Revelation 18:1, commentary and pictures

After these things another angel comes down with great power until the earth is lightened with his glory, which is a heavenly movement carried forward by consecrated human messengers proclaiming the final warning, not a literal voice heard in the sky. Having great power is the universal blessing of the Holy Spirit as the latter rain and refreshing, giving efficiency like Pentecost but more abundantly. The earth lightened with his glory is the worldwide diffusion of the knowledge of God and present truth to every city, town, continent and island, as clear steady continuing light, and that glory is Christ revealed in character, His righteousness and love made manifest in His people. This angel joins the third angel's message and swells it into the loud cry, repeating the second angel's announcement that Babylon is fallen with the corruptions that have entered the churches since the summer of 1844. It is the last message of mercy and final warning to be given boldly and loudly before probation closes and the plagues fall, dividing between honest hearts who receive the light and come out, and those who refuse truth and are left to believe a lie.

Angel, Power, and Glory

The angel coming down from heaven is a movement from heaven carried forward by God's people proclaiming the final warning to the world in the last period of earth's history, not a voice to be heard literally in the sky. It is the special message for the present time to prepare people for the day of God and lead them to a higher, holier life, joined to the call to come out of Babylon before her judgments fall. The light and power that lighten the whole earth with God's glory are revealed through people, and through consecrated human messengers the message is to be proclaimed clearly and boldly and cannot be stopped by human opposition, for if messengers are silenced God will find another way and it will go forward with still greater power. That illumination is given alone to souls who earnestly seek for light and who accept with gladness every ray of divine illumination from God's holy word, and through such thirsty souls God makes the light and power known and lightens the whole earth.

Having great power is the Spirit of the Lord graciously and universally blessing consecrated human instrumentalities during the proclamation of the third angel's message. It is the latter rain and refreshing giving efficiency as at the Pentecostal season, when every man heard the truth in his own tongue, but more abundantly, with God breathing new life into every soul that sincerely desires to serve Him, touching lips with a live coal from the altar, loosing the stammering tongue, making the timid strong to bear courageous testimony, and causing thousands of voices imbued with power to speak forth the wonderful truths of God's word. Then men, women, and children open their lips in praise and testimony until the earth is filled with the knowledge of God and with His unsurpassed glory as the waters cover the sea, reaching every city and town. That power is given to those who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goes and to all who love God and obey His law in the last great conflict, when help comes in announcing with a mighty strong voice the fall of Babylon and its becoming a dwelling for devils and every foul and hateful spirit. Sharing in it requires cleansing the soul-temple from every defilement and maintaining so close a connection with God as to be partakers of the latter rain when poured out.

The earth lightened with his glory is the worldwide diffusion of clear truth attended by the light and glory of God, carrying forward the light that shone through the Lord's messengers in ages past whose protest distinguished Protestants. It does not flash like lightning and leave darkness behind it, but continues to shine with earnestness and power proving it a voice from the throne of God, given with a distinctness in proportion to its importance and bearing decided testimony for reform and for the downtrodden law with no daubing with untempered mortar and no half-and-half witness. It is missionary advance that never lays down its burden until the whole earth is lightened, with angels going before workers to prepare the way and the watchword Onward, ever onward. Before Christ's second coming God's truth spreads to illuminate every land and people, every nation and region including distant lands and remote new territories that must not be neglected, carried by those who have received the light to those in spiritual darkness until the warning has been heard and each person has decided before the end. Soon the whole earth is to be filled with light from the glory of the Lord as fully as waters cover the channels of the great deep, standing on the threshold of great and solemn events while angels hold the four winds until the specified warning is given, though stormy times gather and old hushed controversies revive mingled with new.

