Revelation 14-
VERSE 6. And I saw
another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to
preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and
tongue, and people, 7. Saying with a loud
voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come:
and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of
waters. 8. And there followed another angel,
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all
nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
9. And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If
any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead,
or in his hand, 10. The same shall drink of the wine of
the wrath of God, 'which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his
indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence
of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
11. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up forever and ever:
and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and
whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. 12. Here is
the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God,
and the faith of Jesus.
(Excerpt from Daniel
and Revelation by Uriah Smith 1897-1911)
The fall of Babylon
will next claim attention. Having now learned what constitutes Babylon, it will
not be difficult to decide what is meant by the declaration that Babylon is
fallen. As Babylon is not a literal city, the fall cannot be a literal overthrow.
We have already seen what an absurdity this would involve. And besides, between
the fall and the destruction of Babylon, the clearest distinction is maintained
by the prophecy itself. Babylon "falls" before it is with violence
"thrown down," as a millstone cast into the sea, and "utterly
burned with fire." The fall is therefore a moral fall; for after the fall,
the voice is addressed to the people of God who are still in her connection,
"Come out of her, my people;" and the reason is immediately given, -
"that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her
plagues." Babylon therefore still exists to sin, and her plagues are still
future, after the fall.
Those who make
Babylon apply exclusively to the papacy, claim that the fall of Babylon is the
loss of civil power by the papal church. But such a view would be inconsistent
with the prophecy in several particulars: -
1. Babylon
falls because she makes all nations drink of her wine, or instils among them
her false doctrines. But this by no means caused the loss of the pope's
temporal power; on the contrary, it was the very means by which he so long
maintained his supremacy.
2. Because of
the fall of Babylon, she becomes the hold of foul spirits and hateful birds;
but such is not at all the result to Rome of the loss of civil power.
3. The people
of God are called out of Babylon on account of her increasing sinfulness
resulting from the fall; but the loss of the temporal power of the papacy
constitutes no additional reason why the people of God should leave that
church.
The reasons given
why Babylon meets with this moral fall is "because she made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath [not anger, but intense passion] of her
fornication." There is but one thing to which this can refer, and that is
false doctrines.
p 656 -- She has
corrupted the pure truths of God's word, and made the nations drunken with
pleasing fables. Among the doctrines she teaches contrary to the word of God,
may be mentioned the following: -
1. The doctrine of a temporal millennium, or a thousand years of
peace and prosperity and righteousness all over the earth before the second
coming of Christ. This doctrine is especially calculated to shut the ears of
the people against the evidences of the second advent near, and will probably
lull as many souls into a state of carnal security which will lead to their
final ruin as any heresy which has ever been devised by the great enemy of
truth.
2. Sprinkling instead of immersion, which is the only Scriptural
mode of baptism, and a fitting memorial of the burial and resurrection of our
Lord, for which purpose it was designed. Having corrupted this ordinance, and
destroyed it as a memorial of the resurrection of Christ, the way was prepared
for the substitution of something else for this purpose, which she attempted
in.
3. The change of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the seventh
day, into the festival of Sunday as the rest-day of the Lord and a memorial of
his resurrection, a memorial which has never been commanded, and can by no
possible means appropriately commemorate that event. Fathered by heathenism as
"the wild solar holiday of all pagan times," Sunday was led to the
font by the pope, and christened as an institution of the gospel church. Thus
an attempt was made to destroy a memorial which the great God had set up to
commemorate his own magnificent creative work, and erect another in its stead
to commemorate the resurrection of Christ, for which there was no occasion, as
the Lord himself had already provided a memorial for that purpose.
4. The doctrine of the natural immortality of the soul. This also
was derived from the pagan world. As distinguished converts from heathenism
entered the ranks of Christians, they soon became "Fathers of the
church," and foster-fathers of this pernicious doctrine as a part of
divine truth. This error nullifies the two great Scripture doctrines of the
resurrection
p 657 -- and the
general judgment, and furnishes a well-laid track for the car of modern
Spiritualism with its load of pollution. From it have sprung such other evil
doctrines as the conscious state of the dead, saint-worship, Mariolatry,
purgatory, reward at death, prayers and baptisms for the dead, eternal torment,
and Universalism.
