There is a problem with your argument here. You say Christians are to live by faith rather than knowledge, but the Bible disagrees with you in at least 3 passages:
- 2 Pet. 3:18: "but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ"
- Rom. 10:27: "So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
- Eph. 4:13: "till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;"
A professing Christian cannot live by faith if they don't have the knowledge that is supposed to accompany and build saving faith.
Our carnal mind can only take us so far in our Spiritual Growth, and it is not the Organ by which we Know The person of Truth (Jesus is the Truth). We come to Know Him with the mind of Christ, that is His Spirit in us.
But God hath revealed
them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2: 10-16)
The Spirit of Truth will guide us into all truth, Not into falsehood, That takes faith in something other than our mind and intellect to accomplish. All who worship God must do so in Spirit and in Truth, and in so doing they will be conforming to the Truth of the Word of God, without compromise and without error, Like a ship sailing in the wind It will go where the wind is pointing and the wind is pointing to the truth. Now we can fight against the wind and place our oars in the water, But we are eventually going to tire of fighting the wind.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)
This is the point we all must reach in our Christian walk where the Spirit can finally begin to teach us, the point where we need help understanding, like a child who is dependent on their parents for guidance, this being the faith of a child. It is only then that we see how little we have of what he has to offer us, the abundant riches of his grace, and that we begin to hunger and thirst for more of Jesus. Everything else is just a substitute for these riches, and promotes Babylon.
The example was Brought up of Jerusalem being Babylon vs. Rome being Babylon, I Have seen this debated for years on prophecy forums and sites, and it is probably still going on on those same forums to this day. Both are missing the Point, and both are perpetuating the confusion, and are ever learning and never arriving at the truth. (2 Timothy 3:7) In Other words in arguing what is Babylon using human intellect alone they fail to see that they are the ones who are Babylon.
Others here have Spoken of the seven churches, what most are missing is that we are the church, and those churches are prone to error and correction and require overcoming of those errors. In scripture the church is portrayed as a woman. at times she is portrayed as a virgin, at other times as a mother and at other times as a harlot, the same for the nation of Israel. All these portrayals show her standing whether betrothed, Married and consumated, or Apostate and wicked, they are all the church. In Revelation we see the seven churches, we see the woman in the wilderness producing offspring and we see the woman riding on the beast coming out of the wilderness as a harlot. This is what happens to those who fail to reach the point of being Spirit taught, and they continue in their confusion and being sure of themselves to their destruction.
I Have been walking on eggshells in this post, because this is such a delicate topic. I am NOT saying do not contend for the faith, and expose heretical teachings, That too must be carried out and many are called to this. What I am saying is we can never reach the point of having it all figured out, because when we do WE stop growing. When we stop growing Spiritually the church stops growing Spiritually and all the errors you point to in the church point to your own Spiritual immaturity, as we are the church.
It has been said that each successive generation of seed is a little weaker than the one previous it. If the season was a healthy year, the plant grew strong and had plenty of water it's seed would be bountiful as well. If there was a drought, and harsh weather conditions that seed would be even weaker and may not produce as well as the one before it, and may even result in a famine. As we live our Christian life, we are that Plant, we need the water of the Spirit to thrive, if we do not get enough water we will not bear fruit, let alone pass down seed to the next harvest, resulting in a famine in the Land. It is easy to point the finger at others as being the harlot of Revelation but it is our responsibility to act to prevent this by first pointing the finger at ourselves as the culprit for the confusion by mixing, and coming to our knees in repentance and seeking to be led and taught by the Spirit. Only then can we worship in Spirit and in truth and in the Unity of the Spirit....