That glory is the great salvation God longs to bestow, the benefits and light He has loaded upon and given to all and the richest truths He has again and again put in His cup and presented to His people. It is the message of Christ's righteousness sounding from one end of the world to the other, with the law of God magnified and its claims presented in their true sacred character so people are brought to decide for or against the truth, closing the work of the third angel with a certain sound in a work cut short in righteousness before probation closes. It is the law of God and the gospel of righteousness understood in its true character and proclaimed in the Spirit, with much light yet to shine forth from it, sending the rays of the Sun of Righteousness into all the highways and byways of life and bringing the great decisive question before all nations, tongues, and peoples so decisions are made for God as supreme Governor whose law is the rule of His government. It is the precious old light of justification by faith lost sight of through Satan's work to shut it away and now shining forth again to fill the earth, which will go forward in power even if some refuse to advance, while those who gossip, cavil, question, throw objections, choose darkness and love darkness place themselves as bodies of darkness intercepting the light and are left enshrouded in darkness. The final full display of God's love to the world is made through the church lifting up God's law, presenting the Lamb who takes away the world's sins, and, supplied continually by the Holy Spirit, bearing witness to God's power to save.

Babylon's Fall Repeated

The angel repeats the second angel's message that Babylon is fallen, with added force and increased power because of the corruptions that have entered the churches since that message was first given in the summer of 1844. It is the same message given by the second angel, now given again as a second distinct final call to the churches, matching the voice that calls God's people to come out of her. Its setting is a religious world growing darker and more stubborn as truth is rejected, and its influence deepens and widens while awakening intense opposition.

Fallen Babylon is the churches that will not receive the warnings of the first, second, and third angels, who refused the messages of truth, refused the truth, and accepted a lie. Its moral fall is now at hand, borne as a mighty final proclamation on behalf of God's commandment-keeping people, and the time has come for the call to gather them into one company keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. This message does not declare the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be Babylon, nor does it apply to the people God has made the repositories of His law who keep His commandments.

Babylon's fall is because she made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication, which is her false doctrines. That wine is exalting a false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath the Lord blessed and sanctified for man, giving the world a false Sabbath instead of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, together with the natural immortality of the soul first told as a lie to Eve in Eden by Satan, and many kindred errors and kindred heresies teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. With these corruptions are the acceptance of Spiritualism opening churches to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, union of church and state, and the growing power of the papacy, while religious profession conceals wrongdoing and kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers are brought into corrupt harmony.

The announcement cries mightily that Babylon the great is fallen and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. This is because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are grown rich through her delicacies. Her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities to reward her double, and God's people distinct and separate from the world who keep holy His Sabbath are called to come out of her that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. Those plagues are death and mourning and famine and burning, and the warning must go to all the world before the Lord soon comes, for God will not send His judgments for disobedience until His watchmen have given it.

Mystic Babylon has fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power, and the chapter exposes under different symbols the wicked character and seductive influence of persecuting worldly powers whose external parade will increase more and more. In the closing scenes when the mystery of iniquity plays a large part and the powers of earth give themselves wholly over to evil, her wrath is directed against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The message warns of last-day wickedness and the mark of the beast, exposes moral vileness and corruption among people in churches, and exposes the danger of deceptive influences from human and satanic agencies combined that lead people to reject God's word and fall into Satan's snare. Buildings themselves are not polluted by the sins committed in them.

Joined to Three Angels

The angel joins the third angel's message and swells it into the loud cry, intensifying its proclamation until the earth is lightened with glory. The first and second angels' messages are bound up with the third, and their proclaiming power is concentrated in it, so that all blend into one worldwide proclamation that continues until the close of history. This united proclamation is the final warning to the world, accompanied by the call for God's people to leave Babylon before its judgments fall. It is the loud cry of the third angel's message, when the final warning against the beast and his image is proclaimed with great power by those who give it.

The verse repeats the first angel's proclamation of Christ's second coming with power and great glory, the hour of judgment, and fearing God, together with the second angel's proclamation of Babylon's fall given again with greater force. The churches are prepared for this angel by proclaiming the first, second, and third angels, holding firmly the banner of truth in proclaiming the law of God joined with the faith of Jesus. The third brings greater light to the earlier messages as they are repeated, and these messages all blend in one to come before the people in the closing days of history. The fall proclaimed is because Babylon made all nations drink the wine of the wrath of her fornication, which is her false doctrines including a false Sabbath in place of the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, the natural immortality of the soul first told as a lie to Eve in Eden, and many kindred errors teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

This united message is the final warning, the last message of mercy, the last call to the churches, the harvest message, and the great testing truth for this time that strengthens and confirms the third angel's message. It must be sounded now with a strong voice, in no measured terms, with a solemn sense of its life-and-death importance, carried to the churches, made intelligible and prominent, and given before judgments fall while the four winds are held back. Its call to come out of fallen Babylon joins the calls of the first and second angels and is repeated again by the third angel, plainly warning poor souls under the influences of Babylon of their danger from deceptive human and satanic agencies combined. Its truths, with those of Revelation 19, are testing truths that many have not yet heard and that must be given more fully to the world, with spiritual interests given the largest place and the conversion of souls made of greatest importance.

