Babylon, America, the Church and

Liberation Theology

By Dene McGriff

One of the signs of the end times is false and misleading teaching.  Christians need to be informed and discerning in spirit to know what is true and what isn’t. There is a ministry that has a similar message and draws many of the same readers.  I refer to the teachings of S.R. (Steve) Shearer of Antipas Ministries.  Both Doug Krieger and I have known Steve for nearly 50 years and both worked along with him at one time in Antipas Ministries.  Our problems with S.R. are not based on personality but upon certain teachings which we find spurious and misleading.  So for the sake of our readers, we are going to shine the light on some of those differences.  Specifically, it has do with Steve’s insistence that Christians must flee Babylon/America immediately (i.e., physically remove themselves from the USA or any of its commonwealth or territories).   Also, his militantly negative attitude toward the church in general and his apparent support for a form of liberation-socialist theology, deeply concerns us.

But first, let’s look at the similarities.  We agree that in all likelihood, the only nation that fits the Scriptural description of prophetic Babylon is America.  I lay out detailed arguments in a twenty one chapter book entitled “In Search of Mystery Babylon” and Doug Krieger in “The Rise or Fall of the American Empire” clearly portrays America as the “political Babylon” of the Last Days.  There are various articles and other books we have written which deal with this subject on our site.  We both agree that the rapture of the Church occurs at the end of the Tribulation before the “wrath of God – wrath of the Lamb.”  (i.e., at the close of Daniel’s 70th Week but before the 30 days of “wrath” and the 45 days of Messiah’s unveiling to Israel – ref. Daniel 12:10-13).  We both agree that Israel and the Church are the two olive trees and two lampstands of Revelation 11 and have a major role in the Last Days as the “two witnesses.”   We, S.R. and ourselves, extensively fellowshipped on these issues going back as far as the 1960s.  Now, however, we will examine our differences.

Christians Must Flee Babylon

Steve Shearer insists on a literal interpretation of Revelation 18:4:

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.” 

He interprets this to mean that American Christians MUST get out of America any way they possibly can – by any means, they must flee.  He views the “sins and apostasies” of America as so evil that to stay here is to be contaminated by her filth, participating in her sins and plagues.  There are no “ifs”, “ands” or “buts” about it.  He sees this as a command for every Christian which MUST be obeyed – no excuses.  There are three problems with this teaching:

1.      I discuss the timeline of events in the book of Revelations in detail in Chapter 2 of “In Search of Mystery Babylon.”  The rapture of the church is clearly mentioned in Revelation 11:12 “And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ And they ascended to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies saw them.”  It occurs with the sounding of the seventh trumpet.  There is another reference to the rapture in chapter 15 when it speaks of the harvest prior to the coming wrath.  So the church is gone.  In Chapter 16, with the church gone, the seven bowls of wrath are poured out.  Just a parenthesis here.  Most pre-trib rapture proponents’ main argument is that the church shouldn’t suffer the wrath of God.  They don’t understand that the rapture occurs and then the wrath is poured out.  The sequence in Revelation is clear.

Now we come to the final bowl in Revelation 16:17-19:

Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, “It is done!” ¹⁸ And there were noises and thunderings and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such a mighty and great earthquake as had not occurred since men were on the earth. ¹⁹ Now the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. And great Babylon was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.

Please note that this last judgment is specifically against Babylon.  As we read on, we see that Chapters 17, 18 and 19 elaborate on the judgment of end times Babylon in its three manifestations: religious, commercial and political respectively.  As I point out in my book “In Search of Mystery Babylon, no other nation on earth matches this description: a nation that is outwardly religious but in a blasphemous sort of way, one that is the great commercial, consumer nation and the greatest military power on the earth.  Please see the book for specifics. 

Revelation 18 describes the judgment of this great commercial nation, one of the three expressions of “Babylon”.  Verse 4 is the verse Steve Shearer focuses on, “Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.”  We clearly established that the church was removed before the bowls of wrath (and Rev. 18:4 is a part of the seventh bowl).  The term “come out of her” in this verse and the verse in Revelation 11:12, cited above, use the same terminology.  It is a clear reference to the Church’s rapture – meaning, “come up and out of her” as the book of Revelation intertwines these timelines.  It certainly should be a warning to all generations not to be entangled in the evil world system, which Babylon certainly typifies.  Revelation 18 is the judgment of commercial Babylon.  Clearly, this is part of the wrath of God.  It is completely destroyed in the space of one hour and the whole world mourns because there is no great consumer nation to buy their stuff.

