Revelation 18:3, commentary and pictures

Revelation 18:3 declares a worldwide falling away, with all nations drinking her corrupting wine while kings join her in spiritual unfaithfulness and merchants grow rich through her luxury and abundance. The wine is false teaching that turns people from God, above all the exalting of the spurious first-day sabbath above the Sabbath of the Lord and kindred heresies such as the natural immortality of the soul and eternal torment. Babylon is the church of Rome and the fallen churches that refuse the warnings of the first, second, and third angels of Revelation 14:6-12, rejecting truth and accepting error. The verse is part of the final warning to be proclaimed with great power in the loud cry, repeating and strengthening the second angel's message that Babylon is fallen and blending with the third angel's message. It gives the reason for that announcement that Babylon is fallen and has become the dwelling of evil, and the ground for the heavenly call for God's people still in her to come out so as not to share her sins and receive her plagues.

Words and Immediate Setting

The verse declares a worldwide reach, that all nations have drunk of her corrupting wine, that the kings of the earth have joined her in unlawful union and unfaithfulness, and that the merchants of the earth have lived richly and grown rich through her abundance and luxury. It shows the guilt and influence of fallen Babylon that must be proclaimed in the repetition of the second angel's message, together with the repeated first message proclaiming the second advent of Christ and with the lightening of the whole earth with the glory of the Lord. Power to give this message comes from the angel having great power, and is received by the pure in heart who shall see God, by those following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, to be worked in harmony with the first, second, and third angels in no whispered tones to show people where they stand. It exposes the delusion of the religious world in fallen Babylon and belongs to the cry that Babylon is fallen and become the dwelling of evil and uncleanness, as part of the call to be sounded forth now, just now.

The wine represents teachings and practices that draw the nations away from God, which all nations accept as false teachings, and their fornication is spiritual disloyalty and unlawful union, including rejecting God and trampling on His commandments. Religious corruption, political alliance, and material gain are interconnected features of Babylon's power, with rulers of the earth uniting with her in spiritual unfaithfulness while merchants grow rich through her abundance. These ties of religious and political corruption and material gain through luxurious abundance help explain why her judgment brings mourning by kings and grief by merchants over lost wealth. When Babylon is judged her great riches come to nothing, and the merchants stand far off in fear, weeping and lamenting their loss.

The verse gives the reason for the mighty angel's announcement that Babylon the great is fallen and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and unclean and hateful bird and cage of every unclean bird. All nations drinking the wine of the wrath of her fornication, with the kings of the earth and merchants of the earth joining her sin and riches and made rich through the abundance of her delicacies, stands in the message of another angel come down from heaven with great power so that the earth is lightened with his glory. It is the ground for the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out of her lest they partake of her sins and receive her plagues, joined to the command to reward her double for her self-glorification and delicious living with torment and sorrow, death and mourning and famine and burning by fire. Its fulfillment is now at hand in the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, set forth as last-days truth to be proclaimed in the crisis when truth must go against falsehood and error, and nothing must be allowed to dim the light of the third angel's message.

The message of Revelation 18 is plain and clearly defined, so anyone who reads the chapter need not be deceived.

Babylon's Identity and Condition

Babylon is the church of Rome, which proved itself not only equal to God but above Him by changing His rest day, placing the first day of the week where the seventh should be. Her unfaithfulness is this false sabbath taken from the Papacy and regarded as sacred by the Protestant world, and all nations drinking her wine is the people of the world giving sanction to that false sabbath while trampling the Sabbath of the Lord underfoot. Wherever the papal sabbath is honored in preference to the Sabbath of the Lord, there the man of sin is exalted above the Creator of heaven and earth.

Fallen Babylon is the churches that will not receive the warning messages of the first, second, and third angels, refusing the messages of truth and accepting a lie. The message is plain and clearly defined, so anyone who reads the chapter need not be deceived. In this application Babylon represents the churches and the fallen denominational churches, but not the Seventh-day Adventist Church and not God's commandment-keeping people who are the repositories of His law and uphold His downtrodden commandments as honorable and holy as the light of the world. To call the Seventh-day Adventist church a harlot, Babylon, a maker of nations drunk, a confederate of kings and great men and rich through delicacies, with sins reaching to heaven, is an erroneous application that God has given no man to proclaim, and identifying that church as Babylon is a false message. The pollution in this application to churches belongs to sinful people, not to the buildings where they gather.

