Memory Text.— “We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed; . . . for her judgment reacheth unto heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.” Jer. 51:9.
1. What constitutes modern Babylon?
Babylon means confusion. The term originated at the time of the building of the tower of Babel, when the language of mankind was confounded. The rebellious builders called the tower and city they builded Bab-il, or the “Gate of God.” God called it just what it really was, “Confusion.” Babylon therefore stands not only for confusion, but for self-exultation and self-salvation, and all the spirit of the world. As old Chaldea led in perverting God's truth, all the false doctrines that have cursed the world have their roots in Babylon of old. The Papacy succeeded to the place of old Chaldea as the power ruling over the minds of men, and, through it, human traditions and the spirit of self-exultation have permeated Christendom. Modern Babylon sums up the whole spirit of worldliness, carnality, and the substitution of man's way for God's way that to-day is found in the world. Out of this the Lord calls His people. Rev. 18:1-5.
2. What is the inevitable result of rejecting light?
“Jesus therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not; and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” John 12:35.
The result of rejecting light is a moral fall into darkness and error. As noted in last week's lesson, the message of Revelation 14 is a gathering into one great system of truth all the light of past ages. It was also noted that the great testing truth of this message is the Fourth Commandment of the Decalogue. Therefore the fall of Babylon must be a fall from the principles and teaching of that law; not from the outward formal recognition of the law merely, but from the living principle,—the law in Christ Jesus within the heart. “The first angel's message of Revelation 14, announcing the hour of God's judgment, and calling upon men to fear and worship Him, was designed to separate the professed people of God from the corrupting influences of the world, and to arouse them to see their condition of worldliness and backsliding. In this message God had sent to the church a warning, which, had it been accepted, would have corrected the evils that were shutting them away from Him.”
“If God's professed people would receive the light as it shines upon them from His Word, they would reach that unity for which Christ prayed, that which the apostle describes, ‘The unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is,’ he says, ‘one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism.’ Such were the blessed results experienced by those who accepted the advent message. . . . If this doctrine did this for the few who did receive it, it would have done the same for all, if all had received it.”
3. Into what pathway will the Lord guide His people before He comes?
“Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.” Ps. 119:1. See also Isa. 35:8, 10.
The Ten Commandments are many times referred to as the Lord's way. Note a few other expressions: “They also do no iniquity; they walk in His ways.” “Make me to understand the way of Thy precepts.” “I will run the way of Thy commandments.” “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Thy statutes.” “Make me to go in the path of Thy commandments.” “But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.”
4. In what way will the spirit of the world be leading men?—Into lawlessness.
“And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming.” 2 Thess. 2:8.
The law of God is a great wall of protection to those who walk therein. A breach has been made in that law. The Sabbath has been torn from its place in the bosom of the law, and the “man of sin” has built up a wall of Sunday-keeping in its place. Others have daubed this wall with “untempered mortar” by trying to bolster up an unscriptural institution for which there is no “thus saith the Lord.”
5. When is the law of God to be sealed among His disciples?
“Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among My disciples. And I will wait for Jehovah, that hideth His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for Him.” Isa. 8:16, 17. Compare Heb. 9:28.
6. What is the advent message to accomplish?
“The voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the wilderness the way of Jehovah; make level in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the uneven shall be made level, and the rough places a plain.” “Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up an ensign for the peoples. Behold, Jehovah hath proclaimed unto the end of the earth, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him.” Isa. 40:3, 4; 62:10, 11.
7. From what way did the people stumble in Jeremiah's day?
“For My people have forgotten Me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in by-paths, in a way not cast up.” Jer. 18:15.
8. What message did the prophet bring to them, and what was their response?
“Thus saith Jehovah, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls; but they said, We will not walk therein.” Jer. 6:16.
9. What was the cause of the fall of Jerusalem?
“And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto Me, saith Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work therein; then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the South, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and meal-offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of Jehovah. But if ye will not hearken unto Me to hallow the Sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” Jer. 17:24-27.
10. For what purpose were the failures of ancient Israel recorded?
“Now these things happened unto them by way of example; and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11.
11. To what special reform as regards the law of God does the final message call men?
“Thus saith Jehovah, Keep ye justice, and do righteousness; for My salvation is near to come, and My righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that holdeth it fast; that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil.”
