It is hard to overestimate the importance of a few simple words from the Lord’s mouth about the incredibly evil woman of Matt. 13:33. “Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” Inspired by Satan, she dispenses into the fine meal of truth concerning the life and person of Jesus, an insidious and pervasive yeast that has a life of its own. Yeast is a one-celled organism whose cell matches the cells of animals and humans, and which reproduces rapidly. Satan has a life of his own, with his own set of genes capable of reproducing in the flesh of human beings in order to corrupt and ruin. This is the exact element that the woman “hides” in the three measures of meal. She does it clandestinely, out of sight of those most affected by her duplicity – the followers of the pure Jesus. The leaven corrupts the believers’ appreciation and grasp of His sinless life and beloved personhood and its requirements upon His followers, and the harsh truth of sin and righteousness and judgment. Leaven adds air into dough and makes the bread easy to eat. Jesus and His flawless human life is not easy to take, because to enjoy it and live by it requires the complete commitment of our souls. But when “yeast” is added to Him and to His Word, He becomes in our imagination much milder toward sin and our sinfulness, and more accommodating to our sensitivities. This is the way of Satan – to dilute the message and person of Christ, and to diminish His authority among the human race. Leaven, or yeast, is the active, living element of Satan that, because of its genetic viability, is able to reproduce and overtake its host until it is utterly corrupt and useless. This is the work of the Woman of Matt. 13, and she is the mystic and spiritual Babylon of the Apocalypse.
The clergy/laity system is just such a “yeast.” It kills the function of the Body of Christ. Developed at Babel by the wicked wife of Nimrod, Semiramis, through the institution of a class of initiates in the “mysteries” of darkness, it has spread and developed as a satanic counterfeit to the truth throughout the world, more particularly in the region of the Mediterranean where the four empires of Nebuchadnezzar’s image ruled, the Roman being the last, and where four modern empires have converged in the 20th century, three of which have acquiesced to the fourth. What began at Babel, moved to Pergamos (“where Satan’s seat is”), and then to Italy, coming to rest in Rome. The Woman is alive and thriving in the so-called Christian realm.
The Roman Catholic Church, with its hierarchy of monks, priests, cardinals, and Pope, refined the clergy system into a fine art. It took the only source of light in the world – the Scriptures – from the common people, and placed them into the hands of the priests, the only interpreters and dispensers of its message to the common people. Even as the ancient Babylonians venerated the priests of the mysteries because they knew what the majority did not, so the Roman Catholics esteemed their priests as far above them in erudition and in the knowledge of the “mysteries,” and only they had the qualifications to teach them. Monasteries were a precursor to Protestant seminaries – schools where the “mysteries” are taught, and where initiates are trained to function in the place of the members of the Body of Christ.
What should be our reaction to this ancient clergy class that elevates itself and destroys the function of the members of the Body of Christ? It is obvious: have no part in it! As believers who are granted the revelation of the mystery of the Body of Christ and who desire to participate in its proper function, we should place ourselves in meetings where there is no agenda, no division of saints, no one-man performance, no educated class of the initiated, no silent class of the unlearned. We should meet around and in our precious Christ, and in oneness with all true believers. We should simply be what we are: the Body of Christ gathering under our Head. We should have no other names but Jesus Christ attached to us. We should have the freedom to talk, to study the Word, to ask questions, to learn from one another, and to bear the responsibility for ourselves, for our families, and for each other before the Lord. We must put ourselves in a position to build up the Body of Christ through our fellowship and our prayers. Sitting silently and facing in one direction in gatherings under a pre-programmed format is an offense to the active Spirit within us, and is a concession to the ancient system of “the mysteries” that emasculates and eviscerates the Ecclesia of Christ.
How will we answer the Lord when He questions our participation in this Babylonian system? Individually we will answer for ourselves, but as spouses and parents we will answer for others. Will we blithely continue to subject our children to something we know is wrong and is about to be judged? If we offend them by not leading them properly, will Jesus’ words about millstones apply to us? We should fear that they do.