Mystic Babylon has fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power whose wrath is directed against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus. The verse exposes the wicked character and seductive influence of powers distinguished for persecuting God's people, and how completely the powers of earth give themselves over to evil in the closing scenes, with nations drinking her corrupting influence, kings joining her in unfaithfulness, and merchants growing rich through alliance with her amid outward parade by worldly powers. Babylon is the fallen church, fallen because of her errors and sins and her rejection of truth sent from heaven. Her sins exposed by the warning include the enforcement of church observances by civil authority in union of church and state, the inroads of spiritualism, and the rapid advance and growth of papal power.

Wine and Fornication Explained

The wine is the exalting of the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath the Lord blessed and sanctified for the use of man, and also the immortality of the soul, and these kindred heresies together with rejection of truth turn a church into Babylon. It is religious deception and disloyalty leading the nations to reject God's authority and accept a false Sabbath in place of the seventh-day Sabbath as God's memorial of creation. The churches and the world share in this apostasy by sanctioning Sunday and refusing God's sign, and the message is joined to the call for God's people to leave Babylon and refuse its worship, while a coming law enforcing the false Sabbath will intensify the conflict. The corrupt influence has spread among nations, rulers, and merchants, for the nations accept her false teachings, rulers join in religious and worldly corruption, and merchants prosper through her abundance.

Drinking the wine includes accepting natural immortality of the soul, eternal torment of the wicked, denial of Christ's pre-existence before His birth in Bethlehem, and exaltation of the first day above God's holy day. All nations drinking of the wine of the wrath of her fornication is the people of the world giving sanction to the false Sabbath and trampling underfoot the Sabbath of the Lord. Wherever the papal Sabbath is honored in preference to the Sabbath of the Lord, there the man of sin is exalted above the Creator of heaven and earth, for her fornication is this false Sabbath taken from the Papacy and regarded as sacred. All nations have been made drunk by accepting the man of sin's presumptuous attempt to tamper with God's law and change His precepts.

Departing from God's law and replacing its standard with human opinions is rebellion against God, and this corrupting influence confuses people and leads them away from His commandments to spread among nations. The doctrine of eternal torment is part of the wine, received by ministers from Rome as they received the false Sabbath and proclaimed it. Those who accept false doctrines merely because earlier generations taught them, while turning from God's word and the light available in their own time, share in Babylon's guilt and drink her wine.

The wine is spiritual poison when unfaithful leaders abandon truth and teach error, so people receive false words from their lips and repeat the same errors to others, and in this way all nations become drunken. This takes place amid conflict of mind with mind and truth in collision with error, where unfaithful ministers cease to stand as watchmen receiving the word from God and giving warning, and range themselves with the enemies of God and truth. Those who will not receive the truth prepare to resist its influence, refuse to be recast in faith and character, and are unwilling to be remodeled in the image of Christ's character, while believers in the truth are guarded jealously as the heart of God. All nations are induced to drink when higher critics put themselves in God's place to cancel His decisions and review, revise, and endorse His Word, fixing things to suit popular last-day heresies. They subvert and misapply the Word and bend it to human practices and business dealings, and break it when they cannot bend it, while those partaking of the divine nature refuse to judge God's Word because that Word judges them, obtaining religion from the Word just as it reads instead of bringing religion to the Bible and reshaping and misplacing the Scriptures to prove it true.

God ascribes the wickedness of Babylon to her gluttony and drunkenness. The kings committing fornication with her and the merchants growing rich through her delicacies mean kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers are all in corrupt harmony. When kings and rulers accept these errors they become angry with those who refuse to conform, especially those who uphold God's Sabbath and refuse doctrines exalting the false Sabbath and leading people to trample God's memorial.

Prophetic Timing and Fulfillment

The verse belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's complete and fully developed fall after rejection of the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, when the condition foretold by the second angel is reached as churches depart further from truth and ally more closely with the world. In that fully developed condition the nations have accepted her false teachings, earthly rulers have joined with her, and worldly trade and luxury have grown rich through association with her. That culmination leads to the call for God's people still in Babylon to separate from her communion and leave her.

