Memory Text.— “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; . . . for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” Jer. 51:9.
1. What constitutes modern Babylon?
Babylon means confusion. The term originated at the time of the building of the tower of Babel, when the language of mankind was confounded. The rebellious builders called the tower and city they builded Bab-il, or the “Gate of God.” God called it just what it really was, “Confusion.” Babylon therefore stands not only for confusion, but for self-exultation and self-salvation, and all the spirit of the world. As old Chaldea led in perverting God's truth, all the false doctrines that have cursed the world have their roots in Babylon of old. The Papacy succeeded to the place of old Chaldea as the power ruling over the minds of men, and, through it, human traditions and the spirit of self-exultation have permeated Christendom. Modern Babylon sums up the whole spirit of worldliness, carnality, and the substitution of man's way for God's way that to-day is found in the world. Out of this the Lord calls His people. Rev. 18:1-5.
2. What is the inevitable result of rejecting light?
“Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not; and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” John 12:35.
The result of rejecting light is a moral fall into darkness and error. As noted in last week's lesson, the message of Revelation 14 is a gathering into one great system of truth all the light of past ages. It was also noted that the great testing truth of this message is the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue. Therefore the fall of Babylon must be a fall from the principles and teaching of that law; not from the outward formal recognition of the law merely, but from the living principle,—the law in Christ Jesus within the heart. “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 condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this message God had sent to the church a warning, which, had it been accepted, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away from Him.”
“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.’ Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent message. . . . If this doctrine did this for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for all, if all had received it.”
3. Into what pathway will the Lord guide His people before He comes?
“Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.” Ps. 119:1. See also Isa. 35:8, 10.
The Ten Commandments are many times referred to as the Lord's way. Note a few other expressions: “They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.” “Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts.” “I will run the way of Thy commandments.” “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes.” “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments.” “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.”
4. In what way will the spirit of the world be leading men?—Into lawlessness.
“And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming.” 2 Thess. 2:8.
The law of God is a great wall of protection to those who walk therein. A breach has been made in that law. The Sabbath has been torn from its place in the bosom of the law, and the “man of sin” has built up a wall of Sunday-keeping in its place. Others have daubed this wall with “untempered mortar” by trying to bolster up an unscriptural institution for which there is no “thus saith the Lord.”
5. When is the law of God to be sealed among His disciples?
“Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” Isa. 8:16, 17. Compare Heb. 9:28.
6. What is the advent message to accomplish?
“The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.” “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples. Behold, Jehovah hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.” Isa. 40:3, 4; 62:10, 11.
7. From what way did the people stumble in Jeremiah's day?
“For My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in by-paths, in a way not cast up.” Jer. 18:15.
8. What message did the prophet bring to them, and what was their response?
“Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls; but they said, We will not walk therein.” Jer. 6:16.
9. What was the cause of the fall of Jerusalem?
“And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah. But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” Jer. 17:24-27.
10. For what purpose were the failures of ancient Israel recorded?
“Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11.
11. To what special reform as regards the law of God does the final message call men?
“Thus saith Jehovah, Keep ye justice, and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth it fast; that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”
“Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast My covenant.” Isa. 56:1, 2, 6.
12. As the continued rejection of the warning appeal of the first message causes still greater darkness, how is the message of the second angel emphasized?
“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.” Rev. 18:1-3.
When Jerusalem of old rejected the light sent by the Lord's prophets, it was declared, “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.” Jer. 5:27. And the call came to come out of her: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa.” Jer. 6:1. So also the rejection of light in the days of Christ and the apostles led to a moral fall that filled Jerusalem again with every evil, and brought upon it swift doom. Those times find their parallel in the last days. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem's rejection of light, looking down to the last generation, He “saw the world involved in deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at naught. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!”—Great Controversy, pp. 22, 23.
13. What cry from heaven is to be carried to all the world in this generation?
“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.” Rev. 18:4, 5.