| |
In preaching the
doctrine of the second advent, William Miller and his associates had
labored with the sole purpose of arousing men to a preparation for
the judgment. They had sought to awaken professors of religion to
the true hope of the church and to their need of a deeper Christian
experience, and they labored also to awaken the unconverted to the
duty of immediate repentance and conversion to God. "They made no
attempt to convert men to a sect or party in religion. Hence they
labored among all parties and sects, without interfering with their
organization or discipline."
"In all my labors," said Miller, "I
never had the desire or thought to establish any separate interest from
that of existing denominations, or to benefit one at the expense of
another. I thought to benefit all. Supposing that all Christians would
rejoice in the prospect of Christ's coming, and that those who could not
see as I did would not love any the less those who should embrace this
doctrine, I did not conceive there would ever be any necessity for
separate meetings. My whole object was a desire to convert souls to God,
to notify the world of a coming judgment, and to induce my fellow men to
make that preparation of heart which will enable them to meet their God
in peace. The great majority of those who were converted under my labors
united with the various existing churches."--Bliss, page 328.
Page 376
As his work tended to build up the
churches, it was for a time regarded with favor. But as ministers and
religious leaders decided against the advent doctrine and desired to
suppress all agitation of the subject, they not only opposed it from the
pulpit, but denied their members the privilege of attending preaching
upon the second advent, or even of speaking of their hope in the social
meetings of the church. Thus the believers found themselves in a
position of great trial and perplexity. They loved their churches and
were loath to separate from them; but as they saw the testimony of God's
word suppressed and their right to investigate the prophecies denied
they felt that loyalty to God forbade them to submit. Those who sought
to shut out the testimony of God's word they could not regard as
constituting the church of Christ, "the pillar and ground of the truth."
Hence they felt themselves justified in separating from their former
connection. In the summer of 1844 about fifty thousand withdrew from the
churches.
About this time a marked change was
apparent in most of the churches throughout the United States. There had
been for many years a gradual but steadily increasing conformity to
worldly practices and customs, and a corresponding decline in real
spiritual life; but in that year there were evidences of a sudden and
marked declension in nearly all the churches of the land. While none
seemed able to suggest the cause, the fact itself was widely noted and
commented upon by both the press and the pulpit.
At a meeting of the presbytery of
Philadelphia, Mr. Barnes, author of a commentary widely used and pastor
of one of the leading churches in that city, "stated that he had been in
the ministry for twenty years, and never, till the last Communion, had
he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less into the
church. But now there are no
awakenings, no conversions,
not much apparent growth in grace in professors, and none come to his
study to converse about the salvation of their souls. With the increase
of
Page 377
business, and the brightening prospects
of commerce and manufacture, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness.
Thus it is with all the
denominations." --
Congregational Journal, May
23, 1844.
In the month of February of the same
year, Professor Finney of Oberlin College said: "We have had the fact
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
corroborated 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,
--join 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."
And a writer in the
Religious Telescope
testified: "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 everyone 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 impertinence and hardness of sinners, we almost
involuntarily exclaim, 'Has God forgotten to be gracious? or, Is the
door of mercy closed?'"
Such a condition never exists without
cause in the church itself. The spiritual darkness which falls upon
nations, upon churches and individuals, is due, not to an arbitrary
withdrawal of the succors of divine grace on the part of God, but to
neglect or rejection of divine light on the part of men. A
Page 378
striking illustration of this truth is
presented in the history of the Jewish people in the time of Christ. By
their devotion to the world and forgetfulness of God and His word, their
understanding had become darkened, their hearts earthly and sensual.
Thus they were in ignorance concerning Messiah's advent, and in their
pride and unbelief they rejected the Redeemer. God did not even then cut
off the Jewish nation from a knowledge of, or a participation in, the
blessings of salvation. But those who rejected the truth lost all desire
for the gift of Heaven. They had "put darkness for light, and light for
darkness," until the light which was in them became darkness; and how
great was that darkness!