It will be fulfilled when the so-called Christian world becomes the theater of great and decisive actions and men in authority enact laws controlling conscience after the example of the Papacy, with every nation involved. At that time Babylon makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, rulers of the earth unite with her in corrupt religious influence, and merchants prosper through the abundance of her delicacies. This worldwide apostasy accompanies those conscience-controlling laws, while Satan diverts minds with unimportant questions so they do not see matters of vast importance and plans to ensnare the world.

It belongs to the scenes after the fifth-seal vision of those slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, when the faithful and true are called out from Babylon. All nations, kings of the earth, and merchants of the earth are then under Babylon's very influences, having rejected the Word of the Lord to follow deceptive influences of human and satanic agencies combined and having fallen into Satan's snare in plain danger. The drinking of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the fornication of the kings, and the merchants waxed rich through her delicacies include commercial inducements, and no commercial inducement is to hinder giving the testing message for this time to the poor souls under these influences.

It belongs to a warning of what is coming on the earth, to be fulfilled when the Lord arises to shake terribly the earth. Its fulfillment brings terrible scenes in which great buildings built story upon story are thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power, when one word from the Lord and one touch of His mighty power makes massive structures fall with unimaginable fearfulness. It gives no particular prediction that New York is to be swept away by a tidal wave, only that destruction is in the world and its great buildings will one day fall.

Its fulfillment brings terrible scenes of destruction in cities and foretells the day of God's wrath to come, revealing the wickedness existing in the world and showing the importance of obeying God's law before that day arrives. The chapter shows a wonderful display of God's power in destruction because of the sins of a city, illustrated by a city recently destroyed, and the terrible judgment that fell upon San Francisco occurred the morning after instruction about this awful representation was written out. It gives God's call to come out so as not to partake of her sins and receive her plagues, and those who believe the prophecies must not ignore this indication or show indifference, must not make light of witnessed destruction and flatter themselves that they will build greater buildings, and must not defiantly invest means as before, for God will exercise His power to counteract such efforts. The calamity calls those who have abused privileges and taken advantage of fellow men to make amends for wrong done and to hear God's voice.

The chapter records events about to take place, and its description should cause fear and trembling. God has a storehouse of retributive judgments that fall upon those who continue in sin in the face of great light. Costly buildings supposed to be fireproof will become ashes as Sodom perished in the flames of vengeance, costly vessels with gold and silver and human freight will sink into a watery grave, man's pride will be buried with treasures accumulated by fraud, and God will avenge widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness cried to Him for help from oppression and abuse. Sorrow that no human balm can heal is right upon the world, and the flattering monuments of men's greatness will be crumbled in the dust even before the last great destruction, while those who do not love the light and will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved will not follow on to know the Lord but say they want their own way and not God's way. Its warning calls people to turn from sin and heed the light, for those who reject it and insist on their own way face the coming judgments.

Revelation 18:1-7 must be read and understood with great power to know where the world stands in earth's history, to escape deception by Satan's sophistry, to put away magazines and fictitious reading, and to believe and practice the Word of God as the only hope of the world. The verse is part of God's solemn warning for the last days revealed by Christ to John on Patmos about the last events of this earth's history, to be read and understood together with Revelation 3, Revelation 16:13-21, Revelation 21, Revelation 22, and Daniel as a lesson of things that will be. Its warning matters now because the perils of the last days are upon us, while Satan and fallen evil angels work in all deceivableness of unrighteousness to confuse minds and to deceive if possible the very elect. It belongs to the loud cry showing what the Word of God declares is to take place on this earth in the closing scenes of its history, and fulfilled prophecy in it proves the end of all things is at hand and the testing time is right upon us, so its eternal principles of truth must be presented now. When God's servants give this testimony at the appointed time God will certainly confirm it as He gave Daniel instruction regarding the closing scenes, and those who build upon the Rock will stand through the storm of test and trial.

The call in Revelation 18 is the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given as the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled. It comes just before the time when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into the lake of fire, the dragon is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then follows the resurrection of the wicked and the final destruction of Satan and all the wicked and the final triumph and reign of Christ on this earth.

