For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.
Her sins have piled up until they reach to heaven, her guilt is full and complete and she is ripe for destruction, and God remembering her means He calls her to account and marks her iniquities for punishment and judgment. She is fallen Babylon, the churches and religious bodies that refuse the warnings of the first, second and third angels' messages, reject truth and cover selfishness, fraud, pride and oppression under profession. Her remembered sins are exalting a spurious sabbath above God, changing His law and tearing down His memorial, trampling His commandments, with fraud, pride, oppression of the poor and persecution of those who keep His commandments. Her guilt is complete and her time has come, so she will soon be repaid double according to her works with plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire, without mercy because she showed no mercy. This is the reason for the voice from heaven calling God's faithful people still in Babylon to come out, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues before the judgments fall. It belongs to the third angel's message proclaimed with great power as the loud cry, when another angel comes down and the earth is lighted with glory, giving again the second angel's message of Babylon's downfall blended with the third for the closing days.
Meaning of the Words
Her sins have accumulated and piled up until they reach unto heaven, her guilt is full and complete, and she is ripe for destruction under judgment. This piling to heaven is why punishment is held against her and why the call is given for God's people to leave her rather than share in her sins and receive of her plagues. The words are to be fulfilled soon, when the last test comes and each person must decide whether to heed the warning and come out.
God hath remembered her iniquities means He calls them to account, marks them for punishment, and brings them into judgment. That remembering is vengeance for fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry to Him for help. In proportion as men caused pain to others they themselves will be punished, and man's flattering monuments of greatness will crumble in the dust, costly buildings supposed to be fireproof will become ashes as Sodom perished in flames of vengeance, and rich vessels with gold and silver and human freight will sink into a watery grave, burying pride with treasures accumulated by fraud.
Reaching unto heaven means the limit is passed and forbearance is nearly ended. Crimes and debasing iniquity have become so great through appetite and passion overcoming professed followers until familiarity with sin blunts the senses so evil seems attractive rather than abhorrent, and through unholy polluted habits that grow from one stupefied person to multiplying ministers of sin until a place is renowned for pollutions and the earth is defiled. The end of all things is at hand, God will not much longer bear with them, and their sins will soon be answered by fearful plagues upon the earth when they drink the cup of His wrath unmixed with mercy.
The Ruler of the universe bears long with perversity but keeps a record of every action for good or evil and has a storehouse of retributive judgments, which He permits to fall on those who continue in sin in the face of great light. That record stands fearful against the sinner in heaven, with torment and sorrow, plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire measured in proportion to false witness, false accusations, prisons, chain-gangs, stocks, fetters, torture, banishment and death inflicted on others, and no human greatness or wealth gained by fraud will protect the guilty. Unless there is humble and sincere repentance with a life of repentance, fearful retribution awaits, and the crime is especially aggravating when a watchman on Zion's walls shows by deportment and questionable conduct that polluting sins attract him with weakened morals. The sins belong to the human agents who commit them, not to the buildings where they meet; it is people's conformity to wicked practices that pollutes them.
Who Is Babylon
The fallen Babylon held guilty before God is the churches that will not receive the warnings given in the first, second, and third angels' messages. They refused the messages of truth and accepted a lie, refusing the truth, and their accumulated wrongs are marked for punishment and bring the announced judgment. The message is plain and clearly defined, so anyone who reads the chapter need not be deceived, and its fulfillment is now on the eve of accomplishment as the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, giving the reason for the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out so they will not share her sins and plagues. This corruption of churches whose principles have become corrupted explains why the messages of Revelation 14 must be proclaimed in the last days.
She is the deluded religious world as Babylon whose sins have grown up to heaven and whose wrongs God recalls, which is why God's people are called to come out so they will not share her sins or suffer her plagues. She is the symbol of the apostate church under God's word to His ministers of judgment at the near time of the last great crisis when the Lord interposes to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. She is the nominal churches and religious bodies whose profession of faith conceals selfishness, fraud, deceit, pride, and other grave evils, with their religious appearance not hiding their guilt from God, and God has their iniquities in account. She is a corrupt religious power whose influence reaches all nations and whose actions include oppressive control over conscience and religious liberty, and judgment delayed will soon awaken with punishment prepared and repayment from God.
Mystic Babylon has fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power, with a wicked character and seductive influence showing how completely the powers of earth will give themselves over to evil. Her wrath is directed against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, and those who have received the truth are warned how dangerous it is to link up with secret societies or to join in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments. Kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers are all joined in corrupt harmony through rejection of truth, exalting the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath blessed and sanctified for man's use, and holding the immortality of the soul, which converts the church into Babylon. This judgment falls on the power that joins church and state to enforce worship of the spurious Sabbath and persecute those who keep God's commandments, and God will repay it for cruelty and violence with the doom described in the following verses.
She is the so-called Christian world as the theater of great and decisive actions in the final time, when men in authority enact laws controlling conscience after the example of the Papacy. At that time Babylon makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication so that every nation is involved, and her sins have piled up unto heaven with God remembering her iniquities for judgment. The verse describes Babylon, not God's commandment-keeping people, and the chosen ones who stand and breast the storm of opposition from the world and uplift the downtrodden commandments of God to exalt them as honorable and holy are the light of the world. To pass human judgment on them and call the church a harlot and Babylon and declare over Seventh-day Adventists that sins have reached heaven and God has remembered iniquities is not the message to bear, for God has given no man any such message, and it is an erroneous application requiring those who make it to humble their hearts before God and in true contrition repent that they stood for a time by the side of the accuser of the brethren. The warning is connected with churches under deceptive influence where a counterfeit religious revival appears to be God's work, whose sins have become so great that they have reached heaven and are remembered by God.
Sins God Remembers
The iniquities God remembers are the exalting of a spurious rival sabbath above the Sabbath He blessed and sanctified for man, changing times and laws, removing His memorial, tearing down the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, placing the first day where the seventh should be, and accepting, cradling and nourishing that child of the Papacy in defiance of God. She disregarded the only commandment that points out the true God and divorced herself from Him by refusing His sign, while kings, merchants, rulers and religious teachers joined in corrupt harmony to accept and exalt the false sabbath above the Bible Sabbath. By reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath the churches dishonored God with a Cain-like false religion of human invention, and anger against His commandment-keeping people for not reverencing Sunday marks the guilt remembered unto plagues of death, mourning, famine and burning with fire. God calls His people out of Babylon as He called Israel out of Egypt to keep His Sabbath, so they will not worship the beast nor his image but keep the true Sabbath.
