THE FALL OF BABYLON by Elder William Covert

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 12, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 53.

THE FALL OF BABYLON.

By Elder William Covert

A STRIKING likeness of ancient Babylon is given in the book of Revelation. As the prophets in ancient times proclaimed the fall of old Babylon previous to her utter destruction, so does John announce the fall of modern Babylon in advance of her final overthrow. The fall of the Apocalyptic Babylon is, however, more descriptive of her moral degeneracy than prophetic of her destruction, while the fall announced of the Chaldean metropolis was more prophetic of her overthrow by the Medes and Persians than descriptive of her departure from virtue. Yet in each case both points are revealed. In each instance it is her persecution of God's children and the idolatry of her worship which cause her destruction.

It will be instructive to note a few of these points of resemblance. The fall of both is made emphatic by a double announcement,—"Is fallen, is fallen." Isa. 21:9; Rev. 14:8. Both have made the nations drunk with their wine. Rev. 14:8; Jer. 51:7. Each dwelt alike upon many waters. Jer. 51:12, 13; Rev. 17:1, 15. With each her sins have reached unto heaven. Jer. 51:9; Rev. 18:5. As the prophet symbolized the destruction of ancient Babylon by throwing a stone into the Euphrates, so the angel emphasized the overthrow and extinction of the modern harlot Babylon, by throwing a mighty stone violently into the sea. Jer. 51:64; Rev. 18:21. Against each is charged the blood of the saints. Jer. 51:49; Rev. 18:24. In both ancient and modern times Babylon has boasted of her ladyship, because she has ruled and reveled with the kings of the earth. Isa. 47:5, 7; Rev. 18:7. With both the loss of this boasted connection and the sorrow of widowhood were to take place in one day. Isa. 47:9; Rev. 18:8. In both cases she led the civil rulers to commit these things by her sorceries. Isa. 47:9, 10; Rev. 18:23. It has been through this iniquitous connection, in all the ages, that Baalism and devil or demon worship have befouled the church and persecuted the people of God.

The church has been cursed with this idolatrous union under the rule of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Grecia, Rome,—all polytheistical; and now she is entering the same union for a short space (Rev. 17:10), under the leadership of professed Protestantism. This is being done by a union of Church and State in this country. It will certainly result in giving the civil rule again to the Papacy among the leading nations, for a very short time. Rev. 17:11, 12, 17. Babylon will then rule in three parts. Rev. 16:19. She will be the mother of the Spiritualism which is honeycombing Protestantism, of Mariolatry, saint worship, and popery, which rules in Catholicism, and of all the demoniac devices of the pagan world. Satan will through these agencies make all nations one municipality (Rev. 17:18; 16:19), and proceed to make war with the followers of the Lamb (Rev. 17:13), who keep the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ (Rev. 12:17).

Much has been done, and much more will yet be done, to warn all of the impending danger, before the last steps in this great drama have been taken. But enough has already been accomplished to call forth the loud cry of the mighty messenger of Rev. 18:1-3. Whatever agencies the Lord shall use in this proclamation, must announce to all the world, and in all the world, the facts as to what has taken place in both Church and State, and show where the danger is, and how it all came about. Not only so, but they must also call upon God's people to get out of Babylon, because she has become the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird.

The church, which was once a chaste virgin espoused to her Redeemer, has deserted him and committed fornication with the kings and civil rulers of the earth. To receive their power and guidance, she has had to corrupt some by flatteries, and others by threats. She has not refrained from any of these things when she has seen that she could accomplish the desire of her heart by these means. To bring about her unholy object she has even caused some to violate their official oath, and plead with many more to do the same thing. She has counted them good and pure according to the fervor and the degrees of their union with her. She has been playing the part of Potiphar's wife toward them, while the rulers have not possessed the virtue of Joseph; therefore, the church and they have fallen together in their mutual shame.

As Israel was holiness to the Lord when God had separated her from every unholy alliance, and had taken her unto himself, so was the Protestant Church espoused unto the Lord, when she sought his love direct, without the intervention of the State, the pope, the priest, the Virgin Mary, the invocation of saints, demons, or spirits. As Israel left her Lord, and committed lewdness with Baal, and was carried into Babylon, so it is with the Protestant Church. She has been sliding backward until she stands upon the same Babylonian principles that were rejected by the Christian princes in the days of Luther. Her lamentable condition is described in the following scripture:—

"Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the Fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." "And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee; know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord." Jer. 2:12, 13, 18, 19.