2.      There is no doubt in our minds that the description of Scripture of a great end times’ Babylon the Great which will be – headed up by apostate Christianity (Rev. 17) – be the leading consumer nation (Rev. 18) – and will exemplify the greatest military power of all time (Rev. 19) – this is the picture of Babylon the Great of Revelation 17-19 which we see in the Latter Days; and, we might add – the only “friend of Israel” who will make a defense treaty to protect her for a brief period of time (3.5 years).  Again, we have written extensively on this subject.  Steve and the Bible are correct in identifying her as an outwardly righteous and inwardly rotten nation.  But I am shocked that Steve exclusively singles out America.  If anyone should recognize the all-pervasiveness of Babylon the Great in the Latter Days, one would have to conclude that the preponderance of evidence points to the leadership of America (as much as we may love her – that “love” is ill-placed and especially ill-timed given the present course of the age leading up to the commencement of Daniel’s 70th Week.  Steve pointed out nearly 40 years ago, very eloquently, in a meeting we all attended here in Sacramento, how America was an extension of Europe, the culmination of Western Civilization (Greek and Roman culture).  Babylon is pervasive and there is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide – the Europeans exported their culture to the entire globe through colonization; and, as a result of Twentieth Century wars and technologies, global commercialism and the shift of religious dominance – America became the overwhelming dominant power of the Latter Days.

I spent 30 years in international work and traveled all over the world – to Kuwait, Nigeria, South Africa twice, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc.  I lived in Spain a couple of years and traveled across Europe.  I spent years traveling from one end of South and Central America to the other.  I worked with local churches.  I worked with people, did studies and business plans and worked with local businessmen, doctors, political officials, etc.  All I can say (and not to say any people is better than another because we are all fallen people) is that the power of Satan, the world, materialism, illicit sex and corruption are as pervasive, if not more so, as it is in Babylon’s heart, the USA.  You cannot escape the world system.  The Bible teaches clearly that Satan is the ruler and the whole world lies in his power (at least temporarily).  The cell phone, the internet, social networking, etc. have made the world awfully small and we are constantly bombarded with its message.

The thing that makes America such an enigma is that it once was a “golden cup” in the Lord’s hands – a blessing before it became a curse to the nations.  I have also traveled and lived in all quadrants of the U.S. and there are wonderful saints all across this land.  These are people Christ died for.  Who is Steve to write them all off as he abandons them in a futile effort to portray that all who “stay behind” or “left behind” directly in the here and now “partake of her sins and plagues?”

I don’t buy Steve’s argument of “guilt by association” or in this case:  “guilt by geographic location.”  Saints down through history have had to overcome no matter where they lived – in the persecutions of the Roman Empire, Muslims in the Sudan, communists in China, Hitler’s Germany – wherever down through history.  God isn’t concerned with our location but our heart.  Daniel determined not to defile himself as a member of the King’s court in Babylon.  Keeping ourselves pure and undefiled by Satan’s world system has been and still is the challenge of every Christian.  This is not to say that sometimes drastic measures should not be taken.  If God tells someone to move, they should obey and move.  But to make a blanket statement that all Christians have to leave the United States here and now – listen, all that is nothing more than Scriptural distortion and dramatic hyperbole – naught but sound and fury signifying nothing but heart palpitations!  We all “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”  (Philippians 2:12)  If the Lord tells you to follow Steve’s interpretation of Revelation 18:4, do it, but please examine the Scripture “whether these things be so.”  But don’t feel compelled to do so just because he said you should (I mention this because many write us and feel a load of condemnation either because they don’t or can’t leave the U.S.).

3.      It is becoming more and more difficult to immigrate to another country.  Look at how immigration has become such an issue here.  I lived and worked in other countries.  It is practically impossible to live abroad these days unless you have such an unusual skill or are high up in a company.  Controls are tight and getting tighter.  But beyond that, there is the single parent with young child or children who is barely scraping by.  The idea of leaving everything and moving irrespective of family, responsibility, etc., is just plain nuts!  But that is exactly what Steve and Fred Palmquist (a dear friend who also happens to work with Steve) will say a person should do.  Anything less and they are damned and doomed (per Rev. 18:4).  Antipas Ministries appears to be fraught with inconsistencies regarding their teaching on Revelation 18:4 (such as Steve, Fred and Sean Mayfield – all of whom still live on the West Coast of the USA – smack dab in the middle of Babylon the Great); yet, they assure me they will leave when the time comes.  Revelation 18:8 tells us these plagues will arrive suddenly in one day!  So they had better have an inside track on God’s timing on all this - or they too could get caught in a new “Left Behind Series” – I would suggest living close to a US border (sorry, I’m a bit facetious here).