It suits the policy of Satan that men
should retain the forms of religion if but the spirit of vital godliness
is lacking. After their rejection of the gospel, the Jews continued
zealously to maintain their ancient rites, they rigorously preserved
their national exclusiveness, while they themselves could not but admit
that the presence of God was no longer manifest among them. The prophecy
of Daniel pointed so unmistakably to the time of Messiah's coming, and
so directly foretold His death, that they discouraged its study, and
finally the rabbis pronounced a curse on all who should attempt a
computation of the time. In blindness and impenitence the people of
Israel during succeeding centuries have stood, indifferent to the
gracious offers of salvation, unmindful of the blessings of the gospel,
a solemn and fearful warning of the danger of rejecting light from
heaven.
Wherever the cause exists, the same
results will follow. He who deliberately stifles his convictions of duty
because it interferes with his inclinations will finally lose the power
to distinguish between truth and error. The understanding becomes
darkened, the conscience callous, the heart hardened, and the soul is
separated from God. Where the message of divine truth is spurned or
slighted, there the church will be enshrouded in darkness; faith and
love grow cold,
Page 379
and estrangement and dissension enter.
Church members center their interests and energies in worldly pursuits,
and sinners become hardened in their impenitence.
The first angel's message of
Revelation 14, announcing the hour of God's judgment and calling upon
men to fear and worship Him, was designed to separate the professed
people of God from the corrupting influences of the world and to arouse
them to see their true condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this
message, God has sent to the church a warning, which, had it been
accepted, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away
from Him. Had they received the message from heaven, humbling their
hearts before the Lord and seeking in sincerity a preparation to stand
in His presence, the Spirit and power of God would have been manifested
among them. The church would again have reached that blessed state of
unity, faith, and love which existed in apostolic days, when the
believers "were of one heart and of one soul," and "spake the word of
God with boldness," when "the Lord added to the church daily such as
should be saved." Acts 4:32, 31; 2:47.
If God's professed people would
receive the light as it shines upon them from His word, they would reach
that unity for which Christ prayed, that which the apostle describes,
"the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." "There is," he says, "
one body, and
one
Spirit, even as ye are called in
one
hope of your calling; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism." Ephesians 4:3-5.
Such were the blessed results
experienced by those who accepted the advent message. They came from
different denominations, and their denominational barriers were hurled
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 this doctrine did this
Page 380
for the few who did receive it, it would
have done the same for all if all had received it.
But the churches generally did not
accept the warning. Their ministers, who, as watchmen "unto the house of
Israel," should have been the first to discern the tokens of Jesus'
coming, had failed to learn the truth either from the testimony of the
prophets or from the signs of the times. As worldly hopes and ambitions
filled the heart, love for God and faith in His word had grown cold; and
when the advent doctrine was presented, it only aroused their prejudice
and unbelief. The fact that the message was, to a great extent, preached
by laymen, was urged as an instrument against it. As of old, the plain
testimony of God's word was met with the inquiry: "Have any of the
rulers or of the Pharisees believed?" And finding how difficult a task
it was to refute the arguments drawn from the prophetic periods, many
discouraged the study of the prophecies, teaching that the prophetic
books were sealed and were not to be understood. Multitudes, trusting
implicitly to their pastors, refused to listen to the warning; and
others, though convinced of the truth, dared not confess it, lest they
should be "put out of the synagogue." The message which God had sent for
the testing and purification of the church revealed all too surely how
great was the number who had set their affections on this world rather
than upon Christ. The ties which bound them to earth were stronger than
the attractions heavenward. They chose to listen to the voice of worldly
wisdom and turned away from the heart-searching message of truth.
In refusing the warning of the first
angel, they rejected the means which Heaven had provided for their
restoration. They spurned the gracious messenger that would have
corrected the evils which separated them from God, and with greater
eagerness they turned to seek the friendship of the world. Here was the
cause of that fearful condition of worldliness, backsliding, and
spiritual death which existed in the churches in 1844.
Page 381
In Revelation 14 the first angel is
followed by a second proclaiming: "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that
great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication." Revelation 14:8. The term "Babylon" is derived from
"Babel," and signifies confusion. It is employed in Scripture to
designate the various forms of false or apostate religion. In Revelation
17 Babylon is represented as a woman --a figure which is used in the
Bible as the symbol of a church, a virtuous woman representing a pure
church, a vile woman an apostate church.