Her sins are her errors and rejection of truth sent from heaven, laid open in the loud cry of the third angel's message blended with the second angel's proclamation of Babylon's fall. They include holding the natural immortality of the soul, denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling upon the commandments and making void the law, and promoting a false Sabbath in place of God's Sabbath with other errors that defy God. Observance of the seventh day according to the commandment exposes that neglect, while enforcement of church observances by civil authority, the exposure of Spiritualism, and the rapid progress of papal power belong to the same warning.
They are also fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry to Him for help, which He records in His storehouse of retributive judgments to avenge upon those who continued in sin in the face of great light. Men claiming to be Christians yet defrauding and oppressing the poor, robbing the widow and fatherless, indulging satanic hatred because they cannot control conscience, indulging false accusations and derision toward those God appointed, and consigning believers to prison, the chain-gang, stocks, fetters, banishment, torture and death will answer for every pang and tear of His heritage. Judgment without mercy will come because they showed no mercy, repaid double according to pain caused to others, with torment and sorrow, plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning fire, when human greatness and wealth gained by fraud will not protect the guilty and flattering monuments of greatness crumble in the dust.
They include crimes and debasing iniquity in which appetite and passion overcome thousands of professed followers through familiarity with sin until senses are blunted and evil seems attractive rather than abhorrent. They are the unholy polluted habits that corrupted Sodom and defiled the earth, not coming all at once but growing from one man and woman stupefying themselves to multiplying ministers of sin teaching every newcomer until the place becomes renowned for pollutions. Prevailing sins fast pile up a cup reaching heaven with a fearful record in heaven and fearful retribution unless there is humble repentance and a life of repentance, and the crime is especially aggravating when a watchman on Zion's walls shows by deportment that polluting sins attract him with weakened morals and questionable conduct. Reaching unto heaven means forbearance is nearly ended and the limit is passed, so the Lord will bear no longer and will soon answer with fearful plagues and the cup of His wrath unmixed with mercy, for the end of all things is at hand.
They include joining church and state to enforce worship of the spurious and idol sabbath and to persecute even unto death those who keep God's commandments, with oppressive control over conscience and religious liberty after the example of the Papacy. At that time the so-called Christian world becomes the theater of great and decisive actions, men in authority enact laws controlling conscience, Babylon makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and every nation is involved. God will repay that persecuting power for cruelty and violence with the doom described in the following verses.
God remembers the accumulated national sin of slavery as a curse to the United States, with the cries, groans and agony of the enslaved held in bondage and placed on a level with brute creatures rising to heaven. The Fugitive Slave Law crushed every noble, generous feeling of sympathy for the oppressed suffering slave and stood in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. His scourge fell upon the North for so long submitting to let bondage exist, with fellow men held in hopeless slavery, tyrannized over and tortured and even murdered as passionate men chose and counted as no more than brutes, while perplexity and fear seized hearts because the inhabitants of earth had nearly filled their cup of iniquity.
Judgment Soon to Fall
Her guilt is full and complete, her sins have piled up until they reach heaven, her time has come, and she is ripe for destruction about to fall as judgment for that guilt before God's judgments come. Before those judgments fall her faithful people still within her must be called out so they do not share her sins or her plagues, and the announcement of her sins forms part of the final warning and the movement that joins the third angel's message to make it a loud cry.
She will be repaid double according to her works and will soon receive double from God's hand for what she did to them. That double recompense comes as plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire, with torment and sorrow, and as judgment without mercy because she showed no mercy. The power that persecutes even unto death to force worship of an idol sabbath has grown so great in guilt, having torn down the Sabbath, God's memorial, and exalted a spurious rest day, that this guilt is remembered unto those plagues.
Punishment will come in proportion as men caused pain to others by false witness, false accusations, prisons, chain-gangs, stocks, fetters, torture, banishment and death, for the Ruler of the universe bears long with perversity but keeps a record of every action for good or evil and has a storehouse of retributive judgments which He permits to fall on those who continue in sin in the face of great light. Fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry for help are remembered and will be avenged, and human greatness and wealth gained by fraud will not protect the guilty. Judgment was delayed but will soon awaken and punishment is prepared, and the fulfillment is right upon us in sorrow that no human balm can heal.
Man's flattering monuments of greatness will crumble in the dust, the most costly buildings supposed to be fire-proof 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, and man's pride will be buried with treasures accumulated by fraud even before the last great destruction comes. Massive structures built story upon story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth, for one word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, will make them fall in scenes whose fearfulness cannot be imagined. That description should cause fear and trembling and calls for turning away and working entirely contrary to these sins, dividing those who love the light and follow on to know the Lord from those who do not love the light and will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved.
The chapter records scenes about to take place and portrays scenes yet to take place in the cities, with terrible judgment falling upon present wickedness and deep concern over coming events. The heavens are lighted up, balls like fire full of arrows fall, houses are set on fire that no human effort can extinguish, the earth quakes, homes fall with a crash amid cries of distress, prayer and confusion, and expensive homes are broken up in cities such as Los Angeles. The recent destruction of a city is a rebuke from God for its sins and a special indication of this judgment that must not be ignored or made light of, calling men who abused privileges and wronged fellow men to hear His voice and make amends, and warning that to defiantly invest means to erect still greater buildings after such rebuke will cause God to exercise His power to counteract those efforts. The verse belongs to that chapter-wide warning of coming judgment on the earth, not to a specific prediction that New York or another named city will be destroyed in a particular way.
The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled, and the whole of Revelation 18 and 19 will be fulfilled as the very last call to the churches and the last message of warning now to be given. That call in chapter 18 comes just before the time pictured in chapter 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated the great rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns in this earth. As that judgment approaches, the sins of mystic Babylon are brought before God following the work of false shepherds who turn people from God's law to human theories, with the resulting wickedness returning upon them.
Call to Come Out
The verse gives the reason for the voice from heaven calling, Come out of her, My people, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. The deluded religious world as Babylon has sins grown up to heaven and God recalls her wrongs, her sins and iniquities have become so great that they have reached heaven and God remembers them. Her sins have accumulated to the point of reaching heaven, which explains why Babylon faces judgment and why God's people are called to leave her rather than share in her sins and plagues. This supports the urgent, forceful proclamation of the message calling God's people out of Babylon so they do not share in her sins and plagues. It is part of the message of Revelation 18:1-5 that contains the great test for the people and does its special work in the conversion of souls, and it is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance.
