The following are some characteristics of groups (churches, ministries, organizations) that I see which make them a fit with the woman described in Revelation 17. I believe that when these things exist as established practices among those who say they are His people, God calls: “Come out of her my people.”
That means that if we find ourselves among a group of Christians whose practice any of the following things (bulleted) that are forbidden by the word of God, if they will not make a course correction, we should heed God’s call to “come out of her” and seek fellowship elsewhere. Such groups, according to Revelation 17, will experience “curses and plagues,” which we will also partake in, if we remain there. We will not be protected from attacks by the devil, because such ongoing sins give him legal ground to attack God’s people. They also hinder God answering His people’s prayers:
- Idolatry (serving or exalting or promoting persons, ministries, governing visions, or any thing more than Christ Himself; for example, absolute following of a gifted person or allegiance to one ministry as the only one that is of God. What do you hear about the most?)
- Presence of broken or damaged relationships in God’s family (the blood of the saints shed by others in the so-called family of God; sexual sin that is tolerated in the family of God; no evidence of reconciliation attempts as Jesus commanded (Matt. 18 and 5)
- “Lording-it-over” practices which result in woman having no standing of her own before God but only being allowed to ride on the back of hierarchical practices controlled by the great dragon (This includes exercising authoritarian male dominance over female believers.)
Agree? If so, what are some examples of these that you know about first hand or that you have read about on the internet from reliable sources? (Please check out your sources before you post links to them, or tell us that you haven’t checked them out!) Disagree? If so, please give biblical support for your disagreement.