The Church is the Harlot

Sean Mayfield works with Steve and is brilliant with computer graphics.  Some years ago he put together a picture of the “woman riding the beast” (see below) and the caption read “The Church.”  I argued, “That isn’t ‘the church.”  The church is the Bride of Christ; the apple of God’s eye.  You could call it the Apostate Church but not the “Church.”  This is another reason I left Antipas Ministry.  They had the tendency to lump every church and “Christian” in America as apostate and hopelessly, irredeemably lost forever!  That was just too much for me.  I had already come out of one elitist movement (along with all these brothers) and wasn’t about to be found in another one where we were right and EVERYONE else was wrong. 

Although not enamored with the institutional church (as anyone who reads my writings on the website well knows), I am not so dense to realize there are other born again Christians in churches around this country; yes, even among Catholics (and that will irritate some – though I’m not saying this to enflame some of my friends who detest Rome).  I have met many, many wonderful Christians over the years.  I may be plowing a tomato patch and they may be doing beans or corn, but we’re all working in the same field.  We all love the same Lord.  Furthermore, I have to walk in the light that God shows me – for this I am responsible.  Again, we all individually answer to the Lord.  The Lord told Abraham to leave Ur and go to a land He would show him and he did.  That word was meant for him alone, not Josh down the creek by another field.  How utterly presumptuous for anyone to assume they know the will of God for another person!  How utterly audacious to judge and condemn every Christian in America, which is exactly what Antipas does.  But, wouldn’t their judgment meted out on them who now stay in Babylon the Great’s heartland condemn themselves since they now enjoy her largess? 

If you are a consistent reader of Antipas material, you will see what I mean.  America’s “institutional church” reeks of infidelity – hardly the picture of a “chaste virgin” presented to Christ.  Chapter 2 of “In Search of the Last Days Church” has a detailed discussion of the letters to the seven churches in Asia.  The interesting thing to note is that no matter how terrible the condition of each church, whether Thyatira or Laodicea, there are still saints and overcomers in each one.  The last, the Laodicean Church which most closely parallels the modern western church today, still offers hope.  In spite of its pitiful condition, the Spirit says, “As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent” (Revelation 3:19).  This is hardly a complete repudiation of the western church.  God loves His church (i.e the people) and always leaves room for repentance.  But you say:  “Surely Antipas doesn’t mean what they say!”  I have had hours of long discussions with them:  Antipas means what it says!  They take Revelation 18:4 literally.  If saints are still in America/Babylon when the judgment happens, they are eternally toast!  And they really believe it.  Again, how arrogant to think you know the will of God for every born again Christian in America.  Indeed, we take Revelation 18:4 literally – but as the Almighty delivered the Israelites from Egypt, even so, He will rapture His people on that future day. 

I agree that there is an apostate church and it will turn and is turning on real Christians.  We need to be wise and discerning and make sure we are walking with the Lord on a day to day basis.  It is not our job to separate sheep from goats, wheat from tares or to summarily declare all American Christians beyond hope unless they leave the geographical boundaries of the good ‘ole USA.

Where does Liberation Theology Lead?

If you have been following Steve’s writings lately, you will notice that they are more and more into a kind of class warfare which is really nothing more than an evangelical form of liberation theology – a religious socialism plaguing the Church since the Reformation and much further than that.  There are many articles that touch on the subject of liberation theology but one can be found in the bottom left corner of his home page.  As a matter of fact, I still have the original book Steve gave me years ago entitled:  Liberation Theology by Phillip Berryman.  The modern liberation theology movement was started by Catholic priests in Latin America as a response to the inequities and exploitation by the rich of the poor.  Steve didn’t jump into this all of a sudden; to the contrary, he began to investigate America’s role in the world supporting elites, death squads and the like. 

It began to become apparent that America represented the rich against the poor of the world.  There is a lot of truth in this position; I simply cannot defend what American policy and merchants – let alone its “religious leadership” – has done to the rest of the world.  In fact, you might want to read my chapter on the American Empire, Confessions of a COG – yes I was a COG in that wheel.  Antipas appears to be headed toward class warfare; the poor down trodden masses against the rich.  I spent three weeks in Haiti, months in the poorest nations such as the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Jamaica, etc.  Believe me, we are all fallen creatures.  The poor have no more virtue than the rich.  The rich just have more to lose.  If you read and analyze Steve’s recent articles, you see this overarching and recurring theme.  Once you demonize America and everyone in it - America’s foreign and economic policy - it is a short hop before you turn on Israel as an extension of America’s foreign policy, lackey and oppressor of the Muslims.   And, just as the Left in America and throughout the world has so vociferously condemned Israel – especially, for what recently happened with the “mercy flotilla” headed for Gaza – and now the on again, off again, Presbyterian Church USA’s likening Israel to a Nazi State – it’s only a matter of time before “left-leaning” evangelical of all stripes, including S.R., find themselves in open criticism of Israel and her alleged “Nazi-like” policies.