Loud Cry and Angel Messages

Revelation 18:3 belongs to the final warning against the beast and his image, to be proclaimed with great power in the loud cry of the third angel's message by the angel having great power whose glory lightens the earth. Its guilt and influence of fallen Babylon must be proclaimed in the repetition of the second angel's message, declaring that all nations, the kings of the earth, and the merchants of the earth have shared in her unlawful union and lived richly from her abundance. That proclamation belongs with the repeated first message proclaiming the second advent of Christ, and with the lightening of the whole earth with the glory of the Lord. God has again and again filled His cup with the richest truths and presented it to His people, proclaiming the great salvation He longs to bestow, and He desires to fill the earth with this light and glory as part of that cry that Babylon is fallen and become the dwelling of evil and uncleanness. While the third angel's message is proclaimed, another angel will descend with great power and the earth will be lighted with his glory.

It repeats the first message, gives again the substance of the second angel's message that Babylon is fallen, blends with the third angel's message into one message, and strengthens and confirms the third angel's message. It will come before the people in the closing days of this earth's history and will be fulfilled when the whole earth is lightened with the glory of the Lord, proving that the Heavens rule just before Christ comes with power and great glory with all the holy angels in His own glory and the glory of the Father. Its call to come out of Babylon is the same call made by the first and second angels and again repeated by the third angel. It follows Revelation 14:6-13 as the next great event and belongs with the command to reward her double for self-glorification and delicious living with torment, death, mourning, famine, and burning.

It gives the reason for the mighty angel's announcement that Babylon the great is fallen and has become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and unclean bird, because all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are made rich through the abundance of her delicacies. This charge stands in the message of another angel come down from heaven with great power so that the earth is lightened with his glory, joined to the heavenly call to come out lest God's people partake of her sins and receive her plagues, and joined to the command to reward her double for her self-glorification and delicious living with torment and sorrow, death and mourning and famine and burning by fire. Its fulfillment is now at hand in the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, set against God's commandment-keeping people, and it leads to the message to reward her double according to her works. It is the last message of warning to the world, to be of the most decided character and borne to all nations as true missionary work.

The truth for this time must be presented in no measured terms but with boldness and power, with no toning down or muffling, because it is a life and death question of the highest importance. The light and glory of God attends it, lightening the earth with clear truth that continues to shine and does not leave darkness in its track. Its earnestness and power bear its own credentials that it is a voice from the throne of God, given with a distinctness in proportion to its importance. It carries forward the light shining in ages past through the Lord's messengers whose protest distinguished Protestants, and Protestants continue that protest in the first, second, and third angels' messages. It brings the great issue and test to be brought upon God's people in these last days, which Satan seeks to bind about and to obscure by mingling deception with truth and creating side issues to turn attention away.

Power to give this message comes from the angel having great power, and is received by the pure in heart who shall see God, by those following the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. The Holy Spirit will powerfully bless consecrated people, spreading the knowledge of God and salvation everywhere during the loud cry. It is part of the proclamation associated with the latter rain, the refreshing from the Lord's presence, and the loud cry of the third angel, gathering people who had been prevented from hearing truth while some who had been shaken out are left behind. The latter rain empowers God's people to proclaim truth with great power, leading those who had been restrained by family members to embrace it eagerly and fearlessly.

The message tests all the world, so that all who have been in darkness of error in regard to the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will understand the last message of mercy to be given to men. Its power is bound up with the first and second angels' messages and concentrated in the third angel's message, and it must be given with telling force as a life and death message under the demonstration of the Spirit to convict and convert. Lifted up with the standard of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, with the Sabbath made the great question and test for this time, it does its work of separating a people from the churches to stand on the platform of eternal truth before the plagues fall. It is present truth now due that must be heard for salvation, belonging to the work of a mighty angel assisting the third angel, lighting the whole earth with his glory through a people crying the very words, a future work shown to John in vision on Patmos that no man can stop any more than the cry of Hosanna to the Son of David at Christ's riding into Jerusalem could be stopped.

It is one of the warnings contained in Revelation that must be given to the people and must not be counted an inferior matter, though Satan would have it silenced. It exposes the papal power that has made void the law of God and warns what may be expected from it at the time when the Protestant churches are reaching out to grasp its hand. It is to be given together with the truth about the Sabbath of the Lord, showing that the seventh day is the seal of the living God. It is a message appointed by God to be given soon that will swell into a loud cry, belonging on the borders of the greatest event in the world's history, when Satan must not be allowed power to cause God's people to sleep, when the papacy will appear in its power, and when the time of trouble is near, calling God's people to awake to a realization of this.