“Also the foreigners that join themselves to Jehovah, to minister unto Him, and to love the name of Jehovah, to be His servants, every one that keepeth the Sabbath from profaning it, and holdeth fast My covenant.” Isa. 56:1, 2, 6.
12. As the continued rejection of the warning appeal of the first message causes still greater darkness, how is the message of the second angel emphasized?
“After these things I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, and is become a habitation of demons, and a hold of every unclean spirit, and a hold of every unclean and hateful bird. For by the wine of the wrath of her fornication all the nations are fallen; and the kings of the earth committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth waxed rich by the power of her wantonness.” Rev. 18:1-3.
When Jerusalem of old rejected the light sent by the Lord's prophets, it was declared, “As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit; therefore they are become great, and waxed rich.” Jer. 5:27. And the call came to come out of her: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa.” Jer. 6:1. So also the rejection of light in the days of Christ and the apostles led to a moral fall that filled Jerusalem again with every evil, and brought upon it swift doom. Those times find their parallel in the last days. As Jesus wept over Jerusalem's rejection of light, looking down to the last generation, He “saw the world involved in deception similar to that which caused the destruction of Jerusalem. The great sin of the Jews was their rejection of Christ; the great sin of the Christian world would be their rejection of the law of God, the foundation of His government in heaven and earth. The precepts of Jehovah would be despised and set at naught. Millions in bondage to sin, slaves of Satan, doomed to suffer the second death, would refuse to listen to the words of truth in their day of visitation. Terrible blindness! strange infatuation!”—Great Controversy, pp. 22, 23.
13. What cry from heaven is to be carried to all the world in this generation?
“And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues: for her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” Rev. 18:4, 5.
How They Became Convinced
[Believing it would be of interest to our readers, the editor of the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has asked Sabbath-keeping ministers and evangelical workers to tell in a few words the scripture or scriptures, the truths and principles, which constrained them to accept the unpopular truth of the seventh-day Sabbath. These testimonies must not exceed 500 words. Let us hear from all.]
CXVI.
My people were Baptists; and, while quite young, I used to congratulate myself that we had the truth on the subject of baptism; for from childhood I was taught to believe the Bible as the Word of God.
When I was about fourteen years of age, some Adventist ministers pitched their tent near our home in Wisconsin. I attended the meetings as often as possible, and became deeply interested. When the Sabbath question was reached, the plain words of the Fourth Commandment, the teachings and example of Jesus, and the utter lack of authority for Sunday observance, fully convinced me that the seventh day is still the Sabbath of the Lord.
But my new-found convictions soon received quite a shock. A minister in the neighborhood announced to speak on the Sabbath question. The argument that appealed most forcibly to me was based upon the Greek of Matt. 28:1, which was translated, “In the end of the [Jewish] Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first [Christian] Sabbath,” etc. Two other ministers present, who were also Greek scholars (?), confirmed this translation. I was much perplexed. But the next evening the Adventist minister exposed the deception, and made the matter so plain that even a boy of fourteen could understand; while the learned D.D., with his Greek New Testament, could not gainsay the truth.
Since that evening I have never had a doubt concerning this important question; but the truth has become more clear and convincing as I have studied its various phases. For several years I did not live out my convictions, for I had not yet given my heart to the Lord. But at the age of nineteen I accepted Jesus as my Saviour. It was plain to me that I could not hope to earn salvation by keeping His law. It was also plain that I could not be saved in sin. So I accepted His forgiveness for my past Sabbath-breaking and all my other sins; then, in love to Him who died for me, I began to obey Him by keeping His Sabbath. John 14:15. F. W. FIELD.
Tokyo, Japan.
THANKSGIVING AND HONOR.
By S.
When the work of God is finished in this earth; when the long story of oppression and misery and sorrow is done, and the saints of God are sealed to eternal life; the angels of God unite in a grand chorus of rejoicing over the completed work, ascribing “blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and power, and might, unto our God forever and ever.”
Having witnessed through thousands of years the struggle between right and wrong, liberty and oppression, loyalty and disobedience, it could not be otherwise than that thanksgiving should form a part of that mighty symphony of praise over the complete triumph of righteousness.
Anticipating that glorious consummation, it is the Christian’s privilege now to render unstinted thanksgiving to the One who is now accomplishing that wonderful work. It is now going on. God is in Christ “reconciling the world unto Himself.” For that we can thank Him, honor and praise Him. We can do that for the accomplishment of that work for the whole realm, for the whole race.