In the Bible the sacred and enduring
character of the relation that exists between Christ and His church is
represented by the union of marriage. The Lord has joined His people to
Himself by a solemn covenant, He promising to be their God, and they
pledging themselves to be His and His alone. He declares: "I will
betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in
righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies."
Hosea 2:19. And, again: "I am married unto you." Jeremiah 3:14. And Paul
employs the same figure in the New Testament when he says: "I have
espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ." 2 Corinthians 11:2.
The unfaithfulness of the church to
Christ in permitting her confidence and affection to be turned from Him,
and allowing the love of worldly things to occupy the soul, is likened
to the violation of the marriage vow. The sin of Israel in departing
from the Lord is presented under this figure; and the wonderful love of
God which they thus despised is touchingly portrayed: "I sware unto
thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and
thou becamest Mine." "And thou wast exceeding beautiful and thou didst
prosper into a kingdom. And thy renown went forth among the heathen for
thy beauty: for it was perfect through My comeliness, which I had put
upon thee. . . . But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst
the harlot because of thy renown." "As a wife treacherously departeth
from her
Page 382
husband, so have ye dealt treacherously
with Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord;" "as a wife that committeth
adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her husband!" Ezekiel 16:8,
13-15, 32; Jeremiah 3:20.
In the New Testament, language very
similar is addressed to professed Christians who seek the friendship of
the world above the favor of God. Says the apostle James: "Ye adulterers
and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity
with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God."
The woman (Babylon) of Revelation 17
is described as "arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with
gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations and filthiness:...and upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the
Great, the mother of harlots."
Says the prophet: "I saw the woman drunk
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus." Babylon is further declared to be "that great city, which
reigneth over the kings of the earth." Revelation 17:4-6, 18. The power
that for so many centuries maintained despotic sway over the monarchs of
Christendom is Rome. The purple and scarlet color, the gold and precious
stones and pearls, vividly picture the magnificence and more than kingly
pomp affected by the haughty see of Rome. And no other power could be so
truly declared "drunken with the blood of the saints" as that church
which has so cruelly persecuted the followers of Christ. Babylon is also
charged with the sin of unlawful connection with "the kings of the
earth." It was by departure from the Lord, and alliance with the
heathen, that the Jewish church became a harlot; and Rome, corrupting
herself in like manner by seeking the support of worldly powers,
receives a like condemnation.
Babylon is said to be "the
mother
of harlots." By her
daughters
must be symbolized churches that cling to
her doctrines and traditions, and follow her example of sacrificing
Page 383
the truth and the approval of God, in
order to form an unlawful alliance with the world. The message of
Revelation 14, announcing the
fall of Babylon must apply to
religious bodies that were once pure and have become corrupt. Since this
message follows the warning of the judgment, it must be given in the
last days; therefore it cannot refer to the Roman Church alone, for that
church has been in a fallen condition for many centuries. Furthermore,
in the eighteenth chapter of the Revelation the people of God are called
upon to come out of Babylon. According to this scripture, many of God's
people must still be in Babylon. And in what religious bodies are the
greater part of the followers of Christ now to be found? Without doubt,
in the various churches professing the Protestant faith. At the time of
their rise these churches took a noble stand for God and the truth, and
His blessing was with them. Even the unbelieving world was constrained
to acknowledge the beneficent results that followed an acceptance of the
principles of the gospel. In the words of the prophet to Israel: "Thy
renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty: for it was perfect
through My comeliness, which I had put upon thee, saith the Lord God."
But they fell by the same desire which was the curse and ruin of
Israel--the desire of imitating the practices and courting the
friendship of the ungodly. "Thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and
playedst the harlot because of thy renown." Ezekiel 16:14, 15.
Many of the Protestant churches are
following Rome's example of iniquitous connection with "the kings of the
earth"--the state churches, by their relation to secular governments;
and other denominations, by seeking the favor of the world. And the term
"Babylon"--confusion--may be appropriately applied to these bodies, all
professing to derive their doctrines from the Bible, yet divided into
almost innumerable sects, with widely conflicting creeds and theories.