It belongs to the testing truths for this time and to the last call of mercy that is to be given more fully to the world. Its message of warning is to be sounded to all, and all should read and understand it. God shows mercy by long forbearance, holding back His judgments while waiting for this warning to reach the many who have not yet heard it. Together with the rest of Revelation 18 it sanctifies men and women through the truth and prepares a people to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming. It is part of present truth for this time and of the last great testing truth to be proclaimed with a loud voice and with all power and efficiency by the human agencies God has chosen, belonging to the last work to be done for the world, which must not be hindered or turned aside into other lines and must not leave the world in darkness.

It is part of the proclamation of truth that does a separating work, describing Babylon's corrupting influence as reaching all nations, drawing earthly rulers into spiritual unfaithfulness, and enriching the merchants of the earth. God's sentinels must avoid becoming spiritually confused through alliance with the world or by judging truth and its messengers through the standards of professed Christian churches. Persecution comes when the message goes with a loud cry, and those who take their stand to stem the current of prevailing iniquity will have reproach and persecution, because those who do not love the truth do not want to hear it and the truth is aggressive. Those who carry it must meet opposition and cannot submit to laws and powers that are in opposition to God, but must obey God rather than man. Like the disciples after the resurrection who kept proclaiming Jesus though forbidden and imprisoned, its bearers must bear the message wherever they are and constantly let light shine, even when thrust into prison and brought into strait places, with imprisonment itself opening the way for truth to reach inside prison walls and for conversions.

Revelation 18:1-4 shows that the loud cry of the third angel will bring light to the earth. The work will advance under God's direction, sometimes through unexpected means, and workers must recognize it rather than restrict it by narrow human plans. Revelation 18:1-4 is associated with the expected loud cry and a decisive crisis in the history of the Lord's work: the time has come for present truth to accomplish what has not yet been accomplished, as God's providence leads.

Call to Come Out Applied

The verse exposes a worldwide guilt that has reached to heaven, and on that ground heaven calls God's people still in Babylon to separate from her communion and come out before judgment so they do not share her sins or receive her plagues. It belongs to the prophecy of Babylon's complete and fully developed fall after rejection of the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12, when churches depart further from truth and ally more closely with the world, nations accept false teachings, rulers join her, and trade and luxury grow rich through association with her. It is part of the cry that Babylon the great is fallen and has become the dwelling of devils and every foul spirit and unclean bird, given by the angel come down with great power whose glory lightens the earth, to be worked in harmony with the first, second, and third angels in no whispered tones and with telling force as a life-and-death message under the Spirit to convict, convert, and show people where they stand. Lifted up with the standard of the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, with the Sabbath made the great question and test, it does its separating work of gathering a distinct people who refuse the beast and his image, keep holy the seventh day as memorial of the Creator, and stand on eternal truth before the plagues fall, while entrusted means are to be invested in the work rather than shut up in banks and buildings and lands.

Honest people still remain in the fallen churches, but before the plagues ministers and members will be called out to join the remnant. Satan raises a religious excitement in those churches so that those who rejected truth think God is still working there and the honest may be deceived, yet the light will expose the deception. In contrast to that counterfeit revival where churches under deceptive power present a false work as blessing and mislead multitudes by excitement, God's people separate from churches where love of the world has displaced love for God and His Word and accept truths preparing them for Christ's coming. Some rulers will receive the truth and endure with the saints through trouble, for God uses agents among rulers to resist evil and advance the message until Jesus leaves the most holy place, after which restraint is withdrawn, evil angels gain control, Satan directs oppressive laws, and unless the time is shortened none would be saved.