But included in that glorious work is the triumph of the individual, and that from day to day, and then the reward of the individual in the consummated work. That work is not completed without the triumph of individual man, through Christ. That great reward is to be distributed in severalty to individual men and women. “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to give every man according as his work shall be.” Those who take part in that song of thanksgiving then will take part here in the work which makes possible the singing of that song. God’s work will triumph in men; for in men the great transgression came that made redemption’s work necessary. Then in place of disobedience will be loyalty; in place of hatred, love; in place of variance, brotherly-kindness; in place of strife, peace; in place of sorrow, joy; in place of discord, harmony; in place of discontent, contentment and fulness of satisfaction forever.
Eternal years will not be long enough to empty the heart of redeemed man of all its thanksgiving to God, or to enable man to tell the wondrous depths of God’s love in the sacrifice He made and the work He wrought.
We who expect to take part in the ascription of praise and thanksgiving to Him there will not withhold from Him praise and thanksgiving here and now for what is, as well as for what is to be. Thank Him that He emptied heaven of its richest Gift to make you a happy subject of His realm; that He dwelt in temptable flesh so He might the more keenly sympathize with you in your temptations. He endured the pangs of hunger, that He might sympathize with the hungry as well as to conquer where man fell. He suffered poverty, to sympathize with the poor. He became poor voluntarily that you might share in the riches of heaven and the earth made new. Is it not worthy of thanksgiving that He has promised to take you into this wonderful and everlasting partnership? He has done His part to bring it about. Thank Him that He has, and then go and do yours.
But what of the temporal things? He has promised seedtime and harvest, and they have never failed. Year by year you planted seed and He has given rain and sunshine to bring it to the harvest. You sowed one and God made it thirty; you planted one, and God made it fifty. You labored in sun and rain and cold to provide food for your children; but God alone could make any good come out of all you did. He crowned your efforts with success, filled your plowed land with waving grain, and your fruit trees with their bounty. Is there nothing in all this to cause you to render thanksgiving to God?
Thank God that He has set before us the hope of an eternal inheritance in an everlasting kingdom. We were full of the deadly virus of sin; He has promised to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity. We had thrown ourselves open to the surest weapons of the enemy; He has promised to take us under the wings of His protection and shield us from everything that could do us harm. And when you have truly thanked Him for all His precious gifts, you will only then have begun to realize how much there is to thank Him for—how more than worthy He is of all the thanksgiving and honor it is in your power to give. S.
THANKSGIVING
OUR English word “thank” is in its origin allied with thought. The root of true thankfulness is not, therefore, in the word, but in thought. To be thankful is to be thoughtful of benefits received. Thanksgiving to God is the expression of true gratitude to Him for mercies received, an acknowledgement to Him as the Giver of all good. It recognizes that we are insufficient of ourselves and dependent upon Him for what we receive.
The truly thankful spirit is a generous spirit. It gets away from self. One of the Hebrew words rendered thanks means to extend the hand, to throw out. The thankful man gives thanks; and if possible he will render in kind of that which he receives. Does God give love?—He will render love to all mankind, the purchase of the life of God’s beloved Son. Does God give of the fruits of the earth, a plenty of this world’s goods?—If we see our brother have need, we will give to him. “Freely ye have received, freely give.”
“That man may last but never lives,
Who much receives and nothing gives,
Whom none can love, whom none can thank:
Creation’s blot, creation’s blank.
“But he who marks from day to day,
In generous acts his radiant way,
Treads the same path his Saviour trod,
The path to glory and to God.”
Then, dear soul, like the ocean, receive and give; receive to give. Take the water of life which flows from ten thousand streams, which falls in abundant rain, and in response to warmth and life from above let there rise from your heart and life and hand multiplied thanksgiving for thirsty earth and plant in the regions beyond.
THE DOCTRINE OF HELL FIRE.
V. Of the Place and Time of Man’s Punishment.
In our study of this question thus far, we have found that God’s nature is love, not hate; that in His love and wisdom He made man’s continuance in life dependent upon harmony with the source of life, or righteousness; that permanence in righteousness means permanence in life, while “the soul that sinneth it shall die.” All these are against a never-ending hell of suffering of any kind, either physical, or mental.