Besides a sinful union with the world,
the churches that separated from Rome present other of her
characteristics.
Page 384
A Roman Catholic work argues that "if
the Church of Rome were ever guilty of idolatry in relation to the
saints, her daughter, the Church of England, stands guilty of the same,
which has ten churches dedicated to Mary for one dedicated to
Christ."--Richard Challoner,
The Catholic Christian Instructed,
Preface, pages 21, 22.
And Dr. Hopkins, in "A Treatise on the
Millennium," declares: "There is no reason to consider the antichristian
spirit and practices to be confined to that which is now called the
Church of Rome. The Protestant churches have much of antichrist in them,
and are far from being wholly reformed from . . . corruptions and
wickedness."--Samuel Hopkins,
Works, vol. 2, p. 328.
Concerning the separation of the
Presbyterian Church from Rome, Dr. Guthrie writes: "Three hundred years
ago, our church, with an open Bible on her banner, and this motto,
'Search the Scriptures,' on her scroll, marched out from the gates of
Rome." Then he asks the significant question: "Did they come
clean
out of Babylon?"--Thomas Guthrie,
The Gospel in Ezekiel,
page 237.
"The Church of England," says
Spurgeon, "seems to be eaten through and through with sacramentarianism;
but nonconformity appears to be almost as badly riddled with
philosophical infidelity. Those of whom we thought better things are
turning aside one by one from the fundamentals of the faith. Through and
through, I believe, the very heart of England is honeycombed with a
damnable infidelity which dares still go into the pulpit and call itself
Christian."
What was the origin of the great
apostasy? How did the church first depart from the simplicity of the
gospel? By conforming to the practices of paganism, to facilitate the
acceptance of Christianity by the heathen. The apostle Paul declared,
even in his day, "The mystery of iniquity doth already work." 2
Thessalonians 2:7. During the lives of the apostles the church remained
comparatively pure. But "toward the latter end of the second century
most of the churches assumed a new form; the first simplicity
Page 385
disappeared, and insensibly, as the old
disciples retired to their graves, their children, along with new
converts, . . . came forward and new-modeled the cause."--Robert
Robinson, Ecclesiastical
Researches, ch. 6, par. 17, p.
51. To secure converts, the exalted standard of the Christian faith was
lowered, and as the result "a pagan flood, flowing into the church,
carried with it its customs, practices, and idols." --Gavazzi,
Lectures,
page 278. As the Christian religion
secured the favor and support of secular rulers, it was nominally
accepted by multitudes; but while in appearance Christians, many
"remained in substance pagans, especially worshiping in secret their
idols."-- Ibid.,
page 278.
Has not the same process been repeated
in nearly every church calling itself Protestant? As the founders, those
who possessed the true spirit of reform, pass away, their descendants
come forward and "new-model the cause." While blindly clinging to the
creed of their fathers and refusing to accept any truth in advance of
what they saw, the children of the reformers depart widely from their
example of humility, self-denial, and renunciation of the world. Thus
"the first simplicity disappears." A worldly flood, flowing into the
church, carries "with it its customs, practices, and idols."
Alas, to what a fearful extent is that
friendship of the world which is "enmity with God," now cherished among
the professed followers of Christ! How widely have the popular churches
throughout Christendom departed from the Bible standard of humility,
self-denial, simplicity, and godliness! Said John Wesley, in speaking of
the right use of money: "Do not waste any part of so precious a talent,
merely in gratifying the desire of the eye, by superfluous or expensive
apparel, or by needless ornaments. Waste no part of it in curiously
adorning your houses; in superfluous or expensive furniture; in costly
pictures, painting, gilding. . . . Lay out nothing to gratify the pride
of life, to gain the admiration or praise of men. . . . 'So long as thou
doest well unto thyself, men will speak good of thee.' So long as thou
art 'clothed in purple and fine linen,' and farest 'sumptuously
Page 386
every day,' no doubt many will applaud
thy elegance of taste, thy generosity and hospitality. But do not buy
their applause so dear. Rather be content with the honor that cometh
from God."--Wesley, Works,
Sermon 50, "The Use of Money."
