p. 738 | BABYLON IS FALLEN by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Oct 1, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 47.

BABYLON IS FALLEN.

By Editor

In past numbers we have shown, what must be apparent to all, that the divided condition of the Christian church (which the prophetic word calls "Babylon"), is not in harmony with God's plan. God permitted the division in his own wise purpose; but when the fullness of time came, about the middle of this present century, God sent forth his message of healing, which, if received, would have made his church one as in the beginning. It would have turned the church from the theories and traditions and worldly wisdom of men to the word of God. It would have swept away the "refuge of lies" which Satan has built up around his first falsehood,—"Ye shall not surely die; . . . ye shall be as God;" —it would have brought the church to Christ, our life; and the gospel—Christ's words of righteousness and life —would have shone with new glory. That healing message of the everlasting gospel would have turned the church from the false sabbath of pago-papal institution, the mark of the apostasy, the authority of which is based wholly in that tradition which makes void the commandment of God, and it would have turned her to the true Sabbath of Jehovah, the memorial of our great Creator, the sign of a Redeemer "mighty to save." It would have turned the torn and divided church from giving glory to man, and have taught her to give glory to God in view of his impending judgment and the day of wrath.

The "doctors" of the church have tried to heal her, the prophets have cried, Peace; but the church was not healed. Peace has not come. The Lord says, "They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace." And now, when men's plans have proved to be failures, God calls them back to "the old paths" and "the good way," and commands them to "walk therein." He bids the professed watchmen, in view of the coming dangers, to "hearken to the sound of the trumpet," that they may warn the people. He places before them with terrific plainness the holy law, that they may see their sins. He holds out with infinite longing the balm of Gilead, that the wounds and divisions may be healed. He does not condemn; he has not condemned for the past. If he had not sent his message, even as to the first house of Israel, "they had not had sin."

But the world-loving people declare concerning "the old paths" and "the good way," "We will not walk therein." The prophets say concerning God's trumpet which is blown to warn the people of the great day of God's wrath, "We will not hearken." When they reject the message, then there is no more "cloak for their sin." They turn to their traditions, and will not heed God's law, and therefore he witnesses against them:—

"Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the latter day, that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord."

What is the consequence of this turning away from the healing message, from the law of the Lord, from the gospel of life?—A moral decline. As a city in the case of a seige, rejecting all succor, would be sure to fall, so when the professed church of Christ, modern Babylon, rejects all that would help her, she is sure to fall morally. And this is what the Lord declares. In the very message where the Lord tells his church to walk in "the old paths" and "the good way," and she refuses and clings to her errors, clothes herself with her shame, and walks in her own abominations, he says:—

"Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore they shall fall among them that fall. . . . Because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it."

This sad condition is just what is declared by the message of the second angel:—

"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."

There are two points in this which we will briefly consider,—the fall, the wine of her fornication.

The Fall of Babylon.

The fall of Babylon, as before intimated, is not her destruction; it is a moral fall. This is shown by Rev. 18: 1-4, when God's people are called out of her after her fall to avoid her destruction. Of course a moral fall means utter destruction sometime, because "sin; when it is finished, bringeth forth death," and "the wages of sin is death." But Babylon's fall is a moral fall, consequent on her rejecting God's truth. Continuing in that condition brings her to that place noted in Rev. 18: 1-4,—"the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit."

As before said, the healing message of Rev. 14: 6, 7 began to be preached in 1844 and onward. The rejection of that message leaves the churches in a worse spiritual condition than it found them. That the churches have not accepted the message is shown by their position on the three prominent doctrines named,—the Bible as the word of God, the only standard of faith and morals; life only through Christ; and the Bible Sabbath. Upon the latter especially has the test of the churches come, for the Sabbath question involves a decision between the word of God alone on the one hand, and tradition alone on the other; between the law of God as spoken by him, and the law as given by the Papacy. Between these (and it is with sadness we record it) the great Protestant churches have decided with papal tradition. Many Protestants admit that the day has no scriptural authority, and not one of them can give a Thus saith the Lord for its observance. Note the following testimonies:—

The festival Sunday, like all other festivals, was always only a human ordinance; and it was far from the intention of the apostles to establish a divine command in this respect, far from them and the early apostolic church to transfer the laws of the Sabbath to Sunday.

The observance of the Lord's day [Sunday] is founded not on any command of God, but on the authority of the church.

The current notion that Christ and his apostles authoritatively substituted the first day for the seventh is absolutely without any authority in the New Testament.