In this study we wish to learn, if possible, where the place of punishment is, or is to be. Where will the wicked be punished? where will the righteous be rewarded? Is it in some subterranean region destitute of light, in “darkness visible,” where the wicked shall pass ceaseless ages? How could a God whose nature is love contemplate this for a moment? What profit would such a punishment be either to them or their Maker? Is the reward of the righteous to be as the old hymn ran: “Beyond the bounds of time and space”?
Reader, the place and the time of punishment are not far to seek. They are neither mystical nor mythical. God’s Word has clearly revealed both, if we are willing to accept the simple, clear, positive evidence.
1. Place of Punishment.
Man finds himself on this planet called the earth. This has always been his home so far as history records. There is nothing in nature evidential to his five senses which would indicate that the earth might not be the home of man for the future.
Studying other planets from the earth standpoint, the earth elements, the earth basis throughout (a ground work which may be largely erroneous), it would seem impossible for man to exist upon any other planet of our solar system. Too hot or too cold, too dense an atmosphere or too rare, or some other unconquering difficulty would prevent man taking up his abode upon another planet. Moreover, he can not get there, and there is neither excursion train nor balloon express yet advertising a through trip. Man is adapted to the earth, the earth to man and here is his home.
And the evidence of common facts is in harmony with the teaching of God’s Word: “The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah; but the earth hath He given to the children of men.” Ps. 115:16. Therefore, in the beginning the earth was made first, prepared for man’s abode, and then man was created, given dominion over it, and told to populate it. Gen. 1:26-28. And so the prophet avers: “Thus saith Jehovah that created the heavens; God Himself that formed the earth and made it; He hath established it, He created it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited; I am Jehovah; and there is none else.” Isa. 45:18. The very existence of Jehovah is pledged to the full development of His purpose, and the eternal persistence of His plan.
Here then man is to dwell; here he has sinned, and by his sin brought a curse upon the earth, and everything placed under his dominion; here too will he be punished; for “the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!” Prov. 11:31.
2. The Time.
We are not to understand by this that all the wicked receive their just dues in this life. We know that many do wickedly, that they seem to be prospered, that there seem to be no compunctions of conscience or remorse of soul. Thus Asaph of old saw them; and, in contemplating present conditions, he, as others later almost stumbled over the seeming injustice. He says:—
“For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression; they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth. . . . And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. . . . When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end.” Ps. 73:3-17.
There is a beyond to the wealthy oppressor of the poor, who lives in luxury on the life-blood of others. There is a future to the heartless libertine who has crushed hearts and despoiled virtue to satisfy his own inflamed lusts. Sometimes a part of the harvest of the seed-sowing comes here; but the final and absolutely just punishment comes in the great judgment day when “each one of us shall give account of himself to God” (Rom. 14:12), and then shall Christ render to “each one of you according to your works” (Rev. 2:23). “Though a sinner do evil a hundred times, and prolong his days, yet surely . . . it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days.” See Eccl. 8:11-13.
This future punishment is not at death; it is not a long-continued period of the ages; it is at a definite specific time in the future. “For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then shall He render unto every man according to his deeds.” Matt. 16:27. And in His message to His waiting church Jesus declares: “Behold, I come quickly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each man according as his work is.” Rev. 22:12.
We have learned that the place of punishment is this sinful earth, “reserved against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.” 2 Peter 3:7. And the time of punishment is in the day of judgment, beyond the second coming of Jesus Christ.
The punishment itself and various scriptures bearing upon it, will be the subject of our studies in future articles.
THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THANKSGIVING.
By G.
A SINCERE expression of thanksgiving is always an expression of appreciation, and therefore one that always imparts pleasure. Thanksgiving and thanks-receiving always indicate a condition of peace and good-will between the parties concerned. This fact alone would be a good reason for the inspired counsel, “In everything give thanks;” but there is still the higher motive—“for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Now the will of God concerning us is always for our best good, our greatest pleasure; and there can be no pleasanter mood than that experienced when the heart is filled with thanksgiving. Nor is there any greater assurance of added favor than a heart-felt expression of gratitude for favors that have been received.