5. The doctrine that the saints, as unclothed, immaterialized
spirits, find their eternal inheritance in far-away, indefinable regions,
"beyond the bounds of time and space." Thus multitudes have been
turned away from the Scriptural view that this present earth is to be destroyed
by fire at the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men, and that from its
ashes the voice of Omnipotence will evoke a new earth, which will be the future
everlasting kingdom of glory, and which the saints will possess as their
eternal inheritance.
6. That the coming of Christ is a spiritual, not a literal event,
and was fulfilled at the destruction of Jerusalem, or is fulfilled in
conversion, in death, in Spiritualism, etc. How many minds have by such
teaching been forever closed against the Scriptural view that the second coming
of Christ is a future, definite event, literal, personal, visible, resulting in
destruction to all his foes, and everlasting life to all his people!
7. Trailing the standard of godliness into the very dust. Men are
made to believe that a form of godliness is all-sufflcient, and that the words,
"Lord, Lord," though repeated as an empty formula, will be a safe
passport to the kingdom of heaven. If any one doubts this statement, let him
listen to the next funeral discourse, or visit the cemetery, and mark what the
tombstones say.
The world has gone
almost stark mad in the pursuit of riches and honor; but in these things the
church takes the lead, and thus openly sanctions what the Lord strictly
forbade. If the churches were united as they should be, what a stumbling-block
would be taken out of the way of sinners! And if it were not for the false
doctrines which she has instilled into the minds of all men, how the plain
truths of the Bible would move the world! But people are held by these, as
under the stupefying influence of the most powerful intoxicant.
p 658 -- To come now
more particularly to the application of the prophecy concerning the fall of
Babylon, let us see how the religious world stood with reference to the
possibility of such a change, when the time came for the proclamation of this
message, in connection with the first message, about the year 1844. Paganism
was only apostasy and corruption in the beginning, and is so still; and no
moral fall is possible there. Catholicism has been for centuries about as low
in the scale as it is possible for a church to sink. No room for a moral fall
in that church. Two great branches of Babylon were, therefore, when the second
message became due, in so low a condition morally that a further declension
with them was scarcely possible. Not so, however, with the Protestant branch of
this great city. These churches, which commenced the great work of reformation
from papal corruption, had done some noble work. They had run well for a
season. They reached a moral plane vastly higher than that of the other divisions
named. They were, in a word, in such a position that with them a moral fall was
possible. The conclusion is therefore inevitable that the message announcing
the fall had reference almost wholly to the Protestant churches.
The question may
then be asked why this announcement was not made sooner, if so large a portion
of Babylon, the pagan and papal divisions, had been so long fallen. And the
answer is at hand: Babylon, as a whole, could not be said to be fallen so long
as one division of it remained unfallen. It could not be announced, therefore,
till a change for the worse came over the Protestant world, and the truth,
through which alone the path of progress lay, had been deliberately discarded.
But when this took place, and a moral fall was experienced in this last
division, then the announcement concerning Babylon as a whole could be made, as
it could not have been made before, - "Babylon is fallen."
It may be proper to
inquire further how the reason assigned for the fall of Babylon, namely,
because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,
would apply to the Protestant churches at the time in question. And the answer
is, It would apply most pertinently. The fault with
p 659 -- Babylon
lies in her confusion and false doctrines. Because she industriously propagates
these, clinging to them when light and truth which would correct them is
offered, she falls. With the Protestant churches, the time had come for an
advance to higher religious ground. They could accept the proffered light and
truth, and reach the higher attainment, or they could reject it, and lose their
spirituality and favor with God, or, in other words, experience a moral fall.
The truth which God saw fit to use as an instrument in this work was the first
message. The hour of God's judgment come, and the approximate second advent of
Christ was the doctrine preached. After listening long enough to see the
blessing that attended the doctrine, and the good results that flowed from it,
the churches, as a whole, rejected it with scorn and scoffing. They were
thereby tested; for they then plainly betrayed the fact that their hearts were
with the world, not with the Lord, and that they preferred to have it so. But
the message would have healed the evils then existing in the religious world.
The prophet exclaims, perhaps with reference to this very time,
"We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed:" Jer. 51:9. Do
you ask how we know this would have been the effect of receiving the message?
