Who Can I Trust?

German pharmacist Peter Stadtmann was known for being competent and reliable at his work. Because of his trustworthy reputation, it came as a shock to longtime patients when two of Stadtmann’s employees uncovered something deeply disturbing in 2016.

For some time, it had seemed strange to a lab assistant that Stadtmann was producing cancer drugs without supervision—and in disproportionate quantities. In addition, his accountant discovered that the pharmacist was declaring much higher quantities of cytostatics than he was actually processing. Eventually, the two employees handed over an infusion bag to the police, and a chemical analysis confirmed that the sample contained only pure saline solution instead of the declared drug.

Stadtmann had been diluting the formulations of his homemade chemotherapy solution for more than four years. In at least 60,000 cases, he had stretched the cancer drugs, underdosing the drug content so that they had little or no effect. He had charged the health insurance company the full price for the diluted infusions and thus enriched himself by about 60 million euros.

The tragic consequences of his crime cannot be fully known. At least 4,600 patients received their chemotherapy from Stadtmann’s pharmacy during this period. These patients had been terminally ill, placing all their hopes in the effectiveness of his drugs. How many of them could still be alive today? No one knows.

Surprisingly, this medical scandal has an explosive parallel in the religious sphere, which affected the spiritual fate of millions. 

Christianity? No Thanks! 

If you read the historical accounts of what happened after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you come to the conclusion that the gospel (the message of the first Christians) was highly effective. It was not just good medicine—it was a cure for the deepest human maladies! Because it made such a precise diagnosis of the inner brokenness of man, listeners could immediately identify with it. Moreover, the coming of Jesus, His inspiring servant life, and His willingness to sacrifice brought people back into the embrace of God. They found complete acceptance with the heavenly Father—plus healing, renewal, and hope. Countless thousands experienced the power of divine love in their own souls. A movement was born that revolutionized humanity.

Today? Christianity? Yes, it is still there in name. But most inhabitants of the Western world say: “Thank you, I know about the Christian faith. It is simply no longer relevant. It doesn’t work. It no longer corresponds to what people need today.” 

What has happened?

A Deceptive Abuse of Power

Well, the sad finding is that the good news has been greatly diluted over the centuries. All that seems to remain is an institution that wants to leverage moral pressure on its members to become good people who dutifully pray and donate so that after death they will not go to hell. No wonder that no one seeks in it a powerful remedy for their inner conflict. There is nothing but watery solution in such a religion. A book club would have more to offer!

This deterioration began with fatal changes in the hierarchical structure of Christianity. Instead of being servants like Jesus, high dignitaries allowed themselves to be appointed and worshipped. Soon motives like greed and power, fraud and abuse, were rampant in the church. Instead of sharing the precious medicine—God’s healing love, undiluted and unearned—certain “spiritual pharmacists” preferred to enrich themselves with it. Eternal salvation became a lucrative business.

Jesus Christ sharply criticized the spiritual leadership of his time for being driven by vanity and profit and destroying people’s trust in God. Over the centuries, his original message of freedom and salvation was diluted more and more with ineffective ingredients: “As an ordinary person, you have no personal access to God. Only the priest can give you hope and forgiveness of sins.” Or, “You must atone for your mistakes by religious works in order to experience peace with God.” And time prevents us from detailing the oppression, persecution, sexual abuse, and death that millions of innocent people have suffered. How many honest seekers after God have been lost through bankrupt Christian churches? No one knows. But before any of this occurred, God knew about it. In fact, the Bible predicted the coming corruption of His church, calling this diluted and ineffective entity by the code name “Babylon” and “mother of harlots” (see Revelation 17).

Babylon Is Fallen, Is Fallen! 

This ongoing spiritual scandal does not come as a complete surprise. God declares of the adulterated church, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she has made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication!” (Revelation 14:8). The church’s departure from the original message of Jesus is declared to be an adulteration of what was once pure—she is “fallen.”

That’s the bad news. The good news is that the book of Revelation pictures another woman, a pure woman clothed with the sun, representing the true people of God. That is, the goodness and purity of Christ still shine through her. God has never left Himself without a witness. His truth and mercy and healing love still exist. Institutional “Babylon” may be fallen, but it is worth taking a look at the undiluted story.

If you would like to learn more about the Bible’s message for our time (in contrast to the adulterated version), please contact us at the information on the back of this paper.