The idea of thanksgiving, like that of many other good things, has been materially lowered by confining its exercise to those things that please the physical senses, that gratify the flesh. Thus the expression of thanks has so degenerated that it has become too much of a formality, a debt due to perfunctory courtesy. For this reason the spirit of true thankfulness and its attendant blessing find so little place in the human heart. Our popular holiday, known as Thanksgiving Day, whatever the merit of its incipient design, is now an apt illustration of the common idea of thanks. Barring a few religious ceremonials, the day is given up to carnal gratification—is too often spent in gluttony and drunkenness. But the true idea of thanksgiving is centrally located in a very important admonition to the church: “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” Eph. 5:18–21.
Is it too much to give thanks always? Is it too much to give thanks for all things? It is too much to expect of the “natural man,” for he does not know how to be happy. All he knows of thankfulness is for that which satisfies the cravings of the flesh. Anything else is “foolishness” to him, because it is “spiritually discerned,” and therefore beyond his experience. But to give thanks “always for all things unto God” ought not to be too much for one who professes to love God; for he ought to “know that all things work together for good to them that love God.” This being the case, where, then, do murmuring and complaining come in? As the Scripture says about “boasting,” they are “excluded.” There is absolutely no place in all the theory of Christianity for complaints of one’s lot, or murmurings because of anything that comes into one’s experience. The mercies of God are always so much greater than the evils that come to us, that a true spirit of thankfulness will be so absorbed in contemplating the good as to preclude all brooding over the evil. The worries of this life are mainly over troubles of the imagination, anyhow; but allowing the real trials that come to us all reasonable place in the mind, they are happily described by the apostle Paul as “our light affliction, which is but for a moment,” and even at that he adds that it “worketh for us a far more exceeding weight of glory.”
This was the counsel and experience of one who was called to suffer for the name of Christ. Acts 9:15, 16. Such a faith could be “exceeding joyful in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 7:4). And why not? For “tribulation worketh patience” (Rom. 5:3), and “ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.” Heb. 10:36. In vision John saw the company of those who should be sealed standing before the throne of God, and it was said that they “came out of great tribulation.” So we see that tribulation for the truth’s sake, instead of being a cause of complaint, is really a cause for thanksgiving, and no one need stagger at the suggestion, “In everything give thanks.”
The Epistle to the Hebrews tells of those persecuted ones who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods (ch. 10:34), and this is a point where people are more apt to complain of hardships than in any other respect. The natural heart will resent the destruction of property more strenuously than any other calamity; but even here the faithful child of God could see reason for thankfulness, because he knew that there was in heaven a “better and more enduring substance.” The eye of faith always sees the things that are not seen by the natural eye, it always sees the things that are eternal. 2 Cor. 4:18. Therefore, it always, in all things, looking beyond the temporal, sees cause for thankfulness and rejoicing.
In the first chapter of Romans, Paul tells how men fell away from a knowledge of God into heathenism. He says it was “because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” Therefore, through a lack of thankfulness, they “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.” Such dire consequences ought to be a lesson of warning to us, instilling in us a determination to cultivate a spirit of thankfulness, not merely as a matter of courtesy, for things that are pleasing to the natural senses, but as a matter of faith in the Word, that “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose.”
Let us all, on this Thanksgiving Day, endeavor to rise to a higher plane of appreciation of the prospect before us through faith in Christ. “Let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful. . . . And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.” Col. 3:15–17. G.
THE FALL OF MODERN BABYLON.
By S.
Commenting on Lesson XI, Page 5.
GOD warns His people in the last days of the fall of a power or institution which He calls Babylon. That power is the mother of idolatry, and in the sense in which it is here used it has been in existence and been doing its wicked work from the earliest days of the Chaldees, and will continue it until the end of time. It has persisted through different dynasties, through different nations, but has always been the same God-dishonoring system.
That system will not be allowed to stand forever. God has decreed the limit of its duration. “I saw another angel coming down out of heaven, having great authority; and the earth was lightened with his glory. And he cried with a mighty voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.” Rev. 18:1, 2. A voice from heaven declares that the cause of the overthrow of Babylon is that “her sins have reached even unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities.” “Therefore in one day shall her plagues come, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire; for strong is the Lord God who judged her.” Verses 5, 8. The execution of that decree (for it is a decree) closes the career of Babylon.