But in many churches of our time such teaching is disregarded.
A profession of religion has become
popular with the world. Rulers, politicians, lawyers, doctors,
merchants, join the church as a means of securing the respect and
confidence of society, and advancing their own worldly interests. Thus
they seek to cover all their unrighteous transactions under a profession
of Christianity. The various religious bodies, re-enforced by the wealth
and influence of these baptized worldlings, make a still higher bid for
popularity and patronage. Splendid churches, embellished in the most
extravagant manner, are erected on popular avenues. The worshipers array
themselves in costly and fashionable attire. A high salary is paid for a
talented minister to entertain and attract the people. His sermons must
not touch popular sins, but be made smooth and pleasing for fashionable
ears. Thus fashionable sinners are enrolled on the church records, and
fashionable sins are concealed under a pretense of godliness.
Commenting on the present attitude of
professed Christians toward the world, a leading secular journal says:
"Insensibly the church has yielded to the spirit of the age, and adapted
its forms of worship to modern wants." "All things, indeed, that help to
make religion attractive, the church now employs as its instruments."
And a writer in the New York
Independent speaks thus
concerning Methodism as it is: "The line of separation between the godly
and the irreligious fades out into a kind of penumbra, and zealous men
on both sides are toiling to obliterate all difference between their
modes of action and enjoyment." "The popularity of religion tends vastly
to increase the number of those who would secure its benefits without
squarely meeting its duties."
Page 387
Says Howard Crosby: "It is a matter of
deep concern that we find Christ's church so little fulfilling the
designs of its Lord. Just as the ancient Jews let a familiar intercourse
with the idolatrous nations steal away their hearts from God, . . . so
the church of Jesus now is, by its false partnerships with an
unbelieving world, giving up the divine methods of its true life, and
yielding itself to the pernicious, though often plausible, habits of a
Christless society, using the arguments and reaching the conclusions
which are foreign to the revelation of God, and directly antagonistic to
all growth in grace."-- The
Healthy Christian: An Appeal to the Church,
pages 141, 142.
In this tide of worldliness and
pleasure seeking, self-denial and self-sacrifice for Christ's sake are
almost wholly lost. "Some of the men and women now in active life in our
churches were educated, when children, to make sacrifices in order to be
able to give or do something for Christ." But "if funds are wanted now,
. . . nobody must be called on to give. Oh, no! have a fair, tableau,
mock trial, antiquarian supper, or something to eat--anything to amuse
the people."
Governor Washburn of Wisconsin in his
annual message, January 9, 1873, declared: "Some law seems to be
required to break up the schools where gamblers are made. These are
everywhere. Even the church (unwittingly, no doubt) is sometimes found
doing the work of the devil. Gift concerts, gift enterprises and
raffles, sometimes in aid of religious or charitable objects, but often
for less worthy purposes, lotteries, prize packages, etc., are all
devices to obtain money without value received. Nothing is so
demoralizing or intoxicating, particularly to the young, as the
acquisition of money or property without labor. Respectable people
engaging in these change enterprises, and easing their consciences with
the reflection that the money is to go to a good object, it is not
strange that the youth of the state should so often fall into the habits
which the excitement of games of hazard is almost certain to engender."
Page 388
The spirit of worldly conformity in
invading the churches throughout Christendom. Robert Atkins, in a sermon
preached in London, draws a dark picture of the spiritual declension
that prevails in England: "The truly righteous are diminished from the
earth, and no man layeth it to heart. The professors of religion of the
present day, in every church, are lovers of the world, conformers to the
world, lovers of creature comfort, and aspirers after respectability.
They are called to suffer with Christ, but they shrink from even
reproach.... Apostasy,
apostasy, apostasy, is
engraven on the very front of every church; and did they know it, and
did they feel it, there might be hope; but, alas! they cry, 'We are
rich, and increased in goods, and stand in need of nothing.'" --Second
Advent Library, tract No. 39.
