In our last we gave some reasons for believing that the nominal churches of the present day are the Babylon of Rev. xiv, 8; xviii, 2, and that her fall is a moral change, and not her final destruction. We now design to point out that fall, and show that Rev. xiv, 8 and xviii, 1-4, do not represent one and the same message, but that Chap. xiv, 8 applies in the past, and that the message of Chap. xviii, 1-4 is yet to be given.
The second angel of Rev. xiv, merely announces the fall of Babylon, while the angel of Chap. xviii, "having great power," not only declares her fall, but also the fact of her becoming "the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird," after her fall.—The fact that she is thus filled with corruption, after her fall, is sufficient proof that her fall is merely a moral change for the worse, and not her final destruction.
We have only to compare the present condition of the churches with their state of spirituality ten years since, to see that a change has come over them. This no candid person will deny who has had any connection with, or knowledge of them.
Look back but ten years, and there you will see many powerful revivalists traveling from city to city and from town to town, laboring with their might for the conversion of sinners, laying the gospel axe at the root of the tree, according to what light they had, and God blessing their labors with the conversion of thousands. Where are those revivalists now? Answer: They are, perhaps, settled pastors of churches, and preach year after year without seeing one real conversion.—Or, it may be that they have entered business for a livelihood or wealth. This we do know, that an entire change has taken place relative to them.
Just take a view of the efforts put forth by the different sects, ten years since, for the conversion of perishing sinners. Protracted meetings were held by them for days and weeks in succession. The most spiritual ministers were obtained to preach, even if they were not educated and popular. A minister filled with the Holy Ghost, one that would arouse the people, was what was wanted then. The traveler, journeying the distance of fifty miles, at the season of the year when such meetings were most common, might pass five or six places of worship crowded by hundreds anxiously seeking the Lord.—Prayer-meetings held in almost every neighborhood, and in many places, almost or quite every evening in the week.—Not only ministers, but many of the most active members of the churches, visited from place to place, and from house to house, doing what they could to save souls. The voice of prayer was heard almost everywhere. It was heard not only from the house of worship and the family circle, but shops, barns and groves resounded with earnest petitions from those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness.
Ministers preached with simplicity and power, old saints wept and poured forth the fullness of their souls like young converts, while those who had just tasted the love of Jesus sweetly spoke forth his praise.
Now compare these facts with the present state of things.—Protracted meetings are seldom held, and when they are held, no one reports that much, (if anything,) is accomplished.—And whatever excitement is raised, it generally dies away so very soon that it proves itself to be human excitement, and not the work of Holy Ghost. Many that were the most successful reformation preachers have given up preaching.—Prayer-meetings seldom held, and then but very few to attend them. Family altars broken down, and the voice of prayer seldom heard only by the minister at church. In fact, religion has become a mere form with the churches of the day, destitute of vital godliness. It has ceased to be an every-day matter, being confined almost entirely to Sunday. And if the soul-damning sin of pride can be found on the face of the earth, it may be seen in the display of Sunday worship.
Those who will look at these facts in their true light will agree with us that the churches have fallen. Most of their own members will acknowledge this, though they know not the cause. This is all we contend for, relative to the fall of Babylon, that it is a fall from a measure of spirituality, to a state of lifeless formality. Having a form of godliness, but destitute of the Holy Spirit.
Mark this: We do not take the ground that the churches became Babylon by falling, but, while divided by their different creeds, holding such a confusion of doctrines, having separate interests, and united with the world, they were always worthy of the name Babylon. God has had people there, and has ever blest the labors of the spiritual and humble though in Babylon. This fact does not prove that the "mixture or confusion" of the churches is according to the gospel, or that they are not Babylon.
The correct view of the events represented by the angels of Rev. xiv, will help to an understanding of the cause of this change in the churches. The angel with the everlasting gospel, proclaiming the hour [period] of the judgment come, delivers his message to these churches, but they reject it. The message being from heaven, the rejection of it grieves away from them the Holy Spirit, and they are left in their present fallen condition.
Here let it be understood that the whole Advent body once applied this angel as we now do; but to get rid of other truths which naturally follow from this position, some carry the angels of Rev. xiv back hundreds of years, while others carry them forward into the age to come, after the Lord comes.—But the proclamation of the Advent in our day being a perfect fulfillment of this angel's message in all its parts, we are satisfied to still believe, on this point, as the whole body once believed.
"We would have healed Babylon," says the Prophet, "but she would not be healed." Jer. li, 9. Read the whole chapter. The medicine designed for her cure was the first angel's message of Rev. xiv. But as she refused this, the only thing that could heal her of her confusion of sectarianism, and love of the world, she has fallen. As proof that the Advent message was just calculated to heal Babylon, see its effects upon those who received it. Ministers and people, from all the different denominations, who embraced the Advent faith, laid aside their different tenets, and united perfectly on the great, important truth of the Advent, and thus they formed the Philadelphia church, the church of Brotherly Love.