As the church has, by appealing to Congress and State legislative bodies to enforce the Sunday of Baal, formally rejected both the Lord and his law, she has prepared the way by which every foul spirit can and will come in to override the truth and bear testimony against the Lord, and persecute those who will keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

As ancient Babylon in her desolation became the playground and lodging place of wild beasts and a court for owls and a dancing place for satyrs, the deities of fable (Isa. 13:21, 22), so shall modern Babylon, when forsaken of the abiding presence of the Lord, become the sporting ground of Satan, a hold for every foul or unclean spirit, and a cage for everything hateful and loathsome. Rev. 18:2. It is in this condition that all departments of great Babylon will send forth unclean spirits, which will work miracles in the interest of her idolatrous practices, and by these things the whole world will be deceived (Rev. 16:13, 14), except those whose names are in the book of life (Rev. 13:8). The greatest of these miracles will be seen in the two-horned beast power. Rev. 19:20; 13:8. The Saviour says that these manifestations shall be so great that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect. Matt. 24:24.

These wonders will immediately precede the second coming of Christ, for the apostle writes that the Lord's coming is "after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved." 2 Thess. 2:8, 9.

Satan has in all ages and places worked in that way which his cunning has thought would best accomplish his purposes. With the lower grades of fallen humanity in the great city of Babylon, fetichism, with its allied demonology, serves his purpose the best. The next department is better satisfied with the invocation of saints, and the worship of the Virgin Mary, led and directed by the priesthood of Catholicism. But nothing less than the sly cunning and the oily smoothness of the latest phases of Modern Spiritualism can be passed upon those who have once professed to believe that the word of God, received by faith in Christ alone, had within it the divine power. This Protestantism will certainly accept. Satan seems to have had in training during the last half of the present century a host of evil angels, who have been studying and practicing the art of spectral photography and spectro-peopling seance

rooms and darkened chambers, till many have been deceived into believing in the living, tangible existence of those whom God in his word declares to be unconscious in death.

But the substance of all this is incorporated in their creeds already, and will they reject it? In all these theories and appliances it is but the working of Satan and fallen angels. Not one manifestation from the death of Abel to the present moment, in any place, at any time, has been from the soul or spirit of any dead man, woman, or child. Anything that claims to be such a thing is from the same source that drew our first parents into disobedience. Rejecting the word of God, and through the same rejection denying the Spirit of God and the power of God, leaves a desolated church, and desolated hearts. Such cannot help becoming the habitation of devils and the hold or dwelling place of every foul spirit. It was to be expected that when Babylon of old was rejected as a habitation for man, wild beasts and hateful birds would take possession of its courts. Just so it must be with modern Babylon when deserted by the Spirit of the Lord; the spirit of Satan will take full possession of her. God's people will have to flee from her, that they may escape the plagues that are to be the agents of her destruction.

It is when great Babylon is thus divided into three parts (Rev. 16:19) that God is to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. The third division has come in the rejection of the commandments of God and the formal substitution of Baalism, in legislation superintended by the Protestant clergy in behalf of Sunday. They have in doing this placed the State above God. They propose to compel the people to render unto Caesar the things which belong to God. This is putting Caesar in the place of God. It is practically making of Caesar a god. But as Caesar in this instance puts the Babylonian Sunday in the place of the Sabbath of Jehovah, it is to all intents and purposes Baal worship, demanded and enforced by law. If in the past the Lord rejected both Israel and Judah because of their rejection of his commandments and the worshiping of Baal instead of God, what can those people expect from him now who do practically the same thing? But they are not satisfied with rejecting the Sabbath of the Lord, and the substitution of an idolatrous institution in its stead. They propose to prevent the obedience to God's law which the loyal desire to render to their Creator and Redeemer. They are actually making war upon those who in the remnant church keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Rev. 12:17.

Many in different parts of the country have already been put in jail, and some have been compelled to work as criminals in the chain gang because of the incorporation of Baal's Sunday in the laws of our States. Not only so, but in every place there has arisen a spirit from beneath, which proposes to make universal and more stringent laws and then enforce them in a more fiendish manner than has yet been done.

Should not Zion now put on her beautiful garments, and let the glory of God shine forth in clear beams of righteousness, and fearlessly proclaim the message for the judgment hour which shall call God's people out of Babylon?