The great sin charged against Babylon
is that she "made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication." This cup of intoxication which she presents to the world
represents the false doctrines that she has accepted as the result of
her unlawful connection with the great ones of the earth. Friendship
with the world corrupts her faith, and in her turn she exerts a
corrupting influence upon the world by teaching doctrines which are
opposed to the plainest statements of Holy Writ.
Rome withheld the Bible from the
people and required all men to accept her teachings in its place. It was
the work of the Reformation to restore to men the word of God; but is it
not too true that in the churches of our time men are taught to rest
their faith upon their creed and the teachings of their church rather
than on the Scriptures? Said Charles Beecher, speaking of the Protestant
churches: "They shrink from any rude word against creeds with the same
sensitiveness with which those holy fathers would have shrunk from a
rude word against the rising veneration of saints and martyrs which they
were fostering. . . . The Protestant evangelical denominations have so
tied up one another's hands, and their own, that, between them all, a
man cannot become a preacher at all, anywhere, without accepting some
book besides the
Page 389
Bible.... There is nothing imaginary in
the statement that the creed power is now beginning to prohibit the
Bible as really as Rome did, though in a subtler way."--Sermon on "The
Bible a Sufficient Creed," delivered at Fort Wayne, Indiana, Feb. 22,
1846.
When faithful teachers expound the
word of God, there arise men of learning, ministers professing to
understand the Scriptures, who denounce sound doctrine as heresy, and
thus turn away inquirers after truth. Were it not that the world is
hopelessly intoxicated with the wine of Babylon, multitudes would be
convicted and converted by the plain, cutting truths of the word of God.
But religious faith appears so confused and discordant that the people
know not what to believe as truth. The sin of the world's impenitence
lies at the door of the church.
The second angel's message of
Revelation 14 was first preached in the summer of 1844, and it then had
a more direct application to the churches of the United States, where
the warning of the judgment had been most widely proclaimed and most
generally rejected, and where the declension in the churches had been
most rapid. But the message of the second angel did not reach its
complete fulfillment in 1844. The churches then experienced a moral
fall, in consequence of their refusal of the light of the advent
message; but that fall was not complete. As they have continued to
reject the special truths for this time they have fallen lower and
lower. Not yet, however, can it be said that "Babylon is fallen,...
because she made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath
of her fornication." She has not yet made all nations do this. The
spirit of world conforming and indifference to the testing truths for
our time exists and has been gaining ground in churches of the
Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom; and these churches
are included in the solemn and terrible denunciation of the second
angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination.
The Bible declares that before the
coming of the Lord, Satan will work "with
all
power and signs and lying wonders,
Page 390
and with all deceivableness of
unrighteousness;" and they that "received not the love of the truth,
that they might be saved," will be left to receive "strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie." 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11. Not until this
condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world
shall be fully accomplished throughout Christendom, will the fall of
Babylon be complete. The change is a progressive one, and the perfect
fulfillment of Revelation 14:8 is yet future.
Notwithstanding the spiritual darkness
and alienation from God that exist in the churches which constitute
Babylon, the great body of Christ's true followers are still to be found
in their communion. There are many of these who have never seen the
special truths for this time. Not a few are dissatisfied with their
present condition and are longing for clearer light. They look in vain
for the image of Christ in the churches with which they are connected.
As these bodies depart further and further from the truth, and ally
themselves more closely with the world, the difference between the two
classes will widen, and it will finally result in separation. The time
will come when those who love God supremely can no longer remain in
connection with such as are "lovers of pleasures more than lovers of
God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof."
Revelation 18 points to the time when,
as the result of rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12,
the church will have fully reached the condition foretold by the second
angel, and the people of God still in Babylon will be called upon to
separate from her communion. This message is the last that will ever be
given to the world; and it will accomplish its work. When those that
"believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness" (2
Thessalonians 2:12), shall be left to receive strong delusion and to
believe a lie, then the light of truth will shine upon all whose hearts
are open to receive it, and all the children of the Lord that remain in
Babylon will heed the call: "Come out of her, My people" (Revelation
18:4).
|
|
Survival guide for the end of time!
About us