We answer, Because this was the effect with all who did receive it. They came
from different denominations, and their denominational barriers were leveled to
the ground; conflicting creeds were shivered to atoms; the unscriptural hope of
a temporal millennium was abandoned; false views of the second advent were
corrected; pride and conformity to the world were swept away; wrongs were made
right; hearts were united in the sweetest fellowship; and love and joy reigned
supreme. If the doctrine did this for the few who did receive it, it would have
done the same for all, if all had received it.
But the message was
rejected; and what was the result? The result upon those who rejected it will
be spoken of by and by; and the result upon those who received it, demands
mention here. Everywhere throughout the land the cry was raised, "Babylon
is fallen," and, in anticipation of the movement brought to view in Rev.
18:1-4, they added, "Come out of her, my people;" and about fifty
thousand severed their connection
p 660 -- with the
denominations where they were not allowed to hold and proclaim their views in
peace.
A marked change then
came over the churches in respect to their spiritual condition. On the
hypothesis that the proclamation of the second coming of Christ was in the
order of prophetic fulfilment, and that the message was the "present
truth" for that time, the result could not have been different. When a
person refuses the light, he necessarily puts himself in darkness; when he
rejects truth, he inevitably forges the shackles of error about his own limbs.
Loss of spirituality - a moral fall - must follow. This the churches
experienced. They chose to adhere to old errors, and still promulgate their
false doctrines among the people. The light of truth must therefore leave them.
Some of them felt and deplored the change. A few testimonies from their own
writers will describe their condition at that time.
The Christian
Palladium of May 15, 1844, spoke in the following mournful
strain: "In every direction we hear the
dolorous sound, wafted upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blast from
the icebergs of the north, settling like an incubus on the breasts of the
timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak, that lukewarmness, division,
anarchy, and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion."
In 1844 the
Religious Telescope used the following
language: "We have never witnessed
such a general declension of religion as at the present. Truly, the church
should awake, and search into the cause of this affliction; for as an
affliction every one that loves Zion must view it. When we call to mind how
'few and far between' cases of true conversion are, and the almost unparalleled
impenitence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God
forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?'"
About that time,
proclamations of fasts and seasons of prayer for the return of the Holy Spirit
were sent out in the religious papers. Even the Philadelphia Sun of Nov. 11,
1844, had the following: "The undersigned ministers and
members of various denominations in Philadelphia and vicinity, solemnly
believing that the present signs of the times - the spiritual
p 661 -- dearth of
our churches generally and the extreme evils in the world around us - seem to
call loudly on all Christians for a special season of prayer, do therefore
hereby agree, by divine permission, to unite in a week of special prayer to
Almighty God, for the outpouring of his Holy Spirit on our city, our country,
and the world."
Professor Finney,
editor of the Oberlin Evangelist, in February, 1844, said:
"We have had the facts before our minds that, in general, the Protestant
churches of our country, as such, were either apathetic or hostile to nearly
all the moral reforms of the age. There are partial exceptions, yet not enough
to render the fact otherwise than general. We have also another corroborative
fact, - the almost universal absence of revival influence in the churches. The
spiritual apathy is almost all-pervading, and is fearfully deep; so the
religious press of the whole land testifies. Very extensively, church members
are becoming devotees of fashion, joining hands with the ungodly in parties of
pleasure, in dancing, in festivities, etc. But we need not expand this painful
subject. Suffice it that the evidence thickens and rolls heavily upon us, to
show that the churches generally are becoming sadly degenerate. They have gone
very far from the Lord, and he has withdrawn himself from them."
Should it be said
that our views of the moral fall and spiritual dearth of the churches are shown
to be incorrect by the great revivals of 1858, the testimony of the leading
Congregational and Baptist papers of Boston relative to these revivals would
correct that impression.
The
Congregationalist, November, 1858, said:
"The revival piety of our churches is not such that one can confidently
infer, from its mere existence, its legitimate, practical fruits. It ought, for
example, to be as certain, after such a shower of grace, that the treasuries of
our benevolent societies would be filled, as it is after a plentiful rain that
the streams will swell in their channels. But the managers of our societies are
bewailing the feebleness of the sympathy and aid of the churches.