It comes after the truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations and after the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12 has been rejected, when Babylon has reached the condition foretold by the second angel and the earth is illuminated with the light of truth. It is the next great event after the messages of Revelation 14:6-13, true missionary work bearing the truth to all nations with the most decided character. It is to be given before the plagues, before the taking of the beast and false prophet to be cast into the lake of fire, the binding of the dragon in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, the resurrection of the wicked, the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked, and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth. Before the plagues it reaches honest hearts whose hearts are open to receive it, and those who reject it are left to believe a lie, while God's people still in Babylon heed the call to come out of her.

Timing and Last-Day Setting

The angel's descent foretells a future work soon to be fulfilled, now at hand and standing on the threshold of great events, with its light already beginning to shine. The message is rising and about to go forth with great power to lighten the earth, a mighty final proclamation and the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, borne by heaven on behalf of commandment-keeping people before the last test comes and prompt decisions are made. It was shown to John as living reality that will surely happen, and its prophecies together with Revelation 12 to 17 are being fulfilled and must be read verse by verse with Revelation 3, 16, 19, 21, and 22. Those blinded by sin may fail to recognize it, as the Jews in Christ's day failed to see the light before them and shut closed hearts against the manifested power of God.

Its setting is after truth has been proclaimed as a witness to all nations, at a time of gross spiritual darkness and apostasy when every conceivable power of evil is set in operation. Minds are confused by many voices crying Lo here is Christ and Lo He is there and claiming truth and great light and a message from God, landmarks are removed and the pillars of faith are attacked, and true piety is low. At that same time a more decided effort is made to exalt the false sabbath and cast contempt upon God by supplanting the day He blessed and sanctified, enforced by an oppressive law, while Satan and his angels are wide-awake and intensely active working with lying wonders through human agencies to obliterate the knowledge of God. This worldwide illumination marks the time when good and evil religious forces awake from slumber and enter the conflict of Armageddon, connected with the pouring out of the seventh vial, when every form of evil springs into intense activity and evil angels unite with evil men for a desperate struggle with all the world on one side or the other, calling for wakefulness like wise virgins having oil which is grace, sustained by the Holy Ghost while the Captain of the Lord's host directs the battle.

The final movement will surpass in power the Advent movement of 1840-44, when the first angel's message reached missionary stations around the world and stirred exceptional religious interest, yet the final worldwide work under the last warning will exceed it. It will be as at the Pentecostal season, with every man hearing truth in his own tongue, but the latter rain will be more abundant than the early rain, giving power to reveal Christ's righteousness and expose deception. Like Pentecost it is carried everywhere by consecrated servants proclaiming the heavenly warning, with God breathing new life into sincere souls, touching lips as with a live coal, loosing the stammering tongue, making the timid strong, and attending the word with miracles, healings, signs and wonders, with hundreds and thousands visiting families, hearts convicted, intercession like before Pentecost, many praising God, the sick healed, and doors thrown open. At the same time Satan performs deceptive wonders, including calling fire down from heaven, bringing earth's inhabitants to choose their side, while some refuse conversion, will not walk in the light, and cling selfishly to possessions when liberal offerings are called for.

The strong clear light meant to flood the earth was to go forth as a burning lamp when watchmen arise with united voices and give a decided message with a certain trumpet sound so every person springs to duty. That glory was meant to go forth from the Minneapolis meeting in the Lord's message of justification by faith through Waggoner and Jones, the special power of the Holy Spirit God longs to impart to give efficiency as the apostles had after Pentecost. But blindness of mind and hardness of heart standing against the truth hindered its advance, and unwillingness to yield preconceived opinions resisted the light, so that Satan by exciting opposition shut that earth-enlightening power away in great measure and by the action of brethren themselves it has been kept away from the world, leaving the work years behind.

