The Fall of Babylon by J. Lamont

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 28, 1875

The Fall of Babylon.

By J. Lamont

“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.”

The first question that naturally arises on reading this text is, What is Babylon? And perhaps we may be better able to answer it if we read the same proclamation in Rev. 18:2–4, where it is added: “Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Babylon, then, contains the Lord’s people. We cannot for a moment think this some literal city; for no one city has ever contained all, or even the greater part, of them, and where are they but in the different churches? Why may not this term, which signifies confusion, be applied to the churches with their various and conflicting creeds?

Protestant commentators agree in applying the words, “Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots,” Rev. 17:5, to the Romish church. This being true, who and where are the daughters? Let the mother tell.

“If the church of Rome was 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.”—Catholic Christian Instructed, p. 18.

But the children shall speak for themselves. Eld. Wm. Kinkade says:—

“I also think Christ has a true church on earth, but its members are scattered among the various denominations, and are all more or less under the influence of Mystery, Babylon, and her daughters.”—Bible Doctrine, p. 294.

Campbell says:—

“The worshiping establishments now in operation throughout Christendom, increased and cemented by their respective voluminous confessions of faith and their ecclesiastical constitutions, are not churches of Jesus Christ, but the legitimate daughters of that mother of harlots, the church of Rome.”

Lorenzo Dow, in speaking of the Romish church, says:—

“If she be a mother, who are the daughters? They must be the corrupt, national, established churches that came out of her.”—Dow’s Life, p. 542.

The Tennessee Baptist says:—

“This woman [popery] is called the mother of harlots and abominations. Who are the daughters? The Lutheran, the Presbyterian, and the Episcopalian churches are all branches of the (Roman) Catholic.”

The “Religious Encyclopedia,” which is highly recommended by a large number of D. D.’s and LL. D.’s, says:—

“The writer of the book of Revelation tells us he heard a voice from Heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, that ye partake not of her sins, and receive not of her plagues.’ If such persons are to be found in the mother of harlots, with much less hesitation may it be inferred that they are connected with her unchaste daughters, those national churches which are founded upon what are called Protestant principles.”—Art. Antichrist.

That the fall of Babylon, then, is a moral fall, and not her destruction, is plainly seen in Rev. 18:2–4, which says Babylon becomes the habitation of devils, &c., and calls God’s people to come out of her after she is fallen.

Is there evidence that the churches have so far departed from God that he has withdrawn himself from them, and that his people are called out of them? What say the Scriptures? “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God; for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them. . . . And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face; therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.” Hosea 5:4–6. “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; from such turn away.” 2 Tim. 3:1–5.

This is a fearful list of sins, yet the above, with many other scriptures, assure us, that in the last days the professed followers of Christ will be guilty of them, and that those who would still enjoy God’s favor must turn away, or come out from among them.

“Like priest, like people.” “The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; and they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” 2 Tim. 4:3, 4. Great and good men of past centuries, as well as some of the present century, have believed and taught in accordance with this scripture. Hear a few of them. Luther said: “About the consummation of these periods [the prophetic periods of Daniel] this gospel will be shut out of the churches, and confined to the private houses.”

Matthew Henry, speaking of Christ’s coming, says:—

“In general, he will find but few good people, few that are really good; many that have the form and fashion of godliness, but few that have faith.”

Dr. Cotton Mather says:—

“When the Lord shall come he will find the world almost void of true and living faith (especially of faith in his coming), and when he shall descend with his heavenly banners, what else will he find but almost the whole church, as it were a dead carcass, miserably putrified, with the spirit, and manners, and endearments, of this world?”

Dr. Cummings says:—

“I believe that one-half of the professors of the gospel are nothing better than practical infidels.”

In the Christian Statesman, of Feb. 15, 1872, we find the following: “The positive, aggressive character of irreligion is the peculiar feature of our age.”

Spurgeon, of London, says:—

“Through and through, I believe, the very heart of England is honey-combed with a damnable infidelity, which dares still go into the pulpit and call itself Christian. Look also at the pride and fashion exhibited now in nearly all the churches—at the buildings, the furniture, and the dress of the worshipers, which would not for a moment have been tolerated forty or fifty years ago.”

Again, the amusements and means of raising money that have come into vogue within the last few years are well illustrated by the following advertisement of a “benefit” for a church in New Orleans:—

“Benefit of Christ’s church Parochial School. Near the dancing platform is a splendid booth and a large canvas tent, with seats reserved for the accommodation of ladies and children. The patrons of this church, as well as the public, will here find a soda-water stand and confectionery, a restaurant filled with everything to satisfy the appetite of epicureans and also a splendid bar, stocked with the choicest kinds of liquors, cigars, &c.”