It belongs to the message of the angel having great power whose glory lightens the earth, which is the light and glory God desires to fill the earth with. It is the great salvation He longs to bestow, with the benefits and light and richest truths He has given and presented to His people. Babylon's guilt is complete: her sins have reached heaven, and God remembers her iniquities. Destruction is about to fall as judgment for that guilt, but before the judgments come, God calls His faithful people still in Babylon out so they will not share her sins or her plagues and fearful doom. The angel's announcement of Babylon's sins is part of the final warning to the inhabitants of the earth, and the announcement of Babylon's sins and the call to come out form part of the movement that joins the third angel's message and makes it a loud cry.
Her sins have piled up to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities, so God's people must come out of her in order not to share her sins and receive her plagues, and she will be repaid double according to her works for what she did to them. Those who obey the call are the 144,000 redeemed from the earth who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Father's name in their foreheads, following the Lamb wherever He goes, with no guile in their mouth and without fault before the throne of God. It belongs to the warning message for these last days to be cried to the churches, and the work of preparation it calls for must begin in every family. Those who believe the message must reveal to the world that they have come out, that they partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues, by walking in the light as Christ is in the light, cherishing no idols and allowing nothing to intercept the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
Place in Prophecy
The verse belongs to the third angel's message to be proclaimed with great power as the loud cry, when another angel comes down from heaven with great power and the earth is lighted with his glory. That lighting of the earth is the light and glory, the great salvation and richest truths, that God desires to fill the earth with, and the Holy Spirit then empowers consecrated people to spread the knowledge of God and salvation throughout the earth. It forms with the announcement of the fall of Babylon and the call to come out of her the final warning given by God to be sounded forth, joining the third angel's message so that God's people leave her and do not share her sins or receive her plagues and fearful doom. It comes after the three angels of Revelation 14, repeating that Babylon is fallen and become corrupt, giving as the reason for separation and coming judgment that her sins have piled up to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. It is part of the last message of mercy and testing message to all inhabitants of the world before the Lord soon comes, borne by a people distinct and separate from the world who refuse the beast and his image and keep God's commandments and holy seventh-day Sabbath.
It is part of the second proclamation of Babylon's downfall, which calls people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached heaven and God remembers her iniquities. It gives again the substance of the second angel's message blended with the third angel's message into one message for the closing days of this earth's history, when the first, second, and third angels' messages are repeated as a call to the church to come out of her. That guilt grown to heaven's full measure means God has marked her wrongs for judgment, so to stay is to partake of her sins and receive her plagues, while all the world will be tested and all in error about the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be given the last message of mercy to understand and obey. It is the louder and more explicit warning of the third angel's message, following the first angel's proclamation of the hour of God's judgment and the second angel's proclamation of the fall of mystic Babylon, directed to all co-workers in the great anti-Christian apostasy. Babylon the great is fallen and become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit because all nations have drunk the wine of her fornication and kings and merchants have shared her corruption and riches, and her guilt complete and ripe for plagues requires God's people to come out so as not to partake of her sins and receive her plagues, her sins being denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling the commandments and making void the law, and reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath.
It places Babylon's sins in the time when the church has fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, after rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. It belongs to the final call for God's people still in Babylon to separate from her once that completed fall has come.
It is the second of two distinct final calls to the churches in the last warning work, paralleling Jesus cleansing the temple at the beginning and again near the close of His ministry. The first call is the second angel's message, the second is the voice from heaven commanding God's people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. That call is given so God's people will not worship the beast nor his image but keep the true Sabbath, just as God called Israel out of Egypt to keep His Sabbath. The remembered iniquities are exalting a spurious rival sabbath above God, changing times and laws, removing God's memorial, and accepting, cradling, and nourishing that child of the Papacy in defiance of God. Joined to the second angel's message, it warns against Babylon's false teachings, especially the false sabbath, and is part of a work of cleansing like Jesus' cleansing of the temple from sacrilegious profanation.
The warning joins the third angel's message as the midnight cry joined the second angel's message in 1844. Babylon is fallen because of her errors and sins and her rejection of truth sent from heaven, and these sins are laid open in the loud cry of the third angel's message.
It belongs to the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given, containing the great test for the people and doing its special work in the conversion of souls. It belongs to the testing truths for this time and to the last call of mercy to be given more fully to the world, made known by Christ to John on Patmos, to be read and understood now amid last-day perils and satanic deception. God shows mercy by long forbearance, holding back His judgments until the message of warning in Revelation 18 has been sounded to all, including the many who have not yet heard it. The whole of Revelation 18 and 19 will be fulfilled, with the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 being fulfilled just before the time pictured in the nineteenth chapter when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns in this earth. The message including this verse is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance.
Its words are to be fulfilled soon in the coming crisis and closing days, when the last test comes to the inhabitants of the earth and people must decide whether to heed the warning and leave Babylon lest they share in her sins and plagues. The sins of fallen Babylon have built up to heaven and God takes note of her iniquities to punish them, with His retributive judgments falling on those who have continued in sin in the face of great light. That remembering means vengeance for fraud, pride and oppression, avenging widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness cried for relief, with man's flattering monuments crumbling and costly buildings supposed to be fire-proof turned to ashes like Sodom and rich vessels with gold and silver and human freight sunk into a watery grave. Its fulfillment is now on the eve of accomplishment as the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, so the message of her fall must be sounded forth now, just now, with a loud voice, in harmony with the first, second, and third angels to show people where they stand, with nothing allowed to dim the light of the third angel's message. It comes after the opening of the fifth seal when those slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are seen beneath the altar, giving the reason God's people must come out so they will not share in her sins or receive her plagues, as the testing message for this time to poor souls under deceptive human and satanic influences who have rejected the Word of the Lord to follow them and fallen into Satan's snare.
Proclaiming the Message Boldly
The message to which this verse belongs is a question of life and death for this time, and it is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance. It must be given now, just now, with boldness and power, in no measured terms, with distinctness, earnestness, a loud voice and demonstration of the Spirit to convict and convert. There is to be no toning down or muffling of the truth, and no half-and-half testimony. It strengthens and confirms the third angel's message, and is given in harmony with the first, second and third angels to show people where they stand, the call to come out being the same as the call of the first and second angels and repeated by the third, with nothing allowed to dim the light of the third angel's message. The verse declares that guilt is full and remembered for punishment and that the time for judgment has come, which is why the message of the fall must be sounded forth and God's people must come out so as not to share her sins and plagues.