God's people, who joyfully received this message from heaven, were many of them in the churches. Their testimony on the Advent was not received, and while thus bound, longing and struggling for freedom, the second angel, saying, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen," was heard by them. They then saw the condition of these churches, that they were Babylon, and that they had fallen, and thousands burst the cords that bound them to the sects, and they were free to rejoice in the blessed hope. About this time fasts were proclaimed in many of the churches for the return of the Holy Spirit, but we have never heard, neither have we reason to believe, that it ever returned.
We give the following which we copy from the Voice of Truth of September, 1844, which gives some idea of the alarm some felt on account of the sudden departure of the Holy Spirit, from which they have since recovered, and have fallen into a perpetual sleep.
"A late number of the Congregational Journal remarks as follows:
'CHURCH OF THE REV. ALBERT BARNES.—At a recent meeting of the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Rev. Mr. Barnes, pastor of the 1st 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 the last communion had he administered the ordinance without receiving more or less to 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.'
'Thus it is with all denominations,' and will they deny the change? Let them speak for themselves:
'The Puritan (Orthodox) of this city, (Boston) not long since informed its readers that there had not been known such a state of coldness for some twenty years. Zion's Herald made a similar statement, and endeavored to fix the blame upon 'Millerism;' and we have been told that at the recent protracted meeting held by Mr. Knapp, at the Tremont Baptist (Mr. Colver) church, the failure was ascribed to the same cause.' —Ad. Herald.
'The Christian Palladium for May 15th speaks in the following mournful strains:
'In every direction we hear the dolorous sound, wafting upon every breeze of heaven, chilling as the blasts from the icebergs of the north—settling like an incubus on the breasts of the timid, and drinking up the energies of the weak; that lukewarmness, division, anarchy and desolation are distressing the borders of Zion. Perhaps it is so. What then? Do we well, like the howling women of ancient days, to rend our flesh—our hair, and fill the whole atmosphere with our wailings?'
'It is but a few passing months since the whole extent of our wide spread country, rang with triumphant peals of joy borne upon the wings of numerous religious periodicals, and spontaneously overflowing from every Christian heart. Not a lip but was shouting the victories of the cross, or joining in the triumphant songs of the redeemed. And is the whole scene now so changed?'
The following is from the Circleville, Ohio, Religious Telescope, which we copy from the Voice of Truth for January, 1845.
"GREAT SPIRITUAL DEARTH.—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 great29dearth, 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, and the almost unparalleled impertinence and hardness of sinners, we almost involuntarily exclaim, 'has God forgotten to be gracious?' Or, is the door of mercy closed?
'Look again, and behold the spirit of the world, how it prevails in the church. Where is the pious man who has not been made to sigh on account of these abominations in the midst of us? Who is that man in the political crowd whose voice is heard above the rest, and who is foremost in carrying torch-lights, bellowing at the top of his voice? O, he is a Christian! perhaps a class-leader or exhorter. Who is that lady dressed in the most ridiculous fashion, muffled and bustled as if nature had deformed her? O! she is a follower and imitator of the humble Jesus! O, shame! where is thy blush? This is no uncommon picture, I assure you. Would to God it was. My heart is pained within me while I write.'
The fallen state of the church was felt by many of its members about the autumn of 1844; but it was more clearly seen by those who stood in the blazing light of truth, looking for the Lord. Then the Advent people were agreed that the churches had fallen, and under the cry, "Babylon is fallen," they left the several sects of which they were members. It is true that the angel of Rev. xiv, 8 was considered the same as that of Chap. xviii, 1-4. It is also true that the messages of the second and third angels were confounded together. This was for want of the increase of light on these points, which we now have.
We will now offer some reasons for taking the position that the angel of Rev. xviii, 1-4, is not the same as the second angel of Chap. xiv, and that their messages apply to different periods of time.
1. The second angel of Rev. xiv, only announces the fall of Babylon, which was true in 1844, at the time that the message was given, which was the means of bringing the whole Advent body out of the churches. But the angel of Chap. xviii, 1-4, announces two distinct events; first, the fall of Babylon, and second, her being filled with foul spirits, &c., after her fall. The first, only, was true of Babylon, when the second angel's message was given in 1844. And as her becoming a "hold of every foul spirit, &c." is an event to take place after her fall, it necessarily follows that the angel of Rev. xviii, 1-4, gives his message at a later period than the second angel of Chap. xiv, and that it is future. The fall of Babylon is a moral fall. The Holy Spirit departs from her, and she is left to receive and cherish the "spirits of devils working miracles," which are beginning to manifest themselves in the spiritual wonders of the day, such as Mesmerism, Biology, Psychology, and mysterious manifestations in the forms of rapping and writing.
