REVELATION 14 : 8

Seventh-Day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Thursday, June 10, 1880

“And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” In the 16th of Revelation we read, “And the great city,” doubtless referring to the same city, mystic Babylon, “was divided into three parts.” The usual designation of these three divisions, as Paganism, Catholicism, and stagnate or apostate Protestantism, is doubtless the correct one. The fall is shown by Rev. 18 : 2–8 to be a moral fall.

The second angel’s message, uttered near the close of the first half of the present century, announcing this fall, could not therefore apply to Paganism; for that has always been in a fallen condition morally. It could not apply to Catholicism; for that also has always been but a mass of superstition and iniquity. In the Protestant division the fulfillment of this message is therefore alone possible; for this alone, at the time the message was due and was given, was in a condition in which it could experience a moral fall.

Under the impetus of the Reformation and the stirring notes of the reformers, the Protestant body broke from its identification with Rome, and in numerous divisions in later years pushed the work of reformation to various degrees of success. But they all stopped short of a complete work, and were content with what Alexander Campbell calls a “reformation from popery only in part.”

The time had come for a further advance. The divisions and dissensions must be healed by the promulgation of a truth of such all-absorbing importance that denominational lines would crumble and melt away before it. The glorious announcement of the soon-coming second advent of the Son of God was made. What it did for the few who did receive it, it would have done for all had they embraced it, and union would have reigned over the Protestant world.

Here was something very desirable to attain. If they did not receive this, they had something to lose; for, according to the parable, “from him that hath not [made a good improvement of what he has] shall be taken away even that which he hath.” The churches then reached a turning point, when they must either advance or recede. Unfortunately they rejected the message of the advent, which would have brought them into an advance position, and so fell—fell behind in the march of truth, fell out of the channel through which God’s Spirit works, and passed into that period of moral apathy and decline which has brought them to the state they are in to-day.

Since, then, the message of Rev. 14 : 8, applies only to the Protestant division of the mystic city, as that alone was in a position to fall morally when that message was given, it may be asked how we shall understand the term “Babylon.” Is it restricted, the name of the whole being applied to only a part? Or is it universal, meaning Babylon in all its parts? If restricted to the Protestant division alone, how can the prophet immediately add, “Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication;” that is, corrupted them by her false doctrines, and corrupted herself by her unlawful connection with them? For, as applied to this division alone, it might be claimed that the charge is too broad, Protestantism not being alone responsible for all this work. But if taken in its unlimited sense, how could it be said down here in the present generation, Babylon is fallen, when such had for ages been the condition of its two principal divisions?

There is, we think, an answer to these questions which clears them of all difficulty. Let the term Babylon, as seems most natural, be taken in its broadest sense; let the announcement, “Babylon is fallen,” apply to it all; but let the message have its fulfillment in this present generation only. Why, then, should the message be located here? Because it could not properly have been given at any other time.

When men criminally lost the knowledge of God, and fell into Paganism, Babylon began; but the fall could not then be announced. When by unlawfully mixing Christianity with Paganism men fell into Catholicism, another great division was established, that also being in a deplorable condition morally; but it was not time yet to announce it as in a fallen condition, because of the developments yet to be made.

Under the work of the Reformation an advance movement began. But the Protestant bodies, falling successively under the creed-power, split into fragments, and the third great division of this mystical city was established. A last remedy, a crowning message of truth, is sent especially to this portion of Christendom, and is rejected. A moral fall is the consequence. And now the message can be properly proclaimed; for the last division of Babylon has been developed and is fallen. There is nothing more to come. The city is completed, and is now all found in the condition in which the judgments of God will overtake it in the great day. And now the announcement, “Babylon is fallen,” applying to it all, can be made, which could not have been made while any portion of this mystic city remained to be developed, or while any division which had been developed had not fallen.

The message of Rev. 14, while using the term Babylon without limitation, did not declare that the pagan and papal divisions which had been corrupt during their whole history, then fell, but, the last division having fallen, the announcement could be made respecting the whole, that it “is fallen.”

By this view we are not obliged to plead for any embarrassing limitation of the term Babylon, and the delay of the announcement of the fall to the present generation is easily accounted for.

REVELATION 14 : 8.