scattering, and mixture, and be produced as the pure bride of Christ, the church as His corporate expression on earth.

As believers in Christ, we need to spend much time with the Lord in His word, much time in secret with the Lord, so that we may enjoy Him, be infused with Him, and seek Him in secret, for our God is in secret and reveals Himself to those who seek Him.

We need to avoid putting on a show or performance so that others may see how spiritual we are; we should be what we are and enjoy the Lord and cooperate with Him that we may grow in Him and become something different.

Our satisfaction and delight is not in this world: Christ is our satisfaction, He is our Bridegroom, and we desire Him. We are here on earth seeking for God’s will to be done and for His heart’s desire to be accomplished, that is, for Christ to have the church, His corporate expression on earth.

Our only satisfaction and delight here on earth should be to enjoy the Lord. This requires that we deny the self and lose our soul life, and the main reward is gaining our soul life in the next age, when we will be with the Lord as His bride.

Not Denying the Lord’s Name but Keeping His Name and Calling on His Name

Babylon’s purpose is for man to make a name for himself, thus denying God’s name (Gen. 11:4).

We need to lift and exalt the name of Jesus, and we need to drop every other name than this highest name. To denominate ourselves by taking any other name than our Lord’s name is spiritual fornication.

The Lord appreciates when we are not denying the Lord’s name but keep it and love it, call on the name of the Lord, and be in His name (see Rev. 3:8). However, in Christianity today we see many names, and all the denominations and free groups take a different name than the Lord’s name; this is spiritual fornication.

The church is Mrs. Christ, and there’s only one name that the church can be called by, which is the Lord’s name.

The church is a pure virgin espoused to Christ (2 Cor. 11:2), and should have no other name other than her Husband’s; all other names are an abomination in the eyes of God. May we be saved from denying the Lord’s name by taking another name beside His!

May we return to the pure revelation in the word of God and pursue Him together with those who call on the name of the Lord out of a pure heart (2 Tim. 2:22), so that we may be the pure church that He desires!

Lord Jesus, we love Your name, we call on Your name, and we refuse to take any other name beside Your name! We don’t want to denominate the church by taking any name other than our Lord’s. Lord Jesus, we love You! You are our Husband, and we are Your wife – we are Mrs. Christ. We love to call on Your name and to be called by Your name. We refuse to be those denying the Lord’s name – we want to keep Your name, be gathered in Your name, and pursue You with those who call on Your name out of a pure heart!

Being Saved from Confusion and Division by being in Spirit and Speaking the One Thing

As a result of the open rebellion of man at Babel, God came in and punished man by causing them to have different languages; therefore, at Babel there was much confusion.

Babylon, therefore, is confusion; because here each one speaks his own language and has his own thought, they all are confused and divided. This is a punishment from God for being rebellious against Him and for living in the self, not in the spirit.

Babylon means confusion (see Gen. 11:6-7).

In the church life we should not have different kinds of speaking, but we should have only one mind and one mouth under one ministry with one unique teaching for the one Body of Christ (see Rom. 15:5-6; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2; 1 Tim. 1:3-4).

In Christianity and in the world everyone is encouraged to “speak his own thing” and “do his own thing”, but in the church life it is our glory to pray-read the word of God, be constituted with the healthy teaching, and speak the same thing!

What a glory it is for us to speak the same thing with one mouth, thus having oneness and dispelling any confusion and division! When we are in our mind, we are in the principle of Babylon; when we speak from our unrenewed mind, we are in confusion and we spread confusion.

But when we are in our spirit, when we exercise our spirit and speak in spirit, we are in today’s Jerusalem, in which there’s the divine oneness (John 4:23-24; Eph. 4:3).

Hallelujah for our mingled spirit! When we exercise our spirit, we speak the same thing, even the one thing – the enjoyment and experience of Christ for the building up of the Body of Christ, the church. We should not dare to have any division, because our Husband is one, and we as His wife are also one (Matt. 19:3-9).

Lord Jesus, save us from having different kinds of speaking in the church. May we all exercise our spirit to be in today’s Jerusalem, the city of oneness, and may we speak with one mouth the same thing! Keep us in our spirit, Lord, where there’s the divine oneness! Keep us in Your word, being sanctified and saturated with the healthy teaching in the Word of God, so that we may have one mind and one mouth under one ministry with one unique teaching for the one Body! Amen, Lord Jesus, thank You for making us one and keeping us one!

Not being Scattered but being In Spirit and on the Ground of Oneness

As a result of the confusion that came in through the confounding of the languages at Babel, there was scattering; with the rebellious people at Babel, there was scattering (Gen. 11:8). Being scattered and not one is a curse.