The light and glory of God attends the message, as the glory of the angel having great power lightens the earth. That clear light of truth continues to shine rather than fading like lightning, proving it a voice from the throne of God, and it is given with distinctness in proportion to its importance. It is the light and glory God desires to fill the earth with, the great salvation He longs to bestow, with the benefits and light and richest truths He has given and presented to His people. It carries forward the light that shone through His messengers in ages past whose protest distinguished Protestants, which Protestants continue in the first, second and third angels' messages, with no daubing with untempered mortar. In that work it uplifts the downtrodden law and joins Christ in reform for the suffering and oppressed.
It is the last work to be done for the world, to be patiently unfolded and proclaimed with a loud voice and with all power and efficiency by the human agencies God has chosen, so the world is not left in darkness and the earth is lightened with glory. Those who take part in it are to understand that it prepares a people to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming, and no other line of work should divert minds to hinder it. The warnings contained in Revelation must not be counted an inferior matter, and workers must not let other lines of work disqualify them from preaching them. Satan seeks to hinder the proclamation of the third angel's message and to bind about and defeat the great issue and test to come upon God's people in the last days through his plans and methods. He seeks to turn people from that test by mingling deception with truth to create diverting side issues.
That proclamation centers on the Sabbath of the Lord, showing the seventh day to be the seal of the living God and the great test for this time. It lifts up the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, doing aggressive work of separating a people from the churches to stand on the platform of eternal truth while the four winds are held back. It shows people what to expect from the papal power that has made void the law of God at the time when the Protestant churches are reaching out to grasp the hand of that power. It is the louder and more explicit warning of the third angel's message, following the proclamation of the hour of God's judgment and the fall of mystic Babylon, directed to all co-workers in the great anti-Christian apostasy. That guilt is complete and ripe for plagues because of denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling upon the commandments and making void the law, and reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath, while observance of the seventh day according to the commandment exposes that neglect.
It belongs with the call to come out of Babylon and escape her plagues, to be carried to people where they are in missionary work whose aim and burden is to show that truth uplifts and saves, with workers constantly increasing in usefulness to win souls to Christ. In that last work God takes the reins in His own hands and works very much out of the common order of things and contrary to any human planning, using simple means to bring about and perfect His work of righteousness, to the surprise of the workers. Those who have means must be roused to a sense of duty now or they will not recognize the work of God when the loud cry is heard, and instead of coming up to the help of the Lord will want to bind about His work to meet their narrow ideas. Those accounted good workers need to draw nigh to God, need the divine touch, and need to drink more deeply and continuously at the fountain of living water in order to discern God's work at every point.
It is the testing message for this time and does its special work in the conversion of souls, giving the reason for the voice from heaven calling for My people to come out. It must be given to poor souls under deceptive human and satanic influences combined who have rejected the Word of the Lord and fallen into Satan's snare, without being held back by commercial inducement. It comes after those slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are seen beneath the altar at the opening of the fifth seal, and it shows the danger of those in Babylon when the faithful and true are called out from her. It presents a terrible picture of mystic Babylon 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, showing how completely the powers of earth will give themselves over to evil. The proclamation of the third angel's message is therefore a matter of utmost consequence requiring diligent searching of the Scriptures to guard against the mystery of iniquity in the closing scenes, warning those who have received the truth how dangerous it is to link up with secret societies or to join themselves in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments.
Urgent Warnings for Today
The sins of cities reach unto heaven and cause God to remember their iniquities and display His power in complete destruction. The eighteenth chapter portrays scenes yet to take place in the cities, and recent destruction in a city is a special indication of this coming judgment that must not be ignored or made light of. Those who believe the prophecies must heed the call to come out, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. To defiantly invest means and erect still greater buildings after such a rebuke will cause God to exercise His power to counteract those efforts. The calamity calls those who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of their fellow men to hear His voice and make amends for the wrong they have done.
The sins belong to the human agents who commit them, not to the buildings where they meet, for it is people's conformity to wicked practices that pollutes them. The verse is applied to corrupt people in churches, while the fate of great cities is connected with God's wrath. Widespread human iniquity reaching unto heaven is deep corruption and deterioration of the world, with souls perishing outside Christ and ready to die in the darkness of error. This condition makes devils triumphant and angels weep over perishing souls. It lays awful responsibility on those who know the truth as repositories of sacred trust to open the truth to others, to stand between the living and the dead, and to work urgently by giving themselves first and then all they can.
That urgent work must be done while mercy's voice pleads, while the four winds are held, and while heaven's opened door receives every repentant soul, because souls are perishing, the name of God is dishonored, vice is deepening, infidelity is increasing, and the end is near. Human sins have piled up to heaven and God has taken note of them. The public exposure of crime, dishonesty, falsehood, profanity and vileness in cities and among rulers is arranged to make this plain to all who read of it. This exposure will spread from city to city until the guilt of the whole world stands revealed and the reason God permits His judgments to fall on the earth is clear. The verse means the time is surely near when God will wipe iniquity from the earth.
Prevailing sins and abounding iniquity are fast piling up a cup of iniquity that reaches unto heaven. God remembers the iniquities of those who practice them and have polluted the earth by their transgressions, and the wrath of a pure and holy God will fall in judgment upon them. A fearful record stands against the sinner in heaven, and a fearful retribution awaits unless he humbles his heart and sincerely repents before God and lives a life of repentance. The crime is very aggravating in the sight of God when a watchman upon the walls of Zion gives evidence by his deportment that the prevailing sins which pollute the world have attractions for him and his morals are weakened and his deportment is questionable.
Her sins have piled up until they reach to heaven, her guilt is full and complete and she is ripe for destruction, and God remembering her means He calls her to account and marks her iniquities for punishment and judgment.
She is fallen Babylon, the churches and religious bodies that refuse the warnings of the first, second and third angels' messages, reject truth and cover selfishness, fraud, pride and oppression under profession.
Her remembered sins are exalting a spurious sabbath above God, changing His law and tearing down His memorial, trampling His commandments, with fraud, pride, oppression of the poor and persecution of those who keep His commandments.
Her guilt is complete and her time has come, so she will soon be repaid double according to her works with plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire, without mercy because she showed no mercy.
This is the reason for the voice from heaven calling God's faithful people still in Babylon to come out, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues before the judgments fall.
