“Babylon
has fallen…Come out of her my people” (Revelation 18:1-5)
The term
Babylon, derived from Babel (Genesis 11:9), and signifying confusion, is
applied in Scripture to the various forms of false or apostate religion. There
is “Babylon The Great The Mother of Harlots” “the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus” Rev. 17:5,6. This can only refer to the Roman
Catholic church who is responsible for the deaths of over 50 million martyrs –
The Other End of the World, p. 127, Roger Rusk.
With the
gospel of Christ spreading all over the world, Satan’s religion of paganism was
under threat from Christianity and so he persecuted the church of Christ but
failed to conquer it. So, he came up with a plan to infiltrate the church. Persecution
ceased and the nominal conversion of Emperor Constantine, in the early part of
the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; and the world, cloaked with a form
of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly
progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror.
Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions
were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of
Christ.
This
compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of the
“man of sin”-the papacy- foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself
above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s
power,—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the
earth according to his will. To secure worldly gains and honors, the church was
led to seek the favor and support of the great men of earth, and having thus
rejected Christ, she was induced to yield allegiance to the representative of
Satan,—the bishop of Rome.
Since the
Catholic church is described as “The Mother of Harlots”, it means she has
daughters, i.e. other churches under her who follow in her ways of corruption
and love of the world. These daughters are announced in the following
scripture, “Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all
nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication” Rev 14:8. This
Babylon fell in 1844 when the churches rejected the “Judgement Message” which
eventually resulted in the formation of the World Council of Churches (W. C.
C). The churches that make up Babylon
have conflicting creeds and false doctrines, yet they put up a false united
front by forming this council which has other ecumenical bodies under it such
as the Christian World Communion (CWC), National Council of Churches (NCC),
etc…
Its moral
fall is here announced which is caused by their false doctrines: “Babylon the
great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the
hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For
all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication,…..And I
heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins
have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Revelation
18:1-5
God is
calling all His faithful people out of these apostate churches before the 7
last plagues fall. Members of the Christian World Communion are: The Roman
Catholic Church, Seventh Day Adventist Church, Pentecostal, Baptist,
Evangelical, Anglican, Lutheran, Methodist churches, etc. https://www.oikoumene.org/church-families
The obvious
question then is, since all churches now compose Babylon, then who or where is
God’s church? For God has always had a church upon the earth. But before
answering that question let us look at a prophecy by Isaiah that foretold the
state of the churches in our day. It reads, “And in that day seven women shall
take hold of one Man, saying, we will eat our own bread, and wear our own
apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.” Isaiah
4:1. Since this is a prophecy written in symbols, we will have to understand
the symbols first and then determine when it was fulfilled.
“Seven” symbolizes wholeness or completeness or all, e.g. 7
days signifies a complete week or a whole week or all the number of days of the
week. A “woman” symbolizes a church, a pure woman–a pure church, e.g. “I
promised you to one husband, to Christ” says Paul, “that I might present you as
a pure virgin to Him” 2 Corinthians 11:2 NIV. An impure woman an impure church,
e.g. Babylon in Rev. 17:5 is called the mother of harlots, i.e. an impure
church that has churches that follow after her example of impurity and
corruption. The “One Man” obviously refers to Christ. “Bread” symbolizes
spiritual food i.e. the Word of God, e.g. Jesus says, “I am the living bread
which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for
ever: … the words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit, and they are life.”
John 6: 51,63. “Apparel” symbolizes either
righteousness or unrighteousness. Clean apparel: – the righteousness of Christ
which is imparted to the saints, “And to her (the church) was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints” Rev. 19:8. And filthy apparel: – “But we are all as an
unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags” Isaiah 64:6.
So, without
the symbols the text reads, “In that day all the churches will take hold of one
Man, i.e. Christ, saying, we will spiritually feed upon our own doctrines
(words), and be clothed with our own righteousness, only let us be called by
your name i.e. Christian, to take away our shame” Isaiah 4:1
When was
this prophecy fulfilled? It could not apply to the times of Isaiah because
Israel was the only true church of God at that time. Likewise, it cannot be
applied to the times of the early Christian church during the times of the
Apostles for there was only one true church. Again, it could not be applied
during the times of the great apostasy when the Catholic Church ruled supreme
not allowing any dissenters to her false doctrines resulting in God’s true
church being persecuted and going into hiding or the “wilderness” i.e. in
obscurity for 1260 years, “The woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a
place prepared by God, that they should feed her there one thousand two hundred
and sixty days.” Revelation 12:6. Each prophetic day
represents 1 year of literal time (Numbers 14:34; Ezekiel 4:6).