The Scriptures nowhere call the first day of the week the Sabbath. . . . There is no scriptural authority for so doing, nor, of course, any scriptural obligation.

The day is now changed from the seventh to the first day, . . . but as we meet with no scriptural direction for the change, we may conclude it was done by the authority of the church.

We hear less than we used to about the apostolic origin of the present Sunday observance, and for the reason that, while the Sabbath and Sabbath rest are woven into the warp and woof of the Scripture, it is now seen, as it is admitted, that we must go to later than apostolic times for the establishment of Sunday observance.

Many more testimonies might be given. The church has chosen the tradition rather than the word of God, and representatives of the churches witness to their fall. Take the following as representing what might be quoted in the same line regarding other denominations; this is by the venerable Bishop Moore, editor of the Cincinnati Western Christian Advocate:—

TO THE CHURCH OF METHODISTS, WRITE.

The great trouble with us to-day is that the rescue of imperiled souls is our last and least consideration. Many of our congregations are conducted on the basis of social clubs. They are made centers of social influence. Membership is sought in order to advance one's prospects in society, business, or politics. Preachers are called who know how to "smooth down the rugged text to ears polite, and snugly keep damnation out of sight." The class books are filled with names of unconverted men

and women. Official members may be found in box, dress circle, and parquet of opera and theater. Communicants take in the races, and give and attend card parties and dances. The distinction between inside and outside is so obscure that men smile when asked to unite with the church, and sometimes tell us that they find the best men outside. . . .

And yet we have so spread out, under the inflation of the rich and ungodly, that they are a necessity to us. The enforcement of the unmistakable letter of the discipline for a single year would cut our membership in half, bankrupt our missionary society, close our fashionable churches, paralyse our connectional interests, and leave our pastors and bishops unpaid and in distress. But the fact remains that one of two things must happen,—the discipline must purge the church, or God's Holy Spirit will seek other organized agencies. The ax is laid at the root of the tree. The call is to repentance. God's work must be done. If we are in the way, he will remove us.

Says Rev. George Guirey, Baptist:—

The blandishments of the world are too much for human nature to withstand, and we see the sad spectacle of the great moral and religious activities of the church drop down into the rut of the ordinary routine of mere business affairs, while her beautiful and glorious life is shorn of its spiritual power. As a result, Sabbath desecration is almost as common in the church as out of it. . . . The love of the world, the greed for wealth, and the ambition for place and power, leave the church in the hands of a faithful few to bear her burdens and responsibilities, while the great body of her membership joins the world in Sunday pleasuring.

"The church has fallen, the beautiful church, And her shame is her boast and pride."

The Wine of Her Fornication.

The wine of Babylon's fornication is the exact opposite of the gospel of truth she has rejected. It is that which leads up to the fornication which she commits with the kings of the world. The harlot often poisons her victim's blood and arouses his passions with wine before he yields to her solicitations. The wine of Babylon is the errors and corruptions which she opposes to the pure wine of Christ's gospel. When the church, grown proud and popular, rejects the healing message of the gospel, she says to the nations of earth that God's word is worthless, that the pure wine of his gospel is of no account, but that the corrupted creeds of tradition, the adulterated liquid of her own vintage, is superior to that bought by the blood of Christ.

What must necessarily follow such a course?—Union with the world. The wine of fornication leads to fornication itself. By the rejection of the message she rejected Him who gave it. But the message goes forward, borne by earnest servants of God. It cannot be stayed. The Spirit of God through it convinces the world and a proud, popular church of its sin. The true basis of life through Christ is preached. The Sunday sabbath is shown to be a counterfeit coin in the kingdom of grace. The Sabbath of the Lord everywhere comes to the front; and Babylon has only the perverted word and unholy tradition by which to withstand the mighty shocks of God's truth; and the slight wall, plastered with "untempered mortar," ever trembles before the mighty blows of the word.

What will the church do? What is she doing? What has she done?—She has done just what the apostate church has always done,—gone to Egypt or Assyria for help instead of seeking unto the Lord. She seeks the power of the kings of earth to promote her counterfeit evangel. Read her prototypes in Israel of old as recorded in Ezekiel 16, 17; Jeremiah 3; Isa. 30: 1-13. Read her history in the apostate church of the first centuries, when it departed from Christ and united with the world. That is what (would to God it were otherwise) the churches once so wonderfully favored of God are doing today. A consideration of this we must reserve to our next. But, reader, how are you related to this work? What is your attitude toward God's message?