If you read one of Steve’s latest articles entitled The Invasion of Europe by America’s Apostate Church, it appears to be a defense of Muslims.  He sees the church becoming Hitlerian monsters bringing death and devastation to Europe.

I don’t mean to be insensitive, but Jesus said we would always have the poor with us.  Paul did not tell the saints to overthrow the Romans but submit to and pray for your rulers.  We are urged to be content with what we have whether a little or a lot.  The bottom line – this world is not our home, where we have our true citizenship.  It doesn’t matter if our government is good or bad, fair or unfair.  Christians in China, Africa or the Middle East don’t work at changing their governments but at bringing the life-giving gospel and hope to their people.

If we get too caught up in the injustices of the world and the causes around us, we could end up supporting a liberation-style dominion theology.  Steve’s “gospel of the kingdom” in contrast to the “gospel of the grace of God” has a definite Dominionism ring to it; a kingdom grounded in social justice.  Here is one quote from the article just cited:

The kingdom being proclaimed here will be a kingdom grounded in social justice for ALL mankind, a world of equity where men are not divided up between the "owners of capital" on the one hand and "labor" on the other hand, and where men and women are not divided up on the basis of their race or even their gender (Gal. 3:28); where the rich do not oppress the poor; where every man has equal access to God; where privileges cannot be bought by the wealthy; where there are no death squads, no poverty, no torture, no hunger, no disease, and no room for oppressors of any kind. [Please see our article, "Capitalism and Christianity;" please also see "The Marxist Paradigm."](S.R. Shearer)

I’m sure we will soon see such a kingdom on this earth but not during the close of this age.  Even so, it is disingenuous for Steve to give the allusion, the appearance of being a liberation theologian of the “here and now,” while simultaneously asserting a yet-future Millennium when and where only “King Jesus” can actually effect social justice on the planet.

Conclusion

I am as critical of today’s western institutional church as anyone but I still believe that there are real saints out there in those churches.  God isn’t through with them yet any more than He is through with me.  He is working with His children.  True, a time of testing is coming and each of us will be tested to the max as to whether our relationship with the Lord Jesus is real or phony.  Time will tell.  It is not our job to smoke them out.  It is our job to warn and encourage and pray for them, that they will be freed from the grip of the evil one; that they learn to discern the times, discern ministries, and learn to follow Him wherever He leads. 

There will be plenty of time for American Christians to testify as one of the witnesses/martyrs.  Steve is right about one thing:  Many in the church today will get caught up in the apostate church – just not all.  To him, if the real Christians do not leave the USA, they are henceforth condemned by geography.   Revelation 18:4, which Steve mistakenly places somewhere before the rapture of the Church (not AT the rapture of the Church – i.e., “come out of her my people” IS the rapture of the Church, demands the severest condemnation to them (apparently, including the members of Antipas) who conveniently, purposefully and ignorantly stay behind in America proper.   To us at the Tribnet, the real church will be here to face the full fury of Babylon the Great – just as Daniel faced the Babylon of his day, and overcame!  We will be called to stand and deliver in the face of certain opposition of the apostate church, which will unfortunately contain many who call themselves Christians.  It will not be a pretty sight, but as it says in Matthew 24:

 ⁸All these are the beginning of sorrows.

 ⁹Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake.

 ¹⁰And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.

 ¹¹And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.

 ¹²And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

 ¹³But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

There will be sheep and goats and the goats will turn on the sheep (true followers of Jesus) but they won’t all be summarily wiped out because they live on the wrong side of the Rio Grande.  Remember, only the Lord can separate the tares from the wheat.  My prayer is that this clarifies the issues for those who are confused by apparently similar ministries who rant and rave about leaving Babylon the Great while many of them enjoy her environs and the bounty and care she affords, while condemning those “left behind.”  Again, this is not a slam on personalities – but it is a slam on a hypocritical doctrine, a teaching which is out of sync with Scripture and a liberation theology which promises respite from injustice while announcing only a future Millennium provides the real solution.  I love these brothers and sisters; yet, I respectfully disagree with their position.   We should all be free to question one another, debate and discuss issues without calling one another names.  We can be strong in our positions but we do not need to be inflammatory just for the sake of theater, and, worse yet, using urgency to leave Babylon proper only to pad our pockets like John Tetzel did when he sold indulgences and scared the “hell” out of the faithful by preaching on purgatorial fires – but that’s a bail out I’ll cover in another missive.