But in the overthrow of Babylon there is the overthrow of everything that goes to make up Babylon—all the institutions, all the influences, all the men and women who have accepted its principles, all the nations that have forgotten God. In view of this it means everything to us to know whether we are standing on the side of Babylon or on the side of God. We can know this by knowing what Babylon means and what it stands for. Babylon means confusion. God called it that. It meant that and was called that because it sought to frustrate the way of God and substitute its own way. That has always brought confusion. It brought confusion in heaven and it could do no less here. Let us not forget these two characteristics of Babylon:—
Opposition to God’s way.Choosing its own way.
God’s law and God’s way are one and the same. God’s law condemned idolatry. Babylon broke that law, and taught the world to bow down to wood and stone, to images of silver and gold; to worship the trees and winds, and pour out libations to the gods of the seas.
God’s law established the Sabbatic institution and commanded its observance. Babylon has taught the world—and is still teaching it—to trample upon that institution and choose another to take its place. God indicated His way in this matter; Babylon chose her own way; and God, in His last warning message to this world, is calling men out of Babylon and back to His appointed way. “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no fellowship with her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues.” Rev. 18:4.
The law of God, then, is the great test to determine what is Babylon and who are of Babylon; for God condemns her because of her attitude toward His law. “Her sins,” He says, “have reached even unto heaven,” and He plainly declares that “sin is the transgression of the law.” As He condemns her for her opposition to His law, so will He condemn us if we allow ourselves to be deceived into taking that same attitude toward that law. They who obey God’s call to come forth from her will be those of whom it is said: “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Rev. 14:12); and of that same company it is also said: “Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” Rev. 22:14.
This company will not be overwhelmed in the overthrow of Babylon; for they have ranged themselves on the side of God and His law. There are only two classes, the saved and the lost, the followers of Christ and the followers of Babylon, and man’s attitude toward the law of God determines to which class he belongs. That is the test by which we prove ourselves loyal or disloyal, God’s friends or His enemies. Christ said: “Why call ye Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” Christ spoke the law of Ten Commandments.
God has only one truth for the world, only one Gospel, only one light, only one way, only one law. It is possible to be judged as keeping the law of God in spirit when we, through ignorance, have broken its letter. Many who have witnessed for God with their lives had broken the letter of the Fourth Commandment; but the sin of ignorance God passed over. They had never seen the light of that requirement. It is the attitude that God looks upon, the willingness of heart to do what He requires regardless of consequences; but he to whom that light has come has not that cloak to cover his failure. He must stand or fall according to the attitude he has assumed toward God’s law. Babylon falls because she opposed that law; but this is what the psalmist says of those who have not followed in her way: “Blessed are they that are perfect in the way, who walk in the law of Jehovah.” Ps. 119:1. S.
SOME GOOD THINGS TO STAND FOR.
The Lutheran Crusader, after saying, first of all, that it believes in the Lutheran Church, and stands upon the Word of God as revealed in the Bible, presents these important things for which it stands also, and in which we bid it Godspeed:—
Second—Believing that the saloon is wrong, and that the drinking of intoxicating liquors is contrary to the Word of God, we advocate total abstinence for the individual, and absolute prohibition by law of the manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquor.
Third—We believe cigarettes to be one of the agencies that is undermining the flower of our nation (our young men) and sending them to hell by the thousands, therefore shall work for the prohibition of its manufacture and sale. We shall do all in our power to discourage the use of tobacco in any form. Christ said, Keep your body pure! You are defiling the House of God by its use.
Fourth—Believing that the ignorance among the young people on social purity, and that sex immorality is one of the worst sins that has cursed the human race, and that nearly every influence is pointing in the wrong direction, we shall, God helping us, point the young men of our nation in the right direction. We shall spare none. We shall be plain. If the mouths of our preachers are closed as a book about this monstrous evil that is sapping the life-blood of our youth, we will speak out and warn the people of judgment to come. God is not mocked. Whatsoever you sow, that shall ye also reap. If ye sow to the wind, ye shall reap the whirlwind. The people need light on this subject. Therefore we shall work for personal and social purity.
Fifth—We believe the Papacy is anti-Christian, and that it stands for falsehood and high-handed, organized wickedness, and that it will be the destruction of our government unless Protestants are awake to their danger.
Sixth—We believe that a strong and healthy body is a blessing to the individual, and a benefit to the nation, and, therefore, we advocate physical culture and a healthful diet.
We will work for justice for all, special privileges for none, mercy and kindness to every living creature.
In weal or woe right shall have our support, wrong our enmity and antagonism.