The chapter is a warning of coming events and retributive judgments permitted to fall upon those who continue in sin in the face of great light, to be fulfilled when the Lord arises to shake terribly the earth. Then terrible scenes beyond imagination take place: one word and one touch of mighty power throws down massive buildings built story upon story by turning and overturning, balls like fire full of arrows fall from heaven with great calamities, houses burn beyond human extinguishing, the earth quakes, homes fall with crash and screeching and praying and confusion everywhere, costly fireproof structures become ashes as Sodom perished, costly vessels with gold and silver and human freight sink into a watery grave, and man's pride and fraud-gotten treasure are buried while God avenges oppressed widows and orphans. This was illustrated by the San Francisco earthquake of April 18, 1906, and the time is right upon us when sorrow no human balm can heal will crumble monuments of greatness even before the last destruction, which should cause fear and trembling rather than indifference or loving darkness lest deeds be reproved. It gives no specific prediction that New York will be swept away by a tidal wave and no particular light about what will happen there, and verses 1-4 with verses 5-7 are to be read and understood to know where the world stands, recording scenes about to take place to be believed and practiced as the only hope against sophistry.

Worldwide Work and Response

The lightening of the earth is the triumphant fulfillment in the last generation of the mustard seed becoming a tree, when the last warning of mercy goes to every nation and kindred and tongue to take out a people for His name. The message of God's commandments and the testimony of Jesus increases in strength until it fills the whole earth with glory, going to every nation, language, and people and soon given with a loud voice under an outpouring of the Spirit. It must reach every city, town, continent, island, and region beyond, including distant lands and the cities of the South and Greater New York, until no region is neglected. God's people are to enter new territories and carry it to every land until the earth is lightened, with truth spreading to illuminate every place before Christ's second coming. Those who have received the light must carry it to those in spiritual darkness until the warning has been heard and each person has decided, for decisions are made before probation closes and the end comes. Missionary advance never lays down its burden until that worldwide lightening is finished, with angels going before workers to prepare the way and with the watchword Onward, ever onward.

God takes the reins into His own hands in this last work and carries it largely out of the common order and contrary to human planning, by ways and simple unexpected means that surprise the workers to bring about and perfect righteousness. Unless those who have means are roused to duty now they will not recognize His work when it comes, but will want to bind it about to meet narrow ideas and control and dictate what movements shall be made. The work represented by the descending angel with great power is to be carried out to a large degree through publishing houses, through plain publications and tracts including the circulation of The Great Controversy, through schools and health institutions, and through properly conducted camp meetings as most powerful instrumentalities with the world as the field. Those educated in medical missionary lines are to connect with ministers to proclaim the truth so men and women may see the light, combining rescue of the fallen and degraded everywhere with preparing a people to make Bible truth their defense against the sophistries of worldlings and of the fallen church. Missionaries entering destitute communities cooperate with the angel in carrying glory through the earth by teaching and training workers, revived in spiritual life through self-sacrificing service, and laborers are called from plow and bench. The light that joins the third angel will shine again in the Waldensian valleys, where honest hearts hearing God's voice in His Word leave the clergy's influence and stand for Bible truth until dim light grows bright and knowledge, faith, and courage revive with victories in the land where their fathers suffered.

The angel is sent by Jesus to warn of His second coming and coming wrath, and some receive the light wholeheartedly, turn toward heaven, glorify God, and unite with one another, while others are only influenced by it or resist it. Open honest hearts receive it, including some rulers and leading people and those held back by relatives, leaving fallen churches and standing with the remnant despite family and church pressure, through the Spirit's deep conviction rather than argument alone. Sin can blind people so they fail to recognize God's work, as the Jews in Christ's day with closed hearts failed to see the light and receive God's manifested power. The descending angel with great power brings light that people must be willing to recognize even when it does not agree with their ideas, for some receive it while those who have resisted it risk mistaking light for darkness. God's glory will be revealed, His power will restrain the enemy, and truth will gain the victory, yet those who despise present truth or follow Satan's false excitement will not walk in the light.

