The Final Call out of Babylon
Ancient Babylon is evidently a type of modern Babylon. Much of the record of the experiences of ancient Babylon is historical prophecy, and the principles which were wrought out then have since been repeated in a different setting. The cause of the downfall of ancient Babylon was plainly revealed through the prophet Daniel before Belshazzar the king on that fateful night which marked the end of his life and of his kingdom. His words are of present application, and are worthy of earnest study: “O thou king, the most high God gave Nebuchadnezzar thy father the kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and majesty: and because of the greatness that he gave him, all the peoples, nations, and languages trembled and feared before him: whom he would he slew, and whom he would he kept alive; and whom he would he raised up, and whom he would he put down. But when his heart was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened so that he dealt proudly, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him: and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beasts’, and his dwelling was with the wild asses; he was fed with grass like oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven; until he knew that the most high God ruleth in5the kingdom of men, and that he setteth up over it whomsoever he will. And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though thou knewest all this, but hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before thee, and thou and thy lords, thy wives and thy concubines, have drunk wine from them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver and gold, of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor know; and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified. Then was the part of the hand sent from before him, and this writing was inscribed.” Overweening pride, the exaltation of self in opposition to God, and the refusal to glorify God, led to the humbling of Babylon at the hand of her enemies. This experience is thus described through the prophet Jeremiah: “Behold, I am against thee, O thou proud one, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts; for thy day is come, the time that I will visit thee. And the proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up.” Through the prophet Habakkuk the Lord sets forth the only means of deliverance from Babylon. In the first chapter of the book we have a dialogue between the prophet and Jehovah. First the prophet inquires concerning the scenes of violence and strife which are presented before him. Verses 1-4. The Lord answers him that it is the coming of the Chaldeans, “that bitter and hasty nation,” for the overthrow of Jerusalem. Verses 5-11. Then the prophet inquires for a way of deliverance. “Shall he therefore empty his net, and spare not to slay the nations continually?” Verses 12-17. The reply is given in these words: “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it. For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry. Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.” In contrast with all that pride and lifting up of self, as seen in Babylon, which ends in utter destruction, is that righteousness by faith which has in it the assurance of life. “What is justification by faith?—It is the work of God in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man that which it is not in his power to do for himself.” When the time drew near for the deliverance from Babylon, and the rebuilding of Jerusalem, Daniel “understood by the books the number of the years whereof the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah the prophet.” Thus the time for the call out of ancient Babylon was plainly determined by the prophecy, and as the end of the period drew near, Daniel as the representative of his people set his face to seek the Lord God with all humility and confession of sin. It was in answer to this prayer that the information was given to him by which could be located that long prophetic period of the twenty-three hundred years during which the sanctuary and the host should be trodden under foot. This period closed in the autumn of 1844, and in the summer of that very year the cry went forth, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, that hath made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,” and there was a movement to get out of Babylon. The work that was begun then has gone steadily forward, and the basis of it has been the threefold message of Revelation 14, a message of deliverance from Babylon and preparation for the coming of the Seed. This is the final call out of Babylon, and we have reached the time for the closing work of the final call. Here is the prophecy of this phase of the message and the final call: “After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” But, as was plainly shown to the prophet of old, the hope of deliverance from Babylon is found in the power of “the everlasting gospel” of righteousness by faith, and this, then, must be the very substance of the threefold message in which a people is called out of Babylon, and prepared for the coming of the Seed.