Mesmerism attracted but little attention prior to 1844, when compared with the notice it has received since that time.—And as for the other spiritual wonders mentioned above, they were not known at that time. This is the very period, since the moral fall of Babylon, for these spirits to arise and do their work. Many of the places of worship from which the messengers of the everlasting good news of the coming of Jesus and the restitution were barred, have been freely opened for these modern Magicians to exhibit the power of the Devil. And some who were once ministers of the gospel are the most efficient in this work. The people are sometimes told that now by these spiritual wonders all the miracles of our Lord Jesus Christ can be accounted for!! And what makes this matter look still more blasphemous is, that wicked men, stained all over with sin and crime, can perform these wonders which are said to be of the same character of the miracles of Christ.
These manifestations are perfectly calculated to destroy the power of living faith, and lead men to doubt the power of the Holy Ghost. Thus we see that everything like vital godliness, and the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, is called mesmerism. Ah! this is the Devil's master-piece, his grand devise to deceive men, and lead them on to the battle of the great day.—God would have healed Babylon, but she chose her own way, refused the healing medicines, and he has chosen her delusion for her. She refused the words of life, and Jesus and the Spirit of truth left her, and she is left in her blindness to hug vipers to her breast. Left to the "working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they receive not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.—And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions, that they might believe a lie." 2 Thess. ii, 9-11.
The message of the second angel of Rev. xiv, is in the past, but the angel of Chap. xviii, could not deliver his message in 1844; for Babylon was not then "the hold of every foul spirit, &c." The manifestation of foul spirits has been mostly since that time. But, a little from this, when Babylon's cup shall be full, just before the seven last plagues shall be poured out, the message will go forth with strength, "Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird." This message, in connection with the great truths of the third angel of Rev. xiv, will manifest the 144,000, who are to be "redeemed from among men," and changed to immortality at the coming of Christ.
2. We object to the view that the second angel of Rev. xiv, is the same as that of Chap. xviii, 1-4, because the angel of Chap. xviii, is said to have "come down from heaven having GREAT POWER, and the EARTH WAS LIGHTENED WITH HIS GLORY," while the second angel's message was more local. The saying of the first angel is said to be with "a loud voice," in a room for public mind, as is the third. But the second is not said to be with a loud voice. It was confined to those who received the first message. The angel of Chap. xviii, is to have great light, and power and glory, which is to effect the world, arrest the public mind, and call out from this great Babylon the scattered members of the body of Christ, that they may be perfected, without spot or wrinkle, and fitted to stand in the day of wrath.
With pleasure we dwell upon this angel in the future, having great power, enlightening the earth with his glory. And why not expect it? God has ever manifested himself to his people according to their necessities. He never blesses them for their amusement; but their extremity is God's opportunity to work. A "time of trouble such as never was" is just before us, and we may reasonably expect God to work for his people, as he never has in past time, to fit them to stand in that dreadful day.
3. The call, "Come out of her my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues," is evidently just before the seven last plagues are poured out. "My people, go ye out of the midst of her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the Lord." Jer. li, 45. This time of the fierce anger of the Lord can be no other than that period when there shall be "no Intercessor," [Isa. lix, 16.] and the vials of God's wrath are being poured out.—This message that calls God's people from Babylon is an urgent one, that they may flee from the plagues that are ready to fall upon them; therefore it was not given eight years since. In fact, those who gave the second message of Rev. xiv, did not understand the plagues, consequently could not give the warning to escape them, uttered by the angel of Chap. xviii, 1-4. It is well known that some who proclaimed the fall of Babylon in 1844, put the plagues in the future, after the Advent, while others placed six of them in the past.
It is evident that those who are permitted to raise the cry of Rev. xviii, 1-4, will understand the plagues from which they warn the people to escape. These plagues are before us, literal and dreadful. They are the unmingled cup of the wine of the wrath of Almighty God, threatened by the third angel of Chap. xiv. We therefore conclude that the message of the angel of Chap. xviii, 1-4, proclaiming Babylon's fall, and calling upon God's people to come out of her, is to be given in connection with the third angel, in the closing work of salvation, before Jesus leaves the Sanctuary, and takes his position upon the great white cloud. Rev. xiv, 14.
We would say to God's people, wherever they may be in this great Babylon, whether with the Baptist, Methodist, Adventist, or any other sect, "Come out of her," flee from her foul spirits lest ye receive Babylon's plagues. There are "a few names even in Sardis," (from which the Philadelphia church came out,) "which have not defiled their garments." Rev. iii, 4. Some of these few names are turning their feet to run in the way of all the commandments of God. They are coming out of Babylon, and, thank Heaven, there is firm ground for them to walk out upon. To such, we would extend the hand of fellowship and help. May God bless and sustain them in the trials of the way.
The perils of the last days are upon us. "This know," says Paul, "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, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof; FROM SUCH TURN AWAY." 2 Tim. iii, 1-5.
Here let it be understood that the Apostle is describing professed Christians, those who have a "form of godliness, but deny the power." And his description answers perfectly to the state of the fallen churches of this day of apostasy. May the Lord give his people light on this subject, and strength to obey the injunction of Paul, "FROM SUCH TURN AWAY."
Again, the Apostle says, [2 Cor. vi, 14-17,] "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."