Every church passes through a refining, winnowing process that removes wicked men who do not love the truth, while the church arises and puts on her beautiful garments, the righteousness of Christ, revealing who are vessels unto honor. The earth lightened with glory is the latter rain received by those vessels unto honor and the light now shining upon the pathway, reviving and strengthening God's faithful people to endure the time of trouble with faces shining with the light attending the third message. When idleness is put away the Spirit is graciously manifested and divine power revealed, the light of truth shines clearly and strongly, many turn from error to truth as in the apostles' time, hearts are convicted, many praise God, the sick are healed, and intercession like Pentecost prevails. The third message swells into a loud cry carried everywhere by consecrated servants with miracles, healings, signs, and wonders exceeding the Advent movement of 1840-44, while Satan also performs deceptive wonders including calling fire from heaven, bringing the people of earth to choose their side. His glory lighting the world means the message triumphs in clear steady rays and minds are fully prepared to decide for or against the truth, with willing souls accepting the Sabbath with interest like 1842-1844, and all decisions made before Christ comes since there is no probation after His coming.

Proclaiming and Receiving Faithfully

The message must be given boldly, clearly, loudly and in simplicity, with a certain trumpet sound and a solemn sense of its life-and-death importance. It is not to be weakened, muffled, toned down, or delivered in tame, indefinite and indifferent tones, but with spiritual interests given the largest place and the conversion of souls made of greatest importance. It strengthens and confirms the third angel's message and contains the great testing truth for this time, including the Sabbath truth as a raised note of warning. It is to be taught so people understand, proclaimed in the cities and especially the cities of the South, at camp meetings and at every opportunity, brought personally through Bible readings, and made to command attention as waters of salvation.

Sharing and receiving it requires cleansing the soul-temple from every defilement and becoming vessels unto honor with clean purpose as little children. Those who share it maintain so close a connection with God as to be partakers of the latter rain, with self crucified daily and vanity, perverse speech, bitterness and dissension put away in humility, contrition, brotherly love and unity. Preparation means recovering first love, turning from differences of opinion, humbling the soul before God and seeking His Holy Spirit with all the heart, so faces glow with the love of God and lips touched with holy fire proclaim cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ. It means living the gospel so that heaven's light shines forth, with the Holy Spirit working on human hearts and revealing the things of God through a holy influence sanctified by truth, until the final proclamation goes with great power and glory. The refreshing and power of God come upon those who cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of the Lord, not upon those who wait for God to remove their wrongs without their effort, and those who remain unprepared will be found wanting. This readiness includes advancing in health reform as the arm to the body without replacing the third angel, putting away idleness, praying for the Spirit, investing means, enlarging plans, increasing workers, and keeping pace with opening providence lest light be lost like Capernaum.

The work must not be hindered by commercial inducement when plainly warning poor souls under Babylon's influence of their danger from deceptive human and satanic agencies combined. It will proceed in ways unlike ordinary human plans through simple means directed by God, and must not be narrowed to human ideas, bound about by those wanting to control it, or closed from students in schools, for additional light may come unexpectedly contrary to conceived ideas. In a time of gross spiritual darkness when true piety is low, ministers must awake, raise the standard high, be reformers in every sense, work in serious earnestness and cooperate with divine agencies. If they do not awake to its importance they will be left behind and God will raise up another people to do as His instruments the work they could have done, while those who restrict it place themselves as darkness intercepting light. Though hindered by discouragement the work will increase through the power of God's Spirit, its dim light growing bright until honest hearts hear God's voice in His word, leave opposing influence, and take their stand for Bible truth with revived knowledge, faith and courage.

The verse is not fulfilled by one man claiming God passed by the leading workers to give him the message, shouting louder and louder under great power while calling Seventh-day Adventists Babylon. It is not a true message declaring God's people to be numbered with Babylon and calling them out of her, nor does the loud cry consist in calling God's people out of fellowship with a church receiving spiritual refreshing and the Spirit's power, for God's message to the church is meant to restore and heal, not to discourage and tear it down. It is not fulfilled by setting failed times for probation's close or by using testimonies to force such claims. A spurious loud cry from side issues, new theories and false interpretations now stirs minds to divert them from the true work and genuine message, so the real message will not have its effect when it comes. The rise of these counterfeit cries is evidence that the true fulfillment, when the earth is lit by God's glory in the loud cry of the third angel, is near, and only the converted who overcome and endure will share in proclaiming it.