God ordained that His people Israel would have a unique place of worship, Jerusalem, where they would gather three times a year, thus keeping the oneness (see Deut. 12:5; 16:16).

In the ancient times all the Israelites came together three times a year at Jerusalem – this was versus the scattering at Babel. It was by this unique place of worship to God, Jerusalem, that the oneness of His people was kept for generations (see Psa. 133).

In the church life we need to return to Jerusalem, which signifies not only our mingled spirit but also the genuine ground of oneness, the ground of locality (Acts 8:1; 13:1; Rev. 1:11).

When we return to our spirit, exercise our spirit, and stand on the ground of oneness, we are a genuine local church in God’s economy.

The ground of oneness is the unique oneness of the Body of Christ kept and expressed in each local church in its locality. This means that there’s one church in one city, and one city having one church as an expression of the one Body of Christ.

We need to come out of Babylon in our being by being in spirit and on the ground; we need to be both in the mingled spirit and on the genuine ground of oneness, and any scattering will be eliminated.

In 1 Kings 12:26-33 the sin of Jeroboam, who set up another center of worship, is the sin of division caused by one’s ambition to have a kingdom, an empire, to satisfy his selfish desire.

He didn’t want the people to go up to Jerusalem to worship, because he knew that this will return their heart to their rightful king. Our meeting on the ground of oneness and in the spirit kills the ambition in our being.

Lord Jesus, save us from being scattered and divided. We want to return to the genuine ground of oneness and exercise our spirit as we meet, so that we keep the oneness and be the church, the corporate expression of Christ. Keep us in spirit and on the ground – in the mingled spirit and on the ground of locality, to be the local expression of the one universal Body of Christ.

Being Saved from the Mixture of Babylon and being Purified in Heart to Seek and Know God

The king of Babylon, king Nebuchadnezzar, burned the house of God in Jerusalem, carried away all the vessels that were in God’s house for God’s worship, and put them in the temple of his idols in Babylon (see 2 Chron. 36:6-7; Ezra 1:11).

This shows that in Babylon, in the fallen Christendom today, there are many genuine worshippers of God, but they are in the wrong house: they are in a house of idols, and thus there’s a mixture.

There may not be physical idols in many of the denominations, but as Ezek. 14:3 says, there are idols in people’s hearts. An idol is something in the principle of Antichrist, something that replaces Christ or that is against Christ.

If we love anything above the Lord or enjoy something more than we enjoy the Lord, that is an idol. Anything that replaces Christ as our enjoyment in our being is an idol in our heart, and we need to be purged and purified from any idols in our heart.

In the New Testament the mixture we see in Babylon is enlarged with the great Babylon (see Rev. 17:3-5, cf. 21:18; 22:1). Babylon is man’s power mixed with God’s power, man’s ability mixed with God’s work, and man’s opinion mixed with God’s word; it is a mixture.

The great Babylon is gilded with gold, pearls, and precious stones (Rev. 17:3-5), while the New Jerusalem is built with these precious materials.

The great Babylon is only gilded with these treasures as ornaments for display outwardly, but it is full of abominations; the New Jerusalem is of pure gold, and the river of water of life is bright as crystal. May we be purified in our heart and seek the Lord in purity, with no mixture.

Lord, save us from any mixture; purify our heart that we may seek You to know You in purity. Save us from mixing man’s power with God’s power, man’s ability with God’s work, and man’s opinion with God’s word. Save us from having idols in our heart. May nothing replace You as our enjoyment in our heart. Purge and purify our heart from any idols, and cause us to seek You in purity that we may become the pure wife of Christ, the church, consummating in the holy city, the New Jerusalem.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1972, vol. 1, “The Living and Practical Way to Enjoy Christ,” ch. 7, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Church (2017 fall ITERO), week 3, The Degradation of the Church – the Principle of Babylon and the Way to Overcome it.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I know your works; / Behold, I have put before you an opened door / Which no one can shut, / Because you have / A little power, / Have kept My word, / Have not denied My name. (Scripture song)
  # Down in Babylon, in captivity, / Oh, the Lord has stirred our spirit up! / Scattered everywhere, without unity, / Oh, the Lord has stirred our spirit up! / Stirred up! Stirred up! / Oh, the Lord has stirred our spirit up! (Hymns #1252)
  # Lord, we are mixed but hardly know; / To us this mixture fully show. / Each added thing we will refute / Until we’re wholly absolute. (Hymns #1274)