Those entrusted with the third angel's message must search the Scriptures diligently to guard against the mystery of iniquity, for mystic Babylon has fallen to become a persecuting power whose wrath is directed against those who keep the commandments and have the faith of Jesus, and earthly powers give themselves wholly to evil amid outward parade. All who have received truth must see how dangerous it is to link with secret societies or join in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments, and God's sentinels must avoid spiritual confusion through alliance with the world or judging truth by the standards of professed churches. No commercial inducement, included in the drinking of her wine and the enrichment of merchants through her delicacies, should hinder giving the testing message to poor souls under Babylon's deceptive human and satanic influences who have rejected the Word and fallen into Satan's snare after the fifth-seal vision of those slain for the Word and testimony. The message exposes the papal power that made void God's law and warns what may be expected when Protestant churches reach out to grasp its hand, and it is to be given together with the Sabbath truth that the seventh day is the seal of the living God and must not be silenced as an inferior matter.

The announcement comes when evil powers are active, people are confused by false claims and lying wonders, truth has been proclaimed to all nations, and an oppressive law enforces a false sabbath in place of the day God blessed and sanctified. Babylon's fall is linked to worldwide confusion and deception to exalt the false sabbath and cast contempt on God, and the contest over the Sabbath will agitate the whole world and end religious liberty even in the land of boasted freedom. All nations and the wicked will be drawn into corrupt union under Satan to make void God's law and trample righteousness, bound in bundles on his side to please him and gratify a world at enmity with God, while God's people slumber in fatal security and those at ease cry peace and safety before sudden destruction, but those loving God with the whole soul will keep His commandments and have the faith of Jesus.

The declaration that all nations, kings, and merchants share her fornication and riches belongs to the very last message of mercy and testing message of Revelation 14 to be given to people where they are throughout the world to show truth uplifts and saves, win souls, arouse God's people from listlessness to earnest missionary labor, and gather them into one company keeping the commandments and the faith while probation lingers with decided reformation among the churches. It follows Revelation 14:6-13 as the next great event, belongs with the signs of Christ's coming rapidly fulfilling, and is to be taught in simplicity in large cities and small because time is short, opening Christ's words as waters of salvation to thirsting souls with urgency because duties are scarcely half realized. Receiving this loud-cry message that brings conversion and sanctification and grows in importance to the close calls for self-denial and cleansing appetite from harmful foods and drinks, with health reform as an integral part of the third angel's message and preparation as closely joined as arm and hand to the body, requiring individual work no one else can do. Health principles are to be presented together with the commandments and testimony of Jesus and followed in daily life, but must not become independent or displace the central proclamation, for accepting only parts while rejecting corrections works against personal and church welfare.

The verse gives no warrant to denounce the Seventh-day Adventist Church as Babylon or to call God's people out of a church receiving spiritual refreshing, for that application to God's commandment-keeping people who uplift His law as honorable and holy and are the light of the world is erroneous and God has given no man to proclaim it. Claims that Adventists are Babylon, that leaders will fall through self-exaltation to be replaced by humble men doing wonders, that probation's close can be dated, or that lists can be stolen to spread the charge bear not divine credentials but come from Satan despite intelligence, zeal, self-denial, and appearance of consecration, deceive the unwary, and do the work of the accuser, and the church standing in the breach to rebuild waste places must not be so denounced. There is danger of Babylon arising among God's people when brethren separate from one another and unbelief weakens faith and courage. Old mystic Babylon is to be left to sound the jubilee and declare that the Lord is coming with power and great glory.

The whole chapter bears close searching by every agent and applies to those in the great anti-Christian apostasy who deny God's Sabbath, trample His commandments, reverence a man-made institution and idol sabbath, and follow false shepherds turning people to human theories, whose impiety brings judgment after the louder warning following the hour of judgment and the fall of mystic Babylon. The verse portrays spiritual unfaithfulness corrupting nations, entangling rulers, and enriching merchants, applied to temptations and moral vileness in nominal churches facing God's wrath unmixed with mercy, and its warning of collapsing proud works calls people to turn from sin and heed light lest insisting on their own way bring judgment before final destruction. People respond differently to this call to prepare for Christ's coming and God's wrath: some receive light and unite, others including ministers resist it, and obedience or disobedience without mingling truth and error decides each case and awakens the world to show those in churches they are not walking in truth. The churches' principles are corrupted and Babylon's influence spread among all nations, which is why the messages of Revelation 14 are to be proclaimed in the last days with reformatory action carrying forward the protest that distinguished Protestants, in clear truth lightening the earth with light and glory bearing its own credentials as a voice from the throne.