It belongs to the third angel's message proclaimed with great power as the loud cry, when another angel comes down and the earth is lighted with glory, giving again the second angel's message of Babylon's downfall blended with the third for the closing days.
Meaning of the Words
Her sins have accumulated and piled up until they reach unto heaven, her guilt is full and complete, and she is ripe for destruction under judgment. This piling to heaven is why punishment is held against her and why the call is given for God's people to leave her rather than share in her sins and receive of her plagues. The words are to be fulfilled soon, when the last test comes and each person must decide whether to heed the warning and come out.
God hath remembered her iniquities means He calls them to account, marks them for punishment, and brings them into judgment. That remembering is vengeance for fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry to Him for help. In proportion as men caused pain to others they themselves will be punished, and man's flattering monuments of greatness will crumble in the dust, costly buildings supposed to be fireproof will become ashes as Sodom perished in flames of vengeance, and rich vessels with gold and silver and human freight will sink into a watery grave, burying pride with treasures accumulated by fraud.
Reaching unto heaven means the limit is passed and forbearance is nearly ended. Crimes and debasing iniquity have become so great through appetite and passion overcoming professed followers until familiarity with sin blunts the senses so evil seems attractive rather than abhorrent, and through unholy polluted habits that grow from one stupefied person to multiplying ministers of sin until a place is renowned for pollutions and the earth is defiled. The end of all things is at hand, God will not much longer bear with them, and their sins will soon be answered by fearful plagues upon the earth when they drink the cup of His wrath unmixed with mercy.
The Ruler of the universe bears long with perversity but keeps a record of every action for good or evil and has a storehouse of retributive judgments, which He permits to fall on those who continue in sin in the face of great light. That record stands fearful against the sinner in heaven, with torment and sorrow, plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire measured in proportion to false witness, false accusations, prisons, chain-gangs, stocks, fetters, torture, banishment and death inflicted on others, and no human greatness or wealth gained by fraud will protect the guilty. Unless there is humble and sincere repentance with a life of repentance, fearful retribution awaits, and the crime is especially aggravating when a watchman on Zion's walls shows by deportment and questionable conduct that polluting sins attract him with weakened morals. The sins belong to the human agents who commit them, not to the buildings where they meet; it is people's conformity to wicked practices that pollutes them.
Who Is Babylon
The fallen Babylon held guilty before God is the churches that will not receive the warnings given in the first, second, and third angels' messages. They refused the messages of truth and accepted a lie, refusing the truth, and their accumulated wrongs are marked for punishment and bring the announced judgment. The message is plain and clearly defined, so anyone who reads the chapter need not be deceived, and its fulfillment is now on the eve of accomplishment as the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, giving the reason for the voice from heaven calling God's people to come out so they will not share her sins and plagues. This corruption of churches whose principles have become corrupted explains why the messages of Revelation 14 must be proclaimed in the last days.
She is the deluded religious world as Babylon whose sins have grown up to heaven and whose wrongs God recalls, which is why God's people are called to come out so they will not share her sins or suffer her plagues. She is the symbol of the apostate church under God's word to His ministers of judgment at the near time of the last great crisis when the Lord interposes to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. She is the nominal churches and religious bodies whose profession of faith conceals selfishness, fraud, deceit, pride, and other grave evils, with their religious appearance not hiding their guilt from God, and God has their iniquities in account. She is a corrupt religious power whose influence reaches all nations and whose actions include oppressive control over conscience and religious liberty, and judgment delayed will soon awaken with punishment prepared and repayment from God.
Mystic Babylon has fallen from her high estate to become a persecuting power, with a wicked character and seductive influence showing how completely the powers of earth will give themselves over to evil. Her wrath is directed against those who keep the commandments of God and have the faith of Jesus, and those who have received the truth are warned how dangerous it is to link up with secret societies or to join in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments. Kings, merchants, rulers, and religious teachers are all joined in corrupt harmony through rejection of truth, exalting the false and spurious Sabbath above the Sabbath blessed and sanctified for man's use, and holding the immortality of the soul, which converts the church into Babylon. This judgment falls on the power that joins church and state to enforce worship of the spurious Sabbath and persecute those who keep God's commandments, and God will repay it for cruelty and violence with the doom described in the following verses.
She is the so-called Christian world as the theater of great and decisive actions in the final time, when men in authority enact laws controlling conscience after the example of the Papacy. At that time Babylon makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication so that every nation is involved, and her sins have piled up unto heaven with God remembering her iniquities for judgment. The verse describes Babylon, not God's commandment-keeping people, and the chosen ones who stand and breast the storm of opposition from the world and uplift the downtrodden commandments of God to exalt them as honorable and holy are the light of the world. To pass human judgment on them and call the church a harlot and Babylon and declare over Seventh-day Adventists that sins have reached heaven and God has remembered iniquities is not the message to bear, for God has given no man any such message, and it is an erroneous application requiring those who make it to humble their hearts before God and in true contrition repent that they stood for a time by the side of the accuser of the brethren. The warning is connected with churches under deceptive influence where a counterfeit religious revival appears to be God's work, whose sins have become so great that they have reached heaven and are remembered by God.
Sins God Remembers
The iniquities God remembers are the exalting of a spurious rival sabbath above the Sabbath He blessed and sanctified for man, changing times and laws, removing His memorial, tearing down the Sabbath of the fourth commandment, placing the first day where the seventh should be, and accepting, cradling and nourishing that child of the Papacy in defiance of God. She disregarded the only commandment that points out the true God and divorced herself from Him by refusing His sign, while kings, merchants, rulers and religious teachers joined in corrupt harmony to accept and exalt the false sabbath above the Bible Sabbath. By reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath the churches dishonored God with a Cain-like false religion of human invention, and anger against His commandment-keeping people for not reverencing Sunday marks the guilt remembered unto plagues of death, mourning, famine and burning with fire. God calls His people out of Babylon as He called Israel out of Egypt to keep His Sabbath, so they will not worship the beast nor his image but keep the true Sabbath.
Her sins are her errors and rejection of truth sent from heaven, laid open in the loud cry of the third angel's message blended with the second angel's proclamation of Babylon's fall. They include holding the natural immortality of the soul, denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling upon the commandments and making void the law, and promoting a false Sabbath in place of God's Sabbath with other errors that defy God. Observance of the seventh day according to the commandment exposes that neglect, while enforcement of church observances by civil authority, the exposure of Spiritualism, and the rapid progress of papal power belong to the same warning.