The N. Y. Observer, commenting on this, says:—

“The church for which this splendid bar is to be opened is called Christ’s church; but our private opinion is, if Christ attends the fair, he will come with a scourge of large cords and drive out every man and woman who dishonors his house and name with such things as these.”

Eating and drinking, intermingled with fun and frolic are the means almost universally resorted to when money is wanted for religious purposes.

Now hear a ten-thousand-dollar minister of Cincinnati defend himself when taken to task by a friend for preaching sensational sermons:—

“Churches now are nothing more than theological theaters, and preachers are the actors who are paid so much for performing cleverly and acceptably. When the priestly artists do not draw, their engagement is discontinued. We are forced to make our sermons attractive to those who come to hear them. In consulting our household expenses, we must make a liberal surrender of our tastes and convictions. I receive ten thousand dollars a year. If I preached simpler and better sermons, reflecting my real views, I could not get three thousand. So you see bread-earning outweighs both aspiration and inspiration.”—Cincinnati Times, July 28, 1870.

But if the churches are in this woeful, this fallen condition, when did they become so? They themselves shall tell. Prof. Finney, of Oberlin College, made the following statement in 1844:—

“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. It comes to our ears, and to our eyes also, through the religious prints, that very extensively church members are becoming devotees of fashion. They join hands with the ungodly in parties of pleasures, in dancing, in festivities &c.; but we need not expand this painful subject. Suffice it that 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.”

The Christian Palladium, of the same year, said:— “In every direction we hear the dolorous sound wafted on every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the

north, settling like an incubus on the hearts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak, that lukewarmness and division, anarchy and desolation, are destroying the borders of Zion.”

The Congregational Journal, for the same year, contained the following:—

“At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Rev. Mr. Barnes, pastor of the first Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, whose notes are so extensively used in our families and Sabbath-schools, stated that he had been in the ministry for twenty years and never till 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 business, and the brightening prospects of commerce and manufactures, there is an increase of worldly-mindedness. Thus it is with all denominations.”

The Religious Telescope, in an article on “Great Spiritual Dearth,” for the same year, 1844, said:—

“It is a lamentable fact, from which we cannot shut our eyes, that the churches of this country are now suffering severely on account of the great dearth almost universally complained of. 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 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, . . . we almost involuntarily exclaim, Has God forgotten to be gracious? or is the door of mercy closed?”

In the True Wesleyan, of Nov. 15, 1851, we find the following:—

“Sins that would shock the moral sensibilities of the heathen go unrebuked in all the great denominations of our land. These churches are like the Jewish when the Saviour exclaimed, ‘Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.’”

These extracts prove, beyond all doubt, the time and fact of the fall of Babylon. Mark how strong is the language used; and they are from the representative men of the great denominations of the country.

What caused their fall? A glance at the ancient church may help us in answering this question; for, of their experience, Paul says: “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples; and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. They were rejected because they refused to believe in the first advent of Christ. As Jesus himself said, it was because they knew not the time of their visitation. Luke 19:44.

When the proclamation of the second advent of our Lord (Rev. 14:6, 7) was first sounded, in 1840–44, the churches received it, as the Jews did the work of John the Baptist, but when the disappointment came they drew back, as the Jews did when called upon to confess Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah. God had plainly said: “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.” Hab. 2:2, 3. And again: “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” Heb. 10:35–37.

From the foregoing we see the necessity for raising the cry, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen;” “come out of her, my people.” Where shall they go? Let us briefly notice the imagery God has made use of in these messages. His people are in the ruins of a once noble city, which now, alas! has fallen. While lingering about the ruins, a mighty angel appears on the scene, and announces that their city is doomed to utter destruction, to be inhabited by every unclean and hateful bird, by foul spirits, yes, even by devils, and that the great storm of God’s wrath will break upon it, when it shall be utterly burned with fire. Rev. 18.

At this juncture, another angel appears upon the scene, and points out the place to which God would have his people go for protection. Hear him saying, as he flies slowly over the city, pointing to those who have chosen the place of safety, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” This company are outside the fallen city. Their house will never fall. It is built upon solid rock of the Lord’s own selection, even all his commandments and the faith of Jesus—the whole law and the whole gospel.

J. LAMONT.