"There is
another and sadder illustration of the same general truth. The Watchman and
Reflector recently stated that
p 662 -- there had
never been among the Baptists so lamentable a spread of church dissension as
prevails at present; and the sad fact is mentioned that this sin infects the
very churches which shared most largely in the late revival. And the still more
melancholy fact is added that these alienations date back their origin, in most
cases, to the very midst of that scene of awakening. Even a glance at the
weekly journals of our own denoinination will evince that the evil is by no
means confined to the Baptists. Our own columns have, perhaps, never borne so
humiliating a record of contentions and ecclesiastical litigations as during
the last few months."
The leading
Methodist paper, the New York Christian Advocate, of Aug. 30, 1883, contains an
article headed "The Greatest of Questions," from which we copy these
statements:
"1. Disguise it
as you like, the church, in a general sense, is spiritually in a rapid decline.
While it grows in numbers and money, it is becoming extremely feeble and
limited in its spirituality, both in the pulpit and the pew. It is assuming the
shape and character of the church at Laodicea.
"2. There are
thousands of ministers, local and conference, and many thousands of the laity,
who are as dead and worthless as barren fig-trees. They contribute nothing of a
temporal or spiritual nature to the progress and triumphs of the gospel throughout
the earth. If all these dry bones in our church and its congregations could be
resurrected, and brought into requisition by faithful, active service, what new
and glorious manifestations of divine power would break forth!"
The New York
Independent of Dec. 3, 1896, gave an article from D. L. Moody, from which the
following is an extract:
"In a
recent issue of your paper I saw an article from a contributor which stated
that there were over three thousand churches in the Congregational and
Presbyterian bodies of this country that did not report a single member added
by profession of faith last year. Can this be true? The thought has taken such
hold of me that I can't get it out of my mind. It
p 663 -- is enough
almost to send a thrill of horror through the soul of every Christian.
"If this is the
case with these two large denominations, what must be the condition of the
others also? Are we all going to sit still and let this thing continue? Shall
our religious newspapers and our pulpits keep their mouths closed like ' dumb
dogs that cannot bark' to warn people of approaching danger? Should we not all
lift lip our voice like a trumpet about this matter? What must the Son of God
think of such a result of our labor as this? What must an unbelieving world
think about a Christianity that can't bring forth any more fruit? And have we
no care for the multitudes of souls going down to perdition every year while we
all sit and look on? And this country of ours, where will it be in the next ten
years, if we don't awake out of sleep?"
The second angel's
message is addressed to those organizations where the people of God are mainly
to be found; for they are specially addressed as being in Babylon, and at a
certain time are called out. The message applies to the present generation; and
now God's people are to be looked for, certainly, in the Protestant
organizations of Christendom. But as these churches depart farther and farther
from God, they at length reach such a condition that true Christians can no
longer maintain a connection with them; and then they will be called out. This
we look for in the future, in fulfilment of Rev. 18:1-4. We believe it will
come, when, in addition to their corruptions, the churches begin to raise
against the saints the hand of oppression. (See further under the chapter last
named.)
*******
We are so far from
the truth and we get further all the time.
Who wants to hear
the truth?
Very few. Why?
Because they believe they have all the truth they need. They want nothing to
interfere with their truth. Am I guilty
of this? I might be. I know time and
time again that I've had to take some cherished truth and hold it up to the
hard facts of scrutiny and when that happened I've had to let my cherished truth go. Was it easy? No. Is it ever easy to
let something you cherish go? No. And I've also dug my heels in to hold fast to
the indisputable truth something that has stood up to the constant barrage of
abuse in an effort to destroy it.
Life isn't easy,
holding to the truth isn't easy especially when you have an arch enemy bent on
destroying truth. An enemy who is so
smart he uses all the truth but throws in just enough lie to taint the truth so
that people believe they are following the truth when they are really following
a lie.
When a counterfeit
is revealed to you, people often can't believe they were fooled. Counterfeit
money, paintings, jewels, purses, you name it. I'm not talking knockoffs which
seem to inevitably have a telling feature that keeps them from being labeled counterfeit,
but even knockoffs fool those who don't know what tells to look for. We are
easily fooled in many ways. Often it take experts on a subject to detect the
counterfeits. We need to be experts on God's work, or we need to find a trusted
expert or two, or three and do a lot of praying allowing the Holy Spirit to
lead us to the real truth.
We can't afford to
hold fast to cherished beliefs, even lifelong beliefs, we have to be willing to
accept truth as it is revealed.
All by the grace and
mercy, the love of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST!
Amen.
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