They are also fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry to Him for help, which He records in His storehouse of retributive judgments to avenge upon those who continued in sin in the face of great light. Men claiming to be Christians yet defrauding and oppressing the poor, robbing the widow and fatherless, indulging satanic hatred because they cannot control conscience, indulging false accusations and derision toward those God appointed, and consigning believers to prison, the chain-gang, stocks, fetters, banishment, torture and death will answer for every pang and tear of His heritage. Judgment without mercy will come because they showed no mercy, repaid double according to pain caused to others, with torment and sorrow, plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning fire, when human greatness and wealth gained by fraud will not protect the guilty and flattering monuments of greatness crumble in the dust.
They include crimes and debasing iniquity in which appetite and passion overcome thousands of professed followers through familiarity with sin until senses are blunted and evil seems attractive rather than abhorrent. They are the unholy polluted habits that corrupted Sodom and defiled the earth, not coming all at once but growing from one man and woman stupefying themselves to multiplying ministers of sin teaching every newcomer until the place becomes renowned for pollutions. Prevailing sins fast pile up a cup reaching heaven with a fearful record in heaven and fearful retribution unless there is humble repentance and a life of repentance, and the crime is especially aggravating when a watchman on Zion's walls shows by deportment that polluting sins attract him with weakened morals and questionable conduct. Reaching unto heaven means forbearance is nearly ended and the limit is passed, so the Lord will bear no longer and will soon answer with fearful plagues and the cup of His wrath unmixed with mercy, for the end of all things is at hand.
They include joining church and state to enforce worship of the spurious and idol sabbath and to persecute even unto death those who keep God's commandments, with oppressive control over conscience and religious liberty after the example of the Papacy. At that time the so-called Christian world becomes the theater of great and decisive actions, men in authority enact laws controlling conscience, Babylon makes all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and every nation is involved. God will repay that persecuting power for cruelty and violence with the doom described in the following verses.
God remembers the accumulated national sin of slavery as a curse to the United States, with the cries, groans and agony of the enslaved held in bondage and placed on a level with brute creatures rising to heaven. The Fugitive Slave Law crushed every noble, generous feeling of sympathy for the oppressed suffering slave and stood in direct opposition to the teachings of Christ. His scourge fell upon the North for so long submitting to let bondage exist, with fellow men held in hopeless slavery, tyrannized over and tortured and even murdered as passionate men chose and counted as no more than brutes, while perplexity and fear seized hearts because the inhabitants of earth had nearly filled their cup of iniquity.
Judgment Soon to Fall
Her guilt is full and complete, her sins have piled up until they reach heaven, her time has come, and she is ripe for destruction about to fall as judgment for that guilt before God's judgments come. Before those judgments fall her faithful people still within her must be called out so they do not share her sins or her plagues, and the announcement of her sins forms part of the final warning and the movement that joins the third angel's message to make it a loud cry.
She will be repaid double according to her works and will soon receive double from God's hand for what she did to them. That double recompense comes as plagues, death, mourning, famine and burning with fire, with torment and sorrow, and as judgment without mercy because she showed no mercy. The power that persecutes even unto death to force worship of an idol sabbath has grown so great in guilt, having torn down the Sabbath, God's memorial, and exalted a spurious rest day, that this guilt is remembered unto those plagues.
Punishment will come in proportion as men caused pain to others by false witness, false accusations, prisons, chain-gangs, stocks, fetters, torture, banishment and death, for the Ruler of the universe bears long with perversity but keeps a record of every action for good or evil and has a storehouse of retributive judgments which He permits to fall on those who continue in sin in the face of great light. Fraud, pride, selfish indulgence, and oppression and abuse that caused hungry, naked widows and orphans to cry for help are remembered and will be avenged, and human greatness and wealth gained by fraud will not protect the guilty. Judgment was delayed but will soon awaken and punishment is prepared, and the fulfillment is right upon us in sorrow that no human balm can heal.
Man's flattering monuments of greatness will crumble in the dust, the most costly buildings supposed to be fire-proof 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, and man's pride will be buried with treasures accumulated by fraud even before the last great destruction comes. Massive structures built story upon story will be thrown down by the turning and overturning of God's power when the Lord shall arise to shake terribly the earth, for one word from the Lord, one touch of His mighty power, will make them fall in scenes whose fearfulness cannot be imagined. That description should cause fear and trembling and calls for turning away and working entirely contrary to these sins, dividing those who love the light and follow on to know the Lord from those who do not love the light and will not come to the light lest their deeds be reproved.
The chapter records scenes about to take place and portrays scenes yet to take place in the cities, with terrible judgment falling upon present wickedness and deep concern over coming events. The heavens are lighted up, balls like fire full of arrows fall, houses are set on fire that no human effort can extinguish, the earth quakes, homes fall with a crash amid cries of distress, prayer and confusion, and expensive homes are broken up in cities such as Los Angeles. The recent destruction of a city is a rebuke from God for its sins and a special indication of this judgment that must not be ignored or made light of, calling men who abused privileges and wronged fellow men to hear His voice and make amends, and warning that to defiantly invest means to erect still greater buildings after such rebuke will cause God to exercise His power to counteract those efforts. The verse belongs to that chapter-wide warning of coming judgment on the earth, not to a specific prediction that New York or another named city will be destroyed in a particular way.
The prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 are being fulfilled, and the whole of Revelation 18 and 19 will be fulfilled as the very last call to the churches and the last message of warning now to be given. That call in chapter 18 comes just before the time pictured in chapter 19 when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated the great rebellion against heaven is bound and cast into the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns in this earth. As that judgment approaches, the sins of mystic Babylon are brought before God following the work of false shepherds who turn people from God's law to human theories, with the resulting wickedness returning upon them.
Call to Come Out
The verse gives the reason for the voice from heaven calling, Come out of her, My people, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. The deluded religious world as Babylon has sins grown up to heaven and God recalls her wrongs, her sins and iniquities have become so great that they have reached heaven and God remembers them. Her sins have accumulated to the point of reaching heaven, which explains why Babylon faces judgment and why God's people are called to leave her rather than share in her sins and plagues. This supports the urgent, forceful proclamation of the message calling God's people out of Babylon so they do not share in her sins and plagues. It is part of the message of Revelation 18:1-5 that contains the great test for the people and does its special work in the conversion of souls, and it is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance.