We will briefly explain the 1260
years of prophecy of Rev. 12:6 in the next 2 paragraphs:
After the
fall of the Western Roman Empire in the year 476, the Catholic church sought to
step into Rome’s place and rule over Western Europe as it was now the state religion, this being a combination of
Christianity and paganism. But 3 nations i.e. the Heruli, Vandals, and
Ostrogoths refused to yield to the Catholic religion and authority. Therefore,
the Catholic church using the armed forces of the rest of the empire made war
against these 3 nations. The last of these nations i.e. the Ostrogoths were
defeated in March 538 and forced to leave Rome. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Rome_(537–538)
Therefore, March 538 marks the
beginning of the years of papal supremacy. And the end of this period is
February 10, 1798, when the French general Louis Berthier under directions from
Napoleon Bonaparte entered the city of Rome, took pope Pius VI prisoner and
exiled him to France. Thus, the year of February 10, 1798 marked the end of the
years of papal supremacy exactly 1260 years later as prophecy had predicted.
Continuing with the prophecy of Isaiah 4:1, we come down to
the time of the “Judgement message” or “Advent message” in 1844 which was sent
to the world during the Protestant era. Amongst other things, the purpose of
the message was to separate God’s true people from the world and unite them
under one body and name, which eventually happened by the raising of the
Seventh Day Adventist church (SDA), while the rest of the churches were declared
to be Babylon (Rev. 14:8) because of their rejection of the “Judgement message”
(See The Hour of His Judgement is come for further details).
Again, the prophecy could not apply
during this time as she was God’s true church. But when the SDA church apostatized
from God starting in 1932 with the introduction of the Church Manual which were
“books of a new order”, instead of being led by the Bible alone, thus
fulfilling the satanic reformation predicted by the prophetess Ellen White of Letter 242 paragraph 13 1903, then the
prophecy of Isaiah 4:1 was fulfilled.
Writing in 1888 and also in 1911
regarding the complete fall of Babylon, Ellen White says, “Not yet, however,
can it be said that “Babylon is fallen, … because she made all nations
drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” She has not yet made all
nations do this. The spirit of world-conforming and indifference to the
testing truths for our time exists and has been gaining ground in churches of
the Protestant faith in all the countries of Christendom; and these
churches are included in the solemn and terrible denunciation of the second
angel. But the work of apostasy has not yet reached its culmination… Satan
will work “with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness;” and they that “received not the love of the
truth, that they might be saved,” will be left to receive “strong delusion,
that they should believe a lie.” [2 Thessalonians 2:9-11.] Not until this
condition shall be reached, and the union of the church with the world shall be
fully accomplished, throughout Christendom, will the fall of Babylon be
complete.” The Great Controversy, 1888 p. 389-390
All the churches throughout Christendom have
united with the world therefore Ellen Whites’s prophecy of the complete fall of
Babylon has been fulfilled. And Isaiah’s prophecy has also been fulfilled
because all the churches teach their own doctrines and are clothed with their
own righteousness and yet all want to be
called by Christ’s name i.e. Christian.
So, God’s church is again in the “wilderness” state i.e. in
obscurity but this time it is not because of the Bible being prohibited. In the past, Satan working through
the Roman Catholic church, prohibited the Bible resulting in persecution for
those who wanted to follow the Bible only and God’s true church went into
hiding i.e. the “wilderness” state. At the moment great light, intellectual,
moral, and religious, is shining upon this generation. In the open pages of
God’s holy Word, light from Heaven has been shed upon the world. But it should
be remembered that the greater the light bestowed, the greater the darkness of
those who pervert or reject it.
And again,
they teach the people to cling to the papal error of natural immortality and
man’s consciousness in death, virtually rejecting the Bible which is the only defence
against the delusions of evil spirits. The doctrine of eternal torment has led many to disbelieve
the Bible. And as the claims of the fourth
commandment are urged upon the people, it is found that the observance of the
seventh-day Sabbath is enjoined (Saturday); and as
the only way to free themselves from a duty which they are unwilling to
perform, popular Babylonian teachers declare that the law of God is no longer
binding, that it is only a guide for Christians and we can pick and choose
which day we want to keep holy. Thus, they cast away the law and the Sabbath
together.
“The papacy is well adapted to meet
the wants of all these. It is prepared for two classes of mankind, embracing
nearly the whole world,—those who would be saved by their merits, and those who
would be saved in their sins. Here is the secret of its power.” Ellen G. White,
The Great Controversy 1888, p. 572
What the prophetess is saying is that
there basically two classes of Babylonians over which Rome presides (1) The
conservatives led by the Seventh Day Adventist church who profess to believe
that the law of God is binding, but
essentially teach that we as human being are able to keep the law by our own
merit as demonstrated at the SDA General Conference of 1888 in Minneapolis, and finally in 1932 by rejecting the Holy Spirit and
instead adopting the Church Manual as the church creed (2) The liberals who are composed mostly
of Pentecostals, who believe that the law of God is no longer binding, thus in
essence believe that we can be saved in our sins.
Therefore, God’s true church is in
the “wilderness” state again where God is preparing her for the final battle.
The first “wilderness” state period was 1260 years as mentioned above but in
this current “wilderness” state, there is no period because all prophetic time
ended in 1844 when the Bible declared that “there should be time no longer”
Rev. 10:6.
Please join us at The Remnant of Her
Seed to hasten the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.