It belongs to the message of the angel having great power whose glory lightens the earth, which is the light and glory God desires to fill the earth with. It is the great salvation He longs to bestow, with the benefits and light and richest truths He has given and presented to His people. Babylon's guilt is complete: her sins have reached heaven, and God remembers her iniquities. Destruction is about to fall as judgment for that guilt, but before the judgments come, God calls His faithful people still in Babylon out so they will not share her sins or her plagues and fearful doom. The angel's announcement of Babylon's sins is part of the final warning to the inhabitants of the earth, and the announcement of Babylon's sins and the call to come out form part of the movement that joins the third angel's message and makes it a loud cry.
Her sins have piled up to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities, so God's people must come out of her in order not to share her sins and receive her plagues, and she will be repaid double according to her works for what she did to them. Those who obey the call are the 144,000 redeemed from the earth who stand with the Lamb on Mount Zion, having the Father's name in their foreheads, following the Lamb wherever He goes, with no guile in their mouth and without fault before the throne of God. It belongs to the warning message for these last days to be cried to the churches, and the work of preparation it calls for must begin in every family. Those who believe the message must reveal to the world that they have come out, that they partake not of her sins and receive not of her plagues, by walking in the light as Christ is in the light, cherishing no idols and allowing nothing to intercept the bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness.
Place in Prophecy
The verse belongs to the third angel's message to be proclaimed with great power as the loud cry, when another angel comes down from heaven with great power and the earth is lighted with his glory. That lighting of the earth is the light and glory, the great salvation and richest truths, that God desires to fill the earth with, and the Holy Spirit then empowers consecrated people to spread the knowledge of God and salvation throughout the earth. It forms with the announcement of the fall of Babylon and the call to come out of her the final warning given by God to be sounded forth, joining the third angel's message so that God's people leave her and do not share her sins or receive her plagues and fearful doom. It comes after the three angels of Revelation 14, repeating that Babylon is fallen and become corrupt, giving as the reason for separation and coming judgment that her sins have piled up to heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. It is part of the last message of mercy and testing message to all inhabitants of the world before the Lord soon comes, borne by a people distinct and separate from the world who refuse the beast and his image and keep God's commandments and holy seventh-day Sabbath.
It is part of the second proclamation of Babylon's downfall, which calls people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached heaven and God remembers her iniquities. It gives again the substance of the second angel's message blended with the third angel's message into one message for the closing days of this earth's history, when the first, second, and third angels' messages are repeated as a call to the church to come out of her. That guilt grown to heaven's full measure means God has marked her wrongs for judgment, so to stay is to partake of her sins and receive her plagues, while all the world will be tested and all in error about the Sabbath of the fourth commandment will be given the last message of mercy to understand and obey. It is the louder and more explicit warning of the third angel's message, following the first angel's proclamation of the hour of God's judgment and the second angel's proclamation of the fall of mystic Babylon, directed to all co-workers in the great anti-Christian apostasy. Babylon the great is fallen and become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit because all nations have drunk the wine of her fornication and kings and merchants have shared her corruption and riches, and her guilt complete and ripe for plagues requires God's people to come out so as not to partake of her sins and receive her plagues, her sins being denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling the commandments and making void the law, and reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath.
It places Babylon's sins in the time when the church has fully reached the condition foretold by the second angel, after rejecting the threefold warning of Revelation 14:6-12. It belongs to the final call for God's people still in Babylon to separate from her once that completed fall has come.
It is the second of two distinct final calls to the churches in the last warning work, paralleling Jesus cleansing the temple at the beginning and again near the close of His ministry. The first call is the second angel's message, the second is the voice from heaven commanding God's people to come out of Babylon because her sins have reached unto heaven and God has remembered her iniquities. That call is given so God's people will not worship the beast nor his image but keep the true Sabbath, just as God called Israel out of Egypt to keep His Sabbath. The remembered iniquities are exalting a spurious rival sabbath above God, changing times and laws, removing God's memorial, and accepting, cradling, and nourishing that child of the Papacy in defiance of God. Joined to the second angel's message, it warns against Babylon's false teachings, especially the false sabbath, and is part of a work of cleansing like Jesus' cleansing of the temple from sacrilegious profanation.
The warning joins the third angel's message as the midnight cry joined the second angel's message in 1844. Babylon is fallen because of her errors and sins and her rejection of truth sent from heaven, and these sins are laid open in the loud cry of the third angel's message.
It belongs to the very last call to the churches, the last message of warning that all are to hear and that is now to be given, containing the great test for the people and doing its special work in the conversion of souls. It belongs to the testing truths for this time and to the last call of mercy to be given more fully to the world, made known by Christ to John on Patmos, to be read and understood now amid last-day perils and satanic deception. God shows mercy by long forbearance, holding back His judgments until the message of warning in Revelation 18 has been sounded to all, including the many who have not yet heard it. The whole of Revelation 18 and 19 will be fulfilled, with the prophecies of Revelation 12 to 18 being fulfilled just before the time pictured in the nineteenth chapter when the beast and the false prophet are taken and cast into a lake of fire, the dragon who instigated rebellion is bound in the bottomless pit for a thousand years, then the wicked are resurrected and Satan and all the wicked are finally destroyed, and Christ triumphs and reigns in this earth. The message including this verse is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance.
Its words are to be fulfilled soon in the coming crisis and closing days, when the last test comes to the inhabitants of the earth and people must decide whether to heed the warning and leave Babylon lest they share in her sins and plagues. The sins of fallen Babylon have built up to heaven and God takes note of her iniquities to punish them, with His retributive judgments falling on those who have continued in sin in the face of great light. That remembering means vengeance for fraud, pride and oppression, avenging widows and orphans who in hunger and nakedness cried for relief, with man's flattering monuments crumbling and costly buildings supposed to be fire-proof turned to ashes like Sodom and rich vessels with gold and silver and human freight sunk into a watery grave. Its fulfillment is now on the eve of accomplishment as the greatest work the world has ever witnessed, so the message of her fall must be sounded forth now, just now, with a loud voice, in harmony with the first, second, and third angels to show people where they stand, with nothing allowed to dim the light of the third angel's message. It comes after the opening of the fifth seal when those slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are seen beneath the altar, giving the reason God's people must come out so they will not share in her sins or receive her plagues, as the testing message for this time to poor souls under deceptive human and satanic influences who have rejected the Word of the Lord to follow them and fallen into Satan's snare.
Proclaiming the Message Boldly
The message to which this verse belongs is a question of life and death for this time, and it is not to be given in an indifferent manner but with a solemn sense of its importance. It must be given now, just now, with boldness and power, in no measured terms, with distinctness, earnestness, a loud voice and demonstration of the Spirit to convict and convert. There is to be no toning down or muffling of the truth, and no half-and-half testimony. It strengthens and confirms the third angel's message, and is given in harmony with the first, second and third angels to show people where they stand, the call to come out being the same as the call of the first and second angels and repeated by the third, with nothing allowed to dim the light of the third angel's message. The verse declares that guilt is full and remembered for punishment and that the time for judgment has come, which is why the message of the fall must be sounded forth and God's people must come out so as not to share her sins and plagues.
The light and glory of God attends the message, as the glory of the angel having great power lightens the earth. That clear light of truth continues to shine rather than fading like lightning, proving it a voice from the throne of God, and it is given with distinctness in proportion to its importance. It is the light and glory God desires to fill the earth with, the great salvation He longs to bestow, with the benefits and light and richest truths He has given and presented to His people. It carries forward the light that shone through His messengers in ages past whose protest distinguished Protestants, which Protestants continue in the first, second and third angels' messages, with no daubing with untempered mortar. In that work it uplifts the downtrodden law and joins Christ in reform for the suffering and oppressed.
It is the last work to be done for the world, to be patiently unfolded and proclaimed with a loud voice and with all power and efficiency by the human agencies God has chosen, so the world is not left in darkness and the earth is lightened with glory. Those who take part in it are to understand that it prepares a people to stand in the great day of God which is fast coming, and no other line of work should divert minds to hinder it. The warnings contained in Revelation must not be counted an inferior matter, and workers must not let other lines of work disqualify them from preaching them. Satan seeks to hinder the proclamation of the third angel's message and to bind about and defeat the great issue and test to come upon God's people in the last days through his plans and methods. He seeks to turn people from that test by mingling deception with truth to create diverting side issues.
That proclamation centers on the Sabbath of the Lord, showing the seventh day to be the seal of the living God and the great test for this time. It lifts up the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, doing aggressive work of separating a people from the churches to stand on the platform of eternal truth while the four winds are held back. It shows people what to expect from the papal power that has made void the law of God at the time when the Protestant churches are reaching out to grasp the hand of that power. It is the louder and more explicit warning of the third angel's message, following the proclamation of the hour of God's judgment and the fall of mystic Babylon, directed to all co-workers in the great anti-Christian apostasy. That guilt is complete and ripe for plagues because of denying the Sabbath instituted by God, trampling upon the commandments and making void the law, and reverencing a man-made institution and idol sabbath, while observance of the seventh day according to the commandment exposes that neglect.
It belongs with the call to come out of Babylon and escape her plagues, to be carried to people where they are in missionary work whose aim and burden is to show that truth uplifts and saves, with workers constantly increasing in usefulness to win souls to Christ. In that last work God takes the reins in His own hands and works very much out of the common order of things and contrary to any human planning, using simple means to bring about and perfect His work of righteousness, to the surprise of the workers. Those who have means must be roused to a sense of duty now or they will not recognize the work of God when the loud cry is heard, and instead of coming up to the help of the Lord will want to bind about His work to meet their narrow ideas. Those accounted good workers need to draw nigh to God, need the divine touch, and need to drink more deeply and continuously at the fountain of living water in order to discern God's work at every point.
It is the testing message for this time and does its special work in the conversion of souls, giving the reason for the voice from heaven calling for My people to come out. It must be given to poor souls under deceptive human and satanic influences combined who have rejected the Word of the Lord and fallen into Satan's snare, without being held back by commercial inducement. It comes after those slain for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ are seen beneath the altar at the opening of the fifth seal, and it shows the danger of those in Babylon when the faithful and true are called out from her. It presents a terrible picture of mystic Babylon 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, showing how completely the powers of earth will give themselves over to evil. The proclamation of the third angel's message is therefore a matter of utmost consequence requiring diligent searching of the Scriptures to guard against the mystery of iniquity in the closing scenes, warning those who have received the truth how dangerous it is to link up with secret societies or to join themselves in any way with those who do not keep God's commandments.
Urgent Warnings for Today
The sins of cities reach unto heaven and cause God to remember their iniquities and display His power in complete destruction. The eighteenth chapter portrays scenes yet to take place in the cities, and recent destruction in a city is a special indication of this coming judgment that must not be ignored or made light of. Those who believe the prophecies must heed the call to come out, that they be not partakers of her sins and receive not of her plagues. To defiantly invest means and erect still greater buildings after such a rebuke will cause God to exercise His power to counteract those efforts. The calamity calls those who have abused their privileges and taken advantage of their fellow men to hear His voice and make amends for the wrong they have done.
The sins belong to the human agents who commit them, not to the buildings where they meet, for it is people's conformity to wicked practices that pollutes them. The verse is applied to corrupt people in churches, while the fate of great cities is connected with God's wrath. Widespread human iniquity reaching unto heaven is deep corruption and deterioration of the world, with souls perishing outside Christ and ready to die in the darkness of error. This condition makes devils triumphant and angels weep over perishing souls. It lays awful responsibility on those who know the truth as repositories of sacred trust to open the truth to others, to stand between the living and the dead, and to work urgently by giving themselves first and then all they can.
That urgent work must be done while mercy's voice pleads, while the four winds are held, and while heaven's opened door receives every repentant soul, because souls are perishing, the name of God is dishonored, vice is deepening, infidelity is increasing, and the end is near. Human sins have piled up to heaven and God has taken note of them. The public exposure of crime, dishonesty, falsehood, profanity and vileness in cities and among rulers is arranged to make this plain to all who read of it. This exposure will spread from city to city until the guilt of the whole world stands revealed and the reason God permits His judgments to fall on the earth is clear. The verse means the time is surely near when God will wipe iniquity from the earth.
Prevailing sins and abounding iniquity are fast piling up a cup of iniquity that reaches unto heaven. God remembers the iniquities of those who practice them and have polluted the earth by their transgressions, and the wrath of a pure and holy God will fall in judgment upon them. A fearful record stands against the sinner in heaven, and a fearful retribution awaits unless he humbles his heart and sincerely repents before God and lives a life of repentance. The crime is very aggravating in the sight of God when a watchman upon the walls of Zion gives evidence by his deportment that the prevailing sins which pollute the world have attractions for him and his morals are weakened and his deportment is questionable.